Luce Italian Ristorante In UpTown Charlotte

This past Saturday, Dallas and I had a date night scheduled. We had originally planned to visit the brand new Italian restaurant Volo in Meyers Park however I didn't realize that you needed a reservation to get in and they were "fully committed".

Since I was craving Italian (and baby Strager gets what baby wants) I started searching for highly-rated Italian restaurants in our city that we hadn't been to before. We decided on Luce Italian Ristorante in uptown Charlotte. They had a great Yelp rating and I had always heard good things. I jumped on Open Table and snagged us a 7:30 reservation.

We hit a few snags after that. Apparently, Luce isn't the easiest to find uptown. The restaurant is tucked away in the courtyard by RiRa's and does not have street valet parking on the block that it faces. Instead, your GPS will take you to the Hearst Tower which is a bit confusing because the entrance is in the back of the building. After driving around the neighborhood a few times, and two calls to the restaurant we finally maneuvered to the parking deck, through the lobby of the Hearst Tower and into the restaurant. However, at this point, we were 20 mins late for our reservation and our table was passed over, so we had to wait another 15 mins for a new spot. Typically this wouldn't be a big deal but being pregnant and in heels, after walking a city block, I was pretty wiped not to mention starving.

When we finally sat down in the small 30 tabletop restaurant we were greeted by an Italian man from the north of Italy name Emmanuel. Emmanuel was friendly and accommodating, especially when I couldn't decide between Gnocchi and the Carbonara. He offered to make me a special plate with a little of both! I thought that was so kind of him and both were amazing. Dallas ordered the Seafood Mare in broth and it was also delicious.

Of course, no dinner is complete without dessert. Although Dallas and I were pretty full we attempted to force down one of my favorites, Tiramisu, and I am so glad we did! It paired well with Dal's cappuccino and it was the perfect cap to our meal.

I am happy to say after a rough start, I was pleasantly surprised by Luce and I will be back for sure!

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Four Ingredient Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Happy Sunday! I hope you all are out and about enjoying this gorgeous weather! Cashton is down for his afternoon nap so I thought I would jump on here and share a recipe I am baking right now. If you follow my blog, you might know that we go through a TON of bananas in our house as they are Cash's favorite fruit. However, from time to time we don't use them all and I HATE to throw away food, so I found this recipe on Pinterest and modified it to fit our needs. 

I love simple recipes that aren't full of empty calories with hydrogenated oils, fats, and garbage in them. This chocolate chip banana bread is sure to satisfy your sweet tooth with only four ingredients.

INGREDIENTS: 

1.5 Pounds Of Bananas - That's about 4-5 medium bananas. The riper the better. This will naturally sweeten the loaf. 

1 Cup Peanut Butter- I use organic but any peanut butter will do. You can also substitute with almond butter.

2 Cups Oatmeal- Oats give the bread texture. This is the perfect sub for flour and if you want to go gluten-free you can use gluten-free oats.

1 Cup Chocolate Chips- I use dark chocolate of course, but you can use your favorites.

That's it! The original recipe called for these ingredients to be blended in a blender but I was unsuccessful with this method. It's a little more work but I prefer hand mashing the bananas, oats and peanut butter together, then adding the chocolate chips last. 

Place mixture in a lightly greased 9x5 loaf pan. Bonus points if you have parchment paper to line the pan as well. Bake for 30 mins in the oven at 350 degrees and you're good to go! 

Make sure your bread is completely cool before removing it from the pan.

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