Sweet T and a Honey B
Food, Fitness, and the Adventures That Make Life Sweet

Rock N Roll Chicago – My First 10K!

How many times can one say they had a weekend of quality time with their loved one, good food and sightseeing, accomplished a long time goal, enjoyed beautiful weather, and didn’t have to go far from home to do so? This was easily one of the most fulfilling weekends I’ve had in quite a while and an experience I was so excited to share with my husband. 

Not long after our last lengthy race, Bry and I decided to begin training for the Humana Rock and Roll Half Marathon (or in my case, the 10K, let’s not get crazy here). Runner’s high is a real thing and finishing our races in April left us with the need to push ourselves a little further. The timing also worked out perfectly because our two year wedding anniversary was on July 11th. We figured an overnight in our own city  (that we don’t explore nearly as much as we would like to) would be an ideal way to celebrate – and a shiny new medal wouldn’t be bad either 😉 

We drove downtown to the Health & Fitness Expo on Saturday afternoon to pick up our bibs, shirts, and take a peek at some new running gear. Being around all of these people who are working towards the same goal that weekend is pretty cool and the energy at the expo made us even more ready to begin our runs the following day. After browsing a bit and taking some pictures, we headed to the Hilton to drop our stuff off and grab some lunch. I had been hearing about a restaurant/cafe called ‘Goddess and the Baker‘ for quite some time and luckily it was a 15 minute walk from the hotel. Holy..cow..did I love this place. I am so sorry I had not ventured downtown sooner to try it. Their menu boasts fresh and seasonal choices for breakfast, lunch, and dinner complete with a HUGE selection of delicious looking/tasting pastries and a heavenly coffee bar. It was really difficult for me to pick just one thing to eat off their menu but I chose their Chicken Club sandwich and kombucha to drink. Bryan and I sat by the window and enjoyed the people watching. I also couldn’t pass up a macaron and cold brew on my way out. This is easily my new favorite spot downtown and I am already looking forward to trying the naan bread grilled cheese next time 🙂 

We quick stopped at CVS to stock up on Larabars and water for the morning (I forgot the city doesn’t provide grocery bags anymore..) and walked back to the hotel for unpacking, a small nap, and stretching. Before we knew it, it was time to explore again and we certainly wanted to enjoy the 80 degree weather. Since we had to call it an early night, we wanted to stay close, so we ended up where every other tourist in the city ends up – Millennium Park. Though this time, we didn’t take the typical ‘Bean’ selfie, but stopped under the bandshell to listen to some classical music and perused the new Maggie Daley park. Did I mention how perfect the weather was? It seemed like everyone and their cousin was outside enjoying the music and the breeze off the lake. We enjoyed some dinner al fresco at the Plaza in Millennium Park underneath my favorite string lights and headed back for the hotel to rest up before bed. 

Let me tell you – 4:30am comes early on a normal day, but when you have to run 6.2 or 13.1 miles, it comes extra early. We rolled out of bed, stretched, and tried to shred some pre-race jitters. Bry and I each went our separate ways and headed towards our corrals around 6am as the race officially began at 6:30. It wasn’t long before my corral was up to the starting line and I started my first 10K! Running along the lake shore was so much more scenic compared to my usual runs at the park by our house. The view certainly made the first three miles go by really quickly. I started feeling a bit tired at mile 4 and while I hit my ‘wall’ about mile 5, the live music along the route, light shows, and cheering crowds as I neared the end motivated me to push through. Before I knew it, I was sprinting (okay, after 6 miles I guess I couldn’t call it a sprint) the last quarter mile to the finish line. I quickly hobbled over to the teams handing out water bottles and chocolate milk, received my medal, and hurried to the side of the crowd watching the half marathoners roll in to watch Bryan finish his very first half. Bryan finished the 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 12 minutes which he was super proud of – and so was I. We had both finished the longest runs we’ve ever completed so we headed over to the post-race party to grab our free beer and share in the excitement of everyone else finishing the race. We didn’t spend a ton of time at the party because it was time for brunch – probably what we were looking most forward to this weekend. While I am not a fan, there is nothing like a huge post-run Bloody Mary to my husband. 

As much as we would have liked to enjoy some more city time, we were so glad we decided to not spend the second night and head home for a shower and very long nap. We finally ended our anniversary weekend with a pasta dinner at Gattos, one of our regular Downers Grove spots, and live Irish music and darts at Ballydoyle. I was so tired by the end of Sunday evening, that I found it hard to stay awake past 10pm. Between all of the fresh air, running, and contagious energy downtown, I was so ready to hit the pillow. It was a much needed weekend spent celebrating all the hard work training we’ve put in the last few months and two years with my very favorite person. 

We’re certainly ready to give our knees a bit of a rest from hitting the pavement, but are looking forward our next two races: the Stan’s Donuts 5K in August and and Ditka Dash 5K in October.  Do you have any races you’re training for? What is your biggest fitness goal? 

 

Sweet Barbecue Chicken Tacos

It’s Thursday morning y’all and that means we’re over the hump of this gloomy workweek. Also, holy humidity. Did anyone else feel like they needed a shower immediately upon opening their front door this week? Did anyone else’s hair look as unruly as mine?

I’ll admit, the humidity made me feel pretty lazy this week. This, combined with the amount of time I’ve spent at the hospital with my mom, has made it virtually impossible to stick to a routine or retain enough energy at the end of the evening to cook a healthy meal. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bought my breakfast and/or lunch on the go in the past month. And let’s talk about my lack of time at the gym or sticking to my training plan for the Chicago Rock and Roll 10K this coming weekend.. urgh, yes. THIS. Weekend. 
 
But Monday always rolls around and it’s always a good opportunity to begin the week off on the right foot. Moms on the up and up and I’m finally feeling like myself again so I was eager to spend some time in my kitchen and make some dinners for the week. Full disclosure, I had a taste for barbecue and Mexican this past weekend. As I’ve expressed many times before, your favorite meals don’t have to require an abundant amount of ingredients or take a ton of time to throw together. My lack of grocery shopping in the past ten days or so led me to dig through what I already had and I’m thrilled I did because we’ve been eating these Sweet Barbecue Chicken Tacos for the past few nights. We wanted enough leftover shredded chicken to have these for 2-3 dinners as well as extra for topping salads and sandwiches this week but you could always use half of the chicken if you don’t want as much. 
 
They’re a little sweet and a little tangy and combines some fresh lime juice, veggies, and blue cheese for a pretty awesome flavor. I’ve been using this Wholesome Organic Coconut Sugar in a few recipes recently and been pretty pleased. The flavor is just as sweet as brown sugar, but coconut sugar contains nutrients like zinc and iron and also contains insulin- which acts as a prebiotic – aka gut health! It’s also easy to replace brown sugar in your recipes because it’s a 1:1 ratio. 1 cup of brown sugar = 1 cup coconut sugar. 
 
We had some fruit with our tacos but would also be pretty tasty to serve with some black beans or rice. 
 
What flavor combos do you enjoy? What else would you add to your barbecue tacos?
 
 
 

Sweet Barbecue Chicken Tacos

2 tacos per serving

  • 1 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce
  • 1/4 cup coconut sugar
  • 4 large chicken breasts
  • 1 cup frozen baby corn
  • 1 small onion – diced
  • 1 roma tomato – diced
  • 1 avocado
  • 2 tbs fresh lime juice
  • Blue cheese crumbles to top
  • Corn tortillas
  1. Whisk barbecue sauce and coconut sugar together until sugar is fully incorporated. 
  2. Place chicken breasts in large crockpot and pour sauce evenly over the chicken. Cook on high for four hours. Once chicken is cooked, shred with a fork and turn crockpot to ‘warm’ until ready to serve.
  3. Combine corn, diced onion, diced tomato, and lime juice in a large bowl. Set aside. 
  4. Warm your corn tortillas. Top each taco with a little shredded chicken, corn ‘salsa’, a couple avocado slices, and 1 tbs of blue cheese crumbles.

Dark & White Chocolate Almond Butter Cups

I can’t say that I am sorry for another post involving some sort of nut butter and chocolate. Though, a recent craving has evolved in to a treat I’ve already made a handful of times and I thought it worth sharing. More times than not, my nightly dessert doesn’t need to be more than a small square of chocolate or candy. As a result, I have recently been very fond of the Justin’s Peanut Butter cups that come in two packs because Bryan and I can easily split one at night after dinner. Because my trips Whole Foods to purchase these have increased exponentially, I got to thinking that I could easily make my own version of these delicious treats – and even customize them based on what kind of chocolate or add-ins I have a taste for (ie; various kinds of nut butters, chocolates, dried fruits, nuts, cacoa nibs, seeds, sprinkles, etc). The bonus here is that the chia/flax combo with the nut butter makes these pretty filling so having one of these as a treat after a workout would be great pick-me-up. I whipped up a small batch of these for my mom as she’s recently gotten her taste for sweets back while in the hospital and they couldn’t have gone over better. In fact, a couple of her nurses have already requested some.

This is a perfect sugary snack to share at a get together or keep a container tucked in your fridge or freezer for your nightly sweet tooth. 

I highly recommend investing in a silicone mold for making anything involving chocolate. I purchased this one a while ago from Wilton and I have used it for everything from candy molds to mini-brownie bites. If you do not have a mold, a mini-muffin tin and papers will work fine too!

Almond Butter Cups

  • 1/2 cup any nut butter of your choosing (My favorite is Justin’s Vanilla Almond Butter)
  • 2 tbs coconut oil
  • 1 12 oz bag of white chocolate chips or candy melts
  • 1 12 oz bag of dark chocolate chips or candy melts (or milk chocolate, if you prefer)
  • 2 tbs coconut sugar
  • 2 tbs chia and flax seed blend
  • Cooking spray
  • Silicone candy mold or mini muffin tin & mini muffin papers
  • Coarse sea salt

 

  1. Spray mold with cooking spray or line muffin tin with papers
  2. In a microwave safe bowl, combine white chocolate and 1 tsb of the coconut oil. In a second microwave safe bowl, combine dark chocolate and 1 tbs of the coconut oil. Microwave each bowl separately at 30 second intervals and stir between each interval until full melted. 
  3. Fill each mold 1/3 of the way with the melted chocolates and place mold in freezer for 10 minutes.
  4. While mold is in freezer, combine almond butter, chia/flax blend, and coconut sugar and place in the refrigerator.
  5. Take mold out of the freezer and place 1 tsp of almond butter mixture in the center of each cup and flatten gently with a spoon. 
  6. Fill each mold with the remainder of the chocolates and place in freezer for 3-5 minutes, or until chocolate JUST begins to harden. 
  7. Top each mold/candy with a pinch of coarse sea salt and place in freezer for 5 more minutes or until fully hardened. 
  8. Pop each candy out and enjoy! (Note, store almond butter cups in refrigerator)

 

Love, Laughter, and Some Good Coffee

I haven’t written anything in quite a while and I am so thankful that the craziness of the past few weeks is winding down and that I can spend some time with my blog and my thoughts. It’s the Fourth of July and this is not the typical patriotic post or a post about a picnic and eating too many hamburgers. Many of us are reflecting on how thankful we are for our freedom or even just how thankful we are to be surrounded by friends and family on a beautiful holiday weekend. Today however, I felt compelled to share how these last few weeks I have been reminded time and time again how blessed I am and how thankful I’ve been to so many people.

About six weeks ago our family found out that my mom’s recent hearing loss was due to an Acoustic Neuroma on her right side. An Acoustic Neuroma is a non-cancerous tumor that grows on the main nerve leading from the inner ear to the brain. She handled the news about it how my mom handles anything – with grace and a crude joke. The tumor was benign but the words ‘brain surgery’ are not ones that should be taken lightly. Despite the worry, we spent the last month and a half talking about how many days I would spend with her post surgery, making jokes about the ‘haircut’ the surgeon was going to give her, and offering encouraging words whenever she got anxiety about not being able to order Starbucks for a few days. 

Monday, June 19th was scheduled as surgery day and it approached quicker than I wanted it to. Hubs and I left for Rush University Medical Center around 5am so that we could meet Mom and Simon to check in. We were told it would take about eight hours so I packed up some snacks and games to keep me and my family’s minds busy during the long day. In our family, you can face just about any obstacle if you have the proper snacks. Mom was all smiles when we met her at the hospital right up until we had to leave her with the doctors. Perhaps the worst part of this entire process was leaving her at that moment and worrying that she was going to be scared. Though, I was confident in the two incredible surgeons and nursing team that would be taking care of her. 

I have never questioned the love my family has for me or my mom, but the support system my mom had in the waiting room that day was like no other. My Uncle Mike, Mom’s brother, spent the entire day making us laugh, offering coffee runs, and just overall being the constant rock in our family. Anytime in my 26 years that Mom or I have had to face a tough situation, Uncle Mike has been there. I am so comforted by his presence and find it hard to put in to words how thankful I am to have him (and his hilariously awful magic tricks) in my life. 

Aunt Lynda was another one of Mom’s cheerleaders on surgery day. As a Aunt, mother figure, and friend to me, I was so lucky to have her encouragement, hugs, and famous peanut butter sandwiches to get through a day like this. Anyone who knows ‘Lynnie’, as we fondly refer to her, knows she rarely enters a room without some homemade treats, whether that be a sandwich from home or some of her delicious banana bread, to share. I received a text message from her that morning prior to her arrival at the hospital and all I saw was a picture of a loaf of bread, and gigantic jars of peanut butter and jelly – indicating this particular day would be no different than any other long day our family has endured.  There is something so comforting about her peanut butter sandwiches that give the rest of us confidence we can face anything and I think it’s because they are always made with such love.

Cheerleader #3 was another man that has been an important player in my life for the past ten years. Simon and Mom found each other when I was sixteen, and while admittedly there were times it was hard seeing my mom with someone other than my Dad, I wouldn’t pick anyone else for her but Simon. Him and I have a very special relationship and I realize it probably wasn’t easy dating a woman with a daughter in the middle of her teenage years when he had no children of his own. He has grown to love our family and I will be forever grateful to him for taking such care of my favorite person. Simon absolutely provided some good reasons to laugh last Monday as he kept us all entertained with a lessons in British terms. Did you know that in England they call potato skins, potato jackets? 

The last team member that stuck it out all day, but certainly not the least, was Bryan. I would never have enough time or room on this post to express my gratitude to my husband for loving my family as his own. As if waking up at 4am to trek downtown wasn’t enough, Bryan stayed with me until 9:30 pm when I had a hard time  going home for the night. And to be honest, if I had asked him to stay longer, I know he would have. When I cried for 45 minutes on the way home, he let me. He accepted the fact he was probably going to have another night of little sleep when I set my alarm for every two hours to wake up and call the nurses to check in on Mom. He recognized I needed some late night food and bought me a Portillo’s cheese dog with a large fry (A salad just doesn’t cut it in times like this). Sometimes I question how on earth I got so lucky to not only find my soulmate at a young age, but to find someone so willing to tackle any curve ball thrown our way.

The surgery ended up taking ten hours. Ten. Hours. God has a special place in heaven for the surgeons who start their day ready to stand for hours on end and operate on someone’s loved one. Dr. Byrne and Dr. Wiet were able to get 99.9% of the tumor and fully preserve her facial nerve. Dr. Wiet, despite being exhausted I am sure, took the time to talk to Mom’s little cheer section (who were the last ones in the waiting room that day) and answer any and all of our questions. Especially this weekend, I am thankful to the doctors and nurses that give up countless holiday weekends and time spent with their own loved ones to take care of ours. 

There is no way I would have made it through these last couple of weeks with my sanity without some of the people in my life. On top of it, Mom was re-admitted last Wednesday an infection and some fluid that built up at the site of the surgery. When you add it up, she will have spent twelve days at Rush by the time she finally comes home for good. I have been in absolute awe of the amount of love, support, and prayers we received each day. My sister and brother drove down in rush hour the day of surgery to be with us, see mom when she woke up for the first time, and offer a prayer for comfort and healing. Mom’s group of wonderful friends from the Elmhurst Immediate Care never went a day without an encouraging text reminding me to tell mom how much she was loved and missed at work. Me and Bryan’s group of friends checked in on me every once in a while and many have already offered to come out to St. Charles, bring food, and sit with mom once she’s feeling better. My team at McDonald’s were not only okay with, but encouraged me to take the time I needed to be with my mom, and have been incredibly patient with me as I’ve gotten as much work done as I could from the hospital. It’s impossible to list the countless other people that kept mom in their thoughts. I know a Facebook ‘like’ or comment is a small act, but being able to show my mom a small blurb I posted requesting thoughts and prayers that day and the 300+ people that were thinking about her and sending positive energy at some point during the first few days post surgery was something I looked forward to. Seeing her reaction when reading those comments was something very special. 

I am pretty positive that if it had not been for the friends, family, and the promise of some good coffee, an already difficult road to recovery would have been near impossible. Mom’s strength to overcome anything continues to amaze me every day and I’m thankful that soon she can come home and finally enjoy the rest of her summer. I’m even more thankful that on my way to the hospital yesterday morning, I saw ‘Mom’ pop up on my caller-ID again, something I haven’t seen in a while. Her only request was a Grande Americano (double cup, little room). Needless to say, I think this dancing queen is ready to come home too. 🙂

I hope everyone has very wonderful Fourth of July!

 

 

Mango Berry Salsa (With Cinnamon Pita Chips!)

Like the masses this past weekend, my husband and I attended a couple of barbecues as the abundant sunshine of Memorial Day weekend kicked off the official start to summer. I consider ourselves lucky that our outings with friends and family were not scheduled until Monday as Hubs arrived home from school on Friday and announced that he thought he was coming down with strep throat (spoiler alert: he thought correctly). We were forced to take it easy for the majority of the weekend but as he started to feel better and our Monday plans approached, I started thinking about a small dish to share with everyone.The weather was hot and I knew there would be a lot of food straight off the grill, so I whipped up something that would cool everyone down. The fruit this time of year is gorgeous and the berries are especially sweet so a fruit salsa was an easy choice. 

Mango Berry Salsa

Ingredients

  • 2 cups strawberries – diced
  • 1 cup raspberries
  • 2 cups mango – diced
  • 2 tbs fresh mint – chopped
  • 1/2 cup green onion – chopped
  • 2 tbs fresh lemon juice

Instructions

  1. Wash and dice strawberries and place in a large bowl. Add raspberries and gently mix with a wooden spoon. The raspberries will soften and mix well with the strawberries. 
  2. Cut mango in to four sections away from the pit. You will have four sections that you can dice in to small squares. Once the fruit is diced, you should be able to peel or gently cut squares away from the skin. Add to the bowl and gently fold in to the berry mixture.
  3. Add chopped mint, green onion, and lemon juice. 

Cinnamon Sugar Pita Chips

Ingredients

  • 6 Pita Rounds
  • 2 tbs coconut oil, melted
  • 2 tbs sugar
  • 2 tbs cinnamon

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray.
  2. Cut pita rounds into 8 triangles each and scatter on cookie sheet. Brush each triangle with coconut oil.
  3. Mix cinnamon and sugar and evenly sprinkle mixture over the pita triangles. 
  4. Place cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes. 
  5. Serve pita chips warm or cooled with fruit salsa and enjoy!

 

 

Hubs thought my pineapple shaped serving dish from the Target dollar spot was ridiculous and when I first brought it home, was quick to question what I would ever put in that. Fruit salsa- that’s what. And you can bet I am going to try and find every excuse to use this adorable dish this summer. 😉 

Believe it or not – the Fri-Yay is here again and the forecast is looking good for another weekend of grilling and simply enjoying some Vitamin D. Whatever your plans are, I hope they’re filled with good company and yummy food!