Crazy People ...

And this time I'm not the crazy person! Tuesday's bus ride into work was an interesting one. A woman on the bus was letting everyone know some fact's (according to her) that she thought we should know. According to the crazy lady:

• Angelina Jolie is just like Drew Peterson. She should be in jail because she steals peoples babies.


• The government has no right to take and give away babies they find in dumpsters. They have a duty to find the babies mother and give the child back.

Those above statements ARE NOT from me, they are those of a "crazy" woman on the bus. She had all kinds of stuff to educate us on but those are the 2 that stuck with me. Public transportation is definitely not for everyone, you have to put up with a lot of stuff sometimes.

On to my Tuesday activities and eats:

As with any other workday I needed some caffeine in the morning. It was so hot out I couldn't even think about consuming a hot coffee and we were out of iced coffee so I opted for a Dr. Pepper:

Lunch

My husband and I had a lunch date today which started off with a Farmers Market visit! We got some purple potato, leafy greens and cheese. I have to tell you the cheese at this years Farmers Market is amazing. It is so good that I'm going to do a separate post telling you all about it!

After shopping we decided to try out a new (to us) place. It was located down this alley:

Roly Poly which specializes in Rolled Sandwiches, Soups and Salads:

They have many options for hot or cold rolled sandwiches. I opted for the Roll Your Own option. I filled out the form to let the kitchen know how I would like my sandwich:

My sandwich contents:

• White tortilla
• Balsamic vinaigrette
• Provolone cheese
• Smoked turkey
• Leaf lettuce
• Dill pickle slices
• Green pepper
• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Alfalfa sprouts

Delicious and filling!

We shared a Asian Pear Green Tea Snapple to drink:

Happy Hour

I new I was going to meet my husband for drinks after work so I made sure to bring a bottle of water. This way I could keep hydrated while drinking my cocktail:

The husband and I met at our place, Ceres, and I ordered a raspberry vodka with lemonade:

Those of you who enjoy cocktails must try this drink. It is the perfect summer cocktail!

Dinner

While waiting for our dinner to arrive I snacked on some of the pickles I bought last week at the Farmers Market:

And the main dish was a burrito from Flaco's Taco's:

I really do think I'm addicted to this place. I just love the burrito and taco's they make. I could eat them everyday but that is not good for my wallet or waistline!

Question:

What type of water bottle do you have and would you recommend it for me to purchase?

I really need to purchase a water bottle. I don't want a plastic one and I don't like that the sigg bottles have such a small opening. I feel I wouldn't be able to clean it. Looking forward to recommendations from all of you!

Saturday of Good Eats!

I really do love the weekends. I know I've said that about a billion times but it is SO true. I wish everyday could be a Saturday!

Breakfast

Some vanilla granola:

Yummy strawberries:

Added to some Chobani yogurt:

All the above mixed together makes one fantastic breakfast. I love that Chobani has 14 - 18 grams of protein in one container. This mix is SO filling, gotta love that!

Lunch

I was craving Flat Top Grill like crazy so I dragged the husband out the door and headed to the best "create your own stir fry" restaurant.

My first bowl consisted of chicken, snow peas, broccoli, bamboo shoots, mini corncob, carrots and rice. I topped it with a mix of 3 sauces: kung pao, soy and some spicy spicy sauce. This bowl was SO good!

My second bowl was Mooshu with broccoli, potato, carrots, Chinese yellow noodles, garlic and snow peas. The sauce mix was: Kung pao, Flat Top mix and spicy sauce.

These were pretty good but I didn't like that I ordered it with no meat but somehow chicken ended up in my mooshu. Not that big of a deal for me but it would have been bad had I been a vegetarian!

A look inside my mooshu:

Dessert was something I've been craving for a couple weeks. A Dairy Queen peanut buster parfait blizzard! When I was growing up I always had trouble deciding on whether to order a blizzard or a peanut buster parfait. Today I could have both in 1 treat!

Needless to say I was very excited to see this option available. So good!

On the walk home from our lunch we came across a dog sitting in the window of about the 4th floor in a building. I could never do this with my dog, the first bicycle he saw he would jump out the window to chase!

While the above dog was tempting death my dog was snuggling on the couch at home:) Safe and sound, just the way I like him to be.

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! I know I did and I'm already counting down the days until this coming 3 day weekend!!!

Question:

What is your favorite day of the week and why?

Mine is Saturday because the entire day is mine. At this point in my life I don't have to report to anyone, on the glorious day called Saturday!

Not Your Typical Tuesday - Chicago Farmers Market

This morning was a typical Tuesday morning. Wake up after hitting the snooze about 5 times which always makes me late but I will never learn. Fight my husband for space in the bathroom. After throwing my weight around in the bathroom it's off to fight my husband for space in the closet. We really should get a routine down so our morning are less hectic, what do you think? lol!

Walk the dogs, wait for the bus, get on the bus and deal with all the things that annoy me while riding the bus. Get off the bus and walk to work where I will be sitting in a cube for 8 hours. But wait, this Tuesday was different! As I was walking to work I spotted tents set up in a plaza:

Finally, after a very long winter, the Chicago Farmers Market in the loop are open for business! I don't think I can even put into words how excited I was to see such a wonderful sight. It's amazing how seeing some fruits, veggies and flowers can turn my Tuesday around!

My first purchases this year were some Rhubarb (which I have no idea what to do with) and Italian Garlic!

I was very happy to see one of my favorite stands. They sell all kinds of great canned items. I picked up a jar of dill pickles that I may or may not have opened the moment I bought them.

I also purchased some cheese:

Breakfast

I packed my breakfast today but once I got to work I decided I wanted something different. It was pretty cold and windy out so I needed something warm. I opted for a 1/2 cup of hash browns:

With, my favorite, Salsa Del Sol Jalapeno Hot Sauce:

Snack

My mid-afternoon snack ended up being what I had packed for my breakfast. Pineapple Chobani or as my husband says Cho-body. Cause you know Chobani makes Cho-body look and feel good! Okay, I will stop with the silliness!

Topped with some fantastic tasting granola:

Love this combination. The yogurt and granola are so filling!

Lunch

After shopping at the farmer's market I stopped by one of my favorite sandwich joints, Potbelly's. I ordered a Turkey with lettuce, onions, extra pickle, oil and hot peppers on my sandwich:

I don't usually include oil on my sandwich but this time around I forgot to tell them to hold the oil. I will not make this mistake again. I didn't like the taste or the greasiness the oil gave, my otherwise perfect, sandwich.

Happy Hour

My go to summer drink, Raspberry Vodka and Lemonade:

While enjoying my cocktail I had a half bowl of buffalo chicken soup:

Dinner

Started out really healthy with some lettuce, sunflower seeds, carrots and a vinaigrette dressing:

After the salad the health factor went downhill. A couple boneless buffalo wings were consumed:

As well as a couple slices of pizza with peperoni and green olive toppings:

What a busy day! One of those days where you do a ton but it feels like you accomplished nothing:(

Blog at ya later!

Question:

What do you make with Rhubarb?

I've never had rhubarb and don't know the first thing in preparing it. Any recommendations would be fantastic!

Active Saturday = Lazy Sunday

This weekend was great. My sister was in town and it was really nice being able to spend time with her. I haven't seen her in over 6 months and that is far to long for sisters to not see each other!

Before she arrived I asked her what she would like to do when she was in town. Her exact response was "just hang out ... be healthy". This response provided me with some challenges right off the bat. See when my sister comes in town we usually eat out at Chicago's best restaurants and then drink to much. So the "just hang out ... be healthy" response made my brain work, in a good way!

I think I came through with a pretty fun and active weekend. Friday night we walked to the movie theatre to see Robin Hood. The movie was just okay but I was very happy to be watching an okay movie because my sister was sitting next to me. Can you tell I missed my sister!!!

Once at the theatre we each ordered a diet coke, water, cocktail and some bacon popcorn.

After the movie we walked home and went to bed because I had an active day planned for us on Saturday.

At 10:30 Saturday morning we walked to Butler Field in Grant Park to participate in the 2010 Self Workout in the Park. The event started at 11:00am:

The main stage offered a bunch of different exercise sessions. Everything from Sexy Stretch, Ab Attack, Rock Bottom and my personal favorite Masala Bhangra. The instructor was so full of energy and you could tell she was having a really good time doing her high energy Indian style dance moves. She mentioned she just came out with a new video and I'm really hoping to purchase it soon!

The Chicago skyline was a great background for all the park workouts:

In between workouts my sister and I got facials from Garnier:

We were also lucky enough to participate in one of the Resistance Rebounding classes:

I really didn't think rebounding would give me much of a workout but I'm here to say that it is a fabulous workout. I can't even tell you how sore I was on Sunday.

Oh, I almost forgot! I was able to have a really good conversation with Mandy Ingber. You know who she is, she works out clients like Jennifer Aniston. Mrs. Ingber was so down to earth, nice and helpful! I ended up purchasing her yoga DVD and can't wait to try it out!

Due to all the exercise and Saturday night "hanging out" my Sunday was spent in a lazy way:)

All and all this was a really good weekend!

Slow Cooker Pork Loin with Red Wine Sauce

On Sunday, my husband and I were able to make the first meal in our All Clad slow cooker. See we got this slow cooker as a wedding gift but never actually got to use it because the insert broke:( We were able to purchase a new insert and 6 months after our wedding we made our first meal in it!

(Photo Source)

Ingredients:

• Pork loin roast
• Red Wine
• Red potato
• 1 onion
• 2 tart apples
• Packet Italian dressing

Put cut up apples and onion in bottom of slow cooker:

Add potato:

Pour about 2 cups wine on top of fruit and veggies:

Pour Italian dressing packet on pork loin. Place pork loin on top of apples, potato, onion and wine mixture:

I cooked this in the slow cooker, on high for 4 hours:

Here is what the dish looked like once the 4 hours was up:

I placed the meat on a big plate and the veggie/fruit combo in a bowl. Pour the wine from the bottom of the slow cooker into a sauce pan and boil down, this will be used as a sauce for the meat:

My manly husband carving the pork (that sentence just made me giggle a bit):

All plated up and ready to eat:

The pork was cooked all the way through which is always a good thing:

The flavor was really good and the red wine sauce added a little extra flavor:

My favorite part of the meal would have to be the potato! These babies did a great job of soaking up the wine which made the flavor wonderful:

Verdict:

This dish was good and will most likely be made again with a couple fixes. Here is a list of the things I would do differently:

• Cook the pork on low for a longer amount of time. I'm thinking this would make the meat more moist.
• More potatoes in the mix because they were awesome!
• Cook down the wine more so it becomes more of a syrup.

I love our All Clad slow cooker and can't wait to make more with it. Especially soup!!!

Question:

What do you like to make in your slow cooker? I would love to try out some of your ideas!