Boston Back Bay Restaurants Offer a Break from Cooking

Sometimes I try, but cooking is just not really my thing. Day after day, I struggle to figure out what to feed my family because - I admit it - I am challenged in the kitchen. This is just one reason why few things make me happier than a meal out, somewhere like Boston Back Bay Restaurants. For a busy mom who doesn't enjoy preparing meals, needing to provide three meals a day feels like a chore. Wait, it is a chore. Please tell me I'm not the only one who occasionally resorts to cereal or scrambled eggs for dinner!

Every single day, I am on call 24/7. Beyond breakfast, lunch, dinner, and frequent snacks, there's wiping noses and tears, breaking up arguments, helping with homework, diminishing the stuff of nightmares, driving here, there, and everywhere,and the mentally challenging task of thinking about and remembering what everyone needs at any given moment. This one has a birthday coming up, that one has had a cough for a few days, this one is having trouble at school, that one seems to be growing out of his shoes. A mom's work is never done. Not only am I constantly at the beck and call of my family, but I often find it difficult to make myself a priority. I'm always thinking about what they need, while my own needs fall further and further down the list, until they often, ultimately, fall right off.

I try to things just for me. This blog is one of those things. I spend time with my friends whenever I can. I have been doing a pretty good job of exercising regularly. But being pampered is a rarity for me. I get my hair cut once or twice a year and I can't remember the last time I got a mani/pedi. That's another reason why I love eating out. It's not just a break from the mundane tasks of meal planning, preparation, and clean up. It's also about having someone look after me for a change. Someone else has already taken the trouble to plan out a menu with many delicious choices on it. Someone is going to ask me what I'd like. Then someone is going to cook it for me. And someone is going to bring it to me - I don't even have to get up! If my kids are with me, someone else fetches their drink refills and cleans up when there's a spill. When we're done, someone clears the table. I don't have to do it, and I don't have to nag anyone!  I especially like fine dining because I somehow feel like a more civilized human being if I have to dress up a little for a meal. I also enjoy exceptional service and really good food. Eating at restaurants is a way of being pampered that is somehow an allowable luxury, because a girl's got to eat.

Do you love eating out too? What are your favorite restaurants?

This is a sponsored post for Vlora. As always, all opinions and views are my own.

Date Night at the Greektown Casino Hotel

Like I mentioned we were going to in my last post, Chris and I went out last night, just the two of us. His mom had a voucher for a free night at the Greektown Casino hotel and $50 in bonus play for the casino, and since her husband is out of town and the voucher was about to expire, she generously gave it to us (with the bonus play too!). Aren't we spoiled? Being spoiled is fun! Did I mention she also came over and spent the night at our house to babysit our kids? 

We're not exactly gamblers, but still we were excited to get out for an evening. Our first pleasant surprise was the free (!) valet at the hotel. Our next pleasant surprise was that the hotel is really nice. We loved our room. We would decorate our whole house exactly like our room was decorated. Because I'm a dork and totally and completely uncool, I took some pictures. Of our hotel room 13 miles from our home.

 
Since we were in Greektown and all, for dinner we had...Mexican. It was our first time eating at Loco's, and we both enjoyed our extraordinarily cheese-filled dinners. I ate so much I felt like a stuffed cow, but it was just so good I didn't want to waste any of it. And then I had dessert. Because that's just what I do.

After dinner we headed over to the casino where we were faced head-on with more of our uncoolness. It took us an embarrassingly long time to figure out the slot machines. We stuck with the penny slots and cashed out every time we won anything over $1. Yes, that's right, one dollar. We made that $50 bonus play last us a few hours, and ended our casino foray with enough money to pay for our breakfast this morning, with a few bucks left over. Yay for free money.

Back at the room I got to enjoy one of the most wonderful showers I've ever had the pleasure of partaking in and the super comfy bed, which I called home until 11:00 this morning. The night we spring forward an hour for daylight savings time turned out to be perfect timing for us to be gone overnight, especially because I've been particularly sleep deprived lately. So Friday night I shared the couch with a fussy space hogging toddler, and Saturday night I got endless slumber on a king size bed of clouds. Fair trade I suppose. 

Also, my book review for The Atlas of Love has been published here. You should head over there and check it out. Luxury Reading is a really great website if you're into books, as I am.