Pressed Cafe recently opened it’s second location in Burlington (their other locations in Nashua, NH). I am always looking for new lunch spots, so I was excited to meet up with some friends here. I love everything about this space: the tin ceilings, the wooden tables, the industrial style lighting and the exposed brick. This place gets pretty crowded during lunchtime, so I recommend getting there a little early to grab a seat. You order at the counter and they bring your order to your table when it’s ready. This is such a great fast casual restaurant, with a little bit of everything, so everyone, even the kids will find something they like. Kid’s items include: mac and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, grilled cheese, turkey and cheese and ham and cheese (served with a kids drink and your choice of apple, banana or chips). Yay for some healthy options for kids!

Everything on the menu sounds delicious, it was hard to me to choose. I had the mac and cheese with pulled pork (a favorite dish of mine) but here are some other items you can expect to find at Pressed Cafe:

Fresh smoothies in flavors like peanut butter power, strawberry sunset, wakie wakie (dairy free!!) or the green monster

Frozen drinks like a limon-nana or a frozen espresso hurricane

Pressed raw juice in flavors like: carrot cake, citrus energy c, v10 or the detox

Breakfast is served all day:  try the spicy Green burrito or the Maine lobster burrito. Have a breakfast sandwich or a smoked salmon bagel. They have organic steel cut oatmeal and acai bowls.

Power bowls full of quinoa or grown up mac and cheese with things like short rib, bbq chicken, spicy buffalo chicken or lobster.

There is a never ending list of paninis, salads and soups to choose from if you are hoping for a lighter lunch.

So stop in for breakfast, lunch or dinner, they are open 7 days a week from 6am – 10pm! Bonus points because it is close to the mall, a really great Nordstrom Rack and the H Mart is literally around the corner!!

Pressed Cafe

200 District Ave., Burlington

http://www.pressedcafe.com/

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Located just past the Wayside Inn, AJ Cakes is a new (ish) bakery located just over the line in Marlborough. While the majority of Ashley Miller’s business is in custom cakes and pastries, they do have a great pastry case that is filled with lots of goodies. Selections change often, but you can usually find a nice assortment of croissants, scones, and breads. They have coffee and tea if you want to stay and eat and even offer free wifi!

I’m there pretty often, so my favorite thing that Ashley makes are these enormous cinnamon rolls. Cue diabetes. Make sure to go early if you want one of these, they sell out pretty quickly!

These bars were super tasty, how can you go wrong with anything chocolate. And how cute are these iced cookies?

Another favorite of mine are her raspberry pop tarts. Never ate these as a kid (…shocking I know…). Justin Samson re-introduced me to them (after I broke an unhealthy work addiction to the boxed kind) and now that he’s moved to North Carolina ( ), I can get my fix again at AJ’s. Seriously, go and try one for yourself.

The girls behind the counter are always friendly and you can usually catch Ashley baking away in the back.

AJ Cakes

1019 Boston Post Road

Marlborough, MA

http://www.aj-cakes.com

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The Dougie (middle left): mozzarella, roasted potato, smoked bacon, ranch drizzle and scallion

Mexican Meatball (middle right): cilantro garlic sauce, mozzarella, meatball, rose pickled red onion, jalapeno relish, parmesan

Muffled Mushroom (bottom middle – top half): truffle sauce, mozzarella, roasted ‘shrooms, ricotta, parmesan

They even make dessert pizzas, a “triple chocolate cookie” pizza (bottom left) with chocolate chip cookie dough, ricotta and powdered sugar and the “Sweet Melissa” (top left) with New York style cheesecake, ricotta, strawberry drizzle and powdered sugar.

The crust is thin and light, almost flaky like a croissant and crispy.

The restaurant has Stubborn soda on tap, along with my favorite, Izze soda. Stubborn soda comes in unique flavors like agave vanilla cream soda, classic root beer, lemon berry acai, black cherry with tarragon and orange hibiscus. Oath Craft Pizza just started serving breakfast, which I will definitely go back to try. They have egg and cheese flatbreads that you can customize as well as things like a french toast pizza (YUM!!!)

What would you put on your customized pizza?

Disclaimer: I was invited as a guest to sample pizzas at Oath Craft Pizza. I was provided complimentary slices. All opinions are my own.

Oath Craft Pizza

210 Boylston Street, Chestnut Hill, MA

www.oathpizza.com

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I started off the New Year with a healthy meal – by accident. I headed over to the Freshii in the Back Bay, located just at the corner of Dartmouth and Stuart, next to the Starbucks.

Everything these days can be custom made, why shouldn’t your meal be that way too? Of course they have suggested bowls, burritos and salads, but you can pick whatever you like, making your meal just that, yours.

Not in the mood for a full meal, pop over to their cold case and get a fruit salad, some hard boiled eggs or a yogurt parfait. And they have some of my favorite beverages here: Zoos Greek iced tea and Hint water.

Freshii is very green. Most of their packaging is made from eco-friendly vegetable starches, like corn or potatoes. It biodegrades quickly, leaving behind only carbon dioxide, biomass, and water. You may see them shaking up your lunch in a bag, but don’t worry, it’s biodegradable and it is great for people who have food allergies, the bag is used just for your meal, so no cross contamination! Shaking your meal in a biodegradable bag means they produce 5 to 7 times less of a carbon footprint than running even the most energy efficient dishwasher.

As far as I was concerned, I was just going to lunch, extra bonus points that the meal was healthy! First off, I tired the vegan, yup, you read that right, vegan, chili. And you know what, it was delicious! Didn’t miss the meat one bit! Loved that they topped it off with broccoli and avocado, two things I would never think if adding, but now, how can I have it without them? Trust me, try it.

Next up, the warrior bowl with chicken and a quinoa base topped with brown rice, corn, red onions, tomatoes, carrots, black beans, cajun spice, ranch dressing. Did you know that they make their dressings (all but one) in house? This was probably my favorite dish of the day, and who knew I would actually like quinoa?

The buddha satay with rice noodles, crispy wontons, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, and green onions topped with peanut sauce. I’m not personally a fan of rice noodles, but loved everything else about this bowl. The peanut sauce was dreamy and the crispy wontons added the perfect amount of crunch.

I love anything with corn, so the fiesta salad was right up my alley. Field greens, black beans, avocado, aged cheddar, corn, pico de gallo and cilantro lime vinaigrette. Loved the dressing, light and tart without overpowering the other fresh flavors in the dish.

They also have juices and smoothies. On most days I try and steer clear of anything green, so this was a pleasant surprise that it was so tasty….and a little sweet. I loved it. (Don’t spread the word though, it might ruin my street cred…)

Disclaimer: I was invited to check out Freshii and sample some of their menu items. My food was provided complimentary. All opinions are my own.

Freshii

185 Dartmouth Street, Boston, MA

https://www.freshii.com

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On our last day in Charleston we ran around King Street hitting up all the good places. First stop of the morning was Glazed, a gourmet doughnut shop. The shop is the brain child of Allison Smith who makes the doughnuts in house as well as all the glazes and the fillings.

The menu changes daily, so be sure to follow them on Facebook to see what they have available. And when they sell out, that’s it.

The shop had a line out the door but it went quickly. Dougnuts are priced from $2-$3 a piece. It was hard to choose, they were so many delicious options the day we went.

The flavors of the day were: glazed, maple bacon, raspberry, lemon old fashioned, chocolate with sprinkles, cookie monster, cinnamon sugar, honey bun, black and white, kulfi (cardamom pistachio filling with a mango glaze), the purple goat and an apple bacon fritter.

There are plenty of seats so if you can’t wait until you get home to gobble up one of these goodies, grab a coffee with your doughnut and wolf one down while you’re there. We were going out for breakfast, so we brought these babies back to Boston with us! I’m as surprised as you that they made it all the way back – it was sheer will power…

The lemon old fashioned was light and bright.

The glazed was simple and had just the right amount of sweetness.

The raspberry was my favorite. The doughnut was light and fluffy and the glaze was sweet and fruity – it just reminded me of summer.

The cookies and cream was so decadent – I loved the chocolate doughnut.

They had such delicious flavor combinations, I definitely want to go back in hopes that they have the coffee cake, the sweet corn and blueberry, the key lime pie or the tiramisu!

I’m dying to know where your go to doughnut spot is! Leave a comment below!

Glazed Gourmet Doughnuts

481 King Street, Charleston, SC

http://www.glazedgourmet.com

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