sangria | Running the Windy City

Today is my MPH graduation day.

I know a lot of students don’t even go to their Master’s graduation. They figure they’ve been to their undergraduate ceremony, so why do they need to go to another? And I get that, especially as many of my classmates are in their 30’s. But for me, commemorating my MPH is so much more than just reflecting on two years of HARD work, it’s celebrating my complete transition to an adult.

I went into a Master’s program straight from undergrad. I moved from Michigan to Chicago (away from family) and had to start my life in a new city (granted I knew Ian and a handful of other people in the city). I really came into my own as I had to figure out what was important to me and what was not. I also ended up working a lot this past year and have had to learn to balance school, work, and free time.

It’s been a hectic two years but I have to think that I’ve grown and matured a lot :).

Last night Ian and I decided to start the celebration off with a mini date night. We have dinner plans with my family tonight so we kept dinner simple (and cheap!) and headed over to Flaco’s Tacos, a quick serve Mexican restaurant in our neighborhood.

I started with a glass of sangria (hey- we were celebrating!)

And we split some chips and salsa

I kept my meal on the lighter side and ordered two tilapia tacos.

They were okay, a little on the bland side with too much slaw filler, but overall not too shabby. I loved that the fish wasn’t fried and was seasoned nicely without being oily!

It was so nice out last night (after it cooled off) and we weren’t quite ready to head back to our super hot apartment so we ventured downtown to Sprinkles so Ian could pick up a cupcake. The ominous clouds must have spooked away the usual Sprinkles customers because we didn’t have to stand in a line for 15 minutes to get a cupcake. Woohoo! I debated grabbing one as well, but when I saw they didn’t carry vegan gluten-free cupcakes I decided not to. My stomach has been way too bizarre lately to risk it.

Luckily, as we were walking home we passed a Whole Foods and stopped inside so Ian could pick up some grapefruit. I just happened to walk past the bakery section when I saw this baby:

Chocolate peanut butter vegan and gluten free cupcake??? I was sold!

Even Sonic was interested in the cupcake once we brought it home…

I guess the furbaby takes after his mama 😉

After starting our laundry back at the apartment (the only not fun part of the night), Ian and I dug into our cupcakes.

A banana cupcake for him:

And a chocolate peanut butter cupcake for her:

Delicious!

We spent the rest of the night watching t.v. and sweating on the couch. Property management, please turn on the AC!

It was so hot that we had to sleep with the fan on which is never a good thing for Sonic. He appreciates the cool air but is terrified of the fan! As a result, he sleeps at the top of my pillow (between my head and the wall) so he is as far away from the fan as possible. Also, whenever we turn the fan on, he attacks my head during the night. I’m not sure if its because he’s scared and wants to wake me up or if he’s just not used to being so close to my hair but he will actually grab pieces of my hair in his mouth and pull them out of my pony tail. Then he starts to clean the piece of hair. What a weird furbaby…

Case in point, I went to bed with a normal ponytail and woke up like this:

Attractive right?

Anyway, I woke up early to get a run in before it got too warm and knocked out four miles. When I got home I did the advanced core workout from Advanced Marathoning and then dug into a cottage cheese parfait for breakfast

Fig jam, cottage cheese, banana slices, walnuts, blueberries, gf granola, and crunchy sunflower seed butter. Yum!

I’m relaxing around the apartment this morning and then grabbing lunch with my mom once she gets into town. The festivities begin this afternoon!

Happy Friday 🙂

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!).