Posts Tagged ‘Chicago’

17 Oct

M is for Marshmallows (and Marathons)

Posted by Kristen in City, Running, veganmofo. Tagged: , , , , , .

Allison’s Gourmet drinking chocolate with Sweet & Sara mini marshmallows (in a running mug).

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Speaking of running, here’s my very belated Chicago marathon race report.

A brief history of Chicago marathons:

2007 – my first Chicago marathon, turned “fun run” at mile 21 due to extreme heat. Finishing time – 5:10:52

2009 – There was great weather this year, but my left leg had been bothering me the for almost a month before the race. The first half went OK, but I was limping by mile 14. Found a limping buddy and we shuffled across the finish line together. Finishing time – 4:35:42 and I couldn’t run (I could barely walk) for weeks thanks to a stress fracture.

2010 – I had decent training for this race but I completely fell apart around mile 18. I didn’t just hit the wall, I slammed into it head first. It was another hot one, and I did not handle it well. Finishing time – 4:28:32

I swore off the Chicago marathon after 2010. I finally broke 4 hours at Illinois the following year, but it was a horrible experience (that wall!). So I ran Milwaukee just for fun- no time goal, no watch, I just wanted to finish strong (something I hadn’t done since Atlanta 2008). But then I was back in Chicago.

I missed out on some speed work in August as well as a couple long runs (probably made up for it with a 42 mile ultra), but besides that, training went really well. There were no injuries either. The weather forecast? Perfection!

Goals:
Realistic goal- under 3:50
Happy goal- 3:45
Secret goal – qualify for Boston 2014 with 3:40.
But most important: just break the Chicago curse.

I missed my secret goal by 2 minutes, 17 seconds, but it was a 14 minute PR and the Chicago marathon curse was finally broken and I finished with a smile. I did learn an important lesson though: Garmin is useless in a marathon. It was close for most miles, but around the half it went crazy (at no point did I run a sub-8 minute mile).

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Accurate 5K Splits

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Race pics

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Best race photo ever on the left here

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Best race moment: passing a guy in a “Fueled by Beef” shirt at mile 22 in my No Meat Athlete “Runs on Plants” tee.

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8 Oct

E is for Estate Ultra Bar

Posted by Kristen in City, Non-veg Restaurant, veganmofo. Tagged: , , .

On Saturday night, H and I went to Estate Ultra Bar for a pre-marathon dinner. It’s a trendy place with an impressive drink menu and an amazing view of the city. It gets an A for effort on catering to vegans, too. When I emailed about vegan options, I received a quick response with the “secret” vegan menu. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t that great. The hummus and olives were fine, but it’s pretty hard to mess those  up. H’s fries were good, but mine were overcooked. The veggie burger had potential, but it was on the dry side. I spread some of the hummus on the burger and that made it much better. We’ll probably go back again, just not before 10:00 p.m. and only for drinks.

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15 Jul

Taste of Chicago

Posted by Kristen in City. Tagged: , , .

Yesterday, H and I took a little day trip to Chicago to go to the beach (pre-rain) and Taste of Chicago (during the torrential downpour).

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We met up with some friends just before 2:00 and almost immediately it started to pour. Six of us huddled under 2 umbrellas, but we still go soaked. When the rain finally let up, I went on the search for vegan food.  I read something about Karyn’s on Green being at Taste. Unfortunately, I did not pay attention to the details, because it is one of the pop up restaurants and it is only there on Sunday (so if you are in Chicago today, go check them out!). The Nile was one of yesterday’s pop up restaurants and they served a vegan falafel sandwich. It was good, but it does not compare to Expressly Leslie.  I also found butter-free corn on the cob from Abbey Pub and orange Italian ice from Tutto Italiano.

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Buckingham Fountain

1 Apr

April Fools Anniversary

Posted by Kristen in City. Tagged: , , , .

This weekend, H and I went to Chicago to celebrate our second anniversary. We had an amazing dinner at Charlie Trotter’s on Friday night. We were greeted with a glass of champagne, met Chef Trotter, and got a tour of the kitchen. The vegetable menu was made vegan for me and it was incredible. The service was excellent. On Saturday, we had lunch at Native Foods and dinner at Karyn’s on Green.

Our room at Trump Tower had a little kitchen, so I brought some groceries with us and made breakfast this morning.

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We had tofu scramble with lots of veggies

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Garlicky potatoes

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Tempeh bacon

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And finally, a “fried egg” made of Dandies marshmallow and a marzipan “yolk.”

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18 Mar

St. Patrick’s Day, Madness Race Report & Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Posted by Kristen in Baking, City, Running. Tagged: , , , .

We are having crazy warm weather in Chicago. This worries me for two reasons: global warming and if it’s 80 degrees in March, will it be 105 in August? But I’m not going to lie, after a couple weeks of snow, this weather feels amazing (except when you are running a half-marathon, more on that later).

On Saturday, we made our way downtown with thousands of other people dressed in green t-shirts and tank tops to celebrate St. Patrick’s day. First stop, Native Foods for half-priced beer and a Classic Deli Reuben: thinly-sliced deli-style Native Reuben Seitan piled high on grilled marble rye, topped with homemade sauerkraut, Native Horseradish Cheese and a slather of Russian dressing, and served with a side of lemon-dill potato salad. Yum!

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Next up the green water: the fountains at the Daley Center.

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This is my fourth St. Patrick’s day in Chicagoland, and I finally saw the green river. It was much brighter than my pictures.

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March Madness Half-Marathon

Two weeks ago, when I ran this course in the snow with gloves, tights, hat, and a jacket, I was hoping it would be warm enough to wear a sleeveless shirt and my new armwarmers. It was way too hot for armwarmers. It was too hot for a shirt, too (but I kept that on). I had the ambitious goal of qualifying for a C Corral at Chicago and I needed a 1:45:59. On this hilly course in this heat, that was not realistic. It started off well; I was on pace for a 1:45 until mile 10. But there is a big hill before getting to the mile 10 marker that knocked me out and I was never able to recover.

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I made Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes for the Hillstriders post-race party: chocolate Guinness cupcakes (from Sticky Fingers Sweets) with whiskey chocolate ganache filling and Baileys Irish cream frosting.

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9 Oct

Chicago Marathon & iCream

Posted by Kristen in Running, veganmofo. Tagged: , , , .

The Chicago marathon: the October weekend where summer returns. I do not know what the Chicago marathon did to upset the marathon gods, but it was another hot one. Great volunteering weather though, which is what I did this year. We stayed downtown last night, so I got to sleep in until 4:00! I walked over to the first water stop at State and Washington, checked and started lining cups of gatorade.

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Lots and lots of gatorade!

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The wheelchair racers started first and came through quickly. I am so impressed by these athletes.

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The clock cars came through with 7 minutes. Wow. That is fast.

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So fast you could barely see them.

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Volunteering was a lot of fun and I actually saw a few people I knew racing. It was hotter than ideal, so more people were taking gatorade than usual. I love cheering for the runners. After we cleaned up, we headed over to the finish line to watch the elites.  Moses Mosop  won the race and set a course record with a time of 2:05:37.
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Liliya Shobukhova won the race for the third time in a row and is only one of twelve women to break 2:20 at Chicago. Her time was 2:18:20. Absolutely amazing.

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After watching the elites, I went down Michigan to cheer for the runners.  I saw Sara, who was doing awesome and right on pace for a BQ.  With only 800 meters to go, she came in with 4 minutes to spare!
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Next we saw Walt, a Nike 4:30 pacer. After running an extremely consistent race, he brought his group across the finish line with 11 seconds under 4:30. That is the kind of pacer I need, not someone who banks time.
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After a coffee break, we watched for H’s sister; she was also in the zone and didn’t see us, but she was looking good for her first marathon!

Congrats!

She was walking way better than I was last week, which was good because we walked at least half of a mile  to get to Native Foods in Wicker Park. Of course, the meal was amazing. After lunch, we headed across the street to iCream. ICream has a vegan soy option with several vegan mix-ins (including the chocolate chips) and, except for the white chocolate, all flavorings are vegan. I ordered the mint soy ice cream with oreos. It was delicious, but probably the best part of the iCream experience is watching them create your ice cream.

7 Oct

Hannah’s Bretzel: Über Sandwich Makers

Posted by Kristen in Non-veg Restaurant, veganmofo. Tagged: , , .

On days that I have to go to court in Chicago, I usually skip breakfast and take advantage of the vast selection of food available in a cosmopolitan area. Even if its just a vegetable sandwich, it feels so much fancier when an “Über” sandwich maker prepares it, or maybe I have to convince myself that to feel better about spending $9 on a vegetable sandwich. Hannah’s Bretzel is across the street from the federal courthouse and I tried it for the first time this week. It’s menu is clearly marked with vegetarian and vegan items. I ordered the Vegetable Bomb (sliced cucumbers, vine tomatoes, avocado, red onions, alfalfa sprouts, watercress and baby arugula drizzled with housemade vinaigrette on organic whole grain baguette). It was much better than expected thanks to the arugula and house made vinaigrette. I picked the vegan soy nuts (what would make soy nuts unvegan?) as my side.

I also bought a Fearless Chocolate Bar.

It’s raw, crunchy and delicious. It’s like a healthy Nestlé Crunch.

21 Jul

Federal Plaza Farmers Market

Posted by Kristen in City. Tagged: , , , .

On Tuesday, I had to go to court in Chicago, which meant that I would miss the Woodstock Farmers Market. I was pleasantly surprised to see a market right across the street from the courthouse. The Federal Plaza Farmers Market is every Tuesday from 7 a.m. -3 p.m. There was a lot of good stuff. I bought two bunches of basil and two bunches of kale, onions, green beans, zucchini, and berries.

Wednesday’s dinner revolved around kale, the poster vegetable of veganism.

(On a cart return at Whole Foods in Birmingham, AL)

Curry Lentils with Kale

Serves 4

  • 1 bunch of kale, de-stemmed and chopped
  • 2 cups of lentils
  • 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 1 small onion, sliced
  • 3-4 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
  • 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
  • 1 box brown rice couscous

Steam kale for 3-5 minutes, remove from hot water and soak in an ice bath. Toast seeds in cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Stir constantly to avoid burning. Add a teaspoon of olive oil and sauté onion and garlic until onions are tender. Stir in lentils and remaining spices. Add kale. Cook until lentils are hot.

Serve over brown rice couscous.

I also made some Spicy Kale Chips for the first time. Kale chips are everywhere and for good reason. These are some tasty treats.

Tonight was all about the basil. I made a big batch of walnut-basil pesto and served it over brown rice noodles and green beans. Sometimes when I get an idea for dinner, but have second thoughts over whether the combination in my head will translate to the plate, I do a search of foodgawker. Happily, someone else had made pesto with green beans. She also used black olives. I had kalamata olives, so I threw those in. It was good except for the green beans, but that was just a bad box of green beans, not the recipe’s fault.

18 Apr

Chicago Weekend

Posted by Kristen in City. Tagged: , , .

My friend from high school came to a conference in Chicago last week and stayed a few extra days in fabulous Woodstock. While it was more like winter than spring, we still had a blast.

On Friday night, we went to Duke’s Alehouse in Crystal Lake. I feel like they had fewer vegan options this time, which makes me a little sad, but the jalapeno hummus appetizer was great.

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For dinner I ordered the vegan chili again (this time with French bread instead of non-vegan cornbread) and the roasted vegetable pizza.
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On Saturday, I had my last longish run before the marathon. H & A met me in Crystal Lake for breakfast with the group. In the afternoon, I showed A around the beautiful city of Woodstock. We occupied ourselves for hours in the town square shops admiring vintage hats and laughing at corny trinkets.

We rushed to catch the 5:48 train to Chicago, but I still managed to juice 9 limes to make vodka gimlets for our trip down. (I’m stealing pictures from my friend; she has a really good eye).

We went to Ai Japanese for sushi when we arrived downtown. Without realizing it, I ordered two versions of the same sushi roll. The plain garden roll and a fancy one. Sadly, Ai uses egg in its tempura and cream in the kabocha corn soup. The chef hemmi veggie roll is garden maki topped with cucumber & moro-miso; mango; endive & sansho; avocado & nori paste; oshinko.

We ended the night at Rebar in Trump Tower. Good view, great cocktails, nice crowd, but watch your drink like a hawk! Servers grabbed our drinks well before we were done with them. At $18 a pop, I want to drink the entire thing, not 3/4 of it.

Thank goodness for the weekend pass; we got back on the train on Sunday afternoon and headed downtown to Karyn’s on Green.

I started with the French Onion Soup.

A had the Butternut Squash Soup, which looked and tasted amazing.

H ordered biscuits and gravy. The biscuits and “butter” were good, but the gravy left a little something to be desired.

I think I’m finally at the point where next time I go I’ll try something new, but I had to get the crab cake sliders again.

A’s Buffalo Chicken Pita looked great.

We didn’t save room for dessert, but we ordered it anyway. The chocolate terrine was amazing, but the coffee cheesecake was so gross. We picked the berries off of it, but the cake was not edible.

They use Villeroy & Boch new wave cups & saucers.

We tried to go to the top of the Sears Willis Tower, but once again, I wasn’t able to use my free tickets to the Sky Deck. When my parents came, it was closed when we wanted to go. When my sister and her husband came, it was a dark & stormy night and there would have been no view. Yesterday, there was a one and a half hour wait! It wasn’t worth missing the 6:30 train to stand in that line. We walked around town a bit, went to the lobby of the Palmer House and then caught the train back to the burbs.

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