If you like Pina Coladas…

Good morning, friends!

Happy belated Father’s Day to all the dads out there – what a great weekend to celebrate 🙂  I have to say, things have been a little crazy around here and I obviously have not had much time to put together a post to share.  This past Friday, I spent the day with my sister and mom out in the suburbs to celebrate their school year being over and to enjoy the beautiful sunshine.  We spent hours chatting by the pool and enjoying a couple skinny pina coladas.  I found this recipe via Carrots N’ Cake a while back and love drinking it whenever it’s hot out:

Skinny Pina Colada

by: Carrots N’ Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Coconut Run
• 5 oz coconut water
• 2 oz pineapple juice

Directions:

1. Combine ingredient in a cocktail shaker with ice.
2. Shake and strain into a glass filled with ice.
3. Drink and enjoy!

Makes 1 cocktail

Kristan and I headed back into the city shorty after dinner to rest up for the big day on Saturday.  As you all know, I have been participating in a charity flag football league called Blondes vs. Brunettes for the past couple of months and Saturday was our big game day!  To fuel up for the match at 2:00 p.m., Kristan, Brian and myself headed to my favorite Brunch spot in Chicago – Tweet!  Tweet is located in the ‘Uptown/Edgewater’ neighborhood and is one of the first places Brian and I ever went together.

We each ordered one cocktail… just to wet our whistle 😉

And enjoyed a delicious and filling brunch.

Country Benedict sans sauce for me!

We at breakfast around 10:00 a.m., so there was plenty of time to fully digest before running laps and pulling flags on the field.  We ALSO had time to squeeze in a walk with Bailey along the lakeshore path.

Such a beautiful day.

Before I knew it, it was time to get my gear on and head out the door.  This was my third year participating in BvB and each year we luck out on AMAZING weather.

The blondes ended up winning this match, but the brunettes raised the most money which makes us the true winners in the fight against Alzheimer’s 🙂

The fun did not stop on the field, after the match both the blondes and the brunettes headed to Sheffield’s to enjoy a couple of beers in celebration of the hard work everyone put in to the season.  And as if the day was not already jam packed enough, Brian and I had to duck out of the party early to attend a dinner party at my friend Lauren’s apartment!  Lauren and her roommate served a bunch of delicious Mexican eats and included a cocktail hour on their roof that provided some spectacular views.

Needless to say, I woke up Sunday morning both extremely full and sore.  I was very happy to hear that my Father wanted to spend his special day relaxing at home by the pool because that is exactly what the doctor ordered.  It was another awesome weekend in the books!

Oblique Static Holds

Good Morning!

Today is pancake breakfast day at my company!  The administration team gets here really early and flips pancakes, puts out fresh fruit, delicious chicken sausage and salty strips of bacon if you’re into that kind of stuff 😉  Can you think of a better way to start your Wednesday in the office?

You may also notice a WILD WEDNESDAY change!  That’s right, Bites & Balance got a slight face lift last night and I think it is quite the refreshing change if I do say so myself.  Really, I just got rid of the polka dots because those little suckers were messing with my eyes and updated some of the font and layout coloring.  What do you think?

Yesterday was a quick day.  It was one of those work days where I looked down at my watch and suddenly it was 3:00 p.m. and I still had 1029409 things on my mind.  For lunch, I brought leftover chicken sausage and roasted butternut squash from dinner the night before as well as a small side salad.

This filled me up just about until I looked at my watch and then I decided to toast a whole wheat English muffin to tie me over before dinner.

When I got home, I was in the mood for a fun at-home workout that wouldn’t take more than 30 minutes.  I came up with this bad boy:

I must say that I am really into the Oblique static holds lately, because they seem to be extremely effective.  The focus of static holds is to build tension in the muscle against resistance, but without any movement.  I really like these types of exercises because I tend to have lower back pains from sitting in a desk all day and these can take the focus away from that area.

I also just like all oblique exercises in general, they are my favorite 🙂

By the way, when Brian and I do these exercises at home, Bailey goes absolutely nuts.  I think she thinks we are in distress or something, because she gets all stressed out and starts pacing back and fourth and barking at us.  She’s a little weirdo.

After our workouts, I whipped up dinner.  Last nights meal consisted of shrimp and guacamole quinoa salad.  I sauteed the shrimp in a little butter and white wine and finished them off with a squeeze of fresh lemon.  They were delicious!

Also, I went ahead and tried Tina from Carrots N’ Cake skinny pina colada and it was a hit!  It tastes exactly like a pina colada except not as sugary sweet.  It was so refreshing to drink with all of the fresh food we were eating.  I also had a lot of fun using the cocktail shaker 🙂

After dinner I thought a lot about the upcoming trips  I have planned and the ones I still need to plan.  It seems like all of my family wants me to come visit which is great, but they all live in different states – $$$$$$$.  For now, I am really looking forward to our little road trip to Minneapolis next month for the Healthy Living Summit.  I’ve already done a bunch of research on cool restaurants/coffee shops to visit and what fun activities we can do after the conference has ended.

What fun trips do you have planned?

Humid Runs

Yesterday, I grabbed my usual Monday morning coffee from Starbucks and noticed an announcement on their board and flyers on their counter.

“A delicious change is coming,” read the headline.

After I sipped on my coffee and browsed the brochure, which is basically just photographs of the new items, I did some online research.  Unbeknownst to me, Starbucks recently acquired a small bakery chain in San Francisco that will be producing the baked goods for Starbucks stores.  Some of their soon-to-be items look really delicious such as a tomato & cheese croissant and chewy chocolate meringue cookies.  I do, however, wonder how devoted Starbucks baked goods fans feel.  Especially when it comes to the beloved Lemon loaf that might change a bit.  Personally, if I want I baked good I almost always go for the croissants or bagels, I’m not a sweet baked good kind of person.

Anyways, after looking a La Boulange Bakery’s website I was soon craving a delicious chocolate croissant that I would pick up outside of my school in Paris, France.  Take me back now.

After work, I headed home and was surprised with a very quick and sudden rain shower.  I didn’t mind walking in the rain, but people around me acted like they were going to melt if one drop touched their skin.  Silly people.

Once I was home, I changed clothes and went for a quick 3 mile run around the neighborhood.  The sudden rain shower left a little humidity in the air, so needless to say I was very sweaty by the end of the run.

Brian and I were fresh out of groceries, so we headed over to Trader Joe’s to pick up the weeks haul immediately after I was done.  We took Bailey with us, obviously, who met one of the smallest dogs I have ever seen on the sidewalk.  It seriously looked like Bailey could have crushed her with one paw, but the other dog had a bit of a “small dog complex” and scared Bailey away.  I’m telling you, pitbulls get the worst rep.  My dog is a serious wuss.

We got some seriously great items at the grocery store this week, including some picnic items that we will bring with us to our Ravinia concert on Saturday.  I am excited to give Tina from Carrots n’ Cake ‘Skinny Pina Colada’ recipe a try.

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Barcardi Rock Coconut Rum
• 5 oz coconut water
• 2 oz pineapple juice

Directions:

1. Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice.
2. Shake and strain into a glass filled with ice.
3. Garnish with a slice of pineapple and/or a Maraschino cherry (optional).
4. Drink and enjoy!

Makes 1 cocktail

I think this will be perfect to sip on at the concert, while munching on some delicious chips and salsa!  Arriba!

Once everything was all unpacked and put away, I whipped up a quick dinner that consisted of sauteed jalapeno chicken sausage, roasted butternut squash and a side salad.  The butternut squash was super easy to put together, I just preheated the oven to 400 degrees – tossed the squash in a little olive oil, salt and black pepper and let the little guys roast away for 25 minutes.  Delicious.

The rest of the evening was spent stretching and relaxing by the couch, watching our new favorite series – “Orange is the new Black.”

Bon Appetit, my friends!

Theatre and Tasty Treats

Just another manic Monday!!

This week is going to be absolutely crazyyyyy – work wise, so let’s do this.

Yesterday was a great day to start out the week.  Brian and I slept in a little bit and were surprisingly not struggling from the celebrations from the night before, however, we were HUNGRY.  We had big plans for lunch, so we kept our breakfast light with some Greek yogurt and Intelligentsia coffee.  The best freaking coffee in Chicago, ya heard?

Once we were nice and perky, I took Bailey out on a quick walk and started to get ready for the day – more importantly the day Brian planned as my birthday gift!  On the agenda?  Lunch at one of my favorite pizza places in the city and then tickets to see The Book of Morman at the Bank of America Theatre.

Once I was all beautified, we hoped on the red line and headed out to La Madia.  We were literally the first one’s in the restaurant which was awesome 🙂  Our waiter brought us our menus and asked if we wanted some cocktails – it was noon on a Sunday – heck yes we did!  I went with a nice Pinot Noir that I knew would pair well with the pizza while Brian stuck with a local craft beer.  Is red wine too aggressive for a Sunday afternoon?  Not for me!

As an appetizer, we split the Chopped Italian Lettuces salad which came with Gorgonzola, Spicy Walnuts, Shaved Pear and a spicy Balsamic Vinaigrette.  First, the portion was huge!  We each got at least two or three portions out of it.

Second, it was delicious.  Light and crisp with just the right amount of texture.

For our main meal, we split the Margherita pizza.

Yum.  Enough said.

We took our time eating and sipping our beverages before heading over to the theatre.  Once we got there, there was only 10 minutes until the show was going to start so we headed straight to our seats and read through the playbill.

The Book of Morman was awesome.  I know i’m one of the last people to see it in Chicago, but it was totally worth the wait.  The musical was so well written and the music was fun and upbeat – Brian were laughing the whole time.  If you’re like us and have waited until the last minute to see it, I highly recommend you grab some tickets and go see it!  You will not be disappointed.

The rest of the evening was spent at home, relaxing on the couch and hanging out with Bailey.  We did watch the popular documentary ‘Fat Sick and Nearly Dead’, which was extremely interesting.

It’s amazing how much juicing and detoxing have helped people turn their lives completely around.  Brian actually has a juicer, which we never use — so we are now inspired to try and get a glass of fresh juice in 2 or 3 days out of the week.  I just hate having to constantly clean the thing!

#lazy

Once we finished the movie and felt a sudden surge of health consciousness  we headed to Trader Joe’s to grab groceries for the week and make dinner.  Both of us were still pretty full from our lunch, so I whipped up some quick salads and enjoyed a glass of Zico Tropical Coconut Water.

Which looks like juice!  Love love love Zico.

To jump start this week I set my alarm for 5:00 a.m., hopped out of bed and headed to the gym.  It’s Monday morning so I was not exactly as chipper as can be, so I decided to do one of my 35 minute tempo runs on the treadmill that would help wake me up.  The various levels of running really helped me get into the groove and work up a good sweat.

0-5 minutes  7.0 incline  4.0 speed

5-9 minutes  1.0 incline  6.8 speed

9-10 minutes  1.0 incline  8.0 speed

10-15 minutes  7.0 incline  4.0 speed

15-19 minutes  1.0 incline  6.9 speed

19-20 minutes  1.0 incline  8.5 speed

20 – 25 minutes 7.0 incline 4.0 speed

25 – 29 minutes 1.0 incline 6.8 speed

29 – 30 minutes 1.0 incline 9.0 speed

30 – 35 minutes 7.0 incline 4.0 speed

After that was complete, I stretched for a good 15 minutes and did a lot of foam rolling.  My quads were super tight from all of the lunges/squats that I did at the fusion yoga class on Friday.

What is your favorite workout to kick start the week?

Perfect Running Days

Perfect running days.

This weekend has been full of absolutely perfect running days.

Friday afternoon, I took my sister, Kristan, out to dinner before she headed back to the burbs.  We stopped by ROCKS in Lakeview because they have a good variety of lunch options, and they have a great outdoor patio area.  Kristan and I both ordered wraps, which were absolutely delicious.  Mine came with Chicken, Lettuce, Goat Cheese and Red Onions all wrapped in a light tomato tortilla.  It also came with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing, but I opted to have in on the side because I feel like dressings more often than not just make wraps soggy.

This baby was gone in a flash – we worked up quite the appetite after our morning run.

The rest of my Saturday was spent doing some light shopping and hanging out with this girl…

She is a huge fan of my BIC Bands 🙂

I ended up meeting a few friends out that evening to grab a little food and enjoy a few alfresco drinks.  I ordered a Moscow Mule for the first time ever and now I am officially obsessed.  So light and refreshing – I love ginger beer!

My cocktail intake was limited to one followed by many glasses of water due to the fact that my friend Lindsay and I were tackling our FINAL long training run Saturday morning.

I set my alarm for 5:00 a.m. and woke up feeling great!  The weather was warm, with a slight breeze and a picture perfect blue bird sky.  When Lindsay got to my house, we didn’t really have a route in mind so we just decided to run south for an hour and then run back up north for an hour.

The run down south was great – nice and shaded.  Since I had been gone from work since Wednesday, we had a lot to catch up about and talked pretty much the whole way down.  We made our turn east right before the river on Grand and then turned up north on the lakeshore path.  It was really fun running through the streets in the River North area because we don’t do it … like ever.  Since we were running so early to “beat the heat”, no one was around in the downtown area so we didn’t have to dodge any walkers.

The lakeshore path, however, was a whole different story.  SO MANY RUNNERS!  It was awesome!  There were also local runners associations that had set up hydration stops along the path with water and gatorade which was much appreciated by everyone who was out.  I couldn’t believe how calm the lake was.  There were a lot of athletes training for triathlons out taking full advantage of the perfect water conditions.

We too full advantage of taking pictures 🙂

Although it was extremley sunning on the run back up, it was still a lot of fun and the run really flew by.  We weren’t really paying attention to our pace, just enjoying our surrounding a totally grateful that mother nature has graced us with awesome summer days.

Once the run ended, Lindsay and I parted ways and I headed straight to the grocery store to pick up some recovery treats.  Bagels and Coconut Water. Yummm Yumm

As soon as I got home, I stretched showered and headed back to my friends rooftop to soak in the sun with my best friends.

We didn’t stay out in the sun too too long because we all needed to get pretty for the final birthday celebration that evening 🙂  Since there are so many of us, it’s always a struggle to try and find dates we can all get together, so last night we all celebrate my friend Lauren’s 24th birthday and my 25th birthday!

The celebration started at my friends new apartment with a few pre-dinner cocktails…

We then headed straight to Cantina Laredo in River North where we feasted on Mexican food and delicious drinks!

Let’s be honest… the best part about going to a Mexican restaurant is the drinks, right?

And the chips and salsa!

It was a wonderful celebration, I’m truly blessed to have such great friends!

United Run for the Zoo

Good Morning, Friends!  I hope you all had a great weekend… mine went by way too fast.

Some of the highlights included:

Friday after work drinks with good friends.

Walks around the neighborhood and finding new restaurants to try… including this new brewery that is opening just down the street from me!

Fresh cherries that are now in season.

Carbo-loading for the race on Sunday.

Andddd of course, the race.

I woke up Sunday morning, very excited to conquer the 6.2 miles ahead of me and to participate in celebratory drinks afterwards.  One of the first things I do before a race is check the weather and according to weather.com, it was cool, cloudy and there was a 0% chance of precipitation.  I was good with that.

I prepped my usual Pre-race breakfast and did some stretching before my friend, Stacey, met me to head over to the start.   The race started and ended at the Lincoln Park Zoo which is a 20 minute walk from my apartment, so I had her meet me at my place.

Once she arrived, it was very evident that weather.com had lied.  It was cold, windy AND raining.  I didn’t really have time to make any adjustments to my outfit, but I grabbed a plastic bag to put my phone in while I ran.  The walk to the start was honestly not that bad.  I didn’t feel too cold and I knew once I was running I would warm up!

The race was one of the smaller ones I’ve signed up for which I liked – we didn’t have to worry about making corral times or any of the jazz.

Once the race started, I was pleasantly surprised that the trail was not too congested.  I didn’t feel like I was constantly having to weave in and out of people because the road we started on was very wide.

I liked the course, but it was definitely challenging!  There were a lot of hills which us Chicagoans are not really used too 🙂

The first 3 miles were good, I liked running through the zoo and experiencing a trail that I don’t run too often.  Also, Brian and Bailey were hanging out at mile 3.5 which really made me happy 🙂

After mile 4 was when things started to get a little dicey… my quads started to get really tight and I had stepped in a few puddles which was causing friction inside of my shoes.  I wanted so bad to pull over and stretch, but I knew that it would be twice as hard to get back my momentum.  It was a mental game from there on.  As I mentioned earlier, there were a lot of surprise hills along the course which came as a shock to not only me but also the runners around me.  The worst was right after mile 5… all of the runners around me groaned – it was quite amusing.

Once I saw the mile 6 marker, I really picked up my pace and just wanted to get the run over with!  I was so happy to finish, and was very surprised to find out my overall time…

My pace was a lot faster than I had intended, but I was happy that I pushed myself to finish and did not stop when my mind wanted me to.  I immediately started stretching after I crossed the finish and waited for Stacey to be done.  She did not finish that much later than me, but I was definitely feeling the effects of the weather on my body.  I didn’t bring a sweatshirt or long sleeve with me and my upper body was getting very cold.  We had plans to go get brunch once she had finished but I desperately needed to go home and put on warmer clothes.  I was so desperate that I ended up RUNNING home because I could not stand walking in the rain/wind/cold.  It. was. brutal.

I’m fairly certain I took the longest hot shower of my life that day.

The rest of the day was spent heading back out to meet with Stacey – sipping on mimosas – and creating a delicious homemade pizza at the end of the night.

Also, if you are a Game of Thrones fan, like myself, the evening was spent in complete horror and shock.  I will not say more.

I sure hope this weather warms up, because it does not feel like we are 19 days away from summer!

Hotels & Cocktails

Hello, friends!

It’s a beautiful day here in Chicago, and the forecast looks even better for the weekend – I can’t wait to get out of the office and enjoy it! 🙂

Yesterday was quite the eventful day.  I was only in the office the first half of the day, and then I was off to a 2013 Employment Law seminar with one of my coworkers.  The seminar was hosted by Vedder Price and was held at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel.

Side Note: The Palmer House Hilton is one of the most BEAUTIFUL hotels I have ever been to.  I want to come back again, sit at the bar and enjoy some cocktails and the amazing surroundings.

The seminar was very interesting and was themed around “relationships” – The Employment Relationship: From Beginning to End.  Various attorneys gave presentations on different topics such as EEOC Trends, Immigration Tips, Managing Leaves of Absences, Defamation Claims – all that fun HR stuff I love!  Vedder Price was kind enough to supply a light lunch that consisted of bread rolls, grilled chicken Caesar salad and some kind of chocolate dessert I was not really in the mood for.  Halfway through the presentation, we took a “refreshment break” that featured raw almonds, raw cashews, coconut water, tea, coffee and Garrett’s Popcorn.

Snack win!

After work, I met Brian at Uncle Julio’s to celebrate one of our good family/friends birthday!  If you have never been to Uncle Julio’s, it is a chain Mexican restaurant that has really good steak fajitas – which is exactly what we got!  Diane, the birthday girl, and I split an order of the steak fajitas that came with 3 butterflied shrimp and delicious hand-made tortillas.

Yes, I know this meal is not a part of my clean, lean and green lifestyle – but when I get Mexican, I do it right! – in moderation of course 🙂  I think I’ve seen a quote somewhere that said something like, “One bad meal won’t make you fat, just like one good meal won’t make you lean.”  How clever!

I am really looking forward to this weekend not only because of the beautiful weather, but also because my new couch is being delivered TOMORROW!!

Isn’t she a beauty?

Happy Friday, everyone!

Guacamole Quinoa Salad

Great news!  Bailey is feeling much better, so whatever bug was in her stomach has passed.

Yesterday felt like a very long day.  I ended up going home during my lunch hour to check on Bailey and make sure she was comfortable.  I didn’t have much time to make lunch so I whipped up a quick egg wrap.  This wrap consisted of 1 whole wheat tortilla, 1 egg + 1 egg white scrambled, 1 tbs. shredded low fat mozzarella cheese and 1 tbs. of pico de gallo.  Although I inhaled this due to time constraints, it did manage to keep me full throughout the rest of the day.

After work, I was supposed to attend my first Blondes vs. Brunettes Tackling Alzheimer’s Disease (BvB) flag football practice, but it was cancelled due to the rain!  BvB is a charity league I got involved in last year where women put their game faces on for a flag football fundraiser which benefits the Alzheimer’s Association.  We have practice about twice a week starting now until our big game day in June.  If you want to find out more about BvB and how you can get involved feel free to visit our webpage!  It is a great event for a great cause and it adds good cross-training to my workout schedule each week.

I am obviously on the Brunettes team and we are looking to revenge our loss last year!  There are no tryouts, so if you would like to join either team you can email our co-chairs using the contact information from the webpage.  Not only do I get a great workout from practices and the games, but I have met a lot of great women through the organization and we host a lot of fun happy hours and events!

Team photo from last year – can you spot me?

Since practice was cancelled, I decided that Tuesday would be my “rest” day… but made sure to stretch a lot so that my muscles could keep recovering from my previous workout.

On the menu for dinner was Jalapeno Chicken Sausage with Guacamole Quinoa Salad.

Guacamole Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 Limes
• 1 heaping cup of halved cherry tomatoes (some quartered depending on size)
• 1 chopped bell pepper
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 cup dry quinoa – rinsed
• 1 tsp. Cayenne pepper – more if you like yours hot 🙂
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook quinoa according to package – I usually cook 1 cup dry quinoa to 2 cups water
2. While quinoa is cooking, chop bell pepper, garlic, cherry tomatoes and avocado
3. Halve each lime and squeeze 1/2 lime over diced avocado pieces
4. Add chopped garlic to quinoa once halfway cooked and stir well
5. Once quinoa is full cooked, fluff with a fork – add the bell pepper, tomatoes, juice of the remaining lime halves, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper and stir.
6. Gently fold in avocado pieces
7. Top with protein of your choosing and enjoy! (We chose Jalapeno Chicken Sausage for extra spice!)

We ended our evening with a cool and refreshing coconut water Popsicle.  So delicious!

Time for work – Bon Appetit!