The night before last when we went to bed, our room was so hot. We knew the temps were going to drop later on in the night, so Tony set up a fan at our bedroom door facing out, and opened our bedroom window to pull in the cooler air. I had my alarm set for 6:00 to go to the gym, but when I woke up to turn it off, I was in heaven. I’ve said before that Tony doesn’t like to sleep with the window open – he’s always cold and I am always hot.
I had a gorgeous breeze blowing over my face, my pillow was perfect and I didn’t want to waste that feeling by getting up. I slept another hour and it felt great! When I did get up, I posted my blog post, jumped in the shower, put my lunch together, talked to Tony for a bit when I realized I never put anything together for breakfast. I had to leave because construction is making my commute about 20-30 minutes longer than it should be – it took me 65 minutes to drive to work yesterday morning when it should only take me about 35 minutes.
So I did a quick stop by McDonald’s and while my brain was saying “can I have a sausage McMuffin with egg and a hash brown?” My mouth actually said “I’ll have the blueberry oatmeal.” By the time I got to work I had to reheat it – it was okay – the blueberries were juicy. This comes in at 290 calories, 8 fat, 49 carbs, 5 fiber and 6 protein.
I ended up running errands again at lunch – one of my co-workers doesn’t have a car, so we ran to Target and T.J. Maxx. I bought these amazing chips at T.J. Maxx – I’ve never heard of them before, but they are made from flax, chia seed, quinoa, radish and broccoli seed – and a serving only has 95 mg of sodium. Slightly spicy and supa crunchy. I’ll definitely buy these again.
When we got back I put my lunch together – more leftovers! The final remainder of my orzo salad, I chopped up some more greens, added shredded carrots and then 3 ounces of leftover chicken. The chicken was dry, so I had some tzatziki sauce and sriracha and tossed the chicken in that and put it on top of my salad.
Um, this tasted like ass. The tzatziki/sriracha combo tasted awful, and my greens kinda got too wilted. I ate about 2-3 bites of this and called it a wash. So I went to see if I had anything to scrape together a lunch and I had a slice of ham, American cheese and 1 slice of rye bread to make half a sammie. On the side was a 1 oz. bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos. Quite possibly the best snack on the planet.
I am in charge of replenishing our pop fridge at work. A couple months ago, one of our local grocery stores had a sale, buy two 12 packs, get 3 free! I kind of went hog wild getting all different kinds of flavors. Um, turns out everyone mostly just wanted diet Coke and diet Dr. pepper, so I am stuck with LOTS of pop I am sure will be in there for ages. As I was restocking the fridge I saw a can of root beer. I wondered if I could make a sweet and spicy glaze for our grilled chicken. I googled it a bit, and in the end mixed a bunch of recipes together to come up with this.
O Olive Oil Sweet & Spicy Root Beer BBQ Glaze
makes 1 cup of glaze, or 16 tablespoons – per tablespoon: 25 calories, 2 fat, 6.6 carbs, 0 fiber and 0 protein.
- 1 can regular root beer
- ¼ cup O Olive Oil white balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons O Olive Oil Clementine
- 1/8 cup brown sugar
- ½ jalapeno, cut in half
- juice of half an orange
- 1 tablespoon sriracha
- zest of half an orange
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Pinch of salt
Put all ingredients into a sauce pan. Let cook until reduced to 1 cup, then depending on your heat level, either remove the jalapeno pepper, or puree the glaze with the jalapeno. Put glaze on meat of choice during the last 5-10 minutes of cooking. The sriracha really kicked this glaze up, so I removed the jalapeno.
I was lucky enough to be picked by Dave at eRecipe cards to participate in a recipe contest using O Olive Oil products. The other day I received my two bottles free directly from the company.
I was a bit worried about my glaze recipe because they state: “HINT: these are tasting oils/vinegars, not really meant for cooking and certainly not for frying. Best ideas will be salads and vegetable dishes that show off the unique aspects of the oils as finishing a dish.”
But this turned out delicious – I love a sweet/savory combo, so this was a winner for me – I ended up using about 2 tablespoons of glaze on my bone-in chicken breast. Thanks Dave and O Olive Oil for letting me participate in this event! I’ll soon have a link on eRecipecards.com where you can vote for my recipe if you like – there is prize money people! Momma needs a new pair of shoes. (Helen – insert link – I thought you would like that!).
I think next time I’ll even marinate the chicken overnight with some of this glaze as well as a finishing sauce. You could taste the slightly citrus flavor from the orange olive oil and I love the bite of the white balsamic vinegar. See that piece of chicken on that plate? The only thing left was a tiny back bone and I think I licked that too before giving it to the dog!
I am going to Chicago today!! Meeting up with Hannah and we plan on hitting up the Green City Market in Lincoln Park, then HOPEFULLY get into Rick Bayless’s new restaurant Xoco for lunch (insert link) and then check out the French Market in the train station. Should be a fun day! Well, I think pretty much any day not at work is a fun day!
Show of hands who’s been to Chicago?! I used to live about 15 minutes from the City. Now that I am 90 minutes away, I hardly go down there anymore – so sad I have like one of the greatest cities in my backyard and don’t take advantage of it as often as I should. Make it a great day!
Have a great time hangin’ with Hannah in Chicago. Dennis and I would LOVE to visit one day, looks like an amazing city!!!!! Flaming hot cheetos? They’re actually called FLAMING hot? Love that!!! Have a wonderful day Vat!
I have not been to Chicago, but my husband really wants to go back, he was born in Palatine. I love that you say Pop, reminds me of home 🙂
You and Tony sound like me and Andy. I am also always hot. It’s miserable.
I’m with you on flaming hot cheetos too. I love them.
I’ve been to Chicago once but Andy and I are dying to get back. We want to go for Rick Bayless’ place!
I’ve only been through Chicago heading elsewhere, though I’d love a 2-3 day trip there 🙂 Hope you have a great day with Hannah. That glaze sounds awesome and yes, let us know when/where we can vote.
I get to Chicago about once a year. Always fun. Keep listing places to try. I love recommendations.
This chicken looks just fabulous!!
What a delicious glaze!
I don’t know how you come up with all these recipes! DD2 loves Chicago and would like to live there for a year or two. She’ll change her mind when she experiences a winter up there. LOL
I’ve been to Chicago once and I loved it. I am hoping to do the Chicago marathon someday. Have fun in the city with Hannah!
Me!! I have been to Chicago! We used to live in Geneva and took the train in. Intelligentsia coffee is the best!!!
Enjoy your day with Hannah!
I’ve never been, but I definitely want to go one day. Hope you and Hannah have fun today! Maybe after one whiff of you, she’ll buy you some new body soaps! 😉
I love love love waking up to a cool room – it’s so comfy to curl up under the blankets and hit the snooze button! 🙂
I’m drooling over that glaze, btw……….
I’ve never been to Chicago but going to all those fun places with your daughter sounds awesome! And sleeping in just has to happen sometimes.
That’s pretty funny about the soda. The people at my work won’t drink diet at all. That stuff sits around. They want soda and preferably the stuff with real sugar.
XOCO rules! I work just a block North of there, the Ahogada is the best. Enjoy the day, too bad I am working at home today.
Never been to Chicago, but it’s on my list to visit. Usually I keep going west, though, so I don’t know when that is going to happen! Hope you have a great time there, and yay for getting to see your girl!
P.S. I love those cool mornings – don’t blame you one bit for taking the time to enjoy it!
Have fun in Chicago! I’ve been in, but only for a short bit. I actually worked on a project just outside the city for a while. Bummer about the lunch salad- it looks so good too!
Have a great time in Chicago!!!
I’m in Chicago ! In fact I’m in the building where the French Market is 🙂 Enjoy –it’s going to be a great day!
I totally understand about not getting into the great cities nearby – I live just about 1 1/2 to 2 hours away from either Boston or New York City and I just don’t go that often – not even on the train. I’m itching for an NYC visit though so I see one in my future.
Let me know where to vote. If my vote will get you a new pair of shoes, you know I’m there for you girlfriend 😉
I’ve been to Chicago but only once. The deep dish was amazing (and the city was nice too!). Your glaze looks so delicious–I hope you win Biz!
And, I have to say you make me laugh every time you say something tastes like ass. I’m really mature.