chicken quesadilla deliciousness.

Tonight for dinner, I made a ridiculously delicious Chicken Quesadillas.  I can't find the same recipe on Betty Crocker's website, but I think the (fat free) refried beans are what made this recipe so delicious.  Very quick and easy too!

The downside to this recipe is that, while low-fat, it's not very healthy.  Unless you count the chunky salsa, there were no vegetables at all!  Next time I'll probably sautee peppers and onions to add in.

In other news, I had an interesting trip to the grocery store today.  First, I got there with my list and realized I had no pen or pencil.  Do you know how difficult it is to shop with a list, but no writing utensil to check off what you have and don't have?  Then, I went on the hunt for chutney.  I have never bought chutney before, but my first guess was that it would be with the jelly and jam... but no.  I looked through the condiments section too (like near the ketchup and mayo), and which point I realized: I don't actually know what chutney is.  Google informed me later that it is "a condiment similar to relish, usually made with fruit, sugar, and vinegar".  I'm still not sure what aisle of the grocery store the chutney is in, but I'll have to go back tomorrow to figure it out!

my first kabobs!

After my conference wrapped up, I headed to a party at my friend J's house.  Since J and her husband own a grill, I decided to make my very first kabob recipe.  I had been looking forward to making kabobs, because a while back I made a very silly purchase:

I love these circular kabob skewers, but I DON'T EVEN OWN A GRILL.  So it was a little silly for me to buy them, but, I did.  At least I have several kabob recipes to make.  The first one on the list: Caribbean Chicken Kabobs.  The online recipe suggests "Caribbean jerk seasoning" but my cookbook called for "Key West-style seasoning blend."  I could NOT find Key West-style seasoning blend... and this website of discontinued McCormick products suggests that it might not really exist, haha.  I decided to mix my Cajun seasoning with a Caribbean seasoning I found at the grocery store.  I think this recipe turned out well, but it would have been better with more seasoning.  I didn't actually measure out 3 tablespoons so it's possible I didn't use enough.  I'm starting to learn that I don't really like measuring.  Oops.  Anyway, I did most of the prep before I got to J's house so that all I would have to do there is pop pieces on the skewers and grill away!  Note to self: the points of skewers are SHARP.  I definitely poked myself about 20,000 times and have a little mark on my finger.  At least I didn't bleed on my food!

Now, normally you wouldn't cook kabobs in a basket, but the pieces kept sliding off the ends!  I am so grateful J and her husband have all sorts of grilling tools to help me not make a mess.

Everyone at the party seemed to like my skewers, so I'll consider them a success!  I actually bought chicken thighs instead of breasts, because the breasts were really expensive per pound and the thighs were on sale.  I did my best to trim the fat, but I bet thighs are still not quite as good for you... but they were TASTY.  Things to remember in the future :-)

 

Anyway, I stayed at J's house for the night, which was super fun!  J and her husband recently purchased a home near the Washington and Old Dominion Trail.  So, this morning before I hit the road, I obviously had to go for a run on it!  Since I ran 3 miles on Friday and only 1.9 on Monday, I figured I should do somewhere around 2.0-2.5.  Unfortunately, my muscles were pretty sore this morning.  The first 15 minutes or so were fine, but after that I was in pain.  I ended up going about 2.2 miles in 27:18, which included 7 minutes of walking.

As for the trail itself, I have mixed feelings.  There were a LOT of bikers out and it's fairly narrow, so I was definitely afraid that I was going to be killed by a cyclist! I like running on trails though, and having various plant life to look at!

I was kind of disappointed with myself for not pushing through, but my right ankle really hurt!  I didn't want to injure myself... especially because I had a 5 hour drive immediately following my run!  This evening I am still sore but not in pain, so hopefully I'll be ready to go on Tuesday morning.  I'm hoping now that I'm (mostly) back in town I can get back to my normal Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday schedule!

i'm in love...

... with the treadmill!  Haha, maybe. I've never been much of a treadmill user.  I've probably been on a treadmill less than 30 times in my life, and 20 of those times were to speed walk on an incline.  Whether it was for wakling or running, though, I have never been a big fan.  I always felt like my plantar fasciitis acted up more on a treadmill.  It only took about 5 minutes before I was in too much pain to keep going.

To be fair, I've also never been able to run very far without significant pain until this spring when M and I began to run.  So, I decided it was time to give it another try.  I have to say, I might be in love.  It started out rough: I picked a treadmill with a subpar view of the TV and didn't bring my iPod.  After a 4-5 minute warm up at speed 5.5 (10:54 minute miles) I decided I needed a different treadmills.  I found one right in front of ESPN and settled in to watch the ESPYs!  I did another 6 minutes at 5.5 and then ramped it up to 6.0 (10 minute miles!).  In my head, I thought, ok I'll do this for 1 mile and then slow back down again.  But I was feeling GREAT - so I stuck at the 6.0 for 15 minutes and then ramped it up to 6.3 (9:31 min/miles)!  I stayed there for about 5 minutes and then thought I would slow down to 6.0, but I accidentally pressed the big "STOP" button.  Oops.  I immediately started up again, and this time decided to push myself and went all the way up to 6.7 (8:57 min/miles).  I could only maintain it for about 1 minute before I wanted to die, so I tamed it back down to 10:00 miles to finish out my run (about 4 more minutes).  Not counting my 4-5 minute warm up on the other treadmill, I went 3 miles without stopping (well, without stopping on purpose.. whatever)!! Which means I actually RAN 3.4ish!  I then pressed the 'cool down' button on the treadmill which did 3 one minute intervals at successively slower paces... first 4.5 (13:20) then 4.0 (15:00) and finally 3.5 (17:08).  As I cooled down I realized that trying to walk on the treadmill actually makes my feet hurt more than running on it... not sure why.

We'll see how sore I am tomorrow, but right now I'm feeling AWESOME.  I really needed a good run too - after my crappy run Monday and then being sick and not working out most of the week, I was really feeling down about my running ability.  But now I'm a superstar - I averaged just over 10 minute miles for over THREE MILES.  Which means even if I've missed a few runs in the past two weeks, fitness-wise I'm on track.

I'm hoping to squeeze in a run on Sunday morning before I head back home.  After that I should be able to get back into the swing of things with both cooking and running... but for now I'm going to have some take out Thai food! YUM!

happy (belated) birthday to me.

For my birthday, my wonderful little (as in, little sister in my sorority) got me something I had been dying for all summer:

That's right... after reading so many foodie blogs with delicious looking smoothies, I was craving a blender.  Obviously with this new toy, the first thing I had to do was go out and get smoothie ingredients.  I have read quite a bit about Green Monsters, and I'm intrigued!  I like spinach - but can it possibly taste good in a smoothie?  But, I had to try it.  So I read through about 100 different recipes and decided on my own.  Smoothie #1 contained:

1/2 cup of skim milk, 6 oz fat free strawberry yogurt, one big handful of spinach, and 7-8 frozen strawberries.  I put the ingredients in in that order, and got ready to blend:

I knew I was going heavy on the strawberry and light on the spinach, but I was a little worried about how spinach-y it would taste.

I don't really have any good smoothie glasses (something to add to the list of things I need for my kitchen!) so I served myself in a fancy beer glass.  Good enough for the time being!  The blender worked great - so thanks to my little for a great present!  (Note: her present wasn't late - I'm just a month late posting about my birthday present!  I obviously didn't take the blender on vacation, so this week was my first chance to use it!)

So, my very first smoothie turned out pretty good.  It wasn't too sweet, or to spinach-y.  I will definitely have to add a bit more spinach next time to see how much I can handle!  However, I made about twice as much smoothie as I really needed.  So next time I'll have to decrease the milk/yogurt/number of strawberries.  It was the right consistency, so I'll probably reduce all three a bit.  One problem: how do I use less than a container of yogurt?  What do I do with the rest?  Put it back in the fridge for a day or so?  Will it go bad?  Who knows.

Off to a conference now, with a sore throat!  Lots of zinc and vitamin C and liquids for me!

trashy TV tuesdays: the bachelorette is over!

If you have the finale on DVR and haven't gotten to it yet - don't keep reading!

Last time I had a Trashy TV Tuesdays post, we were down to Kirk, Roberto, Frank, and Chris.  Kirk left - which was sad but not shocking.  However, after watching "the men tell all" last week ... I think he might be the next bachelor.  Not sure how I feel about that.  Frank leaving was ... drama, but, I'm glad he left.  Something was always kind of weird (annoying?) about him, so oh well.

I was realllly pulling for Chris tonight.  But her romantic connection with Roberto - the way she gets all giddy and smiley... it seemed unlikely that she would want to say goodbye to Roberto.  If it wasn't completely obvious to you throughout the season, you HAD to know what was coming when she said... I have a date with Chris tomorrow and I know I should go but I can't, I just can't leave Roberto.

Oh man.  Poor Chris!  He's the greatest.  He was so sure!  "When I propose to Ali.." and "when we are married... I'm going to cherish her and tell her I love her every day."  It's terrible that they made him film him saying all that before Ali showed up to break the news.  But there it is.  Chris took it so well... telling her good luck and thank you and telling her that she's amazing.  He's so sweet.  And then he saw a rainbow... oh man.  I might have gotten tears in my eyes.

But, to be fair, Roberto's speech about wanting to make her happy forever and share his life with her was pretty good, and they seem ridiculously happy, so that's good.  I hope they stay together and stay happy - unlike the vast majority of bachelor/bachelorette couples.

Other highlights: Elton John's Can You Feel the Love Tonight coming on at the end ... I almost forgot they were in the Lion King together.  I love the Lion King.  I wish I could pop in the DVD right now and watch it.  What a good movie.

So ABC has yet to announce who the next bachelor will be, but various articles have suggested that Chris is open to the idea but not completely sold.  Kirk might be dating someone; Ty is somewhat controversial... so that leaves Chris or a random guy.  Let's hope it is Chris!

That's all the trashy TV talk I have for now, but I am looking forward to ABC's spinoff show The Bachelor Pad!  I'm particularly excited to see Tenley, and find it hilarious that so many of the crazies from the past few years agreed to come on the show!

No cooking or running today AND I'm feeling under the weather... fingers crossed that I feel better tomorrow to go for an early morning run before I head out of town for a conference!  

chapter 7: slow cooker suppers.

For my birthday this year, my parents got me a kitchen item I was in desperate need of... a slow cooker!  I have an entire recipe of slow cooker suppers to make, so this was a must have:

The sweet part about this slow cooked is it's timer!  The one my parents have just has high and low, and you have to time yourself.  The slow cooker has a timer (goes in 30 minute increments), and when your dish is done it automatically switches to a warming mode for up to 14 hours (and then it shuts off).  This is great - I can turn it on to timer mode before I leave for the day, and not worry about overcooking my food.

So, of course I was anxious to make a dish in my new slow cooker!  For my first dish, I picked Lentil and Mixed-Vegetable Casserole.  This was my first time ever making lentils myself, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I can only think of a handful of times I've eaten them before - all at Indian restaurants.  I must admit - it wasn't the greatest. 

Maybe they needed more cook time, but I felt like the lentils were not as soft as I would have liked.  Overall, the dish also lacked flavor.  The mushroom soup flavor was maybe not strong enough.  I'm not giving up on lentils yet, but I definitely think this dish needs something to spice it up!  I have plenty of leftovers, so I will have to try a few things. 

One thing it definitely needs is more veggies!  There seemed to be very few compared to the plethora of lentils.  Betty Crocker's website suggests melting cheese over it... but I'm not sure that even sounds good.  I'll let you know what I try and how it turns out!

In other news, I went running after work today.  Unfortunately, I was experiencing quite a bit of pain in my feet.  Both Achilles' and the bottom of my left foot were really aching throughout.  After 20 minutes, I decided I should stop and stretch.  When I started running again, it only took about 2 minutes to see that the pain wasn't gone.  So, I decided to play it safe and walked home.  I'm glad I did, because my feet hurt the entire way... and my right foot actually went entirely numb.  Now that I'm home they still hurt, so it's time to bust out the ice packs.

While I ice, I'll be watching the SEASON FINALE OF THE BACHELORETTE.  Who will Ali choose?  I'm so excited to find out.  Stay tuned for a sweet recap post tomorrow... trashy tv tuesdays returns!

last vacation post.

Here is my last installation of "what Sara made on vacation," featuring Cucumber-Tuna Salad Pitas:

For lunch on July 28, I made Scott, his friend J, and I Cucumber-Tuna Salad Pitas for lunch.  I made a few substitutions (sour cream instead of plain fat-free yogurt; bread instead of pitas; no tomato to please Scott).  This turned out GREAT.  I didn't know that Scott will eat tuna salad type stuff, so I was excited to hear that he was completely willing to eat it.  Granted, it's canned tuna slathered in mayo... but you gotta take what you can get!

One of the highlights of this recipe: FRESH PICKED CUCUMBER!  Thanks, Aunt L!  Also, I really think the red onion makes the flavor (although Scott might not agree).

Anyway... I'm officially back home - but only until Wednesday when I leave for a conference.  So, I'm making one meal tonight, but that'll be it until Sunday.  Good thing I am ahead of schedule for the recipes!  I WILL attempt to keep up with running even while I'm at the conference, but it's going to be rough.  I'm already behind on running: I've missed my last two runs!  Yikes!  Today after work I'm planning on running, and then I can go again Wednesday AM before I hit the road.  Hopefully having taken so many days off won't come back to bite me this evening (weather: 82 degrees 62% humidity - pretty great for my first run back in the south!).

I know I've been slacking on Trashy TV Tuesdays, as I haven't had a TV, but I'm all caught up on the Bachelorette... who is excited for tonight's finale?  I AM!  Although I have a feeling it won't end up this way, I'm definitely on TEAM CHRIS! .. or at least "team make Chris the next bachelor," haha.