Hi!  How was your week?  Any big plans for the weekend?  I’m hoping to hit the beach.  I took the little guy earlier this week and he absolutely loved playing in the sand.

Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday’s Food & Fitness!  It’s a little combination of the really good but not-so-good for you and the really good for you!

So I had all these great healthy meals to show you guys but then Napa happened and those meals are way more fun!

I booked Pete and I into The Restaurant at Meadowoods for our first night in Napa.  Besides The French Laundry, Meadowoods is the only other restaurant on the top 100 restaurants in the world.  I’m kind of obsessed with this list and am making it my mission to eat at all of the restaurants!  Ok maybe not all but certainly a lot.

The food and ambience at Meadowoods was incredible!We started with a borage oyster leaf mignonette, which actually didn’t have any seafood but was presented to taste like an oyster.

Peas, yogurt, black lime and pistachio

Daylily lobster caviar (so good!)

Mackerel green apricot cacabeche (a little fishy)

Potato cooked in beeswax sorrels (loved!)

Abalone beans wild onion

Duck tea chrysanthemum dill (smoked cod oyster nettle whey –not pictured)

Coal seared foie raw rhubarb 

Grilled lamb marigold plum (yum!)

Taleggio “butter” (that’s right, the butter pictured is cheese–heaven!) cherry jelly koji bread

Olive oil blueberry millet

 Bahri date walnut oil

The garden, candied

Chocolate chestnut

After eating such an incredibly heavy meal, Pete and I were excited to get up and get some exercise in Napa.  After a nice, healthy breakfast, we headed to Sonoma for a self-guided bike tour with Sonoma Valley Bike Tours.

We have been biking in Sonoma before and we have also been biking and wine tasting on Long Island before.  This time was unique though because we planned a pretty intense ride first thing, followed by lunch and then a few wineries on our ride back.

I’m so happy we chose the self- guided tour. We went at our own pace, we had awesome bikes and we had a great ride with some incredible scenery. Although I kept my photo taking to strictly off-the-bike since I didn’t need another fractured elbow!

We did the Lovall Valley Loop, which is about 10-12 miles (I did a little extra loop) and has some pretty intense hills.  It is way out of the way without any wineries on the route–just beautiful scenery and peaceful quiet.

After the intense Lovall Valley Loop, we rode several more miles to Bartholomew Winery for a picnic lunch.  One of the major selling points of this tour for me was that lunch was provided from The Girl and The Fig.  We went there for dinner a few years ago and I absolutely loved it!  The sandwiches were super tasty.  Mine was turkey with fig chutney and some other glorious things that I can’t remember.

After lunch we headed in for some wine tasting.

We then rode about a mile to the next winery, Buena Vista.  I loved that winery.  The grounds were gorgeous and I really enjoyed the wines!  My only compliant was the lack of outdoor tastings at all the wineries! Last time we were in Sonoma, we did most of our tastings outside.

Two wineries were enough for us so we rode back to the shop and called it a day.  It was such a great experience!  It’s a great way to experience Napa without too much indulgence! 

Readers, have you ever done a biking and wine tasting tour?  What’s your favorite kind of sandwich?  Red or white wine?