I’ve been wanting to have a meal out at Marche Artisan Foods ever since we moved to Nashville, and we decided to take a family date morning out this past weekend to have breakfast at this beautiful little spot in East Nashville.

We arrived a few minutes before the doors opened at eight o’clock, and I’m so glad we went early since the place filled up almost immediately after we got inside. Our game plan for going out on weekends is always to try to beat the crowds, so we are often on the road into the city by seven thirty or so when we have a Saturday or Sunday breakfast out. I’ve had a lot of friends and Nashville food accounts that I follow recommend Marche, and it certainly lived up to the reputation! The menu offers simple food, but somehow it all feels so elegant and delicious and luxurious. I ordered the omelette special with butternut squash (so good), bacon, and cheese. Ben had a trio plate of eggs, bacon, and gruyere cheese grits. Ayla had her organic food pouch, half a banana, and then munched on a piece of my toast while we ate our meal.

Basically, if you are ever in the Nashville area, you want to hit up this adorable little spot for a breakfast and coffee. And while I haven’t tried their lunch or dinner menus, I have no doubt they are just as good!

It’s so funny to watch Ayla when we are out at a restaurant because she gets SO distracted with all the people and things going on around her. She stared shamelessly at the ladies at the table next to us and could barely stay focused on eating her breakfast because there was just too much to see. People watching > food apparently, hehe.

PARENT TIP: When you’re having a meal out, take some kind of snack food that the little one can chew/munch on on her own. We always keep dried mangos from Trader Joe’s in the diaper bag to pull out for Ayla to have once we get our food and it keeps her happy, satisfied, and entertained while we enjoy our meal!

What about you: what’s your favorite kind of weekend breakfast spot?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Our weekend started with a date night on Friday night, a sort-of belated Valentine’s dinner for us. We usually try to avoid going out on big holidays or when we know restaurants will be crowded so we waited until this weekend to plan a special evening out. It was seriously one of the funnest nights out we’ve had in months, and we had a delicious meal and shared a dark chocolate pot de creme with olive oil gelato and olive oil jam for dessert…literally one of the best desserts I’ve ever tasted!

Saturday was a full day of work and house projects at home, and it was one of those days that just felt like you got a lot done by the end of it. Ben worked on building a small desk table for our office, since we are currently just using a big Lifetime table that takes up way too much space, not to mention it’s not really aesthetically pleasing. He does amazing with those wood working projects and never fails to blow me away with how he can put simple things together and make them look like something right of a magazine. We’re all fighting head colds around here, so once I got the laundry and some cleaning finished up, I spent most of the afternoon sitting on the floor with Ayla. She seems to be fighting both a cold AND doing some teething right now, so she has her moments when she feels a little miserable, poor little dear. I went out for the evening then with my sister-in-law and some of her friends, who were all in town for a weekend conference. We had supper and coffees at Fido, and it had really been a long time since I’ve done a girl’s night out and it was just fun to get out again with other chatty, fun women.

We spent Sunday at home doing what we love to do on our Sundays: rest and relax! We took naps and lounged in our pajamas and had a big lunch and took more naps and did a lot of reading for the afternoon. We had church at four, and then came home to our normal Sunday night routine…which is feed Ayla and put her to bed, then have what we call our “sunday suppers” (which is a fancy name for a fend-for-yourself-pull-out-all-the-leftovers-make-an-egg-burrito kind of supper, hehe), talking over the week ahead, spending some time praying for each other, and then watching Shark Tank before turning out the light.

Hope your weekend was just as lovely, dears!

Here are five interesting things from the web:
– every parent should watch this
– a cool tip
– EVERY MOM SHOULD READ THIS
– this album has been on repeat at our house
– I can’t stop making this lentil stew

What about you: what’s a favorite thing to do on your Sundays?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!