Snowed In

Happy February everyone! Chicago is currently covered under a fresh blanket of snow, as the 2011 Snowpocalypse has finally showed itself. The Windy City is supposed to get 18 inches of snow overnight and it's not supposed to stop snowing until Thursday. Wowsa! I think Punxsutawney Phil will predict that there's much more winter on the horizon come Groundhog's Day tomorrow.

Anyhow, here we are at another week! Ryan is in Berlin on business and man is quiet around our place. I've taken this time to myself to catch up on a few odds and ends. Last weekend, I did my fair share of cooking, too. I whipped up some grapefruit-orange juice, chili with ground turkey and some apple-cinnamon bars, some of which are included in today's post.

The last two days I've had my usual egg on plain seven-grain toast and an iced skim latte. But this time, I tried Eating Well's cranberry muesli. I have to say I was a little unsure about it at first -- I wasn't entirely sold on the slightly bitter taste. But this morning, I knew it was a keeper. Look at that color, too! What's not to love?

By the way, I have to apologize for this week's photos. Ryan took our nice camera to Berlin, naturally. Anyways, the cranberry muesli was super easy to make. No oven time, just some spare 5 minutes to mix the ingredients and voilà!

So back to this insane snow. Things didn't start to pick up until mid-afternoon today. Steph, my dad, and my mother-in-law all inquired if I had enough food on hand, haha. Anyhow, here's a snapshot of the action. Be sure to imagine lots of crazy blowing snow. The wind is still howling as I type this post.

Lunchtime featured an oldie but goodie: Chef Meg's tomato soup from SparkPeople. We had some in the freezer, and with Ryan being gone, I resorted to having some leftovers. I paired mine up with some dill crab salad on a napa cabbage leaf.

For dessert, I snuck in an apple-cinnamon fruit bar, one of Eating Well's many yummy and easy recipes. My camera wasn't exactly cooperating, so I had to borrow from a photo from EW.

Since it's winter, soups and chili are regularly on my mind. Tonight, I had some of my slow-cooker chili. My recipe is pretty traditional, but I use ground turkey, low sodium black beans and kidney beans, and a red pepper. On the side, I had a mixed greens salad with heirloom tomatoes, cucumber and slivered almonds topped with light balsamic vinaigrette from Kraft.

Prior to calling it a day, I pushed through 30 minutes on the elliptical machine and did 10 sets of 10 weights. WOO! I also skyped with my dear friend Raina, who has been sharing her fitness goals here. She turned a fabulous 33 years old yesterday -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRL!

Ok, it's just about time to hang out with Conan and enjoy some vanilla Chobani with fresh raspberries.

Thanks so much for reading! xx