i have been cooking!

So it looks like I'm destined to be an "every once in a while" blogger.  Maybe I should make my goal to post at the end of every week?  Thoughts?

Here's the pesto chicken pizza I made last week, but had not yet uploaded the photo of:

Pizza=love.

Saturday after Thanksgiving I got back to running, after taking a week off after my 10K.  I didn't MEAN to take a week off, but with Thanksgiving it just didn't fit into the schedule well.  So, this week's theme has been SPEED!  Saturday I ran 1.7 miles around the east campus track in 16:56 - less than 10 minute miles!  Then, Tuesday M and I had planned to time our miles at the track, but it was raining.  So we headed to her apartment complex gym and decided to run a mile as fast as we could on the treadmill.  I managed to finish mine in about 8:58 - woo!  I think I have it in me to go even faster, too... it wasn't my legs that were holding me back, but rather my lungs.  By the end, I was huffing and puffing quite a bit.  Thursday was quite chilly, so we headed to the treadmill again to do intervals.  After warming up for 5 minutes we alternated fast for 2 minutes, slow for 1 minute, with our 'fast' ranging from 6.5 to 7.0 on the treadmill.

I think we are going to spend this month working on increasing our speed.  Intervals, farklets, whatever else we can come up with!  I don't have any dreams of being particularly fast, but it would be nice to increase what I feel is a "comfortable/manageable" pace before we start training for the 10 miler.

This week was also full of cooking!  I made a nice big pot of Vegetarian Chili for myself to take for lunches a few days  this week, and froze another 3 servings worth for future lunches.  I kind of ignored the instructions on how to cook it and just threw it in the slow cooker... because everything is delicious in the slow cooker!

Dinner this week was full of Scott's favorite.  First up was a Turkey and Mashed Potato Casserole dish.  This was perfect to have right after Thanksgiving, because I was still craving all my turkey day favorites but had no leftovers!  I know that the fake mashed potatoes you buy in the store probably aren't the best for you, but they are so easy to make and I must say... really delicious!

Plus, one serving of this casserole (which consists of turkey, veggies, turkey gravy, and mashed potatoes) is still only about 300 calories and fairly filling!

Next up, Lemon Chicken and Broccoli Casserole, which consisted mostly of noodles, chicken, and broccoli.  Of course, Scott hates broccoli, and I love Scott, so I made it a Lemon Chicken and Green Bean Casserole.  This was also quite easy and very much to Scott's liking.

Unpictured, I also made a chicken casserole type dish with chicken, chicken gravy, and veggies.  For the veggies, I used celery and corn since that's what I had around.  Then I made some risotto to go on the side... I LOVE risotto, even though it can be a pain to make because you have to continually stir and add the broth little by little!

Up next: Gotta make the grocery list and figure out what's in store for this week...