Bipolar Shopping Trip

Yesterday, Adam and I went to the Green City Market in Lincoln Park. The market is a delicious collection of fresh produce, breads, cheeses and grass fed beef and elk from the Mid-West. It's a nice easy 15 minute bike ride up the lakefront path from downtown. We had a burger w/ really fresh beef that Adam claims is the best burger in Chicago. I take my food rankings very seriously (if you ask what the best pizza is in Chicago, be prepared for a full discussion of the types of pizza and the rankings by type) so I can't commit to saying it was the best burger in Chicago but it was fabulous. This was my first time to the market and some of my favorites were:

Prairie Fruits Farm: The first farmstead cheesery is right outside the town of my alma mater (Champaign-Urbana) and I've had some of their goat cheese deliciousness before from Whole Foods, but it's always more fun to buy straight from the producer. Prairie Fruits Farm holds outdoor dinners w/ all fresh ingredients from their farm at their farm- definitely on my "to-do" list for the summer.

Seedling Fruits: Based out of South Haven, Michigan. These folks make great smoothies! I had a rhubarb smoothie (pictured here) and it was great! Sweet, sour, fresh tasting, and as you can see by the fiber strands in the picture I think I got 100% of my daily value of fiber as well!

After the market, Adam and I went to Fleet Feet running store to buy some goo chomps. Only in Chicago can you go from buying the freshest, just off the vine/out of the ground produce to super highly engineered, completely processed carbohydrate/electrolyte jelly snacks just 3 blocks away! For those who aren't familiar, goo chomps (and their cousins shot blocks pictured here) are easily digestible snacks intended to have while working out. I use them during 1/2 and full marathons. Three of them are about 100 calories which is usually enough to power me through 1 hour or so of exercise. They taste similar to fruit snacks but denser.

Finally, to round out our day we stopped at Whole Foods for the rest of our weekly groceries. From fresh local farmers market to not-fresh not-local goo chomps to the fresh international market that is Whole Foods--all in all a good shopping day. We'll be eating well this week!