5 Day Weekend!

Today is the start of my five day weekend. I was up bright and early so I could go to the grocery store before all the crazies got up.  Before I left I had some baked pumpkin pie oatmeal for breakfast:

I mixed together some plain greek yogurt and apple butter to put on top

When I got back from the store I played with the pup for a bit, took him for a walk and then decided to go for a run.  Probably not the best idea since it was about 30 degrees out.  I bundled up pretty well, but it didn't keep my hands and my whole face from going numb for about the first mile.  I ran about 3.5 miles and then was in need of a nice hot shower. By then Matt was home from work for lunch!



I had a big spinach salad with everything I could find in the fridge on it. Grapes, Turkey, Kashi pilaf, carrots, broccoli, snap peas, craisins, blue cheese, hummus...yum.  And followed it up with a peice of cliff bar and a square of dark chocolate.

May sister and her fam are coming in from Pittsburgh late tonight so I'm on my way to the mall to look for gifts for my neice and nephew....because I couldn't possibly procrastinate any more.  Then Matt and I are going out to dinner and are going to work on pickin up some supplies for new years eve.

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!!





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!!!



Craving Pumpkin

Today was a blur! Busy day at work with a birthday lunch for a coworker smacked in the middle.  We went to a vietnamese restaurant in Newark.  I had never had vietnamese food before, but it was pretty good. I went safe and ordered the  chicken and mixed vegetable.  It sure was filling, so I stuck with just a peanut butter and apple butter sandwhich for dinner with a banana on the side before I went to the gym.  The gym was much less crowded than Monday! I think all of the post thanksgiving workout people have already given up lol.  I did 25 minutes of weight training and 40 minutes of cardio.  I broke my no running rule and ran for 20 minutes and loved every second of it. I did some small intervals but kept it at an easy pace just in case. But my foot feels good! I finished with 20 mintues on the bike at level 8 on the random setting.

Last night I was craving pumpkin like no other. Sometimes you just have to feed the beast! haha. I found a recipe for Pumpkin Cranberry Muffin Tops.  I think pumpkin and cranberry are amazing together so this was perfect for me. I adjust the recipe for what I had on hand and they came out perfectly.

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffin Tops (from fANNEtastic food)

dry ingredients:

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

wet ingredients:

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup applesauce

1/6 cup dried cranberries

1/6 cup maple syrup

1.5 tbsp egg whites

1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix dry and wet ingredients separately.  Then add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.  Form 12 small cookies.  Bake for 15 mintues on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper at 350 degrees.

YUM!! It was just what I needed. Healthy and satisfying!



Are you that girl that smells like onions??

I will get to my amazing black bean burger recipe soon, but first....I learned a very important lesson yesterday. Don't cut up or eat large amounts of onions before going to the gym.  You will reek haha. Yesterday was one of those crazy busy days where you barely have time to stop and think.  I got home from work, walked the dog, made our black bean burgers (for dinner tonight) and then started on dinner for last night.  Matt's mom had given us some ham so I just wanted to make a side. I had a can of white beans on hand so I decided to use those.

I started out by putting about 2 tbsp of olive oil in a pan and added a half of a chopped onion and 2 cloves of garlic to it.  I cooked that for a few minutes and then added the drained white beans (15oz can) along with some salt, pepper and dried thyme.  After this cooked for a few minutes I added a splash of white wine. 

Yum. So after dinner I headed to the gym without realizing that I smelled sooo bad like big onion. I really noticed it when I started doing my cardio haha. I was trying to read people's lips around me to see if they had notice. I'm so paranoyed. 

Anyways....today was another day.  I had a dentist appointment which took FOREVERRRR. I got home around 5:30 and put my black bean burgers (made the night before) into a pan to cook.



I found this recipe somewhere, but it was so long ago now that I can't remember.

Favorite Black Bean Burgers

1 16oz can black beans

1/2 green bell pepper chopped

1/2 onion chopped

3 cloved garlic minced

1 egg

1 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp cumin

1 tsp hot sauce

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

Mash black beans in a bowl with a fork.  Place pepper, onion and garlic in a food processor and pulse.  Add these to the black beans and mix.  In another bowl mix together egg, chili powder, cumin and hot sauce.  Add this mixture to the black ben mixture.  Add bread crumbs until patties will stay together.  This recipe makes 4 patties.  Cook on the grill or stovetop 8 minutes per side.

I also threw a sweet potatoe in the microwave for 10 minutes (5 minutes per side) and had some carrots and celery on the side.

On such a rainy day I'm glad I'm inside staying dry. Matt surprised me today by getting our backyard fenced in for Champ!! It looks great and Champ is going to love running around back there and playing fetch!



Dreary Monday

It's been such a nasty day here in Delaware.  It's been cloudy and raining on and off all day.  Days like this make me glad I have the gym.  I did an easy workout today because my legs are still a bit sore from the race on Saturday.  I think it's so weird that I've run a 10k several times on my own, but when I run it in a race I'm sore for several days afterwards.  I guess that means I was pushing myself! I stuck with 20 minutes of upper body weights and then 20 minutes on the bike and 20 minutes on the eliptical. 

thought this was funny

love this

When I got home from the gym I tried to throw together a quick dinner.  I had never had gnocchi before so I decided to give them a go. I found a recipe on http://www.eatingwell.com/ that I based my recipe off of.  I didn't make the gnocchi myself, but I'm hoping to do that at some point.  I remember coming across a recipe for sweet potatoe gnocchi. Sounds good to me. 

Gnocchi with Spinach and White Beans

olive oil

1 lb package of refrigerated gnocchi

1/2 yellow onion chopped

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup water

3 handfulls spinach leaves (very precise i know)

1 15oz can white beans, drained and rinsed

1 15 oz can diced tomatoes undrained

pepper to taste

1/4 cup mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup shredded parmesean cheese

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a skillet and add gnocchi. Cook about 5 minutes until browned and remove gnocchi from pan.  Add 1 tsp oil to pan along with onion and cook for 1 minute.  Stir in garlic and water.  Cover and let simmer for 2 minutes until onion is soft.  Add spinach and stir until wilted.  Stir in tomatoes, beans and pepper and bring to a simmer until sauce thickens.  Stir in gnocchi and sprinkle with cheese.  Cover and cook for 3 minutes unil cheese melts. Enjoy!

The recipe got pretty good reviews from Matt although he did say that it could have used some meat (I expected this hah).  I'm thinking of adding some italian turkey sausage next time but all the flavors were great and it was nice and filling!

Tomorrow after work I'll be coming home to bake an apple pie for Turkey Day.  I'm a little nervous...I'm not a very good baker.  But we'll see how it goes.  I'm also hoping to fit in an at home workout from women's health magazine! It's equipment free and uses only your own body weight.  I'm excited to see how it turns out!

Thank God this is only a 3 day week :)