In Need Of Some Comfort....Food

Today after work I went for a run around the University of Delaware campus.  It's one of my favorite places to run and it always brings back good memories from college. It's such a pretty campus that the run always goes by nice and fast.



I ran for about 40 minutes.  I swear one day I'll get one of those fancy watches that tells you how far you actually went, but for now I'm guessing that I went a little over 4 miles. 

When I got home I was ready to cook! I saw this recipe last week on a fellow runner's blog.  It looked soo good and I've been in the mood for some comfort food ever since the weather started getting colder.  The recipe was really easy to follow and only took me about a half an hour to make which is a plus in my book.

Recipe:

¼ cup smoked bacon ends, diced (I used canadian bacon)

2 ribs celery, sliced

1 large carrot, peeled and chopped

½ large onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

6 small potatoes, peeled and chopped

2 cups kale, chopped, loosely packed

2 tsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

1 ½ tsp smoked paprika

½ cup half and half (I only used about 1/4 cup)

In a small soup pot, cook the bacon over medium heat until fat becomes visible in the bottom of the pan. Increase the heat to medium high and add the celery, carrot and onion. Cook about 3 minutes and stir in the garlic. Continue to cook until the veggies are tender, about 5 more minutes.

Add the potatoes and cook for 2 minutes. Add water to the pot just to cover the potatoes. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. As soon as the potatoes become tender, add the kale. Cook just until wilted, about 1 minute.

Stir in the salt, pepper and paprika. Using a potato masher, gently mash the soup, breaking up some of the potatoes, but not all. Stir in the half and half and serve warm. Makes 4 servings.

YUM YUM YUM. I had my soup with a side salad of course! And I finished my meal with a little dessert.  A square of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate. 





Snow In October

I woke up on Saturday to such a gross day outside.  This was the day we were having people over for Halloween.  Not too many people, but of course I was running around the kitchen like a crazy person trying to get everything ready.  I attempted to make these cute ghost meringue cookies.  Well it turned out to be an epic FAIL.  So I took a quick look around the kitchen to see what I had on hand, and then searched the internet to find a quick recipe for some healthy cookies.  I ended up making Peanut Butter Bars. They were so easy with only a handful of ingredients.  I would say all together they took me 20 minutes to make with baking and everything.

Recipe:

1.5 cups old fashioned oats

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup agave nectar

1 egg (i used egg whites)

1/2 cup peanut butter (smuckers natural chunky)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8 inch square baking pan.  Mix all ingredients, pour into baking pan and bake for 15-18 minutes.



I also had to make something with pumpkin in it or it wouldn't be Halloween.  I made a pumpking pie dip and served it with apple slices and graham crackers.

Recipe:

15 oz can of pumpkin

3/4 cup brown sugar

6 oz fat free plain greek yogurt

8 oz cool whip free

1 tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp pumpkin pie spice

We also got a bread spider from great harvest.  It looked so cute I didn't want to eat it.  It was cinnamon chip flavor.





I think everyone had a good time at the party even though the weather was disgusting.  I was BATGIRL!! A left over cotume from last year....oops :)

This is the first year I've tried Pumpking Beer and I lovee it!!

The next morning I definitely felt like I had to get moving.  Halloween is one of the holidays you just have to give yourself the chance to cheat for the night.  All the food was delicious and I enjoyed every bite.  Today Matt and I headed to glasgow park for a run.  I finished 5.1 miles in 47 minutes.  I felt good to be outside even though it was a little chilly, I think about 45 degrees. 

On my agenda for today:

• Make a wedding website (I've been dreading this)
• Start thinking about our registry
• Laundry
• Some cooking for the week ahead

Big News!

Today I found out that my sister is having a little GIRL this March!! Giona and Mia are going to make such good older siblings. They are too cute and I can't wait to see pictures of them from halloween.

My day today was a little crazy! I got home from my shopping trip last night around 9:30 so I ended up just throwing some leftover chickpea casserole in a container for lunch the next day.  It did not dissapoint.  Even better than the first time I had it. 

After work I headed to the gym for a quick workout.  I did about 30 minutes of weights and 40 minutes of cardio on both the bike and elliptical.  When I got home I warmed up one of my leftover turkey burgers and threw together a salad to go with it.

I put some carrots, snap peas, blue cheese and the mose AMAZING spicey black bean hummus on my salad.  I got the hummus at our local co-op a few weeks ago and I've been obsessed with it ever since.

After dinner I started cleaning the house and putting some things together for our halloween party on Saturday.  I'll be making a couple of new recipes for the party and I will definitely let you all know how it goes and share some of the recipes.

Now if I only knew what costume I wanted to wear. It's definitely a year for a recycled costume.  They can be so expensive.  If only I had the creativity to make my own lol. 

I'm thinking of waking up early tomorrow and going for a short run depending on how early I get to bed tonight.  I really need to get used to running in the cold before our 10k in November.  At least I know if I do go for a run I have a yummy breakfast to come back to.  I made a bowl of pumpkin pie overnight oats! One of my favorites!

1/2 cup plain fat free greek yogurt

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup pumpkin

pumpking pie spice to taste

drizzle of maple syrup

spoonfull of natural peanut butter

craisins

Mix together the night before and let it sit in the fridge overnight. 

Missing My Partner In Crime

It's about 7pm! Laundry is in the dryer, plants have been watered, cats have been fed, fridge has been cleared out, trash has been collected throughout the house, and dinner has been made and consumed! It's been one busy day and I am definitely glad to be sitting right now. I definitley miss having Matt around to help me out.  Can't wait until he comes home on Friday.
After work I drove over to glasgow park for a run.

I was determined to finish a 10k.  The track at the park loops around every 2.6 miles.  I finished my 6.2 miles in 57.16! I was sooo happy with my time. I ran around a 9.15 split.  I want to run around a 9.30 split during our 10k race next month. 
When I got home I put dinner in the oven and did some chores before grabbing a shower.  On the menu for tonight was Pumpkin Maple Baked Bean Cornbread Casserole.  The original recipe can be found at this website: http://ohsheglows.com/2011/10/07/pumpkin-maple-baked-bean-cornbread-casserole/
I attempted to cut the recipe by a by 3 since it was just little old me eatting it.  I'm not sure if it turned out exactly how it was supposed to because I was guestimating, but it tasted really good.  For my version I used chickpeas instead of navy beans and it turned out great.

I cooked mine in a bread pan.

I had my casserole with a sliced up apple, some geen peppers and carrots.

After cleaning up from dinner I am taking a little break from the chores. Here's what's on the menu for my little break:

A warm cup of apple cider and a magazine that I saw in the store today that I couldn't help but pick up!

Tomorrow is my day off from working out and I'm heading to Lancaster with my mom to do some outlet shopping. I still have a gift card from my birthday in August that needs to be spent.  Tomorrow's hump day!

It's Only Monday??

It was hard being back at work after such a great weekend.  I had a bit of a slow day at work, so when I got out I was ready for a good workout! I decided to do an interval workout on the treadmill along with some arm and abs exercises.

The treadmill can be anyone's worst enemy.  It's hard to stay interested when you are looking at the same thing for 45 minutes.  That's why I love to do interval workouts.  Here's the one I did today.

Warm up:

Walk for 2 minutes at 4.0

Run 30 seconds 5.0

30 seconds at 5.3

1 minute at 5.5

1 minute at 5.8

5 minutes at 6.0

Intervals:

1 minute 6.2

2 minutes 6.0

1 minute 6.4

2 minutes 6.0

1 minute 6.6

2 minutes 6.0

1 minute 6.8

2 minutes 6.2

1 minute 7.0

2 minutes 6.2

Incline (all @ speed 6/2):

1.5 minutes 1.0 incline

1.5 mintues 2.0 incline

1.5 minutes 3.0 incline

1.5 minutes 4.0 incline

1.5 minutes 3.0 incline

1.5 minutes 2.0 incline

1.5 minutes 1.0 incline

1.5 minute 0 incline

I finished out with some sprints and ended around 4 miles in 40 minutes. I headed home to cook my dinner. Tonight I cooked Blue Cheese BBQ Turkey Burgers courtesy of Bethenny Frankel http://www.bethenny.com/2011/03/16/barbeque-bleu-turkey-burger .  I cut this recipe in half and served mine over some spinach leaves, carrots, snap peas, and pinepple. I love this recipe because it is simple and only requires a few ingredients.

I used these four ingredients and 1/2lb ground turkey

Then I cooked them on the stovetop and chowed down

YUM! I also had a small slice of great harvest dakota bread.  

Squashed

I finally found Spaghetti Squash in the grocery store! I've been wanting to make this forever and just haven't come across one until now. 

The next step was cutting it in half.  This turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it would.  I read that  you can cook it whole, it just has to cook longer and then you have to let it cool all the way so you don't burn yourself when you cut into it.  After some struggling I cut that sucker in half!

Then I took out the inards, preheated the oven to 375, and baked it for 45 minutes. 

Now they are ready to fork!

I mixed mine with some  pesto and tomatoe sauce and about half a bakes chicken breast.  It didnt look so pretty but it tasted really good.  I had a salad on the side with spinach, snap peas, carrots, pineapple and balsalmic dressing.

After dinner I went for a walk around the neighborhood. My muscles are so sore from my workout yesterday/walking for 4 hours, a walk was about all I could handle. 

Back to work tomorrow :(

6 Year Philadelphia Trip

Matt and I just got home from our 6 year anniversary trip to Philadelphia.  We had so much fun just walking around and exploring the city.  We took the day off from work on Friday and drove up to Philly after lunch.  We stayed in the Mariott Center City which was an awesome location.  We were in the center of everything. 

(The view outside our hotel)

We started out the day by walking towards the Love sign! I can't  believe I live 45 minutes away from Philadelphia and have never been to the love sign. 

Then we decided to go to Logan Square and then off to the Natural Science Museum because we are both science nerds. 

We saw a ton of dinosaurs fossils.  

And Matt went back in time haha.

After the museum it was time for dinner. Matt found this really cute wine bar Tria.  It was a pretty small restaurant and we ended up with the last table in the place. 

I had a glass of Rose along with my dinner which was amazing! I had the Fig and Gorgonzola Salad with hazelnuts and balsalmic dressing.  It was the perfect size and exactly what I needed.

After dinner we stopped at a bakery and got a little something for dessert.  I got a peice of no sugar added dark chocolate almond bark.  Yum.  I could never live without dark chocolate.

The next morning Matt and I got some oatmeal from Starbucks and some fruit. We ate a quick breakfast and then went down to the fitness center for a much needed workout.  I was really surprised at how nice the fitness center was. They had a bunch of cardio machines along with a great area for free weights and a handful of weight machines.  Here is what I ended up doing at the gym:

• Legs with 2 10lb dumbells
• 25 squats
• 24 forward lunges
• 24 backward lunges
• Arms with 2 10lb dumbells
• 2 sets of 12 benchpress and 12 dumbell fly's
• 2 sets of 12 bent over rows  both for right and left arm
• 2 sets of 12 bent over tricep extensions for right and left arm
• Cardio:
• 30 minutes on the eliptical on the random setting level 7

After the gym and a shower we were off for more exploration! We grabbed our lunch at Reading Terminal Market! It was soo hard to pick where to eat. There were so many places that looked good.  We ended up picking a Mediterranean food stand. 

I got a Bruschetta, Eggplant, Prosciutto, and Fresh Mozzarella Sandwhich.  I had never had eggplant before but I ended up liking the sandwhich a lot.

From lunch we pretty much walked around the entire city.  We went down to old city and caught a glimpse of the Liberty Bell and the Constitution Center.

We then walked to Antique Row and did some window shopping. I love all of the shops we saw...but just couldn't afford to buy anything lol. By the time we made it back to the hotel we had been walking for about 3 1/2 hours. We were beat.  We took a little rest in the room until dinnertime. 

It took us a while to decide where we wanted to go for dinner.  We went on the website for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (I'm slightly obsessed with this show) and found what places Guy visited in Philadelphia.  We decided to go to the Good Dog Bar.  It's kind of a hole in the wall, but that's exactly what we wanted. 

I totally forgot to take a picture of my dinner. It's probably because I was too busy devouring it.  I had the salmon burger and side salad.  YUM!  I also had a glass of wine and a glass of Flying Fish Oktoberfest.  We definitely went all out for our last night of our mini vacation. 

We are back home now :( and Matt is packing for his business trip.  He'll be in New York until Friday.  Although I'm said he's leaving, I'm going to take the opportunity to make some weird food...stuff I know he wouldn't eat if he were here!