Dog Scare and the Male Brain

Thursday morning started off with a scary situation. My husband bought our dog a new collar (a Michigan, Go Blue! collar), well the collar wasn't tight enough. Solera managed to slip out of the collar and run free. Good thing we were in a somewhat secluded area but that dog is fast and hard to catch.

Needless to say the collar is now tighter so crossing my fingers that we will not have any more incidents like the one described above!

After the dog incident my husband twisted my arm (yeah right!) and dragged me to Starbucks for a little "pick me up".

Grande iced skinny vanilla latte:

Latte is very filling to me. If I have one around 9:30 I'm usually not hungry until around 2:00. Must have something to do with the milk in it?

Around 3:30 I broke into my bar stash and ate an Apple Pie Lara Bar:

When I first started trying Lara Bars I didn't really like them. But I keep trying to enjoy them because the list of ingredients (Dates, Almonds, Unsweetened Apples, Walnuts, Raisins, Cinnamon) is all so natural. You can see how healthy it looks:

This bar is very filling! I'm happy to say I really do enjoy the apple pie flavor and am looking forward to trying some other flavors!

Around 4:00 pm my mind needed a little pick me up. I was really craving a big glass of Dr. Pepper but knew that I would crash 1 hour after drinking it. So I opted for a mug of Tazo Awake tea:

Happy Hour

The tea did the trick by stimulating my mind so I could finish my work. The awake tea did such a good job that I was able to join my husband for happy hour!

My summer drink of Raspberry Vodka and Lemonade:

Dinner

Chinese food which contained broccoli, bamboo shoots and white rice:

Very yummy!

The husband and I decided the dogs deserved a special dinner tonight. I put my cooking skills to work and mixed them up some wet chicken food with the everyday dog food they eat.

Appetizing, right?!?

These guys thought it was delicious! They managed to pick out all the wet food and eat it first than decided it was okay to eat the dry food. Goofballs!

After the dogs were fed I walked into the kitchen and was greeted with a strange sight:

Not sure why the husband thought it was a good idea to put his nasty shoes on the kitchen counter but he did. I couldn't help but laugh. I know he didn't learn this growing up because I'm pretty sure his mother wouldn't allow such a thing;)

When will I ever figure out what goes on inside the male brain. Growing up with all sister didn't prepare me for things like this!

Question:

Does the male in your life do things that make you stand back and say, "why"?

Desert Mouth

Ever have those days were you wake up with (what feels like) a desert in your mouth? That was me Wednesday morning. I think it probably had something to do with the salt that was in the stir fry my husband made the night before.

Usually I go for coffee in the morning but this time around I went for a big bottle of water and some Crystal Light:



Add the CL packet to the water, shake and this is what you get:



My eating today was not very nutritious. I had so much going on at work and for some reason I wasn't really that hungry so I accidentally skipped lunch. Not a good thing when you are planning on working out later in the day.

I knew I needed to have something in my stomach before I worked out so I decided to try a LUNA protein bar:



Chocolate Peanut Butter flavor, how can a person go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter:



The bar was actually pretty tasty. It didn't taste like a candy bar but why would it. The 12 grams of protein did it's job because after eating this bar I wasn't hungry at all. I was actually really satisfied. I'm going to try out a couple more flavors of this bar and of course I will share with everyone what I think.



Wednesday was Cinco de Mayo so dinner was easy. I celebrated the holiday with my favorite go to Mexican restaurant, Flaco's Taco's!

A taco with beef, potato, lettuce and salsa:



I ate about half of this burrito. Filled with beef, potato and cheese:



I just love the flavor of the beef and the potato picks up that flavor and oh my word, it's heaven!



Topped off with hot sauce cause everything is better with hot sauce:



Workout

As I mentioned earlier my plan was to workout and I'm happy to say that I came through on that plan.

I walked for 5 min, ran for 25 min, walked for 5 min and than did some stretching to total 45 minutes of exercise:



And I burned 407 calories:



I think those 407 calories burned will offset a bite of that burrito ;) Just kidding, I think it's fine that I had a burrito as long as I don't have that big burrito everyday.

Moderation is key!

Question:

What is the first thing you grab to drink in the morning? Mine is coffee or water.

5K, Williams Sonoma and Dogs - Oh My!

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early to get ready to run my first 5K. I was pleased to see that the weather was fantastic for a run!





I put on my running clothes, Polar F6 and laced up my sneakers with the orange band with the time chip in it.



After the national anthem and a police helicopter fly over with sirens blaring (I didn't even know the police helicopters had sirens) the race was started. As I ran through the start line I was greeted with people playing the bag pipes and was off to the races!

The race was an all-around good experience. I didn't do as well as I wanted but I was able to accomplish at least 1 out of the 2 goals I set for myself. I finished the race in 40 min 33 seconds. Not a great time but I'm happy I finished and finished under my goal of 45 minutes.

After the race my husband and I walked around the tents that were set up around Soldier Field. It was really a good time. I was able to talk to some Physical Therapists about some pain I was having in my hip. We were also able to watch the tots 40 yard dash. These kids were so into the races and fun to watch!





One of the highlights after the race was being able to try out some new healthy cookies! They are delicious and I will be doing a post about these later this week so be on the look out.




Sunday morning I woke up and promptly made myself a plate of cut up apples with a side of melted Mighty Maple Nut Butter!!!

I really like this combo. It tastes great and the nut butter really helps fill me up!

I also introduced my boys to apple slices:

They weren't really sure what to do with them at first. It was hilarious watching them. I think it took each of them 10 minutes to finish just 1 apple slice each!

Around 11:00 am, the husband and I headed out to Williams Sonoma to attend a cooking demonstration they were having. We learned about Copper Cookware as well as how to make a risotto dish that was delicious!

There is no way I can spend an hour in WS without purchasing something, just not possible to walk out empty handed:






New cutting boards. Love that these cutting boards are color coded so you always use the right board for what you are needing to cut:




I finally got a Microplane:





A couple new All-Clad accessories:





And some amazing tasting and smelling Roasted Garlic Puree:





I love this store! So many things I wanted to buy but I was strong and only walked out with what I could afford.

After our adventures in the city my husband and I came home to relax and spend some quality time with the dogs. However, I don't think Solera wanted anything to do with us because he shoved his head under the couch and just laid still for about 10 min:



No, he was not stuck, he was staring at a toy that was under the couch. He is such a goofy dog!

Question:

Do you have pets that do strange things? If so, what do they do.

First 5K Thoughts

Well, if you've been following my blog or twitter account than you are well aware that I'm running my first 5K tomorrow. I've trained and mentally prepared for my run but I'm still a bit nervous. I'm nervous because I set some goals for myself that I'm not sure I will be able to accomplish. I'm very competitive with myself and have a need to accomplish the goals I set for myself. My goals would be easy for any runner to accomplish but for me they are challenging.

So, what are my goals:

1. Finish the race in 45 min

2. Run the entire race.

Yes, I'm nervous but I'm also VERY excited!!! I've wanted to do one of these for a long time and I'm finally doing it and I'm doing it for a great cause. (You can read about the cause here).

Let's take a look at yesterday's eats:

Breakfast

1 red delicious and 1 fuji apple sliced up:

and dipped in a teaspoon of heated up Maple Almond Butter:

Very good and filling!

Dinner

I made my husband and I some Runza's! You can find my recipe here.

I love these things and they would be good with any type of filling!

This time around I made the filling with ground turkey instead of beef.

Dessert

A refreshing and simple bowl of sliced up strawberries. I could eat strawberries every single day, love them!

Well, it's time for me to lay out my stuff for tomorrow race. I want to have everything ready for my early wake-up call.

Question:

If you are a runner when did you run your first race? What was it and how did you do?

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!

Earth Day Cocktails

Happy Earth Day!!!

I had to hop on the blog to let everyone know about a cocktail that is being offered at Lockwood restaurant located in the Palmer House Chicago.

treetini

"Treetini is a cocktail that uses local/seasonal ingredients and plants a tree for every cocktail purchases. Trees are planted in an area of the world that is in dire need of the replanting of trees to enrich and hold the soil together. One tree over a 50 year lifecycle can provide air pollution control, recycle water and control soil erosion.

Have a treetini today, plant a tree!"

What's in a treetini?

Veev acai spirit, st. germain liqueur, pomegranate liqueur, fresh lemon juice

I had the opportunity to try this cocktail a couple days ago and it was delicious. I really liked everything about it! Plus, you can't go wrong when you have a cocktail for a cause!

Everyone should go out and sip a treetini cocktail today!