Despite experiencing a few great days in Miami, it feels good to be home! Monday and Tuesday were jam packed with meetings and social events. I pretty much went to sleep both nights feeling drained. In a good way of course!
I also went to bed feeling full…full of food that is. There was no shortage of good food. And by good, I don’t necessarily mean healthy. But that’s ok because these meetings only come around twice a year!
Our Monday meeting started with lunch – the best way to start in my opinion! We ordered salads from La Provence, a local French bakery. I went with a Greek salad, and surprisingly, it kept me full until right before dinner.
Oh wait, we also indulged in afternoon cookies from the same bakery. Hmm…maybe that’s why my hunger stayed in check. Anyway, these chocolate chip cookies were delicious – SO soft and fresh.
And then came dinner at the Atria Restaurant and Wine Room in the Conrad hotel. We started with drinks and appetizers in the Wine Room before moving on to a sit down dinner.
I started the night off with a Mojito. When in Miami…right!?
This bad boy was strong, and that’s why I stuck to just one. 
What seemed like endless plates of sliders, calamari, and flatbread were brought to the Wine Room next.
I indulged in my fair share of flatbread. Let’s leave it at that!
Next up came dinner. There was a prix fixe menu with one veggie option, so I went with it. 
Roasted veggies with pasta and red sauce it was. I wasn’t super hungry at this time so I picked around the pasta and ate all the vegetables. They were perfectly cooked and very flavorful.
And no meal is complete without dessert. With two options on the menu, I went with the healthy one…sweet fruit and guava sorbet. The perfect ending to not only a great meal but a great day.
Day two started a bit earlier, so breakfast was provided by Deli Lane.
Believe it or not, I demonstrated some self-control when it came to breakfast. I stuck to half a whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and fruit instead of opting for an insane pastry or muffin.
Maybe that’s because I knew what was coming for lunch…a Greek feast from Rice House of Kabob.
I may have overdone it at lunch, but that’s ok because it was totally worth it. I served myself some grilled veggies, grape leaves, hummus, pita bread, and Greek salad and enjoyed every bite. I think we’ll be ordering from this restaurant again…or at least I hope so!
Later that evening, we reconvened for a team event and catered dinner from Perricone’s. Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures of the appetizers…maybe because they disappeared in the blink of an eye. The team loved the arancini balls (essentially fried rice and mozzarella balls), goat cheese and spinach flatbread, and pistachio encrusted lamb chops.
For dinner, I served myself a little bit of the hearts of palm salad (possibly my new favorite thing), eggplant parmesan, and bread. Everything tasted homemade and just plain delicious. Yum!
A small piece of brownie may or may not have been consumed a little while later. So hard to resist!
With so much food going in, I was happy to work up a sweat via two decent early morning workouts at the hotel gym. Phew!
Like I said at the beginning of this post, as fun as the beginning of this week was, I’m looking forward to some down time and homemade meals. It’s about balance after all!
Happy almost Friday!!
Tell me about your latest food indulgence.
Good for you for enjoying the eats of Miami but also working out! It does help that you were in an area where people like to eat clean! When I had my week-long conference back in August, it was in Dallas. People basically told me, “if it ain’t cow, it ain’t meat.” and kept trying to tell me fish was vegetarian. Needless to say, I was SO happy to get home after that trip LOL. My latest indulgence…hmm…probably the gelato we had last weekend. 🙂 I’m trying to be good and keep away from sweet to help me lose some weight!
I admire your self-control around sweets because I have none! I’m trying to stick to dark chocolate though because I need a little something every day.
That doesn’t look too bad (unhealthy) at all! Love the fruity dessert, too!
Arancini balls are one of my favorite splurges. Have you ever been to Cakes & Ale in Decatur? They serve them dusted with bee pollen and fennel salt… it’s like little bites of heaven.
Will definitely check that restaurant at some point! I think there was a place near Tech that also served something similar with honey. YUM!
Everything looks so delicious- if only all team meetings could order like your company :)! And like Laura said, it doesn’t look overly indulgent at all :)! I had lunch out with some friends this afternoon and we ordered a raspberry cheesecake to share- very indulgent but also one of those desserts where every bite is more than worth it!
You know a dessert is good when there are 0 regrets!
Oh my gosh, I feel like I indulge every day. Yesterday was disappointing though, I got a red velvet cookie from Panera just because and it wasn’t even that good. All of this food looks amazing!
I hate it when that happens! There’s always tomorrow though 🙂
your meals look pretty delicious and i agree with Khushboo & Laura- they were not indulgent at all.. girl you do have a lot of self control 🙂 I would have totally gone for pastries over that bagel..I have never had heart of palm – will keep my eyes out for that type of salad now! Being home sweet home is the best feeling and your comfy bed!
I don’t know about my self-control. When it comes to breakfast, maybe. Desserts…never!
I was proud of your healthy fruit and sorbet choice there 🙂
How fun that you are in Miami living the LIFE! Mojitos, great food, awesome appetizers… you have major self control P, when I’m dining out, screw being healthy, I’m lucky if I order salmon and then I’m really proud. 🙂 But then the rest of the week I’m making up for it.
Latest indulgence… I recently went to a Latin Brunch and I had the most deilcious Enchiladas.. I’ll do a post next week. OMG, it was so good. And this place was in NJ!!! IKR!