Sep 6, 2011

Fridays are FUN with Parents Around!

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Friday I was lucky enough to get off work a little early so I got to spend some time with my mom! Well I was getting off work early and thought who would want to play with me right now and it didn’t take me long to come up with my answer… MOM OF COURSE! We started off our little later afternoon adventure with a much needed pedicure at Nail Envy in Fairlawn. This place has the very best pedicure chairs… you know those massage ones? They are just amazing. I won’t give away too much because I think anyone in the area that is able should go give it a try but needless to say it is a nice little treat after a long work week!

So I decided on a nice pinkish color for my toes and the woman who gave me my pedicure seemed less than impressed with my runners feet. She took one look at my feet and was like umm wow your feet are really dry. Yep I answered in tennis shoes every day sweating and being gross… enjoy those puppies for the next half hour. So yea she was totally grossed out BUT totally proud of herself when she was finished. “New Feet” is what she told me she gave me and well she kind of did. My feet felt refreshed and ready to do a couple of miles… but I didn’t tell her that. She’ll be disappointed in me when I come back in I bet. So to you runners out there… how do you keep your feet pretty?

After the wonderful mother daughter pedicure time which we spent talking about everything under the sun we went to go visit THE BABIES! It had been some time since my mom saw a little 3 week old and Katie was nice enough to let us stop by so we got some baby lovin’ before the night was over! Cam was once again just tired and wanted to be a cuddle bug which I was totally OK with.

After the babies we stopped by Sakura to pick up some sushi for an appetizer. Tim, being the wonderful man he is, put some edamame in the microwave for us so it was a real feast when we got home. My dad was coming over after work for dinner so we just ate that to tide us over (don’t worry we saved him some)!

For dinner I cooked up a random assortment of deliciousness. Chicken sausage for the main course followed by some stove top on the side and some sautéed spinach my mom made. She makes the best spinach and throws in everything! Peppers (hot ones too!), garlic, salt, peppers, and tomatoes made my night! That combined with that tasty chicken sausage from Sam’s Club made a meal to remember!

Yummm Dinner

Oh did I mention wine was involved?

After dinner my parents went home but Tim and I weren’t done with our fun! We picked up his mom and little brother and went to my favorite place in the world… MENCHIES! I tried to branch out this time but after some taste testing I still got some sorbet (I know I know pathetic!). I also added in some vanilla this time though and topped with fresh fruit and 3 random cheesecake bites (c’mon now I didn’t want to go over board here). I’ll tell you what though… I am AMAZED at how much frozen yogurt people put in those cups. Just because they give you this giant cup doesn’t mean you have to fill the entire thing up! I think I fill mine like 1/6th of the way up! Some of these people had them over flowing! It was insane. In any case it was a tasty trip and the first time for Robin and Tanner so they were grateful we asked them to join. Plus, it was a great start to a busy weekend!

So YAY for having Mom’s who have Friday afternoons off and who like to play!! What a wonderful Friday it was!

Filed Under: Good Eats and Treats, My family is the best · Tagged: , , , , , , ,
Aug 28, 2011

A not terrible but not so great day

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No rain on Thursday morning so that meant RUNNING. I woke up and was feeling really off. My belly hurt a little bit and my body just didn’t feel right. I had fallen asleep on the couch the night before, which I never do, so I should have known that today would feel weird. Honestly, I think was like hung over from our girls night! I did have a few glasses of wine but I didn’t think it was anything drastic but apparently my body can’t handle that kind of activity on a Wednesday night (must have to save that for Fridays and Saturdays) because my body was just mad at me. Regardless of what my belly was telling me I did get dressed and headed out w/ Tim to go for a run. That is when things got ugly.

Literally as soon as I picked up the pace from the walking we were doing I knew it was going to be a rough day. About a mile in my stomach just hurt, I had a cramp, my breathing was off, and my legs were tired. It seemed like no part of me wanted this run to happen. I tried to run through it but eventually ended up walking most of it with random bursts of runs in there to get the 2.5 miles done. While he didn’t say it out loud I think Tim was grateful for my dysfunctional body because I didn’t see him running ahead or anything!

I guess it was just one of those days where you realize you can’t always do exactly what you want to do. In my head I wanted to run 10 miles but every other part of me told me I couldn’t do it. When I got back I did tell Tim that I was disappointed in myself but he reminded me that I should be proud that I got out of bed and did the best I could. I mean I may not have been running but I wasn’t lying in bed doing nothing. I probably would have felt a whole lot worse if I hadn’t pushed myself to at least get out there and be active. So that made me feel a little better and then I felt a lot better when I realized I would have a second chance at moving my body during CrossFit/Rowing class that evening.

The day went by about as good as the morning. I was just in a serious slump and everything seemed to make me feel off all day long. The good news about that is because I felt off I was less chatty than usual and my to-do list shrunk by like 10 items! Amazing how much you can get accomplished when you are socializing! So that was the good news part of my day but the rest was just so-so. Not terrible but nothing impressive or fun to write home about (or write on here rather) so there you have the work day. I had some leftovers for lunch which prolly contributed to the less than impressive day of work haha.

I was happy to go to workout class but very tired. My mom noticed this right away and I think attempted to take it easy on me. It was a pretty arm intensive workout class which I was grateful for… for multiple reasons. 1. I was too tired to make it all cardio and crazy 2. I need wedding arms and they just aren’t there yet 3. It didn’t take much thought because I was pretty familiar with the moves so my brain didn’t have to turn all of the way on. So we did the following exercises for 45 second on, 10 seconds off 3 times around

  • - Box jumps
  • - Sit ups with kettle bell
  • - Lunges with the medicine ball over your head
  • - Squat Cleans w/ medicine ball
  • - Dead lift
  • - Kickbacks
  • - Bicep Curls
  • - Push-ups

It was a tough sweaty workout and exactly what I needed! After that I headed home to figure out what the heck I was going to make for dinner. I’m sure your not surprised to hear that was another off thing for me!

I finally decided on steaming a bag of edamame for dinner and then realized that just wouldn’t be enough. So after that realization I went back to my trusty friend the veggie burger salad. I microwave’d my Morning Star Veggie Burger (which Tim thought was weird since I had a grill and a George Foreman) and placed it on top of a bed of romaine lettuce. I added in slices of tomatoes, cookies mushroom and hot peppers. Then I topped the burger off with a smashed up avocado to serve as some tasty sauce for my meal. I was totally satisfied with myself and realized that a not to fancy dinner turned out to be pretty impressive.

My spread!

Look at that burger

Went to bed by 9… yep I am getting old. So overall not a bad ending to my weird not terrible but not great day!

Filed Under: Primary Menu · Tagged: , , , , ,
Aug 11, 2011

These are my confessions…

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I talk a lot about the healthy foods I eat (and yes I do talk about the bad ones too) and I talk about how I try to live a pretty healthy lifestyle. But I thought it was only fair to share with you some of my unhealthy passions and the things that I am, well, obsessed with!

Exhibit A: Soy Sauce

Looks! It is low sodium at least

So yea…. I LOVE soy sauce. I love to eat soy sauce on just about everything. Some of the weirdest things I eat soy sauce on are stove stop stuffing and really any kind of chicken, veggies, and I love to eat it with edamame (another LOVE of mine). So I think the stovetop stuffing was probably the weird thing until… Until I decided to see if any types of shots contained soy sauce for fun. Lucky for me Paul was over and well he will try just about anything so I recommended trying a soy sauce drink. The shot he found was pretty simple and it was just soy sauce and vodka so I offered to make one. I think I put it just a lot little too much soy sauce and not enough vodka, which I found out after Paul almost threw up when he tried it. He was a real champ though and tried it again… this time with less vodka. Still tasted like crap and even though I have a deep love for soy sauce I did not enjoy the shot when I tasted it. So moral of the story…I love soy sauce except when it is mixed with vodka. But Paul- thank you for helping me follow my heart that always leads me to soy sauce… u are a real friend!

Exhibit B: Fruit Snacks

BIG box of goodness

Sometimes I think I have the taste buds of a toddler because I could eat fruit snacks all day long and never get tired of them. If love were an affection you could feel for food I would feel it very deeply for fruit snacks. I have tried MANY kinds of fruit snacks throughout my life and my favorites for a while were the “Real Fruit” fruit snacks that came in those slightly large packages. But one time I got a bad pack of them and it turned me off a little so I started enjoying fruit snacks in the shapes of princesses, SpongeBob, and especially Scooby Doo. During one trip to Target I was once again craving fruit snacks so I tried Target’s brand of fruit snacks for the first time. Ummm HELLO HEAVEN. These are the most delicious little pieces of heaven I have ever tasted. The best part? The great price!  Since they are generic they are lower priced than most and I can get this giant box for like 7 dollars or something. In any case I think it is safe to say that I eat at least 5 packs a week. Yepp- almost every single day. Oh and I don’t call them fruit snacks because that just sounds childish so I call them gummies. Yep- that way to a random stranger they could think I mean gummy vitamins or just gummy something else… maybe gummy bears? The Target ones have grape ones which are so tasty and Tim doesn’t like them so I get to eat all of his grape ones. Just another fabulous thing about those tasty treats!

Exhibit C: Green Olives

I don't need a martini to enjoy these babies!

So unlike fruit snacks it is possible for me to get tired of these things HOWEVER for some odd reason I have to have 3 every single time I get home from work. Yes, you read that correctly. I have 3 green olives from the jar in the fridge every day when I get home from work. Totally weird right? I know that. I also love them in salads but other than that I don’t put them on much. Sometimes I cut them in half and put them on sandwiches but that takes a really long time and as much as I love them that is not worth it to me. So if I haven’t scared you off too much yet read on for a few more confessions.

Exhibit D: Ménage a Trois Red Wine

Wine anyone?

So this wine taste like wine but like a dessert wine. It is a mix of 3 wines (hence the name Ménage a Trois) and it is just so good that it is my go-to wine all of the time. If you ever need just a nice get-a-way glass of wine this is the one to turn to. I get it at our local grocery store, Acme, but I have seen it just about everywhere so go pick up a bottle NOW. Casey introduced me to this wine and since then I have turned Tim on to it and my mother as well. So now, it is almost always stocked at all of the houses I visit frequently so this is GREAT news. I believe Tim’s mom drinks it now too. The cork says something about enjoying fantasy which makes me laugh and makes it that much better.

Exhibit E: Edamame

One of my favorite Sam's Club purchases!

Oooooo my favorite vegetable. Is this a vegetable anyway? No I guess not since it is a soybean but who cares… it taste great. Tim has assured me this is a vegetable and that I had a serious brain fart when I wrote this originally. Therefore I am corrected myself. If I am ever hungry- even late at night- this will totally fill me up and make me feel great. I, of course, add soysauce to them but I just love those little beans. Plus, they are fun to eat! Who doesn’t want to just put them out at other people…. Peyton loves to do that. I started to love them when I would go out to Sushi and then I found them in the grocery stores when I lived in Boston. I was THRILLED when our grocery store started selling them and then all of the sudden they stopped. So as I was browsing around Sam’s Club one day I came across this GIANT bag that has smaller steam bags inside and well, I haven’t looked back since. We purchase this frequently and are NEVER out of stock on them. They are always the perfect side to any meal too which makes me a great thing to keep in the house.

So there you have it. I confessed it. I love some bad for you foods and I just can’t get enough of them. I have weird food habits and I act like a child when I rip open those fruit snacks.

So tell me… what confessions do you need to get off your chest? 

Filed Under: Good Eats and Treats, Things I think and Shouldn't Say · Tagged: , , , , ,
Jul 22, 2011

It’s a great day to talk about FOOD

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I think I can honestly say that food is probably in my top 5 things that I like to talk about. I think it is a great way to spice up your life, create relationships, and it really helps you realize that you have things in common with other people! So today, besides telling you about my run this morning I am going to give you a little run down of what I ate and discuss some of my own preferences.

Run first though. So the run this morning was HOT. Let me just say now, for those of you that live in warmer clients and exercise outside I just don’t know how you do it. I assume if you have lived there a while you are just more used to the heat than we are here in Ohio but oh my gosh was it hot out. Luckily I was mentally prepared for the heat because everyone at work has been talking about this 100+ heat wave we would be having so I was like okay I can deal with this. So after having my Bagel Thin with the almightly tasty MaraNatha chocolate almond butter I was ready for a delicious day. Tim and I headed out (yes he came again) into the heat to complete another 6 min on 1:50 min off interval.

Warm Up 5 min
Run 6 min
Walk 1:50 min

I was feeling pretty rough today and I think I know why. So last night Tim and I went to his mom’s house for dinner and we decided to order Chinese. Well I decided on the chicken lo mein on the condition that Tim should share his szechuan chicken with me. He was kind enough to agree so we got those two items to share. Oh my goodness did that weight me down. I don’t know how but I must have gotten how much sodium is in Chinese food and while it tasted great going down the day it didn’t feel so great moving all around as I ran. Note to self: Chinese food and learning to love to run is NOT a good mix. So I think I can honestly say that every single interval this morning was tough. It was definitely a reminder to me that you are what you eat and that is effects everything you do. I could tell a huge difference in the amount of strength I had to keep moving based on my meal the night before. It’s too bad you can’t just like start over in the morning. I mean mentally I can do that physically I can’t just tell my body to forget what I ate the night before… trust me… it remembers! So run was really rough today and at one point I even contemplated quitting (although I did not say this aloud to Tim). I thought well maybe if I just cut 1 or 2 minutes off the end that would be OK and I wouldn’t have to tell anyone and then I remembered. DUH the whole purposes of having other people read about this journey is so they can go on it with you and therefore I would have to tell you. So whether you know it or not you kept me running this morning! Thanks J

After the run all I could do is sit on the couch. This is not like me at all. The last few days I have been stretching while watching the news or heading up to shower right away. I was so tired I couldn’t do much more than sit there so Tim showered first instead. By 6:40 he reminder me that I still have to be at work at my normal time so it would probably be a good idea to shower. Somehow, someway I got ready in about 35 min and made my way downstairs to one of my most useful appliances… the smoothie master! Okay it is actually just a blender, food processor combination thing but it sounds much better to call it a smoothie master.

Today I decided on the following, 1 frozen banana (yep, figured out how to peel it), Chocolate PB2: Powdered Peanut Butter, Almond Breeze almond milk, protein powder my mom had given me, strawberries, and spinach. It was just delightful!

Look at all that good stuff

You can see that I put about a handful of spinach in there and I promise you that you can’t taste it.

It does give it this funny texture though and if you don’t drink it right away the green color seems to take over and discolors the entire masterpiece a bit. You can see that for now the strawberries own the color in this smoothie so it really depends on what you put in it. If you use blueberries it will be always be blue because the colors of those things are always the winner against the other fruits. Insert mental picture of fruit fighting with some swords here.

Our traveling smoothies

What I love most about this, other than its delicious taste, is how easy it is to travel with and how full it keeps me throughout the day. I usually have some sort of snack, an apple or something, before lunch if I have time but this thing will take me all the way till noon if it has to.

Since Tim and I had our allergist appointment this afternoon I was able to eat lunch at home, which drastically opened up the possibility to something delicious. I met with the guy who should have fixed my roof already but hasn’t who will be fixing my roof sometime in the future first to show him the nasty spot on the ceiling. So after he left I made myself some lunch.

My lunch!

Today I put a Morning Star veggie burger on a bed of romaine lettuce that I had added some roma tomato (which is always much better priced than other tomatoes) and cilantro too. I topped off the burger with a smashed up avocado so that I didn’t miss out on the idea of having “condiments” on your burger. I set all of that alongside some Stacey’s pita chips (my favs!). I will tell you what, this thing was AMAZING. I was so full by the end of it and the avocado was just the tough this burger salad needed. It helped everything sort of stick together which made it a pretty big and cohesive meal. The pita chips fulfilled the extra crunch and salt cravings that I usually have at lunch. I would HIGHLY recommend this to anyone and I think next time I’ll add some spice to it with some hot peppers or something similar. And by the way these burgers are very well prices at one of our club stores nearby, BJ’s, so if you have a BJ’s near you… check it out!

Best condiment there is

After lunch Tim and I headed off to the allergist where I found out that I don’t have asthma but that both Tim and I are allergic to every single thing found in nature. The doctor even suggested that Tim never mow the grass and oh let me tell you how devastated he was NOT. Good thing allergy shots are an option! So after we both got over 50 allergy scratches on our backs we headed home to prepare a romantic anniversary dinner for my parents. Sunday is their 29th anniversary but they are heading off to beautiful Mexico that day so we had to celebrate a little early. I wanted to do something special for my parents because now that I am engaged I feel like I look at marriage differently. I mean in reality I committed myself to Tim a long time ago but somehow the whole ring and down on one knee thing makes it more real so we planned on showing my parents that we love them and that we admire their love for one another.

Step 1 for this dinner was simple… attempt to create a somewhat romantic atmosphere while not making it weird for Tim and I to eat with them as well. I think we succeeded when we decided on 3 candles to put in the middle of the table and a little less than bright lighting. Simple enough to appreciate.

Step 2 was make the menu. I decided to do a stuffed pepper recipe that I found here. I ended up making some small changes because I wanted to use reduced fat cheese and wanted to spice it up a little bit. The peppers were amazing and even though my dad said his lips were tingling a bit he seemed to like them! Next to the peppers I made 1 roll for each person (because who needs more than 1), fruit salad that had kiwi, banana, strawberry, watermelon, blueberries, and blackberries, and then steamed up some edamame because my parents originally wanted sushi. I can’t make sushi so I just thought a familiar side dish would be a nice touch. I will say that these peppers were extremely easy for me to make and this recipe was simple enough to follow. I would say to go ahead and start preparing about an hour and a half before you want to eat because the cutting, simmering, and baking takes about that long.

Mom and Dad's anniversary dinner

Dinner was scrumptious and everyone seemed to enjoy all of the flavors. While my dad enjoyed a beer the rest of us enjoyed a glass of white wine. The meeting ended with some good conversation and then some goodbyes since we won’t be seeing them until they get back from their trip.

Happy 29th Anniversary Mom and Dad

My mom made a video last year to celebrate their 28th Anniversary. Check it out on her blog here.

Went to bed around 9 and I believe Tim joined me around 11. How he gets up after only 6.5 hours of sleep is beyond me but I wish I could do it. I’m a pretty cranky girl if I don’t get at least 7 hours.

Hope you enjoyed this day of food!

What’s your favorite meal to make?

Filed Under: Good Eats and Treats, Primary Menu · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,