Temporary leave.

I wanted to let my readers know that I'm going to be taking a short post hiatus. Have some things I need to focus on in my personal and professional life.

I will be back to my regular daily posting soon, you guys can't get rid of me that easy;)

Blog at ya'll later!

p.s. So strange doing a post without some sort of photo!

Bacon + Popcorn = Love

I had such a good time on Friday night. A couple of my friends and I headed to a local movie theatre that I LOVE. After work we headed to the ICON theatre to grab some drinks and food before settling in to watch Alice in Wonderland.


Here is a look at the bar in the movie theatre.




Very cool and hard to believe it is located in a movie theatre, but it is!




The girls and I settled in to a nice seating area and the first thing I ordered was a Kettle One Cosmo!




There are many things that I like about this theatre. Here is my list:

• Bar
• Real food
• Assigned seating
• Drinks and food can be brought to your seat and consumed during movie
• Order tickets online and pick the seats you will be sitting in
• But the best thing about ICON is the BACON POPCORN!!!

Yes, you read that right! Bacon popcorn! So freakin' good, I can't even put it into words.

Bacon + Popcorn = LOVE!

I could have just eaten a barrel full of Bacon Popcorn but instead I opted to try some of the other food offered at this establishment. I had a margarita pizza that was just okay.

Chips with a caramelized onion dip.

And the skillet cookie with vanilla ice cream.

I had the best time hanging with my girlfriends at this place and I'm sure we will hit it up again. My husband and I are really excited to have theatre like this in downtown Chicago! It is right up or alley and we intend to take full advantage of everything it has to offer.

Question

What was the last movie you saw in a theatre?

Rewind to Thursday

What a beautiful day Thursday was! Can't wait until those days are around for more than a few days at a time. I'm excited to start trying to run outside!

Thursday's Breakfast

Peach Chobani Yogurt:

Topped with granola:

Slice of Irish soda bread:

I'm going to post the recipe to this bread. It is really healthy and tastes amazing!

Lunch

Nachos:

With cheese, onion, refried beans, beef, chicken:

and jalapenos:

Dinner

A glass of raspberry vodka mixed with Sugar Free Red Bull:

Leftover cabbage rolls and sauerkraut:

I must say that the cabbage rolls are SO much better the next day. The sauerkraut flavor really soaks into the meat and is oh so good!

The weekend is going to be a busy one. I have plans everyday. I love going out and having things to do on the weekend but it's hard to find the time to clean and do laundry:(

St. Patrick's Day - Catch up!

Wow, I'm so behind in my posting. I have all these ideas in my head for posts but am having trouble finding the time to actually type them out. The plan is to get caught up on the food posts today and tomorrow and then dive into some of the ideas I have!

Wednesday (aka...St. Patrick's day)

What a great day! I love it when I'm able to take a vacation day and just chill at home with the dogs and watch lifetime movies. That is exactly what my day consisted of and I loved it, so relaxing:)

Lunch

Breakfast was non-existent but lunch was something simple I'd been craving for along time.

Started off with these huge cucumbers:



Sliced em' up:




Added a small bowl of light sour cream mixed with Hidden Valley ranch dressing packet:



I used to eat this as a meal ALL the time. I just don't like how expensive the cucumber are. These babies were over 2 dollars each! You will see a lot more of these on the blog once they start going on sale again.

I washed down my lunch with a Shirley Temple:



Shirley Temples always remind me on when I was a little girl. Whenever my parents would take me to a "fancy" restaurant, like Pizza Hut, they would order my "fancy" drink, a Shirley Temple. I love thinking about good memories!

Snack

Around 3:00 I went to the grocery store to pick up some items we needed for our St. Patrick's day meals. I must say it is so much more pleasant going grocery shopping during the day than after work. It was not as crowded as usual and I was able to take my time and actually find everything I needed.

After shopping I grabbed a grande iced skinny vanilla latte:



I was so excited that the weather was nice enough for me to order an iced coffee from my beloved Starbucks!!!

Cocktails

Once Patrick came home from work he fixed me his famous Pamatini:



and a plate of KerryGold reduced fat Irish Cheddar Cheese with Cracked Black Pepper Triscuit:



I sipped on my cocktail and nibbled on my cheese and crackers while fixing dinner.

Dinner

Dinner was a meat mixture wrapped in cabbage leaves topped with sauerkraut:



Here is a look at the inside of the cabbage roll. This is a meal my family would eat when I was a kid so it was fun to recreate it for my husband!



Dessert

Healthy version of Irish Soda bread. I let this cook while we ate dinner and once it came out of the oven I sliced a piece for my husband and I. Patrick had his plain and really liked it. I added a smear of Pomegranate Jelly to mine and it was delicious.



The Boys

We like to celebrate with our boys so on holidays they get special treats, just like us! For St. Patrick's day they got little doggie peanut butter cups.

Cap enjoying his treat while keeping an eye on me to make sure I don't steal it:



Solera chomping away, FULLY enjoying the peanut butter cup with not a care in the world:



A very nice evening was had by all! I love nights like this!

Question

For those of you with pets, do you give them special treats on the holiday's? If yes, what kind of treats do they get?

My dogs like bully sticks they best! Sometimes we switch it up on them and get peanut butter cups or lamb. We buy all the treats from a dog store so we know our guys are safe!

Bad Mood = Great Workout!

Tuesday was a crazy day. I woke up in a really bad mood which doesn't make for a pleasant day. I will tell you one thing, being angry really does make me have a fantastic workout! I ran like I've never run before and it felt great.

Let's take a look at Tuesdays eats!

Breakfast

The ever filling, 2 scrambled eggs with a ton of hot sauce:

Lunch

I wasn't all that hungry for lunch but I knew I needed to eat something before I did my lunch time workout.

Strawberry, banana Chobani yogurt. I will say I was not a fan of this flavor. It tasted a bit off to me so I'm going to stick with the peach from now on.

With a couple cinnamon teddy grahams:)

Granny Smith apple.

Dinner

Patrick and I stopped at Ceres so we could talk and grab a bite to eat.

I had a side salad with the house dressing. I love this dressing it is so good and has a ton of flavor!

Cup of buffalo chicken soup.

Ceres always does a great job of decorating. Check out just a few of the St. Patrick's day decorations:

The last part of dinner was some fettuccine noodles with broccoli.

Lot's of broccoli!

Exercise

I'm still working on the Couch to 5K running program. I'm doing better than I thought I would and have hopes of actually being able to run the entire 5K May 1.

Hope everyone had a wonderful day! I'm happy to say my bad mood lifted and I went to bed in a much better state of mind:)

Question

Do you tend to have better workouts when you are in a not so good mood?

I totally do. Bring on the angry girl music and I'm working my little heart out!

Chicago Restaurant Week - Carnivale

Carnivale is a restaurant that Patrick and I have been wanting to check out for awhile. When we saw that it was part of Chicago's restaurant week we made our reservations right away. With rooms with titles like Lambada Lounge, Flamenco Room, Tango Room and Samba Room, we were destined to have a fun time! You have to check out the link above and look at the pictures of this space, it's amazing!

Cocktails
By far, my husband ordered the coolest cocktail. He had some kind of speciality Mojito and it came with a glow stick. I was SO jealous of his glow stick (um, you know what I mean);)

My order was a Caipirinha which is made with ypioca cachaca rum, limes and simple syrup. The Caipirinha was a risky choice for me because the first/last time I had one was at a friends party and they were STRONG!!! My husband convinced me to try one at Carnivale and I'm glad he did. It was a very refreshing drink.

While sipping on our drinks we looked over the Restaurant Week 2010 menu. I love that the menus were so colorful. It matched the theme of the entire restaurant.

Dinner

I started off with the Three Sisters' black bean soup with Niman Ranch ham and topped with Crema. This dish was SO good and very filling. I will definitely be ordering this when I make my return visit to Carnivale.

My second dish consisted of Lomo Saltado, Dietzler farm beef, roasted vegetables, rice and a soy chile broth. I'm very picky about the meat I eat and this did not disappoint. The meat was really tender and the flavors were excellent and really complimented each other. The only thing I would have added to this dish is a little bit of spice. I like a little kick to my food!







I loved that right above our table was a picture of 2 dogs eating a fancy dinner:)





It appeared that everyone was going for the dessert we wanted and the restaurant was having some trouble keeping up with the demand. The manager said they had no idea it would be so popular. Because we had to wait so long the restaurant provided us with free coffee drinks. We didn't mind at all, it was nice being able to catch up and talk over some coffee.


I had a Cappuccino.




Added a couple sugars to my drink. I was impressed with the variety of sweeteners that came with the coffee!






Dessert


The dessert was well worth the wait. Extremely good! We both ordered the Roasted apple crepes topped with dulce de leche ice cream. I'm normally not a big fan of hot apple desserts but this was scrumptious. My husband and I both hope they put this on the permanent menu!





I hit the restroom before we left and loved that they had Audrey Hepburn pictures hanging on the walls. It was a nice touch!





Verdict: Patrick and I both decided we will be making another trip to Carnivale. The menu looks great and we can't wait to try out some of the other dishes!



Fun Fact: Carnivale is located in the building that used to house a club called the Drink. When I was a younger girl and used to visit Chicago I would always go to the Drink and party the night away. It was so exciting and fun because back home we didn't have clubs like it. So when I walked into Carnivale it was shocking to have all of these emotions come flooding back to me. I'm sure my husband got sick of me pointing out where things used to be and what I remember from my "Drink" days:)



Question



Do you ever go to a place you haven't been in along time and get hit with a flood of emotions from your past?



This happened to me 110% when the cab dropped us off at Carnivale. Good times!