I Should Have Been Born a City Girl

My mom and I finally made it home to Minnesota safe and sound! We both agreed this was the best trip we’ve taken together, just the two of us—it was some much needed girl time!

Saturday Re-cap

Saturday morning rolled around fast and it was finally time for the highly anticipated Healthy Living Summit 2010! Everyone filed down early to the banquet rooms in the Congress Plaza Hotel and picked up the swag bags (watch for all the goodies in upcoming posts) , checked out the booths from the companies, and found seats to listen to the speakers. There was so many different topics to choose from..we chose the Ethical Eating presented by Evan from Food Makes Fun Fuel. Here’s the notes I took:

• Look for eggs that are from veg-fed chickens.
• Store bought dairy is comparable to brand name. Just look for hormone-free.
• For poultry, buy it free of hormones and antibiotics.
• Swap tuna with salmon occasionally.
• Avoid the “choice” cuts.
• Ethical eating is happy eating!

Then Quaker put on a morning snack break.

Mom liked their new Chocolate Swirl bars.

Check out these swag bags—filled with everything from assorted healthy bars to laundry detergent!

The second conference we attended was Healthy Entertaining put on by RhodeyGirl Tests…you can get the full recap here.

Lunch was sponsored by Arnold and Orowheat—it was amazingly good..check out the menu!

My plate…so fresh & delicious!

The Sandwich Thins are delish—I can’t wait to buy some with my coupons I got!

----

We didn’t stick around for all of the afternoon sessions because it was my mom’s birthday and we figured Chicago was the perfect place to celebrate! Shopping and more food anyone?

 

We ate at the popular pizza place called Pizano’s Pizza and Pasta in downtown Chicago. I was a little skeptical of the half hour seating time and the 45 minute wait for the pizza..I had my fingers crossed that it’d be worth the wait…and boy, was it!

                                              

I loved the Italian decor—right up my alley :-)

 

We ordered the vegetarian pizza with the addition of pineapple, spinach, and fresh tomatoes. The sauce was outrageously good, the veggies were fresh, and there was a perfect amount of blended cheeses to top it off.

And more walking just added to my appetite..

Thank God for Park Cafe in Millennium park having the only place around open past six that has frozen yogurt!

 

Stay tuned for the last of my Healthy Living Summit trip recap!

What is the best pizza you’ve ever eaten?

My Pizza Project

“Ideas are like pizza dough, made to be tossed around.”

Well, it’s Monday folks. And that means for most people, myself now included, that it’s back to the work week. Sometimes during the summer, by the end of the day when suppertime rolls around, not only are you hot/tired, but you don’t even want to consider firing up appliances and making dirty dishes in the kitchen. So instead you pull out your handy list of pizza delivery numbers, and you’re just a phone call away from a hot and tasty dinner on your doorstep. Pizza has always been one of my favorite foods, but for some reason, I have yet to hit all the pizza places in my college town, which being here almost 3 years, you think I would have made a significant dent. But, I suppose it’s never too late to make the rounds and find a favorite. Lately, I’ve gotten the chance to try out three local pizza places in the past couple weeks—I blame it on my busy schedule, and it isn’t going to slow down anytime soon, so I hope to make it to the other 8 or so in the duration of summer—I am going to label it “My Pizza Project”! So I hope you’ll follow along, or maybe start your own!?

Did you know : Pizzerias represent 17% of all restaurants in the US?

My favorite so far: Keith’s Pizza

I got their Spinach Pie pizza minus the olives and added pineapple, fresh tomatoes, and mushrooms. I am a thin-crust kinda girl, so this pizza was right up my alley. It wasn’t greasy at all, had a generous amount of topping and overall was two thumbs up in my book!

Also tried their new Aloha wings which were a fantastic combo of sweet, salty, and spicy—I wish I could remake them at home!

My 2nd favorite so far: Green Mill

The Green Mill offers three types of crust; thin, Pescara (hand-tossed), and deep dish. I decided to go with the Pescara instead of the thin. I’ve always been a huge fan of Green Mill’s special tomato sauce, and I was also impressed with the variety of topping choices they had. The pizza ended up with smoked ham, pineapple, caramelized onions and mushrooms. Turned out to be a fabulous tasting pizza, except next time I think I would go with the thin, just because it was a lot of crust!

My 3rd not-so-favorite: Giovanni’s

We actually ordered this pizza at work the other day, and I was the least bit impressed. To me it seemed overly greasy and the cheese was a rubbery texture. Maybe if I tried some of their veggie pizza or something? I’m not sure, but don’t think I’d care to order from there again.

In non-food related news..

I got a chance to go to the Moondance Jammin’ Country Fest this past weekend! It was so awesome, and even better, the weather cooperated!

On Saturday night, the main stage had Kellie Pickler, Sammy Kershaw and the Zac Brown Band performing—they all put on a fantastic show!!

And another highlight of the day…this delicious banana vanilla swirl soft-serve ice cream!!

Where is your favorite place to get pizza in your town and why!?

First Two Days of the Rest of My Summer

For those of you who don’t know about my new summer job, read about it here and here.

Thursday was basically the first day of work, and the first day of what I will be doing the rest of the summer. I work 6 days a week—days spent cooking, learning new things, cleaning, and just enjoy being around all things food! The kitchen I am working in for the Concordia Language Villages is in charge of preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the adult campers, who are actually here for a seminar to learn to teach the language they teach in a better and more effective way—and like I mentioned before, they are coming from all corners of the world.

Here’s my new kitchen I’ll be cooking in probably more than my home kitchen:

 

This is the dining hall where the students will be eating.

Meals don’t start being served until today, so Thursday and Friday were brutally long days (8-9 hours on my feet) spent stocking the kitchen with everything. During the actual school year, the kitchen is used for other purposes, so we came into a completely empty kitchen. A huge truck load delivered numerous boxes filled with everything from utensils to kitchen appliances. And all things that came through the door had to be washed, so needless to say many many loads of dishes were done.

 

Friday, I was pretty much in charge of all things going on. More unloading, and another delivery from the food distributor.

When the food is delivered, everything needs to be checked on the inventory sheet and put away immediately—it’s quite the process, but I will get the hang of it!

Stay tuned for more job adventures—glad you’ll be around for the ride!! :-)

During this job, I can definitely see I will need to snack a lot to keep up my energy, so it’s the perfect opportunity to try out my outrageously growing bar collection.

Kashi Go Lean Cinnamon Coffee Cake Bar

“This all natural vanilla coffee cake flavored snack bar is infused with the dreamy combination of cinnamon and roasted hazelnut chunks.”

Chew Review: This bar was great! It's made its’ way into my top 5 favorites. I loved how it had the sweet coating both on the bottom and also drizzled on the top. It was the perfect crunch as well. And as far as keeping me full, I don’t think it would as a meal replacement, but it works perfect as a sweet ending to a meal.

 

Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there! :-)

Pizza Party

 

Hope everyone is enjoying the long holiday weekend!

-------------

So far, the weather has been glorious here. Sunshine, blue skies, and high 80 temps. My mom came down to visit for the weekend and we decided to take advantage of the summer season and head to the closest State Park. People were swimming, fishing, barbequing, and just hanging out.

So most people BBQ and go all out on picnic foods and such for Memorial Day, so come Tuesday when the work week picks back up and things are back to the daily grind, you may want to base a meal on packaged foods to make dinner a little easier and faster. This is just as fast as ordering delivery, but much better!

Wingless Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Ingredients:

• 1 (6oz) bag Tyson Grilled Chicken Breast Strips

• 1 pre-made pizza crust, such as Boboli
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 to 3 Tbsp hot sauce, such as Frank’s Red Hot

• 1/2 c tomato sauce
• 1 c shredded Monterey Jack cheese,
• 1/2 c blue cheese crumbles
• 3 scallions, thinly sliced
• 2 tsp grill seasoning

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
• Set pizza on pizza pan.
• In a medium skillet over medium heat, melt butter and stir in Worcestershire, hot sauce, and tomato sauce. Add chicken to sauce and coat. Cover the pizza dough with the saucy Buffalo chicken, cheeses, and scallions. Bake 18 minutes or until crisp.

And of course, breadsticks are a must!

These are a quick-fix, and comparable to Pizza Huts. Plus, you get sauce right in the package—perfect!

Speaking of Pizza Hut, have you heard of their new Eat Well menu? A little about it:

“To help its customers make healthy choices Pizza Hut has launched an "Eat Well" menu that includes items that fall under the Heart and Stroke Foundation's Health Check program.

The menu, which was developed in Canada, now includes pizzas made on multi-grain dough and oven-baked whole-grain pastas. A logo showing a red circle with a white check mark is guiding diners to healthy menu choices.”

The new choices include:

• Grilled Chicken Arabbiatta Pizza
• Grilled Chicken Rustico Pizza
• Giardino Fresco Pizza
• Margherita Pizza
• Tuscani Mediterranean Vegetable Pasta
• Tuscani Mediterranean con Polo Pasta

I think this concept is great! Have you tried their new menu?