Weekly Runs 8/3-8/9

Planned Runs for Week of 8/10:
Monday: 4-6
Tuesday: 4-6
Wednesday: 10-12 Miles
Thursday: strength training
Friday: 5-8
Saturday: off
Sunday: 16

Total Mileage: 39-48 miles

Week of 8/3-8/9

Time Spent Running: 5 hours 10 minutes

Total Mileage: 33 miles

Monday- off

Tuesday, 11:30

Date	8/4/2009
Route	Treadmill
Distance	5.00 mi
Time	43:50
Pace	08:48/mile

Wednesday=Ran at 6:15 with Kim and Kate

Date	8/5/2009
Route	Work around Charles River
Distance	8.00 mi
Time	1:13:00
Pace	09:07/mile

Thursday= Off


Friday =ran outside at home by myself

Date	8/7/2009
Route	Around Town
Distance	6 mi
Time	55
Pace	9:10

Saturday - OFF

Sunday- Ran at 6am around Wellesley

Date	8 /9/2009
Route	Wellesley-Wellesley College-Cliff Rd-Weston Resorvoir
Distance	14 mi
Time	2:18
Pace	0:09:55/mile

Sunday 5am Wakeup call & Lots of Food

Hello! I woke up this morning around 5 and got ready to run! Picked up Nancy at 5:45 and headed to Wellesley. We ran about 8 miles then circled back to our cars where we were supposed to meet up with the group, but unfortnately, they didn't show up so we continued on for another 6 and did 14 miles. It was one of those days that I felt very very strong. I think it's because we were sleeprunning the first few miles so we went very slow.

When I got home, I showered then rested until 1pm! Then it was time to start cooking. The first thing I made was Ricotta Quiche with Veggies.

Ingredients:
1 Pre-Bought Pie Crust- follow directions to bake before filling
Red Onion, Red Pepper, Green Pepper, Green Onions, all sliced lengthwise and sauted
1 package of froZEN spinach defrosted and squeezed excess water out
1/4 cup of mexican blend cheese
1/8 cup of feta cheese
1 cup of Ricotta Cheese
1/4 cup of Milk
2 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons of dijon

Saute veggies and add defrosted spinach. Mix eggs, ricotta and milk together. Add in dijon and cheeses. Cook the pie crust for ten minutes at 400. Then fill it with the veggies and pour the ricotta, egg mixture on top. Cook for 30-40 minutes at 350.

I'm bringing this to work tomorrow!

For dinner, I decided to copy my friend Gretchen and made Poached Salmon and Pesto Potato Salad. What can I say, it looked too good on her page to miss out on!

Here's what I did. I boiled a combination of white wine, water, lemon juice, shallots and lots of salt and pepper. When it started to boil, I put it down to simmer and cut the fish in four small fillets. Then I threw them in for about ten minutes. When I took them out, I sprinkled some S&P and more lemon juice.

I also made a Pesto Potato Salad by dicing 3 potatoes into small pieces. I added them to boiling water and cooked for ten minutes. Then I strained the water and mixed the potatoes with a combination of store bought pesto, a scoop of dijon and 1/4 cup of sour cream. Sounds weird? It was actually really tasty.

And of course, I needed my greens so I sauted some Rainbow Chard with EVOO, S&P and Garlic.



And I finally got around to making the Raspberry Yogurt Cake that I adapted from Bon Appetit. I've been wanting to make this cake for weeks, but you need to cook it for an hour and ten minutes and I haven't had the time.

Ingredients

• 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour, I used two cups of whole wheat, 1 white
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
• 1 teaspoon finely grated orange peel
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup plain greek yogurt
• 2 1/2 cups fresh raspberries (two 6-ounce containers)
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon (or more) water

Preparation

• 
  
  Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk 2 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in medium bowl.
• 
  
  Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl until creamy. Beat in orange juice, 1 teaspoon almond extract, and orange peel. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Mix in yogurt.
• 
  
  Add dry ingredients to batter and beat just until blended. Toss 1/2 cup flour and raspberries in large bowl. Fold berry mixture into batter. Spoon batter into prepared pan; smooth top.
• 
  
  Toss 1/2 cup flour and raspberries in large bowl. Fold berry mixture into batter. Spoon batter into prepared pan; smooth top.
• 
  
  Bake cake until wooden skewer inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes.
• 
  
  Whisk powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon water, and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract in medium bowl. Add more water by 1/2 teaspoonfuls as needed for thick glaze. Drizzle over cake. Let stand until glaze sets.

And now its Yankee Red Sox time and bed!

Another Crazy Saturday Night...

I'm running tomorrow at 6am so I'm in bed. I know, I know, I'm a crazy partier! Well truth is, I had a crazy night last night and I still feel hungover from it! Can't wait for the long run tomorrow, it will be just what I need.

Recap on some eats. Thursday night Courtney and Dana came over and we made Chicken Parm, a delicious salad and homemade dressing. I just cooked the chicken in a pan with EVOO, Salt and Pepper. Once browned, I threw the chicken as the first layer in a baking dish, then added 1/4 cup of mozzerela cheese, then the rest of Dave's tomato sauce, then a little bit of parmesan cheese. Then I put it under the broiler until the cheese was melted. yummy!



Tonight I made a Mexican Salad in a Tortilla Shell with Chicken. I saw this done on one of the blogs, but basically all I did was take a flour tortilla and wrap over a small pyrex bowl and threw it in the oven at 375 until crisp.

This is what it looked like when it came out! So I filled it with a salad of mixed greens, shredded carrots, cucumbers, red pepper, tomato, mexican blend cheese, green onions, and grilled diced chicken. I then added some Annie's Goddess Dressing. OMG that dressing amazing. I need to recreate it! And well... since the oven was already hot, I figured i might as well cook the rest of the Kale I had so I also had Kale Chips.


And now its time for bed. 15 miles tomorrow at 6am! Night!

Rainbow Swiss Chard is my new Spinach

So I have two things to say to start this blog entry. A) I'm not too happy with any of these pictures I am about to post, but I can tell you the food was absolutely delicious. B) Rainbow Swiss Chard is my new favorite vegetable and you may see it now as often as you see Kale!

On Tuesday night I made fish and steak tacos with the leftover fish and meat I had in the fridge. I also saute some chard with some of the stem and bacon with EVOO, Salt and Pepper. WOW! It was sooooo tasty and I will definitely be cooking chard again without the bacon. I thought it might need extra fat and flavoring but the chard was so delicious on its own! All you have to do is tear it off the stem and either rip it up in pieces with your hands or dice it with a knife. Then take the core and dice the middle part. Kinda looks like rainbow celery!

And then here it is cooked with bacon.

This is the inside of my fish taco. I put some chard in there with the guac dip I always make (diced avocado, red onion, tomatos with lime juice), I also made a spicy hot yougurt sauce with greek yogurt and hot sauce.

So I had one fish taco and one steak taco with a side of Rainbow Chard.


Wednesday night I ran 8 miles with some girls from work. It was a great run around the Charles with new running partners! I hope we can make this a weekly event!

When Dave and I got home at 8:45! I knew I wanted to cook something quickly. I had two black bean Trader Joe's burritos in the freezer so I defrosted those then put them under the broiler. In addition, I made a giant salad and more guac dip. Dave also heated up some of his special tomato sauce.
That's it for today. So far this week I've run 13 miles. I got to get in 6 today at some point and 4ish tomorrow. Then long run Satuday and cross training and lifting Sunday!

Fish N Chips, Two Ways

Last night I made Fish N Chips, the chips being potato sticks and kale chips. I used all fresh ingredients and was pretty excited with the results! The first thing I did when I got home was preheat the oven to 425. Then I got to work peeling the potatoes (I used three different kinds of potatoes- small golden potatoes, rustic potatoes and red potatoes- basically whatever looked good at the Farmers Market!) Then I cut them into really thin matchsticks with EVOO, and lots of salt and pepper. I put those in the over for probably around 40 minutes on a baking sheet or until crispy.

Then I got to work on the batter for my Fish Sticks. The batter was made of 1/2 Cup of Skim Milk, 1 Egg, 1/2 Cup of Flour, 2 Tsbp of Baking Soda and Salt and Pepper. I whisked that together until I got out the lumps and then I threw in the fish. I used Cod that I cut into 2 inch thin pieces. Then I lined a baking sheet with EVOO Spray and threw them in the oven with the fries. Probably for 15-20 minutes.

And then last but not least, I made some Kale Chips with EVOO, Salt and Pepper.

For a dipping sauce, I mixed together Apple Cider Vinegar and Honey. It was a sweet sauce and went well with the fish. Here is everything all together! We had tons of leftover fish which I'm going to use in tonights fish tacos!

Weekly Runs 7/27- 8/2

Planned Runs for Week of 8/3:
Monday: off
Tuesday: 5 Miles
Wednesday: 10-12 Miles
Thursday: 4
Friday: 5-8
Saturday: 13-17
Sunday off

Total Mileage: 37-42 miles

Week of 7/27-8/2

Time Spent Running: 5 hours 14 minutes 44 seconds

Total Mileage: 35.5 miles

Monday, 6:30AM

Date	7 /27/2009
Route	Treadmill
Distance	6.00 mi
Time	50:47
Pace	08:27/mile

Tuesday, 7 AM

Date	7 /28/2009
Route	Treadmill
Distance	6.00 mi
Time	49:30
Pace	08:15/mile

Wednesday=OFF

Thursday= ran at lunch, 2.5

Date	7 /30/2009
Route	Treadmill
Distance	2.50 mi
Time	20:00
Pace	08:00/mile

Friday =ran outside with Nancy at 6am

Date	7 /31/2009
Route	Around Town
Distance	8.50 mi
Time	1:20:17
Pace	0:09:26/mile

Saturday - OFF

Sunday- Ran at 6am around the Charles

Date	8 /2/2009
Route	Brighton-Charles River
Distance	12.05 mi
Time	1:54:10
Pace	0:09:28/mile

Here is my total Mileage for the Month of July= 151.65 miles!

Busy Week and Steak Sunday (Again)

Insanely busy week. After Monday night, I didn't do so much cooking. Tuesday night I worked until 8:30 and stopped at Big Fresh on my way home and ordered:

• Thai Curry
  Coconut curry sauce over jasmine rice & broccoli with tofu and wild Alaskan salmon

It was amazing! And totally hit the spot!

Wednesday, I worked late again and when I got home around 8:30, I decided to make the 1.5 lb of chicken I had in the fridge. I cut the the breasts in half so it was much quicker to cook. I sauted the chicken with EVOO, salt and pepper. Then I also made vegetable brown rice with soy sauce and sesame oil. I put this together in under 20 minutes.

Thursday night my brother came over and brought some Veggie Pizza. Again, so tasty. We all agreed we could eat pizza every night. I went to bed at 8pm Thursday night and woke up at 4:45am to get ready to run. I ran with Nancy at 6am around my town. We ran for an 1:20 minutes and ran through trails, hills, bugs, and mud. We got in 8.5 miles before work. Not too shabby.


Friday night Dave and I went out for sushi. I also feel like I could eat sushi everyday! We got a Spider Roll, Crazy Roll, Rainbow Roll and Eel and Avocado. It was way too much food and we ended up bringing a lot of it home and I ate it for lunch on Saturday.

On Saturday, I didn't wake up and run because we had to change our long run to Sunday. Felt good to sleep in on a Saturday! I did some chores then met Courtney on her parents boat. Great day to lie out on a beach in the Harbor. Couldn't beat it. Here we are! This is the life:

Around 5, Dave called and told me his parents were at the house and they wanted me to pick up local Italian. I got the food, some wine and headed home. I ate spinach lasagna and a salad and lots of water. No alcohol for me with a 5am wakeup call! Around 9, I headed to bed and met the girls this morning in the city for 12 miles around the Charles. It was hard for me today. I'm thinking its all the crap food I've been eating lately! I'm ready to cook my own meals this week!

I accomplished so much today! After the run, I went to Target where I got lots of decorations for bathrooms in our house and curtains. Then I went over to Bed Bath and got more curtains and rods. I wanted to bring home a lot of different options for us to choose from. After that, I headed to the Grocery Store.

Here's the Weekly Menu:

Dave's Tomato Sauce with Linguine
Asian Beef Rollups
Healthy Fish and Chips
Fish Tacos
Soy Glazed Tofu

Dave simmered his family tomato sauce all afternoon. We mixed the sauce with linguine with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

I decided to make Asian Beef Rollups from this months Cooking Light. The two didn't go together, but individually they were both pretty good. I just had a really hard time rolling the meat. This is what it was supposed to look like:

And this is mine:

I marinated the meat with tamari, salt and pepper and sesame oil for a couple hours. I then julliened a red pepper and 10 Green Onions and used half a zucchini. I wrapped the steak around the veggies and sauted them. Unfortunately they didn't stay wrapped for long. I also had some creamed spinach on the side.

I forgot to get cereal for David so I decided to make some Apple Muffins. This recipe was inspired from the Flax Seed box. They are healthy and delicious! Here is the recipe:

Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins

Ingredients:
1/4 Cup of Flax Seed
3/4 Cup of Whole Wheat Flour
3/4 Cup of White Flour
1/2 Cup of Sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp of salt
1 egg beaten
1 cup of apple cored and chopped
3 Tablespoon of vegetable oil
1/2 cup of Skim Milk
2 handfulls of dried cranberry
1/2 cup of oats
2 pinches of cinnamon

Mix dry ingredients in one bowl and wet in another, then add the dry to the wet along with the oats, cinnamon, cranberries and apples. Fill the cupcake molds until 2/3 full and bake at 400 for 18-20 minutes.

It's before 8 and I'm already in bed. I'm ready for another busy week! Hopefully, I can still cook at night!