Favorite: Again this week I like Rami’s look the best.  I thought he definitely captured the green color of the ice cream, but it still had interest in the different variations and textures of green that he used.  And the accessories and hair are spot on.

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Least Favorite: I really did not get Kara’s look.  It was boring, unfinished, and not like the delicious gelato that it was supposed to by inspired by.

 [source]

Did you watch this week?  What was your favorite look?!

Full Disclosure:  I paid for this meal with my own money and I was in no way reimbursed for this blog post.  The opinions are completely my own.

While I was in Chicago last weekend I was able to escape work (and my cozy hotel room) and go out to a nice dinner with my brother and his girlfriend.  I was in an adventurous mood, and pretty hungry from working all day, so I let them pick the place.  They chose a vegan restaurant called Karyn’s Cooked.  It was within walking distance from my hotel, so it worked out perfectly.

When we walked in to the restaurant, I remembered that Karyn’s was where a bunch of bloggers had gone during the Healthy Living Summit in Chicago in 2010.  That was a different location, but I remembered that the bloggers liked the food and experience a lot, so I was pretty sure I would be happy with my choice – even though vegan food isn’t totally in my comfort zone.

We got to the restaurant just in time to get a table before the dinner rush!  It also seemed like there was a pretty big line up of people getting take-out for dinner too which seemed like a great sign for the quality of the food that we were about to eat.

To start, my brother got a beer, his girlfriend got wine, and I decided I would try the Mango Martini which consisted of Rain organic vodka, lemon juice, mango puree.  It was good, not super sweet or strong, and the puree was thick and tasty.

The restaurant was quite crowded, but our waitress was nice, calm, collected, and had no problem answering our questions.  The menu was not huge, but believe it or not I had a bit of trouble deciding what to get!

For dinner, my brother had the Jerk Tofu sandwich which also included potato wedges and cole slaw.  He enjoyed it, and it seemed like a good amount of food!  I actually tried some of the tofu (see, I told you I was feeling adventurous!) and while it was too spicy for my taste, I did enjoy that the texture of the tofu was great.  It had almost a crispy outside, and it was thin and solid – not watery or squishy at all, like some tofu is.  If it wasn’t so spicy I wouldn’t have had a problem eating that sandwich!

My brother’s girlfriend opted for the Vegan Pizza - Traditional vegan pizza on thin whole-wheat crust, homemade soy cheese, tasty marinara sauce, seitan and veggies.  If I liked veggies more, this pizza looked delicious.  It was filled with lots and lots of veggies, seitan, marinara sauce, and a little bit of soy cheese.  I did have some of the crust though, and it was good.  It was very thin, almost cracker-like.

For my entree, I had the Classic Lasagna which was filled with smoked spinach and tofu ricotta.  It was actually pretty good!  The noodles and spinach were delicious (of course), and the tofu ricotta was actually really good too.  I never thought I’d be a fan of non-dairy cheese.  The marinara sauce tasted so fresh and tomatoey.  And, of course, it came with some bread too, which was very good.  The only thing that I didn’t love is that there were also red peppers and onions chopped up in the lasagna.  I’m not really a fan of those so I tended to pick around them. That being said, I could tell that they definitely added flavor to the lasagna, so I guess I’m glad they were there.

Even though none of us really had much room for dessert, we happened to be sitting in front of the dessert case, so we were being tempted by it pretty much throughout the meal.  Afterwards, we decided that we would order one thing for the three of us to share.  We decided on the Raw Carob Mint Cake.  I don’t think I’d ever had raw cake before, but I’m a big fan of the chocolate mint combination so I was hoping it wouldn’t be too strange. Turns out, it was pretty delicious!  I’m not entirely sure what it was made out of, well aside from the carob and mint, but it was pretty tasty.  It wasn’t too sweet, and it was definitely minty!

Overall the meal was good, hearty, and the menu had lots of different options!

I should also point out in case you are wondering, none of us follow a vegan diet normally. So yes, this vegan restaurant does have many filling options for generally meat-eating folks too.  It isn’t all just bland veggies and tofu like some people imagine vegan food to be like.

Taste: A, it was definitely a solid meal.
Cost: A, it was pretty on-par with similar things at other restaurants.  My lasagna was $12 and it was a hearty portion, so I’d say that was reasonably priced.

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Holy cow, somehow this is my 100th restaurant review on Urbanspoon!!
You can check out all of my reviews on my Restaurants page or by checking out my Urbanspoon profile!

• Although my giant Nalgene water bottle may have been a good idea to bring along so that I stayed well hydrated during the drive, the twist of cap is not ideal.  I ended up purchasing a different water bottle while I was there that was much easier to handle while driving.
  
•  There will always be traffic on the way to Chicago.  Construction in the Spring/Summer/Fall, snow in the Winter.  In my case, there was snow, but it was off the roads by the time I came down.  It was the snow removal vehicles that were still getting the snow off of other parts of the road that were causing the backups.
• You know you are addicted to your iPhone when a 30 minutes into a 3 hour drive you find yourself wanting to check your Twitter feed and read your favorite blogs on your iPhone.  But, of course, this isn’t possible while driving.  This was the first time in a while that I had driven a long distance by myself and it definitely made me realize how dependent on my iPhone I am.
• These little packets of applesauce make a great road trip snack when you are the only one in the car.  Easy to open, there isn’t a risk or spillage (unless I suppose you squeeze it on yourself) and they are healthy and yummy!  These are the kind I had this weekend, but actually I think I like the Trader Joe’s variety a bit better because they are a little sweeter.
  
• The best music for a car ride (especially a solo ride) is music that you can sing along to.  For me, this comes in many forms:  Glee, Britney Spears, Musicals, and other catchy pop hits like Rihanna, Bruno Mars, Adele…..and maybe even some Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus…..  Singing your lungs out to fun music definitely helps pass the time.
• The open road tolling system is really a genius timesaver.  I remember driving down to Chicago when I was younger with my parents and having to bring bags of change and stop every 45 minutes or so to wait in a line of cars to pay tolls.  Now, with the open road tolling and my iPass, I just breeze right through.   And I can’t imagine how much change I’d need for the high price of tolls these days…..!

How was your weekend?  Anyone else have thoughts about taking road trips by yourself?

#22 Introduce the husband to blends – the husband met Savvy Julie when she and Dan stopped in Madison while they were in the area for the Holidays!

#56 Learn New Games – I’ve known about Fluxx for a while now, but never actually played it.  I finally played it on Christmas, and I love it!  It is much easier to play than I had imagined, and it is a great mix of skill an luck so I don’t feel like it is too intese of a game.

#89 Donate at least 2 bags of clothing to Goodwill – A few weeks ago I  donated 5 bags of clothes/shoes to Goodwill!!  That goal is well over done, but there is plenty more that I have that is probably donation worthy so I’m thinking there will be more donations coming!

I’m also planning on February being my #88 goal month – leave an Operation Beautiful note somewhere every day for a Month!

Oh, also will be crossing off #35 this week, as I’m going to meet up with a bunch of other Madison bloggers for restaurant week dinner!  I’m excited!

Let me just start off by saying that this episode was very hard for me to judge.  Designing something for Miss Piggy meant basically that the the whole aesthetic was not something that I am a fan of.  So really, even my “favorite” is not at all something I really loved – but I felt like it would fit Miss Piggy’s aesthetic best.

Favorite: My favorite dress for Miss Piggy was definitely Rami’s dress.  Although it is something that I’d never think about wearing, I really liked the polka dots, pink, and ruffles.  It definitely was something that I could see Miss Piggy wearing.

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Least Favorite: Although there were many dresses that I did not love, this one was definitely my least favorite.  Not only did I not like the style and structure of the dress, I didn’t think it was appropriate for Miss Piggy.  Miss Piggy’s personality is much more bright pink than black and white.

[source]

Did you watch this week?

The meal that I decided to make was this parmesan chicken from How Sweet It Is.  Jessica has actually posted a few different crock pot recipes recently, but I thought I would start with this one since it seemed pretty easy….and delicious.  You can find the recipe here.

It was not at all hard to put together, aside from getting the timing correct. The chicken needs to marinate the night before, and then cook for 6-8 hours the next day.  So yes, it was physically easy, but it did take some planning ahead.

I used peas and corn for veggies instead of the broccoli that she used.  I wasn’t actually sure how well it would turn out switching for such different veggies, but I still liked it! I do love peas and corn though, so I suppose I couldn’t go wrong with adding them to noodles, chicken, and cheese – 3 other things that I love.

Overall though, it turned out really delicious! It was an easy, healthy meal that was definitely filling and delicious as well.

Ease: A-, physically not hard, but it does take some pre-planning
Taste: A+, this was really delicious.  The flavor of the chicken is not strong, but it is enough so that it doesn’t just taste like plain old chicken.

Would I make it again?  I think so!  It is  a good weekend meal that makes for good leftovers during the week.

For my birthday, my Mom gifted me a massage at Sundara, and I cashed that massage in a couple of weeks ago! Unfortunately cameras are not allowed in the spa, so I have no photos for you but I’ll try to explain the spa experience as best I can so you can get some idea of why this was on my 101 in 1001 list.

When you pay for a massage (or any other service) at Sundara, you get to use their facilites for the whole day. What exactly does this mean?  Let me tell you.

After you check in, you are escorted to the locker room and given a locker, robe, and sandals.  You than slip into your swimsuit, (side note: I really need to invest in a new swimsuit. I had to dig deep to even find something halfway decent in my closet to wear!) robe, and sandals and head off to the spa area.

Once you get to the spa, there are a few options.  They have a reading/quite room where you can sit and read, sip tea/water/coffee, and relax. There is also an outdoor seating area with a pool and hottubs which would be nice in the summer, but I didn’t brave the cold to go out there in the freezing snowy weather.

The first thing that I did after I got all swimsuited up was the  ”Purifying Spa Ritual.” This is included in any service that you get, and they suggest you do this before your appointment, but you can do it whenever and however much you want.   To start, you rub your body down with a sandstone body polish to exfoliate your skin.  The next step is to apply a lavender body mist and sit in the steam room.  After you steam all of the toxins out of you, you alternate time in the cold tub and the hot tub.  Yes, I did dip in the cold tub once, but of course the hot tub is MUCH more appealing!  That all takes 20-30 minutes, and it a great start to a relaxing day.

After the bath ritual, I went and sat in the quiet room for a bit, read and sipped tea while I waited for my massage.  What I don’t like about many massage places that are not “spa’s” is that you just kind of go in, get a massage, and leave – maybe not any more relaxed than you were to start with.  Sundara, however, does it right.  Assuming you get there early enough, you can fully relax before the massage, and then even more afterwards if you wish.

My massage was great.  Enough pressure to feel like I was releasing muscle tension, but not so hard that I felt like I was going to be bruised the next day.  I also love the spa smells.  Lavender and other essential oils make me feel relaxed and in a spa state of mind.

I will definitely be going back to Sundara in the future.  It is not the cheapest massage, but I feel like the whole experience is worth a little bit higher price.  They also have overnight accommodations which I may look into in the future as well.  I definitely recommend Sundara!