Cookies For Cuties

My neice and nephew are visiting tomorrow while their mom and dad have a weekend to themselves before number three arrives in March.  My parents are watching them and I of course offered to help. They are so cute it's hard to resist.

Mia and Giona

So one of the things we have planned for tomorrow is to decorate Christmas cookies.  My plan was to bake the cookies tonight so that they would be all ready to decorate tomorrow.  I didn't have a lot of time to bake the cookies today so I purchase pre-made dough.  I actually found a pretty good dough at our grocery store.

Then it was time to bake. I rolled out the dough and used some cookie cutters my mom gave me

Then I attempted to freehand some of my own lol

"M" for Mia "G" for Giona

And of course I had to try some of my own to make sure they tasted good

leftover cookie blob. yum



So that's what december is supposed to feel like

After our monsoon yesterday we were left with freezing weather for the near future. Well, not quite freezing, but in the 40s.  I've been so spoiled with most of November and December being in the 50s and 60s.  Very unusual for this part of the country.  I was obviously freezing all day because I'm always cold at work even if it's 90 degrees outside. I was ready to get warmed up after work. I headed to the gym on a mission....to run.  To run carefully. My foot has been behaving so I decided to give it a go.

this is my ready to run look hahah. I'm lame I know

I did a 10 minute warm up including a 2 minute run and then ran at a steady 6.0 with 1 minute sprints every 4 minutes until I hit 4 miles

It felt great! If there really is something wrong with my foot I need to find another way to cope with stress because running is the only thing that does it for me now. That and dark chocolate. I guess I could always try to get a little more into yoga, but in no way am I a flexible person.  When I got home I made a sald with spinach leaves, snap peas, carrots, celery, pineapple and tuna with a slice of great harvest dakota toast on the side.

Now I'm sitting down to watch some Lost on Netflix.  Matt and I have been watching for several months and we are finally nearing the end. We have about 15 episodes left.  It's such a good series but I heard the end is very dissapointing. We'll see.

Tomorrow's Friday! YAY!!





Getting some aggression out

When I walked out of work today and saw that it was POURING, I had a feeling I wouldn't want to be heading to the gym after dinner.  But I really wanted to work out...just did not want to step foot outside my house. What to do what to do.  Thank goodness for Comcast Exercise TV!  I decided to do a 45 minute kickboxing workout to help me get some built up aggression out.  I chose Chris Freytag's 10 lb Slimdown Xtreme Kickbox. 

I have to admit I loved it. It was the perfect mix between cardio and strength training. 

Before my workout I tried a new recipe from Fannetastic Food.  We had Healthy Chicken Enchiladas for dinner.  I altered the recipe  a little for what I had on hand.

Recipe:

2 Chicken Breasts cooked, hand torn 

1/4 C canned chopped green chilies

1/4 cup plain nonfat greek yogurt

Juice from 1 fresh lime

½ tsp. cracked pepper

1 tsp. cumin

2 C enchilada sauce (see recipe below)

4 large whole wheat tortillas

Extra virgin olive oil or cooking spray, as needed

¾ C shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and set aside

Enchilada Sauce:

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 small onion, peeled, diced finely 1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. cumin

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 28-oz. can crushed fire roasted tomatoes

1 tsp. sugar

1 splash of balsamic vinegar

Add oil to pan over medium heat.  Add onion, garlic, and spices and cook for 5 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, sugar and vinegar and simmer covered for 20 minutes until thick.

Spread a thin layer of Enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9x9 baking dish.  Spoon 1/4 chicken mixture in each of 4 whole wheat tortillas and roll. Place seem down in the baking dish.  Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the tortillas and top with cheese.  Cook at 350 degrees for 20 minutes until cheese has melted.

This recipe is definitely a keeper! Matt told me today that I need to start thinking of my own recipes and not just messing with other people's haha.  I really wish I was that creative. Maybe in time I'll get a hang of it and be a little more adventurous.



I have to do what??

The day has finally arrived for my checkup! I went to my GP and talked her up about my foot and my stomach. She promptly gave me lots of papers and lots of different doctors numbers and places to go. My list that I'm hoping to complete in the next month:

• Get my bloodwork done checking my liver, kidneys, sugar, cholesterol and thyroid.
• Get both of my feet and akles x-rayed.  Based on these I might be going to a specilist afterwards
• And lastly...go to a GI specialist to figure out what is with my stomach.  We're guessing that my issues are mostly stress related, but just want to make sure it's nothing more serious.

Needless to say I was a little down when I got home, but then I saw this face and it cheered me up.

Love!

For dinner we had a pasta and turkey sausage bake. This is one of my favorite things to have for dinner. I mean I am 50% Italian. 



The recipe was pretty simple. First I cooked some whole wheat pasta according to the box instructions. I made enough for 4 servings so we could have leftovers.  I then chopped up 1/2 an onion and 2 cloves of garlic and threw them in a skillet with 3 links of italian turkey sausage (casings removed and cut into bite sized peices).  When the sausage had cooked through I added 1 15oz can of chopped tomatoes along with a sprinkle of dried oregano and basil.  I then put the cover on the skillet and simmered the dish for 15 minutes.  Then I added the pasta to the skiller, mixed, poured in a serving dish and sprinkled mozzerella cheese on top.  Delish!

After I finished dinner I had one of these bad boys for dessert:

It was nice having a day of rest from woking out. I think my body needed it! I just went on a quick walk around the neighborhood with Champ and Matt...my two best guys. Here's to hoping this week flies by!!





A Different Kind of Christmas

This year for Christmas, my family decided not to do gifts.  I will admit we can go a tad overboard with the gifts sometimes, but who doesn't.  I was a little hesitant at first, but man does it take a lot of stress out of the holidays.  But I think I've realized that I'm having trouble realizing that Christmas is right around the corner because I don't have to worry about shopping and wrapping gifts.  I guess for me Christmas = stress haha. We still don't have our tree but we are hoping to take care of that next weekend. I think once we do our decorating I will start to get more in the Christmas spirit.  In honor of the approaching holiday I decided to do a Christmas Survey I found online:

What is your favorite Christmas song?
There's no Place Like Home for the Holidays by Perry Como

What is your favorite Christmas movie?
The Christmas Story obviously!!

What do you look forward to most on Christmas?
Seeing my family, especially my brother and sister who live out of town.  I also love seeing my sister's kids open their gifts!

Do you take part in secret santa?
I have 4 best friends from college and we usually do secret santa, but this year we've decided to give money to a cherity instead. 

Do you go to any Christmas parties?
Yes! This year I'll be going to my company Christmas party on the 16th and I just got invited to a cookie exchange party on the 17th. I cannot wait!

What is your favorite food at Christmas?
Peppermint bark is by far my favorite food. I can't stay away from the stuff.

My mouth is watering just looking at this picture. 

I spent my day today cooking my meals for the week. It took me about 2 hours but I'm glad to have it out of the way and not to have to worry about it during the week.  I started out my day with a trip to they gym.  I was ready for a longer workout.  I got in 40 minutes of weight training and 45 minutes of cardio split between the stationary bike (on random level 8) and the eliptical (aslo on random level 8). 
Dinner was easy tonight. I cooked a pot roast in the slow cooker all day and made some sweet potato cakes to have on the side.

All I did for the sweet potato cakes was microwave a large sweet potatoe for 5 minutes on each side.  Then I cut it in half and removed the insides. To the potato I added 1/2 tsp of brown sugar,  1/8 tsp of cinnamon, 1 tsp of whole wheat flour and 1 tbsp egg whites.  Then I formed 4 small cakes and cooked them in an oiled pan for 4 minutes per side.  Delish!

Oatmeal, Almond Butter and Jeggings

So I gave oatmeal another chance and.....yuck. I have such texture issues. I can still only handle oatmeal if it's mixed into yogurt.  But I thought I would provide you with the recipe anyways.  It tasted good, just the texture made me want to vom. Oh well

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

1/3 cup old fashioned oats

1/3 cup skim milk

1/3 cup milk

1/2 banana cut into slices

1/3 cup pumpkin

shake of cinnamon

shake of pumkin pie spice

Put oats, milk and water in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat.  Once the oatmeal starts to bubble, add banana and mix often.  The oatmeal should be done in about 5 minutes.  Stir in pumpkin, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice.  Add toppings. I added a spoonfull of peanut butter and craisins.

After breakfast I went for a 3 mile run around the neighborhood.  It was a little on the cold side, but it felt good to get a run in outside with no foot pain! I came back and had lunch.  A peice of great harvest dakota toast with barney butter and apple butter, a pomagranate chobani and a sliced apple.

My new almond butter.  I'm a huge fan!

Recently I broke down and purchased my first pair of JEGGINGS haha. I resisted for so long, but tried some on a few months ago and realized that they are actually really comfy. Make fun of me all you want but I love them.



(notice my granny sweater to keep me warm in our freezing house)

After a full day of cleaning and playing with the puppers, Matt and I went out to dinner with my parents.  I had a LivingSocial coupon to a restaurant called AquaSol.  I love this place. They have really good food and they also have half portion entrees which is a huge plus in my mind.  My dinner was yummy. I had the salmon with wild rice and pineapple salsa and a side of zucchini and squash.

My mom alwys provides me with a plethera of awesome magazines when I see her. I'm sitting down to read people magazine right now.  Can't resist!



Trying to find the right running shoe

Happy Friday everyone! I'm just sitting here tonight thinking about what else....my running shoes.  When I first started running I didn't wear the appropriate footwear and I didn't change my shoes out as often as I should have.  I started to develop pain on the ball of my foot by my big toe joint.  I decided that I should probably get new shoes to see if that would help.  After doing some research I ended up with the Asics GT-2150:

To be honest I wasn't looking to spend a lot of money.  Matt had a coupon to a local department store.  I did some research into motion controlled shoes and found out that they had this shoe at the store on sale!! So I went for it.  These shoes were great. They had good support and a wide toe box.  Within a couple of weeks the pain had subsided. I felt it every now and then but defintely not as bad as it had been.  So 6 months goes by, Matt and I join a running club and I realize hey, I should probably get new shoes again.  With our running club membership we got 20% off at a local new balance store.  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to figure out what shoes were right for me and get a professional's opinion.  I spent way more money than I thought I would and trusted the salesman's opinion.  I walked out of the store with this shoe:

The New Balance 1260.  I did my first couple of runs and everything was ok.  They were much different than the asics. It felt almost like I was walking on a cloud they were so cushiony.  The guy at the store said they were for moderate overpronators so I thought they would have good support, but I think my $50 asics had more.  As my running got more frequent the pain in my foot returned.  Whenever I wore these shoes I could feel it.  I really didn't want to admit to myself that I just wasted all this money on these shoes and that the cheap shoes were probably a better fit for me.  After my 10k I gave my foot a rest for a couple of weeks. My first few runs back I used my old asics. NO PAIN!! My doctor's appointment is Monday and hopefully that will take me to a foot specialist.  I think I want to get a real professional's opinion before I go buying another pair of running shoes.

For now I'm doing shorter runs and stopping if I have any pain. Thank God it's winter...gives me a good excuse to cross train since it's so cold out!

Tomorrow morning I will be giving oatmeal another try.  I could never stomach it before because of the texture.  The overnight oats are the only way I could handle them (because I'm obsessesed with greek yogurt).  Well I'm giving them another go.  I'm making pumpkin pie oatmeal...noticing a trend lately? PUMPKIN!!!