Lunch Excitement (it’s the little things in life)

So I was definitely bummed that my workout got pushed to after work.  Mostly because I planned my night around having that done already.  But I’m glad to hear I’m not alone in the occasional struggle with the alarm clock. 

The run still happened.  My favorite treadmill was wide open. Then again, most of the machines were.  It seems lots of people shy away from working out when the weather turns?  Other than Mon flying away on the elliptical and another guy aimlessly wandering around in the weights section, it was empty.  Sweet! 

The run started like any other run, but then I developed a stitch in my side by the end of the 2nd mile.  And it WOULD NOT go away.  So I had to stop.  But only for a minute and I was back up- just not going as quickly.  I still ran a full 4 miles.  But much slower than usual.  I don’t know exactly- maybe an 8:50 pace?

Eh.  At least I got it done- even after accidentally sleeping in. 

Moving on…

Has anyone heard of Portillo’s?  They’re a Chicago fast food chain that specializes in things like italian beef and hot dogs and such.  As much as others rave about it, I’m not a huge fan.  I mostly blame this to the fact that they only have krinkle-cut fries.  For some reason, I’m just not down with the krinkle.  I’m more of a waffle or curly fry kind of gal.

Needless to say, I haven’t been there in a while.  But Mon occasionally goes there for lunch and brought this little gem to me this week:She swore it was “life changing”.  The salad dressing.  She hasn’t read the book yet.  (And yes, I’m so excited to FINALLY be getting to read Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang.)

I said “woah now- that’s a pretty bold statement, Mon.”

She said, “OH- just wait and see”.Even Chelsea was smiling at me in that pic.  She knew the Portillo’s house dressing would be A-mazing.  If I weren’t in public, I gaurantee I would have licked the container.  But that wouldn’t have been lady-like, so I didn’t (I promise, mom!). 

Mon says they sell the dressing by itself at the restaurant.  It’s a good thing I don’t frequent Portillo’s.  But I can promise you that next time I go there, I will be leaving with a bottle of it.

What’s your favorite type of dressing?  For salads, I generally go with some sort of balsamic variety.  And of course I’m not a stranger to ranch- but it usually is used as a condiment for other things like sandwiches or pizza…

So do you realize how excited I am about this weekend?  Obviously people know about the marathon, but my MOM is coming to visit and watch with me!    My cousin is pretty much super human and will be one of the thousands of runners out there- so a few of “the girls” (aka my mom and a couple aunts) will be roadtripping up to spend the weekend with their daughters.  Is the city ready for a surge of my family population within it’s limits?  We shall see…

New to Me

Something that doesn’t happen to me very often?  Sitting at my desk for an hour or so, then going, “what a second, where’s my coffee?  did I really forget to get coffee?” 

This was new to me. I take in a decent amount of caffeine in the morning- there’s no getting around that.  I’ve played with the idea of weening myself off of it, switched from coffee to tea, etc etc.  But I always go back.  It’s my drug.  And I’m not willing to kick the habit.  So when I realized I hadn’t grabbed a cup yet, I was surprised.  I mean sure, I still got some later on, but I was impressed with how long it took for me to want it.

When it comes to caffeine, what’s your poison?

I think some of it has to do with the morning workouts.  They really wake me up.  Sure, the first 5 minutes of shuffling around the apartment blows, but after getting to the gym and starting my routine, it’s hard to tell a difference of what time of day it is.  Yesterday, I did random cardio cross training to switch it up from my running routine.  I still did a mile on the treadmill, but started with 20 minutes on the elliptical and 10 on the stairmill.  The stairmill and I haven’t hung out as much as of late.  Sorry dude.  I’ll remember you from now on.  Do you ever notice how you may start to ignore one workout or the other?  Lately it’s been yoga and the stairmill for me.  Oops.

Since I got my cardio activity done in the AM, I did some strength in the PM by breaking out The Shred.  I won’t go into detail.  At this point in the game, you know I’m obsessed with Jillian’s workouts.

I’ve started to really go for spinach salads.  This is new to me, too.  I still prefer spinach sautéed and “in” dishes (vs being the main part), but it’s cool.  Plus, I’m still trying to get through all the leafy greens that I compulsively bought without letting it go bad. This time it was sautéed tuna, mushrooms, feta, and cauliflower on the side.  Yes, cauliflower may be weird to add to this particular mix, but I don’t care.  I wanted it.  Another homemade salad dressing was created and I’m pretty sure I’m hooked. The dressing is not actually in the pic because balsamic makes spinach look sadder than a dirty wet dog. 

I made a honey balsamic dressing (who can tell I just bought honey recently?!?!  ha) by combining olive oil, balsamic, honey, dried chopped onions (I only have them in the pantry- not fresh) and a little garlic powder.  Again, it seemed like a strange combo, but recipes online said to go for it.  So I did.  Initially I was a little put off by the strong taste of the balsamic, but once you mixed it all up, it was pretty decent. 

It was supposed to go with a sweet potato sandwich.  But I cut into my sweet potatoes and they were definitely rotting.  I pouted.  And cursed a little.  Then proceeded to have a peanut butter sandwich instead.  That’ll show you, stupid sweet potatoes…grrr…. (I fully intend to make up with the SP’s after this post and go purchase more pretty much as soon as I get a chance.)

I also finally got my butt in gear and picked up some new books.  It took me a while to travel with Russell Brand through all his addictions, but I finally finished the book last weekend.  (I raved about his story here-  and like I said, it’s a good read if you are not easily offended.)  Since every single book I want to read is currently checked out and I’m on hold for each one of them until god knows how long, I browsed a little.  I ended up with these:Samantha Bee was recommended for Chelsea Handler lovers.  She’s going to be first up. She better be aware that I have high expectations being as how Chelsea is my girl.  Holla’.

Oh and there’s oatmeal under there.  That’s definitely how much cereal I put on top of it to mix in.  I’m like a kid. 

Anyways, let’s end on that.  And get our day started! 

For The Love Of Salad…

It’s Tuesday.  Maybe we can pretend it doesn’t exist if I only talk about Monday? 

I’ve started to attempt early morning workouts when I go into the office later (9:00 vs. 7:30).  The schedule rotates every week, so I”m crossing my fingers that I’ll stay good to my 5:15 wakeup call all this week.  I am one of those crazies who enjoys her workout, but it really is nice to get home and not be rushed to fit everything in before sleepytime needs to happen (or in my case, starts to become ignored).

Yesterday was a success in that department.  I got up and was at the gym by 5:20.  It’s upsetting to me that you can already tell the days are shorter and it’s still very much dark at that time.  I walked in and it was me and another lady I see there often when I get up to go at this time.  She ignored me completely.  As usual.  Granted, no one is ever chipper at that time, but really, I’m just trying to make eye contact and say “good morning!”  But you just go ahead and pretend like you didn’t hear me come in… that’s fine.  I can’t imagine that the newest story about Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart can be THAT attention absorbing, but maybe I don’t know power of being a diehard Twilight fan, either.  I just wanted to crack a smile and give you a wave. Whatevs- I’ll let you do your thing. 

Obviously, I’ve already gotten off subject.  Sorry.  My run… oh yeah… I was noticeably a bit sluggish at first.  Could have been the two glasses of wine I felt the need to have the night before.  Or the lack of sleep.  Or the fact that I was still only half awake.  But I won’t try to make up excuses.    I did 4 miles- and by the last one I was picking up some speed to make up for my lead feet in the first one.  My first mile is always horrible, but I’ve accepted this and moved on.  End stats were 4 miles at 8:25 pace.  I’ll take it.

I also did some resistance band work.  Which proved to be challenging being as how I spent the day before slinging cinder blocks into a dumpster.  I think every time I use the bands, I always go through the same mental process.  First I think, “oh this really isn’t doing that much… not really challenging me…. oh wait, there it is… yep, I feel that…. ooooowwww!”

If you haven’t tried using resistance bands, I definitely think you should at least give it a whirl. 

On to dinner… Meal planning is something I struggle with.  I usually get a general idea of what I need in my head, but I see a sale and somehow I end up with spinach and lettuce coming out of my ass.  I apologize in advance for all my creative attempts at meals that are “leaf” heavy this week.  Little ol’ me forgets how daunting it can be to have salad a million days in a row.  At least I’m only on day one and so this random salad was pretty fabulous-looking.I could talk about the cauliflower, mushrooms, chick peas, and green peas that I threw in on the salad.  I can talk about the mushrooms being sauteed in curry powder beforehand.  But I know we really just want to talk about that dressing.

I made a peanut butter-based salad dressing.  Partially because I’ve always wanted to try it, but mostly because I am running a little low on salad dressing.  So I searched out a recipe.  My pantry isn’t quite as stocked as what some of the websites would like for it to be, so after a while I gave up on finding an exact recipe and just winged it from what I had read. 

Basically, I heated extra virgin olive oil and peanut butter on top of the stove.  Then I squirted in a little honey and – here’s the key- added red chili pepper flakes.  It sounds really weird.  But it turned out soooo well!  If I could change one thing, I would have used a little more olive oil.  The end product was really thick and I would have preferred it a little thinner.

This makes me realize I need to make my own dressing much more often.  For real.

Do you cook by recipe or wing it?  I will only bake by the rules (aka the cookbook), but when it comes to cooking, I rarely use exact recipes.  I’m more of a “dump it all in” kind of person…

Gotta run- time to get busy!