Doctors = 5 Guys (not what you think;))

What a day! Started off having to fast until 3:15 in the afternoon. That means no coffee and no food. I don't even know how I got through it but I did.

Right next door to my doctors office is a place called Five Guys. Here is a little info for those of you who are not aware of Five Guys:

• The place only uses fresh, never frozen, ground beef.
• There are no freezers just coolers so nothing is ever frozen.
• They use only Peanut oil.
• The menu is trans-fat free.

It's still a fast food restaurant but it's a better fast food place then like McDonald's or Burger King. It's not only better for me but tastes better too, can't beat that!

Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner

So after being poked and prodded at the doctors I went to Five Guys and ordered some Cajun fries which were awesome.

Cheeseburger with lettuce, pickles, ketchup, mustard and A1 sauce.

mmm...so good! While eating this burger I felt like I was cheating on my husband because he LOVES this place.

To wash down my breakfast/lunch/dinner, I got a grande skinny vanilla latte. Didn't get a picture but I think we all know what a Starbucks cup looks like;)

Drinks

Once my husband got home from work we set out to Grant Park. A bunch of people were out building amazing snow sculptures. I felt bad for them because I can't even explain how freakin cold it is in Chicago tonight. I can't wait to see the finished product of all the sculptures.

Simply amazing that people can do this:

When they started out with nothing. These pictures don't even do it justice.

After freezing our tootsies (a word my grandma always used) off we headed to the Hilton on Michigan avenue for a cocktail. This is an old school hotel and the bar is simply amazing. The bar is made out of marble and actually there is a ton of marble everywhere!

I ordered my typical Kettle One Cosmo and it was really good.

Tomorrow I will be posting my final St. Maarten post. I must say some of the pictures are pretty great so make sure you check in tomorrow!

I will also being doing a book review of Hungry, I've gotten some emails requesting info about it.

Good night everyone, blog at y'all later!

The day of no lunch

I woke up this morning to a beautiful sight. I looked out my window and the snow made the outside world look like a snow globe. It was amazing, until I went downstairs and so that all that pretty snow turned into dirty brown slush on the city streets:(

I started my day with a Starbucks latte:

with a little stopper so I wouldn't splash it everywhere:

I tried something new to eat. Erin Baker's Breakfast Cookie Banana Walnut flavor. This cookie was so good and very filling:

mmm...so good and the perfect texture:

When we ordered pizza last night we also ordered a salad. Not just any salad but a Lou Malnati's salad. I've been know to call this pizza place and just have the salad delivered. I LOVE this salad and the Malnati's dressing. I filled up on pizza and pasta last night so I wasn't able to eat any of it but not a problem, I brought it with me for lunch today!

Lunch

Needless to say I was very excited to dig into my salad for lunch. I got everything ready and was practically salivating while I was taking pictures.

Then I took my first bite and disappointment flowed through my body. The salad was gross. I've never ever encountered this before so I didn't really know what to do. So, I took another bite and right then I knew I needed to throw it out. So sad!

I still needed something to eat so I grabbed some Aztec Vegetable soup.

Yuck! So greasy and the texture was off putting!

I guess it was a sign that I wasn't supposed to eat lunch today. Don't worry, I will make up for it at dinner!

Ann Arbor or Bust

The day after Christmas we set out on a car trip. Patrick, the dogs and myself piled into the car to head to Ann Arbor. My mother and father in-law are celebrating 40 years of marriage and we wanted to be around to celebrate with them.

The trip started out a pretty snow fall.

We had our beverages of water and Dr. Pepper. When you are going to be driving for more than a couple hours you need to be caffeinated.

We started out the trip listening to the radio but once we lost the signal it was all Nickelback. My husband and I both loved this album.

Our puppies were tucked in the back seat. As you can tell by the expressions on the faces, they were not happy about the car ride.

The humans enjoyed the car ride a bit more because of the pretty scenery. All kinds of trees and the snow globe like views.

By 2:00 pm we were really hungry and needed to stop for some food. We found that the choices of restaurants were not that great.

I settled for a taco bell soft shell taco with 5 medium sauces:

A burger from Burger King:

A look at the inside of the burger made me have second thoughts about eating it :/

Patrick and I shared some onion rings:

This little guy kept me busy throughout the entire car ride. He kept trying to sneak into the front seat and wanted to out sing the radio. I've never met a dog that could whine and scream for 6 straight hours and still have a ton of energy!

But, once we reached our destination and got out of the car he was the happiest dog ever! Look at that smile:

My husbands family has a tradition of eating chicken pie on Christmas morning. Since we missed Christmas morning with the family, this year, we were both hoping some chicken pie was left over. We were not disappointed! We both had a piece and it was fantastic!

YUM!

After hours in the car with a screaming dog I thought I deserved a glass of champagne.

The perfect ending:)

Baby, it's cold outside

This morning was another cold one. So cold that my other dog, who has a lot of fur, even needed to wear a coat.

Breakfast

Once I got to work I needed to warm up so I headed straight for the hot chocolate. I can't even remember the last time I had hot cocoa. Totally did the trick.

Hot chocolate wasn't going to wake me up so I needed some serious caffeine. I decided on a Rockstar, zero carb of course.

To eat I had a Chobani pomegranate yogurt.

And added granola. I'm in love with this breakfast.

However, I did have a couple tater tots. I didn't eat all that you see here, just a few.

Dinner

I heated up some of the Orzo soup I made the other day. I did add more broth, garlic and cayenne pepper to the mix.

It was really good. I'm going to make this again but with more veggies and less Orzo.

Question

What do you grab to warm you up in the winter months?

I go for soup. It is so comforting and warm, yum!

It's Decembrrrrrrrr

Today was so cold it should be illegal. I'm not even kidding. It was a perfect day to stay home, sit on the couch with a blanket and a cup of tea. Unfortunately, I had to go to work, outside my home. Oh well, I guess I like money more than I hate the cold.

I think this guy hates the cold more than anything in life:

He looks so sad in his little outfit but it was needed today. If you look close you can see his boots ;)

I woke up this morning extremely dehydrated. So I've been chugging water like crazy. My beverages of choice today were Dasani water and Diet Dr. Pepper:

Breakfast

Breakfast was a new flavor of Chobani yogurt, Strawberry.

It was good (not as good as the pomegranate) but made better with some granola topping.

Lunch

The first part of my lunch was supposed to be a vegetable soup. When I got it I discovered it was not the vegetable soup I was expecting. Hardly any broth and a TON of noodles. On a cold day like today I was really hoping for a lot of warm broth.

I only ate a third of the soup and was still hungry. I made myself a really good salad. The salad included lettuce, mushrooms, cucumbers, carrots, beans, green peppers, hard boiled egg and tuna with balsamic vinaigrette.

This was the first time I put beans on my salad and I have to say it was tasty!

Well the Weather Outside is Frightful...

What a brutal morning!

Woke up to cold temp with a sleet and rain mixture falling from the sky. Oh, and the wind, the wind was completely out of control! My poor dog was outside doing his business and the wind blew him over. Needless to say he was not too happy!

On the way into work my husband and I stopped at Starbucks. I ordered my Skinny Vanilla Latte and it was perfect for this type of weather.

Lunch was just okay and for the calories I spent, it should have been a lot better. Lesson learned on my part. I had a pasta dish of bow tie pasta, chicken, garlic, peas and broccoli. The sauce was a little bit of alfredo sauce and pesto.

After work we went to Ceres to have a drink. This was a celebration drink because my husband completed an important work milestone! He is all kinds of awesome.

Question:

How do you celebrate the milestones in your life?

Let it Snow!

Another beautiful sight to wake up to this morning. Snow falling, while I'm in the comfort of my home, is so pretty! However, the trek to work proved to be work, due to the snow. I swear everyone forgets how to drive, walk, act, when it snows. We live in Chicago, snow happens every year we shouldn't forget.

After my 9:00 am meeting this morning I grabbed some breakfast. I had a small bowl of oats with granola and a teaspoon of peanut butter.

All mixed up (a title of a 311 song):

To dink I had a Dr. Pepper. I know soda is not the smartest choice but it was totally calling my name.

I also caved and had a couple of these tater tots.

During my lunch break I stopped at the bank to discuss a bad situation. Some person decided to take my credit card number and go shopping. Shopping in a different state and at Wal-Mart. Anyone who looks at my statements knows I don't shop at Wal-Mart and I've never been to the state where these thieves "purchased" items. I hate this, what makes people feel like they can just steal someone else's hard earned money. Not just steal but clean out the account, can't even afford groceries! (okay, rant over)

Luckily my husband had a gift card to Starbucks so he used that to get me a grande skinny vanilla latte. Love him!

I must confess the above picture is of a previous encounter with Starbucks. Not today's cup.