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Breakfast with the Angry Banana

December 5, 2009 by

Hi All! I had such an awesome Saturday! And, it all started with this comment from my husband…

That is one ANGRY banana!

Hmm, I thought. But then, I realized what he was referring to…

12.5 crazy banana 2

Apparently, this banana is the leader of a tribe that is very cranky. I wonder if he’s cranky because I let the bananas ripen too long? Guess I’ll be making banana bread pretty soon.

12.5 crazy banana 1

For breakfast, I made a big bowl of homemade oats, complete with my homemade crunchy granola and some all-natural creamy peanut butter..

12.5 oatmeal with granola 3

This bowl was WAY to big for me so I didn’t end up eating it all.

12.5 oatmeal with granola 2

After breakfast, I ran a few errands, including a stop at Kohl’s and the grocery store. I really tried to get up and out the door early in order to beat the holiday and Saturday crowds, but I didn’t end up leaving until 10 AM. Kohl’s was nuts and the grocery store was pretty bad too.

Scott and I planned on shopping for the rest of the day, but before we left, we both enjoyed a bowl of chicken and dumpling soup…

12.5 chicken and dumpling soup

We had a bunch of Christmas shopping to get done and ended up being gone for nearly 7 hours! But, there was a very nice French dinner thrown in there. I’ll reveal all the details tomorrow, but now, I’m going to bed!

But, not without leaving you with an ironic image that I saw during our shopping excursion…

12.5 Tiger Woods doll

Tiger Woods dolls on clearance. Is this a sign of things to come?

Have a great night everyone!

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A Night In Holiday Velvet

December 4, 2009 by

Hey everyone! How has your day been? My day began with an awesome 4 1/2 mile run followed by a juicy and sweet…

12.4 Pear

PEAR! I love this photo because it almost looks like I took a picture of a picture on the wall – just wish the pear had fewer blemishes.

Early this morning, I received a package in the mail from JCrew! Woo hoo! I ordered a beautiful olive velvet blazer and a few other things. But, I realized two things: 1) the blazer was too big, even for a size 4, and 2) I just received a 25% off coupon via email from JCrew. Decisions, decisions…. So, I decided I would take my whole order back (after all, I didn’t pay for shipping) and then reorder all of my items, but try the size 4 petite. This saved me $30 – and brought the blazer down to $72 from $148. I love when I get a deal at JCrew!

Because of my meager breakfast, I had a snack attack around 10 AM so I munched on some low-cal popcorn…

12.4 Low calorie popcorn

For lunch, I grilled char-grilled an Italian sausage…

12.4 Italian sausage

I was spending a little too much time on the computer and not enough time paying attention to the grill. Oh well, it was still good, especially with dijon mustard for dipping. As you can see, I also made a little whole wheat couscous. I don’t eat a whole lot of couscous – although it’s very high in protein, it’s also high in calories. But, when I do make it, I doctor it up a bit by adding a chicken boulion cube to the water as well as a carrot sliced really thin.

12.4 Couscous with carrots

Very easy and yummy!

Later in the afternoon, I got the urge to finally make Red Velvet Cupcakes! Plus, I have been seeing them EVERYWHERE – bakeries, grocery stores, the book store, etc. I’m sure it’s just because it’s Christmas time, but I figured it was a sign that I should make them for myself. 

Red Velvet Cupcakes are my favorite kind of cupcake but I have never actually made them. For my first time, I decided to try the Dunkin Hines boxed-version. Of course, I prefer to make most things homemade, but I wanted to be sure these actually turned out good!

Dunkin Hines Red Velvet

It was pretty cool to make this mix -but also a little creepy.

Red Velvet Cake Batter

The mix looked like a big bowl of blood – icky! But, despite the bloody batter, the cupcakes turned out fantastic!

Red Velvet Cupcake 1

Talk about Red V-V-Velvet Goodness! I have to admit, I wanted to eat one of these as soon as it was frosted, but I made myself wait until after dinner, which happened to be my homemade potato and leek soup…

12.4 Potato and Leek soup

You got that right baby – it’s Friday and I DID cook tonight! This soup is so rich and creamy, but it’s actually low in calories (or relatively low – because it uses skim milk and not cream). But, what really makes this soup is the uncured maple bacon – because bacon makes everything taste better.

Of course, dinner, was followed by one of these beauties…

Red Velvet cupcake 2

Surprisingly, the batter is not as rich as I thought, but the cream cheese frosting I used (Dunkin Hines) was very sweet and “cheesy”.

Red Velvet Cupcake 4

I’m seeing a theme here – velvet blazer, velvet cupcakes…hmm, what’s next on my velvet radar 😉

Now, Scott and I are watching Elf – too funny! I love when Buddy bangs into things – it’s so slapstick but Will F. plays the part so well.

Have a great night everyone!

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Randy lay there like a slug…

December 2, 2009 by

… it was his only defense.

Ha!! My brothers and I used to laugh hysterically whenever we watched this holiday classic – A Christmas Story. 

Ralphie: http://www.flickr.com/photos/66044164@N00/2074273454

So, just because it’s the holidays and I’m feeling nostalgic, here’s a shout out to my bros Steve (aka the Cone) and John Boy. Here’s to watching a few holiday movies while sipping on soda, eating potato chips, and begging mom for 5 more minutes of TV time. Ahh…those were the good old days. Well, have they really changed that much? 😉

Holiday Movies We Loved As Kids (and still do!)

  • A Christmas Story
  • National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
  • Home Alone
  • Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
  • Miracle on 34th Street
  • Charlie Brown Christmas
  • Mickey’s Christmas Carol

Now, I throw it to you….What holiday movies did you most enjoy watching as a kid?

Ta for now, because I really need to get my rear end in gear and STUDY!!

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Trimming the Tree

November 29, 2009 by

Hi Everyone! Hope you all had a lovely Sunday! Today was a day of all things holiday for us, including trimming the Christmas tree.

My day started with a 5 mile run on the treadmill. I was actually all dressed and ready to go outside when it started to downpour. I was really disappointed because today was supposed to be the warmest day of the week at 50 degrees. The rest of the week, the Chicago Tribune is reporting SNOW!! I shouldn’t be so surprised, after all, Tuesday is December 1!

Breakfast was a warm and sweet bowl of homemade oats – plain oatmeal topped with brown sugar and crunchy walnuts…

11.29 Oatmeal 1

11.29 Oatmeal 2

As you can see, I was playing with the macro setting and focus on my camera. Both of these photos turned out well, each with a slightly different look.

Seeing as today was the first day of Advent, Scott and I headed to 9:30 mass after breakfast. The service was very nice although the church wasn’t as decorated as I thought it would. I’m sure they’ll add more decorations later.

For lunch, we made our typical Sunday fare of sandwiches, but this time we made them with Boar’s Head salami, turkey, and ham – this was one classy and expensive sandwich!

11.29 Boarshead sandwich 2

11.29 Boarshead sandwich 1

Although we put up our tree last weekend, the rest of the day was spent decorating the outside of the house as well as decorating the tree. Last night, we bought a bunch of plain green wreaths from Hobby Lobby and some wide red ribbon. I stayed up until around midnight making bows and then attaching them to the wreaths…

11.29 Christmas Wreath

Not too bad for a first time! Next year, I think I’ll buy wider ribbon to make it stand out a little more when you’re looking at the house from the street.

Dinner was Scott’s homemade chicken soup with dumplings…

11.29 Chicken dumpling soup 2

Although he and I have made this soup MANY times, the dumplings are very tricky. You have to cook them just right or else they turn out very firm instead of soft and fluffy like they did today – nice job Scott!

11.29 Chicken dumpling soup

After dinner, we pulled out the rest of the Christmas decorations and tree ornaments and went to town! Since Scott and I have been married, we have been doing a sort of Victorian theme for our Christmas tree with lots of burgundy, gold, and pink ornaments. I have this dream that I will one day have a truly authentic Victorian (or Dickens-style) Christmas – complete with roast pig by the fireplace, cranberries strung on the tree, and hot mulled wassail brewing on the stove, all while listening to carolers at my door. I know, it’s a little over the top, but that’s why it’s a dream.

I must admit, I am partial to plain jane ornaments, like snowflakes and bulbs, yet two of my favorite ornaments are anything but plain…

11.29 Ornaments

Because I absolutely LOVE hot tea – and actually collect tea cups and teapots –  I couldn’t pass up these two little cuties! I bought them a few years back on a quick trip to Bronner’s Christmas store in Frankenmuth, MI. Seriously, if you think you can go into Bronner’s and NOT come out with something, you’re crazy! They have sooo much to choose from and you can find just about any themed ornaments or decorations there – although I would have loved to find a little Harney and Sons tea tin ornament to put on my tree 😉

OK bloggies – I’m off to study. I finally received my personal training prep books and I need to do some major reading in advance before my class starts in two weeks!

Catch ya all tomorrow!

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Thanksgiving Meals On Wheels

November 28, 2009 by

A Quick Thanksgiving Recap

Hello Everyone! Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! I had a fantastic holiday, eating great food and spending time with my family in Michigan. Thanks to my cousin Dave, we were able to have one of our family’s “old fashioned” Thanksgivings with 19 people there. We had all of the standards – turkey, ham, potatoes, stuffing, carrots, sweet potatoes, and French fries. Well, fries are a standard at our holiday events – don’t ask 😉 One of my favorite things about seeing my family is listening to all of the odd things they say. Here is a new classic:

  • Jen: Mom, do you have a tray I can put these cookies on? I think they’d look better on a tray, don’t you?
  • Mom: I have yams. 
  • Jen: (Pause and strange look) Okay.
  • Mom: You like yams don’t you?

Meals on Wheels

Earlier in the morning on Thanksgiving, my father, older sister, and I volunteered to deliver meals to the elderly. It was such a fulfilling, yet sad experience. Some of the seniors were very cheerful about the holiday, while others seemed depressed. Yet, all of them seemed very excited and grateful to have us delivering their meals – for many of the seniors, we would be the only people they would see all day. Sad. Seeing them made me very thankful that I still have my youth, health, and all of my family with me.

Back to Normal

Today was back to business as usual – however usual it can be during the holiday season. Because I already ran 5 days this week, today was my day off. It was VERY nice to sleep in a little! Breakfast was a crunchy bowl of Honeynut Cheerios with walnuts…

11.28 Cheerios1

11.28 Cheerios 2

Shortly after breakfast, Scott and I ventured to Costco. We made it there about 45 minutes after they opened so the warehouse crowd had not hit its massive level yet. I was so incredibly tempted by the baked goods today. They had several sweets that I had not seen in the store previously, including little red velvet cupcakes and a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting – you can see why I was so tempted!

For lunch, we ate at Chicago’s own Portillo’s. However, I didn’t exactly eat Portilo’s. I stopped at Corner Bakery ahead of time and grabbed a Mediterranean salad, then ate it with Scott at Portillo’s while he enjoyed his beef sandwich…

11.28 Mediterranean Salad

It is a little strange bringing outside food into a restaurant, but you gotta do what you gotta do when you’re trying to eat healthy.

The afternoon brought more holiday shopping with trips to Hobby Lobby, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Barnes and Noble, and Target. It is amazing how much money we spend around the holidays and not even on gifts!

Dinner was homemade split pea soup, compliments of Scott and the Williams Sonoma Soup cookbook.

11.28 Split Pea Soup 1

Each time we make this, and we’ve made it quite a few times, I am amazed at how easy this recipe is and how awesome the soup tastes! It is seriously as good or better than any split pea soup I’ve ever tasted.

11.28 Split Pea Soup 2

It especially tastes good topped with crunchy croutons or paired with crusty French bread for dipping…

11.28 Fresh bread

For the most part, we follow the recipe in the book. Although instead of bacon, we typically cook the soup with a ham bone. I’ve made it with bacon before and it makes the soup taste very salty. Thankfully, we saved the ham bone from Thanksgiving and drove it back to Chicago with us – hey, anything for split pea soup! And really, can  you think of a better way to get the most use out of a leftover ham bone than to make soup?

11.28 Split Pea recipe

Another difference is that we add in more chicken or vegetable broth at the end, as needed. For some reason, this time we had to add at least 3 cups of extra broth – the juice just seemed to keep evaporating! At one point, the soup was so extremely thick that it was similar to the consistency of stew. The extra broth definitely helped :-).

11.28 Split Pea Soup Recipe 2

Now, it’s time to get to work making wreath bows for the outside of our house. I have never made a wreath bow (they are typically much larger/wider than gifts bows), so this should be interesting.

Have a great night everyone!

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Bacon Makes Everything Taste Better

November 21, 2009 by

Hi Everyone! 

Last night, I watched Rachel Ray’s Vacation on the Food Network. She was reviewing some of the hot spots in Philadelphia. I was sooo excited to see that she actually visited two of the VERY places I went to last year at my company’s annual meeting! She reviewed Amada tapas restaurant and Naked Chocolate Cafe, both of which were awesome! I am very proud to say that I found these two places on my own before even seeing the show – so I guess great minds think alike. Maybe it’s a sign that I should subscribe to her magazine 😉

This morning, Scott and I had to rush out the door to run errands, so there was no time for a sit-down breakfast. And so it was LUNA to the rescue…

11.21 LUNA bar

Lunch was at our fave Italian cafe where I promptly ordered my signature veggie pizza…

11.21 Veggie Pizza 2

It was loaded with mushrooms, spinach, red peppers, pesto, and topped with goat cheese, all on a wheat crust – fantastic!

11.21 Veggie pizza 1

Next up, was a little Christmas shopping. In just two hours, I managed to get to:

  • Crate and Barrel – Looking for cool wine glasses on sale for $2.95 – but they were all out 🙁
  • Bath and Body Works – I don’t shop here much because I prefer L’Occitane or Crabtree and Evelyn but BBW was having some great sales.
  • Harry and David – Looking for a foodie gift for my big sis.
  • Barnes and Noble – Hmm, no real reason to go here other than to pick up a mocha frap!
  • Fresh Market – Ahh, rotisserie chicken for dinner!

For dinner, I decided to try my hand at making brussel sprouts. Shauna’h suggested a great recipe from a friend, although I did not have all of the ingredients to make it. So, it was my own creation tonight – which usually makes Scott a little leery.

11.21 Brussel Sprouts

But for these, I fried some all-natural hickory smoked bacon in a pan until crisp. Then I removed the bacon and added steamed brussel sprouts (about 25 sprouts cut in 1/2). Then I sauteed the sprouts in a little more oil and the bacon drippings until they were slightly brown. Of course, I thought they were awesome. On the other hand, Scott remarked that he would probably not eat these again without the bacon. I guess bacon really does make every taste better.

One word of caution, if you do make this recipe, be very careful when pouring the sprouts in the bacon grease or you will wind up with grease burns…

11.21 arm burn

Not fun, especially since now they have progressed to tiny blisters – ouch! It was my own dumb fault though!

Aside from sprouts, I also tried my hand at making mashed sweet potatoes for the first time. I know, I know…how could I have gotten this far in life without making mashed sweet potatoes? Well, let’s just say we did not eat them very often growing up and when I did, we usually had the canned version.

11.21 sweet potatoes 1

For this bright orange and very festive dish, I followed the very easy recipe on Martha Stewart’s site. Seriously, this was SO easy. The hardest part was chopping the sweet potatoes -they are definitely not as easy to chop as white potatoes. Again, this dish was mighty tasty – I’m going to pat myself on the back for this one for sure!

11.21 Roast chicken and sweet potatoes

The side dishes all came together quite nicely with the white wine rotisserie chicken I bought from Fresh Market. Although, I swear these chickens are getting smaller and smaller. They’re almost like a cornish hen now. Scott and I used to be able to split one with leftovers for another full dinner. Now, we’re lucky if we have leftovers. And it’s NOT that we are eating more either!

11.21 roast chicken and brussel sprouts

11.21 roast chickena nd sweet potatoes 2

I paired this all with a nice Robert Mondavi Chardonnay I purchased at Costco last week. Fancy, fancy.

I think this made up for last night’s sandwich dinner, don’t you think?

OK, gotta run. I have a ton of pre-Thanksgiving cleaning to get to tonight! See you all on Sunday!

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A Chicago Tourist For A Day

November 14, 2009 by

Hey All – Remember to enter the first ever Running With Cake giveaway!

Scott and I made an impromptu trip to downtown Chicago today, and what a day it was!

 

Jen Chicago2

That’s me in Millennium Park overlooking the newly frozen outdoor skating rink! I wonder how they keep it frozen during 60 degree weather?

Before heading out on the train, I fueled up on a big bowl of Cheerios..

11.14 Cheerios

Good thing I did because we ended up not eating lunch for at least another 3 hours after that! Needless to say, I was starving by the time we arrived at the downtown Nordstrom Cafe for lunch. I seriously wanted to order one of everything. I started with some carbs to take the edge off…

11.14 Cheese Scone

This was an awesome cheddar and chive scone – absolutely delish! It would have gone GREAT with a bowl of soup, but I decided to order the Cranberry Turkey sandwich instead…

11.14 Nordstrom sandwich 2

Yes, Thanksgiving came a little early this year in the form of a sandwich and it was good! Too bad after I ate most of it I turned the sandwich over and noticed some questionable green “element” on the bread. Could it have been mold? The server insisted the bread was baked fresh that day and said it might have been guacamole – although guac was not part of the sandwich. I guess we’ll never know..

11.14 Nordstrom sandwich

After lunch, we headed to “The BEAN” or as one little boy called it “The Giant PILL”.

Chicago Bean

The “BEAN” has actually been around for a few years but it’s still way cool to view, even when you live in Chicago. Because it was such a nice day there were TONS of people outside, which made the reflections that much cooler.

Jen Bean 3

I also tried taking a picture of myself in the BEAN…

Jen Bean2

It came out all warped and crazy!

Next up, we did a little walking through the gardens of Millennium Park. Too bad all of the flowers were already gone for the season. It was still a lovely fall setting with all of the gold and amber hues in the gardens…

Jen Chicago 6

I was even able to catch a certain handsome guy contemplating the meaning of life at one point…

Scott Chicago

He was actually checking out the Bean’s backside!

After our Millennium Park jaunt, we decided to make our way to Macy’s for some window shopping. Chicago doesn’t officially turn on its huge holiday lights display until next weekend. However, Macy’s had already starting displaying all of its holiday decorations, including its famous holiday window scenes…

Chicago Macy's xmas window

This year’s theme is “Believe”, based on (I think) the story “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”. It was 60 degrees outside but seeing these displays made me feel like it was Christmas Eve and snowing outside!

Chicago Macy's Clock

Aside from its window displays, Chicago Macy’s on State Street also showcased a little indoor holiday magic – ok, it was a LOT of holiday magic…

Chicago Macy's xmas display

Can Macy’s ever do anything small?? Upstairs in the famous Walnut Room, the huge Christmas tree was also displayed in all of its twinkling glory…

Chicago Walnut room Christmas Tree

A thousand points of light indeed! I left Macy’s feeling very much in the holiday spirit as you can imagine. As we were headed out the door to catch the train, I also grabbed a froyo to go…

11.14 Frozen Yogurt

Not the greatest, but then again, we were practically running to the train while I was eating it! I think we walked a total of 2 hours today (no cabs for us!) so we were exhausted and a bit sweaty by the time we plopped ourselves on the train.

We ended our fabulous day with an equally fabulous dinner prepared by Scott, but I’m saving that for tomorrow!  

Have a great night all!

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The Traveling Blogger

November 11, 2009 by

Hi Everyone!

Hope you enjoyed my Veterans Day post from earlier today. Although today was my day off from running, I was up and at ’em around 6 AM. I even arrived at work at 8:30 AM because traffic was SO much lighter, no doubt due to the holiday. Which brings me to the question of the day – Did you have Veterans Day off from work or school? If so, how did you spend your day off?

Before work, I made myself a big cereal mix of Honeynut Cheerios and Kashi Go Lean Crunch…

11.11 breakfast

I know, surprise, surprise. Work was a little busier today because my boss was actually back in the office, which translates into more meetings. Although, he is leaving for the next two weeks, going partly to Korea for a meeting and then taking a vacation. I don’t think I’ve ever been away from my job for more than two weeks – at least not anytime recently. 

For lunch, I drove about 30 minutes from the office to attend a very cool luncheon/meeting. At the luncheon, I listened to a presentation by two former top broadcast news journalists and than chatted/networked with a bunch of older ladies. I would love to show you pictures from the luncheon, but I really couldn’t find a good, inconspicuous time to take photos of the food! I did end up having a really yummy turkey sandwich with brie and tomatoes, plus a little fruit salad, and a chocolate chip cookie.

On my way back to the office, I got a little turned around and actually went out of my way about 10 minutes. But, thank goodness for the navigation system!

Dinner was homemade turkey chili courtesy of Scott.

11.11 dinner

Because I’m trying to add more veggies into my diet, I added about 2 cups of spinach to my chili bowl. I honestly couldn’t taste the spinach that much, but it’s great to know that I got all of the vitamins with it.

I booked another business trip yesterday, this time to Phoenix/Scottsdale. If anyone has recommendations for restaurants for that area, please let me know. It looks like I’m going to be traveling quite a bit in the first half of of 2010. Right now, I have at least one trip planned for each month – yikes! Here’s the line up thus far…

  • January – Phoenix/Scottsdale
  • February – Orlando
  • March – Baltimore (Yeah – Fit Bloggin!!)
  • April – Miami and Key Largo
  • May – New Orleans or Washington, DC

There may also be a last-minute trip to DC in there somewhere as well. I’m pretty certain I’m going to be sick of traveling (or at least airports) by June! However, I’m hoping to indulge in some seriously cool restaurants in each of these cities (great blog fodder) and do a LOT of running.

If there are any bloggers in Miami (or Southern FL) or Baltimore who’d like to meet up, let me know!

Have a wonderful night!

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Could I actually like a Miley Cyrus Song?

November 8, 2009 by

Hi All!

It was another glorious day in Chicagoland, which means another awesome run! I ran a very fast 5 miler but felt like I could have run 6 or 7. I am attributing my energy to not only the weather, but also the LUNA bar I had about an hour before I ran…

11.8 prerun

I received a coupon via email from LUNA saying that I could buy two bars and get one free, but I had to download the “coupon printer”. It says it’s “safe” to download this software, but I’m always hesitant to download things on my work laptop for fear of it crashing. Has anyone downloaded the coupon printer before? What was your experience?

While I was running I heard this great song that actually made me want to sing along with it. I had heard the song before but had no idea who sang it. Come to find out – it’s MILEY CYRUS!! OMG, I can’t believe I actually like a Miley  Cyrus song, but her “Party in the USA” song is so fun. I don’t plan on turning into a Hannah Montana fan anytime soon, but I will definitely not turn this song off when it comes on the radio.

After my run, I enjoyed a quick yogurt bowl while getting ready for the day…

11.8 breakfast

I had Chobani’s vanilla Greek yogurt with a handful of walnuts for added MUFA and crunch – super filling and so YUM!

After breakfast, we spontaneously decided to head out to the zoo for the day. Although it was spontaneous, it seemed to take us forever to get out the door. We didn’t actually arrive at the zoo until noon! Of course on the way, we made a couple stops, including Barnes and Noble for my sweet indulgence on this “last day of summer”…

11.8 starbucks

Because we arrived at the zoo right at lunch, we plopped down at a picnic table and enjoyed some homemade salami/ham and cheese sandwiches…

11.8 lunch

Although we’ve been to this zoo many times, today was the first day I had ever seen the bats. Creepy but kind of cool. The giraffes and Meerkats are more my style.

Dinner was another Every Day With Rachel Ray recipe from this month’s issue. Tonight it was the BLT Creamy Mac & Cheese…

11.8 dinner mag photo

The above picture is actually a photo I took right from the magazine, but check out how closely my creation resembles the real one…

11.8 dinner2

Woo Hoo – another recipe winner! This recipe was fantastic, although I’m guessing pretty high in calorie due to the cream cheese and bacon. Ok, did I mention that I like bacon? I was never really a fan of bacon until I was an adult and learned to make bacon the exact way I like it – crunchy! I try not to eat too much bacon, but when I do I buy/eat the uncured/all-natural kind. Bacon really kicked this dish up to a whole new level and the added spinach (substituted for arugula) gave the dish some much needed veggies. This dish is definitely going into my recipe book, not only for the flavor but also because it only took about 30 minutes to cook!

After dinner, we decided to celebrate my last evening before going back to work by heading to the ice cream shop – Maggie Moo’s, which is similar to Cold Stone, although I think they have better-tasting ice cream than Cold Stone. I was so torn between Red Velvet ice cream – because you all know I’ve been on this Red Velvet kick – but decided to go with the…

11.8 dessert

Blueberry Muffin ice cream! I just adore this specialty flavor – although it’s very rich so I don’t suggest making it a habit. I had mine with walnuts – I needed to make it healthy somehow! Sorry about the odd looking photo. I forgot the camera so I had to rely on Scott’s iphone.

Gotta head to bed. I want to make sure I’m fresh and ready to go for work tomorrow. Have a great night!

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Home Sweet Home Chicago

November 5, 2009 by

Wow – it’s GREAT to be home in sunny Chicago! Sorry my posts have been so short and sparse. However, now that my big meeting is over, I’m hoping to go back to my regular twice daily postings.

Well, after being away from home for a full week, I’ve come home to a fully-cleaned house, lots of paperwork, and leftover Halloween candy. After walking in the door and unwinding for an hour or so, I realize that there several things that I’m going to miss about being away on business.

10.30 lunch-Seaport

Things I love about Business Travel:

  1. Running in new places – Exploring news cities on my daily runs is probably one of the very best things about business travel – at least for me. Can’t wait for Vancouver next year!
  2. Not having to clean up after myself – I am by no means a slob, but it’s definitely nice to not have to worry about making the bed or cleaning the bathroom.
  3. Not having to deal with the mail and other paperwork – I dread sorting and filing paperwork at home. So, if nothing else, business travel is a vacation from the giant paper mound at my house.
  4. Spending other people’s money – Want a magazine? No problem? Need a Starbucks? Go for it. As long as it’s not my money, I don’t think twice about these little luxuries – although I don’t take advantage of it either.
  5. Having “people” – Aside from the great hotel staff who are always willing to help with a reservation, etc., we regularly hire vendors to help us with our meetings. This allows us to spread the craziness across many more people and take some of the pressure off of us.
  6. Taking the elevator downstairs to work – With a 45-minute commute, each way, from my regular office, going 8 floors down to work is a bonus I will greatly miss!

On the other hand, there also many things I miss about home when I’m away on business:

Things I love about coming home after Business Travel:

  • Eating home-cooked meals – I love going out to eat but eating at restaurants twice daily for a straight week is a bit overkill. I’m really looking forward to some of Scott’s great cooking!
  • Having a normal sleeping schedule – Ok, I admit it, I just can’t hang with the college crowd anymore. Getting up at 5 AM and not getting to sleep until 11 PM or later is tough, especially when you do it for 7 days in a row. I’m sure I have a bunch of new wrinkles to show for this crazy sleeping schedule.
  • Not having junk food around every corner – As I have explained in the past, my organization never does anything small, especially when it comes to food. This year at our meeting the food was fairly good, and somewhat healthy, although there were still plenty of unhealthy items to balance it out!
  • Sleeping in my own bed – We generally stay in very nice hotels with equally nice beds, but no matter how nice the hotel bed is, I never sleep as well in a hotel bed than I do my own.
  • Seeing my husband – Although we talk on the phone and video chat, I’d much rather prefer relaxing on the couch, chit-chatting with Scott after a long day.

    • Now I am back to reality and looking forward to a clear sense of normalcy – for my life at home, work, and as a blogger. 

    Thanks for hanging with me this past week, I hope to catch up with you all soon!

    Filed Under: Leisure Tagged With: , ,