Thursday, June 30, 2011

Toenails

Yesterday's workout was a good one. My training plan called for 7 mile tempo run or 30 min of hills (or hill repeats). I choose the hills.

I took the little pup with me because I knew he would keep running up and down those hills with him.

This workout started with 1 mile warm up, 6 laps up and down a semi-large hill (run up, short walk 10-15 seconds, jog down easy), then 1 mile back home. I did all this in my five-fingers!!

I was one sweaty mess when I ended and got compliments on how well behaved my dog was. That was good to hear. However, he is much more well behaved when he is tired.

I am very excited to start running more in the five-fingers. About a month back my boss asked if I would train for a race in them and write about it in the newsletter. My plan is to do a marathon. I have already done a 5K, so just a few more miles right ;)


As for training woes, I came across this article today about runner's getting black toenails and having them fall off. This was something that I was just talking about with a patient of my. I have yet to experience this. He hasn't or his brother (who also runs marathons).

The article states that the most common cause is wearing shoes that are too small and that this is pretty common for marathoners and "almost a rite of passage for ultra-marathoners". If this is something that is caused by the wrong shoe size when not just get some new shoes?


Meals have not been all that exciting... egg sandwichs or smoothies for breakfast. Lunch; salad with strawberries and fish. Dinner; salad with something on top... or today was a baked sweet potato with black beans, pepper jack cheese, salsa, and a dollop of daisy.

Do you have plans for the holiday weekend? Running any races?
- I have family coming up to visit very exciting. Going to melting pot with Mom and Ashley. Maybe run in the 4K on the 4th in Concord.

Anyone need a running buddy?

Until later....

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

What motivates you?

With all of this rainy weather it is hard for me to get motivated to run outside and I don't have a treadmill :(

Once the rain goes away it feels as though it is 90 degrees and humid... not the most comfortable running temperature. Wally says that I should just get up and run earlier in the morning. I don't know how much earlier I can get up. I am already up at 6-ish, when I feed and walk the dogs, feed the chickens, water the garden, eat breakfast, make my lunch, and shower (whew)...

I am sitting here wondering what motivates others to get and keep moving...

I have a few things that keep me going
  • Races - sign up for them. I hate to wast money so I almost always train for them.
  • Runner's world quotes - I get them in my email.
  • Running magazines/website - sometimes I am too cheap to actually pay $4-5 for a magazine I read in an afternoon so I just browse the website.
  • Competition - when I lived near my mom, I would run with her, or just talking with her to see what she ran for the day would make me want to go out and run at least that!!
I love that my next marathon (Chicago - Oct. 9th) is going to be with both my mom and one of my best friends who now lives in Wisconsin.

My philosophy on running is, I don't dwell on it, I do it.
Joan Samuelson

Saturday, June 25, 2011

The weather is finally cooperating... the rain is stopped (at least temporarily). So I decided it would be the perfect day to go Strawberry Picking. The place I went to doesn't pick on sunday and I decided to postpone my long run til tomorrow.

I did pretty well. They are sweet and juicy. I picked all of these beauties in about half and hour.


 I think it's adorable when you see little kids picking berries with their parents. It is even funnier when the parents are getting upset that the little ones are eating the berries out of the bucket that they just picked.


 And lunch....
 leftover pizza from The Common Man in Concord.
Cripsy thin crust with diced tomatoes and olives...yum...
And Mud pie for dessert (not pictured)

Workout: to be determined...

Question:
What do you do with all the berries you pick? Do you pick your own berries?
A: I do pick, usually I just freeze them, but this batch might turn into jam and/or ice cream!!

Have a great weekend!!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Juicy...

Good morning all...
the other day I decided to try overnight oats in a jar, as you may see in many other blogs such as (Julie, Tina, Courtney). I was initially not to sure about how it would turn out but I was pleasantly surprised.

To my jar I added;
1/3 c. oats
1/3 c. water
1/3 c. of skim milk
2 tbsp. chia seeds
1/3 c. frozen blueberries
a small handful of kashi go lean crunch



yumm.... don't mind the mess of the computer, eatting and reading blogs in the morning ;)


This was my mid-morning snack... as most of you can tell I can't always make it until lunch because my stomach starts grumbling.... Sometimes I am lucky enough to get a second to eat something other times not so much.

Juicy... mmm.....

Dinner plans... was salad with baked stripper... but when I got a call from Wally saying that he was going to be home for dinner I decided to add sweet potato fries to give hime a little more substance.

First, the salad - organic greens I received from the CSA, tomato, green pepper, and mushrooms.
Second,
Sweet potato fries -
bake at 450 for 20-30 minutes - stir about half way through
I coat them in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Also sprinkled with a little paprika once on the baking sheet.
The main course...
Baked stripped with butter and more paprika from this website
2 large fillets of stripper (or any fish)
1/2 onion slice thinly and separated into rings
1/4 c. butter/margrine melted
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp lemon pepper
1 lemon
sprinkle of paprika (recipe called for cayenne pepper)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Dip fillets in melted butter. Place on broiler pain (I just used a baking sheet). Sprinkle evenly with lemon pepper and paprika. Place onion rings and sprinkle with Worcestershire sauce.

Bake 8 minutes. Turn broiler on 500 degrees- allow fish and onions time to brown (3-6 minutes). Remove, cool for about 3 minutes. Any serve with lemon juice.


I will leave you guys with some picture of the new property!!



Yesterdays workout:
P90X -Cardio X and 1 mile sprint with the pup.

Hope you all have a great day!!

Congrats to Vanessa would gave birth to a healthy baby boy last night!!


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Monday, June 20, 2011

First Egg, creamed spinach, and banana bread...

Workout - Yesterday - 9 miles - Hot and hard to complete. My training plan called for 11 miles and I just couldn't do it.
Today - nothing... oh well...

So to start with... when I came home this afternoon I found our first egg from our 2 chickens. They were given to me from a patient of mine and she warned me that they may not lay for a week or so with the change in scenery...




 Emeril's Creamed Spinach: with a few modifications
1/2 c. chives
2 cloves of garlic minced
2 tbsp. of butter
1/2 c. half and half

First - boil 2 lbs of spinach for 2 minutes and set aside
Second - melt butter over medium heat, heat up chives and garlic until soft...
 Add spinach to mixture...
 Add 1/2 c. of half and half - simmer until reduced by half
 Enjoy immediately...
 We had it with chicken tonight ....

Next up was Banana Bread  - Wally has always eaten the bananas before they go bad so we bought extra to make this little treat.

 As I am writing this Wally has already eaten 2 slices. I must say it is delicious :)
I found these pictures of Calvin the day that we left Oregon. :(

Do you ever get nostalgic over a place that you weren't there very long?
Wally - quite often - "absence makes the heart grow fonder" it goes for more than just people.
How wise he is...

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Early release for me!!

The benefits of being salaried at work means that when I don't have patients in the afternoon I get to leave early (at least when the boss is out of town ;) ) And I had tons to get done on my to-do list.

First I headed to staples. My new purse I got from a purse party, Thirty-One, had started to un-ravel at the seams. The company was great and almost immediately had a replacement on for me. The just asked that I send back the damaged one and even sent me a UPS tracking sticker for return postage!


After dropping that off, I headed to Marshall's. It has been so long since I have been shopping.
I came home with some goodies... a new pair of running shorts (I was looking for a new skirt, like runningskirts.com), dress socks (in desperate need for new black socks), and this....


A key holder... I love the antiquey look of it. Right now my keys just get thrown into a glass bowl and Wally's are who knows where. I am excited to get this put on the wall.

When I got home there was a package for me and I new exactly what it was...



From nuttyguys.com 
I had gotten a groupon a few weeks ago and have been looking through the website deciding what I wanted to get. I ended up with: mixed nuts butter toffee, sunflower seeds, dried pineapple cubed, ginger crystallized, and wasabi almonds. I think I am most excited to try the wasabi almonds!!

Since I was home early I figured the dogs deserved to go on a nice long walk and that's just what we did.. through the woods. I let them off the leash for a little while so they can stretch their legs... Those guys can RUN!!

When we got back, they got dinner and I headed out to pain this... My new chicken coup... A patient of mine has 2  chickens that don't get along with the rest of the pack and she has 18 chicks that need the space she has been keeping them. Wally was more than excited when I told her she offered them to us and quickly began putting this together. I must say he is pretty talented. This coup is all recycled material from his work and our house. It has a metal roof so the snow won't get stuck which means no shovelling. Yes, up here in New Hampshire they get TONS of snow that sometimes requires it to be shovelled off the roof so it won't cave in. Today I got busy painting it... Not too bad if I don't say so myself.
 I thought I would throw in a picture of my little garden...


 My pups relaxing after their adventure today. Calvin looks a little brown because he is probably covered in dirt! 
 I was reading about everyone's iced coffee and I was inspired to make some. I did things a little differently. I did my research about cold-brew iced coffee and it sure was worth it.


Cold Brew Iced Coffee from: SmittenKitchen
2/3 c. coffee grounds
3 c. water

Stir together, cover, and let sit for 12 hours or overnight.
Strain twice through a coffee filter, fine mesh sieve, or sieve covered with cheesecloth. (I used a coffee filter and it worked perfectly).

In a tall glass: fill with ice, mix equal parts coffee concentrate and water. Add milk if desired.

I must say this was the most delicious iced coffee I had ever made. It is well worth the 12 hour wait.

Yesterday was the first day of my Local harvest CSA pick up. This week was tons of greens including this on Pak Choi, aka Boc Choi. I had no idea what to do with this so I immediately jumped on the internet and did some searching and found this receipe.

Pak Choi and Rice

 1 small onion, 3 cloves of garlic, and I used 5 jalapenos and 3 banana pepper slices sauteed in a little EVOO.
 Left over pork spare ribs that were cooked in the crockput with some extra BBQ sauce... in separate pot...
 Add chopped up pak choi to soft onions... steam for about 5 minutes... the website said to be careful not to overcook or the pak choi will lose its flavor (which is definitely a distinct one).
 The complete meal consisted of:
- steamed rice
- smashed butternut squash
- pork in BBQ sauce
- steamed pak choi with onions, garlic, and jalapenos



The jalapenos were a substition for pimentos, which I didn't have. It was a good change in flavor from the onions. The pak choi was interesting texture but I don't know if this is something I would buy on my own. I still have a little more to use. Hopefully we don't get more of this next week.

We also got, arugula, spinach, lettuce, chives, parsley, and beet greens... Can't wait for more fresh food!!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Homemade dog treats

So for some reason I have been procrastinating about writing this post. These were super easy dog treats but very time consuming considering I made them small so it made LOTS of cookies.

I modified a recipe I found on bullwrinkle.com for Peanut butter Poppers

2 c. gluten free baking mix
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. xantham gum
1 c. peanut butter - chunky or smooth
1 c. milk

 Mix dry ingredients first,
 In separate bowl mix peanut butter and milk,
Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ones until forms soft ball.
 On floured surface roll dough out as you would any cut out cookie about 1/4 inch thickness.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake 10-12 minutes - more if the cookies are larger - or until lightly brown.
 Once again the silpat sheet is AMAZING...
 Cool on rack. Store in airtight container.

The finished product! Fills the cookie jar perfectly.
I used gluten free flour because our dogs do better with a gluten free diet. Feel free to use everyday baking flour if your dogs don't have any issues.
Both of the dogs are enjoying my homemade treats. I am not sure if they are any cheaper to make vs. buy treats but at least I know what is in them.

Trail mix, quesdillas, and swimming (for the dogs)

Today was a HOT over here. Reaching into the 90's. I sure am glad that I ran last night ; 3.5 miles in 33:52, not to shabby for these little legs. I did take both the pups with me and they encourage drag me to keep going when I want to walk and push up the hills. Although last night was a pretty flat route.

On today's agenda was Trail Mix - I bought the stuff to make it this past weekend and just haven't gotten to it. Since today we had the maintence man fixing our shower I decided to make it while he was out getting parts.

Trail Mix
2 c. almonds
2 c. peanuts
2 c. cashews
1 c. dried cherries
1 c. dried cranberries
1 c. dried blueberries
2 c. banana chips
2 c. m&m's (plain)

 First gather all ingredients....
 Measure ingredients...

 Pour into bowl....
Mix - using your hands is easiest...
 Add M&M's - I like to use plain because there are already nuts in the mix, although peanut m&m's are my FAVORITE
 ENJOY!!

Since Wally wasn't supposed to be home I didn't have anything planned and being so hot I didn't feel like cooking anything big so this is what I threw together.
 Peach mango salsa, sour cream, and guac on the side...
 Chicken, tomato, black bean, and jalepano quesadillas...
 Cut in quarters and serve... yummmm.

Not too bad for a throw together dinner. I always wondered how my mom did it.

After dinner the maintence man was still working on the shower so the dogs enjoyed a nice swim in the pond.
 Calvin LOVES to chase after the ball. A few weeks ago if you asked if he was a good swimmer I would have said "not at all" very clumsy and awkward looking. Now my pup is getting better but still not the olympic swimmer that his brother is.

Movie time:
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo