Brunch at Cafe Benelux

This morning, we slept in a bit and then got ready to head to the Third Ward in Milwaukee for brunch at Cafe Benelux.

It just opened about a month ago and I wanted to dine out on the upstairs patio, so that’s what we did today.

We both started with water and then I got an iced coffee. It’s not on the menu, so the waitress was nice enough to pour hot coffee over ice. She was later even more sweet to take the iced coffee off of our bill because “she took too long to get it to me.” I totally didn’t think that at all, nor did I complain about the wait, so that was really nice of her.

We had a nice view of downtown Milwaukee and this apartment or condo building.

Check out how the windows and building are crooked (look next to the Cream City Brick building).

We sat next to each other and found a shady spot compared to the table originally assigned to us.

We thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the shade on the patio.

Craig picked out a belgian waffle with berries.

I chose a pannenkoeken, which is a “lowland” crepe/pancake that is HUGE and I got berries, granola, and yogurt on top. There were lots of other choices, but I went with what I love.

Check out the size–I purposely took this shot a bit further away to show you all the massiveness of the pannenkoechen.

I ate all of the middle up and then took the ends home for breakfast tomorrow.

The downstairs area has a Benelux market that will soon feature sandwiches, etc. to go.

I liked the bike on the women’s bathroom door.

I was bored while waiting for Craig in the bathroom, so took these scenery shots.

Jennifer, this made me think of you and how your husband is half Dutch ancestrally.

Overall, we both liked Cafe Benelux a lot. I wasn’t sure what to expect after some terrible reviews on yelp. I usually ignore such reviews and just decide on my own anyway. We had great service (thanks Jennie), good food, a wonderful atmosphere, didn’t have to wait to get a table, and I would definitely go back here for lunch or dinner. Maybe it’s just one of those hot new restaurants that if you hit it at the wrong time, you have to wait to get a table and your food.

After brunch, we walked off our meal by going to the market for a very brief visit.

Then we went over to Artasia, which is Craig’s favorite store.

This mannequin freaked me out when we walked out of Artasia. Somehow, I hadn’t seen him before we went in!

And to conclude our morning in downtown Milwaukee, Craig requested we go to Grand Avenue mall.

This statue of Plankinton reminds me of being a curious (and history nerd) little girl. I used to ask my mom who he was and what he did to deserve a statue in Grand Avenue.

Too bad there aren’t a lot of great stores left at Grand Avenue like there were when I was a kid. They do have a nice YMCA on the top floor of the building and I keep wanting to go there after work sometime. And I did look around the TJ Maxx, which had a pretty good selection.

I’ve just been relaxing the rest of the day and I have energy to burn, so I better be off to the YMCA now.

Hope you are enjoying your Saturday and it’s as relaxing as mine as been!

Summer Harvest cooking class and my struggles with adult acne

I wanted to blog last night, but couldn’t because we had really bad thunderstorms roll through our area again. There was way too much lightning in the skies and my poor iBook is on it’s last legs, so it has to be plugged into the wall in order for me to use it.

And tonight, I am not sure if I will have time to blog after I get out of this cooking class at the Milwaukee Public Market.

First of Summer Harvest, Wednesday, June 22, 5:30 PM, $20
First in a three-part series where you’ll learn to cook with vegetables, herbs and fruits grown in Wisconsin at the peak of their flavors. For June, Liz Crawford will prepare Creamy Spinach and Kale Soup with Coconut Milk and Garam Masal; Pizza with Onion Confit, Toasted Walnuts and WI Chevre; Creme Anglaise with Grand Marnier and Strawberry Sauce with Preserved Lemons.

Sounds pretty good huh? Hope to share recipes with you readers and I will definitely write about my experience later on this week.

Did you check out my post on my favorite makeup and skincare products? Kayla was sweet enough to comment that I had beautiful skin. I feel like I completely missed adding something to that post: no one would have ever told me I had beautiful skin about 7 years ago. In fact, most people gave me their tips on getting rid of acne and would just stare at the huge cysts on my face. It was pretty embarrassing. I struggle with adult acne. Never had much acne as a teenager, but as an adult, my face blew up with horrible cystic acne. It seems to be genetically linked in our family. Anyway, with the help of Accutane (which is really harsh medicine) and a few good dermatologists, I am able to say that my skin is finally more clear. I still get acne popping up here and there, especially around that time of the month or if I am stressed, but it’s nowhere as bad as it used to be. I pay careful attention to the products I use because of my past struggles with acne. That is why I try to use more natural products and I always wash my makeup off at night and use oil-free foundations.

Hope you all are having a wonderful hump day!

Lunch at the Milwaukee Public Market

I was so excited when I woke up this morning and realized it was my Friday since I am off for the next four days! I have a huge list of various things I want to do over the long weekend, but I also want to build in some relaxation time.

Breakfast this morning was my usual yogurt and coffee. All week, I have been eating Chobani with the strawberry rhubarb crisp and it’s been great to look forward to and has filled me up. Today was the first day I didn’t eat that combination. I guess I don’t easily get sick of certain foods.

Even though it was super gloomy and windy out today, I decided to head over to the Milwaukee Public Market for lunch. It was jam packed in there, which was great to see!

I picked up a Turkey, Apple, Brie panini at the West Allis Cheese and Sausage Shoppe.

It was pretty good–I liked the flavor combination, but I could see adding mustard and arugula too.

This was my view during lunch.

I didn’t people watch because I read Water for Elephants instead. I am 70% through and I hope to finish it tomorrow!

I also dropped off a cooking class registration at the main office of the market. I signed up for the June and July Summer Harvest classes. The recipes sounded really delicious! We’ll learn how to cook recipes with “vegetables, herbs and fruits grown in Wisconsin at the peak of their flavors.” There are three total classes, but I didn’t want to sign up for August until I really know if I like the teacher. I’ll risk it being sold out by the time I decide to sign up. The only other cooking class I took at the Market was a couple of years ago and it really inspired me to think about what I was putting in my body. The teacher was excellent and I loved the recipes. That class was where I first learned about quinoa!

Of course, while at the market, one must pick up dessert from one of the various yummy bakeries. I chose a Peanut Butter Buddy from the C. Adams bakery.

I left work early today and picked up these books from the library. I want to buy the weight lifting book, but I like to preview books from libraries before I fully commit. The cookbooks were recently featured in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Food section, so I figured they would be great to put on reserve and check out. I’ll let you know how all three are, because I hope to look through them all this weekend.

Dinner was just a vegetarian Qdoba burrito. I only ate half and then I didn’t feel so good from it, so I ended up skipping yoga. Boo. Need to get to the gym tomorrow because I miss it!

Time to go read some other blog posts–I have way too many blogs in my google reader. Isn’t it hard to keep up if you follow a lot of bloggers?

Speaking of bloggers–most of you will probably be very interested in this NY Times article. It’s titled, “My Blog Is Also Paying My Bills.” It features Molly Wizenberg who wrote A Homemade Life, which I am currently reading in between Water for Elephants. The best quote from the article is “I tell people if they want to start a blog just to make money, they should quit right now. You have to love it and be passionate about your topic.”

Zumbathon

It’s late and I just got home from a Zumbathon in downtown Milwaukee, which was sponsored by Lululemon. There were probably 100 plus women and men there tonight! Crazy!

My friends Kim (who is a Zumba instructor) and Jenny (middle) joined me (on the right).

We danced in the Astor Hotel ballroom for an hour and fifteen minutes. Jenny is new to Zumba too. Even though I probably have done it 7 or 8 times now, I had trouble keeping up because there were so many new songs they played. It was fun, put a smile on my face and great to workout with friends.

Before picking Jenny up for the Zumbathon, I headed to the Milwaukee Public Market for the second day in a row. This time I got dinner there at The Green Kitchen.

Rye bread (so delicious) with avocado, carrots, sprouts, tomato, and two types of cheese.

Rewind to lunch…I didn’t take a photo, but it was the rest of my Subway footlong from yesterday, a bunch of carrots and a Dannon Activia vanilla dessert yogurt. Later in the afternoon, I snacked on a pink lady apple and a mint chocolate attune bar.

Breakfast today was fresh blueberries & Jessica’s Gluten Free Granola in Almond Cherry. I think I liked the Vanilla Maple flavor better, but this was still really good.

That’s all folks. It’s time to relax a little and then get to bed. I can’t believe how quickly this week has gone by. I guess it’s because I have been working weird hours and been doing stuff after work a couple of days this week.

Haircut & lunch with mom

I started my Wednesday with a mini bagel and strawberry cream cheese, with a side of cantaloupe.

Instead of going to work at my usual time, I got my haircut at 8 a.m.

Before leaving the house, Craig took a picture of my “before” hair.

Here is my after.

I really liked the new stylist I went to this morning. She gave me more face framing layers, even though she could tell I was scared of getting them back again because I have had very short layers around my face before and they didn’t look good.

In order to get free parking at the Milwaukee Public Market while I got my haircut nearby, I bought this delicious Door County Cherry scone at C. Adams bakery and had my parking ticket validated.

Love anything with Door County cherries in it! I snacked on it at work, because the cup of coffee I had while getting my haircut made me a bit shaky. I can’t wait to eat the other half tomorrow.

Lunch was with mom. She came to my workplace and then we walked to Subway for sandwiches.

I had half (and a few bites of the other half) a ham and provolone on 9-grain honey oat.

I am not a huge fan of black licorice, so I brought my mom the package I received from Newman’s Own Organics. I did try a few bites and it was really good.

Mom was in black licorice heaven.

Mom is a great quilter and sewer, so I asked her to make me a yoga mat strap. She brought it along today and here is the end result.

If you want to make your own, go here.

Since I went into work late, I had to stay late. I had some hot chocolate and an attune probiotic mint chocolate bar to perk me up.

Yum! I really enjoyed the attune bar. I will be trying them for the next two weeks straight, so you’ll see a bar on the blog every day now. I hope it helps my tummy! I wrote attune when I heard about them through Meals and Miles and they sent me a week of raspberry dark chocolate and a week of mint chocolate probiotic bars.

I haven’t revealed this on the blog before–I have Ulcerative Colitis. I need all of the probiotics I can get. Having Irritable Bowel Disease is one of the other reasons I wanted to start this blog. Since eating healthier and exercising more in the last year or so, I have noticed a difference in how I feel with IBD. I am glad I can track what I eat every day and how I feel in general through writing this blog.

Dinner tonight was a falafel sandwich.

Dessert was a tofutti mint chip sandwich and some cantaloupe.

American Idol is airing their Milwaukee episode and I have to go watch it now! No sighting of me in the background of any shots yet. Bummer.