Chicago Long Weekend Favorites

It's no surprise that my long weekend in Chicago has been a highlight of my summer, so far. I shared my full recap {here} but wanted to provide some highlights for a long weekend in Chicago in case you don't feel like scanning through my recap and hearing about my soaking wet shorts from kayaking. 

Here's the thing, there is so much you can see and do in Chicago. Even though this was my third time visiting the windy city, every experience has been different and I've come across something new that I love even more. 

I think it's fair to say it would be really hard to conquer all of Chicago in an extended weekend. Before you know it you're having so much fun and then you look up and your trip is over. But regardless, you can still see plenty and have an awesome experience in a short amount of time. It's really all what you make of it.

SIGHTS TO SEE
If you're up for exploring the city more in detail other than just strolling around, you might enjoy checking out some of these awesome sights:
The Skydeck at the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower)
The famous Bean at Millennium Park
The Chicago Riverwalk
Navy Pier
The Art Museum
Wrigley Field
Lincoln Park Zoo
Magnificent Mile Shopping 

LET'S DO THIS
One of my favorite parts of our trip was kayaking on the Chicago river. If you have a few hours to spend and you are an adventurous person I would highly recommend it! If not, no worries, there's other options as well:
Kayak Chicago
Chicago River tour or architecture tour
Divvy Bikes

GET IN MY BELLY:
Everyone knows a trip isn't complete without some awesome food. Chicago has so many great food options it's really hard to pick where to let your taste buds run wild:

A deep dish slice is a must no matter where you go, but Giordano's is a fan favorite and my brothers go to spot.

Holy deliciousness! Lou Mitchell's blew us away with probably the best breakfast I've ever eaten. Everything from their french toast, to eggs, to the sausage was mouth watering. Thank God there's a lot of walking going on in the city because we basically cleared our plates.

Homemade French Toast Sticks

There is something so great about breakfast food that we could eat it at any point during the day. With both of us having busy schedules between school, work, little man, and well, just every day life, grabbing something quick and easy does help to save time. Here's how we made our homemade french toast sticks and they have been a hit with anyone who has tried them.These are easy to freeze and to use throughout the week.

Ingredients: 
Loaf of uncut bread
4 eggs
1/4 cup of milk
1 tspoon of cinnamon
1 tspoon of vanilla

Directions: 
Taking your loaf of uncut bread, cut slices about 1/2 inch thick. Side note, from what we have seen it's best to let the bread begin to get stale before using it for the french toast sticks. If you use a loaf of fresh bread it may turn out soggy. 

After slicing your loaf, now take each slice and cut it into three sections. Taking your eggs, beat them until the yokes are cracked. Add in the cinnamon, vanilla, and milk, and beat again. Taking each portion of your bread, dip it into the egg mixture. Each side of the french toast stick should be coated. However, you should dip them quickly. If you leave them or drop them fully into the mixture they can also become too soggy. In a large frying pan on medium heat, sprayed with cooking spray, place the sticks in the pan. Turn them every few minutes until each side is golden brown. Let cool and enjoy! 

Homemade Zucchini Bread

There's something about a good homemade bread that welcomes in the season of fall. Not that bread can't be enjoyed all throughout the year but we are convinced that certain foods just taste better in specific seasons (it's ok, you can call us crazy). If you've been reading our blog (and we greatly thank you if you have), we kind of like zucchini. That might be an understatement, we really like zucchini, it's definitely our go to vegetable. It was even grown in the garden this year and thoroughly enjoyed by us :) To start off some fall baking we made a homemade zucchini bread and are sharing this ever so tasty recipe with you!

Ingredients:
3 cups of all purpose flour
1 tspoon of salt
1 tspoon of baking powder
1 tspoon of baking soda
3 eggs
3 tspoons of ground cinnamon (we like cinnamon so we did 4 tspoons, it's up to you)
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cup of sugar
3 tspoons of vanilla extract 
2 cups grated zucchini 
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8x4 inch pans or you can use this recipe to make muffins. In that case use a muffin pan 12 or two 6 pans.

Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.

Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add your previous separated dry ingredients (see line above) to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini, nuts and chocolate chips. Pour your combined batter into prepared pans.

Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown or a tester insert comes out clean. Cool in the pan they were baked in on a rack for about 20 minutes. Remove bread or muffins and let completely cool.

 

Blueberry Cream Cheese Roll Ups

You may have noticed we've been sharing a few blueberry recipes lately. We hope you aren't tired of them! Between all of us we picked over 10 lbs of blueberries so we had a lot to work with. These roll ups are easy to make and taste delicious! You can eat them by hand dipping them into your favorite syrup, eating them plain, or cutting them up and drizzling them with syrup. However you choose to eat them is up to you but we sure hope you enjoy them!

Ingredients:

12 slices of bread (for rolling we saw that white bread works best)
3/4 cup of cream cheese softened (about 6 oz)
1 cup of blueberries-fresh or frozen
2 eggs
1 tspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of cinnamon and sugar 
 

Directions:
Cut the crust off your bread slices. With a rolling pin flatten each slice of bread, this will make it easier when it comes time for rolling. Soften your cream cheese but be sure not to melt it completely. 
Once you have flattened your bread slices, take your cream cheese and spread about a tablespoon onto each slice of bread. Top the spread off with blueberries. If you add to many you may loose a few when rolling. Taking one corner of your bread, tuck under and begin to roll. 
In a medium sized mixing bowl add 2 eggs and 1 tspoon of vanilla. Beat eggs until yokes have broken. Take your roll ups and coat them in the egg mixture. 
In a large frying pan with heat on medium place the roll ups in the pan to be cooked. It is important to flip them half way through so each side can get golden brown. 
Once roll ups are golden brown remove from heat onto a separate dish. Sprinkle or roll in cinnamon sugar and enjoy :)

Zucchini Ribbons With Shrimp

We are so excited for our first guest post and the opportunity to share our Zucchini Ribbons recipe with Leslyn's Lovely Life and all her readers! Make sure you stop by her blog and show her some love! She just had a beautiful baby boy who is oh so precious! We hope you enjoy the recipe :)

Guest post on Leslyn's Lovely Life

Strawberry Salsa and Tomato Basil Bruschetta Recipes

With 4th of July almost a week away, we wanted to share some recipe ideas that would make great additions to your celebrations. If you read our Celebrating the Red, White, and Blue post, we made this Bruschetta and it was a big hit. If you've also had a chance to check out our Instagram, you might have seen that we recently went strawberry picking.

With so many strawberries left over we decided to get creative and attempt a strawberry salsa. Unsure of how it would taste, this pleasant surprise left us wanting more! This will definitely be making more of an appearance during strawberry season. Unfortunately, only one of us was able to actually eat it. One of us has some digestive issues (a mild case of Crohn's. We'll expand on that in future posts). Regardless, if you are able to digest seeds, this strawberry salsa is a great twist on a traditional salsa concept added with a sweet tasting fruit. 

STRAWBERRY SALSA

Ingredients:

1½ cups fresh strawberries, chopped
1 cup green pepper, chopped  ½ cup red onion, chopped

2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped or minced
2 tbsp lime juice 

1 Tbsp brown sugar 

Directions:

Chop strawberries, green pepper and onion. In a bowl, combine remaining ingredients, minced cilantro, brown sugar, and lime juice. Stir together and serve with tortilla chips. 

 TOMATO BASIL BRUSCHETTA:

Ingredients:

4-5 ripe tomatoes

1/2 small onion

5-6 Fresh or dried basil leads (preferably fresh)

2 Tbsp of olive oil

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Chop the tomatoes, onions, and basil and add into a bowl. Add the olive oil, salt and pepper, stir together and serve with toasted baguette, enjoy!

Asparagus Roll Ups

These warm and flaky roll ups will add a little something extra to your next dinner party or make a great appetizer at your next get together! You may have read our Easter Celebration post which is the last time we made these. The first time we ever tried them, we did not saute the asparagus long enough and they turned out too tough. The next time around we got the hang of it and they came out great! 

Ingredients: 
1 package of cream cheese
1/2 lb of bacon (can also use turkey bacon)
1 Tspoon of chives
1 1/2 lb of fresh asparagus spears
2 Tspoons of olive oil
2 packages of Pillsbury Crescents
parmesan cheese 

Directions: 
Cut asparagus spears into half and saute in a medium frying pan with olive oil and 1 1/2 Tspoons of parmesan cheese until asparagus is soft. Also cook your bacon in separate pan, transferring it to a paper towel and let stand to cool. Once cooled down, break the bacon up into small pieces.

In a microwavable bowl soften cream cheese on high for 25 seconds. Do not let the cream cheese melt. Add bacon pieces and chives, and mix well together. 

Take your crescents and flatten them out on a nonstick cookie tray. Take about a Tspoon of the cream cheese mixture and spread in the middle of the crescent. Add three half's of the asparagus spears and sprinkle parmesan on top. Roll the crescents from one corner to the other creating a roll up. Cook at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. It is important to point out that you should flip the roll ups half way through so both sides are golden brown.   

Chocolate and Hazelnut Lined Ice Cream Cones

I scream, you scream, oh who doesn't like ice cream?

There is something so enjoyable about this frozen treat on a warm night that just exemplifies summer. Here is a little something extra that will bring big taste to your next cone! Pick your favorite flavor of ice cream and decide on one scoop, two scoops, three scoops, or hey, why not splurge and go more. Having a Memorial Day party this weekend? Surprise your guests with something extra in their cone!

Melt down chocolate chips and hazelnut spread together (this can be done on stove top in a sauce pan or microwave)

Take your favorite cone, and with a knife line the inside of the cone with the melt

Put cones in the freezer and let stand until the melt has hardened 

Scoop in your favorite ice cream and enjoy

No Crust Mini Zucchini Quiches

Try these mini quiches for your next brunch, creative appetizer, or simply to just enjoy! 

Ingredients: 

4 eggs to make 6-8 mini quiches
1/3 cup provolone
3/4 cup chopped zucchini
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 tsp black pepper
A splash of milk to make them fluffy (you can substitute with almond milk or low fat milk for a healthier option)

Directions:

Scramble eggs and milk. Then add remaining ingredients. Spray muffin pan with cooking spray and add egg mixture about 3/4 of the way full. Cook at 350 degrees for about 25min until golden on top.