I made it! And a Semi-Recipe

Hi friends! Welcome back from the weekend. I hope it was great, mine sure was!

One of the great things was my run this weekend! I don’t know how I managed to pull it off, but I actually made it through the whole 160 minute run on Saturday. I was completely anticipating pain-city and having to stop. My coach gave me the go-ahead to run as long as I didn’t have any sharp pains; discomfort was okay to run through. Remarkably, it stayed at that!

To set myself up for success, I wore compression sleeves, ran super slow, and stopped at all of the water stops (and stretched at several). The most important thing was that I made it. Almost 16 miles – my longest EVER! I kind of looked at this run as a deciding factor as to whether or not I’ll be able to complete the marathon in a few more weeks. I’m happy to say that after running this, it seems much more realistic

I made sure to stretch and ice a lot afterwards, along with wearing my compression socks during my post-run nap. Those things work wonders.

Later that night, my friends and I celebrated my birthday! It’s actually not until Friday, but we all have busy schedules next weekend, so we did it a little early.

They were super sweet and brought a cake before our festivities out on the town…

Candles blown out!

Such a fun time! I feel so lucky to have such great friends  

On Sunday, I got my hair cut. It was MUCH needed. I think the last time it was cut was summer maybe…? Oops!  My dad’s cousin’s sister-in-law ( there is probably an easier way to describe that relationship?) cuts hair, so I had fun chatting with her while she snipped away. (P.S. She also has a blog and bakes some very tasty/creative things…check it out here!)

Healthy again!

Now onto the semi-recipe to share with you. I say semi because it’s something I’ve made before, but I just discovered how I like to eat it best.

Quinoa Fried “Rice” (w/optional Peanut Flour Sauce)

Prep time: 2 Min
Cook time: 10 min

Ingredients

• 1 Cup frozen asian veggie blend (or whatever frozen veggies you feel like)
• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• 1 egg + 1 egg white

Peanut Flour Sauce (Optional)

• 2 tbsp PB powder
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1.5 tbsp warm water
• .5 tbsp rice vinegar
• shake of garlic powder & ginger powder (optional)

Directions

1. Spray a medium size pan with cooking spray. Heat medium-high, add veggies when hot.

2. When veggies are tender/warm, add quinoa and heat through. Turn heat to medium-low.

3. Using a spatula, push veggies and quinoa to the side. Crack egg + egg white into pan. When they begin to cook, add a splash of water and stir. Continue to stir until eggs are cooked and everything is well combined.

Sauce: Mix all ingredients. Stir into pan, or leave to drizzle on top.

My epitome today was that I actually like this without the sauce stirred in. Maybe this is kind of weird, but I like things plain sometimes. I drizzled the sauce on some of it, but the rest I ate plain with just some salt & pepper on top. Delicious both ways!

I’ll leave you with one kid quote:

babysitting 3 y/o girl, she playing with her named “Tigah”

Girl: Tigah used to be a baby, and I used to be a baby
Me: Yep, everyone used to be a baby. Do you know how old Tigah is now?
Girl: Ummmm…he’s 5….16ths!
Me: 5/16ths?
Girl: Yep!  

Goodnight!

Why I Love allrecipes.com (+recipes from the week)

Hello friends!

Hope you had a good week; I was sure TGIF-ing this today.

This week was pretty uneventful for me, but I am excited to share with you some recipes I made this week! I’ll also give a quick knee update and kid quote at the end of this post.

First up, we have:

Lebanese-Style Red Lentil Soup from allrecipes.com 

I typically find most of my recipes from the blogs I read , but I love to use allrecipes when I have an idea of what I want to make, but am unsure of the proportions of ingredients to put together.

Once I find the recipes that match what I’m looking for, I look at the number of reviews and how many stars each recipe has been given, and usually pick the one that has the best combination of those things. Then, I click on the recipe’s review, and sort the reviews by “most helpful“. I usually read the first few reviews, and incorporate tips/changes that people have found helpful.

I have no idea what I was looking for when I bookmarked this recipe (it was a while ago) but I’m glad I did!! It it was absolutely fantastic and surprisingly simple! I halved the recipe, and changed a couple of other things. Here’s what I ended up with

• 3 c vegetable broth
• 1 c red lentils
• 1.5 tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• Large handful of baby carrots, chopped
• 1/2 tbsp ground cumin
• lemon juice for garnish

Directions 

1. Put veggie broth in lentils in a large pot, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.

2. Saute garlic, onion, and carrot in olive oil until onion is translucent.

3. After the 20 minutes, stir the onion mixture and cumin into the lentils and continue cooking until lentils are soft (mine were already soft after 20 minutes, but I let it keep cooking anyway to soften the carrot & onion some more)

4. Blend soup if desired – totally NOT necessary… I blended mine a bit, but wanted to leave a little texture

5. Stir in a big squeeze of lemon juice if desired & serve!

*I tried the soup with and without the lemon juice and honestly cannot decide which way I prefer it – both are great!

Served w/sides of brussel sprouts and sweet potato fries

The other recipe I made this week was a take on Southwest Potato Salad. I found this recipe one day while I was looking at Food Buzz Top 9

I’ve noted my changes here, but please see the original recipe for the directions!

• 1 1/2 lbs baby red potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
• 1 cup frozen sweet peas, thawed  1.25 cup frozen shelled edamame
• 1 avocado
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, minced (veins and seeds removed if you don’t want it spicy)
• 2 Tbsp cilantro, minced  3 dorot cubes cilantro(= 1tbsp)
• 3/4 cup frozen corn (I used Trader Joe’s fire roasted)
• 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Edamame, avocado, lime juice, salt

Smooth & creamy

Red onion, cilantro cubes, fire-roasted corn

All together and done!

Fabulous! 

Knee Update

Last week, even after my long run, my knee felt pretty good. After going to physical therapy on Monday, it was pretty sore and didn’t feel quite right when I ran on Tuesday. Actually, it’s felt a little off the whole week… I wouldn’t say it’s painful , but more uncomfortable and I can tell it’s still not totally healed. I pretty frustrated/discouraged because I’ve been doing my recommended exercises, stretches, and icing and really haven’t been running that much. I’m going to try going the TNT run tomorrow, but I’m not expecting to get through the whole 160 minutes of it. I am getting worried that with the marathon so close, I won’t be prepared if I don’t do these next few training runs.

Kid Quote 

This isn’t a long one, but I still thought it was worth sharing…

Out of the blue, the forth grader I work with came up to me (somewhat privately) and said,

“Hey, so, um what’s a Kardashian?”

After I controlled a bit of laughter, I told him they’re a ridiculous celebrity family that people sometimes like to gossip about.

Questions:

What is your favorite way to find recipes?

What would you have said if asked what a Kardashian was?

Have a wonderful weekend! 

(Mostly) Great, (Some) Not-so-Great

This post may have a mixed up format, but it’s been a mixed up kind of day!

Here’s my day, beginning to end

Great: Swimming this morning! Morning workouts > nighttime work outs

Not so Great: Should have gone to bed earlier… *Goal for tonight!*

Great: smoothie this morning. winner, winner

Not so Great: the student I work with had a really rough day…he got pretty upset misperceiving some social situations, and it’s obviously hard to see him so upset…I wish I could just jump into his brain to help him understand things more clearly!!

Great: a new student I started working with some afternoons (1st grader) made me laugh out loud a few times. He was building a “Tracking Machine” with some Legos…at first he told me the password to make it work was “103“, but decided that was too easy, so then it became “infinitypercent” so “they” wouldn’t understand… no idea who “they” is…but he thought it was a very clever password, which was important because it was supposed to be TOP SECRET, but he then proceeded to share it with everyone…

Great: a very special Easter basket I received in the mail! Very unexpected. Will blog more about it on Easter  

Great: finally using the massage gift card I got for Valentine’s day! AWESOME

Great: YOGA. I haven’t been in SO long. Finally able to go to the only class I’ve tried AND liked at my gym so far again

Massage AND Yoga = Feeling Like a Million $

Not so Great: thinking about summer/future plans…stressssssed out 

Great: booked a trip home to go see DMB in May!! So excited!! 

Not so Great: lots of tornadoes close to home fortunately, no one I know has been affected (to my knowledege) 

Great: today is the birthday of two of my aunts, and one of my cousins! so funny they’re all on the same day

Great: I successfully deodorized my slow-cooker! The past couple of times I’ve used it stuff has come out tasting a little off…it finally occurred to me that maybe I needed a heavy-duty cleaning! I soaked it in warm water and baking soda, which apparently worked great…

Good as New!

Great: I found out that the baking soda trick worked because I made this African Peanut Stew in it. I actually made it once about a year ago, but I thought it was really spicy. I keep seeing people link back to it and rave, so I thought I’d give it another try. Glad I did! Yum. I also love that it’s SUPER SIMPLE to put together 

Great: I think my knee is better? I don’t feel any pain/achiness anymore, unless I really press into the area below my kneecap. 

Overall, it looks like there are more greats than not-so-greats, so I would call that a success!! 

Any greats/not-so-greats you’d like to share?

Kid Quotes #1

Hello all! Another beautiful day in Boston! Hopefully the weather is just as nice wherever you are.

Tonight I went to another hill work out with my TNT group. It was at the same location as last week. The workout was the same, too, except for the addition of one additional hill repeat (full length). It was a good one! I have a feeling I will be sore tomorrow.

As you may know from my “About” page, I work in an elementary school and babysit a few days a week after school. At school, I am primarily an aide to one student, but I also help out in his 4th grade classroom whenever he is working independently. Anyway, as you can imagine I witness my fair share of funny conversations.

I love learning about how children think…child psychology was one of my favorite courses! I think the following conversations demonstrate how differently thoughts are processed when you’re young. Hopefully you get a kick out of them!

(All children’s names have been changed)

Exhibit A:

Tom: Did you know you can burn calories by fidgeting?

Josh: Oh that’s cool, I guess

this convo overheard by 2 other boys…

Rob (student I am an aide to): Hey, Drake, do you like to fidget?

Drake: Um, what do you mean?

Rob: You know, like play with your pencils and supplies and stuff while the teacher is talking

Drake: Uh not really

Rob: Oh, well if you fidget you can burn calories

Drake: So! You burn calories when your brain is active. If my brain wasn’t so active I’d be really fat.

Rob: That’s not true my brain isn’t very active but I’m not fat

Exhibit B:

I pick up a little girl (almost 3y/o) from her daycare once a week. Up until this week, it’s been dark by the time she gets picked up

as we are getting her belongings to go home

Me: I have a little surprise for you in the car

Julia: (dead serious) Is it a raccoon?

(It was a Hershey kiss, good try kiddo)

as we are walking outside…

Julia: It’s MORNING!! —- freaks out  —

Me: No, no it’s still evening, but it just looks lighter than usual

Julia: But, why is it morning?!

Me: No it’s not morning… I know it’s a little confusing because it isn’t dark. What do you want to have for dinner tonight?

Julia: I want to have bagels for breakfast.

Day 13 – Sign

This picture was actually taken a few weeks ago when I was in Florida with my mom, but I couldn’t resist sharing it for today… it just cracked me up every time we passed by!!

Someone explain what this means? Please?

I’m off to bed…swimming in the a.m! Goodnight