Weekend Recap: Carb Overload

Hello blog friends!  Hope you all had a lovely weekend.  I'm feeling a bit sluggish this evening as I've been carbo-loading along with Alex for the past week.  He's been training for today's half marathon and requested that we eat pasta basically every day this week.  Being the good wife that I am, I obliged.  The only problem is that I haven't been training for a race so this week's diet did not work in my favor.  Needless to say, we grilled a steak tonight.  No pasta on the side.

Keeping with the week's pasta theme Friday night was date night at Scoozi, one of our favorite restaurants.  We both have a bit of a sweet tooth, so after dinner we made our way over to one of Chicago's new frozen yogurt places (there are suddenly 5 or 6 new ones that have just popped up downtown) for a little dessert.

 Saturday was a pretty low key day.  Alex had me prepped to be up at 5 AM on Sunday (ick!) so after doing our usual weekend errands we watched a movie and made dinner at home.  It was pasta-- I know you're surprised!  I've included the recipe below and I think it was a really good pre-race dinner full of lean protein, no dairy, and served on whole wheat pasta (with veggies on the side, of course).  It's also a slow cooker recipe that only requires a few ingredients, which was great since we were running around all day and dinner was done when we got home.

Getting ready to run!

There he is!  Caught him on State Street.

Spotted him one more time-- I was waiting in front of The Rookery.

Sunday morning was race day and unfortunately, it didn't go quite as well as planned.  Alex had been suffering from a pulled hamstring since last weekend and although he rested it all week it took its toll today.  Shortly after I spotted him at The Rookery (above), Alex called me from the halfway point and said his leg was hurting too much to continue.  He was disappointed, but I'm still proud of him for powering through for as long as he did.  And frankly, the guy has completed multiple marathons.  I know he can do it when his body allows for it.  :)

To lift his spirits after the race we went to see the Dark Knight Rises later on Sunday.  I'm pretty sure this made his day.  It was a great movie, but since this is our blog I'd like to take a moment and end this post with a quick rant.  WHY did so many people bring their young children to see this movie?!  There were quite a few kids (like, in the single digit age range) in our theatre and besides the fact that it was rated PG-13 and close to 3 hours long, the movie was a really dark story about terrorism that made me (an adult) a bit squeamish in some of the more realistic/violent scenes.  This was not a comic book cartoon.  Use your heads, people.

Slow Cooker Chicken Marinara

Ingredients:

• Olive oil or cooking spray
• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 1/2 cups marinara sauce (I use my homemade sauce)
• 1/3 cup dry red wine
• Pasta, for serving 

Turn your slow cooker on to the "low cook" setting and lightly spray the bottom with cooking spray or olive oil.  Rinse the chicken breasts, pat dry with paper towels, and season both sides with salt and pepper.  Place the chicken breasts in the slow cooker and layer onions on top.  Combine the marinara sauce and red wine and pour over the chicken and onions.  Cook for 6-8 hours (and stir 2 or 3 times if you are home and you can).  Use a large fork to shred the chicken into smaller chunks and serve warm over pasta.