Desperately Seeking Motivation

Great Day

2010-03-31T22:29:00.001-05:00

Work continues to be really busy - and obviously effecting the frequency of my posts! :)

My day started with eggs and toast. I buy a loaf of french bread in the bakery at my grocery store and then ask them to slice it. They slice it pretty thin so it makes really good, crispy toast. Love it!

When I came home this evening, I threw together some "clean out the refrigerator" pasta. Just throw in anything you need to use from the refrigerator! It was pretty good!

Chicken, mushrooms, spinach, red bell pepper, broccoli, lemon, cream, whole wheat pasta, crushed red pepper, and parmesan cheese.

I was determined to go for a run tonight. It's been almost a week since my last run and I was feeling pretty crappy about that. I have a 10k race coming up so I need to start building my miles up again. This was a great run. Isn't it funny how you just feel light on your feet sometimes? This was one of those times. I could have kept going, but it was starting to get dark and I don't like to run in the dark. I'll go for more mileage this weekend!

Girls Night Out!

2010-03-27T11:31:00.000-05:00

This Saturday morning was very productive! I was motivated by a few things - 1) I have a lot of things to get done before this afternoon; and 2) the house is clean and my kitchen is organized. Well, not totally organized, but having the pantry done makes a huge difference. Having a clean and organized work space is really energizing to me!

I have some bananas that are getting too ripe, so I peeled them and bagged them up to put in the freezer. I have plans for these later...

Tonight I have big plans with a group of girlfriends! About 3 or 4 times a year we have a slumber party where we eat, drink, talk, watch videos, stay up late and just have lots of fun! We each bring something to snack on and something to drink. Lately I've noticed in our emails that all of us are either trying to exercise more or eat better to shed some winter pounds so I decided to make something healthy. I have a rainbow of veggies all cut into "sticks" for easy dipping!

Celery, zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, yellow and red bell peppers.

I made regular and red pepper hummus for dipping and I also have some pita bread to take (hmm...wouldn't that make a good pita sandwich? Yum!).

I can't wait to dig in to this!

Guess What's For Dinner...

2010-03-26T21:34:00.000-05:00

Another busy day, made a little easier due to the fact that IT'S FRIDAY!!! I did get a decent break over lunch time and met Matt at the Spicy Pickle. I was craving a sandwich with good bread and lots of veggies...I guess I was a little over zealous because I totally forgot to take a picture until I was more than halfway through. Sorry!

Here's the rundown: roasted chicken, provolone, sun dried tomato mayo, portobello mushrooms, roasted red peppers, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, avocado, kalamata olives, and artichoke hearts. It took me about 5 minutes just to order this sandwich because of my long list of veggies, Matt made fun of me. :) Holy cow was it good! Seriously good!

I did get a short run in tonight and it felt great! I hope to do a longer run this weekend, but I'm not sure yet what day that will happen.

Time for dinner! Here's a hint:

Tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, red pepper, jalapeno, roasted corn, black beans, lime, salt.

Obviously I was on a veggie kick today - I was craving more salsa fresca. I made it a little different this time. I didn't have any red onion so I left that out and I added black beans and red bell pepper. This salsa fresca went into flour tortillas with cheese and hamburger. Yum!

Organization!!

2010-03-24T22:58:00.001-05:00

I had a yummy bowl of steel cut oatmeal this morning. I've been trying to change it up a bit and added walnuts, pumpkin seeds, and chia seeds to my normal banana/pecan/maple syrup combo. I'm not sure why, but both pictures I took turned out blurry...sorry!

This has really been a blah week, I haven't had very many interesting things to blog about. Today was so busy at work but I love those days. Usually my motivation is directly proportional to how busy I am - very busy = high motivation. I went from one meeting to the next and tried to answer emails in between and that went on non stop all day!

I did manage to break away at lunch to grab a ham, prosciutto and mozzarella panini. I took it back to work and ate at my desk. The sandwich had kind of a funny flavor to it and was dry. It would have been better with some kind of flavored mayonnaise.

I also got a chai tea latte with my sandwich. This is the second one I've had in a week that I just wanted to throw in the trash after a few sips. This one was too sweet and tasted like the seasonal lattes that Starbucks has during the holidays (Egg Nog or Gingerbread). I much prefer the chai lattes I make at home. Maybe I'm not doing it "right", but it's better for me so I guess I don't care. Someday I'll post about that and show you how I make them.

I didn't get home until almost 7pm and this is what I came home to:

I wish I had "before" pictures, it was totally full and unorganized. I wish I could take credit, but I'm really not capable of such organization. I wish I were...but it was all Matt. Thanks honey! :) I love opening the pantry now and I just stand there and admire it!

Ho Hum Monday

2010-03-22T22:06:00.001-05:00

MAJOR headache today!! So much for my motivation... I stayed hopped up on Advil all day and it just barely kept me going. I did manage to get a little painting done though (remember, the painting project I talked about here and here). This is truly the room from hell when it comes to painting! It seems to never end. I wish I had kept track of how many hours I've spent on that thing, and I'm STILL not done!

I forgot to share this picture with you in my Spring Break Recap post...we passed this place on our way out of Austin in route to Brenham.

Matt said he wanted some "Pho King noodles"! (Ha!! Think about it...)

Not a very exciting Monday, but I DO have a few foodie things to share. First, for my snack today I ate two of these really yummy cookies I made this weekend.

Just your basic chocolate chip cookie recipe except that I substituted coconut oil for the butter/shortening. I also added a little bit of oatmeal to make a more dense cookie and added walnuts to the last batch for me. My daughter is severely allergic to nuts, but I love them - go figure. I was a little scared with the coconut oil substitution, but I soon figured out they would turn out okay based on the kids begging to eat the dough! They couldn't leave it alone! Actually, neither could I! The cookies were FABULOUS!! Matt didn't care for them because he said he could taste the coconut, but the kids and I loved them so much that we canceled out his vote. Hee hee!

I kind of cheated for dinner tonight. I very rarely buy pre-made meals, but the other day I went grocery shopping at Sprouts (my new favorite place!) and they had a pre-made meatloaf in their meat department. The price wasn't bad at all, not much more than you would pay for the ground beef alone, and when I looked at the ingredients they were all familiar to me so I decided to give it a try. All I had to do was bake it for 40 minutes so it was a really easy dinner. During that 40 minutes I made a new side dish - cornbread pancakes. I don't know why I've never done this before because they were a hit with everyone. I used the recipe on the Jiffy box.

The meatloaf was really good too! I will buy that again for sure. Here is my dinner plate - I threw a few Brussels sprouts in the oven with the meatloaf even though no one else eats them.

I'm going to finish my Chai tea now and then off to bed!

Spring Break Recap

2010-03-21T20:52:00.002-05:00

Sorry I've been away for a few days. We took an unplanned "vacation" for spring break where we took the kids on a series of day trips. Here's a recap:

Day One - Hunting Ghosts!
We spent the first day in San Antonio and the main event was a Ghost Tour. This was an evening tour where we walked around to some historical sights and heard ghostly stories. It was fun, interesting, and most of all the kids dug it! They gave us "ghost detecting tools" to carry around with us to measure the change in temperatures around you. We didn't encounter any ghostly beings (which was a big disappointment to the kids), but we did learn a bit about San Antonio history and it was a beautiful night to be able to walk around the downtown area. I didn't see anything suspicious in my photos, but I did get a good picture of the Alamo! ;)

Day Two - Ice Cream?

Our second adventure was to tour the Blue Bell ice cream factory in Brenham, TX. During spring break they offer more tours than normal, starting every 10 minutes from 8am to 3pm.

It took us 2 hours to get there and we were so excited to tour the factory and get a free scoop of ice cream! When we finally pulled up to the building we couldn't believe what we saw.

I had NO idea there would be so many people there. Seriously, a tour every 10 minutes for 7 hours and they're full by NOON??? I couldn't believe it! Luckily, we still got to enjoy a scoop of ice cream for $1 and browse through their gift shop. Oh well...

Since we were already there, we tried to find something else we could do nearby. We settled on the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, TX. I have never been to a Presidential Library before, so this was a first for me and the kids. Matt has been to the Ronald Reagan Library and he was excited to check this one out.

Afterward, we stopped in College Station for a burger and fries and the Koppe Bridge Bar and Grill.

Day Three - Enchanted Rock?

I'm sensing a theme here...yes, ANOTHER 2 hour drive to find that the park is at capacity and has closed. Plan B was a walk around Fredericksburg, TX and a visit to the butterfly house at Wildseed Farms just outside of town. The butterfly house was totally cool! They gave us "nectar sticks" that we could use to pick up the butterflies. This one was my favorite - I think it's called a Mexican Paintbrush, it's fairly rare for this region and there were only two of these in the butterfly house so we were happy to catch him for a few seconds!

Salsa Fresca

2010-03-16T22:13:00.001-05:00

I think I have introduced you to Roger before...well, this is him begging for a banana while I prepared my oatmeal for breakfast:

Roger LOVES bananas! They are probably his favorite food and I think he loves them even more than popcorn. I don't know how he does it, but he can be in a totally different room (even upstairs) and if we break open the peel of a banana he comes running!

I'm really, really trying to fight this cold and I feel like I may be losing. Today my sore throat was mostly gone but it was replaced by a stuffy nose and headache and then general body aches by late afternoon. I needed to take it easy tonight so this cold doesn't turn into something more. We have some spring break plans for the kids later this week so I can't get sick! Motivation will have to go on hold for a while as I rest...

But before I can rest...there is dinner to be made. Obviously I didn't want to spend too much time in the kitchen so I threw together some tacos. You won't believe how simple they were and how AWESOME they tasted! Tortillas, jack cheese, hamburger, but the star of the show was the salsa fresca.

Grape tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, corn, avocado, lime, and salt.

This stuff was OFF THE HOOK! It really made the tacos fabulous! Here was the soft taco I made with a whole wheat tortilla:

I piled on the salsa fresca, right? Well, I went back TWO times to get more! I will be making this one again.

I'm Back!

2010-03-15T22:43:00.003-05:00

This weekend was kind of rough for me - I had that sore-throat-achy feeling off and on all weekend. Needless to say, absolutely NO painting got done - zip...zilch...nada! That's about the same amount of running I did over the weekend too. I'm not sure I'm totally over the "crud", but I was well enough to go to work this morning and I'm going to keep fighting it!

So I came home from work today and went for a short run.

I've decided that I'm satisfied with these short runs (i.e. less than 3 miles) during the week. I put so much pressure on myself to always do more, and I got the idea in my head that doing less than 3 miles at a time was not acceptable. What the hell?! For now I will focus on speed during the week and save the longer runs for the weekend ("speed" for me means less than 10 minute miles). This is so much more motivating! I obviously didn't make it today, but I was close!

I made some Israeli couscous for dinner tonight. We've never tried it before, but every time I see it in the bulk section of the grocery store I'm intrigued. What I had in mind was a side dish of Israeli couscous with roasted veggies. I roasted broccoli, asparagus, tomatoes, red pepper, and mushrooms at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes.

When I stuck this in the oven, the cookie sheet was covered with veggies. It's amazing how much they shrunk. They tasted awesome though!

I threw some steaks on the grill and then started cooking the couscous. First, I toasted it in some EVOO and then added beef broth and simmered for about 12 minutes.

Once the couscous was done I mixed it with the veggies.

It was good and it was a winner with the family. We all agreed, however, that the roasted veggies were better by themselves. When I added them in with the couscous they lost their crispiness. Next time, I'll serve them separately.

Catching Up

2010-03-13T22:16:00.004-06:00

I came home last night and totally crashed! I wonder if I'm getting sick because I've had a mild sore throat all day today. I will try my best to fight that off!

Rewind to Friday...

I forgot to make my oatmeal before going to bed, so I had to come up with a breakfast alternative that would keep me satisfied until lunch. I fried an egg, over easy, and made some awesome toast with some thinly sliced french bread so it was really crispy...yum!

As usual, I was so famished in the morning that I didn't remember until halfway through my meal that I needed to snap a picture...sorry!

We had a colleague come in town from one of our other offices, so you know what that means...FREE LUNCH!! Not the place I would have chosen, but beggars can't be choosers. The place definitely has atmosphere and the barbecue isn't bad, but I think they're overpriced and choices are limited. It's an Austin establishment so it's almost taboo to say out loud that it's not your favorite, so I didn't.

I had the port loin, cole slaw, and the cream corn. Their cream corn IS fabulous - best I've had anywhere! I made a sandwich with my pork loin, but left it open for the picture so you could see in between the slices of bread. With all of my co-workers around me, I chose to sneak a picture with my iPhone rather than giving an explanation since this is my extra-curricular activity!

I decided to grab a snack in the afternoon because my daughter had a team practice that evening and I knew it would be late before we would eat dinner. I started with this new kind of yogurt I picked up at the store last week. It sounded interesting and the flavor, Orange and Ginger, sucked me in!

I'm sure there's someone out there who likes this stuff, but I couldn't handle more than two bites! I took the second bite only because I thought maybe the flavor was on the bottom and I should stir it up. YUCK!! This one went in the trash. Luckily I had more yogurt in the fridge at work, so I tried this one:

MUCH better! The fruit flavor was great - not too sweet or overpowering. The texture of the coconut milk yogurt is different than I expected. It was kind of slimy, for lack of a better word, but I got used to it. I kept wondering as I ate it if this would be more like a gelato if frozen. I'll have to try that!

After my daughter's practice, we talked ourselves into eating out since it was a Friday night and too late for cooking. We stopped in at a California Pizza Kitchen where the wait was a surprisingly short 10-15 minutes! A Mojito is the first thing I ordered.

The CPK Mojito was good because it wasn't too sweet and there was plenty of lime and mint! My second course was a cup of chicken tortilla soup. I won't be getting this again. It was really thick and had a very concentrated flavor - too much like a Cream of Chicken Tortilla soup. Yuck!

That's all I ate. About half a cup of that and I was done. On to the main course - Cabo Crab Cakes - an appetizer that we get every time we visit the CPK. This time I decided to make it my meal because I always love it so much. Not so much this time...

I guess I was really on a roll with my food choices! They were just okay. The black bean and roasted corn relish wasn't as fresh, the dipping sauce wasn't as thick and creamy, and I kept getting pieces of crab shell in the cakes. Boo!

I was so ready to get home. The kids wanted ice cream for dessert, so since I had the ice cream out I made a blackberry shake for myself. It was yummy and it was the most intense PURPLE!

Vanilla ice cream, milk, fresh blackberries, vanilla extract, and a few ice cubes.

On Saturday, I woke up early because I had a meeting and some work to get done. After that, we lounged around and finally made breakfast around 10:30! I was craving eggs again, but this time I remembered to snap the picture before digging in!

The funny thing about this breakfast for me is that I really don't like eggs. Maybe I just need some protein, hence the craving, or maybe they are just growing on me. I haven't decided yet, but just looking at this picture now makes me want to go cook another egg! :)

We had some errands to run today and we saw the neatest chair in a department store. It is made of woven wire. Not comfortable AT ALL, but would make a great conversation piece!

It was a beautiful summer day so I wanted to run, but I just couldn't do it. I started feeling worn out right before dinner and that sore throat was getting worse. So much for motivation! I took a nap instead, hopefully just what my body needed!

Dinner was really good tonight. I made chicken piccata with tiny potatoes that I roasted in butter and a little bit of chicken broth and roasted asparagus (and no paper plates tonight - yay!).

Chile With Beans

2010-03-11T22:57:00.001-06:00

I was in a hurry this morning. I had my coffee (almost never miss that), but had to run out the door without breakfast (almost never miss breakfast either!). Luckily, someone brought donuts to work so I snagged one of those to satisfy me until lunch.

One of our VP's was in the office today and I had meetings with him that pretty much took up my whole lunch hour, so I resorted to my stockpile of Lean Cuisines again. I chose some kind of flatbread sandwich and it was DISGUSTING! I choked about half of it down and then remembered I had thrown a multigrain bagel and some almond butter in my bag yesterday, and I always keep some honey at my desk. Woo hoo! I tossed the rest of the nasty flatbread and enjoyed every bite of my bagel!

I also had a greek yogurt later in the afternoon. I was planning to run after work, so I figured I would need a little afternoon snack. When I left work, however, it looked like it might rain. This provided an easy excuse for me to bag the run for today. As I got closer to home, the skies looked clearer and seeing all of the people out walking, running, and biking made me feel really guilty. I decided I should at least go for a short run. As usual, I was so glad I did! It was a good run and I was able to stay under a 10 minute pace (barely, but it counts!)! Having that new pace goal gave me the extra challenge and motivation I needed to make it through the run.

Here was the prize waiting for me after the run:

This is a Pinot Grigio from Chile. I drank about half of this glass. This is the third "half glass" I've wasted from this same bottle. I've tried several wines from Chile, and I have never found one that I liked.

While I sipped on the mediocre wine, I started making dinner. I tried a bean salad recipe tonight that was really good. I had several veggies that I just needed to finish off before they go bad. Here's my salad:

Black beans, pinto beans, red bell pepper, corn, red onion, cilantro, cucumber, grape tomatoes.

I mixed up a vinaigrette dressing with evoo, cider vinegar, dijon mustard, cumin, salt and pepper. Here's the recipe - the only things I changed was to use pintos instead of lentils and I added cucumber. It was so fresh and good! We also had grilled hamburgers.

I'm really tired and ready to go to bed! Sorry it wasn't a very exciting day, but tomorrow is Friday and I expect things will be hoppin'! :)

Asparagus "Tips"

2010-03-10T21:18:00.000-06:00

It was a busy day at work today, which is a good thing because I stayed up SO late last night that I probably would have fallen asleep if I didn't have anything to keep me occupied.

This was my lackluster lunch - a Lean Cuisine (Fiesta Chicken). It really wasn't bad, and I ate it with some chips and salsa. Not sure why, but I was craving chips and salsa today. I love these chips:

It was only about an hour after lunch and I was ready for a snack. I had a Pecan Pie Larabar in my desk. It's been sitting there for a while because I really wasn't sure if I would like it. I've tried the Cherry Pie Larabar and really like it, but it's pretty tart. The pecan pie version was just sweet enough to satisfy my sweet tooth. It was good - I like this flavor!

If you haven't tried these before, you should. They have tons of different flavors and most of them contain only 3-5 ingredients (usually just fruit and nuts), they get their sweetness from dates. I can't wait to try more flavors!

As I mentioned before I stayed up way too late last night, and for no good reason other than I just wasn't ready to go to bed. I got about 5 hours of sleep. On days like this, I'm not going to beat myself up too much about a lack of motivation. I NEED MY SLEEP! Since I knew a run was out of the question, when I got home the first thing I did was pour a beer to drink while I cooked dinner - Fat Tire, my fave!

I got a phone call this afternoon from a sweet little boy who asked me to make his favorite thing for dinner tonight...hamburger steak with gravy. How could I resist? I also made roasted asparagus to satisfy the veggie "requirement". :)

The whole family likes asparagus, but we usually eat the tips and leave the rest of the stalk. Since I started making Green Monsters, I don't even bother cooking the stalks anymore.

I roast the top third, toss the bottom third, and save the middle to put in my GMs. It makes me feel good to put more of the asparagus to use and make it go further. That's my asparagus "tip", pun intended.

Yes, paper plates...again! I'm really bad about that, but after working all day sometimes I just don't want to deal with dirty dishes!

Beautiful Day

2010-03-09T23:27:00.000-06:00

Today started like many others, with a bowl of oatmeal my usual way. Nothing exciting there. My daughter had an appointment right before lunch so Matt and I picked her up from school, went to the appointment and then took her to lunch at Chipotle (her choice) before returning her to the classroom. It's always nice to see the kids during the school/work day!

I came home from work tonight and immediately went out for a run. It was a beautiful day, so I didn't even think twice about it! Yay!! Instant motivation! For the first time since I ran my first half marathon (the Austin Marathon on Valentine's Day), it was a good run and felt great! No sore spots - my shins and knees felt great - and I wasn't constantly checking my mileage or looking forward to being done. I just enjoyed it and I can't tell you how relieved I am about that!

Dinner was quick and easy tonight. Because we had such a big lunch, neither Matt or I were very hungry so I just threw some pork chops on the grill and made a nice salad.

I tried my spinach trick again with the hot pork chops. The salad was made of mixed spring greens, grapefruit, oranges, avocado, cucumber, almonds, and feta cheese with a dressing of balsamic vinegar, juice from the fruit, and evoo.

After dinner, I got back to work on my painting project (more of that weather-induced motivation, I guess). I'm painting our game room upstairs. All I had left after working on it this weekend was the trim. I already had the taping done, so just needed to take a brush to it. Oh. My. Gosh. This is way more work than I realized, and I'm no stranger to painting! I worked on it all evening and didn't even get through half of it. There are SO many edges and one color needs at least 2 coats! You'll see when I finally finish and post pictures. Here's a teaser, since you obviously won't get to see the finished product for several more days...

See that red? Yeah...it ended up on my beige carpet. That's when you know it's time to quit painting for the night! Luckily, I caught it quickly so I was able to get most of it out.

Now, I'm enjoying my first cup of green matcha tea before I go to bed.

Since I've never had it before I tried it plain. I didn't really care for it that way so, as I suspected I would, I ended up making a green matcha tea latte by adding some honey and cream. Yum!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

2010-03-08T23:38:00.001-06:00

I can't believe how much rain we have gotten lately. We needed it badly, but I'm ready for it to end...NOW! I think my motivation matches the weather...dreary. It seems like most Mondays are like that for me so I'll just roll with it and look forward. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, sunny, and warm!

This morning started with coffee and a bowl of oatmeal with bananas, pecans, and maple syrup. It was gone before I remembered to take the photo! :)

It appears I will be making a lot of Green Monsters for the foreseeable future. My son decided he loves them and wants one every day for breakfast. I made him one before school this morning and then I made one for myself to take to work. I had it as a snack later in the afternoon. We liked this new flavor.

Mango Zico, splash of coconut milk, chia seeds, 1/2 banana, Bartlett pear, spinach, and kale.

This made a really good snack, it wasn't too filling but I felt totally satisfied after drinking it. I must have been really hungry today because I can't manage to get any pictures before I dig in! Sorry!

Dinner was ho-hum tonight, and then we spent the evening helping our neighbors drink the leftover beer from the party on Saturday.

Almost...But Not Quite

2010-03-07T22:25:00.001-06:00

I'm sooooo close to being done with the painting. I just need to do the trimming, but I already have everything taped off, so hopefully it will go quick! Stay tuned for pictures later this week.

I would consider today to be productive since I did get a lot of painting done, although I didn't even get dressed or get out of the house. I was hoping to run, but the weather was rainy off and on and I was really focused on my painting project so I'll try to make some time for that tomorrow.

I took a break from painting to have lunch with the kids. We had sandwiches with sprouts again (well, mine had sprouts) and some grape tomatoes.

Mesquite smoked turkey, white cheddar, sprouts, mayo, and cilantro pesto on whole grain pita.

Later I made a Green Monster as a snack and my son split it with me. He LOVED it and begged me to make more!

Vita Coco with pineapple, chia seeds, banana, frozen cherries, spinach, and kale.

We have really been on a hummus kick lately. Tonight we had my Chicken Shawarma with hummus, a cucumber, tomato, red pepper, and red onion relish, and whole grain pita bread.

**For those of you who use chia seeds, or are interested in trying them, I found a great deal! This seems to work most of the time...go to Google and type in "chia oil" (without the quotes). The first sponsored link is usually for Puritan's Pride and it offers 40% off Chia Seed Oils plus free shipping. If you click on that link, it's not just the oil that's on sale, but the seeds too. I got FIVE 16oz. jars for $25 with free shipping! That's a great price - I paid $16.99 for the same amount at a local store.

Golden Saturday

2010-03-07T10:24:00.001-06:00

Saturday started slow, but quickly shaped up to be pretty productive. I woke up and made a kind of nasty looking, but very tasty, greenish-brown monster!

Peach/Mango Vita Coco, chia seeds, banana, frozen cherries, asparagus, and spinach.

I'm finally ready to unveil a project that I started last week. I grew my own sprouts!

By Saturday they were ready to eat, so I set them in the window for several hours to let them green up a bit.

I had never heard of this before reading this post by Today's Lady. It sounded like an interesting project and something that would be fun to do with the kids. We grew a mixture of mung bean, alfalfa, and red clover sprouts. So, for lunch today we had sandwiches with sprouts.

I enjoyed it, but it's like pulling teeth to get the rest of the family interested in eating something "unfamiliar". I doubt we'll do it again, but it was fun and if your family will eat sprouts I highly recommend growing your own. It was really easy!

Remember these...?

After putting it off as long as possible, half of it is on the walls now!! :) My goal for today is to finish the job. I used the roller to get most of the walls done in color #1. Next up will be rolling on color #2 and then I have to brush the edges to cut in around the trim, ceiling, and corners. Just getting some paint on the walls was half the battle. Now I'm motivated to get it finished because who wants to live with a half-painted room? Hopefully I'll be able to show pictures tonight!

After I finished my Saturday painting, it was time to get ready for a party. Our neighbors/friends were celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary (the "Golden Anniversary")! It was a fun night of eating, drinking, dancing, and laughter.

They are a fun-loving couple with a great sense of humor (see his hand in the second picture!). It was a joy to help them celebrate their 50 years together!

Sometimes you just need a big, greasy breakfast to get you going on the weekend. We started off our Sunday with hash browns, spicy sausage, and over easy eggs. I hope this will give me the energy I need to finish that big painting job! :) Stay tuned!

I've Been Bad...

2010-03-05T21:21:00.001-06:00

I've been so bad! This was my breakfast...two raspberry pancakes with butter and powdered sugar. Oh my gosh, they were SO good, but I was miserable after I ate them. To make matters worse, I will admit that I also at two of these last night. Horrible...

At lunch today, I went to my favorite place - Whole Foods - and just walked around and browsed. I ended up getting a very good chicken salad sandwich, some more coconut water, and some new yogurt that you'll probably read about next week.

Coconut water, chia seeds, banana, cherries, spinach, and asparagus.

I ate my sandwich and washed it down with a Green Monster. The GM was really good today, I made it this morning and kept it in the fridge at work.

I've really been in a funk lately and it has been affecting my exercise in a negative way. I was about to back out of running after work today, but I finally settled on a short run and I'm glad I did. It's much better than not doing it at all.

Overall, I would say my motivation today was just average. I got some points for my short run and I did some things at work today that I had been putting off earlier in the week, but I do still have these things waiting for me...

Green Hummus and a Motivation Update

2010-03-04T22:06:00.000-06:00

Many days I decide what's for dinner as I'm driving home from work. In my head I go through the ingredients I have on hand and try to think of something halfway creative and tasty. Tonight I remembered the cilantro I have in the veggie drawer and since I've been on a hummus kick lately, I put the two together.

Cannellini beans, tahini, lime juice, cilantro, evoo, and salt.

I have been so busy this week that I totally forgot to mention my motivation for the past couple of posts. For me, busy is best because I don't even have time to think about whether or not I'm motivated. I've had a lot of things going on at work and then shuttling the kids to some appointments and some evening activities gave me little time for anything else.

One thing I'm NOT motivated for lately, and I'm NOT happy about it either, is running or working out. The scale is really starting to show it too and that puts me in a super bad mood. Running has been my passion for the past 7 or 8 months and I'm beginning to wonder if I've lost that. I am holding out hope that after the time changes back and we "spring forward", I'll spring right back into running.

Have you ever lost the passion for doing something you love? What did you do to get it back?

Let's Talk Coffee...

2010-03-04T00:06:00.000-06:00

I gave you a teaser last week that I would post soon about coffee "my way". Well, the time has come.

I'm no coffee snob, I don't grind my coffee beans fresh daily, and I'm not even extremely picky about the type of coffee I drink. I buy various brands of coffee. Sometimes whatever is on sale or whatever sounds good at the time. Matt dictates that it can't be a flavored coffee. He hates those and I'm fine with that. Usually we pick a medium to dark roast.

I AM, however, concerned about what goes IN my coffee! There are 3 things I put in my coffee that make me happy.

I mentioned coconut oil once before. I've started ~~sneaking~~ adding about 1 tablespoon of coconut oil to the coffee grounds (Matt still hasn't realized it!). The coconut oil (unrefined, cold pressed, "extra virgin", etc.) is so good for you and putting it in coffee is a good way to get that oil into your daily diet.

When I was on my "Coconut Kick", I decided to try replacing the cream in my coffee with coconut milk. When you look at the calorie and fat content it's about half that of cream (yes, I used full fat heavy cream) and, although I do not claim to be an expert by any means, I believe the type of fat in the coconut milk is much better for you than what you get from heavy cream (and if I'm wrong, please allow me to remain blissfully ignorant). I've been drinking my coffee with coconut milk for about 2 months now and I'm totally hooked. I don't want it any other way!

Several years ago, Matt started topping off his coffee with some Reddi Whip we had leftover from some dessert (when he wasn't squirting it directly into his mouth!). It caught on and I started adding it to my cup of coffee...now we buy Reddi Whip for the sole purpose of topping our coffee!

And that's coffee..."my way"!

I've Created a Monster!

2010-03-02T23:16:00.001-06:00

This morning I just wasn't in the mood for my oatmeal (I know, shocking!), but I had some Strawberry Papaya left over from the Exotic Fruit Plate the other day and I got an idea...

I made a Green Monster! I believe I first read about Green Monsters on Healthy Tipping Point (she writes a great blog - check it out!). Since then though, they seem to be popping up in lots of things I'm reading. Everyone raves about them, so I decided to give it a whirl.

I used a Zico passion fruit flavored coconut water, 1 scoop of chia seeds, 1 banana, 1/2 strawberry papaya, and a bowl full of spinach. Here's how it came out:

It was REALLY green and REALLY yummy! Totally sweet with no spinach-y taste whatsoever! It kept me satisfied most of the morning and it felt good to have such a healthy breakfast.

I had some errands to run at lunch, so just grabbed a half sandwich with a side of mac 'n' cheese at Panera.

Thier mac 'n' cheese is really good, but it just tasted so rich to me today that I couldn't finish it. I didn't eat any more of it after I took this picture.

Later, I wanted a snack and I had these to choose from:

The choice seemed obvious until I looked at the nutritional info.

Wow...not at all what I expected. I have never been one to count calories, but I was shocked that this yogurt has so many calories and so much fat! I'm typically a "full fat" type of person but I think I will have to check out the lower fat version of this yogurt if I'm going to keep eating it.

I still chose the yogurt because, even though it was chock full of calories and fat, it still seemed like it would be more healthy and it just sounded better to me.

I didn't make it home in time to run, so I have been bummed all evening! I'm going to begin my countdown to the beginning of Daylight Saving Time!! After March 15, it will be so much easier to get home in time to run before the sun goes down and I'll just be a happier person in general! :)

Dinner tonight was pretty simple, but still yummy. We grilled chicken, roasted veggies, and served it with couscous. The couscous was for my son who decided he really likes that stuff!

I covered my chicken with Texafrance Cilantro Pesto. I don't know if anyplace other than Texas carries this brand of pesto, but it is fabulous! They have several different variations such as Cilantro, Poblano, Chipotle, regular, etc. I've tried the Poblano and now the Cilantro and seriously I could have eaten them with a spoon!

I have a big day tomorrow since I'm facilitating an all day meeting. Off to bed I go!

Happy Birthday!

2010-03-01T21:27:00.002-06:00

We had a little celebration last night, but today is actually Matt's birthday. Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!

For his birthday dinner tonight, we had one of his favorite dishes - Mussels in Saffron White Wine Sauce. He's a seafood lover, so he usually requests some sort of seafood. Here's how it all started...

...and here's how it ended up...

While I prepared dinner tonight, I was admiring how pretty my veggie drawer looks after a couple of trips to the store this weekend. It's so nice and colorful, I just had to take a picture!

For the past few months, I've been trying really hard to incorporate more vegetables into our meals. There are very few vegetables that Matt will eat (and actually enjoy) and the kids aren't much better, so I'm trying to get creative (read: sneaky).

Hopefully you'll be seeing more of these beauties later in the week! I can't wait to dig into them!

Did you know it's National Procrastination Week? Cool! That means I can procrastinate all week and not feel guilty? :) Well, I would say I started off pretty good then because I really didn't do anything productive other than work and make dinner. I also had a really bad headache all day, so I wasn't extremely motivated to do much else. There's always tomorrow, right?

Amelia Earhart, Exotic Fruit, and a Chocolate Cake

2010-02-28T23:29:00.003-06:00

This morning started out great! I got up when I planned to and had some coffee and then I got my running clothes on. I ran 4+ miles as I promised myself yesterday.

After the run, I showered and then prepared our Exotic Fruit plate for breakfast.

I think we all agreed the Mandarin oranges were really yummy (very sweet!) and the golden raspberries were good. My personal favorite was the Strawberry Papaya. In fact, just thinking about it now is making my mouth water!

What I was REALLY looking forward to was this:

At about 2.5 miles this morning, I used this as incentive to get through the rest of the run. I just kept thinking that I had a bowl of oatmeal waiting at home for me along with a hot cup of coffee!

I figured I needed to hydrate after the run, plus I needed to down some chia seeds this morning so I added them to a cup of Vita Coco. I know it looks weird, but it was really good!

Do you remember the "Bubble Tea" or "Boba Tea" that was popular a few years ago? It had tapioca pearls in the bottom of a sweet tea or fruit beverage. That's kind of what this reminded me of, with the chia seeds being a teeny tiny version of the tapioca pearls.

A trip to the grocery store was next up on the agenda and when we got home from the store, I was still right on schedule. I had a To Do list for the day and had even planned the times when I needed to do things so I could be sure to get everything done, see...

It was about 2:00 and Matt's birthday cake was in the oven when my 8 year old broke the news to me that he had a research project due TOMORROW! Luckily they did all of the research in class, but they were supposed to put the creative presentation together at home.

As soon as the cake came out of the oven we headed to Office Max to get the supplies for his presentation. His project was on Amelia Earhart. It was actually kind of a fun presentation to do and we found the perfect poster board that was sky blue with clouds already printed on it! We...um, I mean he...made kind of a 3 dimensional red airplane coming out of the page with propellers that spin!

The whole time this was going on, I was simultaneously trying to ice a cake and get dinner going. I was stressed out to say the least!

On the birthday dinner menu for tonight were Grilled Lamb Chops (for Matt only, the kids and I had steak), Grilled Lobster Tails, Roasted Asparagus, and Brown Rice.

The cake was a Dark Chocolate Mocha Cake that was fabulous!

The cake contained coffee liqueur and there was mocha cream in between the layers. I served it with coffee ice cream...sinful!

...and painting the game room carries forward to the next to do list...

CH-CH-CH-CHIA!

2010-02-27T23:02:00.002-06:00

We now have a new staple in our house and it's the Chia seed. This little thing is a power house even though it's about the size of the seeds in a kiwi fruit. I found a new blog a few weeks ago that I really love to read - it's called "Eat, Live, Run" - you really should check it out. Anyway, I kept noticing that chia seeds were mentioned in a few of her posts (I think she normally puts them in her oatmeal) and wondered what in the heck they were. See them below next to the penny as a size reference.

I did some research and learned that there's pretty much nothing bad about these tiny seeds that are considered a "Super Food". I brought some home last night and we all tried them and decided we will incorporate chia seeds in our food. Every so often throughout the evening my son would break into the chia song, "Ch-ch-ch-chia!" and Matt and I would just crack up!

We woke up this morning and Matt and I were both craving eggs. When I found out there were only two left, I let him have them and started digging in the fridge for my oatmeal. Oh how disappointed I was when I realized I had eaten the last of it yesterday and didn't prepare a new batch last night. I could have eaten rolled oats, but I'm telling you - they're like night and day, they don't even taste the same to me so I just didn't bother. Instead, I fixed one of my multi grain bagels with almond butter and honey.

I took the kids with me to run some errands. We had several places to go including buying a birthday present for Matt/Daddy. Our first stop was the grocery store where we had fun picking out several exotic fruits to try.

Here's our loot. Watch tomorrow for our fruit tasting!

Our next stop was to get some supplies for a new project which will remain secret for a few days, but I'll give this picture below as a hint.

After our errands, we picked Matt up and went to our favorite local burger place.

Everything there is fresh and made on site, they even form the patties and cut the fries behind a window for everyone to see. It's so worth the thousand calories!!

This was a very late lunch, so it served as dinner too.

I felt like I accomplished a lot today, but I didn't do everything I intended to do. It was a jam packed day and a couple of the things that have been on my To Do list for a while now keep getting carried forward as time runs out. I MUST get them done tomorrow! I am making that commitment now "publicly" so it's harder to back out (forcing my motivation)...tomorrow I WILL run at least 4 miles and I WILL paint the game room!

Leftover Makeover

2010-02-26T21:58:00.001-06:00

My day wasn't too exciting except for the fact that it's FRIDAY!! It was a long hard week and I was ready for it to end. So I guess I will say I was motivated to get the week over with. :D

When I get home on Fridays, usually the last thing I want to do is cook a full blown dinner. We had some leftover pork tenderloin and veggies from last night so they got a makeover!

A Frittata is a wonderful thing! You can put almost anything in it for a very satisfying meal. I diced the pork, warmed it up the veggies, and then sprinkled parmesan cheese over the top. I poured two beaten eggs over the top and cooked on medium low, covered, until done. At the end I topped it with Monterrey Jack cheese.

I made a special trip to the liquor store tonight to get some sake, called Moonstone Raspberry Sake, that I recently tried at a restaurant. It was SO good, like a really light and crisp white wine with just the essence of raspberry but not sweet at all. They didn't have the raspberry but they had plum, so I gave it a try.

WAY too sweet for me! Ugh! But if you like really fruity and sweet drinks, then you should give this a try.

I poured out the sake and settled for a Fat Tire - my beer of choice!

I've got some fun foodie things planned for the weekend, so stay tuned! :)

Hello Motivation!

2010-02-25T23:17:00.000-06:00

Even though I was REALLY tired today, I had more motivation than earlier in the week. The weather was beautiful and I'm starting to plan for the weekend so maybe that had something to do with it.

I briefly talked about it only once so far, but coffee is a daily ritual for me. I always have my coffee even though I don't mention it in the daily posts. One of these days (soon) I'll dedicate a post to coffee "my way" because it is a wonderful thing!

I was running late this morning, so took my breakfast with me to eat at work.

I decided to try something new with my SCO so I added raspberries, almonds, 1/2 a banana, and some maple syrup. Not bad!

I went out to lunch with a friend from work and, as usual when I'm out at lunch, I forgot to snap a picture. We often go to one of Austin's most popular local restaurants, Chuy's, and we always order the same thing. I have Deluxe Chicken Enchiladas and my friend has the Chicken Fajita Burrito. They also have awesome sopapillas, but we were trying to be good today so we restrained ourselves.

I've been so hungry lately. Even though I was stuffed after a big lunch, I was still ready for a snack around 3:00 this afternoon. I had the other 1/2 of my banana and some greek yogurt with honey (I'm so hooked on this stuff!).

I rushed home around 6:00pm, did a quick change, and headed out for a short run. Really short - I ran just under 2 miles before it started to get dark. That's ok because I've been having some pain in my leg and I'm afraid I have a shin splint so I don't want to overdo it.

(FINALLY I got the screen capture to work on my iPhone!)

When I got home I fired up the grill and got to work on dinner. I marinated broccoli, red pepper, red onion, grape tomatoes, and carrots in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, oregano, basil, salt and pepper. I grilled the veggies and a pork tenderloin that Matt started marinating in the afternoon in Wasabi Teriyaki sauce. I cooked some couscous and voila!

Notice that I used the same "spinach trick" I tried the other day. Because of the shape of the pork tenderloin, it didn't wilt the spinach quite as much but it was still good.

Here's a close up of the grilled veggies:

It's late and I'm hungry again. I think I've had plenty of calories today so I will skip the late night snack and go to bed.

Red Pepper Hummus

2010-02-25T00:01:00.000-06:00

Today was kind of blah and things didn't really go as planned. I wanted to try to run after work, but it just wasn't in the cards today. I've been really tired the past few days so I think that has brought my motivation down. Hopefully it will come back soon!

Probably the high point of my day was this awesome hummus I made for dinner.

I don't know if any pictures can do hummus justice, but this one certainly doesn't come close! It was tasty! I modified my original hummus recipe to incorporate a red bell pepper that I needed to use up. Garbanzos, tahini, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, about 1/4 of a large red pepper, dash of Frank's Red Hot, and salt were all pulverized in the food processor. As you can see, Matt couldn't even wait for me to take the picture before he dug in to it! I served it with grilled chicken breast and flour tortillas.

I Can See (The Snow) Clearly Now...

2010-02-23T22:30:00.002-06:00

It really wasn't a "Terrific Tuesday" today, but it wasn't a "Terrible Tuesday" either. It was Wacky and Weird (too bad it wasn't a Wednesday!) because today we received several inches of snow in Austin. A very rare occurrence for south Texas!

It melted pretty fast as it hit the ground, but it caused a lot of excitement as everyone in the office had to go outside to take pictures and throw a few snowballs.

Poor Roger couldn't even see the snow through all that overgrown hair, so he had a date with the groomer.

Mutt Makeover - Before

Mutt Makeover - After

I have to facilitate a structured meeting at work next week. I have been trained to be a facilitator, but haven't done it for about 5 years so I'm very rusty. I've been putting off the planning and preparation because I'm not too thrilled about it, but today I scheduled a few meetings with people that forced me to start the prep work. That's another little trick I use to motivate me to do things I don't like. I hate letting people down, so making a commitment to someone else that is time-bound adds a sense of urgency.

The only noteworthy food item I have for today is the dinner I threw together tonight. I tend to buy a lot of vegetables only to let them rot in the refrigerator because I forget they are in there. Tonight I tried to incorporate as many veggies as I could with the frozen chicken breast that I always have on hand. The result? Lime Chicken Soft Tacos!

Not bad at all! I diced and sauteed chicken breast, red bell pepper, red onion, and a jalapeno in a little bit of coconut oil and spices (chili powder, cumin, salt, and Mexican oregano). Toward the end I added the juice of a lime. The lime and spices that were used in this dish masked the flavor of the coconut oil so it was virtually undetectable.

To assemble the tacos I piled a whole wheat tortilla with some spinach leaves, the chicken mixture, cheddar cheese, and some avacado slices.

Top that off with some coffee ice cream and I'm ready to call it a night!

I'll leave you with the image of Roger doing his happy (break)dance on the kitchen floor! He's so happy to be able to see again!

Moody Monday

2010-02-22T21:22:00.003-06:00

Today was a really yucky Monday for me. Have you ever had a day where you wake up and wish you were sick so you could just stay in bed all day and not feel guilty about it? That was me today...pretty sad, huh? Well, I drug my behind out of bed and went to work, but was irritable and impatient all day. I thought of several things I could do this evening to get out of the rut and end the day on a higher note - go for a run, do our taxes (wait, that might not have the desired effect!), or get started on a home project I've been meaning to do. In the end, I decided that it's ok to be unmotivated once in a while so I did absolutely nothing! And I'm ok with that.

As far as food goes, it was a day of repeats. Had my normal oatmeal and coffee for breakfast then some greek yogurt and a bagel with almond butter for lunch. Luckily, no one was really hungry tonight so everyone was left to fend for themselves for dinner.

One thing I can share with you, however, is the bread I made last night. It wasn't ready for dinner because of my poor planning, so it didn't make it into yesterday's post. I came across a recipe for No-Knead Ciabatta Bread with a very helpful video. I'm so glad I stumbled upon this recipe on the Food Wishes blog by Chef John and I can't wait to check out more of his great looking recipes!

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the dough before this stage, but you can see it in Chef John's video and mine looked just as he said it should. This is a very easy recipe and would be great for people who may not be comfortable working with bread dough. I LOVE to bake bread and do it often so I have gotten past the intimidation stage, but believe me it took some practice!

This made one BIG loaf of bread! We're still eating it tonight dipped in some extra virgin olive oil and spices. YUM!

Thank goodness "Moody Monday" is almost over. Tomorrow I'm hoping for a "Terrific (not Terrible) Tuesday"!

Food Network Junkie

2010-02-21T22:38:00.002-06:00

I do like to have one day a week to sleep in. Today, I didn't get out of bed until just before 10:00am, although I enjoyed some coffee in bed before that. I am happy that I didn't let the fact that we slept in ruin the rest of the day! We hopped out of bed and started in on a big breakfast.

Let me explain the bacon...first of all you will find that although I like to eat healthy things, I rarely shy away from bacon. Second of all don't you just hate cooking bacon on the stove? It gets grease all over EVERYTHING! I learned this trick from watching Tyler Florence on the Food Network - you cook the bacon in the oven on 375 for about 15 minutes. I also made eggs and pancakes (chocolate chip pancakes for the kids and raspberry pancakes with powdered sugar for us! YUM!).

While I enjoyed my breakfast, I started in on my To Do list - I'm beginning to like this motivation strategy. It helps me remember all of the things I would like to do, gives me a mission for the day, and I don't have to stop and rack my brain to remember what it was I needed to do next.

It turned out to be a beautiful day! It really felt like spring and I was glad that a few of the things on my list got me out of the house.

After running a few errands, I was ready for a quick snack/lunch and then I put my running clothes on.

One of my errands was to go to the grocery store. I bought these mini bagels in the bakery that are whole grain and topped with sesame and flax seeds. One of those ended up being my lunch along with some fresh ground almond butter and honey.

The run felt great but I still don't feel up to running any long distances yet since my half marathon a week ago. That said, I was certainly glad I didn't listen to the little voice inside telling me I should skip it - and thanks to Matt for giving me that extra encouragement to "just do it"!

I was a little thirsty when I started running, so by the time I was done I was dying for something to drink. A bottle of water and a Vita Coco did the trick! I discovered this drink a couple of months ago and it started my coconut obsession (coconut water led to coconut oil which led to coconut milk - you'll hear more about that later!). Vita Coco is a great natural sports drink with tons of potassium and other electrolytes. It also tastes great and comes in several flavors. Pineapple and passion fruit are my favorites.

For dinner tonight, we had marinated flank steak, veggies, roasted potatoes and leftover brown rice. I have to say, this dinner was AWESOME! Matt was laughing at me because I kept patting myself on the back.

Sure, the recipe (one of our favorites) belonged to Rachel Ray, but do you see that green stuff poking out from under the meat? Yeah, that was ALL me! I loaded up the plate with some fresh spinach leaves, headed to the grill, took the meat off the burner and plopped it right down on top of that spinach. I let the meat rest for about 10 minutes and meanwhile, the juices dripped down into the spinach and the heat from the meat "cooked" it just the perfect amount! Oh my goodness was this good! Even my 8 year old loved it!

It's pretty obvious by now that I spend a lot of time watching the Food Network. I remember when the channel first started and I will likely be a loyal follower as long as they're around!

Ahhh...Saturday...

2010-02-20T21:51:00.005-06:00

It was a great Saturday! I woke up at a decent hour (before 8:30) and we immediately started getting some chores out of the way. Well...ok...after a cup of coffee and some SCO!

I have a secret about the coffee. I've been sneaking coconut oil in it for a while now. Matt doesn't seem to care for things cooked in coconut oil so I have to find some way to get that healthy goodness into him! :) If you've never heard about the benefits of coconut oil, you should really check it out. There's a huge difference between the hydrogenated crap and extra virgin, unrefined, cold pressed coconut oil.

Getting out of bed and getting dressed at a decent time is a key motivator for me. I got so many things done this morning instead plopping down on the couch in front of the TV.

We ate a quick lunch, mostly leftovers, and then headed out to run a few errands. I picked up these candle holders for the bedroom.

Not exactly what I want, but they were really cheap so they'll make due for now until I find something more sparkly!

After a quick stop at Whole Foods (LOVE that place!), we took the kids to the bookstore and just hung out for a while. We browsed through some books and had some drinks - one of my favorite things to do with the family on the weekends!

By the time we got home it was time for dinner. I have had this weird craving lately for vegetables of all kinds.

In one corner we have acorn squash and beets roasted in that wonderful coconut oil and then glazed with honey. In the other corner we have asparagus and mushrooms brushed with olive oil and spices and a pat of butter.

While I was cooking, I had a glass on Pinot Noir. I love to have a nice glass of wine while I cook. I really like this one...

Dinner was yummy! I grilled some chicken and made some short grain brown rice to serve with the overabundance of veggies. :)

Getting Things Done!

2010-02-19T21:21:00.003-06:00

Today was all about Getting Things Done! It could have gone downhill from the get-go when I almost slept right through my alarm.

After getting the kids off to school, I threw together the Mediterranean Beef Stew that would be simmering away while I worked. That took some extra time out of my normal routine, so I had to pack up my steel cut oatmeal (SCO), which I DID remember to cook last night, to eat at work.

SCO with pecans, 1/2 banana and honey. This is my usual combination with one exception - I normally use maple syrup but since I had some honey at work I subbed that instead. Maple syrup is still my fave, but the honey was really good too. Seriously, nothing compares to SCO! You must try it!

I am so happy that I got so many things checked off of my to do list. Actually, I am thrilled that I even MADE a to do list today! And let me tell you...I was cranking through them like nobody's business! I think the key to my motivational success today, aside from the to do list, was that I scheduled time on my calendar to get these things done. When the reminder popped up I just went into auto-pilot mode because, believe me, if given time to think I could have easily found something else to do that was more fun! These were boring and mundane things but necessary - like scheduling doctor and dentist appointments for my kids, grooming appointment for the dog, ordering new contact lenses, and some work related stuff.

My oatmeal filled me up this morning, so I was still not extremely hungry by 12:45 but I ate anyway. Since my afternoon was packed with meetings I knew this may be the only chance I would get. On the menu for lunch were leftover meatballs from last night. Still just as good the next day!

I did find time to get in an afternoon snack. Unfortunately, that didn't do anything to stop the slight headache I had coming on. By the time I left the office it was a full fledged headache so I took some ibuprofen and waited for it to kick in. :(

When I got home, I could smell the aroma of dinner that had been slow cooking all day. What a weird smell! Not a good sign. Also not a good sign was Matt's comment which was something like, "What IS it exactly that we're having for dinner?". We both tried it and while it wasn't inedible, it's definitely not something I will make again. I whipped up some hummus real fast to make up for the meat that no one (except for me) wanted to eat.

The meat itself really wasn't bad, I just couldn't take much of the sauce. It had a LOT of cinnamon, some balsamic vinegar, honey, tomatoes and beef broth. I think it was the overabundance of cinnamon that threw us all for a loop. I wondered this morning as I dumped in 2 full teaspoons, but decided to stick to the recipe and hope for the best. Hmph!

Excuse the paper plate - given the dinner flop and the headache I was trying to fight off, I just didn't feel like creating more dirty dishes to deal with!

Big Ol' Meatballs

2010-02-19T00:09:00.006-06:00

Today started with a ho hum bowl of oatmeal. I forgot to make my steel cut oats last night so had to settle for rolled oats instead. :( What a difference! I won't forget tonight.

As I headed to one of my mid morning meetings I heard the scary news that someone flew a plane into a nearby office building (seriously, just a couple of miles away). Wow...flashes of 9/11 went through my mind and it was happening in my town! Things settled down pretty quickly as the story of a disgruntled tax payer came out. I'm just so glad that there weren't more people hurt.

It was such a nice day, I had to get out for lunch. I went into a place I've just walked by many times before - The Steeping Room.

I grabbed a Turkey BLT on ciabatta bread with basil mayo and a side salad to go. It was yummy! I couldn't resist the Starbucks next door and had a gift card burning a hole in my wallet, so I grabbed an Iced Chai Latte too!

It was a busy afternoon, but I like it that way. It makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something and makes the day go by faster. I had a quick snack in between conference calls to give me some energy for the run I had planned later in the afternoon.

This is only my third Greek yogurt experience and it's really starting to grow on me. It was already flavored with honey, but I couldn't resist drizzling a little extra on top!

The whole way home from work I was already thinking of excuses not to run. Believe me, it took some motivation to actually come home and get my running clothes on and get out there. I just set my mind to it and didn't give myself any other options.

I know...not a very long run or a very fast run. But I just finished a half marathon on Sunday!!! Just that measly 2 miles were much harder than I thought they would be. I was satisfied to just get out there and do something after taking a few days off.

Now for the finale...

I made some BIG OL' MEATBALLS for dinner! Washed them down with a nice Pinot Noir, and called it a day! Cheers!