It Felt Good

Last night I was determined to run when I got home. The weather was beautiful (55* and NO RAIN for the first time in a week!) So, I got home, changed my clothes, threw dinner in the oven, got the dog ready to go with me and off we went. We only went 1.5 miles, but I ran the whole thing and I am right on track with my new training “outline”.

It was a great run. I ran down my dirt road along corn and soybean fields. We scared a pheasant out of the corn, and I’m not sure who was more startled; me, the dog, or the bird! We also saw about a dozen deer muching out in the soybean field. (It is very hard to keep my dog focused on a run when she wants to chase deer! I think I may have gotten a little upper body work-out trying to keep her on track…)

Dinner last night was easy, delicious and filling. Hubby wasn’t home so I roasted some brussel sprouts tossed in EVOO, maple syrup and sea salt in the oven at 400* for 30 minutes (while I ran!). I also made some mac and cheese with light velveeta, noodles, and a splash of skim milk. All served up with a pomegranate muffin. Yum! Can’t wait for lunch leftovers.

I really need to get groceries because I am out of all things fresh now! (There may be a wilted carrot in the back of the produce drawer….) I just haven’t had time to sit down and menu plan, make a list, and actually go to the store. I may make a quick trip for produce and improvise through next week. I don’t want to get a lot before I leave for LA since hubby probably won’t eat at home the entire time I’m gone!

On the agenda tonight….hopefully a nice walk with the puppies, tomato+turkey bacon sandwhiches for dinner, then making ham+fat free cream cheese+pickle roll-ups for our work goody day tomorrow!

Relief

It seems that I have ridden the roller coaster of emotions over the last two weeks. A couple of updates:

First of all, my sister got her test results back today. After finding a lump in her breast two weeks ago, going to her regular doctor, and going for an ultra-sound, it was determined that the lump is non-cancerous (thank God!). The bad news is, she has three more in the other breast! She has been diagnosed with Fibroadenoma and is planning on meeting with a surgeon to have all four lumps removed. I cannot believe how well she has handled this! When I was 17, I would have been a wreck going through this (ok, I’m 25 and I am still a wreck and it’s not even my body!)

I am so relieved at this news, you cannot imagine how scary waiting almost two weeks for results was! I’m really unsure about how the procedure will work, the recovery time, etc, so I am anxious to hear what the surgeon has to say!

Another update…I think I am headed to LA for sure….and a lot sooner than expected! My good friend Dian is getting married on NOVEMBER 7th! I am still in shock over this one….she has known her soon-to-be-hubby for about 4 years via the internet, but didn’t meet him in person until about 2 months ago. He proposed six weeks after them “met”, it’s been two weeks since he propoesed, and now its two weeks until the wedding! CRAZY!!! THey decided to get married right away due to some immigration thing (he’s from Sweden).

I’ve been checking on flights and hubby gave me the OK to fly out for the weekend if I could find cheap flights and get someone to go with me…Well, I think I found a flight out of Detroit for about $200 and my baby sister wants to go and is “willing” to miss school. It’s going to be a crazy quick trip, but I really feel that I need to be there for Diana.

In addition to a TON of craziness at work, can you see why I have been an emotional rollercoaster?!?! I am so looking forward to a relaxing weekend!

Homemade Cinnamon Apples

At the request of Kristin, here is my homemade cinnamon apples recipe.

Homemade Cinnamon Apples

• 1/2 peck Gala apples (or about 12-15)
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice

Peel and dice up the apples and throw them into the crock-pot. Add cinnamon, brown sugar and lemon juice. Mix everything together. Cook on high for about 2-3 hours, stirring every 45 minutes or so to prevent scorching. This will result in chunky apples, if you would like more of an applesauce consistency, keep cooking and stirring until the apples break down.

This is great as an oatmeal topping, on ice-cream (especially the pumpkin kind!), or just straight up (warm or cold)! They also freeze very well. I love to make a huge batch and freeze it into smaller portions to enjoy after apple season has ended.

An Apple Kind of Day

First off, a quick congratulations to my friend Diana who’s getting married! I just found out this morning and don’t know the details yet, but a trip to LA might be in my future!

What a great weekend! I got a nice 1 mile run in last night (not much I know, but I have reconfigured my running schedule to start slow and build up my base…I was adding too much distance before and got burnt out!). I figured out that if I run laps around our driveways (we have 3 of them coming into our house!) that each lap is a tenth of a mile. I don’t want to run laps all the time, but in a pinch (like last night when it was already dark out…) it will work great!

Packing up my eats for the day, I realized I have a very apple heavy day!

Breakfast- 1/2 cup plain oats with homemade cinnamon apples

 and a cup of sugar free hot apple cider

Snack- None! My oats+apples kept me full!

Lunch- Huge salad left over from the “salad bar” we had for dinner at mom+dad’s house last night.

Let’s see if I can remember everthing that was in it…

• Romaine lettuce
• Carrots
• Celery
• Green peppers
• Cucumber
• Feta cheese
• Mushrooms
• 1/2 of a hard boiled egg
• Garbanzo beans
• Almond Slivers
• Fat free French dressing

Whew!

Pineapple on the side

Snack- Honeycrisp apple

Dinner- Going to have a veggie burger with a side of German Tomato Soup and applesauce.

See….lots of apples today!

Chicken Noodle Soup with Homemade Noodles

I adapted this from Iowa Girl’s recipe.

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 cup onion, cut into chunks
• Salt and pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 large carrots, finely sliced
• 3 large celery stalks, finely sliced
• 2 cooked chicken breasts, cut into chunks
• 40 oz. chicken broth
• Homemade noodles (see below)

Sautee onions in olive oil, salt and pepper until softened. Add garlic and stir/cook for another minute. Add carrots and celery, cook for 5 minutes. Add a splash of broth, cover pot and let veggies softene for 2-3 minutes. Add chicken and remaining broth, turn heat to high and bring to a boil. Add noodles and let simmer for 15-20 minutes.

If you don’t plan on eating until the next day, you will need to make sure you have more broth on hand to add when you reheat!

Homemade Egg Noodles

• 2 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• Pinch of salt
• Water, as needed

Mix flour and salt together. Add eggs and mix. Little by little, add water to make a very thick dough. Roll out thinly on a lightly floured surface. Cut into strips and immediately drop them into boiling soup. These will fatten up considerably, so don’t make the dough strips to big!!

 

Still Waiting

Thank you for the thoughts and prayers for my sister and family. She went in for an ultrasound this afternoon and now we have to wait until Friday to get the results from that. This waiting game really sucks!

(Middle sister, left & Baby sister, right. I love these girls!! ….and we evidently love fruit….)

Anyways, dinner last night was homemade chicken noodle soup. Then hubby and I took the puppies for a walk and ended up playing Wii for almost an hour and a half!

Todays eats have been all about comfort food.

Breakfast: Breakfast bread pudding leftover from Sunday, topped with some homemade pumpkin butter (It looks kinda gross, but was really good!)

Lunch: Leftover chicken noodle soup

Some old fashioned black licorice

Snack: Honeycrisp apple (and one made in MICHIGAN at that!)

Tonight I am getting back on track with my running plan. I have put all of my runs in my google calendar from now until the Toronto Half…I need to stick with it, so I am basically starting from square one and rebuilding my base (I have been such a slacker!) Tonight calls for a 10-15 minute run. I should be able to do that easy enough….(it is gonna be cold!)

Then I am off to my baby sister’s volleyball game. Hubby has class and I don’t want to sit home all alone! I probably should do some dishes at some point too. Have a great night!

A Little Bit Scared

I’m back. The past few weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster between stress at work and home, and also some scary news.

My baby sister, who is 17, recently found a lump in her breast. She discovered it a few weeks ago and didn’t tell anyone until this weekend when she noticed that it had started to get larger. She has a doctor’s appointment today and I hope and pray that it is nothing. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers!

***Edited to add….the doctor also found a lump on the other breast and is sending her for an ultrasound tomorrow.***

I was very productive this weekend…lots of housework, laundry, prepping food for this week, and cooking/baking. I love to be out and about, but sometimes a weekend home alone is great too!

Today’s eats minus pictures. I took them, but left my camera cor….

Breakfast: Oats with cinnamon, gala apple, walnuts, brown sugar and vanilla.

Snack: 100 calorie pack of Sandies cookies with 1 tablespoon homemade pumpkin butter

Lunch: Lasagna leftovers from Saturday and sweet mini peppers

Snack: Peach Chobani

Dinner: We are having homemade chicken noodle soup which I prepared yesterday so all I have to do is reheat tonight.

Sorry for the downer of a post, but (as you can probably imagine) I’ve got lots on my mind and not much creativity flowing through me. Ladies, remember to do your self breast exams…that’s how my sister found her lump!

I’ve Know I’ve Been Missing…

….but there have been a lot of things going on in my life lately (work, family, personal….) and I felt that I needed to let something go for a little bit.

I will be back next week (and we are starting a Biggest Loser competition at work, so blogging will be a great motivator and way to keep me accountable!).

Until Monday…..

Oh! Nuts Review

Awhile ago, I recieved some products from Sam at Oh! Nuts to sample and review. I received a 1 pound bag (how very generous!!!) of each of the following varieties:

• Cranberry Pecans
• Dark Chocolate Covered Strawberries
• Honey Roasted Cashews

Since cashews are one of my favorite nuts, I was very excited to try these. I love honey roasted peanuts, so I figured I would love honey roasted cashews.

The website describes them as follows:

These honey-glazed cashews are the finest, sweetest natural candy around. We dipped the cashews in honey so many times they actually glisten. Our all-natural honey-glazed cashews are a delicious part of any well-balanced indulgence. So sit back, open your mouth, and prepare for a most tasteful experience.

I think I must have recieve a bad batch of these because mine where a dark brown and had a very bitter, burnt taste! I was so disappointed! I think these would be wonderful if not for the burnt taste. I did like them better mixed into something (oatmeal) or crushed up on ice cream, but I couldn’t eat them plain.

Next I tried the cranberry pecans.

They are described as:

This pecan is a unique blend of cranberry infused flavor and cinnamon spice. Each bite is a soft yet somewhat crunchy experience.

These were very good! They definately had a cranberry taste and I loved the “crunch” of the coating! Hubby loved these as well! He would grab a handful just to munch on, but I thought they were too sweet just to eat plain…they were better crushed up and used as a topping. I didn’t try it, but I think these would make a great addition to a cookie (maybe white chocolate chips and cranberry pecans?).

By far my favorite sample was the dark chocolate strawberries.

The website doesn’t say too much about these….

Whole Strawberries in Dark Chocolate

These are dried strawberries that are coated in a thick non-dairy dark chocolate coating. I felt that the coating was a little too thick and a tad on the waxy side, but tasted great! I loved these as a sweet treat! They were so rich that one or two would curb my craving for something sweet.

I loved my Oh! Nuts experience! I only wish that the packages had nutritional information on them (I think only one of the three that I got did), but it is available on the website. The Oh! Nuts website has so many great things to offer, in a variety of price ranges. The items I recieved are fairly expensive ($11.99 per pound for each of the nuts and $7.99 per pound for the strawberries), but they would be a great unique gift idea for a foodie!

The website has such a wide range of options….I think I could spend a long time browsing all the options. They have lots of different kinds of nuts, seeds, dried fruits, candy, granola, trail mix and several other more specialty items. What a great selection! Organic Royal Quinoa (you can’t buy Quinoa around here!), Onion-Garlic Pistachios, Chocolate Covered Pineapple, and Cinnamon Pecans are all on my “must-try” list!

I would recommend Oh! Nuts to anyone! Between the quick shipping, amazing selection, and wonderful products, this is a great place to get bulk nuts and dried fruits! Thanks so much Sam for giving me this great opportunity!!!

Curry

I have never tried a curry dish befores, so when I came across this easy curry stir-fry, I knew I had to try it.  I serverd the stir-fry over some plain couscous made with chicken broth. This was a very filling and tasty meal. I can’t wait to try more curry dishes!!!

Curry Chicken

1 tablespoon cornstartch
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into cubes
2 teaspoons canola oil, divided
1 cup sliced fresh carrots
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups fresh broccoli florets
1 cup fresh sweet onion, cut into chunks

In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch, curry and red pepper flakes. Stir in broth and soy sauce until smooth; set aside. In a large nonstick skillet or wok coated with nonstick cooking spray, stir-fry chicken in 1 teaspoon oil for 5-6 minutes or until no longer pink. Remove and keep warm.

In the same pan, stir-fry carrots ans garlic in remaining oil for 1 minute. Stir in broccoli andonion; cook 2 minutes longer, or until desired texture. Stir broth mixture and stir into veggies. Bring to a boil; cook andstir for two minutes or until thickened. Return chicken to the pan; heat through.