• Food
    • Restaurants
    • Recipes
  • Style
    • Fashion
  • Life
    • Parenting
    • Book Reviews
    • Music
    • Travel
    • Bridal Cut

Grits in the City - Fitness. Family. Food.

Hope you enjoy all these as much as I do!

  • About
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Collaborate

an ice cream tour of denver

October 27, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

Back in August, we took our first family vacation as a family of three. We haven’t been traveling too much these days. With Q’s second birthday approaching at the time, we also wanted to travel at least once where he’d be free! One of my close friends lives in Denver so we thought it was a great time to pay her a visit and to finally meet her little girl (who Q loved). It was quite warm while we were there, so we ended up tackling the city one scoop of ice cream at a time. This kicks off the first in a series of posts on the great things we tried while we were in town. Here’s more on some of our Denver ice cream faves. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Food, Restaurants, Travel Tagged With: Denver, Dessert, Ice Cream, Travel, Vacation

an extra dose of love coming this february

October 1, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

It’s an exciting time at our house as we are expecting a new addition this February! We’ve been trying to explain the upcoming change to Q, who understands in words that he has a baby sister on the way but we aren’t sure he really gets what that means yet. Luckily, there’s still some time for that to sink in.

Pregnancy Announcement - Grits in the City - Lifestyle Blogger - Family Blogger - Mom Blogger - Parenting Blogger

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Life, Parenting Tagged With: Announcements, Baby, Baby Bump, Family, Motherhood

west village brunch at the loyalist on bleecker street

September 30, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

Recently my friend N was in town, which meant an excuse to head in to Manhattan for a fun brunch at somewhere new! This time, we chose to make it a West Village brunch at The Loyal, a spot that opened around this time last fall. It was perfect timing too as we share a birthday so brunch was like an early birthday celebration for us! They also offer reservations — always a brunch plus.

West Village Brunch - Food Blog - Lifestyle Blog

We started with an order of their monkey bread. It was delicious and perfect for sharing. It came with a cream cheese dipping sauce. I read some reviews online saying that the sauce was too much, but I beg to differ. Light and fluffy and just the right amount sweet, I found the sauce a delicious addition to this start to our brunch. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Food, Restaurants Tagged With: Brunch, Manhattan, West Village

planning a fall-themed birthday for your child

September 25, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

There’s something nice about a birthday that comes with a built-in theme. For our son’s first birthday last year (sigh, almost a year ago) we went with just that – a fall birthday! We decided that we could let him have more of an opinion on future selections but that we were going to take advantage of a simple fall-themed birthday for year one.

Fall-themed birthday - Grits in the City - Parenting Blog - Lifestyle Blog [Read more…]

Filed Under: Life, Parenting Tagged With: Birthdays, Family, Kid’s Birthday, Party Decor

5 things that help in returning to work after maternity leave

September 12, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

I’ve been thinking a lot about returning from maternity leave – that first point in time where you’re forced to pull together you as a mom and you as a career professional into a new version of you. And it doesn’t exactly come with a manual. Lauren Brody’s site and book, The Fifth Trimester, come close (both are great and you should check them out if you haven’t already) – but nothing quite prepares you for the exact combo that is your reality.

I’m excited to share my first piece on Motherly, which went live yesterday on their site. The experience re-entering work following maternity leave was way more challenging than I anticipated. I previously wrote about here on Grits in the City but this new piece goes into what I tried to focus on during this period of adjustment. Some of these things, though they sound quite small, made such a difference for me. Take a look here.

Filed Under: Career, Life, Parenting Tagged With: Maternity Leave, Parenting, Reentering the Workforce, Working Mom

10 tips for tackling toddler travel

September 7, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

Toddler travel - Grits in the City - Parenting Blogger - Family Blogger - Mom Blogger - NYC Blogger - Parenting backs - Parenting travel tipsWe don’t travel often now that our family has expanded. We haven’t taken a true family vacation since Q’s arrival. With his second birthday fast approaching (yikes, a month exactly from today), we also wanted to take advantage of one trip while he is still free to fly in our laps.

This was a great plan in theory, but as our recent trip to Denver approached, we became a bit concerned. Q is in full-on toddler mode, with seemingly limitless energy and little to no interest in sitting in one place for 10 minutes. Four hours at a clip in a plane sounded like a disaster. What were we going to do to keep him entertained for that long?

I called in the “experts” – AKA my fellow mom friends from Facebook. As anticipated, they had all some great tips that helped make our trip out and back as smooth as possible. Did it go perfectly? No way. We didn’t expect that would be a possibility. We did however manage to keep him pretty occupied for around 88% of the time. And that I call a win! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Life, Parenting, Travel Tagged With: Parenting, Travel tips, Traveling

saturday at long branch beach

August 31, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

There are certain things that feel like summer “must dos.” There is going to the pool. Ice cream. Lots of ice cream. And, of course the beach. We hadn’t checked off that final item from the list — until a weekend trip to New Jersey’s Long Branch Beach a few weeks back, that is.

Q has been to the beach once — last fall when we went to Wildwood and it was barely warm enough to walk on the beach and after Labor Day, when we found the Boardwalk a ghost town. This year I wanted a proper beach visit — with the sun warm and all restaurants and stores in full summertime mode.

Though there was a threat of rain, we ended up having a perfect summer day with the right amount of sun. It was warm but not crazy hot. We even lucked into one of the last public parking spaces when we arrived just after 10AM.

South Beach at Long Branch Beach, NJ

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Life, Parenting, Travel Tagged With: Day Trip

manhattan’s sullivan street bakery

August 23, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

Sullivan Street Bakery is another one on my list of places I’ve meant to try for forever but never seem to manage to visit. Until now! This week, T and I were over in Hell’s Kitchen and found ourselves right by it so it made sense to hit up for breakfast.

Sullivan Street Bakery - Grits in the City - Manhattan - Food Blogger - NYC Blogger

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Food Tagged With: Bakery, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City

grain & cane

June 16, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

A few weeks back, we went with my dad to visit Grain & Cane. We are always up for trying a new restaurant out here to add another go-to spot to our pretty short list of faves.

Grain & Cane - Grits in the City - Food Blogger - Lifestyle Blogger - Parenting Blogger

Located in the Connell Industrial Park, Grain & Cane is also adjacent to The Embassay Suites. It’s only been open a handful of weeks. You could tell they’re still getting up and running. At the time we went, you couldn’t even find their menu online as they were still refining it. (Now, you can find it here.) [Read more…]

Filed Under: Food, Restaurants

simplifying toddler meals with b.box {giveaway}

June 10, 2018 by Lara 6 Comments

Mealtime these days is an adventure (translation – it’s a war zone). It’s messy. Lots of times there are defeats. But there’s one guarantee — it’s never boring. Thankfully b.box has some great products to help.

B.box - Grits in the City - Mom Blogger - Lifestyle Blogger
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Life, Parenting Tagged With: Baby products, giveaway

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • …
  • 43
  • Next Page »

Follow

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Hi, there.

Welcome to Grits in the City, located at the intersection of Southern class and big city sass. One Bama native covering it all from food to fashion, one avenue at a time. Heels optional.

Subscribe

Enter your email address to subscribe to Grits in the City and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Archives

fave things

current read(s)

Professional Reader

Copyright © 2026 · Tasteful theme by Restored 316

Copyright © 2026 · Tasteful Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in