tag!

Today M and I had our first "long" run of the year.  We went 4 miles around campus.  It was SO NICE to be outside after two months of being almost entirely indoors on the treadmill.  We did run into a few icy patches, though, so I think we still have some indoor runs in our future.  Anyway, it was a very slow run, as I am still getting back into the swing of things after far too long of a running hiatus.  But we did it, and that's what matters!  4.06 miles in 48:54; average pace 12:03 min/mile.  (We did 10 min running 2 min walking intervals, too).

I also made a salad today... but sometimes photographs of salads just aren't pretty!  It had shrimp and mangos and lettuce and a delicious Asian dressing, and looked almost nothing like this:

Meh, Betty has a professional photographer.  Mine still tasted delicious.

Susan tagged me in a survey, and I decided it might be a fun thing to do to spice up the content on the blog!

1. Four TV shows that I watch

• Glee
• The Jersey Shore (it's television crack - so bad, but I can't stop)
• Family Guy
• Entourage (but we don't have HBO, so we watch it when it comes out on DVD)

2. Four Things that I’m passionate about

• Psychology (I'm a nerd)
• The Redskins & The Terrapins
• Cooking delicious food
• My friends

3. Four words/phrases I use a lot

• Whoa
• Nnnno!
• I can't think of anything...
• Hi.

4. Four things I’ve learned in the past

• Anyone can learn to run.  Seriously.  I was terrible when I started and was in pain every I went until I got the right shoes and learned to pace myself.
• "There are only a handful of things one can control in life. The rest is a decision in how to react to each possible experience." -My friend RM
• "You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think." -stolen from Susan, but it's true!  And you won't know it until you try!!
• Two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.  And it doesn't make either of them wrong.

5. Four places I would like to go

• Hawaii
• Australia
• Costa Rica
• Spain

6. Four things I did yesterday

• Searched online for wedding venues
• Ate delicious food at Q Shack
• Ate delicious food made by amazing friends
• Had someone toast to me!

7. Four things I’m looking forward to

• Running the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in April
• Getting married! (in 2012)
• Working on my master's project (slash, progressing through graduate school)
• Fun trips... hopefully visiting Susan in NYC and going to 8 weddings!

8. Four things I love about winter

• I don’t like winter. (stolen from Susan)
• My Redskins sweatpants and my slippers
• Pretty snow & watching people walk on lakes when I'm visiting New England
• Hot chocolate!

9. Tag four people to play along (sorry if you’ve done it already!)

• Whitney
• Sarah
• Carly
• Stacey

working out resumes

Thursday morning it was time to get back to running.  Of course, the sidewalks here are still a liiittle icy, and I am super paranoid about slipping and falling in the ice.  So to the treadmill we went!  The schedule told M and I was had 3 miles to run.  Sounds fine right?  Oh wait, I haven't run at all in several weeks.  Oops.  This was definitely a hard workout.  But that's to be expected.  We powered through and finished in about 33 minutes.
Then, in the evening, I did something a little crazy.  I went to spin class.  On the same day I went running.  Does this make me insane?  The thing is, between running, boot camp class (starting next week - more on that later!), spin, and our schedules, it's what made the most sense.  I can run in the AM on Thursday, spin in the evening, and then Friday is my rest day.  Any other day I went to spin, I'd have to run the next morning, which I think is much worse.  We'll see if I can stick with the schedule or not, but I'm feeling pretty good this morning!  Sore, of course, but after a three week hiatus I think that's to be expected :-)

After my insane day of working out, I was ready for some delicious dinner: a Ham and Swiss Bake.  This was another Bisquick recipe, but it had honey mustard mixed into the crust, which made for a great flavor!  After baking the crust, I added the ham mixture, which had green onions, green pepper, and sour cream.

Then, the whole thing was topped with swiss cheese and baked a little longer.

I really liked this.  It has such interesting flavors with the honey mustard in the crust, and the green onions in the filling.

Scott liked this but didn't totally love it (he said he'd eat it again, but maybe with as much enthusiasm as other things, haha).  It also lends it self to lots of different toppigns-  you could do chicken or tofu instead of ham, other veggies, other cheeses, etc. :-)

chicken enchilada pie

Wednesday was my first night back in my own kitchen, and so after stocking up on groceries I was very excited to get cooking!  I was craving Mexican food when I made the grocery list, so I decided to try Chicken Enchilada Pie.  First, I made the filling of chicken, enchilada sauce, and green chiles.  I actually didn't have quite enough enchilada sauce so I added in some salsa as well.

Next I worked on making the crust.  Betty Crocker loooves her Bisquick, and this was pretty basic; egg, milk, and Bisquick.

But then, a slight twist.  The corn for the recipe was mixed into the batter to become part of the crust - not part of the pie filling.  Interestingg.

Kind of looks like cream of corn soup, right?  Anyway, I baked this sucker for about 27 minutes and then was puzzled by the next instruction: Put shredded cheese on top and let it sit for 5 minutes.

I just did not believe that the cheese was going to melt simply by sitting on top of the pie.  No. Way.

I was wrong.  I was so excited about how perfectly melted the cheese on top was!

This dish is fairly spicy, but I really enjoyed it and it definitely helped with my Mexican food cravings!

Happy Friday, by the way :-)

winter break review

I'm alive!  I was fortunate enough to be able to take three weeks off over the break.  During my break, I ran ... zero times and cooked... twice!

Meal #1 was Shrimp Bow-tie Casserole.  I made this for my mom, dad, and I right before Christmas.
It was a little soupy, but otherwise good.  Except I made one fatal error.  I had gone to the grocery store for my parents and gotten onion soup mix as well as ranch dressing mix.  And then, when it was time to make the sauce, somehow I ended up using the ranch dressing instead of the onion soup.  So the flavor (while still enjoyable) wasn't qiute... right.  Haha.  Will have to try this one again.

After Christmas, while we were in Maine, I cooked Scott, his cousin, and myself dinner.  On the menu: Easy Turkey Club Pie.  This was a very delicious Scott-friendly meal: no veggies, lots of meat and cheese.

In other news, over Christmas, I got a very exciting gift from my parents... NEW POTS AND PANS!  I am super excited about them, because they are everything I want.  Stainless steel with clear glass lids.

Now that I'm back home, I will be resuming the running and regular cooking... but with a slight twist.  Stay tuned for more details :-)

end of the semester fiesta!

It's been a cold, snowy, icy and stressful finals week for me, so I slacked off on the cooking AND the running this week.  M and I had plans to go Thursday and Friday and Saturday... and they all fell through.  She was sick, the roads were icy, etc.  I did manage to squeeze in one legitimate work out: I was about to head to campus to run on the treadmill, but the icy roads were too intimidating for me.  So I popped in Jillian Michaels' Banish Fat Boost Metabolism and sweated it out in my living room.  I seriously have a love/hate relationship with that woman.

I was feeling less than creative, and wanted more Loaded Baked Potato Casserole, so I made a modified version of Corn, Ham, and Potato Scallop to satisfy my craving.  It turned out delicious.  I want to make this over and over again.  Scott enjoyed it as well!

 I want this again. right now.  immediately.

Then on Saturday, I had a dinner party planned with the ladies in my cohort to celebrate the end of a very stressful semester.  The theme was "international" and we had quite an array of food.  I made Chili Verde, but skipped the sour cream.  I was running low on time, so Scott helped me chop of the veggies:

Peppers and potatoes and zucchini, oh my!

This was a ridiculously easy chili to make.  I just threw all the ingredients in the pot...

...let it boil, and then turned it down to low heat for about 20 minutes.  The result:

Steamy, spicy chili!  Everyone at dinner loved it, and the best part: gluten free and vegan!  So all my friends with their various dietary restrictions could enjoy it. 

We have some vegetarian friends, some gluten-intolerant friends, and some lactose-intolerant friends (who can have goat's milk/cheese), so everyone always gets creative when we have pot lucks.  Here's my plate, round one:

Gluten free mac and goat cheese, goat cheese enchiladas, and baked asparagus.  Delicious.  Later on, I also had some Pad Thai and some Indian food... I don't remember exactly what the dish was, but it was spicy and amazing!  Thanks ladies for a great end-of-semester dinner.

Now I'm traveling to visit family for the next three weeks.  It's going to be a little nutty, and I'm not sure how much cooking (of my own recipes, at least) OR running I'll get to do, but I'll keep you posted as much as possible!

delicious dinner party.

This morning it was 16 degrees, so M and I planned to hit up the treadmills at her gym... only to find that every single one was broken.  Ridiculous!  I was quite annoyed, but we made the best of it and hopped onto the elliptical for 25 minutes.  I haven't been on an elliptical in a while and it was... boring!  Luckily, Saved by the Bell was on to distract us :-)  It's going to be cold here for a while - so we need a new plan to stick with the running.  What's the coldest temperature you'll withstand to go for a run outdoors?  I think my limit might be 30, but then again, that means no running for the rest of the week!  Yikes.

Lunch today was Double-Cheese Chicken and Vegetables.  By "double-cheese," I mean that the recipe called for both cheese sauce AND shredded cheese.  It was really good, but the consistency was a little bit... off?  Anyway, it was basically like macaroni and cheese, but with veggies and chicken - yum!  It was also ridiculously easy to make, so I definitely think I'd make it again.  It's a good way to make healthier macaroni and cheese when you have a craving!  (Sorry - forgot to photograph it.)

Tonight, Scott and I had our friends J & D over for a little dinner partay.  I made Mustard Lamb Chops and green beans, and J brought potatoes.  Let me start by saying her potatoes were awesome!  They were red potatoes, cut into smaller pieces, and sauteed/cooked in balsamic vinegar, rosemary, thyme, cinnamon, garlic... I don't know what else, but it was delicious!  The green beans were... meh, nothing special, but I like to have veggies at every meal if possible  They were very crisp, which is the way I like them... hooray fresh veggies!

The star of the show was definitely the lamb chops.  First, I spread the sauce/glaze on one side, which was made of Dijon mustard, thyme, and a little salt. 

I broiled the lamb chops for 3 minutes, turned them over and put the mustard mixture onto the other side.  Broiled for another 4 minutes, and done!  They were cooked exactly perfectly, if you ask me (or Scott). And J & D certainly had no complaints :-)  All in all, it was a fun night :-)

This was a definite success, and VERY easy to cook... if lamb were cheaper we'd probably eat it all the time!

and the cross training begins.

I'm not big on new year's resolutions, because I usually have trouble coming up with them right around the new year.  Also, once I've decided I want to try something new or work towards a goal, I want to start right. that. minute.  None of this "starting January 1st" stuff, unless the idea pops into my head December 31st.

So, one of my "resolutions" is to get better at cross training.  M and I have really stuck to our running over the past 8 months, but I've pretty much failed to do any other sort of exercise regularly.  I know that I need to cross-train and do strength training - not only for my health but also because I hear it prevents injury!  So today was step one.  I went to the gym with my friend S who is way more into strength training than I am.  We warmed up with 20 minutes on the incumbent bike.  And by warm up I mean I totally sweated it out, because I thought a hilly course sounded like fun.  It was fun, but it was a challenge!

Next we headed to the weight room.  First, we did a few lower body machines: the leg press, hip adduction and hip abduction.  Then we moved onto upper body: chest press, pull down exercise, bicep curls, and tricep extensions.  Last, S introduced me to the "captain's chair."  Neither of us knew what this was called, and I actually spent a good amount of time googling it to no avail before Susan came to the rescue.  She has better google skills than me.  In case you don't know either, it's this thing:

(thanks google images)

So, that was my first legitimate attempt at a weights sesh in a while.  Hopefully we can keep that up at least somewhat regularly next semester!  Anyway, after 50 crunches to the front and 20 on each side, I was ready to go home and EAT.  Tonight for dinner was Hearty Steak and Potato Soup.  I chopped everything up this morning, plopped it into the slow cooker, and then went about my day for 8 hours.

Oops, sorry that's really blurry.  My photography skills have been lacking lately.  Anyway, the soup turned out pretty delicious (Scott agrees), but the meat was a little dry.  I wonder why that was - it was drenched in beef broth the whole time and I cooked it for a little LESS time than it recommended.  Sigh.  Anyway, it served as a fantastic and hearty meal after my awesome workout :-)

Again - this so does not look delicious... two explanations: (1) my photography lacks and (2) some food, while delicious, is not pretty.  And you know what, that's okay!  Off to bed for me - I have interval runs to do in the morning :-)