Monogram Love

I'm sure you've seen my new monogrammed cup posted on my Instagram & Facebook pages and it comes with quite exciting news.  One of my favorite crafty ladies (who also happened to be one of my beautiful bridesmaids) finally started a shop of her own!!  Check out Initial It Gifts' page here and I promise you will not be disappointed. 

I'm beyond excited for Brittany & this new adventure!  I was lucky enough to enjoy her craftiness during my wedding planning days and all throughout my time spent in North Carolina.  Brittany was kind enough to etch all of our glass beer boots to personalize our groomsmen gifts and one of our wedding gifts was a monogrammed plate (with my new last name initial!!)  Last year I got a wine glass decorated with wedding colors & a cute "K" as well, so as you can see I have shared in her monogram love for several years.  Brittany & her cute shop, Initials It Gifts, can monogram anything and everything!  I'm excited to see what great ideas the shop will continue to come up with.  As for me, I can't wait to enjoy my new monogrammed cup this week on the lake for 4th of July!  Cheers!

Jillian Review: Kickbox FastFix

www.barnesandnoble.com

I know I'm a little late to the party on this one (it was released early 2012) buuuut I finally bought the Jillian Michaels: Kickbox FastFix DVD!  This one has three 20 minute kickboxing workouts.  I assume you can do all three at once if you really want a hard core workout, but since I do these during my lunch hour at our office gym, I'm doing one at a time. 

Naturally I couldn't wait to try my shiny new Jillian DVD, so I squeezed Workout 1 in today even with a crazy schedule.  Coincidentally, this workout is legitimately 20 minutes including the warm up and cool down so it's perfect for those days when you want to get your heart rate going but you don't want to be sweating for hours.  With that said, even though it is a mere 20 minutes, it's definitely a great total body workout - arms incorporated with punching sequences, legs used with lots of great kicking motions, and core continuously engaged.  Let's be serious - Jillian even managed to throw suicide sprints into the mix...did you expect anything less?!

I can't wait to try Workout 2 & 3; this seems like it will climb to one of my top favorite JM DVDs.  Do you love it too?!

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Last August, I made this great side salad that Carl and I swore we couldn't wait to try doctored up as a main course.  Fast forward 10 months and we finally got around to trying it!  I must say, it was even better as dinner.

Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad - the dinner version

1 box Ronzoni Smart Taste 2.5x the fiber pasta
1 large red onion
5 stalks celery
3 cans cooked chunk chicken
1 bottle Franks Red Hot Wings buffalo sauce
1 bottle Walden Farms zero calorie bleu cheese dressing

Boil noodles according to directions on box.

While noodles are boiling, chop onion and celery.  Combine chopped onion, chopped celery stalks, and chicken chunks in a large bowl.  Pour about half of each dressing jar into the bowl and mix well.  After draining the cooked noodles, place in bowl, cover with the remaining dressing, and stir until the mixture is well incorporated.  You can either enjoy now or refrigerate and enjoy later!  Like I mentioned in the first post, the dish is spicier if you serve it warm right away - so dig in if you love that zing!

Slice of Chicago

www.sliceofchicagopizzatours.com

Who doesn't want a slice of Chicago?  Such a wonderful city!  We like doing 'different' things around town (even if it may seem touristy) because we learn new tidbits of information and find out about places we may not have heard of before.  This time's adventure was the Slice of Chicago Pizza Tour and it was well worth the deal (a Christmas present for Carl purchased on Groupon.)  We both recommend it!

We met our group at Pizzeria Uno (different than the chain,) moved on to Pizzeria Ora, and finished up at Giordano's.  At each restaurant we tasted a smaller "sample" size of Chicago style pizza and listened to our guide talk about the restaurant and their style of pizza.  It's a seasonal tour, so at Pizzeria Ora there is inside seating, but the other two restaurants offer outdoor seating.  We went in May, so it was a bit chilly but overall a really enjoyable evening.  The guide is friendly and funny, the facts are interesting and the pizza is delish.  Pizzeria Uno was not my favorite (biscuit-y crust was a bit much.)  I'm glad the tour included Pizzeria Ora; it's a small, locally owned place with great food and extremely friendly service.  We'll definitely be going back since they have great deep dish and no wait, like with the well known pizzerias.  Finally, Giordano's was delicious!!  It's stuffed rather than the true deep dish, so totally different than the classic Gino's East but just as good.  We can't wait to go back and try a whole pizza our way!

What's your favorite pizza on the tour?  Let me know if there's some good Chicago deep dish I'm missing - we all know Carl loves a good deep dish.