Intense Workouts + Delicious Food= Happy Monday!

I woke up early this morning and hit the road to get to the gym by 7:15AM! At the gym, I ran 8 miles. I started off at an easy pace 6.8 MPH. At mile 3, I went up to 7.0MPH and slowly increased from there. By the end of the run, I was running at 6:30min/mile pace! Felt good to get a solid 8 in!

Run - 06/22/2009 7:30 AM

Type:	Training run
Distance:	8 miles
Time:	1 hr 06 min 32 secs
Pace:	8:19 min/miles
Route:	Treadmill

When I got into work, I enjoyed a breakfast cookie that I made on Sunday night. In this mix was Oats, Almond Milk, Almond Butter, some PB2 that Gretchen got me, dried cranberries, golden raisins, coconut, brown sugar and vanilla extract.

Around 11, I had half a Luna Bar. Then I headed back to the gym for workout #2. I took Muscle Conditioning again. The same instructor teaches it Mondays and Thursdays and it is an AWESOME class and just what I need. I'm going to try to take it at least once a week if not twice.

For dinner, I had planned quite the feast. When Dave was at his Bachelor Party this weekend, I spent hours watching Food Network. This particular menu was a Rachael Ray. I don't love her show, but I do think her recipes are some of the tastiest out there! I made her Spring Chicken Roll-Ups with Dijon Pan Sauce along with Spinach Artichoke Whole-Wheat Penne. In case this recipe disappears from this link... here it is!

Spring Chicken Roll-Ups with Dijon Pan Sauce (Rachael Ray)

Ingredients

• 2 (6-ounce) pieces boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 4 thin slices provolone cheese
• 4 thin slices prosciutto
  
• 12 thin spears asparagus, trimmed of tough stems and blanched in salted water 2 minutes, drained
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chicken stock or vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Halve the chicken breasts horizontally separating each into 2 cutlets.Use a meat mallet to thin the chicken breasts.

Arrange the 4 cutlets on work surface. Season cutlets with salt and pepper on the side facing up. Cover each piece of chicken with 1 slice cheese and 1 slice ham. Starting on 1 side of the breast, place a small bundle of 3 asparagus spears. Wrap and roll the chicken around the asparagus. Wash hands.

Heat about 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, a turn of the pan, in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. When hot, using tongs, add the chicken roll-ups to skillet with seam side down. Season the roll-ups with salt and pepper. Cover the pan loosely with tin foil and cook 4 to 5 minutes, turn roll-ups over and cook and other 4 to 5 minutes. Remove cooked roll ups to a serving plate. Add 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons flour Stir in the chicken stock and Dijon mustard, scraping up any drippings from the bottom of the pan, and simmer 1 minute. Remove from the heat and spoon over chicken.

I modified this recipe a bit but it was basically the same. And delicious! I also served it with Spinach Artichoke Whole-Wheat Penne.

Ingredients

• 1 pound whole-wheat penne pasta
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 (15-ounce) can or 1 (10-ounce) box frozen artichoke hearts, defrosted, drained and quartered
• 2-3 cups of baby spinach
  
• 1 shallot, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock, just eyeball the amount
• A handful lightly toasted slivered almonds
• Kosher salt or freshly ground sea salt and black pepper
• 1 large clove garlic - peeled
• A handful grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Place a large pot of water over high heat and bring up it up to a boil to cook the pasta, season with some salt and cook to al dente, according to package directions. Drain and reserve about 1 cup of the cooking water.

Heat 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil in medium nonstick skillet. Add artichokes to heat through and lightly brown at edges.

In the bowl of a food processor add the shallot, 1/2 cup chicken stock, spinach leaves, almonds and salt and pepper, to taste. If you have a hand held small-holed grater or a zester, grate garlic into the food processor. Adding a whole clove can result in stray big pieces of raw garlic, too bitter to bite down on. If you do not have a hand held grater, mince garlic and mash up into paste with a little salt. Turn processor on and add in about 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil.

Scrape the spinach pesto into the artichoke pan and loosely cover with foil. Bring mixture to a simmer over low to medium-low heat and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the reserved pasta cooking water, the pasta and the cheese. Toss to coat the pasta with the sauce and heat for 1 minute. Transfer to a serving bowl or platter, season with salt and pepper, to taste, and serve.

And my plate:

I also made Robin Millers Honey-Jalapeno Chicken with the leftover chicken I had. It was on sale this week so I bought 3 pounds! The sauce was made with honey, spinach and fresh jalapenos. She used cilantro, but I don't really like the taste of cilantro so I replaced it with spinach. To loosen it up in the food processor, I also used some water. Well, when the sauce was done, it was DEFINITELY GREEN! We'll have to wait until later in the week to see how it tastes!