Clean Bill of Health and Flo & Santos

I had a very busy Friday morning.

Over the last few months Patrick and I have been finding lumps on Cappy. Not just any lumps but golf ball size lumps that seem to appear overnight and disappear just as fast. On Thursday night I noticed one on his stomach so I took him to the vet first thing Friday morning. Thankfully the vet said they appear to be fatty cysts and nothing to worry about. My furry child has a clean bill of health, well, except for his teeth. He's scheduled for a teeth cleaning in December:)

Breakfast

Due to the Vet visit and work I didn't have time to eat anything. But I made up for it later in the day!

Lunch

Quick and easy whole wheat pasta with Ragu traditional sauce.

After eating my pasta I needed to satisfy my sweet tooth so I snacked on a handful of butterscotch chips.

Dinner

After work P and I walked to a rather new restaurant, Flo & Santos:

This pub and eatery is located in the South Loop neighborhood in Chicago. It's a very cozy and welcoming atmosphere where families are welcome as are those who just want to grab a drink at the bar. I loved the exposed brick and large red booths. Oh, and the 90-inch HD screen would be great to watch a little college football on.

The food is a mix of Polish and Italian classics. My two favorite cuisines, I couldn't wait to dig in!

I sipped on one of the specialty cocktails while P and I looked over the menu.

Bison Grass Vodka with Hard Cider served in a graham cracker rimmed glass:

The cocktail was okay but I most likely will not order it again. It didn't really have that much flavor but I did enjoy the rim on the glass:)

My first dish was the house made chicken & egg noodle soup. Oh my word, I loved this soup. I was so happy to discover it because chicken soup is one of those things that makes me feel comforted.

The broth wasn't too salty, the noodles were the perfect texture and the shredded chicken was perfection. The memory of this soup is making me want to jog over to Flo & Santos right now!

P and I shared the waffle fries for an appetizer. They were good but nothing all that different than other waffle fries I've had. I told Patrick next time I'm going to sneak some Lawry's seasoned salt in to sprinkle it all over the fries. That would be good and P agreed!

The angels sang to me when I read the description for Flo's pizza - polsak Kielbasa, sauerkraut and apple wood smoked bacon. I know many of you are thinking sauerkraut on pizza doesn't sound appetizing at all. But I'm here to set the record straight...It is amazing!!!

I only had a couple slices of Flo's pizza because I needed to save room for dessert.

Dessert

Just two words: S'more Pizza!

Topped with vanilla gelato:

Amazing!

So, so, so amazing!!!

Flo & Santos has the best thin crust pizza I've had in a long time. The interesting toppings they offer give this pizza joint an edge above all the other places in the neighborhood. The food is good and the service is good which means this blogger will be going to this place again!

Question:

What is the craziest topping you've put on your pizza?

French Bread Pizza Pocket

Wednesday was a tough day for my husband. I hate it when he is feeling down and there isn't anything I can do to help with the situation.


I decided I would treat him to something that rarely gets done during the week in our house. After work I stopped at the store to pick up some supplies to prepare my man a home made meal. Yep, I was a domestic goddess;) Well, as domestic as I get.

Dinner

I decided to make a meal from my childhood.

French Bread Pizza Pocket


In the mix:

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• 6 slices cheddar cheese
• 3 individual french bread rolls (or hoagies)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cook ground beef in pan.
3. Add taco seasoning and follow directions on packet. Set meat to the side.
4. Cut off top of roll and pull out the inside breading.
5. Spoon meat into the hollowed out roll.
6. Top with cheese slices.
7. Place stuffed rolls on baking sheet. Put in oven and bake until cheese is melted.

Easy and delicious!

Growing up, this was one of my favorite meals. I remember watching my mom prepare the rolls and getting so excited while watching the cheese melt over the meaty goodness.



This dish is so easy to make and you can add so many different ingredients to jazz it up. Patrick had fun spicing up his roll with fresh jalapenos. They were the hottest jalapenos we've had all year!



We did like the french and had our salad after our meal.

In the mix: arugula, romaine lettuce, cucumbers, fresh grated parmesan and half an apple pear.

Topped with home made dressing: fresh lemon juice, olive oil, white balsamic, dijon mustard, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, white pepper and a touch of agave nectar.



I really enjoyed being able to prepare a meal during the work week. I need to make this a goal of mine.


The Pups

Whenever P & I have a tough day it's always nice to come home to our 2 furry children! They do the funniest things and who doesn't like a good laugh at the end of a stressful day.

The Capster has turned into a bit of a grump. You can always find him sleeping in his favorite position, nose crammed into a corner. He will sit this way for hours! I have no idea how he manages to breath.



Solera is still a young dog with a ton of energy. When he does decide to relax for a minute he gets in the most unusual poses. This position doesn't even look remotely comfortable!



And let's not forget about his favorite position. Head under the couch. I'm pretty sure he is looking at a toy he managed to get stuck under said couch.



Clearly Cappy doesn't understand what is wrong with his brother;)



I don't know what I would do without my boys; Patrick, Cappy and Solera!


Mention

On a sad note: Comedian Greg Giraldo passed away yesterday. He was one of the few comedians that I really liked. He had a wickedly smart humor. He died to young and he will be missed by many.



Question:

When someone in your life is feeling down how do you go about trying to lift their spirits?

Calgon - Take Me Away...

Does anyone remember that commercial?

When I was little my mom and I would spend an hour during the day watching General Hospital while eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches. During the commercial breaks the Calgon - Take Me Away commercial would come on and I always thought it was so funny. Something about a lady screaming Calgon - Take Me Away while images of her day floated around her head was very humorous to the 5 year old Tracey;)

Now I'm all grown up and not finding those commercials funny at all. Tuesday was my very own Calgon day. Everything was going wrong and I just wanted my mom to walk into my office and give me a time out!

Life is so stressful and it's so difficult to deal with it when you are in the stressful moment. I need to reread my post on stress and put some of those practices back into my life!

Breakfast

I usually eat Greek yogurt but decided to try the regular kind today. I still prefer the thick texture of the Greek but this Stonyfield Pomegranate yogurt with granola and almonds was mighty tasty:



Lunch

My meals for the remainder of the day were brought on by pure stress. Whenever I'm stressed out or "emotionally off" I self medicate with food that is not so good for me. Definitely something that needs to be worked on.

I needed a caffeine boost so a Rockstar beverage was needed:



Along with 1.5 Pizza Hut bread sticks:



and about half of this baked pasta:



Dinner

P and I were walking home and came across a new pizza place that opened up in the loop, Bacci Pizzeria.

P ordered a "slice" of sausage and I had peperoni. Here is my weird husband trying to eat his "slice" with a plastic fork and knife:



I put the word "slice" in quotes because this is not your normal slice of pizza. The thing was bigger than my head:



That is in noway an illusion. The "slice" was really that big! Bacci Pizzeria doesn't mess around when they say they are the home of the Jumbo Slice!

Project Food Blog

Just a reminder that voting ends Thursday, September 23. Check out my submission here. I think it sums up my blog perfectly!

Question:

Do you ever have those "Calgon" type of days? What do you do when you need a time-out?

And She's Back...

It's been over a month since my last post and I think it is about time to start blogging away. My big project at work is complete, woohoo!!! I'm still working away at some personal issues but to be honest I will be working on personal issues my entire life and I think this blog is a good way to work out some of the issues that will pop up over the years.

I do want to thank everyone for your kind words and well wishes. The blog community really does have a bunch of great people in it!

I've done a lot of things during my month long hiatus so I thought I would just touch on some of the more interesting items. If you follow me on twitter (TraceyVeggies) you probably already know about most of these things but I can give you more detail about it on this post:)

Running - I'm happy to say that I'm doing a good job with my running plan. I've worked my way from sitting on my bum all day to running 25 minutes straight. This is really impressive for me since I haven't run more than 5 minutes at a time during my entire 33 years on this earth. So, yeah, Go Me!!! Plus, running is a bit easier when you have these views to look at while doing it:

My first 5K is going to be May 1 - this Saturday. I'm doing the Run to Remember which is a race that benefits the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation. The Chicago Police Memorial Foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing assistance to the families of our fallen heroes. This is such a great cause and I'm excited that it will be my first 5K experience!

Fleet Feet - A couple weeks ago I started getting really bad knee pain while I was running. I was bummed and frustrated because I thought this meant I wouldn't be able to continue my training for the 5K. I'm happy to say that I didn't just give up but instead headed to Fleet Feet to see what they could recommend to help reduce the pain.

I had the BEST experience at Fleet Feet Chicago. I ended up waiting about 30 minutes to sit down with, what I will call, a shoe specialist. I told my SS (shoe specialist) what type of exercise I was doing and the pain I was feeling in my knees. He put me on a treadmill and video taped my feet while I ran for about a minute. He slowed down the tape and shared with me the issues that could be causing the knee pain.

He picked out about 6 pairs of shoes that he thought would be good for me. I tried them out by running on the in-store track strip. I decided on a wonderful pair of Brooks sneakers, inserts and knee sleeves!

Old Town Oil - I found this amazing store which sells specialty olive oils and aged balsamic vinegars. If you are like me and love having balsamic vinegar on your salads or dipping a piece of french bread in a delicious tasting olive oil, you will love this place.

I love that this store does on premises bottling. The oils and vinegar are in spouted containers that allow you to taste before you buy. Once you pick the items you want an employee actually bottles and seals right in front of you, so you know you are purchasing the same product you just sampled! How great is that!

I wanted to take the entire store home with me but I knew that just wasn't possible so I made a touch decision and chose 1 vinegar and 1 oil.

The Jalapeno Balsamic vinegar has such an interesting taste and I love to add it to my salads!

The Garlic Olive Oil is so good I can't even put it into words. I've added it to salads, tossed veggies in it and roasted them in the oven, all kind of yummy creations can be done with this EVOO.

Freds - I was a bit leary of posting about Freds for fear that everyone would find out about this little gem located in the new Barney's building on Oak street. I really liked that I was able to get a seat on the patio without having to wait a couple hours. Freds is a restaurant with a little outdoor patio which is perfect to have a couple cocktails and dessert plate on a nice spring day. The food was okay, drinks were good, dessert was great and the view was spectacular!

The dessert plate was huge and plenty for the table to share:

I hope everyone has been doing great and I look forward to diving back into the blogging world!

Blog at ya later!

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!

Internet Issues and Other Stuff

I'm having internet issues at home so I wasn't able to do my holiday post yesterday. Don't worry once my connection is up and running I will make up for it!

I want to congratulate the Nebraska senior defensive tackle, Ndamukong Suh. He won the Lombardi award last night and is up for the Heisman. He is the first defensive tackle to be invited to the Heisman award ceremony since 1994! (For those of you who don't follow sports, Suh is a college football player ;) )

Tonight Whole Foods South Loop in Chicago is having a Cook, Eat, Blog event. I love this store. Click on the link and check it out!

Crossing my fingers that my husband will be able to work his magic and fix my computer tonight.

Hope everyone is doing well!