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Ensalada

Over the last few days I have not been able to sleep.. I don’t know what it is! I’m tired, I go to bed and then my mind will just not turn off… goodness.

That being said coffee has been consumed in large quantities. It’s a good thing I spent the last portion of my Amazon gift card on coffee. Did you know that you can get 32 oz of whole bean coffee for just $20 on Amazon?! I can’t believe I’ve been spending $9-$10 on 8 oz of coffee! Insanity!

After my not so great run on Sunday I deemed Monday my rest day. So, I woke up a solid 3 hours before my class (since I can’t sleep in for the life of me) and just relaxed and puttered around before I had to head to campus for the day.

I did a few genius things yesterday that: 1.) involved my lunch  2.) involved my dinner!

Lunch I will have to save for later but dinner needs to be discussed immediately. After the superbowl party on Sunday I had a ton of leftovers. I’m a product of my parents and haaaate throwing food away. No food goes to waste!  Well, we had some leftover guacamole that I was not willing to part with but knew I had to use that stuff up fast before it went bad.

I immediately thought of one of my favorite salads of all time from this restaurant in Dallas called Taco Diner.  They have this fantastic avocado salad dressing that I have been missing like crazy. I felt like I had some pretty solid ingredients on hand and went for it. I was determined.

First, I started my salad making by sauteing some onions in olive oil, cumin & chili pepper then adding black beans, red pepper and garbanzos. After the onions were slightly browned I added this mixture to my bed of lettuce/spinach and mixed it all together.

Then it was time for the dressing!

Into my little chopper went:

• left over guacamole
• the juice of 1 lime
• a whole handful of cilantro
• olive oil to taste
• salt and pepper
• a little bit of onion

And there you have it: Avocado Lime Mexican Infused Ensalada:

Muy Bien!

Sidenote: I brought this over to a Mizzou basketball watching party last night. Turns on out the game wasn’t on TV sooo on went the bachelor! Thank you ABC for being on basic cable television 🙂 

Have you ever tried to re-create a dish from a restaurant?

Do you take scheduled rest days from workouts or do you go by how your feeling?

 

Sleepy Run

I did not get any sleep after this post. I went to bed pretty much right after the game ended and was almost sound asleep whenever the roommates came back.. post basketball game fun ensued. It was loud, I was tired and I woke up a few hours later with a major headache and random people sleeping in my living room? Hmm.. #collegeproblems

I knew that I had 6 miles planned with my friend but because I knew that she went to the game the night before I thought I’d send her a quick text to make sure she was still up for it. A few seconds later I got a text explaining exhaustion and dehydration.. valid.

With this in mind I drank some much needed coffee and ate some PB/cinnamon + banana toast surrounded by sleeping college kids. Who are you?!  Hope they didn’t mind the sound of me clinking in the kitchen next to them. Whatcanyado?

I ate my toast, drank my coffee and set out for 6 miles. I have to tell you this was not a pretty 6 miles. I felt terrible! I was exhausted from not sleeping well the night before and I basically just dragged myself through my run. Oh and my garmin died at mile 4.. I have got to remember to charge that thing!

I tried my best to work on my pacing but my route ended up being pretty hilly so my times are all over the place again..

Either way I set out for a run and finished it. Got it done 🙂

AND came back to my new favorite post run meal:

Cottage cheese + greek yogurt+ grapes + walnuts+ cinnamon cheerios = Heaven!

Don’t knock it till you try it 🙂 & it kept me full for hours! Champion breakfast

The rest of the day involved church, errands and a super bowl party where looots of yummy food was made and consumed! I also may or may not have purchased a new kitchen toy that I’m in love with 🙂

What is your favorite post run meal?

What did you do for the super bowl? 

Did you know that apparently the average American consumed 4200 calories yesterday?!? Seriously?

 

 

Border Wars

Funny story: When I first came to Missouri for college I was taking a quiz in my history class. My professor said that for extra credit we had to answer the question: “Who one last year’s border war?” Being from Texas I had no idea that this meant a rivalry with Missouri’s  neighboring state Kansas so I answered Canada.

You can imagine the guy sitting next to me’s facial expression as he was grading my paper.

Doh!

Those were 2 points I was never going to get back.. along with a teensy bit of my pride. Yawinsomeyalosesome

Anyways, the point of that little story was the simple fact that Missouri is playing Kansas in basketball tonight and it is kind of a big deal. This “big deal” rivalry I was made aware of in freshman history is the reason I am up, watching the game wrapped up in my Mizzou blanket and sweatshirt; True Fan.

BUT that’s not the only thing I’m doing tonight. Oh no, this girl had big plans. If you don’t know tomorrow is the superbowl, and as luck would have it my roommates and I have decided to have a superbowl party! Don’t ask me whose playing because I have no earthly idea. But what I can tell you is that tonight I made this cookie dough dip for our little shindig. Oh, it will be a hit.

While I may not know whose all playing in the game tomorrow I can tell you what myself along with all of the rest of the girls will be eating as we watch the commercials, because let’s be real here if I’m going to a superbowl party I expect fantastic food and good quality commercials. So, I plan on taking care of the food portion.

Superbowl Eats 

How Sweet’s: BBQ Beer Chicken

How Sweet’s: Cilantro Lime White Bean Hummus

Skinny Taste: Baked Mozzarella Sticks

Leenee’s: cookie dough dip

Along with whatever other people decide to bring too. So, who knows what we’ll end up with!

Update: Mizzou just won the border war!

I have plans to run 6 miles in the AM!

Off to bed!

Are you a college sports fan?!

Tonight I was! Let’s go TIGERS!

What are your weekend workout plans?

I did 3 miles and pilates today 🙂

Whose playing in the Super Bowl?!

 

 

 

Mouthful

So, we had 3 very large very ripe bananas sitting on our kitchen counter for a few days. Thankfully, somebody in the house was wise and put them into the freezer. I took that as a clue that somebody wanted some banana bread. As I was sitting in my Health Education class today I remembered that I just happen to have dark chocolate chips and peanut butter on hand.

Who am I kidding? I always have chocolate chips and peanut butter on hand.

Anyways, since all I had on my mind today was chocolate chips, peanut butter and bananas there was only one thing left to do after I finished my lab today..

Enter Dark Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Banana Bread (that’s a mouthful)

• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• ¼ cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 TBS brown sugar
• 1/4 cup greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 2 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Spray pan (I used a casserole dish.. don’t judge) with non stick cooking spray and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk all dry ingredients together: flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar. Pour in all wet ingredient, minus the chocolate chips. Mix em all together! Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into baking pan and bake! I’m not sure how long this takes because I didn’t really pay attention so just keep an eye on it and make sure you put a tooth pick in it to check to see if it is finished! You should probably also let it cool before you eat it…but this is optional.

Perfect post running fuel if you ask me.

This morning I woke up drank my coffee, ate my banana and toast and set out for a 3 miler.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	28:13.0	3.01	9:23
1	9:38.8	1.00	9:39
2	9:22.6	1.00	9:23
3	9:08.4	1.00	9:08
4	:03.2	0.01	8:49

 

See those negative splits? That’s right, it happened! My goal to start with a warm up during my first mile has been achieved! Now, hopefully I can keep this up during my longer runs.

I also made sure to do some stretching and a little bit of yoga before I showered and refueled with the DCCPBBB that’s the dark chocolate chip peanut butter banana bread in text language.

What is your favorite thing to bake?

Probably breads!

Do you try and sub out oils and sugars where you can in baked goods? 

Yes!

Do you try and negative split during your runs? 

I try but this has been my first run that actually looks pretty consistent with my times!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

I’m thinking the weather gods must read my blog because after I published this post complaining all about the weather/I hate winter/wahh wahh I’m a wimp because the sun came out today! It snowed on Friday night meaning I had to run on ice Saturday morning and then I wake up on Sunday and it was 61 degrees with sunshine I haven’t seen since September!

Missouri weather is crazy.

As soon as I woke up on Sunday morning and saw the sunshine I got such a burst of energy and I knew that I had to go for a run. Technically I wasn’t supposed to run according to the ol’ training plan but I cheated and celebrated the weather with a 7 mile run in shorts!

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	1:08:42.7	7.29	9:25
1	9:02.5	1.00	9:03
2	9:01.7	1.00	9:02
3	9:44.0	1.00	9:44
4	9:38.9	1.00	9:39
5	9:37.2	1.00	9:37
6	10:38.3	1.00	10:38
7	8:50.7	1.00	8:51
8	2:09.4	0.29	7:20

One of my goals for this training plan is to really work on my times; not necessarily getting faster but learning how to pace myself to where I start out with an actual warm up and build up speed throughout my run. Clearly my times are all over the place so this is definitely something I need to work on.

After I made it back to my house I stretched (not as much as I should have) showered, puttered around for a bit and then got to work on another crock pot dinner! I decided with the warmer weather it was reason enough to celebrate with mexican food! So, I made a pulled chicken recipe to top a taco salad I had envisioned for dinner.

Crock Pot Pulled Chicken (measure to taste!)

• Chicken breasts
• Salsa (I used hot)
• brown sugar (I used 3-4 tbs)
• sprite (1/4 of the can)
• Combination of spices: onion, garlic, chipotle pepper, cumin

Put all ingredients into the crock pot and turn on low for 4-5 hours. Once chicken is cooked through pull apart the chicken with a fork. Place all chicken back into the crock pot and turn on warm. I added a little more salsa to keep the pulled chicken moist.

This recipe was very very easy and the best part is I have leftovers! Love that 🙂

Now, that it’s Monday I’ve got classes to go to, reading to catch up on and the Bachelor to watch!

Oh, and this is the kind of weather I’m waking up to for the next few days:

Partly cloudy high 50 degree weather in January/February? Sign me up!

Have you had crazy weather where you are this year?

umm yes!

Do you follow a training plan exactly or do you do you mix it up a bit?

I mix it up a bit. I need more cross training than what a plan gives me.

Favorite type of food?

I really do love mexican food! I miss fresh Tex mex more than anything.

Awkward Cheese

It’s been awkwardly cold here for the last week or so. Awkwardly cold meaning it’s cloudy with temps in the low 40s. The sun is trying to peak through all day long and then at 5pm it goes away and just gets plain cold. Not a fan. I’m a warm weather runner and happen to love the sunshine.

And on another note  it’s totally affecting my wardrobe situation. Yesterday  I wore flats around campus and by the time I made it to class my toes were freezing! The majority of students on campus were wearing boots or sneakers and then the one’s in those moccasins that are slippers. So I really don’t have an excuse for wearing flats except that the sun was shining when I walked out of my house!

Oh Missouri, you’re killing me. No more of this awkward weather business. 

Along with the whole wardrobe situation the weather is affecting my eats. Not cold enough to crave a heavy stew but definitely not warm enough to be eating frozen yogurt for meals.. what’s a girl to do?

Remember in elementary school when it was grilled cheese and tomato soup day? I was never really a fan, I think it was the plastic cheese that they used that turned me off of it. Either way, kids went crazy for this meal! Being the college money saving monster I am, for the most part, I decided that I was not and I meant NOT going to go to the 1.) grocery store and 2.) Ingredient. I resorted back to my childhood and found a few very simple ingredients in my kitchen that made for a killer comfort meal.

Enter Fancy Grilled Cheese and Tomato Basil Soup:

Oh yum! Warms my heart just looking at the picture 🙂

Simply make your grilled cheese, I used mozzarella, and throw as many veggies as you can on one side of the bread. Smash the two together and enjoy!

Would you like the recipe for the tomato basil soup? It’s the easiest recipe I’ve used as of yet! Go to your nearest grocery store, walk down the soup aisle and pick up Campbell’s tomato basil bisque, combine can of soup and 1 cup of water in a pot to heat it up. Genius!

So, there ya go! I did not spend 1 dime for this meal and it was quite delicious.

Sarah: 1

Ingredient Restaurant: 0

I do love dining out but restaurants are a money suck and I’ve got to pinch pennies where I can for the next 1.5 years! Ya know?

Okay, off to run! Meeting my solemates running partner in T-minus 33 minutes!

Have a fantastic Saturday!

What is your go to no shop meal?

Do you like dining out?

I love it! My wallet does not..

Are you running this weekend? 

I am! We’re doing timed running right now so we’ll see how far we get in 55 minutes!

Windy Run

Good Morning! After finishing up with my  bio class yesterday I made the 1.5 mile trek to my parking spot across campus. It was cold, it was windy but I would so much rather make the walk than stand in line to get onto a shuttle to drive me to my car. That’s a system that just doesn’t make sense to me. It  takes the same amount of time to go through the whole bus process as it does to just walk. Craziness.

Of course everyone leaves campus right around the same time so I got stuck in a tad bit of traffic on the way home but worse things have happened so no complaints here. I didn’t get in my run early in the day so I knew it was going to have to happen before the little sun that we had yesterday went down. I made myself the most delicious pb+ banana microwave combo that I stole form Miss Tina. This was peanut butter genius. Mmm 🙂

I got my running butt in gear and through on my most favorite cold weather running clothes and headed out for my 4 miler I had planned for the day. I decided to do a 2 mile out and back and was pleasently surprised by how great I felt for the 2 miles out. My pace was up and it wasn’t nearly as cold as I thought.

Until I turned around. 

Apparently that whole wind thing still exists.. doh! Needless to say my 2 miles back were a little rough. My times weren’t all that great but I did it. I finished the day with 4 miles under my belt and some pilates thrown in there at the end.

Something you never regret right? A workout, good or not so good.

Yesterday, I thought about making something for dinner with this guy:

Except, I had a change of plans and ended up making a chicken parmesean concoction in my crock pot. Here’s a sort of recipe I threw together:

Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan (measure to taste!)

• olive oil
• oregano
• basil
• garlic powder
• salt/pepper
• red pepper flakes
• bread crumbs
• 2 egg whites
• chicken breasts
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• mozzarella
• parmesan

I coated the bottom of the crock pot with a little bit of olive oil; coated the chicken with the egg whites and then the bread crumbs; topped both chicken breasts with some mozzarella; poured the can of diced tomatoes on top and threw on all of the seasonings!  Easy cheesy! 

I turned the crock pot on high, did some pilates took my shower and then like magic dinner was ready!

Wahoooo I ❤ crock pots!

Okay, now time to get my run on. 5 miles today and some strength training if I can make it to the gym before it gets crazy with new years resolutioners (it’s almost feb and they are still going strong!)

What is your favorite running weather?

Fall! No question; prettiest time of the year by far 🙂

Do you use a crock pot? 

If you have never tried one you most definitely should! I am obsessed!

WIAW #2

It’s already Wednesday? What? Holy cow time seriously just flies by when I’m at school. I think it’s a sign that I’m getting old. I hear that happens as you get older. Time just keeps going faster.. yikes!Oh wells, good thing I eat my veggies and moisturize! Keeps me young 🙂

To celebrate WIAW here are some of my eats over the last week:

The last of my sweet potato chili.. sad story. Time to make more I suppose!

Black bean fallafel! Never had fallafel until this guy and whoa baby I will be consuming more of this!

On Monday I went to a bachelor watching party. One of my friends asked me my favorite pizza and I said I had a weakness for hawaiian pizza. So, when I walked through the door to find this little monster I was so pumped and hungry. Oh man was I hungry that night. A weekend of running will do that to ya. Unfortunately, my stomach was in knots for the rest of the night. It was bad. Not sure why but I guess my stomach doesn’t like pineapple pizza as much as I do. Tragic.

Now, I have one more class to go to today and then I’m off to get in a good run and figure out what to do with this guy for dinner..

Hmm decisions decisions..

Are you a squash fan?

If your a squash lover what is your most favorite way to cook it?

 

It’s Back!

Training that is! After I ran my marathon last October I went through a mega slump that I wasn’t expecting. I spent months preparing for that race. Every morning I woke up and new exactly what I had to do that day: easy runs, long runs, rest days, they were all planned out for me. So, when the big day came and went I had no idea what to do with myself. How many miles should I be running each week? Do I still need to cross train? Have rest days? SOMEONETELLMEWHATTODO!

I’m a planner, a scheduler, a list maker. It’s what I do. It’s who I am!

Well, ladies and gentleman I’ve officially got a brand new plan that I put to action this past Saturday and it feels good 🙂

Since I’m part of fantastic running group now they gave me a lovely little plan to follow to get me ready for my half marathon in the spring: Rock the Parkway. The only downside to it is that it basically starts you off as if you were a beginning runner with a run/walk system. Now, I’m all for run/walking but I need a little bit more of an endorphin lifting blood pumping workout to really get me going. That being said I plan on following the plan but also adding my own spin on things.

First Few Training Runs: 

Saturday – 5 miles: I woke up to the coldest Saturday I have experienced in a while. It was 17 degrees with no sun.. ew? I was so ready to curl right back under my covers in my fleece coffee pajamas. Ohh sounds good doesn’t it? It was a tough decision but a few encouraging text messages later I was bundled up and out the door. Running buddies are da best. Once I met with my solemates I found out we were going to work on pacing and negative splitting. Organized running? Running with a purpose? Huh?

side note: I’ve been running fo-eva and just found out what negative splitting means (don’t judge) soo if you’re like me and just never asked it’s finishing the second half of your run faster than your first! 

I brought along my trusty garm garm (garmin) and we set out for our first half marathon training run. We ran 2.5 miles out and back and ran our first mile as a warm up about 30 seconds slower than the rest. We should have gone slower for our warm up but it was our first run pacing ourselves. Practice practice. My garmin died half way through (doh!) so I’m not sure about negative splitting but all in all I’d say it was pretty excellent/freezing run. We finished up with some much needed dynamic stretching.

Sidenote #2: I haven’t done dynamic stretching in quite along time and ya know what? I woke up on Sunday feeling like a million bucks! I’m learning so much from my solemates!

I then raced home, showered, put on my cozy sweats and drank some warm coffee. Mmm happiness in a cup 🙂

Sunday – Cross training: I love running I do, but I really love running in the morning. Afternoon runs seem like work to me so when it got to about 2:00pm on Sunday I decided it was time to hit the gym. I did a little research and found a super awesome  Elliptical Workout from Julie. I’ve been loving interval workouts at the gym; they do a fantastic job of keeping me entertained.

Once I finished with Julie’s workout I hopped off and headed over to the free weights. I only know a few moves so I did what I knew and left with some pretty tired arms!

Monday – 3 miles: One of the best things about not having 8am classes is that I can start my day doing something that I love. Once I graduate and have to do that whole real world job thing I always want to make sure I can run or get some sort of workout in before the day begins. Starting my day with work just doesn’t really appeal to me.

So, I woke up ran 3 miles in some crazy wind, (my times were all over the place today), came back and did an awesome yoga inspired workout I saw in my Health magazine. My arms are still burning!

I’ve got a whole week of planned workouts and can’t wait to wake up and run my miles tomorrow! Wahoo!

Now, it’s time to finish up some Bio homework before I head over to a friend’s house for a Bachelor watching party!

Do you workout in the morning? Afternoon?

Morning is my favorite!

Are you watching the Bachelor tonight?!

You betcha! Things are getting crazy! Drama drama