059. Practice for my 7 Day Vegetarian Challenge: Tofu Fried Rice

Lunch with my friend Colleen today was awesome. I didn't get a picture because I forgot my phone at the office and my camera is still with my dad. As I mentioned earlier, we met at Roti; it was so much better than I remember! We were at a different location and my order was slightly different, but damn was it good. I had the Chicken Roti Sandwich which was Roti chicken on flatbread. I added a little bit of hummus, lettuce, feta cheese, and some of their garlic sauce. It was stellar!

Moving right along to dinner, with my 7 Day Vegetarian Challenge on the horizon, I decided to go for a test run tonight. For dinner, I made Vegetarian Tofu Fried Rice.

It's a little blurry, I must've moved my phone. Oops!

(Notice the cute, fancy plate and different background!)

The linked name above will take you to the recipe on SparkRecipes, but here's what was in my nutritious and delicious fried rice:

• broccoli
• snow pea pods
• pea shoots
• red onions
• carrot
• corn
• tofu
• egg

I think this was hands down the best fried rice I have ever made! I ended up going back a second helping (only half a serving though.) I'm actually kind of sad we're going out for lunch tomorrow for a co-workers birthday, and I can't eat the left overs.

Turning the Dreadmill into...well, something a little less dreadful.

To go along with my amazing dinner, I got in a really great workout today. I've been really struggling with my running/ work-outs because I cannot stand running on the treadmill. I make it about 15 minutes before I start losing it. I started thinking about how last winter I had no problems running on the treadmill, and I finally realized the difference. Last winter I had just started the Couch to 5K program. I wasn't running on the treadmill endlessly, going no where. I was running intervals. That's when it hit me. If I want to survive winter on the dreadmill, I need to be mixing it up! I decided to seek out some treadmill workouts to keep me going.

In her post earlier today, Tina mentioned MotionTraxx and how much she was digging the downloads. I decided to check it out. On the site I found three podcasts for interval workouts from Fitness Magazine which, oddly enough, a friend on SparkPeople had mentioned to me earlier today.

I downloaded all three of the Fitness Magazine "Lose 10lbs" podcasts and tonight I did "The Countdown." It was an awesome workout! If you're looking something to make the treadmill (or even elliptical) a little less miserable, check out these podcasts. I'm not usually a big fan of dance/ techno music (It's something I really need to be in the mood for.), but it really got me going. I managed to burn 550 calories in 35 minutes according to my heart rate monitor.

After my kick booty treadmill work out, I hit the 60 minute yoga class with my mom. I really do love yoga. I always feel so relaxed and centered after I finish. I also love that I get to go to class with my mom!

It's getting late so I need to go Whittle My Middle and get in the shower!

I'll be back tomorrow with more eats, a review of the book Skinny Bitch, and some Veggie Challenge related posts.

058. Pizza, Blackhawks, and Breakfast

Last night the plan was to make a tofu fried rice, but Tina's pizza posts over at TradingUpDowntown got my craving pizza. I decided to make pizza last night instead of fried rice. I went for a bacon and garlic pizza. It wasn't the most nutritionally sound pizza (hello, bacon?!), but I did what I could. Plus it was really yummy.





I used a pre-made in a can crust from Jewel. Next time I'm definitely going to seek out a whole wheat pre-made crust that's not in a can. The last two canned crusts I've used have been nightmares. For the sauce I used some no salt added tomato sauce I had left over in my fridge from a previously meal. I added garlic powder, oregano, time, and some minced dried onion. The I chopped up some fresh garlic (5 cloves actually).



I topped it with 1/2 c of reduced fat mozzarella cheese, 4 strips of cooked, chopped bacon, and a 1/4 of a red onion. Sadly, my phone ate the photo of the finished product.

After dinner, I headed to my friend Mike's house to hang out with friends and watch some hockey. We watched the Blackhawk's dominate the Minnesota Wild and flipped to the Junior Gold Medal game just in time to see the US score it's winning goal over Canada. (Sorry Angela!)

I ended up staying out later than originally planned, so I'm a bit sleepy today. I had a fantastic time though so I'll survive! I did managed to still wake up in plenty of time to make myself a yummy bowl of oatmeal this morning. It was the usual 1/2 c. oats, 3/4 cup vanilla soymilk, 1 T. peanut butter, and 1 T. Cranberry Applebutter. I also have bananas in the house so I mashed one of those up and added it in.

I've decided I need to start investing in some cuter dishware. My pictures all look the same (and boring) on these dishes!

This afternoon I'm meeting my new friend Colleen for lunch. (Colleen is my friend Shake's girlfriend of, like a year, that I just met at the wedding this past weekend. Like I said, I'm making it a point to reconnect with friends I haven't seen in a while.) We're going to meet at Roti. I'm not realy big on Mediterranean/ Middle Eastern food; however,I've been here once before, and the food is good.

Tonight I need to get in a serious and solid work-out. I've been a mega-slacker lately. I'm going to hit yoga at the gym with my mom and get at least 30 minutes on the dreadmill. I think I'm going to do some intense intervals. I also need to do my Whittle My Middle workout tonight as well.

047. Chicago French Market.

Today for lunch we headed over to the Chicago French Market in the Northwestern Train Station. This was a really interesting experience. I was definitely caught off guard as I thought we were going to a restaurant, but I was very impressed. I will definitely be going back, and I foresee many trips once it warms up.

About the Chicago French Market

The Chicago French Market brings together a unique collection of local vendors that were hand selected for their individual passions and high-quality products. Bringing together the best-of-the-best from Chicago neighborhoods and outlying areas, Chicago French Market is largely comprised of entrepreneurs, family-owned businesses and accomplished purveyors.

The Bensidoun family, the largest market operator in and around Paris since 1953, co-developed the market with Chicago-based U.S. Equities Realty, and operates and manages Chicago French Market. The family operates nearly 100 open-air and indoor markets throughout the U.S. and Europe, including 11 Chicagoland outdoor, summer weekend markets.

As with all local markets, our goal is to bring a sense of community found in the markets of Europe, and provide a place to gather, socialize and purchase quality goods.

The set-up was a bit overwhelming at first. It’s similar to a farmer’s market with the various vendor booths. We walked in at the City Market which is basically the produce, meat and seafood sections of a grocery store. I didn’t look around too much, but everything looked very fresh. Most of the restaurant vendors use local and organic ingredients, and everything looked so fresh. One could easily spend an hour wandering around.

For lunch I had a rotisserie chicken sandwich from Chicago Organic. I was actually some pretty disappointed with it. It was good, but there was definitely a lack of flavor. There were so many other options, I’m sure I could have found something better.

The five of us shared some fries from Frietkoten. They were very tasty. I love fries and these were amazing. They came topped with ketchup, mayonnaise, and chopped red onions. They were perfectly golden and crispy. They were definitely the best fries I’ve had in a while.

We also shared some dessert from Delightful Pastries. We had dark chocolate covered strawberries, tiramisu, an éclair, a lemon bar, and a pecan bar. I had half the éclair, a strawberry, and one bite of the lemon bar. They were all delish!

I definitely plan to go back and visit Raw which is an all-organic and vegan. I had a sample of the garden burger, and I definitely want more! I also want to try FLiP Crepes at some point.

If you’re ever in downtown Chicago, I recommend you check this place out. It’s well worth the trip. It’s just a hop, skip, and jump from the Sear’s Tower (I will never call it Willis Tower.) and Union Station.

033. Holiday Dinners

As I mentioned earlier, tonight we had dinner with one of out agents. We write quite a bit of business with him, and my boss used to work with him at another company. We went to Tavern on Rush.

We started with the Seafood Combination for Two which, really was more like the Seafood Combination for 4, and some fried calamari. Everything one the platter was excellent. I'm not a huge fan of cold crab meat, but this was delish!

(I apologize in advance for the poor picture quality. I used my iPhone.)

For dinner I ordered the Seared Sesame Hawaiian Tuna. It was really delicious. Possibly the best seared tuna of any kind I've had in the Midwest! It was melt in your mouth which isn't something I've experienced since I was in California visiting Emily.

With appetizers and dinner I nursed a mango martini. This was one hell of a martini. I'm pretty certain it was 100% booze. I also had a glass of red wine - I don't know what kind as my boss ordered it.

I ordered the Chocolate Marble Tiramisu for dessert.

The two other women on my team ordered the Decadent Chocolate Bundt Cake and the Anna's Banana Cream Pie. We all shared the desserts, and let me tell you, they were all excellent! The banana cream pie had big slices of real banana in it.

The rest of my eats weren't anything to rave about. For breakfast I made oats with 1.5 T of pumpkin butter, a few shakes of pumpkin pie spice, and .5 T of peanut butter (for protein).

Lunch was even less fabulous. I ended up eating Easy Mac with a can of tuna mixed it. I also ended up eating at my desk.



I'm still feeling pretty buzzed from my drinks at the restaurant so I'm going to enjoy a glass of water and get to bed. Cheers!

I've got another long day ahead of me tomorrow. I'm going to see Rise Against at the House of Blues with a few friends!!! Rise Against is one of my favorite bands of all time, and I've been waiting forever to see them. Needless to say I'm pretty excited!

025. Santa Shuffle 5K Weekend and Race Recap

So this weekend I met up with some friends from Sparkpeople to run a 5K. Courtney, Sarah, Tara, and I all ran in the Santa Shuffle in beautiful Lincoln Park. Sarah's fiance Jon also ran with us.

Friday after work, we all met up at Sarah's place to head to Universal Sole and pick up our race packets. We snapped a few photos and browsed the merch. Some of us needed some more cold running gear.

Courtney and Sarah hanging out on the other side of the running shoe display. Pretty perfect if you ask me!

We headed back to Sarah's place where she modeled the sweet Santa hat, bead, and jacket t-shirt we got in our race packets.

The we hit Old Town Pub for dinner. I had the Hawaiian Ham Panini with tater tots which was pretty much amazing. Ham, Swiss cheese, pineapple, and onions. The chipotle mayo on the side was a little too spicy for my liking.

Saturday morning I got up bright and early (which was really only 7am). I made myself a tasty bowl of apple cinnamon breakfast quinoa, but I didn't get a photo because my camera was also packed up in my bag and I didn't want to forget to bring it!

I met Sarah, Jon, and Courtney on the walk to the race course. We met up with Tara and her husband along the way.

A sea of Santas at the starting line.

The course map. We got to run around the Lincoln Park Zoo.

The upside to cold weather running is I can carry my camera in my pocket so I was able to get some action shots during the race.

Courtney managed to look this adorable in pretty much every picture I took!

Hydration station - very important! This race actually had water at miles 2 and 3!

This was Tara's first race and Sarah, Courtney, and I were all on board to support her. We finished in just under 45 minutes shattering Tara's goal of running it in under 50 minutes!

After the race we went back to Sarah and Jon's place to warm up and change into some clothes that weren't drenched in sweat before we headed out to brunch at Adobo Grill.

We got pretty much the yummiest mimosa I have ever had. It was your usual champagne and orange juice, but it also had a splash of passion fruit juice which gave it a nice kick.
To eat I got blue corn plantain pancakes with eggs and chorizo. It was delish!
For the few remaining pics from the race check out my Picasa album.

011. A Whole Mess of Random

(Warning: this blog ended up pretty lengthy and random. Sorry in advance, it’s kind of scattered. Also, photos will be added once I get home from work. - Sorry I'm late with the pictures!!)

Breakfast this morning was not a success. The upside is even though I only ate half of it I made still made it to 10am before I needed my morning snack. I’m going to have to work on perfecting this breakfast as it clearly keeps me pretty full. So what was my breakfast flop? Pumpkin-Pie Yogurt
1 container Trader Joe’s Organic Non-Fat Greek Style Yogurt – vanilla
½ c. canned pumpkin
1 t. pumpkin pie spice
1 T. rolled oats
2 T. shredded coconut (which was added a few bits in)

I think I may have gotten a bit over-zealous with the pumpkin pie spice. It wasn’t bad – it was good enough for me to eat half of it, but it definitely wasn’t great. Live and learn right?

I’ll try it again adding the various ingredients slowly until I get a good flavor combo. I might also try plain yogurt instead of vanilla. I’m still getting used to combining flavors and finding things that work well together. Truly, this was my first attempt at putting something together on my own so I’m proud that it was at least edible. I can cook, but I’ve always been a follow the recipe kind of gal. I’ve also spent most of my life being INCREDIBLY picky when it comes to food. This has resulted in a pretty redundant meal repertoire. I’ve been so inspired by recently by the food blogs I’ve been reading (Healthy Tipping Point, Carrots n Cake, Oh She Glows), and other resources out there. I’ve got such a strong desire to expand my horizons when it comes to cooking and eating now. Maybe I jumped in head first a little too soon. Oh well, like most things, this is guaranteed to be a learning experience.

My morning snack today was my old standby Kashi Trail Mix Chewy Bar. I do love me some Kashi products.

Lunch today is leftovers from last night’s dinner out – which I need to discuss, right now. Last night the BF and I did dinner and a movie. We went to dinner at Uno’s Chicago Grill, and it ended up being a perfect dinner out. We struck fantastic compromises and split everything. The food was delicious, and it didn’t destroy my calorie count for the day too badly. We started with a mozzarella sticks appetizer (his choice), but they were the best mozzarella sticks. They were really crispy, but they weren’t super greasy. I enjoy mozzarella sticks, but I don’t like when they come swimming in a pool of oil so I generally don’t bother with them. I didn’t get a picture because I keep forgetting. (One day I’ll get used to this!)

We split the BBQ Chicken Flatbread Pizza (my choice, but I compromised on the regular crust instead of the 5 grain, whole wheat they offer) which was also phenomenal. Again, I didn’t get a picture before we dug in, but here’s what it looked like re-heated on my plate for lunch today. I’m sure you can imagine how amazing it must have looked fresh on the table.

Dessert was the highlight of the night though. Generally I avoid restaurant desserts since they’re usually caloric nightmares and aren’t anything I couldn’t throw together at home. (Plus, I’m usually plenty full when dessert time arrives anyway.) However, when I saw this on the menu, I knew I would be angry with myself if I didn’t order it so I made sure to save room. For dessert we had pumpkin tiramisu. This was hands-down the most amazing restaurant dessert I’ve ever had. Seriously, I didn’t want it to ever end. I don’t think I’ve even eaten something so slowly in my life. I almost didn’t get a picture of it because I was so enamored with it, but Chris actually reminded me. So here it is in its half eaten glory…

When I got home, I looked up the calories online to assess just how much damage I had done, and I was pleasantly surprised. The dessert was two servings and each serving clocked in at 390 calories. Yes, this is more than I usually eat at breakfast, but if you consider the fact that some restaurant desserts have an entire day’s worth of calories in them, 390 isn’t so bad. It was totally worth every single calorie.

I’ve failed at blogging my food recently so here are some eats from the last couple days.

This morning’s Kashi Trail Mix bar.


Wednesday’s breakfast – homemade toaster waffle with ¾ c. frozen mixed berries, 1T. light syrup and 1t. flaxseeds.


Wednesday’s dinner and Thursday’s lunch – Sausage and Apples on Whole Wheat Rotelle pasta. This is something my college roommate Emily and I created (mostly Emily) when we had an excess of apples and a tube of breakfast sausage in our apartment.

Tube Reduced-Fat pork sausage
½ an onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 T. of light maple syrup
2 T. water
3 T. white wine
2 medium apples, chopped
½ c. reduced fat shredded sharp cheddar
½ c. rotelle pasta
The recipe is linked above.


Thursday’s breakfast was inspired by Carrots n Cake – ½ c. oatmeal, ½ of a leftover baked apples and acorn squash.



I have a 6 mile run on the indoor track planned for tonight. I’m hoping it goes well. I’ve had pretty solid runs so far this week, but I haven’t been able to break 4 miles since I ran 7 a couple weeks ago. I’m hoping since my running funk seems to have lifted tonight’s run will be awesome.

I’m going shopping this weekend. I’ve been holding out on buying dress pants, but Wednesday a co-worker said to me “I hate to break it to ya girl, but you really need to buy some new pants.” That’s the downside of living a healthy lifestyle and loosing weight. Your clothes get too big and you have to buy new ones. Okay, I suppose that’s really only a downside if, like me, you don’t have a lot of extra money to be spending on new cloths because you recently acquired yourself a mortgage. Anyway, back to the point, I plan on leaving a whole mess of Operation Beautiful notes on fitting room mirrors since I’m sure I’ll be trying on many things.

That's enough for now.