Breakfast is Boring

Well hello.

After walking circles around my kitchen for 10 minutes trying to figure out some interesting new breakfast combination, I finally gave up and settled on cereal.

I think the problem is that I’m generally not a huge fan of breakfast food anyway. There is only so many combinations of cereal, eggs, yogurt, oatmeal and waffles I can take. I need something new and exciting.

On a positive note, I finally ate the last of this huge box of cereal from Costco.

I thought it would last FOREVER.

Must research new and exciting breakfast options soon.

I definitely see something like this in my near future …

Yes please!

Life Changing.

The scan barcode option on Myfitnesspal will change your life. Well, maybe not really, but it is pretty cool. It probably also encourages eating pre-packaged, processed food that comes with barcodes. You win some, you lose some.

Today.

I received a text message this morning when I woke up that my grandfather passed away in the middle of the night.

Today I choose not to be sad.

I learned in the past few days to take nothing for granted, to cherish those you love and to live life to the fullest. Sometimes we need bad situations to remind us of that.

Today I will spend the day at home with my son and my husband doing the things we each love to do. Lincoln will probably play Wii all day. Tim will hang out on the computer. And I will master making these …

We will finish decorating the Christmas tree.

I won’t stress out about the smudges on my hardwood floors, the dishes in the sink or the 6 loads of clothes that are piling up. I will be kind and loving to those I come in contact with and will choose my words wisely.

Today I choose to be happy.

Love.

I got a call last night that Pawpaw isn’t going to make it much longer. I dropped everything and drove the 3 hours to Atlanta to be with my family. We stayed up all night spending time together. This morning I got a call that Lincoln was sick, so I left Pawpaw and rushed home to be with my little man. What a crazy and exhausting 24 hours it has been.

We love you Pawpaw!

2 Weeks Til the Race

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! Mine was spent with good friends and way too much food.

I did stay on track with my running through the holiday week though and even ran a fast (8:04 pace) 5 miles on Thanksgiving Day!

Today is the 2 week mark before the race! Its coming so fast!

Taper time is in full effect now. Today’s run was significantly shorter than last week’s run, only 12 miles. Twelve miles is nothing to sneeze at though!

Today I was thankful for only twelve. After a week of less than ideal eating I felt heavy and sluggish from the start, or maybe it is the fact that the entire first mile is uphill. Who knows?

Started getting more comfortable around the 3 mile mark, but the heavy gusts of head wind fought back at me. Luckily I had my best running buddies with me, so the conversation helped keep my mind of the actual running.

Before I knew it, it was done … and I was relaxing at breakfast drinking a customary post-run beer.

With all the usual suspects.

Headed from breakfast straight to Hot Yoga for some streeeeeeetch.

Unfortunately Hot Yoga wasn’t as amazing today for me as it usually is. I was weak and tired and wanted it to be over almost as soon as it started. I toughed my way through it the best I could and hope that atleast my legs got some benefit.

Thanksgiving Quinoa Quiche

Have you ever wondered what happens to jellied cranberry sauce when its cooked? No?

Turns out .. not much.

I got a little funky in the kitchen this afternoon.

But first, I started off with a  5 mile run at Fort Toulouse. My legs were heavy and tired still from Sunday’s 21 mile run. They didn’t want to move very quickly so I decided to be ok with that and just enjoyed the run at a slightly slower usual pace for me. The weather was unusual for November, comfortable but more reminiscent of Spring than Fall.

Lunch was inspired by two things … quiche and Thanksgiving.

I started off planning to make my Quinoa Crusted Veggie Quiche that I created a few weeks ago, but then I thought of Thanksgiving dressing and decided to take it in another direction by adding lots of sage and jellied cranberry sauce.

1. Cook 1 cup dry quinoa per package instructions and press into casserole dish.

2. Top quinoa with a layer of sauteed veggies of choice. I used zucchini, onion and mushrooms today.

3. Layer slices of jellied cranberry sauce on top of veggies.

4. Whisk together 8 large eggs and season with salt, pepper and dried sage. Pour on top of dish.

5. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for approximately 23-30 minutes or until eggs are set.

I added a little fresh chopped parsley to mine, but later discovered that I don’t really like parsley afterall.

I served it up with a side of leftover Taffy Apple Salad.

Yum! The total calorie count for the quiche came out to 267 per serving (makes 6).

My snacks for today included this yummy veggie spring roll from Earthfare …

And a Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte from Starbucks, otherwise known by me as a skinnamon.

I double dipped in the exercise today by going to a lovely Hot Yoga class tonight. Lots of hip openers, flows, balance poses and back stretches. But my favorite part is final savasna.

Aaaaaah! All is right with the world when in savasna.

Class let out at 7:30, well after my normal dinner time so my meal was simple tonight.

Subway Veggie Delight flatbread with lettuce, tomato, extra pickles, red onion and black olives … rosemary Veggie Straws and a Michelob Ultra Amber.

Aaaah again. What a great day.

Another year of life.

Today I joined a new age group!

3 Weeks Until the Race

This weekend marks the final countdown until my first marathon on December 10th. I say final countdown because after today its the start of taper time!

Its been a busy, crazy, fun weekend!

Started off Saturday morning by deciding to support a friend at the Turkey Burner 5K instead of running my scheduled 20-miler.

She killed it! And placed 1st in her age group.

I felt like I needed an extra rest day before my long run anyway. I’ve been feeling some aches this week that I needed to rest away. To add insult to injury I also fell a couple of nights ago and hit my knee that has been aching already. I’ve got a big black bruise, but it seems to otherwise be ok.

Saturday afternoon I did some hot yoga to stretch everything out.

I realized at some point yesterday that my long run would be 20 miles on November 20th on the last day of my 20’s! Perfect!

The alarm went off bright and early this morning at 4:45. I thought it was a cruel joke at first. But it was reality.

I’m proud to say that I busted out 21.15 miles this morning in 3 hours and 12 minutes!

It makes it so much easier to do these long runs with buddies. Six of us started out together this morning and ran various distances. I was never alone the whole time!

There was no time to rest after the run though. Today was our Thanksgiving Dry Run to test out some recipes for Thursday. I spent the day cooking, cooking, cooking and ended up with this …

I know its all kind of the same color, but it was delish! That’s how you do a vegetarian Thanksgiving. Sweet potato gratin, sweet pea and onion casserole, cabbage, potato salad, dressing with cranberry sauce and pearl onion gratin. There was also some unpictured Pumpkin Spice Cake involved and Tim’s absolute favorite of the day …

Taffy apple salad.

Took a 3 mile walk after lunch to keep the soreness away and settle the full tummy.

So happy, tired and thankful.

Turkey Cookies!

Let the Thanksgiving fun begin!

Vegetarian Nut Loaf

I’m really glad this recipe turned out well because it was kind of a bitch to make. Lots and lots of chopping, which I suck at.

Onion, celery, carrots, bellpepper, mushrooms. Chop, chop, chop.

Here is the original recipe.

Basically chop all the veggies, sauté them and combine them with eggs, walnuts, sunflower seeds and bread crumbs.  Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour.

The recipe calls for 3 cups of bread crumbs and 5 eggs. I could tell after adding in 2 cups of bread crumbs that it was going to be too dry though. I added 2 extra eggs, making 7 total and left out the extra cup o’ crumbs.

I used my Allrecipes Dinner Spinner app to make sure I was following the steps correctly.

Love that app!

I roasted some potatoes and asparagus to go with it.

I had no idea what to expect because I’ve never made anything like this before. Other than the crunchiness from the walnuts I really couldn’t tell it wasn’t regular meatloaf.

Lincoln even took a few bites. And then spit it out. But hey, baby steps.