welcome to paradise.

This morning, I woke up in one of my favorite places.  The sun was shining, there was a light breeze, and the temperature was perfect.  It was 6:40am, but that's ok - when you live in an RV, you wake up with the sun and go to sleep with the moon.  I've definitely been groggy all day, but it'll get better.

Since I ran yesterday, I headed down to the dock to do some yoga (taken from this month's Women's Health... funny enough, this yoga sequence is actually part of a Nissan ad, but whatever), followed by some swimming.  Swimming is tiring!  Mostly because I'm not very good at it, and I didn't have goggles so I was keeping my head above water.  Alas, I know how far I went today and on Wednesday, I'm going to try to go twice as far.  ya know, to move my cardio swim time from 5 minutes to 10 minutes.  Haha.

I was planning to cook dinner tonight, but unfortunately we got so busy with errands that we didn't have a chance to come back here and eat dinner before we visited with some family.

Since the blog has been lacking pictures as of late, I wanted to share with you some photos from the weekend:

Meatball sub at the best sub shop around town

Consumed on the beach, of course.

Running and cooking tomorrow, I promise.

bayside running!

The boyfriend and I traveled up north this weekend for his ten year high school reunion!  We've been staying with one of his good friends from high school, and I'm absolutely loving this town.  We've had delicious food for every meal, and this morning I got to go on a run this morning down to the ocean!  Okay, technically it was the bay, but it's connected to the ocean.  And there was a lighthouse, and it was gorgeous!  Lots of runners, walkers, bikers, and even rollerbladers were out and about!

The route this morning was fantastic - but the actual run, well, it was rough.  From the first step, I was feeling sluggish.  No speedy gonzalez here today!  I made it almost 2 miles - 1.9 to be exact.  I meant to run 2 miles exactly, but I think I got it in my head that 2 miles was at a certain intersection instead of slightly beyond it.  So, my pace was 11:30 miles... not fast at all, but at least I went!  I blame the weather.  It was 80 degrees and 75% humidity when I went.  Not as bad as the weather has been at home, but given that I am nearly 800 miles north of home, you'd think it would be cooler!  Apparently the entire country is feeling the heat wave.

After I finished my (almost) 2 miles, I walked the next half mile to cool down and stretch.  As I got near the house we are staying at, I decided I could sprint the last quarter of a mile home.  It's hard to know exactly what my pace was then, but it was somewhere close to a 9 minute mile, and it felt great!

Today we head even further north and inland, where we'll be spending the rest of the month.  Lots of good runs around the lake in my future, as well as some delicious home-grilled meals!

speedy gonzalez?

I ran!  Woohoo!

Upon taking my first steps, my shins hurt, so that's not good.  But I was only slated to run 1.75 miles today (although with no breaks - yikes), so I figured I should just push through.  The bank I ran past informed me that it was 98 degrees.  Holy crap!  I was running a route I had never done before, so I left my ipod at home.  As much as I love listening to music, I like to be more aware when running new routes.  I also think I might run a little faster without music, maybe because I am focusing more on my running and less on the tunes?

I was supposed to go 1.75 miles - out and back - but I got confused about where my turn around point was, and I actually ended up only going 1.64.  By the time I got home I was gasping for air and covered in sweat.  And no wonder, because I finished my run in 16:48!  That's 10:14 min/mile pace!  Way faster than I usually go.  I definitely think that running without my ipod and focusing on trying to keep up the pace helps.  I also think that despite the 98 degree weather - the very low 36% humidity helped me out quite a bit!

Although my shins hurt and this was a short run, I'm feeling super encouraged about (a) going at ALL in this heat and (b) going so FAST!  I'm excited to spend the next few weeks in a low-humidity and slightly cooler climate, building up my mileage and focusing on my speed.  I don't have any goals of running faster than 10 minute miles, but now that I know I can do 10:14 I might try to push myself to keep my pace under 11 on my shorter runs!

I'll be on mini hiatus from the blog - but don't worry, I'll be running and planning some delicious grilled meals in the near future :-)

trashy tv tuesdays: episode 3

This past week, I tuned in for the first episode of Huge, ABC Family's new drama about kids at fat camp.  Not sure how I feel about this show.  Best line: "I'm not scared, I just think everything you stand for is crap.  No offense."  Wow.  Also, "I've only been off sugar for 3 hours and I already feel like defacing public property."  The last few minutes was really cute and funny, with the girls whispering in bed.  I guess I feel like I can't make up my mind about this show unless I watch a few more episodes - I'm not sure what it's message really is yet?  Both main characters are overweight.  Both seem to have unhealthy approaches to handling their weight loss.... we'll have to wait and see what develops.

The City was all sorts of DRAMA this past week with Roxy and Whitney.  But I just don't think that it's a great idea to have your best friend, your roommate, and your quasi-business partner slash coworker all be wrapped into one - it's bound to cause drama!  Preview saaaays... Roxy moves out.  Shocker.  I have to say, I was loving this show earlier in the year, and it's taking a turn for the booooring.  Then, tonight's episode... Olivia is back to being super bitch to Whitney, and the Roxy/Whitney drama is NOT improving.  Oh man - I can't believe she moved out so fast.  Oh well.  I'll still say that the entertainment value of this show has severely declined this season.

In other TV news, Entourage season 6 came out on DVD recently, so on Sunday my boyfriend went and picked it up.  We watched it from start to finish in one sitting.  Yes, we are a bit obsessive.  I just have to say, it was so freaking good.  Season 5 was kind of a let down - there was so much stress and drama and I was not excited about it.  This season was the perfect mix of character development and story line along with hilarious and ridiculous stuff.  I'm so pumped to watch season 7... in a year, haha.

Now onto the main event: The Bachelorette.  Now that she's down to the top 5, things are getting tough - although I think something is off about Frank (and the previews make that seem likely), she definitely has a great connection with him, so keeping him around makes sense.  She has awesome chemistry with Roberto, and the chemistry with Kirk is also good.  She and Chris definitely needed to develop more of the romance side of their relationship - but I think that's completely feasible, so whatever.  Ty, as I've said before, is perhaps too much of a Southern traditional man for her.  So, what a shock when she sent him home!  Except, it kind of WAS a shock, because last week's previews totally made it look like Ty was in Tahiti with her... but maybe he's not?  Or, will she bring him back after the Frank drama goes down?  Who knows!  All I can say is that when she gave Chris the first rose, I practically screamed.  After their awesome date I was feeling so stressed - how could he go home after that?  Also, I have to say, I think things with Kirk are about to go downhill fast... as much as their first kiss was full of passion, this week's date seemed lacking.  I'm calling it now: Chris and Roberto will be the last two left.  SUPER excited to see the families next week, especially seeing Chris's place in Cape Cod and seeing what Roberto's family is like!

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a running post for you - but no more cooking til next week!  Tonight we had amazing Thai food cooked by my friend's mom; tomorrow is a party for my boyfriend's last day of work, and Thursday we take off for vacation!  I won't be settled in a place I can go grocery shopping and cook until Monday, so no more recipes until then.  I really hope to run tomorrow and once this weekend, but it was 104 degrees here today - yikes - and even now (at midnight) weather.com tells me it feels like 88, so I'm not sure I'll be able to handle it!  Wish me luck!

grilling for the holiday!

Happy 4th of July!  Last night we went out with friends, and my night ended with the most gigantic, delicious, and greasy slice of pizza ever.  Hello, JUMBO SLICE!

Yum!  After that crazy night, I definitely wanted some 'real' food today. So, to celebrate the 4th, we hosted a barbecue, and with access to the grill and friends to try my cooking, I made two salmon dishes!  We also made my boyfriend's family's recipe of Macaroni Salad, which I absolutely love.  First, you dice up all sorts of goodies:

Lots and lots of chopping involved with this dish.  In fact, over the years I think this recipe is what has made me into an expert chopper!

Finished product!  Not for vegans, vegetarians, or anyone with gluten or lactose intolerances, haha.  Onto the salmon recipes!  First, I made Dilled Salmon and Vegetable Packets.  I like the grill packet recipes, because you can just toss them on the grill and not worry about making a mess.  The only downside is that it's harder to know when they are done.

I haven't made anything with dill before, and it was great!  Also, the sugar snap peas were quite tasty - thanks Susan for figuring out how to take the strings out!  (She came to visit me for the weekend!)  The next salmon recipe was Salmon with Spring Veggies.

Look at those yummy veggies on the grill!  The flavor was delicious, even though I had to improvise with some of the spices.  I have never roasted veggies on the grill before, so I was a little worried when the pepper turned black.  However, I learned that peppers always do that and they turned out great - the pepper was actually kind of sweet!

I accidentally forgot to serve this dish with the buttery sauce - oops!  I have some leftover salmon, so I will have to try it out with the sauce later!

On the running front - I meant to go Saturday morning and failed, and then thought I'd go this morning, but early mornings runs do not mix with late nights out!  I hopefully will get a chance to go running tomorrow, or at the very latest, Tuesday morning.  This upcoming week is kind of crazy, so my #1 goal is to run at least twice - but the cooking might not happen as frequently.

(Fake) Crab Cooking!

I cooked today!  Woohoo!  After my run I was exhausted, which quickly turned to starving.  I had one package of imitation of crab meat and two recipes to tackle.  I figured one would be "early lunch" at 11am and the other could be "late lunch" at 3pm, which is perfect since the first was 220 calories and the second was 290.  Now I am full enough to last til dinner tonight!

Recipe #1 was a Crab and Broccoli Stir Fry... and that's really all it was.  Very basic recipe.  Oil, veggies, garlic, and crab in a pan, and you're done!  I didn't have and plain broccoli left so I used a broccoli, cauliflower and carrot mix.  I don't think I liked the carrots being in there.  Oh well.  Also, I added some soy sauce to this recipe after a few bites, because I was hoping for an Asian flavored dish and the only  flavor was the imitation crab meat.

Recipe #2 was Creamy Crab au Gratin.  My half and half just expired, which I thought would be ok, but it looked kind of gross when I opened it, so I opted for milk.  I was a little worried about how this would affect the consistency of the dish, but it turned out pefectly!  I really liked this recipe - it's very hearty!  It's a great dish for when you want something creamy/fatty but don't want to actually have a ton of cream and fat (it has 12g fat total, 6g saturated fat).  My only gripe with this recipe is that I don't think the celery tasted very good with it.  Maybe I needed to chop it up even smaller, but every time I took a bite with celery, my reaction was" that doesn't belong in here!"  Other than that, it was great.  I was surprised that there was no cheese in this recipe, and I was tempted to just add some in for fun.  But if I'm going to be reviewing these recipes, I feel that I should at least TRY to make them as written before I go changing them around.   It was definitely delicious without the cheese, but I think adding some would have also been just fine.

(Note: you cook the recipe with bread crumbs on top, but I mixed it up after I took it out of the oven in order to photograph it!).

What is your opinion of imitation crab meat?  I grew up eating it a lot (not sure why my parents always cooked with it) so I think that's part of why I like it, although you can't beat real crab!  Imitation crab meat has a distinctly different taste than real crab, and I think it totally depends on the recipe and what you are expecting to eat whether or not the fake stuff works.  For these recipes, it was fine, but for something like crab cakes, no way!

last run with M (for a while)

This morning I had my last run with M for a while, and the weather was (relatively speaking) amaaazing:

7 am

67°F
Partly Cloudy

78% humidity

That's 10-15 degrees cooler than our recent runs, and just a liiitle bit less humid than we are used to.  Last night I was so pumped about the weather - but let me tell you, the humidity was still a killer!  We did our normal loop of 2 minutes walking, 8 minutes running, for 30 minutes total.  I guess I thought it was going to feel easier today, and it just didn't!  We did go slightly faster - 11:50 min/mile overall average (estimated 11:00 running) vs. 12:30 overall average (estimated 11:30 running) the last time we ran this loop.  I guess shaving 30 seconds off your mile time is pretty decent, but I definitely felt like I was running SLOWLY most of the time.

Anyway, I'm bummed that I won't have my running buddy for a while - it'll be about 3 weeks before I get to run with her again... but where I'm going is less humid, so that's a bonus!  I don't mind running alone / with my ipod, but I'll miss our morning conversations and her encouragement when I really want to give up! :-)

I've been awful with cooking!  I have some sweet recipes in store for lunch today, but I never really made a meal plan for this week or went grocery shopping.  I'm heading out of town tomorrow, so I just kept not wanting to bring more food into my house!  But don't you worry, I'll have plenty of opportunities to cook, blog and run from my various  vacation destinations! :-)

Today begins FREE AGENCY.  Professional basketball is definitely not my favorite sport (NFL first, NCAA Basketball second., then NBA is about tied with MLB), but this Lebron hype has me on the edge of my seat!  Where will he go!?!? Haha.  I have no clue, really, but I'm going to say either he either goes to New York or stays in Cleveland.  Although this morning's Sports Center says that Miami is pushing much harder than anyone expected.  We'll see!