Chicago Fun with The Laughing Cow

I had a blast on my last minute trip to Chicago with my blend, Katie, for a fun Laughing Cow Cheese event!

Oh hey there! Sometimes I take a week off of blogging by accident..ha. I swear I try to be good at planning and consistency, but sometimes I just fail at it. Will you forgive me?

I am pretty good at keeping Instagram and snapchat (follow me: semihealthnut) updated with the shenanigans I’m getting myself into if you ever get super worried about me.

What’s that? You didn’t even notice I was gone for a week? #awkward 

Okay then. Let’s chat about my trip!

Travel to Chicago

Like I talked about in last week’s confessions post, I was off on a last minute trip to the Chicago area to hang out with my bestest blend, Katie! She had been invited to a Laughing Cow blogger event in downtown Chicago and couldn’t decide who to take with her…so I graciously volunteered after I found out I was able to rearrange my café schedule.

I jumped in the car on Tuesday afternoon (after hurriedly throwing allthethings into some bags because I wasn’t really sure what we would be doing) with some awesome compression socks and drove what turned out to be 9 hours to Katie’s house. I had plenty of podcasts to listen to and made sure to snapchat along the way to make it seem more exciting, but after that long alone in a car…you’re ready to be out of your car for awhile!

I also attempted to paint my nails in the car (at a rest stop! I’m not nuts enough to do it while driving!) because I figured…I wouldn’t be doing anything but driving so I would definitely be safe from smudges. False. I smudged a nail pulling out of the parking lot and in the process got paint on my car and it still smells like nail polish. Oops.

Wednesday morning we leisurely ate breakfast together and caught up on life. It’s funny because some of my best friends I only really see once or twice a year. #yayblogging

Then we headed out for a bit of a walk and some running. Two miles of walking around her hometown and two miles of running at a pretty slow pace. It felt great aside from my crazy seasonal allergies. My nose looks giant and red on a semi-permanent basis in the fall. (<–Suuuuper cute.)

I showered all of the schweaty mess off of me and then we headed for the train to take us into the city of Chicago. I took my very first passenger train ever and I was nerdily excited.

Lunch at Freshii in Chicago

Katie and I arrived just in time for lunch at Freshii with another blogger friend, Katie. Freshii is an amazing little restaurant that’s kind of a cross between Chipotle and Which Wich. If that makes any sense.

You pick up a form and choose what kind of a bowl you want, then customize away!

 

Note: if you ever eat at Freshii, read the form and the prices next to each item…don’t treat it like a free-for-all like I did. Unless you want a $13 bowl. I really wish I was able to take part of it home (or split it with someone) because it was quite filling.

Ingredients in my Freshii bowl:

• Rice
• Chicken
• Bacon
• Feta
• Avocado
• Chickpeas
• Cilantro
• Edamame
• Green onions
• Red onions
• Spinach
• Buffalo sauce on the side

[Tweet “I need to check out @freshii in Chicago so I can make my own healthy rice bowl!! #imasemihealthnut”]

Chicago Fun

After leaving Freshii (and totally forgetting to get a picture with our friend Katie..dangit), we set out to explore downtown Chicago.

We checked out:

Millennium Park

The Bean

(obviously. perfect tourist attraction for a zillion selfies.)

Navy Pier

(where I decided to try the new Starbucks pumpkin spice latte..very delicious but SWEET)

I also found out that Katie is deathly afraid of birds? There are tons of cute little ones that swarm people on the pier looking for some popcorn to eat!

[Tweet “Fun stuff to do if you’re in Chicago for the day! #travel #chicago”]

The Laughing Cow Event in Chicago

Like I mentioned earlier, I pretty much invited myself along to this blogger event. I’m a fan of cheese and I heard there were learning sessions that had to do with photography (plus seeing my friend) so I was in!

The learning sessions were pretty cool. Although I was expecting a little more learning from the Instagram session, it was still amazing learning from Chicago Food Authority. (<- she has freaking 99k followers on Instagram!!)

My favorite session was learning food pairings. Simply pair subtle flavors together with one bold flavor. I also like to have a bit of crunch in my foods.

Subtle flavors:

Pumpkin/Squash

Apples

Almonds

Swiss Cheese

Bold flavors:

Cheddar Cheese

Pepper jack Cheese

Onion

Lemon

Jalapeño

Berries

I even managed to run into some other blogging friends (eep!). I’ve been reading Susie’s blog (she’s the one next to me) for about forever and it was crazy awesome meeting her in person (like it always is with bloggers). We also found Sara and Lauren!  Just one more reason I’m glad I made the last minute trek to Chicago! 

Although my time in the great city of Chicago was short, I had a freaking blast! I’m so thankful it worked out to tour the city and to see my good friend, Katie. I enjoyed myself so much that I decided Dave and I need to take a long weekend to go back and explore a little more! Don’t ask me when…it will happen though.

Tell Me…

Have you been to Chicago? What was your favorite restaurant or attraction?

Have you tried The Laughing Cow cheese? What’s your favorite flavor? I really like the spicy pepper jack and the white cheddar! 

PS I would LOVE IT if you could pin one (or two!) of these images! You should also check out my pumpkin board…because it’s almost pumpkin season!!

Follow Diary of a Semi-Health Nut’s board Food [ Pumpkin ] on Pinterest.

Linking up to: Treat Yourself Tuesday, Thinking Out Loud

 (All of the lovely link-ups I participate in here.)

Photo Editing Using Lightroom + Picmonkey and Photography with Nikon D5300 and Tasty Food Photography