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By Liz, November 16, 2009 8:58 pm

Good evening guys. As the title implies, today was actually a pretty good day.

I got lotsa good sleep and woke up super refreshed.

Ate a yummilicious breakfast.

It was a bit chilly for a Chunky Strawberry, but it was just what I was craving.

Work was chill.

Lunch was bomb!

Oh leftovers, I love thee.

I remembered why I don’t eat oranges very often.

They’re tasty, but a pain in the arse to peel!

Cross country practice was kick butt: 400m fast untimed to loosen up, 2×200 (41 sec each), 600 (2:15), 400 (1:28), 200 (41 sec).  We’ve been doing a lot of quick tune-up work to prepare for STATE!!

Snackage was a granola bar (unpictured) and carrots and almond butter.

Always a good combo!

I tried one of my fun New Frontier’s buys…

This coconut water was pretty good. I’ve never had coconut water before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I”ve heard good things, and the fact that it is like a natural sports drink really appeals to me. It had a subtle coconut flavor and a slight thickness to it. It almost tasted like plain water! It was kind of expensive and only tasted okay, so I probably won’t be buying this on a regular basis. I always love trying new things though, so I did enjoy sipping on it with my almond butter and carrots.

Dinner was fab-u-lous. My roommate Justin cooked up burritos for all the roomies and his girlfriend and brother came over, too. So it was kind of a festive night. There were a few shots of tequila had, but I refrained. Tequila is just really not my thing. Here’s the version of burrito night I had…

A salad the size of my head: spring mix, broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, radish, steak, refried beans, cheddar cheese, 1/4 avocado, salsa and blue corn chips. I will admit, I was a tad bit too full after cleaning my plate…but it was oh so delicious!

Instead of a margarita with my dinner, I had a beer.

Probably not the best flavor combo, but it tasted fine.

I wasn’t too full for dessert…but when am I ever

Just some Green and Black’s Hazelnut and Currant chocolate. Heaven in bar form my friends!

So yes, Monday has been a good day and will be a good evening…as there is no imminent homework to do.

I will leave y’all with a Vibram update: I ran a 2 mile warm-up and 2 mile cool-down in them today. I think I may have overdone it a bit. These shoes do require a serious break-in period! Here’s the blister I got (probably was the Vibrams but could have been something else).

Ya, kinda gnarly. Also, my other foot was extremely sore. Tomorrow I am going to take a complete break from wearing them and go a bit easier on the miles that I run into them for now. Looking forward to when my feet are completely used to them though. And, yes, they are still very comfortable and I still love them…I just need to work up to spending more time in them.

Okay, time to veg out! Night!

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By Liz, October 30, 2009 9:22 pm

Happy Halloween eve guys. Are you getting in the Halloween spirit yet? I totally am! Not sure what the plans are yet for tomorrow…if there are any they will probably be last minute. I don’t even have a costume…so we’ll see.

Breakfast this morning was my new favorite oat combo…I dub them Apple Crisp Oats.

This breakkie was made with: 1/2 cup of oats and 1/2 an apple cooked in water. Topped with cinnamon, brown sugar, walnuts and peanut butter. So good! I truly feel like I’m eating a warm apple crisp when I dig into this bowl. Yum!

I had quite a few customers at work today, which was cool. The best part of my job is helping people find running shoes. I love spreading the running love and giving advice to newbies or chit chatting about running with vets. Makes my job worthwhile.

Lunch was some leftover pasta salad that I made last night.

Along with some thawed out frozen strawberries.

That picture of the pasta salad does not do it justice. It looked prettier on my plate last night. I got this recipe from my friend Paige, who’s on the cross country team also. She was eating this yesterday for lunch and it looked great, so I asked her for the recipe. I just happened to have everything on hand, so I totally made it for dinner!

Paige’s Pasta Salad

• 1/2 package of whole wheat noodles or any shape, cooked and drained
• 1 cup chopped broccoli
• 1 zucchini
• 2 small yellow squash
• 1/2 large red onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 medium tomato
• 1/2c. cilantro, chopped
• 1 cup garbanzo beans
• 2 hard boiled eggs
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• basil
• rosemary
• salt and pepper
• garlic powder
• lettuce (to serve with)
• parmesan cheese (to serve with)

Directions:Cook pasta per instructions on package. Saute in olive oil the onion and pepper, then add in broccoli and squashes. Once pasta is done, put in large bowl or back in pasta pot, stir in a little oil, then add in the sauteed veggies and the tomato, cilantro and beans. I didn’t measure the amount of spices, oil or vinegar I added, so add in enough to suite your taste. I probably added in about 2 more tablespoons of oil, 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar, 1 tbsp. basil, 1/2 tbsp. rosemary, 1/2 tbsp. of garlic powder and a little bit of pepper and salt. Toss it all together and serve over a bed of lettuce topped with the chopped up hard-boiled egg and parmesan cheese. I got about 5 large servings out of this recipe. The 2 eggs are only for 2 servings.

This was a really quick and delicious meal and made great leftovers. Thanks for the great idea Paige!

Cross country practice was killer today! We did 400m repeats. Started off with a 2 mile warm up. I was assigned 10×400m repeats. We had hot and cold laps, too (hot being a faster pace and cold being a slightly slower pace). My hot pace was 1:36 and my cold pace was 1:44. However, I ran all my intervals faster…hots at 1:30-1:33 and colds at 1:39-1:40. My coach was really proud that I was running them faster. It was a super tough workout and I really pushed myself. I’ve been working on pushing just a little past the level I’m used to in hopes of running an even better time next week at So Cals, so I think I made a good step towards that with the workout today. I cooled down with super slow and easy mile. So total today I ran 5.5 miles.

I refueled with the last of my kabocha squash. I NEED to buy some more ASAP!!

When I got home from practice about 45 minutes later, I was seriously famished. So, I had this leftover lasagna that one of my roommates made (a la Stouffers) a week ago. I thought I’d do her a service and finish it off.

Kinda unappetising photo but it tasted alright. Not something I’d buy on my own, but I’m on the tail end of groceries again…which means I work with what I got.

So…here’s the shining star of my day.

I made Pumpkin Baked Doughnuts! I saw a banana version of these on Jenna of Foodie in the City’s site yesterday. They looked really delicious. She found the recipe from Angela’s site. The recipe for the doughnuts is on the link for Angela’s site. She made her doughnuts with banana, but she mentioned that 1 cup of canned pumpkin would be great, too. I just happened to have everything on hand for these plus they would be a fun and festive Halloween treat…so I just had to make em! I didn’t have any ingredients for frosting though, so I made a brown butter sauce to top them with.

Brown Butter Sauce

• 3 tbsp. butter
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• a ample shake of cinnamon
• a little sprinkle of nutmeg

Directions: Combine all ingredients in saucepan, stirring for about 5 minutes until it bubbles. Let bubble for about a minute.

I brushed the sauce on the doughnuts before baking, but I think it would be good brushed on the doughnuts immediately after coming out of the oven, too. These doughnuts are really good. They defenitely aren’t “doughnuts” as you’d traditionally think, but they are still quite good. I’d say they are a cross between a muffin, bagel and cinnamon roll. That combo is pretty tasty in my book. Also, I recommend taking them out of the oven at 7 minutes. I baked them for 9 minutes because I thought they weren’t finished, but after eating them, I realized they were a tad overcooked. So, next time…7 minutes. The final verdict…moist, doughy, cinnamony and delicious! Try these ASAP!

Oh ya dinner…

I made chili covered in cheeeese. There’s a small baked potato underneath the chili, also. The chili was my usual recipe minus onion and with white beans instead of black.

Dessert was pretty obvious…

It was hard to resist eating these the whole time I made dinner…but somehow I resisted and savored every bite of my doughnut for dessert. Heaven!

Okay, well I’m going to enjoy my Friday night a bit and hang out with the boyfriend and roommates. Work tomorrow, and Sunday and Monday, then school, then work….and on and on. Next day off is November 15. Only 2 weeks plus one day away! Can’t wait!

Have a great night tonight! Adios.

Comments (7)

By Liz, October 28, 2009 10:12 pm

Ahh, another hump day is over. Wednesdays are always pretty darn stressful for me. I actually didn’t think I had much homework this week, but since Tuesday I’ve had quite the load of assignments piled on me. But hey, I’m halfway through the semester…so I just gotta get through it.

I was planning on getting up early to workout this morning, early as in 6:30. However, my plans changed quick once the alarm went off. Instead I slept in till 8 and had a leisurely breakkie.

It was an oats in a jar kinda morning. Sadly, this was my last jar of peanut butter. *moment of silence*

This jar of oats included 1/2c. oats and 1 tbsp. chia seeds and 1/2 an apple cooked in water, cinnamon stirred in at the end and topped with walnuts. But of course the shining star was the ooey, gooey peanut butter lining the jar. Ahh, the simple pleasures of life my friends!

I made my lunch, sipped some tea and watched the Today show before heading out the door for work.

At work I got another large shipment of Asics shoes in, so that took up a good 3 hours of my 4 hour shift. Lunch was had around 11am. I got hungry for lunch really early today.

Lunch was a whole wheat tortilla wrap filled with 1/4c. of hummus, 1/4 of an avocado, lettuce, carrot, broccoli, radish, grape tomatoes and about an ounce of fresh parmesan cheese. Here are the innards:

For dessert I had that pear peeking out from behind the wrap.

Since I had lunch so early, I got hungry right before my shift was over. I was planning on working out after work, so I munched on half of this clif bar for a pre-workout snack.

Workout today was an easy recovery day at the gym. 45 minutes on the elliptical (incline 4, resistance 10, avg stride per min 165). Then I did some core work, lunges and squats with a 10lb medicine ball and 3 sets of 10 pushups. After that I swam a relaxing 1000m in the pool, which took about 20 minutes. The other half of the clif bar was eaten immediately after working out. I was pretty famished!

Post workout snacking this afternoon included a hard boiled egg:

Jacob was my lovely hand model for that pic. My other snack was the super special thing I got at the store exactly 1 week ago. Remember my hint was HEAB. Well, sorry to disappoint you Allison, but it was not almond butter (although almond butter is pretty spectacular). It was actually…..drumroll please…a Kambocha squash!

Those are 3 of the 4 quarters of the cooked squash. I prepared my squash by following the directions on the sticker that was on the squash.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 370 degrees F and cut squash into quarters.
2. Get baking sheet, place quarters face down on sheet and fill the bottom of sheet with water (I think the water prevents the squash from sticking to the pan)
3. Bake for 30 minutes
4. After 30 minutes, turn squash over and top with a mixture of 1 tbsp melted butter, 1/4-1/2c. honey, cinnamon and nutmeg. Bake for another 20 minutes.
5. Eat up the wonderful goodness!

Here is the quarter that I munched on immediately after baking:

I gotta say, this squash quite literally rocked my world. I was a bit wary to try it when I first saw it on Heather’s blog. No offense Heather, but you have quite the adventurous palate and I was a bit intimidated. But boy of boy what this squash good! The texture was buttery and smooth…almost creamy. The taste was slightly nutty, almost bland…so the honey and spices really helped kick it up a notch. I now have a tupperware full of cubes of Kabocha goodness. You can bet you’ll be seeing this for a while around these parts.

Let’s not forget about dinner though.

I had a mini steak seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder, sweet potato fries/chips baked the usual way in 425 degree oven tossed in evoo, salt, pepper and cumin, and a huge pile of steamed green beans. Oh, and tons of bbq sauce of course!

You know it’s Halloween time when the candy starts coming out!

One of my roommates bought trick-or-treater candy yesterday, so dessert was pretty obvious. I couldn’t decide which one I wanted more, a Take 5 or a Reese’s cup, so I just had both. I’ve been good though and kept these off limits to just after dinner and only 1 or 2 candies…no more!

Okay, well I still have some major studying to do…the story of my life.

Oh wait…I almost forgot to tell y’all how the race went yesterday! Quick recap: I ran a 22:41. The course was hilly and the weather was crazy windy. That was also a PR for that cross country course. My teams’s #1 girl won the race, and our girl’s team as a whole won 2nd. The guys team got 5th. It was our home course, so we totally represented. Like usual, I always have doubts about my performance, and I know I could have pushed a little harder. But all in all, this was one of my best races all season. So…yay for me and yay for my team. So Cals here we come!

Good night guys!

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By Liz, October 26, 2009 8:19 pm

How’s the Monday treating y’all? Or maybe I shouldn’t remind you guys that it’s the beginning of the week? However, there are two  awesome things to look forward to this weekend! 1 being the fact that Saturday is Halloween…which is just fun! 2 being the fact that the day after Halloween is when we fall back…aka the end of Daylight Savings Time (for all US peeps not in Arizona). So that means early mornings will be much much easier!

So, I didn’t post yesterday because I didn’t really do or eat anything spectacular. Although I did indulge a cheesy cracker craving that I’ve been having for a couple weeks. So, I went out and got cheez-ts. Totally not a healthy food at all, but since cheesy crackers have been on my mind for weeks, I thought it best to just get the craving out of the way. Also, I have discovered Hulu. Am I like way behind on technology or what? But ya, it’s amazing. I literally spent my whole afternoon and evening watching online tv! I watched Greek, The Office (re-watched the wedding episode!) and have officially become obsessed with Glee! Haha, I was sooo productive yesterday.

It was back to reality today. I actually had to do stuff…imagine that!? Due to the fact I had a few too many cheesy crackers yesterday, I decided on a light and super healthy breakfast.

My breakfast included 2 scrambled eggs seasoned with salt and pepper and topped with a little bit of grated parmesan, 1 slice of ezekiel bread smeared with about a tablespoon of peanut butter and 1/2 a banana sliced. Totally hit the spot.

Work was work. Nothing to special to say there! Lunch was more soup, 2 granola bars and a pear.

That was the last of my soup. It’s good soup, but I was starting to get a bit tired of it. I’ve had soup for lunch for the past 4 days! Ya, I’m over it.

Practice today was an easy peasy 4 miler in 38 minutes. I did some core work for around 5 minutes afterwards. Tomorrow I have a super important big race! If y’all wanna send good vibes my way at 3pm Pacific time it would be appreciated The race tomorrow is WSC finals, which is our regional meet. This meet will determine if we go onto so-cals. I really need to get my game face on and rock it! So, I’m a tad nervous…okay I’m really nervous…but I’m going to try and channel all this nervousness into positive energy and determination to kick butt (my butt that is!).

Anywho, I had a yummy snack when I got home after practice.

I made a mini Chunky Strawberry. Just the perfect amount for a snack. I used a 4 frozen strawberries, 1/2  banana, about a 1/3 cup of whole milk yogurt and 1 tablespoon peanut butter. Topped it with 4 banana slices and a few walnuts (I’m out of granola and cereal). I thought it looked soo cute in that little cup. Cute food is just yummier!

Homework ensued but then hunger took over my mind and I had to make dinner. Actually, I assembled dinner.

Haven’t been getting my quota of leafy greens lately, so I made a salad. Just some spring mix, radish, broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, cuke, homemade hummus, 1/4 avocado, a serving (2tbsp) goddess dressing, grated parm and a high fiber whole wheat tortilla with butter on the side. This salad was especially divine tonight. I think I got the proportions of all the ingredients just right.

Dessert was extra special tonight.

That is a coconut popsicle! These are amazing…like mouth watering, dreamy, creamy amazing! Check out the package:

There’s nothing too scary or bad for you in these. Only 130 cals is pretty awesome for a treat that tastes so decadent. The sugar is high, but hey…it is dessert. The thing I like most about these bars is that there are pieces of shredded coconut surrounded by the coconut cream. Totally yummy texture sensation. I found these in the Hispanic foods section of the frozen food section…there is a large Hispanic population in my area, so they were pretty easy for me to get my hands on…but not sure about your area. Keep and eye out though…these are so delicious!

Definitely going to get my rest tonight. I still have to go to all my classes and stuff tomorrow before my race (it’s a home meet). I even have a class afterwards! I for sure need to be rested up.

Goodnight guys!