Watermelon Gin Fizz

Another great summer weekend has passed.

Friday after work, Brian and I headed over to our friend Pete’s house for dinner prepared by the lovely Diane. Pete recently moved into a new condo, so we were very eager to check the place out and spend the evening relaxing on his new outdoor patio. Upon arrival, we were greeted with the most delicious drinks… Watermelon Gin Fizz’s.

These babies were dangerous! Perfectly refreshing on a warm summer night, but not too sweet where I would wake up the next morning with a hefty hangover.

The whole evening itself was wonderful. There where homemade cheese nips, grilled tequila lime shrimp, avocado and arugula salad, marinated flank steak, southwest quinoa and key lime pie!

Amazing.

We took our time nibbling our way through the courses and enjoying each other’s company. The next morning I decide that I MUST try and recreate the drink and turns out I was pretty successful in doing so!

Watermelon Gin Fizz

Ingredients:

• 1/2 seedless watermelon, cubed (about 4-5 cups)
• 8 oz gin
• 8 tbs. lime juice
• 1 cup club soda. tonic or ginger ale
• Lime wedges for garnish

Directions:

1. Puree the cubed watermelon.

I was able to do so using my brand new Ninja Blender!  I have been loving this thing and will be posting more recipes while I experiment with it.

2. Pour juice in an ice filled serving glass and top with 1 1/2 ounces gin, 1 tablespoons lime juice and a splash of club soda, tonic or ginger ale

3. Garnish with a lime wedge and enjoy!

I’m telling you this is the drink of the summer.  When Diane served this to us, she was fancy and froze about a cup of cubed watermelon to serve as the ‘ice cubes’ instead of using real ice.  How clever!

Meal Planning vs. Whole Foods

Yesterday was a great Monday (which doesn’t happy a lot, right?)!  It was announced at work that I would be receiving a promotion, my coworkers brought in Glazed and Infused donuts and I scored free Cubs tickets from my super generous co workers for tonight’s game vs. the Pirates.  I wish every week could start out as well as yesterday did!

Since work started off so well, the day flew by.  On my lunch break, I had the chance to spend some time outside and stop by a local Starbucks for a mid-day treat.  Instead of bringing it right back to the office, I took some time to plan out my meals for the week.

Meal Plan:

Monday: Chicken, sweet potato fries and salad

Tuesday: Balsamic salmon, quinoa and asparagus

Wednesday: Turkey tacos

Thursday: Out to dinner – fundraising event

Friday: Shrimp fra diavolo

Saturday: Chopped salads

Sunday: Take out/wing it

Lately I have been super disappointed in the produce that has been at my local Trader Joe’s.  I have been reading lots of bloggers posts on meal planning and was surprised to see that some of them were able to score just as much produce/goods for the week at Whole Foods as they were if they would have shopped at Trader Joe’s.  Could this be?  I had to try it myself.  With the plan above, here was my list for the week:

Produce:

• Lettuce (Organic)
• Tomatoes (Organic)
• Cucumber (Organic)
• Bell Peppers (Organic)
• Asparagus
• Avocado (2)
• Sweet Potatoes (2) (Organic)
• Lemons (2)
• Limes (2)
• Jalapenos (4)
• Bananas

Meat:

• Eggs (Organic)
• Chicken (Organic)
• Ground Turkey (Organic)

Frozen

• Shrimp

Dairy

• Greek yogurt (Organic)
• Cheddar Cheese

Canned

• Tomato Paste (Organic)
• Crushed Tomatoes (Organic)
• Diced Tomatoes (Organic)

Bread

• Qunioa Pasta
• Gluten Free Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Grand Total: $81.44

Not too shabby!! I have easily spent that much if not more at Trader Joe’s.  I was really happy with my loot and glad I took the time to plan the week ahead so that I will have enough for dinners and leftovers for lunch.  So what was the secret?  Staying on the ‘parameter’ of the grocery store allowed me to steer clear of overpriced processed foods that I just did not need!

Last nights dinner – BIG WIN.

After I got home from the grocery store, I spent a lot of time on my yoga mat stretching.  Sunday after my run, I used my Zensah compression sleeves to help aid my recovery and I swear they work wonders.  According to their website, here are the benefits that come with compression:

 

(Yes, my left foot is bigger than my right foot)

Enhanced blood circulation as a result of improved venous return.
The deoxygenated blood goes back to the heart faster, which in turn helps to improve blood flow of oxygen rich blood back to the body.

Faster recovery following strenuous exercise and improved performance by aiding in the removal of blood lactate.
Reducing blood lactate concentration during maximal exercise bouts, allows for an increased lactic threshold. Studies have shown that athletes with a high lactate threshold perform better.

Enhanced warm-up via increases in skin temperature.

Reduced muscle oscillation/vibration upon ground contact, providing stability to the muscle help prevent microtrauma to the muscles, making for a faster and easier recovery.

Reduced effects of delayed onset muscle soreness in the days following strenuous exercise through alleviating swelling and inflammation.

Increased muscle support, which increases performance through improved muscle efficiency.

Improved leg power and vertical jump through enhanced proprioception.

Although I do not use my compression sleeves after every workout, I do try and make a point to use them after or during my long runs – ESPECIALLY when I am increasing mileage gradually.  It may be a mental thing as well, but I just FEEL better when I slip them on after my shower – the same kind of comfort you get after taking an ice bath.  PLUS, they come in a variety of fun colors which I am a huge fan of.

Do you use compression garments? 

Of possible interest:

Lunch al Desko: Upgrade Your Midday Meal

Low Country Boil

Hey Y’all! << Did you like that?

As I mentioned on Tuesday, last week I cooked a really rockin’ dinner for my family and Brian while we were in Hilton Head.  From the moment we stepped off the plane in Savannah, I knew that I was in fresh fish territory and I was determined to enjoy it all week long.  After visiting a few local restaurants, I noticed that many of them offered a popular southern staple – Low Country Boil.  Even our resort at the Marriott Surfwatch hosted a Low Country Boil night next to their fire pits!  Since it seemed to be a popular staple, I decided to recreate it at our condo for my family to enjoy.  After browsing a couple different recipes online, here is what I came up with:

Low Country Boil

Servings: 4-5

Ingredients

•  1 1/2 lbs fresh (and local if possible!) jumbo shrimp
• 4 ears of corn – Halved
• 1/2 bag baby red potatoes – Halved
• 1 package of turkey kielbasa (or regular kielbasa if you aren’t watching your cholesterol)
• 1 box or bag of your favorite shrimp boil seasoning.  Old Bay or Zatarans would work perfectly.  (Note: I use the whole bag because I like my things SPICY, if spice is not your thing – opt for 1/2 a bag)
• 4 Lemons – Sliced
• Cocktail Sauce for dippin’, Old Bay for sprinklin’ and hot sauce for dashin’

Directions

This is very difficult, bear with me 😉

1. Fill a LARGE pot with water about 3/4 of the way
2. Add the lemon slices and shrimp/crab boil seasoning and bring the water to a boil
3. Add the red potatoes and turkey kielbasa and cook for 23 minutes
4. Add the halved corn and cook for another 2 minutes
5. Add the shrimp and cook until just pink – about 3 minutes DON’T YOU DARE OVER COOK THAT BEAUTIFUL SHRIMP.
6. Drain the pot and EAT! – serve with some cocktail sauce for dippin’ or squeeze fresh lemon juice over the mix.

For those of you who do not buy cocktail sauce often, it is really just a mixture of ketchup, horseradish and maybe a little hot sauce or Worcestershire for your liking!

This is a great meal to serve on a beach vacation or for a large group because it is SO easy to throw together and is very filling.  I recommend buying fresh local shrimp, but if your a Midwesterner like myself, this may mean hefty price tags.  All the other ingredients besides the shrimp are pretty dirt cheap, so go ahead and indulge a little – it’s worth it, I promise 🙂

Hilton Head Recap: Food

It’s no secret that I have a weird obsession with all things food related – I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that most bloggers do.  However, this past week at Hilton Head was awesome in part because I didn’t have to worry about cooking for myself for seven whole days.  Plus, my mom and dad made most of the reservations which meant I was in a total state of RELAXATION. Here is the recap of the week and my recommendations for some dinner/lunch hot spots.

Saturday: Uhhhh we got in at midnight sooooo I had a few bites of mom’s leftover sushi and then hit the hay.

Sunday: Skull Creek Boathouse

Skull Creek Boathouse is a great family-friendly restaurant on the island that is perfect for al fresco dining and an amazing view of the sunset.  This restaurant is one of the more popular ones on the island and there is always SUCH a long wait.  I’m not sure how it happened, but we were lucky enough to snag a tall-boy table by the bar outside without having to put our name on the waiting list.  Noteworthy – don’t wait for resos – grab a seat at the bar – it is always a good time.

For the table we ended up splitting an order of the hushpuppies which were so delicious.  For my main course, I opted for the peel n’ eat local shrimp – for obvious reasons.  It’s funny, on the menu they had peel n’ eat shrimp and then shrimp that were already peeled for like $5 more… are people that afraid of peeling shrimp.  C’mon.

Monday: Low Country Boil – The only meal I cooked all week!

This is an awesome recipe I will have to share with you later, but it was super simple.  I basically threw some fresh jumbo shrimp, corn, turkey kielbasa (for us heart healthy folk) and red potatoes in a pot of boiling water with old bay and lemons.

It was super yum and you best believe we ate the whole damn thing.

Tuesday: The Black Marlin

Another really popular restaurant on the island, however, we did not go out until 8:00 p.m. so we beat all of the family rush 😉  The Black Marlin has a really awesome patio that overlooks the bay.  My mom and I weren’t super hungry, so we just ended up ordering a bunch of appetizers: Sushi Nachos (oh, yes), Crab Cakes and my favorite… fresh oysters.

To die for.  Right from the Skull Creek Bay.

Wednesday: Sunset Grill

This restaurant is not as well known so… shhhhhh.  Don’t ruin it! 😉  It’s tucked away behind a trailer park on top of a laundry store.  Despite it’s appearances, it is THE BEST restaurant i’ve been to on the island.  The atmosphere is small and intimate with just enough glamour to make it feel like a special occasion.  PLUS, it has the best view of a sunset on the island (hence the name).

As an appetizer, Brian and I split the wild mushroom pizzette.

So fresh and delicious.

My main course, however, stole the show.

Seared Scallops with a vegetable rice succotash.  Ohhhhh Myyyyyyy Loooorrrddd.  The best meal of the week.

To top it off as my “dessert” I ordered a 1664 Blanc which is a beer that I drank all the time when I studied abroad in Paris, France.

Thursday: Dinner made by Dad.

Fresh peel n’ eat shrimp as an appetizer.

Local trout, salad and wild rice as the main course.

I’ve been raised by excellent cooks in the family, it’s not wonder my obsession with food has gotten so out of hand 😉

Friday: The last supper – Harold’s Diner  – plus copious amounts of mimosas!

For lunch, Brian and I biked to our favorite local diner that has the BEST grouper sandwich – with a side of attitude!

We order grouper sandwiches from this diner every time we are on the island and they never disappoint.  They also have phenomenal looking burgers, cheesesteaks and breakfast food galore.  Seriously, THIS is what diner food is all about.  Fresh, local and unforgettable.

As you can see, the daily activity was much needed in order to ‘balance’ out my daily eats.  The food on the island is so fresh and delicious, if you don’t like seafood… we probably can’t be friends.  KIDDING… or am I?

Welp, that’s it folks.  My Hilton Head Recap is complete which means vacation is officially over. 😦  Until we meet again.

HHI Life

Good Morning from Hilton Head Island!

Hilton Head Island is a special place that my family and I have been coming to for the past 10 years.  My parents bought a time share through the Marriott Surf Watch, so they get to spend up to three weeks here per year.  How lucky are they?  This year, they were kind enough to exclusively ask Brian and I along for the ride in March.  The reason I say exclusively is because their condo has three bedrooms – two bedrooms of which each have two queen sized beds and the master bedroom has a king.  If you are bad at math, that is five beds – enough for 10 people to stay!

This week off couldn’t have come at a better time.  I have been swamped/stressed at work and the Chicago winter has been so so brutal.  A little fun in the sun is all I needed.

Getting here on Saturday night was rather eventful.  Our first plane was delayed by over an hour, which caused us to have to SPRINT through the Charlotte Airport in order to make our connecting flight to Savannah.

Nevertheless, we made it 🙂  The funniest part about Saturday night was my mom and dad picked us up at the airport at 11:45 p.m. and the FIRST thing they said to us was: WE NEED TO PICK UP BEER.

uhhhhh, okay.  No contest – but, why?

“They do not sell alcohol on Sunday’s here.”

SAY WHAT?  We raced to the nearest WALMART – made it with five minutes to spare before midnight, only to find out that they stop selling liquor at 11:44 p.m.  😦

It wasn’t a deal breaker as there is a beachside bar at our resort which makes all the delicious island drinks your heart desires, but how was I supposed to get my Sunday mimosa time on?  😉

I have to say – I was quite surprised how many people were in that Walmart at midnight – what are people stocking up for so late?

Sunday morning, my dad did make up for the lack of mimosa as he remembered to bring my favorite Chicago coffee on our trip. I love you Intelligentsia.

We took full advantage of the sun and warm weather and spent the entire day at the beach.

 

With the occasional pit stop at the beach bar for blueberry mojitos.

There were SO Many dogs at the beach it made us miss Bailey so so much, but she is having fun with the other Lindsay and Brian whom I am sure are spoiling her to death.

Sunday evening, we all headed out to one of our favorite restaurants with a great view of the evening sunset.

Skull Creek Boathouse

The sunset was truly spectacular.

We spent the rest of the evening drinking white wine, eating fresh local peel and eat shrimp and enjoying our surroundings.

To all my fellow Chicagoans.  Hang in there.  Spring is coming.

Dirty Fat Tuesday

Fat Tuesday… who doesn’t love this day?  From the traditional paczkis to the Mardi Gras fare, it is such a delicious celebration.  The whole reason we go to the gym is so that we can prepare for gluttonous days like these, right?

Right.

The day started with a pancake feast that was hosted by my company.  If you are a regular reader, I’ve written about these pancake breakfasts before.  Our administration team gets to the office at 7:00 a.m. to start whipping up pancakes, setting out crispy bacon as well as chicken sausage, fresh fruit and all of the pancake toppings a girl could hope for.

It is one of the best ways to start the day, but they are missing one thing… mimosas 😉

Surprisingly there were not too many Fat Tuesday sweet treat temptations in the office.  I managed to only have a handful of candy (which I’m giving up for lent – gah) and a bite of a creamy, doughy, delicious paczkis.  Did anyone else from Chicago see that Uber was offering to deliver these perfect pastries to you in three minutes or less.  SAY WHAATT?  I was grateful for the minimal sugar binge because I had big plans for dinner!

After work, I headed to the gym and ran four miles on the treadmill.  The gym was crazy packed, I actually had to wait 5 minutes for a treadmill to open up which rarely happens.  As annoying as it was, my run was still great!  I made sure to spend plenty of time stretching and foam rolling per usual.  I had ran three miles on Monday and my knee was feeling a little tight – the last thing I want is an injury just before it gets warm enough to run outside.

I also completed one round of Tone It Up’s Sunkissed Abs and then called it a day.

There is a Whole Foods across from the street from my gym which is dangerous on so many levels, but I needed to go there and grab a couple items for my delicious Fat Tuesday dinner:

Dirty Rice with Shrimp

I had found this recipe on the Food & Wine website and knew that it was a must try.  I adapted the recipe just slightly and it turned out GREAT.

Servings: 4

Adapted from the Food & Wine Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb ground turkey
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 ribs celery, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 tsp. cayenne
• 1 tsp. oregano
• 1 tsp. smoked paprika
• 2 tbs. olive oil
• 1 1/2 cup long grain brown rice
• 3 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 1 green onion, diced – garnish
• Tabasco

Directions

1. In a large saute pan, heat 1 tbs. of the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the ground turkey and cook until no longer pink, about 2-3 minutes.
2. Add the remaining olive oil to the pan and add all of your chopped veggies: onion, celery, green bell pepper and garlic. Saute until soft.
3. Stir in all of the spices and the rice – cook for 2 minutes
4. Pour in the broth and bring to a roaring boil.  Reduce the heat, cover the pan and simmer the mixture, covered for 20 – 25 minutes
5. Bring the heat back up to medium and add the shrimp.  Cook for 2 minutes and then remove pan from the heat and keep covered.  THIS IS IMPORTANT – do not touch it!  Leave it covered for 10 -15 minutes and don’t you dare open that lid.
6. One the rice is cooked, serve into dishes and sprinkle with green onion and a dash or two of tabasco
7. ENJOY!

Cooking rice is kind of a pain in the rear end.  I followed the original Food & Wine recipe exactly and my rice was still crunchy so I let it sit for 10 minutes longer and it was perfection.  This dish had SO much flavor, it is definitely a easy go-to crowd pleaser.

Bailey was seriously jealous of our delicious eats.

How did you celebrate Fat Tuesday?

Cold Walks with Bailey

Hello, Friends!

Brrrrrr, it was extremely hard to get out of bed this morning.  Our old school radiators have just turned on keeping us nice and warm – not even Bailey hops out of her bed when I say the word ‘walk’ – SHOCKER.

I feel bad for Bailey during the cold months because it clearly becomes harder and harder for me to muster up the strength to give her a good walk when it is 30 degrees and windy (we do live right next door to the lake, people).

So last night I decided to give her a good walk before the nights take a turn for the worse – I had left something at one of my best friend, Kaitlin’s, house a couple weeks ago so it was a perfect excuse to get out – other than the fact that Bailey needed a walk 😉  Even though the air was cold, there were still a lot of people out and about last night enjoying themselves.  Bailey and I took our time on our walk to stop and smell…

The leaves.

But in all seriousness, we don’t walk the route to Kaitlin’s very often so Bailey just HAD to stop at every tree and see who had been there.

Once we arrived, Bailey made herself right at home sitting on Kaitlin’s lap and enjoying the view from her couch.

(Not allowed in my house!)

When we got back home, I was going to complete a video circuit from Tone It Up, but I was still pretty tight from my 4 mile run on Tuesday followed my favorite abs workout.

I decided just to stretch and relax.  Plus make some dinner –

Shrimp and salad. Done and done.

Lately I’ve been getting bit by the racing bug and really want to sign up for my next Half Marathon because I … dare I say … miss training.  Rather, I miss what my quads looked like when I was training!  Some of the half’s that are in Chicago have not released their 2014 date and I know that I don’t want to run another mid-July half.  Anyone have any fun suggestions for something in Late April/May or early June?

Food, Friends & Fun – HLS13

Good Morning, Friends!

Last night I had an outdoor soccer game that STARTED at 9:30 p.m.  Needless to say, I was in bed later than normal and feared that it would throw off my whole day today.  To my surprise, I woke up before my alarm clock went off and was wide awake!  I am reinforcing this rarity with lots of coffee, so cheers to a productive Tuesday!

As promised, here is the final recap of the Healthy Living Summit I attended this past weekend in Minneapolis, MN:

Saturday morning started bright and early – 7:30 a.m. to be exact.  Breakfast was served in the mezzanine of the conference room and it. was. awesome.

Check out that spread.  They had everything from fresh fruit platters, bacon, turkey sausage, skillet egg scramble, build your own yogurt bar and lots and lots of COFFEE 🙂  We had about an hour to eat breakfast before the first session of the day started.  It does not usually take me an hour to eat, so I checked out all of the sponsor booths that were outside of the main hall after I finished my plate.  The sponsors this year were amazing.  They were all so friendly and loved hearing about everyone’s blogging stories and health/fitness passion.  My two favorite booths were:

The Blue Diamond Almonds booth.  Look at all those flavors!  The BOLD ‘Salt & Vinegar’ flavor really stole the show for me, but toasted coconut was a close second.

And of course. the Wild Harvest booth.  Wild Harvest had a ‘create your own popcorn’ stand which included lightly salted popcorn that you were able to season with any of their delicious seasonings.

This was the perfect snack to have on hand during the day – no guilt included.

Okay – Okay, enough with the food… let’s talk about the sessions.  I cannot express enough how much I learned this past Saturday.  Some of the sessions I attended included topics such as: ‘Blogs in Transition: Embracing Your Blog’, ‘From Blog to Job: Utilizing Your Personal Blog to Elevate Your Career’, “The Organized Blogger’ and ‘Blogger Self-Care: Staying Happy, Healthy and Sane Under Pressure’.

I loved all of the sessions I attended, but one of my favorites was the ‘Blogger Self-Care’ one where fellow bloggers gave their advice on how to not get stressed out managing work, blogging, reader comments and life in general.  A few of the bloggers talked about taking ‘Social Media’ cleanses every once in a while to refocus.  It’s crazy to think how much social media has taken over our own lives these days.

Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are what I check every morning, one my lunch break, on the way home from work, at home while making dinner, before bed… omg it. is. crazy.  Don’t even get me started on how many other blogs I read throughout the day.  Another great takeaway from the session was ending your week with ‘five happy thoughts’.  If you have had a really rough week personally, professionally or both – take the time at the end of the week to find five things that made you truly happy during the week.  They can be small things like, “I ate healthy 4 out of the 5 work days”, “I tried a new recipe and it was successful” or “I received two awesome blog comments this week.”  Taking the time to focus on the good rather than the bad is a real mental game changer.   I have to keep this in mind when I have real stressful weeks.

The conference ended around 5:00 p.m. with closing comments and an awesome raffle.  I actually WON something in the raffle which never happens.  – A ‘Healthy Living Summit’ charm from ‘Bama + Ry’.

The owner creates awesome copper and nickel jewelry with all different kinds of charms you can add on to a chain.  I’m really happy that I have something I can wear that will remind me of my first HLS.

Once everything was said and done, I headed back to the room and got ready for a night out.  A couple weeks ago I did a whole bunch of research on great restaurants in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and one in particular kept coming up in my searchers – Butcher & The Boar.  Their menu looked fabulous, so I decided to make reservations there as me and Brian’s ‘splurge’ night.  It was weird not seeing Brian all day since I was at the conference and he was out having fun exploring the city – so the evening felt like an actual date night.

We were seated in a little cozy booth and the decor of the restaurant immediately blew me away.  There were so many items on the menu that looked amazing, so we decided to split everything we ordered.  First up, was an order of the “stuffed jalapenos’, which were stuffed with PEANUT BUTTER and were AMAZING.  Seriously, who came up with this?  We are going to try and recreate this one at home.  For our main entrees, we ordered the Texas Prawns – with a Red Chile BBQ sauce and the 12 oz. prime skirt steak – Rare (because that is the best way) with BBQ sweet onion sauce and cobb salad garnish.

Both dishes were delicious – the prawns especially had a really great spice to them.

After dinner, we roamed around the city for a little bit and grabbed some booze at a nearby liquor store.  We would have roamed around longer, but the rain had steadily started to pick up and neither of us had brought our umbrellas.  Nevertheless, it was a great final night in Minneapolis.

The next morning, B and I opted to sleep in before our long journey home, but I received lots of updates that the location of the next HLS summit was announced – MADISON, WI.  So exciting!  A. It is closer to me 🙂 and B. Madison is an awesome city.

All in all, the weekend was so much more than I expected.  I walked away with a lot of great new friends, ideas and inspiration for the blog and confidence in myself.

Win.

Wild Harvest Teaser

This morning when I took out Bailey I noticed a small package for me by our front stairs.  I must have missed it when I came home last night!  I was not really expecting anything, but when I saw the label on the front I immediately knew what it was…

My Healthy Living Summit ‘Welcome’ treat from Wild Harvest!  Wild Harvest is the HLS gold sponsor this year and if you have never had any of their products they are truly wonderful.  Here is the blurb posted on the HLS website:

At wild harvest®, we believe eating well is a big part of living well. We’re committed to bringing you the best, most affordable organic and natural foods you’ll find anywhere. Foods you can feel good about putting on the table for your family.

When you choose wild harvest products, you’re assured of foods that are free of all things artificial. Our farmers and suppliers use no preservatives, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics or added growth hormones. Everything is flavored and colored by Mother Nature herself.

We craft each wild harvest product based on one philosophy: Simply food, natural and delicious. We’re proud to be a part of so many families’ lives. And we’re so excited to be at the table with you.

Inside the box were two little teaser gifts – some herbal tea and animal crackers.  How fun!  I am so so excited for the conference this weekend.  Brian and I are leaving really – REALLY early Friday morning to road trip it out to Minneapolis.  There are several mini fit mingles planned for Friday afternoon, so I hope that traffic is a breeze so I can make it for some of them.  Also, the cocktail party is that evening and I need to start figuring out what I am going to wear.  The party is at Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theatre, which looks like a really cool venue by the river – I can’t wait to see what the inside looks like.

Work went by fast yesterday as I am trying to get everything finished up before I leave.  I had a few errands to run after work, but right when I got home I made dinner so that my stomach could settle before my soccer game.

Salad and Shrimp!  This is one of my favorite go-to meals… I saute the shrimp in a little butter and white wine with garlic and shallots – lip smacking good!

Soccer was at 8:30 p.m., so I was hoping that the 90 degree weather would cool down a bit… that was NOT the case.  The field is only 2 miles from my house, so I decided to bike there since driving seemed like a waste of cash.  By the time I arrived at the field, I was already sweating profusely!

The good news was that it was a beautiful night despite the heat.

My ride home was a little eerie… no one was really on the Lakeshore path which I have never seen before!  I pretended I was being chased by zombies and booked it home so I could take a COLD shower 🙂

Have a great Tuesday!

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?