Guacamole, Chickpea Salad, Pita Taco Thingy.

Today was a good day. Or I should say another good day, this whole week has kinda rocked. No particular reason really, just life is good.

The absolute best part of my day was that Lincoln asked me if I would take him for a run. I could hardly get my shoes on fast enough! I did make him wait long enough for me to snap a couple pictures though.

He’s been showing a little bit of interest in running lately, ever since I called his shoes “running shoes” a few days ago.

I didn’t know how this would go, I figured he’d make it down the street and then make me carry his ass back up the big hill to our house. He actually managed to run all the way to the end of the street and back. A half a mile!

He said he wants me to take him running every Thursday, Friday and Monday now. Whatever that’s about. 🙂

Something super weird has been happening to me for the last couple of days. Like unheard of …

I haven’t been very hungry. Whaaaaaaat?

After 4 miles on the treadmill, an hour of Boxmania and a weight workout today … I should have been hangry. I checked MFP and I had over 1300 calories left for the day. Hungry or not, I’m not about starving my body so I did what any fat girl at heart would do … I ate. Duh.

I made the most random, delicious and calorie dense dinner. Full of healthy fat and good stuff.

Smashed Chickpea Salad, loosely based on this recipe. Chickpeas, red onion, black olives, green olives, cilantro, sea salt and a “glug glug” of olive oil.

Pretty stinkin’ good.

This is the part that made it kind of genius though.

Awww yeah. Imagine this bad boy coming at your face…

Guacamole, chickpea salad, pita taco thingy. I call it.

Use Up All the Things!

For the sake of limiting waste, I pulled out the big guns today.

I cannot stand to throw food away, but I also have a really bad habit of buying way more produce than my family can actually eat before it goes bad.

When I have large quantities of produce that is on the verge of going in the garbage can, I’ve found that the best way to save it and put it to use is to change its form. In other words, cook it .. juice it, or freeze it.

I put my techniques into action today with sweet potatoes, kale, strawberries, yellow squash, lemons and mushrooms.

I used the sweet potatoes in the crockpot with black beans and canned tomatoes to make chili for dinner tonight.

I juiced the kale, strawberries and lemons. A combination that I was seriously afraid of, but it was actually pretty dang good, and saved me from throwing those things away.

I cooked up the mushrooms and squash together and mix it with some spaghetti sauce and made it lunch along with the juice.

Viola!

I might have dirtied up every appliance and dish in my kitchen, but damn it .. I didn’t waste any food or money, so I win.

Run, Box, Yoga

What a full fantastic day!

My day started at 4:30 this morning when my alarm went off and hasn’t slowed down since. I flipped things around this week to do my long run today instead of on Saturday. I wanted to be able to run with The Usuals and because of the Dragon Boat races yesterday they would have to change their runs to today.

My Half Marathon Training plan called for 13 miles today, but my friend and coach Drew changed my plan and told me to try for 14, with the last 5 miles at an 8 min pace.

After stubbing my pinky toe on a dumbell in the middle of the night and waking up with a hangover, I didn’t have very high hopes. But a little toe pain and a hangover didn’t stop me from trying. In fact I run well when hungover and its THE ABSOLUTE BEST way to get over it. Sweat it out!

Seven of us started out together this morning and stayed together for the majority of the distance, only splitting off a little at the end.

I started off slow and ran the first 7 miles at about a 9 min pace. I decided to go ahead and pick it up to my 8 min pace at the 7.5 mile mark and held it until 12.5 miles. All of these splits actually ended up being sub-8s, and then I cooled down for the last bit to round out my 14 miles.

The gang joined back up for coffee and breakfast at Starbucks to relax after the run.

Breakfast was a spinach, eggwhite, feta wrap and a chai latte.

Lunch was leftover Vegetarian Nut Loaf, Crash Hot potatoes and squash.

This afternoon was a very special occasion at the yoga studio. It’s MJ’s birthday and she celebrated by gifting us a free class to the music of another MJ, Michael Jackson.

The doors opened early and I laid my mat out to reserve my spot and then did some Boxmania with Kaitlin in the parking lot until class started. I wore my new heart rate monitor and burned 300 calories in that 30 minutes. It was fun fun sweaty fun!

Time to get down with some MJ and MJ …

I’m in the pink, second from the left on the bottom.

It was like an hour long dance party on the mat! Loved it!

That’s a lot of exercise for the day. Whew, I’m pooped. No energy left for cooking tonight so I heated up some leftover Sweet Potatoes, Kale and Lentils and nom-ed out on the couch and got caught up on my Big Brother addiction.

A fabulous weekend indeed.

This and this and that.

Started the day off well …

Breakfast on the way to the gym. My most favorite flavor of Kind Bar. I haven’t yet found this flave anywhere except Starbucks.

One solid hour on the elliptical and 600 calories later I headed back home. But I wasn’t done yet. I’ve desperately been trying to integrate more strength into my weekly routine … as of this week. LOL

All you gotta do is give me a little technology and I’m game … I programmed a HIIT (high intensity interval training) core workout into an app on my phone a few days ago and that’s all I needed .. me + technology jive …

Jump jump jacks, burpees, crunches, side planks, bicycle crunches, planks holds … it all seems easier when you have technology on your side. Yeah! I also did a good arm workout called Tank Top Arms that I found on Pinterest.

After the workouts Tim, Lincoln and I headed out for lunch. It was .. blech to say the least. Nasty ass steamed oystered that smelled horrible .. I wanted a do-over.

I’ll spare you the food pics and give you this instead.

After lunch we headed Downtown to watch some friends compete in the Dragon Boat races.

And then everything went downhill from there …

Drinks, drinks and drinks and food. I’ll just leave you with these pictures and the hope that tomorrow will be better.

Long run in the morning, see you tomorrow! Night!

Atleast There is Champagne

You know how after you get your nails you move around all precious like for the rest of the day? … because you’re really not quite sure when they are dry and just as soon as you think you are good you jack those mothers up?

I welcomed my hubby home from his week long business trip today by taking him out for pedi’s. He was game.

That’s a mighty mighty good man right there!

Anyway, somehow I planned mani/pedis right before I had to come home and cook quiche for dinner. I felt quite ridiculous chopping onions all precious like.

Dinner was brunch. Mainly because I’ve had champagne in the house for an entire week and I couldn’t stand it anymore. Heeeeelllooo Mimosa!

Quiche 2 ways.

Tofu Broccoli Quiche and Eggwhite Spinach Mushroom Quiche. I wasn’t sure about either one so I wanted options.

I had a piece of each, roasted asparagus and sliced strawberries and (a few) Mimosas.

Right before dinner Lincoln had a “bathroom episode” that required immediate bathing, he nearly vomited during dinner multiple times because I made him try the quiche and he’s been a complete brat most of the afternoon. But atleast there is champagne. 🙂

Get Stuff Done

I’m currently standing in my kitchen in a sports bra and full makeup. Prepping dinner after working all afternoon and ready to get down with my kettlebell workout as soon as I throw dinner into the oven. Multitasking win.

That’s My Boy

Lincoln came into the kitchen last night as I was cleaning up after dinner and walked over and gave me a big hug. He told me, “Mommy, you are a dream come true. I love my life and I love you.”

I was getting all ooey gooey. Then he pulls down his pants and underwear, bends over and shows me his starfish and tell me to “feast my eyes”. And runs out of the room.

That’s my child.

I’m Addicted

A few days ago I wrote on my Facebook status that I needed to stay my ass out of TJ Maxx. I hereby officially change my mind.

Anywhere that I can buy both a cute dress for $10 and a Margarita Mix with only 68 calories that tastes great, is good in my book.

Besides shopping, another thing that I’ve discovered lately that I’m becoming addicted to is the shower at the gym. I have been exercising regularly now since 2009 and somehow I am just now figuring this out. It pains me to think of how I used to workout and go about the rest of my day all sweaty and smelly like. Gross.

These days I pack a gym bag and take a leisurely shower at the gym (with flip flops on, of course) and then go about my day fresh as a daisy. Not to mention it feels freaking good. And someone else watches my child for me while I shave my legs in peace.

As a matter of fact, I’ve nixed shaving my legs anywhere at all except for the gym these days. My shower at home is so small that when I bend over to shave my leg I hit my head and ass on opposite walls.

Today I started my day off with a easy 4 mile run after I dropped the little man off at school.

Since I was running a new route, I carried my phone with me and used an app called JogTracker. I’ve used this app a couple of times when I’ve forgotten my Garmin on runs and it works pretty well. The one thing I love about it is that it shows an active map on the screen while you are running of where you have been. I used it today to keep myself from getting lost and it worked like a charm!

I didn’t get lost, my route ended up being exactly the 4 miles I was aiming for and I got back to the Y just in time for Boxmania class. I love it when a plan comes together!

After running and an hour kicking and punching the shit out of a target I decided to take myself on a lunch date.

Soy nuggets, spelt and butternut squash, couscous and salad.

The spelt and butternut squash was out of this world! I’ll definitely be trying to recreate this one soon.

Another Kind of Overnight Oats

Ok, she might not be the prettiest girl at the prom … but oh my.

When I was buying the oatmeal for my original overnight oats I accidently bought steel cut oats instead of rolled oats. I looked up some recipes of what I could do with them and came across a very simple Alton Brown recipe for Overnight Oatmeal in the slow cooker. Since everything he says is pretty much golden, I knew they would be great. I was kind of curious about the very few ingredients though, not even so much as a spice in these babies.

So simple …

• 1 cup of oats
• 1 cup of dried figs
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 4 cups of water
• 1/2 cup Half & Half

Everybody in the pool!

After a good night’s sleep it was nice to have a  hot bowl of oatmeal waiting for me. I added a tablespoon of Agave to sweeten it up a little bit. Sooo good. I think next time I’ll cut the figs up some. I liked the flavor but the large chunks were a little overwhelming.

I’m feeling really good today because I finally tackled this mess last night…

 

I have no idea how it got that bad. I put my OCD to work and got down on it though and now its all nice and neat. I kinda want to sit in there and eat a sandwich.

This is my new thing.

Something about this combo I just can’t get enough of. Garden Herb flavor cream cheese, cucumber slices with a sprinkle of Greek seasoning and alfalfa sprouts. And cherries.

I plan on having this for lunch every day this week. And maybe next. I restocked my cucumber supply today.

These should last me a while.

I always feel dirty buying produce of this size. “Yes, I found everything I needed a bag of dog food and these giant cucumbers. Thanks for asking.”

Mangos Make Me Drop F Bombs

I haven’t eaten a mango since March 2, 2010 and now I remember why.

For some reason the mangos were looking tempting at the grocery store yesterday and I picked up a few, probably because they were 10 for $10, a SUPRISINGLY LOW price Publix tells me. I’m a sucker for a deal.

DH and I had a nice little romance run this morning around Downtown.

Kiss, kiss.

He had 6 miles on the schedule for today and I needed a nice recovery run from the 13 I ran yesterday.

After our run we decided to make a light breakfast together. I cooked us up some eggwhite omelet wraps and I thought we’d have a little sliced mango on the side.

Now I consider myself to be fairly food savvy and more experienced in culinary techniques than the average person. Therefore I’m not serving something that looks like this … to anyone. Especially not to my hubby.

Mangos get the best of me.

I rummaged through the fridge for some leftover coconut water from my Skinny Pina Coladas a few nights ago. Coconut water, mango, and ice makes a pretty delicious smoothie. Perfect rehydration after our run and compliment to our omelet wraps.

I’m going to have to Google the proper way of dealing with mangos, but the smoothie was a delicious accident that I will be repeating soon.