All-star Bloggers!!

I was fortunate enough to be able to finally meet some of my blog idols this weekend!

On Friday, I was picked up from work by lovely Mara from I Made Dinner, Jenn from Eating Bender (also my school-mate and future city-mate) and another mystery lady to go to Cafe LaGuardia to meet Shannon from The daily balance.

We of course, got semi-lost along the way, which was PERFECT for extra QT. Here are some interesting facts I learned each girl:

Mara – has road rage sometimes, has tonnes of knowledge about Chicago’s neighborhoods & restaurants, and is INCREDIBLY generous!!! She insisted not only on completely going out of her way to drive and pick all of us up from our respective homes, but even freakin’ gave each of us big ass goody bags filled with yummy treats!!! Check this out!

Jenn – is probably one of the most genuinely sweet people I have ever met. Her most-hated product samples were green tea bars she got to review, and we have 15 common facebook friends!! hahahah SHOCKING.  Jenn also came bearing gifts for us all!

Shannon – Has turned her husband into a male model, is ridiculously easy to talk to, and has been on the cover of a Hallmark card featuring her making out with her man! How cute is that??!?!?!

Anyway, the point is that CHICAGO is the place to be my friends! Now let’s do this post backwards again starting from dinner!

At the cuban dinner place, I ordered a Traditional Pressed Cuban Sandwich with super spicy chicken instead of the original because I’m hard core like that.

They bake their own yellow egg bread that is flaky and crusty on the outside and uber-duber soft on the inside. (THE perfect sandwich bread if you ask me) Inside is sauteed onions and two big slabs of chicken drenched in some kind of super spicy sauce. SUPER spicy I say!!!

So juicy and hot…I devoured this and a couple pieces of Jenn’s fried plantains from her veggie platter. 😛 But dang, what’s dinner without dessert right?? I KNEW I had to try the Sensible Foods snacks from Mara because I have been DYING to try these for…forever!!!

I made a cereal bowl of honey bunches of oats, kix, half a pack of the cherry & berry dried fruit snacks and topped it off with half a cup of vanilla soy milk. IT WAS SO GOOD I almost cried when I saw the end of the bowl. *sigh* Good bye Sensible Foods!!! *sniff* THANK YOU Mara!!!

***

For lunch…

I brought a leftover salad & mahi mahi from my dinner at Hub51 the night before, toasted a WW English muffin, and invented a brand new HEAVENLY avocado-hummus-hot sauce spread to top it.

As you can see, the star of the show was the Big S Farm volcanic hot sauce that has chunks of carrot puree in it. Now let me show you my proud invention.

BEFORE

1 Tbs Sabra garlic hummus, 1/8 mushy avocado, splatter of hot sauce

AFTER you mix it all up…HEAVENLY spread that I DID NOT WANT TO END…..*sniff*

and then, I had my snack in the afternoon of Kay’s Lemon Herb Protein Chips!

Good thing I liked this product WAY more than their jalapeno mustard pretzels. These were really lovely and crunchy but also light and airy in the center. It wasn’t quite lemon-y or too herby, but reminded me a little of sour cream and onion seasonin, which is one of my favorites…so SCORE Kay’s!! The packet was 120 calories x 1.5 servings. Per ounce, there are 9g of protein, 3g of fiber, 3.5g of fat, and 3g of sugar. Not bad!

***

Then there was breakfast!!

I know this doesn’t look so appetizing on the plate, but this is SINLESS baked french toast topped with granola & brown sugar. I promise!

I am seriously so proud of this after adapting the recipe from what we ate at the Bed & Breakfast in Galena 2 weeks ago.OK, I had more than 1 serving because it was HOT and it tasted SO GOOD even without any syrup.

This makes 2 servings and its ingredients are:

4 slices WW honey-wheat bread, 1 cup vanilla soy milk, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, and a buttload of cinnamon soaked overnight then baked in the AM with the granola (~1/2 cup) and brown sugar (~1/4 cup) coating.

SO TASTY SO TASTY SO TASTY.

!!!!

Now I shall end this post with an even tastier picture of some hoochie mamas.

Mara, Lady anonymous, Me, Jenn, & Shannon!!!!

Hope ya’ll are having a fabulous weekend. 🙂

Just for Fun!

Baked French Toast, Bloggers, Cafe de LaGuardia, Dinner, Honey Dew, Hot Sauce, hummus, Jenn, Kay's Naturals, Mara, Meet up, Products, Reviews, Salad, Shannon

May 17, 2009

33 Comments