My Life In Candy

If seasons were measured in sugar, this one may be my favorite. It's around this time of every year that I gain several pounds. A result of one single culprit:

These little treats are so delicious! Chad caved and bought me a bag last night while running some quick errands post-work and I've nearly polished off the entire bag in 18 hours!

Inevitably when I mention my love for this tasty goody, most people assume I am talking about this nasty concoction:

Blech!

The Crammivian gang is due in town in a couple hours. It's our turn to entertain. Too bad there won't be any yummy candy eggs left by then. Sorry guys.

Friday Night Fun

Last night's dinner at 309 was fabulous. We enjoyed ourselves so much that I neglected to take any photos of the evening save this one of Chad with my leftovers bag:

We began the evening by meeting up with our friends at Tavern on Prospect, a quaint but chic little pub located in the same area as 309. While there we toasted to Jennifer's birthday and I presented her with a small birthday gift in a Twilight series gift bag. She is a total Twihard and I think it may have been her favorite part of the whole night.

Following the fun at Tavern on Prospect, we headed over to 309. Just as the last time we were there, the place was bustling. Even with the slight crowd, we were warmly greeted and seated promptly. (This time we were far from the restroom.) Jennifer and I perused the menu while we waited for the guys to square up the bill at Tavern.

After selecting a bottle of wine, the guys rejoined us. We got to work on our entrée selecting. For some reason I was really craving a burger so I went with it. Some Honey Glazed Winter Squash also caught my attention so I ordered that as a side. Chad decided on the Tuna Nicoise salad with Wild Mushroom and Truffle Oil Risotto. Tonight's selection were a little out of the ordinary for us, normally I order the salad and Chad's ordering the burger. We also started with a small plate of tasty calamari.

Every morsel of food I ate was delicious. My burger ordered to medium done-ness was superb. The crispy garlic fries were exactly what I needed. However, I must say that the honey glazed winter squashes made such an impression that I need to attempt duplication. Even though I quickly reached stuffed status, we finished the meal with the Rockslide Brownie. There is always room for dessert. It was tasty but not the best I have had.

Chad was pleased with his salad too. I stole a bite of his risotto and it was interesting and great-tasting. Our dining companions raved about their meals as well. A fantastic dining experience.

On a slightly less gourmet level, I neglected to document Thursday night's dinner with an entry. Tilapia with Shallots and Marsala was front and center for our night flanked by asparagus and brown rice. The original recipe called for broccoli as a side but I swapped it in favor of the asparagus - turned out out to be a great decision. Chad gobbled this right up!

Another exciting night planned tonight. We are headed to one of our favorite Illinois wineries, Willet's Winery in Manito for the best thing ever, Wine & Dine. I can't wait. Up first, a 10-miler followed by Body Pump with Liz!

Happy Half-Birthday to Me!

Like any child at heart, I LOVE birthdays - mine and those of my friends'. It only seems natural that I would also celebrate my half-birthday, marking the six-month countdown to my next celebration.

This tradition for me bore from school days. A summer birthday is difficult to celebrate with classmates so my mom suggested honoring the half-birthday as an opportunity to contribute special treats to my school peers. I have fond memories of proudly toting two-dozen glazed doughnuts, sometimes even still warm, to the kids at St. Mary's Elementary. Thanks to those tasty doughnuts however, nothing else since can compare. Sadly that bakery no longer exists near my hometown.

In honor of my half-birthday today, I baked up some Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars. Unfortunately I struggled to make them last night due to a late evening trip to WalMart Supercenter to complete the ingredient list and neglected to take a picture. Today they disappeared quickly from the office even though once I sliced them, they didn't look as pretty as the original post.

I personally have eaten so much of these treats that I currently feel ill. Not because they are not delicious but because my body is rejecting all the sweet I'm afraid. The binge began last night - testing the layers as I prepared beginning with the awesome graham cracker, butter and chocolate chip crust. Emphasis on the BUTTER. Because I skipped my workout, I was able to spend more time eating.

Tonight's plans include a trip to Peoria's trendy 309 restaurant with a friend, celebrating her actual birthday, and her husband. My friend Jennifer and I met at work but after our foursome enjoyed a few evenings out, our husband's hit it off and have had a few occasions of outings sans the wives to brew beer!
Source

Chad and I dined here last summer with the Crammivian gang but it has been too long. I thoroughly enjoyed our first visit but I am not much of a food critic. I like EVERYTHING.

Post-work but pre-dinner we are headed to buy me some new running shoes. I have been wearing a variation these beauties since just before the marathon:

They are in dire need of replacement with well over 400 miles on them. My knees hurt just thinking about tomorrow's scheduled 10-miler. We are headed to Running Central to pick up a new pair. Peoria area runners are fortunate to have a great running store in town.

A fun weekend ahead! Hopefully I can remember to take some of those grainy photos I'm so good with.

Way Too Many Cookies Wednesday

Today was a great day. My friend from work celebrated her birthday so that meant treats and a lunch outing. At our workplace, the birthday person brings treats for the rest of the office and chooses the lunch destination. Her pick, Flat Top Grill, a create your own stir-fry restaurant.

For the treat portion, today's birthday girl brought in a long-standing Peoria favorite, Trefzger's Bakery. Her contributions were thumbprints and a traditional chocolate chip cookie. Due to my proximity to the treat area I could not resist to the tune of one each of the aforementioned varieties. I blame the birthday girl! (Another cookie was consumed later that she could not be blamed for. Chad had one remaining Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookie that I discovered stashed in his office as we were heading out for the day. I ate it in no time flat - yikes!)

All that cookie eating is likely the reason I had no trouble getting myself to the gym for Body Pump and a 30 minute EZ run. I'm finishing out my last week of my winter maintenance training program before starting my half-marathon training for real. Race is April 30.

Following my trip to the gym, Chad was at home already getting started on dinner by chopping the butternut squash into cubes. Butternut squash is working its way up my favorite veggie list. We enjoyed black bean and butternut squash wraps. So delicious!

The finished product doesn't look all that appetizing but some chipotle peppers in adobe sauce added some spice with the slightly sweet taste of the squash - it was perfecto! One of our favorites. Chad does not even complain about the lack of meat in a dish like this.

Time for some relaxing and trashy TV watching!

A Look at Our Snow Day

This post is a few days late, I think I was attempting to forget Snowpocalypse ever happened!

An action shot of Chad attempting to keep up with the accumulation on our deck:

After the storm passed, I had to get out for a walk to stretch my legs. The gym wasn't an option:

It got pretty cold quickly, so I bundled up:

We warmed up with a tasty dinner of Spicy Chicken with Raisins & Jasmine Rice:

We were back to work as normal on Thursday but it was fun to be "stuck" at home for a day and a half.

Super Gluttony

Like any self-proclaimed, "eater," I like to eat my weight in junk food on Game Day. Yesterday being the culmination of an entire football season, I decided to go crazy. (Only adding to the pressure was a weight-loss challenge first weigh-in scheduled for today. Good strategy would suggest that bulking up the day beforehand is a brilliant idea, I went with it.)

To fit the gluttonous bill, I stumbled across these large treats, Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Cookies, on another blog.

I started by taking some of this:

Sandwiched around one of these:

...and this was the glorious result:

Unfortunately the photo above does not show their truly large scale. The recipe only made about a dozen of my version. They were so delicious out of the oven though, I had to force myself to stop at two face-sized cookies.

Since I can't be trusted around goodies like these, Chad took the remaining cookies to work today. Apparently they were a hit there too!

A tip if you want to replicate, Kroger store brand, Private Selection Chocolate Drops are the BEST semi-sweet chips available.

Writing this post made me hungry.

Laid Back Tuesday

Normally in the evening, I'm literally running around after work attempting to squeeze in a good work out and rushing home to join Chad in making dinner. Most nights we sit down to eat around 8 pm - a little later than we would prefer but it works for us.

Tonight due to the extreme snow, we changed up the plans a bit. We continued with dinner as usual but I skipped my scheduled workout due to the gym being closed. Boo to that.

To get dinner started Chad chopped the veggies and prepped for Spicy Chicken with Raisins and Jasmine Rice. It's a new dish for us but so far it is one of the more fragrant dishes we've made. Our house is filled with smells of ground cloves, bay leaves and garlic.

Our new recipe was a success! We have marked this Middle Eastern dish as a favorite on our meal planner.

The great photo is courtesy of Chad's new camera and his talented picture-taking skills.

Time to relax and stay warm!

Snowpocalypse

The snow here in Washington is coming down sideways! Chad and I have been working from home for a half day today. We were not willing to brave the traffic across town to get home after this blizzard got started so we hit the road home from the office around 11 am. Word on the street is that our facility closed at 1 pm today anyhow.

Sometimes working from home is even more productive than at the office.

Since I was working on my laptop in the kitchen anyway, I baked up a batch of whole wheat chocolate chip cookie bars and some stove top hot chocolate for Chad. He braved the snow to blow the first layer off the driveway and needed a warm cup.

He is headed out shortly for round two while we still have a bit of daylight left. I think he would rather not have to deal with the aftermath of the predicted 22"!

I was looking forward to a spin class at the gym tonight to get me out of the house but even the gym is closed this afternoon - tomorrow too! No doubt I will be going stir crazy if we end up working from home again.

Thankfully a new Teen Mom 2 is on tonight. Here's hoping I can stay up that late to watch!

Introducing...

Hello!

This is my husband Chad, and me, authors of this blog. The photo above is from our most recent Christmas card. (Living in Central Illinois, our snuggies get plenty of use during the cold winter months. Spring is right around the corner.)

We do not spend ALL of our time in snuggies however. Even though it's winter here, we love to stay on the go visiting family and friends on the weekends and occasionally squeezing in a run on the snowy roads. More on that in a bit.

I started this blog for a couple reasons, an outlet to keep in touch, a source to document the exciting moments (and not so exciting moments) of our lives and lastly to keep accountable on a healthy lifestyle.

A bit of a background on us:

We met in the fall of 2004 in DeKalb, Illinois through mutual friends while Chad was in his senior year at Northern Illinois University, I graduated from Monmouth College (Go Scots!) earlier the same year. We became friends over the next several months and began dating the following year in 2005, while I was residing in Arkansas and he was living in Iowa, both for our first employers.

During the course of our long-distance relationship we continued our college style habits. Long days sitting in the office combined with unhealthy eating habits, we were gaining a lot of weight. Our rare moments together were spent dining out or watching movies. These habits stuck with us even as I relocated to Washington, Illinois and Chad eventually following.

After viewing photos of a friend's wedding we had attended together in 2007, I saw what we had become and it wasn't pretty or what I affectionately refer to as, "In love fat". We decided that day that we were going to make a lifestyle change. Things have not been the same since!

Our wedding date was October 18, 2008. This gave me extra motivation to get in shape. Chad was great support even after he had reached a healthy weight.

Over the last couple of years, we have enjoyed competing in 5Ks, 10Ks, half-marathons and other races. Most recently we trained for and ran the 2010 Chicago Marathon. Yowza! It was hot that day and neither of us performed to the level that we had trained. We intend to do another marathon - hopefully in 2012!

Beyond running, we enjoy traveling. Weekend trips to Chicago to cheer for the Cubs, St. Louis, Kansas City, Mendota, and Maytown to visit family and friends keep us busy and entertained. Join us for the journey.

Any other questions, just ask.

A Sunday Adventure

Chad and I were up fairly early for a Sunday to get an early start on a morning adventure. We had plans to head to tiny Delavan, Illinois to dine at The Harvest Cafe.

We arrived by 9 am and chose our seat at a cozy booth. Our waitress, who we later discovered shared our relatively rare last name, brought the menus and took our drink orders. I was overwhelmed by all the delicious menu selections - I wanted to try one of everything.

The concept of a Farm to Table restaurant is really appealing to me. Plus the entrées seemed to be steps ahead of the typical greasy spoon fare. Even in the dead of the Midwest winter, everything appeared to be fresh. So delicious!

Chad narrowed his choice down to biscuits with lamb sausage gravy with a side of pancakes.

For me, the decadent French Toast with homemade brioche topped whipped mascapone and a side of a homemade biscuit. (I had originally requested the homemade granola, yogurt and fruit as a side to my French Toast but the waitress informed me that the granola had not been made yet today.)

Our breakfast selections took some time but were well worth the wait! The photos of our main I snapped do not do our dishes justice but I am still a novice with our point and shoot camera. We both cleaned our plates but I became uncomfortably full about 3/4 of the way through but the French Toast and the biscuits tasted too delicious to quit. A bad habit, I know!

Following our fantastic breakfast at the Harvest Cafe, we drove the scenic route back home to Washington. A great way to start the day!