Things I’m Lovin’ Thursday ~ 2/2/2012

Today’s Things I’m Lovin’ Thursday is nice and simple: I’m loving blogging.

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After reading and lurking on blogs for about two years, I decided to start blogging last October. Not knowing how to begin or what all of my blogging options were, I created a tumblr the day before I ran the Chicago marathon (race recap is still up and you can read it here). I quickly fell in love with blogging but I wasn’t very comfortable with the tumblr system. It just wasn’t what I wanted. So one night in late October I created a wordpress account and the rest is history.

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I’ve learned so much from the blogging community these past few months and have really enjoyed interacting with other bloggers. My blog has become my outlet as well as a way to document the events in my life and my training. It’s hard to imagine my life without it!

I have also liked playing around with my blog- switching the layout, creating new headers, and updating my pages. I’ve even learned a little html in the process 🙂 . Overall, blogging has been a wonderful experience.

So I just want to say, even though my blog is very much still a baby, I appreciate everyone who reads and comments, thank you so much.

Anyway, this post isn’t totally out of left field, two very exciting things happened in the past day that I’d like to share with you:

• I bought out my blog name (yay!) and now you can find my blog at runningthewindycity.com. My old url will still point here, but if you’re reading me through RSS you may want to switch over in case I do something crazy like decide to self-host 😉
• I also became a Top Health Blogger on Wellsphere. Check it out and add me if you’re a member!

On to the eats.

I was feeling snacky when I got home so I tried these wasabi roasted seaweed snacks.

They were so good. I love the regular flavored seaweed but the wasabi was even better. Go Trader Joe’s!

I’m also really proud of dinner tonight. I’m normally the queen of one-pot meals like chili or grain dishes but tonight I decided to do dinner family-style.

We had salmon burgers topped with a homemade aioli (sounds so fancy :P), sesame toasted sugar snap peas, and roasted potatoes with thyme.

I think we covered our bases: protein, greens, starch, and a little fat 😛

Oh and sugar? I have that covered too…

Enjoy your night!

What are you loving right now?

Date Night {people}

Last night Ian and I went to people, a tapas bar in Wicker Park.

We started with their red wine sangria (I could not win with this picture, sorry guys!).

It was good but it didn’t wow me. It was also really really weak. Now, I’m not trying to get hammered on date night, but if I’m drinking I want to taste a little bit of the alcohol. I kind of felt like I was drinking a juice box 😉 .

Our first small plate was an order of the patata bravas: potatoes, roasted red pepper aioli.

This dish may not look like much but it was packed with so much flavor! Plus, I’m not going to deny that I love home fries and these patatas reminded me of a spicy, salty homefry. Yum!

Next we had the pastel de vegetales: pan seared seasonal vegetable cake, tomato buerre blanc.

This was another winner and I think Ian was surprised to find that he really liked it as well! The cake had a nice doughy texture and the sauce was very flavorful.

We also split an order of the gambas: cazuela style sizzling chili shrimp, garlic bread.

The shrimp were good, but nothing I wouldn’t expect from a restaurant. I skipped out on the garlic bread so I can’t comment on it but Ian seemed to like his piece.

Lastly, we had the scallops: yukon gold potato and vegetable sofrito, crispy serrano.

The scallops were really good and I’m picky with scallops. However, I guess I didn’t read the menu close enough to see that there was ham in the dish! It wasn’t a big deal though, I just took one of the scallops off the plate and let Ian have the other two plus the sofrito. I don’t think he minded too much 😉

Now after all that food you’d think we’d be stuffed right? Wrong. The plates were so small (except for the patatas) that we both were not full. Unfortunately, none of the non-meat items looked good at the moment so we left the restaurant a little hungry.

No worries though, there’s a small ice cream/coffee bar/custard shop just down the street from the tapas bar that we had been waiting for an excuse to try ;).

Ian got this amazing-looking stacked banana split with custard, whipped cream, etc.(think banana split in cup-form) and I had a single scoop of pistachio ice cream.

Mmm pistachio ice cream is my favorite, but I must have looked really silly walking around Chicago in the winter, eating an ice cream cone, and wearing gloves 😛 . Totally worth it though and the small cone was the perfect amount to satisfy my sweet tooth!

After dessert, we headed home and caught up on t.v. (ahem… Friday Night Lights) and I’m happy to say I was tucked in bed before midnight. I like to sleep on my weekends!

Breakfast
I woke up hungry this morning so I decided to make steel cut oats for breakfast. I added 1/4 cup of oats, 3/4 cup of water, 1 tsp chia seeds, and then about 5 cashews to the pot and warmed it over medium high heat. Once the oats started to thicken, I added in 1/2 a smushed banana, cinnamon, and vanilla extract. I let the oats cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, and then added some almond milk for creaminess.

While my oats cooked, I enjoyed some french roast coffee with my new favorite coffee creamer, Coffee Mate’s Peppermint Mocha.

While it’s not the healthiest of creamers, it does taste pretty good, and it brings me back to the days of Starbuck’s Peppermint Mocha (well, almost!).

Once my oats were done, I topped them with some thawed and warmed strawberries and a mixture of peanut flour, water, and maple syrup.

I don’t know if the way I cooked the steel cut oats was very different from last time, but I definitely liked them more this morning!

Plans for today include homework, a short run, and some quality Ian/Sonic-time.

Do you make steel-cut oats? How do you normally prepare them?

What are your Saturday plans?

Date Night Recap {Hopleaf}

Last night, Ian and I went to one of our favorite restaurants and bars, Hopleaf. Hopleaf is really hard to get to from our apartment, otherwise we’d definitely go more often. Case-in-point, in 20 degree weather we had to walk 10 minutes to an ‘l’, ride for 45 minutes, and then walk over 10 minutes to the restaurant. On our way home we opted for the bus route, and rode a bus for almost an hour.

I’m not saying it isn’t worth it, just that when we get to go, it’s a real treat 🙂

Hopleaf also usually has a long wait. They don’t take reservations and when we arrived a little before 7 last night, the wait for a party of 2 was an hour. We usually don’t mind waiting though and how could you when they offer 50+ beers (reasonably priced!) and have two bars with additional seating? Count me in!

Ian and I grabbed a beer in the upstairs bar and waited until our table was ready. I had the Duvel and Ian the Grimbergen. Now, Duvel is one of my favorite beers but I really liked Ian’s as well. It was crisp and had a cider-y aftertaste.

I managed to make my beer last until we were seated (where I ordered another :P) but Ian ordered his second, a Fin du Monde, while we were still waiting. He proclaimed it to be his favorite beer of the evening.

When we were seated at a table around 8, both of us were pretty hungry so right away we ordered the Red Cabbage to split.

Maybe this salad really was the best ever or maybe it was just the beer in us, either way we dominated it! 😉 The red cabbage was crisp and the cheese and apple paired really well with the vinaigrette. I need to make red cabbage soon, I forgot how much I like it!

For my main, I ordered Hopleaf’s specialty dish, their mussels. I opted for the Belgian-style- steamed in Witterkerke white ale with shallots, celery, thyme, and bay leaf.

These were so good! Maybe even the best mussels I’ve ever had. My only complaint is that I had a disproportionate amount of empty shells, meaning that there was no mussel inside. As this was my dinner and I didn’t just want to eat bread (although it was also perfectly crispy and delicious), I was a little disappointed. I mean this barely filled me up!

Ian ordered the pork rib. It’s not on their online menu, so I can’t tell you exactly what was in it but I do know that the pork was set atop sauteed collard greens and white beans.

He loved this dish. He kept saying that the pork was falling right off the bone and was super tender. Again, the only complaint was that the dish was a little too small for the $20 price tag (but still totally worth it).

However, it was really okay that both of our meals were on the lighter side because in addition to the bread, my mussels were served with a side of frites and aioli.

One of my weaknesses is frenchfries and I love them in all types and sizes and these surely did NOT disappoint. Ian and I just kept going back for more and more, and the aioli? Heavenly.

After dinner, Ian and I ran over to Starbucks to grab something warm to last us on our cold trip home. I had a decaf skinny peppermint mocha (didn’t know they could do that!!) and Ian had his usual no water chai.

And when we finally got home, an hour later, we cuddled on the couch and watched some Friday Night Lights before going to bed. We’re pretty wild, I know 😛

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Last night was such a great date night and I always appreciate getting to spend some quality time with Ian once the semester starts and I get really busy. What can I say? I’m just a lucky girl 🙂