Smoothie Round-up

I love smoothies.
Let me say that again:
I. love. smoothies. A lot. 

My smoothie consumption is definitely higher than that of the average smoothie enthusiast.  My accomplishments include (but are not limited to) drinking a smoothie every day of the week, occasionally drinking a smoothie for every meal of the day and owning about five smoothie recipe books.  My mother is proud.

Since I'm obviously a guru here (#sarcasm in case you can't tell), I'll impart a little smoothie knowledge on you.  Some things I've learned about smoothies:

1) If using spinach, blend the spinach and your liquid first before adding the other ingredients. Otherwise you will have spinach chunks.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

2) Frozen bananas are the best thing ever because they make smoothies thick and you get to eat them with a spoon.

3) There's no such thing as too many smoothies.

With this being said, it would be cruel of me to tell you all this and not give you anything to practice your newly learned skills on, wouldn't it? Here's some of my favorite go-to smoothies:

(I have no measurements because I don't measure things out . . . sorry!)

• Chocolate Peanut Butter: (creative name, huh?) Sweet & thick. Tastes somewhat like chocolate ice cream or a Frosty to me!
• frozen banana (the more the thicker, as they always say)
• vanilla protein powder
• oats
• peanut butter
• cocoa powder
• water
• Orange Strawberry: So delicious! Not as thick as the CPB, but it's so fruity and the orange juice just makes the flavor perfect.
• Orange juice
• Strawberry yogurt
• Vanilla yogurt
• Frozen strawberries
• Frozen banana
• Tropical Greens: Pinapple-y and so, so green. But not thick. 
• Frozen pineapple
• Mango
• Spinach (remember tip #1!)
• Frozen banana
• Plain/vanilla yogurt
• Water

And there you have my three favorites! I also love to include frozen blueberries, raspberries, almond milk & flax seed in a lot of my smoothies. 

If you want some more ideas, feel free to swing by my Pinterest board dedicated completely to smoothies (another one of my qualifications)!

If you end up trying any of my favorites, let me know how you liked it!

P.S. If all is going according to plan, I should be somewhere in Greece right now! I'll respond to comments and update you on my trip as soon as I can get some reliable wi-fi!

Chicago + Food

Chicago + Food = so many things.  An empty wallet, a full waistband, and extremely happy tastebuds just to name a few.  So thanks to nearly three days spent in the Windy City, I have plenty of waist expanding, wallet emptying, tastebud watering Chicago food stories for you.

Friday, 6/13: Lunch @ Cafecito - Getting into the city later in the afternoon meant we had lunch at 3:30.  I found a Cuban restaurant within walking distance from our hotel that had great reviews.  The reviews didn't lie; the food was fantastic! 

At Cafecito I ordered the "Exotica Salad" one of their specials for the day.  The salad had shrimp, avocado, corn, red onions, heart of palm and probably something else that I'm missing.  Topped off with a lemon vinaigrette, the flavor was totally unique and so delicious. 

Friday, 6/13: Dinner @ Giordano's - Since we had eaten lunch so late, we figured that the lines at Giordano's might be a tad shorter if we went a bit later.  We were so wrong.  After waiting about 50 minutes to be seated, we waited another hour for our pizza to come. To say that I devoured my food would be an understatement. 

We had the Chicago Style pizza which had green peppers, onions, and once again, some other stuff that I don't remember.  However, although it was good, I must say that "Chicago's best pizza" wasn't really my favorite.  Lou Malnati's takes top honors from me!

Saturday, 6/14: Brunch @ The Bongo Room - This was a late breakfast as we slept in a little bit so when we arrived at here, we found ourselves waiting nearly 45 minutes again.  Once again though, the reviews nailed it (Thanks, Yelp!). The food was so unique and delicious.  

My mom and I both ordered a dish to split with the other.  Her choice was the vegetarian croissant sandwich.  It was pretty darn great, however, the star of the show here are the potatoes.  Do you see those things? Just average breakfast potatoes, right? Wrong!  I can't even explain them but they were beyond amazing.  If you ever find yourself in Chicago around breakfast time, you know what I'm recommending!  

My choice to split was the Citrus Gingersnap Pancakes. They sounded so unique, I couldn't not order them.  OH. MY. GOSH. You guys, just look at them!  So, so, so, so good! You don't know how hard it was to take a picture before digging in.  Just . . .wow. 

Saturday, 6/14: Dinner @ Medici's - I don't have pictures of anything from this Hyde Park restaurant, but I'll leave my comments.  I ordered a summer salad and split that with my mom's California wrap.  The food was good, not great.  The smoothie that I had ordered with the rest of the drinks came after we had gotten our food by about 15 minutes and after everyone else's shakes by about 25 minutes.  They are really known for their pizza, however.  We didn't try any of that, but it looked pretty good! 

Sunday, 6/15: Brunch @ Yolk - I didn't get any pictures of the food, but I'll recommend the salmon scramble to you! Super delicious - especially if you top it with the capers that come on the side.  

After eating here, I was so full.  We walked it off by strolling down Navy Pier which was right down the street.  

And that's the end of my Chicago food stories! Just looking at all of the pictures (especially those pancakes!) make me want to hop in the car and head back.

Have you ever eaten at any of these places? What did you think? 

What are some of your favorite Chi-town restaurants? 

P.S. Check out my new signature! Yay or nay? 

How I Made BBQ Modern Art

Any Michiganders out there? More specifically, any Detroiters? Have any of you heard of this littleee place called Slow's Barbecue? Yeah, I thought so.

For those of you who aren't fortunate enough to live in the snow banks for six months out of the year, Slow's is nationally recognized for being one of the best BBQ joints in America. After what my tastebuds experienced last night, I can soundly attest to that! 

I've tried to eat at Slow's multiple times, but was always deterred by a long wait list. With a little time to spare before the Red Wings game last night, we could afford to wait. 

The restaurant itself is so gorgeous. Playing with a mixture of textures and hardwood colors that you would never imagine to combine, it's upscale while still maintaining the atmosphere of a BBQ joint. Sorry, no pictures. You'll just have to go yourself to see!

I split a slab of the highly awarded ribs with a friend and we used the two sides that come with entrées to both order the famed mac&cheese. I was super hungry, so as soon as the waiter brought our drinks (get the lemonade; it's delicious!), we asked if our sides could be brought out first so I wouldn't die of starvation. I mean, it had been around two whole hours since I had last eaten. I know, crazy that I made it that long, right? 

When we asked him, it actually turned out that our food was on its way to our table at that moment. It had to have been less than six minutes from the time we ordered to the time we got our food. It takes longer than that for my family to order at Jimmy John's! Take that Freaky Fast! 

First things first, I dug into that mac&cheese. It.Was.So.Good. Like, I can't even describe it and since pictures are worth a thousand words, I'm sure this picture will do it more justice than any of my stammering will. 

Shhh! Do you hear the angel choir serenading? It was that heavenly. So obviously, I recommend it. 

Next came the star of the show (as if the mac&cheese wasn't good enough already): the ribs. Slow's is very unique in the aspect that they don't put sauce on the meat for you. They put the sauce on the table and allow you to experiment how you wish. 

Since this picture isn't going to win any prizes anytime soon, if you can't tell, the flavored are apple, North Carolina (NC), spicy, and sweet.  And yes, I arranged them in alphabetical order because that is how I roll. 

I set up a taste test with my naked ribs (that sounds wrong . . . awkward) and the contestants that I thought I would like the most: apple and sweet. 

And I was so right. Apple BBQ sauce is one of the very best sauces that I have ever had. Sweet was also great, but apple was something more unique and I loved that. I eventually did try the spicy and NC, but my original suspicion that they wouldn't be up my alley was right.

After devouring some of the most tender, flavorful ribs that I have ever had, I became an artist. Behold my modern art! 

                                                                  

No one has ever accused me of being a neat eater. 

Love, 

Allison 

Road Trippin' to Grand Rapids

One thing to know about my family: We LOVE hockey.  Like it's beyond the healthy level of appreciation for a sport, but we don't care.  It's what I was born and bred into; it's in my blood.  So taking advantage of the extended President's Day weekend last week, we took a road trip to Grand Rapids to cheer on the Grand Rapids Griffins.  

Before the game, we wanted to grab a bite to eat. So after walking around the slushy streets arguing about where to eat for nearly 45 minutes ("hey, haven't we passed by here . . . twice?), we headed into Peppino's Pizzeria . . . and waited for about another half of an hour.  

But it was so worth it.  We split two pizzas, a Hawaiian one and a BBQ chicken one.  The BBQ one might've been one of the best pizzas that I've ever had, and let me tell you, I have had a lot of pizza in my lifetime.

So. Delicious.  I had BBQ sauce all over my cheek and didn't wipe it off until I had finished my slice because I didn't want to ruin the beautiful moment there is between a girl and her pizza.  

Then we got to go watch the Griffins get crushed 0-3, but we won't talk about it.  It's all good though because I devoured some Superman ice cream which made my day.  (Obvious hint: there's no picture.  It was gone too fast.) 

The next morning, the slushiness of the previous day had turned into a beautiful winter wonderland overnight.  

I really do love the snow.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  However, it's time for it to go away.  My poor chapped lips can't take this brutal cold anymore! 

We took refuge from the wind in our unofficial favorite Grand Rapids restaurant: Sundance.  I say unofficial because there hasn't been an official vote, but we have eaten here three times out of two Grand Rapids trips, so I'm pretty safe in saying that it's up there on the list.  

After that, we said goodbye to GR because there's stuff called responsibility to take care at home no matter how much we didn't want it to be true.  I think my stomach cried as we got on the highway, leaving all the amazing food behind.  True story.

Love,

Allison

Sweat & Sweets

Last night, I did something that I haven't done in a long time.

I went to the gym.

I know, I know.  Shocking, right?  I would have convinced myself out of last night's expedition if the left hand turn lane that led to the gym had not had a shorter line than the right hand turn line that led to my house.  That's my reasoning in a nutshell right there.  But I'm so glad that I went, even if I only had 25 minutes.

I started out with a quick run: only 1.5 miles.  But here's the exciting part.  I finally got my mile time back under 8 min/mile! I haven't been able to do that since cross country season ended in November. Maybe all it took was having limited time and having to get in and out of the gym quickly?  I don't know, but it makes me happy!

Then I turned to the app that I love to hate: Nike Training Club.  It kills me.every.single.time.  But I just keep going back for more, and I haven't died yet, so our relationship is working out pretty well.  I did a fifteen minute legs workout that has me wincing (in a good way, because our relationship is so great! Remember?) every time I go to sit down.

Now all that working out and healthiness (okay, it was like 25 minutes.  I spend more time than that picking out what to wear in the morning some days) was good and fine for yesterday.  But today is today and what today needed was something extra sweet.

Pinterest Crazy

Ahhh, Pinterest.  There is no other social media that I would rather waste my time on (except for Instagram, maybe).  My Pinterest days began wayyy back when you needed an invite to join and all my friends thought I was crazy for being obsessed.  Now that they're all crazy-obsessed themselves, I can definitely say "I told you so."

But despite the abundance of crafty DIYs, "simple" recipes and "easy" hair tutorials, they just never seem easy enough for this non-artistic, toast-burning, hair styling-challenged girl.  So I just pin them.  And that's the end of that.

Yesterday was a little different though.  I went a little Pinterest crazy.

It all started off when a friend and I started making another friend a birthday cake at 12:30 am.  I regretted joking that we would end at 4am when 4am rolled around and I was still elbow deep in soapy water, half-asleep.

The finished product (a Pinterest recipe!) definitely will be worth it when I get a slice of its double layered white-chocolate raspberry deliciousness on my plate though.

After a refreshing five hours of sleep, I got up to have the entire house to myself for the day.  This resulted in the creation of THREE more Pinterest recipes. I expected three naps, not productive and delicious creations.

It all started with the for real easy, healthy and yummy "breakfast cookies" which have turned into "breakfast cookies plus 11 am, 3pm, 8pm and pretty much any other time I walk into the kitchen cookies".

Next, for lunch, a vegan twist on tuna salad caught my eye and 30 minutes later, I had myself a mashed chickpea sandwich which tastes much better than it sounds . . . and looks.  

I spread avocado on some bread, added a few spinach leaves, plopped the chickpea masterpiece on and . . . volià! An amazing lunch was created! 

Finally, dinner came and not feeling in the mood for something fancy, but wanting something more than the frozen chicken nuggets that I eat every time I'm left to my own resources, a quick look a my Pinterest boards gave me the recipe to a Lauren Conrad baked oatmeal creation.  I tripled the recipe, threw it in the oven for 40 minutes and waited while it made the whole house smell like cookies. (I had already exhausted my Pinteresting for the next six months though, so cookies didn't actually happen.) 

This: 

became this:

and once I had topped it with some almond butter and bananas, it proved itself to be worth the wait.

So I guess the moral of the story is, stay up until 4am baking cakes and you'll never know what will come out of it.

Happy Pinteresting, friends!

Love,
Allison