Category Archives: Recipes

‘Twas the Night Before Race Day

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Music, Race, Recipes, Run, Running Gear by

and all through the apartment….

Just kidding.

Kind of. I am being a slight weirdo and over-analyzing/over-preparing/being over-excited about tomorrow. But just because it’s my first race! Well, my first “distance” running race. I know it’s not a big deal, and you probably think I’m a nutcase.

But it’s so fun to pretend that I am an actual runner; that I’ll actually get to do a race recap and actually get to be part of the running world for a morning!

I stuck with my Runner’s World/Insightful Friend via her Personal Trainer race week plan this week.

1.) Hydrate and Fuel

I did some research on how much water I should be drinking per day since I was having dehydration issues.

Livestrong.com told me:

“MayoClinic.com suggests that drinking about 2,000 mL (2 qts.) of water a day is adequate, since food sources also contribute some water to each person’s diet. Another guideline from the Institute of Medicine is that men drink about 3000 mL (3 qts.) daily and women 2200 mL (http://www.livestrong.com/article/527779-how-many-milliliters-of-water-should-you-drink-a-day/#ixzz1xtqMEXOP).

To test out my hydration intake, I kept track of exactly how much water I drank on Wednesday.

– 5 camelbaks of water = 750 mL each
– 4 cups of water = 500 mL each

Total water consumed on Wednesday: 5,750 mL

Ok, I think I’m drinking enough water now.

I took a healthy snack to Book Club Thursday night for all of us gals to munch on.

And made a delish chocolate peanut butter smoothie for a snack this afternoon.

CNG’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie

Ingredients
– Skim Milk
– Ice Cubes
– Chocolate Whey Protein Powder
– Cocoa Powder
– Unsweetened & Unsalted Organic Peanut Butter

Directions
Mix 1 cup of skim milk, 4 ice cubes, 1 scoop of protein power, 1 heaping teaspoon of cocoa powder, and 1/3 cup of peanut butter in a blender on SMOOTHIE setting.

*****

2.) 3 mile run outside in the heat.

It actually wasn’t too hot out, but I was glad to run outside again anyway. The weather for tomorrow morning is supposed to be around 70 degrees, so I should be just fine!

This run was my last-run-before-my-first-race-last-renewal-of-confidence-run.

It was great. My headphones worked, nothing hurt, and I ran it in 30:37.  My under 30 minute goal for tomorrow may be attainable!

Though either way, I have to remind myself that it doesn’t really matter. I’m only racing against myself. I’m going to try not to put unnecessary pressure on myself for no reason.

*****

I picked up my race packet last night at Pacer’s in Silver Spring.

I’m glad I don’t have to worry about registering in the morning.

I’m racing! I have a number!

I was stressing out what to do with my stuff during the run. I didn’t want to bring my iPhone with me and check it in the bag check, just since you never know what could happen. So instead, I decided to shell out $24 for a cool fanny pack racing pouch. Now I don’t have to worry about my phone since I can keep it on me! I’m also going to take my ID, some cash, my metro card, and some chapstick.

And don’t worry, I’m not so ridiculous that I think I need to use shot bloks for a 5K. I just wanted to buy them! I will probably try them out on my long run next week.

I’ve got my playlist all set. There will be praying to the running gods to keep my headphones working. Hopefully I will make my goal time so that Tubthumping will be playing as I cross the finish line.

I am currently sticking my quads with my vacuum cleaner hose because I don’t own a stick.

Don’t judge me.

Now let’s just hope I wake up!

Potatoes, Tuberculosis, and Running Revelations

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Recipes, Run, Tough Mudder by

My 3.1 mile treadmill run on Friday wasn’t too bad, but my legs still felt pretty heavy from my long run on Wednesday night.

Tuna and I cooked a supposedly plain but surprisingly yummy dinner by adding a shit ton of Old Bay to all items on the plate (minus the spinach.)

It was pretty darn good!

Potatoes are probably my favorite food of all! These are way better for you than french fries, but still give you that potato fix, and are super easy to make.

CNG’s Quartered Red Potatoes:

Ingredients:
Small red potatoes
Salt
Pepper
Garlic or Garlic Powder
Cilantro
Old Bay
Cooking Spray

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.

Cut in the potatoes into quartered pieces.

Put the potatoes on the baking sheet and sprinkle (or heavily shake, bahaha) all of the spices onto the potatoes.

Cook for approx 35 minutes in the oven – this time depends on how hot your oven gets! You may want to double check them around 25 minutes, just in case.

You will know when the potatoes are done when they start browning on the tops and are more squishy than they are hard (I’m convinced my best asset is my cooking terminology.)

Add some ketchup and enjoy!

*****

On another note, I’m still a hot sweaty mess. I had another episode of night sweats last night, which was even worse than the first one. I woke up at 2:30am, and couldn’t fall back asleep for awhile, so I changed and read some Hungry Runner Girl.

My washing machine is really getting some action lately.

I made the mistake of Web MD-ing night sweats and it gave me these options:

– Mononucleosis
– Tuberculosis

Seriously? Seriously.

I had mono in college (didn’t we all) so it obviously must be tuberculosis. Maybe I can make my tuberculosis death lovely and romantic like Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge.

*****

Numerous running revelations occurred this morning.

I found some great articles with beginner race tips when browsing Runner’s World online.

Mistake: Too much food
RW columnist Jeff Galloway says many first-timers eat too much before a race, particularly the night before. Carmichael agrees. “You don’t need to carbo-load for a 5-K,” he says. Most people have enough stored energy in their bodies to run a 5-K without taking in any additional calories (http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-520–11941-0,00.html).

Mannnn, carbo loading is superfluous? There goes my excuse to have an entire pizza pie on Friday night. Sadface.

Revelations also came via g-chat (of course) from my marathon running, Tough Mudder finishing pal Vicki.

Victoria:  i did most of my tough mudder training last year without music, because i didn’t have an ipod

Sheeeeeet. I forgot that I won’t be able to use my iPod for the flippin’ race I’m training for.

Victoria: oh btw, my trainer said if you run on a treadmill you should always have at least 1% incline apparently it better simulates a flat road, otherwise it’s more like you’re running on a very slight downhill

Crrraaaaap. So I have been training solely downhill. From now on, I promise to always run at 1% incline. P.S. Thank you for the legitimate personal trainer insight fo free. We must continue this arrangement. 🙂

Victoria:  you should get in at least one run in warm weather to prepare for your race. otherwise it will be a huge shock to your system

Say no more. I shall obey and run outside on Wednesday.

Therefore, my Runner’s World/Insightful Friend via her Personal Trainer race week plan will be:

Monday: 5 miles on the treadmill at 1% incline
Tuesday: Rest Day
Wednesday: 3 miles outside in the heat
Thursday: Yoga
Friday: Rest Day

Saturday: My First Race: DC Purple Stride 5K

Wish me luck!

Was your first race experience awkward or amazing?

What do you do for race weeks? If you do a race with short mileage, do you taper?

My First WIAW

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Recipes, WIAW by

I’m super excited to be a part of What I Ate Wednesday, created by this lovely lady!

This is going to be a very egg filled What I Ate Wednesday….you’ll have to excuse my boring-ness. Get ready for a picture show.

This is actually what I ate on Tuesday.

My weekday mornings ALWAYS start out with overnight oats in a jar and a cup of hazelnut coffee. When I first started clean eating, I took a smoothie every morning with me to work. Don’t get me wrong, I love smoothies – but I was usually hungry again two hours later.

Then I started seeing this thing that all the cool bloggers were obsessed with: overnight oats. My mom actually used to make these a few summers ago when I was living at home, and I thought she was cray.

Turns out both my mom and the cool bloggers were the ones who were right and I’m the cray one.

Overnight oats are not only delicious – they are like…super healthy. And they keep you perfectly full allllll morning, so you’re not being a bitch starving by the time lunch rolls around.

Some people hate overnight oats, some people grow to like them. I instantly loved overnights oat. Convert, right here.

I got my overnight oats recipe from Kath and Julie.

If I don’t have the ingredients to make my perfect overnight oats concoction I freak out. Truth.

You don’t have to make them in a jar. I just like to because then I can take breakfast to go (i.e. every morning, when I oversleep.)

I slice the banana, add 1/3 cup rolled oats, 1/3 cup skim milk, and 1/3 cup low fat vanilla yogurt. Sometimes I do equal parts 1/2 cup of each when I’m feeling generous.

Last week I accidentally bought plain yogurt instead of vanilla yogurt and I did not enjoy my oats as much! I didn’t want to waste it, so I tried putting vanilla extract in the plain yogurt. The experiment failed. Thank gaaaawd I bought the right kind of yogurt this week.

I then add in about 2 teaspoons of chia seeds. Chia seeds are expensive (I think they’re like $13.99 at Whole Foods or something like that) but once you buy a pack they last forever.

The chia seeds really help the oats soak up the dairy. Actually, I don’t know exactly what they do, but you need ’em in overnight oats.

Pre-mixed.

Post-mixed

Once you have all of your ingredients in the jar, mix ’em up real nice. I add a berry or two on top for good measure. Seal the top, stick it in the fridge, and you’re good to go.

I add “peak protein” Bear Naked granola to the jar in the morning. If we want to talk about healthy living problems, my granola addiction would be the first on the list. I go through two or three of these bags a week. That’s $15- $20 bucks a week. On granola. Oy.

Looks gross, taste so good.

Let’s move on to lunch.

Eggs are so easy to throw on salad for protein, so I take hard boiled eggs to have at lunch every day.

Spinach salad with egg whites and an Italian dressing with an olive oil base.

I refuse to give up my diet coke. It’s like my crack. I used to have two a day, but I try to only have one a day – at lunch.

Obvi the best part of lunch: guac from Whole Foods and wheat pita chips.

And the best afternoon snack ever. It’s almost gone! (Yes, I did successfully eat an entire tub of Whole Foods guac in less than 24 hours. Not ashamed.)

*****

Dinner was another current fav – a breakfast burrito.

2 eggs, 2 egg whites.

Scrambled.

Added some shredded cheese….

And the rest of the guac…..

Some microwaved corn….

And the finished product!

So. good. May have to have this for dinner tomorrow, which would make it the third day in a row.

*****

Finally, my evening snack:

This stuff is all the rage right now, man.

Can’t wait to hear what all of you ate!

What is your favorite summer snack at the moment?

Dr. Scholl’s, Pita, and Peeta

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Recipes, Run, Yoga by

I didn’t end up making it to Extreme Ride tonight because I had to stop at CVS on the way and buy these:

My left foot is starting to give me a little bit of trouble. Keep in mind that I am known to be a slight hypochondriac slash drama queen though, so don’t take my complaining too seriously.

I broke my left foot in October 2009 and again in April 2010. The first breakage was at work (my job for some extra cash in college was lifeguarding part-time). We were moving a bunch of equipment at the end of a shift and a huge piece of equipment fell and crushed my foot. Long story short, it took a loooong time for my foot to recover from that one.

As soon as it did heal, I took a bad drunken tumble and re-broke the same foot in the same place. I must have had some baaaad karma goin’ on or something.

Since then, I haven’t had too many issues with my foot, except that I have a much harder time doing yoga balancing poses on my left leg.

I heart my yoga mat.

But as I’ve started running longer distances and running more often than usual, the inner edge of my arch is struggling. I bought new running shoes about eight months ago-ish, and can’t really afford a new pair for a few more months (I already have been doing some Summer shopping. Whoooopsie.) Plus, I don’t even know if I have the wrong shoes for my feet, or if my foot is the problem. I figured I would try a cheap solution for kicks.

Once I put them in my sneakers they felt kind of funny at first – but as soon as I took a running stride on the treadmill, I knew I was in love. They felt awesome – it seemed as if I was bouncing along in moon boots. Remember those? From Nickelodeon?

Anyway, they turned out to be a great buy. Running felt great, and my arch was only a tiny bit sore after running. It’s a good quick fix for sure, but I will have to eventually figure out a better long term solution, since ideally, I don’t want my arch to ever be sore. Could be my shoes, could be my stride.

I ran my 5 miles, just like I promised! It was a treadmill run – the miles were a bit rough, but hey, I got them done. Another thing I need to improve on is my breathing technique. Maybe I concentrate too much on my breathing, and that’s why it feels weird, but man, was I suckin’ in air. I was definitely gasping for breath, which is probably not the best way to breathe.

At least I wasn’t making little grunting noises every ten seconds like the Mets fan running next to me. If I can hear you over my cranked up music, you’re too loud. Rude.

I ended the evening with a lovely turkey pita at Tuna’s. He even put mine together for me!

Not the prettiest picture in the world, but it sure tasted good.

CNG’s Turkey Pita

Ingredients:

Whole wheat pita
Turkey slices
Spinach
Tomato
Onion
Shredded Cheese
Garlic Hummus
Caesar Lite Dressing

And in honor of my pita, I will leave you with Peeta.

Oh heyyyyyy, Peeta. (source)

Clean Cheating

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Recipes by

Yaaay, it’s Friday!

But you know what the weekend includes….pizza parties, barbecues, mimosa brunches. More wine (alright, a lot more) and less water. So, when is it OK to have a little junk food here and there?

Don’t mind if I do.

For me, it’s on the weekends. Some weekends I indulge more than others. It depends what event is going on and what kind of food we’re eating, and of course, what mood I’m in. Last weekend I threw clean- eating out the window on Friday night. I had a hard week and was craving Ledo Pizza cheese fries like cray cray.

I’m a firm believer of the occasional cheating if you’re eating clean. If I ALWAYS deprive myself of some of my favorite foods, I won’t continue to eat clean on a regular basis. I don’t think it’s a huge deal to eat a few junk food items occasionally. I’ve heard of a lot of people doing the 80% and 20% regimen, or eating clean 80% of the time and eating whatever they want (to an extent) 20% of the time. I’d say I’m a teensy bit more hardcore than that. I try to eat clean 90% of the time, and then allow myself to “cheat” 10% of the time.

I’ve been at a bit of a weight plateau lately, which frustrates me. I’m thinking part of it could be attributed to stuffing my face with junk food on the weekend, and gaining back the pound or two that I lost during the week. It’s a vicious cycle, man.

So this weekend, I’ll definitely have a treat or two for sure. I’m going to a barbecue tomorrow afternoon and a brunch on Sunday. I might have a hot dog at the barbeque and maybe some potato fritters at brunch, but I think that’s alright. This weekend I’m just not going to straight up plan to eat fast food for meals. If I don’t gain a pound or two on the weekend that I have to lose again during the week, I should be that much closer to my goal weight, right?

Tonight I’m making the best dish ever, i.e. shrimp paella.

I think paella is a technically a Spanish dish. So I don’t even really know what paella officially is, but it sounds better than “a bunch of shit thrown into a pot.” Tuna and I were looking through recipes on clean eating blogs last weekend, and found this one and this one.

Since I had some of the ingredients but not others (annnnd the wrong cookware for this one), I altered the recipe a bit.

CNG’s Shrimp Paella

Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice
1 cup water
spinach
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/4 large onion, chopped
olive oil
salt
pepper
cilantro
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 bag of frozen, pre-cooked, pre-peeled (YES!) shrimp

Directions:

Chop up the pepper and onion.

Put the cut up pepper, onion, and spinach in a big ‘ol skillet with a dash of olive oil.

Stir veggies until spinach is dark and shriveled (like my expert cooking vocab?) and onions are clear.

Throw cooked veggies into a big ‘ol pot (my skillet doesn’t have a big enough lid to put on it to look the rice, so I had to transfer to the pot w/ lid.)

Add 1 cup brown rice, 1 cup brown water to the pot w/ veggies. Add all of the spices & garlic listed above.

Turn up the heat on the stove burner to high, heat uncovered until boiling.

Turn down the heat to simmer, cover for about 45 minutes.

Stir the pot (ha…don’t I always) & put the lid back on for about 15 more minutes.

Pour out shrimp into a strainer, thaw for 6 min under cold water.

Chop off the shrimp tails.

Throw the shrimp into the pot

Stir once (Total paella cooking time = approx. 55-60 minutes

YUM. I’ll have some wine with that, please.