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?
Running the Windy City 