Snotty

Oh Fall… how I love thee.

The changing of the leaves… the crisp cool mornings… seasonal comfort foods… development of colds during the weather changes… the warm colors… wait- what?

Yeah.  I’m not feeling my usual self (ie fabulous) today.  Or yesterday for that matter.  I don’t even remember my “workout alarm” going off yesterday morning.  I do remember waking up at 6:30 feeling more groggy than I did before I went to bed. 

You can imagine how this would cause most of my day to be in a semi-daze. With the exception of a super hot burrito I salvaged from the back of my freezer that I had for lunch- helllloooo sinuses.  Often it seems people go for blander foods when they’ve got a cold- for the reason they really can’t taste it anyways.  I tend to do the opposite.  I like super hot and spicy- hoping to give the dulled taste buds a little flava’.  Even if that means burning a hole through my steel pit of a stomach.

Other than the obvious (chicken noodle), what’s your go-to sick food?

I assumed any serious, high impact workout would leave me snotty, sweaty, and in a generally bad mood.  So I kept it pretty low key with the core workout from my resistance bands dvd. I know the jury’s still out for a lot of people about working out when you’re sick.  But not getting to move around and do something would just make my one-person pity party last longer.  And you don’t want that, either.

Since there was less time spent on the workout, I had more time to spend on other things.  Like salvaging the remainder of the pumpkin I picked out last Saturday- the seeds.After letting them dry for a day, I shook them up in a mixture of olive oil, paprika, red chili pepper flakes and a bbq seasoning.  They cooked for a little over 20 minutes at 350 degrees.They may have been better if I had baked them for a little less than 20 minutes.  But it’s ok- they still have the crunch I was looking for.  So you can bet they’ll be making an appearance in my salads sometime soon…

This morning I woke up feeling a little better all-around.  After staring at the clock and weighing my options, I trudged to the gym for a little low-impact cardio (elliptical).  Surely spending 25 minutes on the elliptical while somewhat congested will help with my endurance, right???   

In the spirit of the times, let’s discuss your tried and true cold remedies.  I’ve been swapping out my regular morning coffee at work for green tea.  I’m missing the rush of the caffeine, but I like to think it’s a little more soothing.

I’m going to cut myself off now before my whining reaches an all-time high. 

And yes, I would like some cheese with my whiiiiinnnnnneeeee…

Sorry.  I prefer to make fun of myself before anyone else gets a chance to.

And before I forget, do you remember how I discussed using post-its to cover my boss’s office?  Jaime was kind enough to post the end results if you care to take a gander.  Our boss came back to work yesterday- and actually loved it.  WHEW.  Sometimes it’s hard to read his sense of humor, so this one easily could have gone either way.  But believe it or not, he kept those post-its up all day.  What a good sport. 

Have a good one!

The Best of Intentions

Hey kids!  How was the weekend?  If you missed it, mine was full of crappy runs and late night meals.  After such a busy Friday and Saturday, it was nice to have a long Sunday to do whatever I wanted.  I had planned to break down and use that pumpkin I picked out from the pumpkin patch.

It started out innocent enough.Well.  Sort of.  I’m not a big fan of knives.  They terrify me- so I was not too keen on getting out the biggest one I own.  I am convinced my fear of them comes from a story my aunt told me about how when I was a baby in a high chair and I made a lunge and grab for a big knife by the blade.  Everyone in the room yelled and ran towards me.  As a child, this can be a very traumatic experience.

What’s something you’re scared of?  Aaaaannnnndddd… go!

Because of this fear and a few graphic visualizations, I made sure a few friends had 911 on standby.  The pumpkin was big.  Which caused bakeware issues.  But I made it work and had it roasting in the oven in no time.

It took almost 90 minutes.  Geez.

The roasting was the easy part, though.  Getting it into puree form was a mess and a half.  Pumpkin is really moist (I really hate that word, by the way), so trying to get the moisture all out was painfully messy and time consuming.And after all that, I had to throw in the towel.  Because it just did not taste right.  Or ever achieve a decent consistency.  Part of this, according to my friend, may be because the pumpkins were raised for carving and not eating (at a different size it might have tasted better?).

Either way.  All that work… for nothing.  Ugh. 

At least it was a learning experience.  Now I know I’m not cut out to bake pumpkin.  And also to always have a backup ready!Just because I had a 3-4 hour mishap, doesn’t mean I wasn’t giving up on the end goal! 

The end goal being sugary goodness, of course. 

I made white chocolate pumpkin blondies thanks to a recipe I found from The Girl Who Ate Everthing’s blog. 

The end result?  Light and lovely.  Honestly, I was expecting them to come out a little more dense and chewy (which I always prefer).  But they were still very much delish and I would make them again. It’s hard to find fault in anything that includes white chocolate.

Today’s task is trying to give most of them away- I cannot be trusted with a full pan of blondies laying around.  That is for certain.

I guess it’s time to dive into my morning.  Peace out, kids! 

A Little Bit Country… A Little Bit Rock and Roll

It’s been confirmed- not only is pizza generally a bad idea before a run, but I wasn’t the only one who didn’t um… digest it well.  Jaime reported similar findings.  We’ll just chalk that one up to an all-around fail.

Anyways, I’m sort of with you guys where breaking it up wasn’t ideal.  Another weekend where the long run didn’t happen… dang. 

But it’s not like I don’t have SUPER important stuff going on.  I mean seriously… it’s the middle of October and I hadn’t acquired the most important fall item of them all. BAM.  Now I have a pumpkin.  Stare at it while you can because it’ll be massacred into seeds and roasted pumpkin (cross your fingers) by this evening.

Jaime and her husband and I went to Didier Farms yesterday to celebrate all that is fall.  And all that is country-ish.Jaime and I had been excited about this place all week.  Mostly because there’s a kid inside both of us that needs to be exercised.  Little Jaime and Little Amy sometimes need out to play.  And at this place, they flourished.  Little Amy also got back to her roots:This farm girl’s still got it! 

After the petting zoo, we checked out the corn maze…Got lost ONLY once or twice…We found our way out eventually.  And then made way to the pumpkin patch to select a few winners…For some reason, we were under the impression that this would be an actual patch (maybe because of the picture on the website???).  We were a little sad it wasn’t, but are still pretty happy with what we ended up with!Oh but the fun doesn’t stop there, ya’ll…

Some girls got together to have a proper ladies night at Durty Nellie’s!  Look at those dolla’ bills… clearly I’m a baller.

Sure, they’re not Rod Tuffcurls and the Benchpress, but Rock Candy was pretty fun to see.They were fun, but I do have to say most of what they play is the current Top 40.  So it was a bit like spending an hour in my car on the drive home.  Without commercials.We were working it out on the dance floor.  Not as much as the man rockin’ out the zebra polo behind us, but still…

Because we danced ourselves up into a tizzy, we were quite famished on the way home.  So a pit stop at our friendly neighborhood Denny’s was in order.  At 3:00 in the morning, the hardest decision of the night was made.What should we order???You can’t go wrong with buffalo chicken.  Ever.

And that’s what I’m leaving you with today.  I think I need a walk.  And a little hydration. 

Enjoy your Sunday! 

When you know you’re having a bad run…

Because I’m sort of busy today, I decided last-minute to switch around days and do my long run of 8 miles after work last night.  This post is dedicated to why I shouldn’t have done that.

1. I was tired.  Sure, I snuck out of work a little early.  But that doesn’t cancel out the fact that I had been up since 5:10 and had still had a long day of work.

2. Pizza for lunch.  We had coupons for a free pizza, so a few of us split a thin crust.  The toppings were good.  The cheese was not the best.  And sat in my stomach.  I’m sure it was just chillin’. Waiting to screw me over…

3. Start running and realize by the end of the first mile that this is gonna be a rough one.  Don’t stop.  Instead, slow down and just keep going. 

4. As mile 2 comes to a close, hop off machine and tell Mon to make sure no one even glances at your treadmill as you run to the bathroom.  Seriously Mon, they walk towards the treadmill, scream and ninja kick them in the knee.  Yeah…

5. Emerge from the bathroom. Ignore Mon’s smile because  she knows what just happened.  Simply say “pizza for lunch” and get back on the treadmill.  Walk a little until you think your stomach can handle more running.

6. Realize almost as soon as you start running that you didn’t walk long enough.

7. Call it a day at a total of 4 miles.  Be annoyed because your pace was about 30 seconds slower than usual.  Also be annoyed that you only made it halfway to your desired goal of 8 miles.

8. After walking more, move to the elliptical, ellipticize for 25 minutes and call it a day.

9. Pout on your way home.

10. Have a beer with dinner to comfort yourself and attempt to fill the stomach that was pretty much empty after step 4.

That, my friends, is a valuable lesson for why I should probably keep any runs over 5 miles reserved for the weekend.

Now.  Here is my question.  Are you a believer in breaking long runs down into two separate runs and considering it the same?  My cousin and I talked about this.  She’s a firm believer that as long as it happened within a 24-hour period and you hit your mileage for the week, then it counts.  I prefer doing a long run as one- and not breaking it up.  But for the sake of at least getting mileage in without overdoing it, I’m gonna say between the runs and time spent on the elliptical, it all adds up to one solid workout.  Yeah…

Before my run happened later this morning, I made sure that this time I was PROPERLY fueled.  I’m a person who prefers having breakfast before morning workouts (which doesn’t always happen- but I do much better when it does). 

Because it’s Saturday, I decided it was pancake day!To make things easy, I pulled out my Trader Joe’s mix. And added extra oatmeal. Then saw my chocolate protein shake mix and thought, “hmmm…” Would this make chocolate-y pancakes?

The answer is sort of.  There was a hint of chocolate.  But the chocolate chips easily took care of that on their own.  I wouldn’t add the chocolate shake mix again just because I don’t think it was worth it.  And adding any more (after already throwing in heaping spoonfuls) would have just been excessive.  I’m a fan of getting my protein for the day, but really- I’m not lifting cars or anything. And because they’re not that pretty to look at, I took another pic:Because by adding a flower, you can make any dish look better.  See?  I’m completely distracting you from the blandness of the pancakes… right? 

Have a great Saturday!  I’m on my way to a pumpkin patch…

Yes.  I sometimes pretend I’m 10. 

Jumping on the Pumpkin Bandwagon

I didn’t want to admit it’s actually Fall for a long time.  But several days this last week of temperatures that won’t break 70 will start to change your thinking.

And the fact that we’re now in the midst of football season (Anyone see that Chicago Bears win??  Hell yeah!).

Or the serious urge to buy every other scarf or warm-colored accessory in Target as you walk through.

Also there is the sudden overwhelming appearance of Libby’s in the stores…Yes, I joined the leagues of bloggers who picked some up over the weekend.  And decided to watch the second  half of the Bears game from my kitchen (it’s the whole can’t-sit-still thing I’ve got going on). 

Because I’m severely indecisive, it took a while to narrow it down to these pumpkin chocolate chip muffins from the Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen site.  Cookies were a close runner-up.  Had I picked up two cans, not just one, I may have made both.  Because I was in the zone.

Fact- this is the first time I’ve used pumpkin in baking.

Fact- After making these, I will be one of the crazy woman hoarding cans of pumpkin at the end of the season.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  I’ll drop some elbows if you get in my way.  And they’re pretty boney, so watch yourself.

Anyhoo, I followed the recipe for the most part.  Except I did add more flour (maybe 1/3 cup or a little more- hardly worth mentioning).  And the can I had was 15 oz, not 16.  It looked like they were going to work out.  Then I decided the 400 degrees it called for was a little crazy and would only cause me to burn each batch, so I just lowered it to about 375 and baked them a little longer instead.It worked.  I’m no muffin expert like Kelsey, but I think they turned out fabulously.  Not overly sweet, but still enough to take care of a dessert craving.  It’s also not an overwhelming pumpkin taste- which works for me. Putting up shots of my muffins makes me feel like Betty White on Saturday night live…This skit made me laugh more than anything I’ve seen on SNL in a long time.  Just short of rolling on the floor.

Question: Pumpkin Pie vs. Pecan Pie.  Which would you rather?  Pecan Pie is by far my favorite.  Probably because the sugar content is also the highest.  That makes sense.

But anyways… moving on…

I pretended like these were also my reward for my run yesterday.  It’s no secret I was feeling pretty “blah” about my recent gym sessions.  Finally, yesterday I felt good.  The whole time.  My plan said to do 8, but I just went in and said I’d do whatever I felt- as long as it were over 5.  So there was a compromise in the middle of that at 6.5 with an average pace of 8:27.  I walked out happy.  And didn’t feel like I had to push myself to get through it. 

My only “issue” was that the bandaid covering my little blister I gave myself last week.  At some point, the bandaid slipped and snuck out of my shoe.  I’ll spare you the details, but it seems like I may have to buy some that are a little more sweat proof… and also bleach the back of my shoe.  Or at least take a laundry stick to it.

Blood loss aside, it was a relaxing Sunday.  Much needed.  Much appreciated. Already much missed. 

I hope you guys enjoyed football Sunday as well- and welcome to Monday!