Sneaking in a Run

March 24, 2015March 24, 2015 / runningchickago / 2 Comments

Hey there!

I don’t know about you guys, but the further I get along in marathon training, the less motivated I generally get. Spending hours of my weekend preparing, running, and then recovering from my training starts to take a toll. For past races I’ve always followed my training schedule to a t. There was no such things of shortening runs; I always made myself run the full distance (i.e., 18 mile run) on the scheduled date. This time around I’m being a bit more flexible. Do you guys ever do that? This past weekend, it wasn’t possible to get in an 18 mile run, so I split it into two chunks. I ran 5.5 miles one day, and 12.5 miles the next. It’s definitely not my preference (I don’t feel as well prepared) but sometimes life gets in the way.

Like sometimes I have to go to Bulls games for work:

And, when I’m really lucky, I get to go with clients & bring one of my friends. This has only happened once (thank goodness I have a photo to prove it)!

Other times, I have long car trips. Or meetings. The usual. So when I can sneak in a run, I sneak in a run. And then I celebrate with doughnuts from Glazed & Infused. Have you locals had their doughnuts before?! If you haven’t, you NEED to. They’re incredible. As someone who does not like red velvet cake, or cream cheese frosting…but is (ironically) absolutely obsessed with their red velvet cake doughnuts…you need to take my word on it. They’re incredible:

Have a great night!

Questions for you:

– Do you ever split long runs into multiple runs?

– Favorite doughnut?

House Hunting Roller Coaster

March 17, 2015March 17, 2015 / runningchickago / 7 Comments

Hey there!

Life has been BUSY over here. We went from house hunting, to thinking we were first time homeowners, to full-time renters. Let me back up a bit…

About two weeks ago, Joe and I went to see 6 houses in the ‘burbs on a wild-and-crazy Sunday adventure. Warning for any house hunters: if it looks good online, it’s horrible in person. If it looks “meh” online, it’s probably great in person. Well, we found a house that seemed perfect. Big room sizes, all neutral (ready for me to decorate!!), within our price range….so we bid. We were told to give our “best and final offer” by noon the next day. It was crazy. There were four other offers. Now keep in mind, this is all happening within 24 hours of seeing the house for the first time. Anyway… we ended up finding out we WON 😀 at 10PM on Monday. We were overjoyed. The verbal offer was there. Pinterest and I were best friends. I slept even less that night, because I was too busy thinking of paint colors, furniture ideas…

Then, come Tuesday morning, we found out that we were back into competition. Apparently “best and final offers” don’t actually mean “final” to some selling agents. And, depending on who it is, they may let some up their bid without letting other interested buyers do the same. So, while we remained hopeful, we soon realized that our verbal offer was no longer valid. We lost our house.

After lots of thinking, we’ve come to realize this is a bit of a blessing in disguise. Last summer was spent entirely wedding planning; we didn’t get to explore the city we love. We’ve decided to sign our apartment again, and we’re ready to live life to the city’s fullest. And save money. That whole thing.

But anyway, in order to get our mind off of the house….and in the essence of saving money…I made an AWESOME two-ingredient, cheap, and DELICIOUS slow cooker recipe. I based it off of THIS recipe, but switched 1 of the 2 ingredients….because why not.

Blue Moon Pulled Pork

Ingredients:

– 2 pounds(ish) of pork loin

– 1 bottle of Blue Moon (or whatever beer you have)

– Salt & Pepper (these don’t count as ingredients in my book…they’re basics).

Directions:

– Salt & pepper the pork loin. Be generous – that’s a good amount of meat.

– Put pork loin in slow cooker. Pour beer over slow cooker.

– Cook on low for 10-12 hours.

– Shred meat.

This made enough for 4 meals – 2 for me, 2 for Joe. Because this is such a plain/basic way to make pulled pork, the ways to eat this are ENDLESS. Night #1 we made bbq pulled pork sandwiches in a pita with a side of asparagus. Night #2 was pulled pork with roasted veggies & a baked yam (basically a sweet potato). Other yummy ideas would be pulled pork bbq pizza, pulled pork nachos, pulled pork salad…did I mention nachos?

So while I enjoy my leftover pulled pork tonight, I’ll also enjoy the view from my apartment. The ‘burbs ain’t got nothing on this.

Lazy Weekends – Instacart Review

March 1, 2015March 1, 2015 / runningchickago / 2 Comments

Hey there!

This weekend was one of the laziest (and best) weekends in a while. I’m pretty sure the hubby and I left the house no more than 5 times – and, the majority of them were to go out to eat. 🙂

Today I took that laziness another level and used the service Instacart. What is it, you ask? Well its basically like Peapod or any of those grocery delivery systems. Except, better. Here’s why –

(1) You choose your grocery store. The site lists about 6 different options from where you can get your food. How nice to have a choice! I live by a bunch of great ones, and I stuck with Whole Foods for my first order.

(2) You pick your schtuff (technical term 😉 ). I ordered a bunch of fruit, veggies, lunch meat, etc. Once I ordered everything and hit “buy”, it leads you to a screen which shows all of your selected items. For each item, you get to choose a substitute in the case that your item isn’t available. Uhh hello – this should have always been around on grocery delivery sites! When do you ever get everything on your list?! Answer: never.

(3) You buy it. ~~And wish you spent it on shoes instead.~~

(4) Time passes. A few hours before your order is set to be delivered, you get a call from Whole Foods (grocery store you choose) confirming your items. If some weren’t available, they try to choose substitutes.

(5) It gets delivered. AND YOU NEVER LEFT YOUR HOUSE. From a pure laziness level, this is awesome.

Review:

– Quality: the fresh fruit and veggies were great. Nothing was bruised, nothing looked “ehhh”, etc. I’ve used other delivery services in college (Kroger) and it was FAR from pleasant. The stuff usually lasted one to two days past delivery. Instacarts/Whole Foods actually looks like it will last – success!

– Price: surprisingly, it wasn’t all that different from grocery shopping. AND if you buy more than $35 of groceries (which inadvertently happens every time I grocery shop… even if I’m only planning on picking up one thing)…you get free delivery! For those of you who aren’t so sure you went to spend $35 right off the bat – no worries. Your first delivery is free. Of course, mine was no matter what since I spent over $35 on my first order…

– Substitutions: this is where Instacart gets a lower score. And I was so excited about the substitution option!! There are two reasons this gets a lower score (1) I requested 2 green bell peppers. When he called to confirm my order, he said he only picked up 1 because it was the only one that looked good. Now while I appreciate his concern over good quality I’m not sure why he didn’t substitute those peppers with yellow bell peppers (my listed substitute). I mean… why list substitutes if they don’t reference them…? (2) I requested 1 pound of turkey lunch meat. They didn’t have it, so I told the guy I was fine with whatever turkey lunch meat they have, within the same price range. He assured me this was just fine. Upon delivery, I saw it was the same price – but only 3/4 of a pound. Disappointing because I know there is lunch meat that WOULD hit the same price point at the same weight. Again, not the end of the world, but that was enough sandwich for a lunch, so we’re one day short.

Take-away: I would use Instacart again but, if they call me due to substitution questions, I would make sure I ask for a final “double check” call. Good news is – price & quality are right, just need the quantity!

Alright – that’s enough “work” for tonight – it’s back to laziness! 😉 House of Cards, here I come!

❤ Sarah

Questions for you:

– Do you use grocery delivery services?

– Do you watch House of Cards?