Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Another weekend has come and gone…

This one was full of lots of activity, laughter and of course… wine 🙂

Saturday morning started with a nice 4 mile run on a blue bird sky day.

We are now entering my favorite season to go on runs and I can’t wait to get back into race mode with a few I have scheduled these next couple of months.

After I dropped Bailey off at home (oh yes, she came with me!), I headed out to the grocery store to stock up on some items for the weekend.  Specifically, items to make chili and cornbread for football Sunday!  When I got back home, I realized I forgot to pick up items to bring to the Carrie Underwood concert I was headed to that evening.  I frantically pulled whatever was in my fridge/pantry and came up with this awesome pasta salad:

Mediterranean Pasta Salad

• 1 lb. cavatappi pasta
• 1/2 cucumber, diced
• 1/4 cup kalamata olives, diced
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
• 1 cup fresh baby spinach
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper

Directions

1. First, start by making your dressing for the salad.  Whisk together the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, minced garlic, salt and pepper and set aside.
2. Place a large pot of water over medium high heat and bring to a boil.  Cook your pasta according to package instructions or until just al dente.  It should be noted here, that you can use what ever fun pasta shape you have in your pantry.  However, I would not use a long linguine or spaghetti type noodle for this dish as it wouldn’t hold the dressing quite as well.
3. Once your pasta is cooked, set aside to cool.
4. Dice the cucumber, olives, sun dried tomatoes and place in a large mixing bowl.  Add the cooled pasta to the bowl and the vinaigrette.  Add the spinach and toss to coat.  I find it easier to toss the spinach once the vinaigrette has already been added.
5. Top with crumbled feta cheese and enjoy!

We enjoyed this and so many other great items at our Ravinia picnic – shout out to Kristin’s veggie “deep dish” pizza!

The concert itself was just okay.  I love Carrie Underwood, but she didn’t have an opener and only played for an hour and half so we all left a little disappointed.

Sunday morning, Brian and I headed over to Kendell College for an extravagant brunch to celebrate the graduation of our family/friend, Diane.  Diane took a year-long culinary class through the college and we were able to see all of her hard work come together as the brunch was completely hosted by the students!

We dined on so many great dishes…. (and sipped on lots and lots of prosecco!).

The favorites among our table were the grits and leek gratin.

Our weekend ended on the couch watching endless amounts of football and enjoying homemade chili and jalapeno cornbread for dinner.

Pretty successful weekend if I do say so myself!  Hope you all enjoyed yours 🙂

 

Garlic & Herb Shrimp Skewers

It’s weekends like these that have me convinced I live in the most beautiful city.

Brian, Bailey and I took full advantage of the gorgeous weather and spent 90% of our weekend outside. I did all sorts if great outdoors activities from playing tennis with my dad and sister…

To swimming in my parents pool.

Early morning runs and a great strength workout with my buddy, Lindsay.

Long walks along the lakeshore path, taking in all the views.

And refreshing cocktails on the back porch (yes, this counts as an outdoor activity!).

What truly wrapped up the entire weekend was a fresh Sunday Dinner. I’m sure I’ve said it before, but cooking Sunday Dinner is one of my favorite traditions. Growing up, this often included homemade meatballs, homemade pasta sauce and fresh spaghetti. Today, it’s heavily revolved around what’s seasonal and fresh. Thus, Garlic and Herbed Shrimp Skewers was born.

Garlic & Herb Shrimp Skewers

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/4 cup minced fresh basil
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 tbs. Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup good olive oil, I used a herb-infused olive oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Soak your skewers in water for 1 hour before beginning to prep your meal.

2.  Mince the garlic

3. … And the Basil

4. Combine all of the ingredients above with the shrimp and let them marinate for 1 hour.

5. Skewer the shrimp.

5. Grill the shrimp for only 1 – 2 minutes on each side.

Enjoy!

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!

Stormy Run

Tuesday, after a somewhat crazy work day, I had plans to hang out with friends after work.  Since I decided to hit the snooze button ten times that morning, I promised myself that I would squeeze in a run immediately after work to see how my knee was feeling.  I packed my gym bag to bring to work and brought all the necessary essentials to leave straight from the office.  Instead of heading to the gym, however, I just decided to do a quick four mile run starting right in front of my building.

I really honed in on my Tom Skilling skills trying to decide if this was a good idea or not and according to the radar, I was clear from exactly 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.  I could do it.

My run consisted of a “down and back” kind of – two miles one way and two miles back.  I ran down Jackson street until I hit the lake and then headed straight towards the Shedd Aquarium.  I ran around the aquarium and past Soldier Field until my Garmin watch read two miles and headed right on back.

The views on my run were rockin’, but the wind was real real rough (if you can’t tell by the choppy water).

Whenever I know it is going to rain or storm I feel extra pressure to run fast and on this particular run I was a little nervous that my faster pace would resurface my knee pain from the weekend.  Surprisingly it did not.  Not surprisingly at the same time as my knee really didn’t start to hurt until mile on Saturday.

I really enjoyed seeing the dark clouds rolling in from afar and pictured myself finishing just in the nick of time – which is exactly what happened.

When I got back to the office and cleaned myself up a bit I headed outside and noticed that I had literally JUST MISSED a down pour of rain.  Lucky me 🙂

… especially because I neglected to bring an umbrella to work with me.  Phew.

I met my girlfriends at their apartment in Wicker Park at 7:00 p.m., but not before picking up some much needed necessities:

– White wine

– Giant bottle of Cholula

When I walked in the door, my best friend, Katie, had delicious fish tacos waiting for me.

A night of tacos, wine, The Bachelorette and my best friends was just what the doctor ordered.

 

Soldier Field 10 Miler

Gooooooood morning, sports fans!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I myself am feeling very refreshed and ready to tackle the work week.

This weekend was full of all kinds of activities from BBQ’s to Grad Parties to Birthday Parties and Engagements! Today, however, we are going to recap the more active part of my weekend – The Soldier Field 10 Miler.

Saturday morning my alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. signaling that it was time to get up and prep for my run. My usual breakfast was consumed – two slices of peanut butter toast topped with banana slices and a glass of ice cold water. For whatever reason the glass of ice cold water always gets things moving in the morning for me, more than coffee does!

Mentally, I was feeling really good – I knew that it was going to be a picture perfect running day and I was psyched to run my last long run before my half-marathon this coming weekend.

We arrived at Soldier Field at about 6:15 a.m, which gave us enough time to get ourselves together, use the restrooms and get into our corrals before the closed. Brian was nice enough to come watch us three amigos run the race so we did not have to worry about doing any sort of gear check.

The opening ceremony to the race was a tribute to fallen and active soldiers in honor of the Memorial Day weekend. A trumpet player opened with playing taps and it was one of the most emotional race openings I have ever witnessed.

After the National Anthem was sung, it was time for the 10 mile race to begin! Luckily, We were in the second color of corrals which meant that we didn’t have to wait too long to get to the start line.

The route was a simple down and back along the lake, five miles each way and the views were spectacular.

The first five miles I felt good – really good, but couldn’t help notice that my knee was feeling a little tight.  As the race continued, my knee started to bother me more and more.  There were a lot of little inclines during the second half of the race and by mile 7, I was feeling some major pressure.  I was so lucky to be running with friends because if I was on my own, I’m not sure I would have been able to push on like I did.  Plus, it definitely helped that it was such a picture perfect running day – I kept having to remind myself to just enjoy the run, push on through and not let myself get discouraged.  Easier said than done, right?

Luckily, the last two miles really did fly by and finishing the race on the 50 yard line of Solider Field was really awesome.

Soldier Field 10 Miler – complete!  1:39:42 – 9:59 min/mi average.  Not my fastest run, but not my slowest run either.

After we received our finishers medal, we snapped some photos inside of the stadium and then headed out to the ‘finishers tailgate’.

I made sure to spend A LOT of time stretching before making any more moves around the stadium.  To say that I was bummed out about my bum knee would be an understatement.  I have been training so long and so hard these past couple of months for this half marathon and I really hope that this isn’t something serious.  I spent a good majority of Saturday and Sunday icing my knee, 30 minutes on 30 minutes off – etc.

As it stands today, my knee feels good – I don’t feel any of the pressure that I did on Saturday, however, I don’t know if it will return.  For now, I am definitely still planning on running the half marathon on Sunday.  If the pain resurfaces during that run, I will go to the doctor and have it checked out.  I’m trying to stay positive, people!

Have you ever encountered a knee injury?

2014 Chase Corporate Challenge

My oh my, it’s already Friday! Annnnd a 3 day weekend 🙂

As I mentioned yesterday, I have a big group of relatives flying, driving and walking in from all over the country this weekend to celebrate my sisters graduation. Although the weekend will be full of lots of family time, it will also be full of lots of running.  I’m running the Solider Field 10 miler tomorrow and LAST NIGHT I ran the 3.5 mile Chase Corporate Challenge.

The Corporate Challenge is something I look forward to every year. 25,000 runners from corporations all over the Chicagoland area come together to run or walk the 3.5 miles in support of Corporate wellness initiatives. I love it.

The race is always held in May, which in Chicago terms means you never know what kind of weather you will get. Two years ago it was 85 degrees, last year it was 35 degrees and last night it was 60 degrees. Talk about temperature whiplash.

The event is held in Chicago’s beautiful Grant Park and each company gets to set up a giant party tent for celebrating after the race. This year, kCura’s tent was right next to Buckingham Fountain.

Breathtaking.

The race started promptly at 7:00 pm, but there were no real serious corral closures so we took our time walking over to the start.

Lining up is one of my favorite parts of the race because we get to check out all of the fun t-shirts each company comes up with.  I really liked our design this year, however, the tech shirts were white and DEFINITELY see-through.  Not the most flattering cut, but hey – it was free!

The route itself is one my least favorite part of the race. The majority the route is run through lower Wacker which is full of all kinds of smells and weird hot air.

Nevertheless, it is always a lot of fun to see how many people participate and basically shut down the loop area. Last night was a double whammy because Obama was in town as well. According to our cab driver on our way home, the race + Obama made for some real interesting travel routes.

The 3.5 miles went by really quick and time-wise I ran just as fast as I really wanted to in preparation for my big race on Saturday – 31:11!  Although one day I will break that 30 minute mark for 3.5 miles!  Fun Fact: Brian beat me 🙂  As much as that may erk me, I’m also really proud of him because i’m pretty sure it’s the fastest race he has ever run.  You go Glen Coco say’s Kulla below 😉

After the big finish, we headed back to our tent to enjoy some delicious BBQ food and sangria.

Burgers on Pretzel Buns, grilled corn on the Cobb and Asian slaw for the win.

The rest of the evening was spent hanging out with coworkers and friends and of course finishing off the booze at the bar 🙂

Another great race in the books.

Vega Bar Review & My 9 Mile Run

Annnnnndddd just like that it’s Monday again.  This weekend was a perfect mix of some much needed ‘me time’, fun with friends and relaxation with Brian and Bailey.

Friday after work, I went on a little shopping excursion by myself 🙂  I went to Nordstroms and Banana Republic to find my little sister a college graduation present (ahhhh!) and some clothes/shoes for me.  It was a very successful outing, however, I cannot go into detail of what I got due to the fact that my sister is probably reading this blog as we speak!  Later that evening, I met Brian and his family out to dinner to celebrate his cousin’s birthday.  She chose a quaint little Italian place in the heart of Old Town which was perfect because I needed some good carbs before my run on Saturday.

Ms. Lindsay met me at my apartment at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday to start our 9 mile training run.  It was a sunny, blue bird day in the mid-forties, but my oh my was it windy.  We did a simple down and back along the Lakeshore path: 4.5 miles south and 4.5 miles back north.

The run south was amazing.

So many people were out running, walking and biking and the sun felt great on my face.  At one point I turned to Lindsay and thought that I might have to stop quickly to take off my long sleeve because I was getting too hot.  That decision quickly changed once we made our turning point.  We were so busy talking/gossiping on the way down that we didn’t really notice that we had the wind to our backs the entire time.  When we turned to back north, the run turned into a whole different ball game.  We fought a really strong headwind the whole way up which made for some really great training, but my feeling of overheating turned quickly into being too cold.

Despite the way back being super tough, we did manage to stay on pace the whole run which we were very happy with.

After our run, we grabbed Bailey from my place and made our way over to Starbucks for some iced coffee.  Instead of ordering my usual whole grain bagel as my post-run fuel, I brought a long some new Vega Protein Bars for us to try.

Late last week, I received a box of Vega bars to try out from the company that included all of their popular bars and flavors.  What I loved right off the bat was that the bars are all plant-based, Non-GMO, gluten-free and made without artificial flavors, colors or sweeteners.  The protein bars we ate contain 15 grams of protein which is a plant-based protein from whole grain brown rice.

I choose the Chocolate Mint and Chocolate Coconut flavors to bring with me on our coffee run, both of which were delicious.  The chocolate Mint has hands down been my favorite of the bunch because it legitimately tastes like a thin mint.

In terms of taste: These bars rock.  They are not chalky like a lot of plant-based protein bars are and all of the flavors I have tried are delicious.  I’m usually not one to crave chocolate after a workout, but the chocolate in the protein bars are not too overwhelming.  I find that there is a perfect balance with the sweetness of the mint flavor and the natural richness of the cacao.

In terms of nutrition: The protein bar has 15g of complete, multisource, plant-based protein, 2.5g BCAAs, 2 g glutamine and 1 g Omega – 3.

Where can I buy these?  Most GNC, Whole Foods and Vitamin Shoppe’s carry Vega Bars.  Otherwise, you can also order them via Amazon.

Besides the Vega Protein Bars, I have also really enjoyed the Vega Snack Bars.  These babies are awesome to have around while you are at work.  Instead of grabbing something unhealthy around 3:00 p.m. when my stomach is rumbling, I have been grabbing this healthy alternative.

My favorite flavors have been Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup (ummm yah, delicious) and Cranberry Almond.

Coworker approved as well!

Disclosure: I was provided a free box of Vega Bars to sample and review, but all opinions expressed on my blog are my own.

What’s your favorite protein bar?

It’s That Time of Year Again…!

First, let’s just talk about how beautiful my tulips are…

Haven’t they opened up nicely?  Whole foods had a great deal on the bunch this weekend, only $6! Win!

This week has been jam packed thus far.  There has been lots and lots of leftovers eaten.

Workouts have been pushed back indoors – boo.

 

Best friends have come to visit from New York

#selfie

And my BvB practice has commenced!  For those of you who are relatively new to this blog, BVB (Blondes vs. Brunettes) is a charity powderpuff football league I participate in each year.  The charity that we raise money for is The Alzheimer’s Association to help fight for a world without Alzheimer’s.

I was first introduced to this league by a former colleague of mine who was part of the planning committee.  I remember thinking to myself, how tough could it be?  I thought I would show up to practice and it would be more of a social hour of women having fun on the field.  I wasn’t wrong about the social aspect, but I did underestimate how much effort goes into our seasons.  We start practicing two days a week for only ONE game that is played in mid June!  Talk about dedication.

Until that June game, we also throw various fundraising events to try and help us reach our yearly goal of about $35,000.  Each player is set to reach a minimum of $350 in their fundraising goal and this year, my friends and family thus far have been rockstars.  I always love exceeding the goal and having those funds go towards such an awesome cause and this year is no exception.

Although I love getting in a good workout two days a week, and I’m serious practices are awesome and intense, the real reason I keep coming back to play (3rd year in a row!) is because of the awesome women I have met through this organization.  All of the women are smart, driven and hilarious – practices may be tough but I usually cannot go a full night without dying of laughter.

If you feel like donating to this awesome cause, feel free to check out my personal page here!  Or come cheers us on at our big GAME DAY June 14th, 2014 at Hawthorne School Turf Field in Lakeview, Chicago.

Ta Ta for now, friends!

Snapshots: Easter Weekend

We had quite the eventful Easter weekend! …Even though I thought it was going to be a low key one.

Saturday morning I was up bright and early to meet Lindsay for our half marathon training run.  We originally had a 10k on our calendars, however, we decided to just maintain our endurance level and shoot for another 8 mile run.  I met Lindsay at her place and decided to DIVVY my way up there.  If you are not from Chicago, DIVVY is our bike share program throughout the city.  It is super convenient and easy to use.  There is a DIVVY station about a block away from my apartment and one right in front of Lindsay’s doorstep.

It was a beautiful, beautiful day, so we decided to stick to the Lakeshore path to take in all of the amazing views.

We passed the Lincoln Park Zoo where we were tempted to join in the free Easter egg hunt and play with the monkeys and zebras.

Before we knew it we were up back towards Wrigley which lead our run to conveniently end right by an Einstein Bagels – win!

Lately, my post run cravings have included bagels and lemonade.  When I went to go get my lemonade at Einsteins, the Lemonade dispenser must of been running on it’s last leg because I got a really nasty, watery tasting lemonade.

This is my unhappy lemonade face.

The rest of Saturday was spent cleaning and prepping for our Easter celebration.

My parents got down into the city super early on Sunday to save some seats at the Easter mass we went to.  I had no problem heading over to the church early in part because it was GORGEOUS outside, but also I wanted to watch the little kids do their post mass Easter egg hunt.  So cute.

After mass, we headed back to my apartment to finish the prep of dinner.  My parents were in charge of the appetizer and brought over this amazing goat cheese and roasted pepper dish as well as some cute Easter treats.  Shout out to my cousins in Ohio for sending us an awesome Edible Arrangement!  Once Brian’s family arrived it was time to pop the champagne, open a few bottles of wine and get to dining!

Can we talk about how awesome these cream puffs/swans were that Brian’s cousin Diane brought?  Almost too pretty to eat… almost 😉

I am so so so so full and happy that we were able to celebrate with friends and family this weekend.  Brian and I had an amazing time hosting Easter dinner and can’t wait to dig into all of the leftovers!

Hope you all had a nice weekend!

How To Make My Favorite Baked Salmon

Since Brian and I went to the Cubs game after work on Tuesday, I didn’t have time to fit in my 4 mile run that was scheduled on my Half Marathon Training Plan.  It ended up being for the best because yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day to run outside.  It was the first time I have run outside in only a T-shirt and shorts since October!  I completed a really simple down and back along the lakeshore path… 2 miles south and 2 miles back north and it went by super quick because there were SO many people out on the path – Brian thinks it’s annoying, but I think it’s awesome.

When I got home I stretched for a little while then got right to dinner.

Enter my favorite easy Salmon recipe:

Lemon Garlic Salmon

Ingredients:

• 1 lb salmon filet
• 1 tsp. garlic lemon pepper
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 lemon – half sliced
• Tbs. butter – sliced
• Tbs. minced garlic
• Olive Oil Spray

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees
2. Lightly spray a baking dish with olive oil and place filet skin side down in dish
3. Sprinkle garlic lemon pepper, salt and minced garlic on top of filet
4. Top with butter slices, juice from half the lemon and the lemon slices
5. Once your oven is preheated, bake the salmon for 12 minutes until flaky with a fork
6. Enjoy!

We served this salmon with some asparagus and a side of tri-colored quinoa.

YUMM!

After all the clean up was done I had to go get ready for my soccer game that was at 9:30 p.m.  Sigh.  Maybe I’m just turning into an old geezer but there 9:30 p.m. games are really killing my sleep schedule.

What’s your favorite way to cook salmon?