I had such a fun weekend! It was good for my soul after a busy work week. Saturday morning I was up bright and early to head to Soldier Field. Um, that’s 50 miles from where I live. I thought about doing an AIRbnb or getting a hotel room closer on Friday night, but in the end, I decided I could just wake up early and I was on the road at 7:30 a.m.
I walked in honor of my SIL Laura, who is a breast cancer survivor, and in memory of my cousin Pam.
Weight Watchers sent me this super soft shirt and a head band to wear.
Traffic wasn’t too bad, and I was able to park in the Adler Planetariam parking lot which was maybe 1/4 mile away from the event for only $11. I know my Mom is going to mention that my bangs need to be cut 😀
The temps were in the low 60s and overcast. They had live music, and people were dancing, it just made you feel good.
So many different t-shirt designs and costumes.
I’ve actually never been to a Bears game or an event and Soldier Field before, so it was cool to walk around it. I met a new friend Liz! She’s a fellow Chicago Weight Watcher Ambassador. She’s lost 100 pounds and just ran her second marathon, the Chicago Marathon, and beat her previous time by 45 minutes! We’ve been following each other on social media, so again, it felt like meeting an old friend.
Her boyfriend Brian joined us for the walk. He’s a radio DJ at WKQX 101.1 here in Chicago. The conversation flowed and before we knew it, the walk was over.
If you are on Instagram, you should follow Liz, she’s super down to earth and glad that I can call her my new friend.
As we neared the end of the walk, the clouds started to dissipate and it was a gorgous day. That view though!
I did a quick change of clothes at my sisters house, because I was having lunch with Nicole from PreventionRD!
We’ve “known” each other going on 8 years, when our blogs were mere babies. In that time I think she’s moved at least twice, maybe three times, gotten married and had two gorgeous girls. We both know so much about each other that we had no problem spending nearly 2 1/2 hours at lunch just gabbing away. It was so great to finally meet you! And glad that you swear like I do 😛
I told her about the amazing burger at The Little Gem, and it did not disappoint. So flavorful, perfect patty to bun ratio and hand cut fries – amazeballs.
Sunday morning I got Bizzy in My Kitchen – one of my favorite places to be, especially because it was chilly and rainy out. I’ve got a couple ground turkey recipes lined up for later this week – I scored a 3 pound package of Jennie-O turkey breast for only $5.87! For lunch today I am having honey sriracha turkey meatballs – that recipe will be on the blog tomorrow, and it’s a winner.
My Mom sings in a choir called Sing to Live and its members are either breast cancer survivors and people who have been affected by cancer – my Mom sings in memory of our Dad. It started out small and now it’s grown to about 80 people? If you follow me on Instagram, check out my Instastory because I have some snipets of the music. Music from the 60s – it was wonderful.
We always go out to dinner afterwards. Um, can I just mention it here that I drove 45 miles to go to the concert and my sister who is 1/2 a mile away didn’t go?! Ha – just had to put that in there and remind everyone there is a reason that I am my Mom’s favorite child. 😀
Altiro is a new restaurant to Oak Park – although this is their 4th location in the Chicagoland area – I think all the other ones are in Chicago. My Mom and I happen to love small plates because that gives us a chance to try so many things. We of course started with a cocktail – I had Sauvignon Blanc and my Mom had the red sangria. My Mom’s sangria was delicious, but it was A LOT of ice for the price.
Love you Momma! I mean, come on – look at her smiling at her favorite child!
We were both drawn to the trio of guacamole – only a couple things stood in our way – for me, THE ONIONS and for my Mom, the serrano peppers, she thought it might be too spicy. We decided to give it a try – one was a mango salsa, another one was watermelon and the third was traditional. We both decided that they all tasted the same, but delicious nonetheless. And there were red onions in there, but they were chopped really fine, so it was all good.
Each of the taco plates came with 4 mini tacos. This picture below does not do these tacos any justice – these were Slagel Farms beef tacos with crispy shoestring potatoes, queso fresco and avocado. The beef was so flavorful and tender and I loved the crunch of the potatoes.
Next up were shrimp tacos with avocado, crema and a chipotle aoili – these were a bit too spicy for my Momma, but I loved it.
But the show stopper of the night, was this chicken poblano dish – it was super tender lightly breaded chicken over a poblano and corn rice that was so creamy it almost tasted like risotto, with crema and pom seeds. We basically licked this plate clean.
We would definitely go back, but it is a bit pricey – $40 per person with one drink, but I’d go back for this chicken dish and eat it all by myself next time.
***********
I have to give huge shout out to Louise!
She made this gorgeous wedding card for Hannah and Jacob – she is so talented! If you ever need a special card, or holiday cards, she has a gorgeous Etsy store.
And I have to give a shout out to my blog friend Julianne, we’ve “known” each other for years, she’s also diabetic so we are diabetes buddies. She sent a gift card to Hannah and Jacob for their wedding and also sent me this Starbuck’s gift card – it’s one of my bucket list to make it to California one day and meet all my West Coast blog friends. Thank you Julianne!
So here we are at Monday again. Even though it was a busy weekend, I did relax a bit, and feel rested to face my work week. I decided no matter what work is on my desk that I am taking my lunch and other than the two days I am night secretary, leaving exactly at 5 p.m. I figure if I actually type it out to the universe, it will actually happen!
Make it a great day!
