My Goodies

Posted in Food, Run, Running Gear by

I won my first giveaway!

It was so fun to come home from work on Friday and have this box of goodies waiting for me. Premier Protein sent me a box a fabulousness that I won by entering in Bess Be Fit‘s giveaway.

It was like Big Sis Week got a protein makeover.

I never had anything from Premier Protein before so I was excited to try it! (I was hoping the protein would magically make my muscles really strong for September.)

I. love. free stuff. (And presents.)

I can’t wait to try all of these flavors!

So far I’ve had the chocolate peanut butter bar and it is not only filling, but absolutely delish. Now I don’t have to worry about having enough protein this week! I’m not a huge huge meat eater, so I like that I can get protein from other sources too.

I went to Crunch twice this weekend and toted my cool new bag around both days! Yeah, I’m cool and a serious athlete….

I’m taking another chocolate peanut butter bar with me to work for my afternoon snack. You know me and sticking to what I like. 🙂  But it will be good fuel for my adventure tomorrow – I’m attempting to run to Tuna’s house (It’s 4.9 mi away I think) because I left my car overnight at a nearby garage for a tune-up.

I haven’t run outside in months because of the swamp heat/humidity of DC in the summer, so I’m just the teeniest bit nervous. It should be nice out though, so hopefully I won’t end up huffing down the nearest taxi.

Do you ever run to family’s or friend’s houses?

Have you ever won a giveaway or contest?  I’m thinking of hosting a giveaway sometime soon!

Cheap-Ass What I Ate Wednesday

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Recipes, WIAW by

Welp, I sure didn’t budget my money that well this month!

No, it didn’t have to do with splurging on my fancy new shoes or the heavy duty overpriced headphones I bought online.

Ok, maybe it did a little bit.

Basically, this past week I needed to make lots of meals on a minimal budget. It was kind of a pain, but it was also nice to use my brain a little bit and be resourceful. Since you know I am slightly OCD like planning ahead, of course.

Without further ado, I present to you: Cheap-Ass What I Ate Wednesday.

I still wanted to make sure my meals this week were healthy and involved getting plenty of protein. Luckily, I called upon my trusty secret form of cheap protein – eggs!

Egg Salad Sammie

Makes 3 servings

Ingredients

  • 7 hard boiled eggs
  • 1/2 tsp mayo
  • 2 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1/2 cup chopped cucumbers
  • salt
  • pepper
  • whole wheat bread

Directions

Hard boil 7 eggs. I started out with 9 eggs, but two cracked while coming to a boil. Oh well.

Peel your eggs before you cool them for too long. It’s easier to peel them when they’re still a little warm.

Separate the whites from the yolks.

Cut up the whites and smash up the yolks.

I am weirdly grossed out by mayonnaise, but I had a little bit in my fridge from making deviled eggs awhile ago, so I used a teensy bit for good measure. It probably could have used a bit more, though.

Same thing with mustard. Not a huge mustard fan, mostly likely because I got sent to the principal’s office in second grade for throwing mustard at a boy in the cafeteria for putting a spider on my lunch tray. Brat. (Him, not me…)

Enter weird vegetable substitute secret ingredient. Though many egg salads usually feature celery, I opted for some sliced cucumber because I bought one to have with hummus and salads this week.

Mix everything together in a big bowl.

Add salt and pepper.

Toast some whole wheat bread and you’re good to go!

*****

I also scrounged around the kitchen a bit and decided to make some hazelnut cookie pies since I had a lot of leftover ingredients from baking them a few weeks ago. But this time they got made-over into almond chocolate oatmeal cookies.

I actually used spelt flour this time and it made all the difference! I think it’s finer than oat flour, which worked better with the texture of the cookies.

I added oatmeal in whole, rather than using oat flour. I think I’ll take Michele’s advice and grind it up next time. Will doing that in a blender that work? I don’t have a food processor. Maybe I’ll steal borrow Tuna’s unused brand-new food processor that’s been sitting in the corner of his kitchen since Christmas. Hmm.

Lastly, I added in about 1/4 cup of Truvia as an extra added sweetener.

They were still good (and super filling!) but I think I will keep tweaking them on the next batch. Maybe I’ll add chocolate chips!

*****

Another staple this week (actually, for the past month) has been a huge mexican baked potato for dinner. I love this because it surprisingly fills you up and is super easy to put together.

Ingredients

  • 1 russet potato
  • cheddar cheese
  • salsa (obsessed with the hot Whole Foods brand kind)
  • optional – anything! guacamole is especially delish

Directions

Rinse off your potato and poke a bunch of holes in it with a fork so it won’t explode.

Cook in the microwave for 7-10 minutes.

Cut open the potato vertically and add in cheddar cheese, salsa, guacamole, and any other toppings of your choice.

I would be a little nervous about not having straight up protein if I’m just having a baked potato for a meal, but Scott Jurek assured me not to worry in Eat & Run.

“Our bodies pool the amino acids from the foods we eat over the course of the day. I didn’t have to sit down and do the math every time I ate. As long as I ate a varied whole-foods diet with adequate caloric intake, I would get enough complete protein” (p 59).

Sweet. Thanks, Scott!

TGIW. Thank Goodness it’s Wednesday payday.

What’s your go-to food/meal when you’re strapped for cash?

Shark Week

Posted in Run by

Tuna frantically motioned for me to come out on the balcony on Saturday.

Ahhh!

What is it with people around here and fake animals? You never know what you’re going to see from my balcony.

This is actually the side of the Discovery Channel building, and I’m assuming they’re getting pumped up for Shark Week, which started on Sunday.  So it seems like I’m going to have to look at Jaws for the rest of the week.

Maybe I’ll keep the blinds closed.

I slept on my neck funny on Friday night/Saturday morning (maybe it had to do with the fact that I slept until 2:00pm? 🙂 ) and it is still bothering me! You know, that horrible ache you get once in a while where it hurts to turn your neck? Sometimes it goes away in one day just by sleeping normally on it and sometimes it takes a little bit more time to get back to normal.

Anyway, I did not feel up to running with my super sore neck on Sunday, so I skipped my run. I did 5 miles yesterday in my old shoes and my neck didn’t hurt too much, but it’s still bugging me a little now.

I’ll definitely wait a few more days to get my lift on this week, but I can’t wait too long! There’s only T-minus 25 days until the Tough Mudder.

Do you ever get a sore neck from sleeping on it funny? It is so annoying – it happens to me once or twice a year.

Hallelujah

Posted in Run, Running Gear by

I don’t think I have ever been so excited for a new pair of shoes before.

After reading Born to Run, I was beyond excited about ordering my new “barefoot” style running shoes. When they finally arrived a few weeks later, I was devastated that they felt way too big on my feet! (Such problems, I know.)

I shipped ’em back and requested an exchange for a smaller size. Then I worried while I waited for three weeks for the new pair to come that the new size would be too small.

They finally came! Hallelujah. (Nooo…I didn’t click the FedEx tracking site hundreds of times…)

Aren’t they beautiful?

My first run with them was fun because they felt so light! I felt like I was wearing my sprinting spikes and running like the wind. If the wind ran 11 minute miles.

The arch that usually bothers me still hurts a bit today – so just like I promised, I will ease in to using these shoes regularly. I still may be running wrong too, like thinking too much about what my feet are doing at all times, rather than just running.

It will be nice when I finally am able to just run.

Tunes bought me flowers on Thursday just because!

They might be even prettier than my beloved shoes.

Hope you’re having a fab weekend!

What shoes do you run in?

Crunchtime

Posted in Run, Tough Mudder by

Yesterday marked one month until the Mid-Atlantic Tough Mudder. One month! How did it creep up so quickly?

I did a 4 mile tempo run last night and squeezed in a quick arm workout after staring at the Tough Mudder course all day trying not to cry out in terror.

The course consists of 25 obstacles, each one worse than the last. It’s approximately 12 miles long and takes about 3 hours to complete.

When the event was so far away it didn’t seem that bad. But now that it’s in a month…

EEK!

Please get scared for me:

1. Braveheart Charge

2. Kiss of Mud

3. Arctic Enema

4. Log Jammin’

5. King of the Mountain

6. Jumpin’ Bale

7. Giant A-Frame

8. Fire Walker

9. Berlin Walls #1

10. Mystery Obstacle

11. Everest

12. Funky Monkey

13. Twinkle Toes

14. Walk the Plank

15. Just the Tip

16. Mud Mile

17. Hold your Wood

18. Boa Constrictor

19. Devil’s Beard

20. Spider’s Web

21. High Steppin’

22. Berlin Walls #2

23. Mystery Obstacle

24. Turd’s Nest

25. Electroshock Therapy

What have I done?

Look’s like I’m going to live at Crunch for the next month.

Pesto Pasta Salad with Chicken

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Recipes, WIAW by

Pasta salad is one of my favorite summer foods. It can be just as healthy as downing an actual salad but fills you up a bit more if you’re tired of eating leaves every day for lunch.

Thanks as always to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday.

I’m giving myself an A for effort on the get-out-of-my-food-rut challenge.

It’s funny because I actually get the Real Simple magazine, but I must have missed this recipe – and instead found it while browsing Pinterest.

Another win for Pinterest!

Typ me, I switched around the ingredients a bit in true CNG style.

Ingredients

  • 2 1/4 cups whole wheat pasta (it’s how much I had left in my pantry, ha)
  • pre-grilled strips of  frozen chicken breast 
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • kosher salt and black pepper
  • 1/2 cup whole kalamata olives (didn’t have pitted, my bad)
  • 1/4 cup shredded carrots
  • 1/4 cup pesto

Directions

First, make your pasta. After it’s boiled drain it and pour it back into your pot. Let it cool while you get the rest of your ingredients together.

This is time where you would make your chicken if you weren’t ridiculously lazy like me.

I bought pre-made chicken from Whole Foods – slices of already cooked and frozen grilled chicken breast that I defrosted by heating on a skillet at medium heat with 1 tbsp of olive oil for five minutes.

I was going to cut up the chicken into little cubes but decided it looked kind of gross that way, so  I threw ’em as is into my big pasta salad bowl.

Cut up anything else you want to add you to your pesto pasta salad. I added the olives but nixed the bocconcini in the recipe because I didn’t feel like going to the store to buy cheese. I added some shredded carrots – but you could probably do anything – tomatoes, croutons, etc.

Toss everything in your big mixing bowl with the salt, pepper, and pesto.

*****

I’ve never been a giant fan of pesto, but I do like the taste a little bit so I thought I’d give it another try with this recipe.

I picked up a little container of pesto at the store and was looking at the ingredients just in case I wanted to make my own pesto in the future.

The third thing on the list of ingredients was parmesan cheese. Ew! I don’t like parmesan! But I like pesto….so maybe I do like parmesan cheese at least a little? Who knew.

The best part of this dish? Leftovers!

What’s one of your favorite summer foods?

Did you try a new recipe this week?

8 Mile(s)

Posted in Run, Running Gear by

I ran 8 miles yesterday.

That’s the farthest I’ve ever run in my life! I’m trying not to care that I ran it as slow as the bologna-smelling grandma on the treadmill next to me probably would or that I took three baby breaks. I took one at the 60 min mark for a bathroom stop and to refill my camelbak and two 30 second stretch breaks at mile 6 and 7.

Whatevs, man, I did it.

I was also the sweatiest I’ve ever been in my entire life. I looked like I had jumped in a pool and swam around with smug-ass Ryan Lochte.

All in all the run wasn’t too bad, other than the fact that it took me FOREVER to get through it. I kicked off the run with a bottle full of nuun and had another 2 full bottles of water during and right after the run, along with a sesh of…

FOAM ROLLING!

I had heard from the running blog crazies about the magic of foam rolling but never thought I was runner enough to partake in the FRC (Foam Rolling Cult). I figured I would look like I was flopping around on land with a pool noodle. But when I saw the beautiful onyx roller summoning me from the corner of Crunch after my long run, I had to concede defeat.

Boy was I glad I gave in.

I rolled my hips, IT bands/quads, hammies, and calves.

Click here for instructions and videos on how to foam roll.

I think it helped because today I have minimal soreness from my ballin’ 8 mile(s). However, the night sweats are back. FML.

What’s the longest distance you’ve ever run?

Are you part of the FRC aka Foam Roller Cult too?

Spoiler Alert

Posted in Sports by

Ok, so can you please shut your mouth about anything Olympic related until after the event actually airs?

Guys, he got second. (Original via)

Side note: Michael Phelps’ mom looks exactly like my crazy next door neighbor who puts stuffed animals out on her balcony.

No joke.

Anyway.

Is it just me, or are the Olympics especially spoilerific this year?

Maybe I didn’t care as much about the Olympics when I was younger, so I maybe don’t remember them being that spoilertastic. Nah, I always liked the Olympics – so that can’t be it.

After thoughtful consideration of this issue, my genius theory is that the electronic globalization  of the world is spewing out information into our brains at an unprecedented rate.

As soon as the U.S. women’s gymnastics team won gold, photos of the medal ceremony were splattered all over Pinterest and #fabfive was trending on Twitter.

Same thing for Phelp’s three-peat win.

I should have known better than to pick the middle treadmill along the balcony at the gym yesterday. It had the best view of the 4 giant TVs along the main wall. I tried to avert my eyes as much as I could, but of course immediately after the competition in London ended for women’s gymnastics all around, NBC thought it would be a frickin’ fantastic idea to display Gabby Douglas’ smiling face blown up on the screen for the entirety of the news program. Thanks bunches.

So cute. But. Whyyyyyyy (source)

No, really: DAMN YOU.

Can’t a girl wait until Primetime?

Have any Olympic events been spoiled for you?

Do you enjoy watching the events even if they’ve been spoiled? I still do, but I’m pissy about it the whole time.

My Very Own Spin Class

Posted in Music, Spinning by

I’ve probably been to a total of five or six spin classes in the past few months.

Since I’m trying to focus more on running and weight lifting for the Tough Mudder, I don’t like “wasting” a running day at the gym spinning. The spin instructors I like only have classes at 6:30pm on Mondays and Wednesdays, and half of the time those days don’t align with my workout plan.

My favorite spin instructor reminds me of Scary Spice – not in looks obvi, but  encouragement wise.

She always screams, “KEEP GOING! THIS IS WHAT YOU CAME HERE FOR!”

I will do whatever you say, Scary Spice. You are terrifying.

While puttering around the gym on Sunday afternoon, I looked at the dark empty silence of the usually rambunctious spin room.

Then I had an idea.

I’m allowed to go in the spin room even when there isn’t a spin class! (I think I’m allowed, right Crunch?)

I planned to do just arms and abs that afternoon, but let’s be honest, just an arms and abs workout is kind of boring. I wanted to do some cardio beforehand, but didn’t want to put too much pressure on my joints since I ran on Saturday.

Venturing in to the spin room by myself was just so…different – it didn’t stink of humans like it usually does.

 I took my time adjusting my bike (it always takes me approx 10 min to get the stupid heights right) and was quite proud of myself when I finished my 30 min spin workout.

Watch out, I may be your next spin instructor! (Kidding! I think.)

Song 1: Warm-up
Slowly pedal from your push point (level 3/4) and build up coasting speed up to level 5.

Song 2: Wake-up Hill Climb
Start at level 5, move up a turn at each chorus, going up to level 8 at the end. For each turn added stand up for the chorus.

Song 3: Jump Around
Take it back to push point for a little, first chorus turn up to 6 and do saddle jumps to the beat of each chorus.

Song 4: Sprint it Out
Keep your level 6 and SPRINT at the fast parts!

Song 5: Chill Out
Back to push point and bring your heart rate down for a hot sec.

Song 6: Big Ol’ Climb
Keep on climbing to level 10 – you need an internal Scary Spice yelling at you during this one. After the last chorus, bring it back down to 9.

Song 7: Move It
Move down to level 7 and try to pedal to the off beat – at the choruses, do saddle jumps to the beat.

Song 8: Fast Recover
Bring it down to level 6 and pedal 85% speed at the choruses.

Song 9: Warm-down
Slowly bring yourself back to push point and stretch your arms/shoulders, ending with leg stretches off the bike

All you need is a spin bike and some music – have fun sweatin’!

Hazelnut Cookie Pies

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Recipes, WIAW by

When I saw Michelle’s delicious looking giant hazelnut cookies a few weeks ago, I knew I had to try them out.

Hazelnut is a new thing for me – I tried hazelnut coffee at work two months ago and now I have a cup of it every morning!

This is the first time that I made this recipe (I promised I would make something new for What I Ate Wednesday, Min!) and I definitely could make a few adjustments the next time I make them, especially because I switched up some things that I probably shouldn’t have, i.e. flour choices.

And I WILL be making them again, not only because they tasted great but because the ingredients were so damn expensive and I have a lot left over. I’m really encouraging you to make these, huh? 😉

No, but really. They are good.

Ingredients

1 cup oats (I used oat flour)
1 cup wholegrain spelt flour (I used oat flour)
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup apple sauce
2 tbsp almond milk
1/4 cup hazelnuts coarsely chopped
1 tbsp ground flax+ 3 tbsp water
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp powdered sugar (nixing this in the future)

(Also – note: next time I’m going to add 1/4 cup of Truvia Natural Sweetener. I have a sweet tooth!)

Directions

Dump the ground flax seed into the water in a little bowl and mix it together. Let it sit for 15 minutes while you’re making the rest of your batter.

Preheat oven to 350F.

I skipped Michelle’s step: “Process oats in a food processor until you’re left with a coarse flour” and used regular oat flour instead since I don’t own a food processor. Maybe next time I’ll just dump in the oats as is for more of an oatmeally cookie.

Chop up your hazelnuts.

That was the first time I’ve ever tried an actual hazelnut! It was softer than I thought it would be – I was thinking it would be harder, like an almond.

Put the flour, hazelnuts, cocoa powder, and baking powder in a large bowl and mix together.

In a smaller, separate bowl mix together the brown sugar, apple sauce, and almond milk and stir generously.

Add in the flax/water combo to the wet bowl and stir some more.

Dump the wet bowl into the dry bowl and keep on stirrin’.

Once the batter starts to get thick and gooey, begin to separate the dough into six equal sized balls and place on a non-stick cookie tray. It helps to wet your hands before rolling the dough – it kept sticking to my hands!

Flatten down the balls on the cookie sheet so they look like cookie pies.

Put your tray in the already preheated oven and bake for 10-12 minutes while keeping your eyes glued to the TV watching Olympic gymnastics and biting your nails.

My pies didn’t turn out to look as pretty as I’d hoped…

So I decided to add a little sprinkle (or a big blob) of powdered sugar on top.

Much prettier!

Like my cheap-ass cooling rack? I don’t own a cooling rack, and my middle refrigerator rack has been resting next to my fridge since girls’ night. Perf.

Every time I bake something I end up burning some part of my body.

This time it was my finger.

The cookie pies are SO dense and chewy that they needed a little something extra to soften them up.

I’m not a huge milk person, but you sure can’t beat cookies and milk.

I think these are going to become a comfort food ’round my apartment. They could be especially good on cold winter nights – maybe served warm!

Did you bake anything this week?

What is your favorite comfort food?