Comments (8)

By Liz, November 1, 2009 8:46 pm

I’m all in the holiday spirit over here! The beginning of November is like the gateway to the holiday season. I can’t wait till Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then New Years, then my birthday! And they’ll all be here before I know it. But before I get ahead of myself, let’s recap this day, November 1st.

Actually, I want to recap the cookies I made last night first…

These were truly the best cookies I have made…ever! I switched my usual recipe up a little. I also used chocolate chips and some Halloween treats (reeses and snickers). Here’s the recipe:

The Best Cookies Liz Ever Made

• 6 tbsp. butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2c. brown sugar
• 1/4c. regular granulated white sugar
• 1 egg
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2c. chocolate chips
• 3 reeses cups
• 5 mini snickers

Directions:Preheat oven at 375 degrees F. Melt butter in medium sized bowl. Stir in vanilla, sugars, egg and salt. The add half the flour and baking soda. Stir in candies and chocolate chips. Finish by adding the last cup of flour. Combine until all ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. Drop onto greased pan in large spoonful (2-3 tbsp). Bake for 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Just to re-iterate again, these cookies were amazing. They weren’t exactly healthy, but they were delicious…and sometimes delicious things don’t need to be healthy. I enjoyed them and savored every bite of my cookies.

Okay, now to today….

I woke up and went right on my long run. It was my last long run of this cross country season. I ran 8.5 miles in 1hr 22 min. I was proud because I ran my typical route around town a good 5 minutes faster than usual. Maybe it was all the cookies and candy . I felt great!

I wanted a super super healthy breakfast after my indulgences last night (I had a fair share of candy, in the upwards of 10 pieces!). So what better than a green monster to start my day?

Plus a slice of ezekiel toast with butter for something solid.

I worked for 4 hours today. Lunch was leftover chili and strawberries for dessert. I think you guys have seen enough pictures of chili, so I won’t bore you with that.

I had an extremely stupendous snack after work though, that is very noteworthy.

I used Tay’s idea for custard oats. I didn’t follow her recipe exactly. Here’s what I did: Cooked 1/2c. oats, 1 cup water and one egg on stovetop. Topped with cinnamon, brown sugar and 1 tbsp. of peanut butter. I am going to make these a regular appearance on here. The egg made the texture of oats so thick and custardy. Totally delish! I love the fact that the egg adds more staying power also.

Jacob and I went grocery shopping after my snackie. We loaded up on all the essentials plus a few fun things. Oh, and I didn’t forget my Project Feed Me items for last week…

I chillaxed with a glass of beer for a bit…

Then I made dinner…

I tried out a new soup recipe, black bean soup from Rachael Ray. This was supposed to be a thicker “stoup”, but it came out pretty thin. It was spicy just to the point of perfection for my tastebuds. I really liked it. I accompanied my soup with a grilled cheese sandwich made with 2 slices of ezekiet bread and pepperjack cheese.

All together:

I had the last of my jug o’beer with dinner too. This was pure comfort food at it’s best.

Dessert was a coconut bar and 3 mini Halloween candies.

I’m watching Saw right now with Jacob and Justin (one of my roomies). They’re getting drunk on sake because Justin’s truck broke down, so he’s drowing out his sorrows with alcohol…haha, I’m refraining…early morning workouts and hangovers don’t mix well.

Have a good night y’all!

Comments (8)

By Liz, October 24, 2009 4:26 pm

To peanut butter! I just realized as I was uploading my pics that every single meal I’ve had today has involved peanut butter. Haha, I’m sure many of you guys can relate. There are worse things in life than peanut butter addictions though.

Anyways, how’s everyone’s Saturday going? Mine is plugging along. I only have about an hour left until I’m off work and then home sweet home it is. I feel like I’ve been way boring lately, just sitting at home when I’m not working or running or doing the school thing. I need some good ole fun in my life! When the time comes…when the time comes…

On to the eats!

I woke up at frackin (Battlestar Gallactica anyone?) 6:30am on a Saturday morning to get to the gym before I had to be at work. That’s dedication I guess. Before I left I munched on 1 Nature Valley Peanut Butter granola plank.And then I was off for a serious sweat sesh. Well, not too serious! I did 45 minutes on the elliptical. I always say “45 min on the elliptical” and realize how vague that is. I actually did 45 min on the elliptical at level 4 incline, 10 resistance and averaging about 160-165 rotations per min (think it’s per minute). I watched some Sabrina the Teenage Witch while working out. I laughed out loud a couple times…such a classic show…ah the good old days! After elliptical monotony fun, I did about 10ish minutes of abs (swiss ball jackknifes, planks, side planks, russian twists, rope climbs, leg lifts, bicycles, side crunches). I don’t really do the typical sets/reps stuff with abs. I get way to bored…so I just do a bunch of random ab exercises, repeating a few, until I feel a major burn. Ab burn=good! Then, I hopped in the pool and busted out 1000m in just under 20 min. Whew, good long recovery workout!

I was pretty pressed for time when I got back from the gym. Shower, dress, pack lunch, breakfast….I made a smoothie to-go. My green monster contained 1c. skim milk, 6 frozen strawberries, bananer, 2 tbsp. peanut butter and lots o’ spinach (probably 2 cups). My smoothie matched the cup. I also had the other granola plank from the package for something solid to accompany my GM.Works been “eh”. Like no customers and me trying to find things to do to keep busy. My tummy said lunch was as 1pm.Just some leftover soup that Jacob made on Thursday. It’s the Rachael Ray soup I made a couple weeks ago. There’s a little parmesan stirred in there too. I paired my soup with a pear. But where’s the peanut butter in this meal? Oh yeah! I had a spoonful of peanut butter to fill the void in my stomach just a bit more.Totally licked that spoon clean!

Snack time was just a little bit ago, which was celery and peanut butter.

I know…I’m soooo boring! But I just love celery and pb…and I’m the type to just crack out on a certain food or snack for like a week, and then you won’t see it again for a few months. However, my celery and pb obsession has been stickin around for a while now.Nom nom nom. By the way, I’m almost done with Omnivore’s Dilemma. Less than 100 pages to go! Right now I’m in the section about hunting and foraging your own food. Very interesting indeed.

Okeedokee. That’s it for me! Have a good night and hopefully you are all having a blast somewhere doing something!

Oh…and if you didn’t notice already, I’ve been doing larger pictures. They seem clearer and easier to see being larger. Love ‘em, hate ‘em? I’d love to hear some feedback.

Adios!

Comments (5)

By Liz, October 17, 2009 8:21 pm

What’s happenin?! Today has been a pretty good day so far. There were some low points but then a bunch of highlights. Let’s start the beginning, shall we?

So, I woke up bright and early at 6:20 to get ready and leave for my race. I made a green monster to fuel my run.

I made my GM with 1 cup of fat free milk, a frozen banana, 2 tbsp of peanut butter and 2 big handfuls of spinach. It was quite delicious, but then again, I haven’t had a GM that wasn’t

I got to the race around 7:30. The race today was at our home course, right across the street from school. That was nifty because I knew all the hills and every part of the course like the back of my hand. That fact made me feel more relaxed about everything. Me and the my other teammates walked parts of the course then warmed up with about a mile and some plyometrics. I was feeling a bit tired, but feeling good for the most part. Sadly after that, it all went downhill. My race today was supposed to be a tempo run and I had specific paces I had to hit. Here’s what I was supposed to do: 7:45, 15:32, 23:30 were supposed to me my times going through the 1 mile mark, 2 mile mark and finish time. Well, what actually happened was 8:00, 16:38, 25:11. I pretty much sucked. Here’s what I think happened: By the first 800 meters my body felt completely depleted. I had that feeling when you’re into a long run and you haven’t fueled enough and start to hit that wall. I know what it feels like to be glycogen depleted and I defenitly felt that today. It wasn’t the same feeling of just being tired or over-trained. It felt like I had no energy or fuel in my body. Also, when I finished I was extremely dizzy and almost blacked out. So…why would I be so carb depleted. Well, I hate to say it but it’s most likely from eating no grains yesterday and I didn’t have grains on Thursday either. So that’s two days with out grains. I didn’t realize how much carbohydrate I was really cutting out! So, pretty much…I made a mistake. But I guess that’s what happens when you experiment. I was trying something new out, and it backfired…but not all experiments come out with the results you want. And hopefully, you guys can learn from my mistake. I think there’s a quote that goes something like this…If I can’t be a shining example, let me be a terrible warning.

I’m afraid someone may say “I told ya so..,” or something along those lines. Well, please don’t. I already feel kinda stupid and really beat myself up about my race and my no-grain experiment this morning. I told myself “I told ya so…and you should have known better…and duh! Runners need carbs.” a bunch of times…but like I said before, I experimented and it just didn’t turn out right. The primal diet will not work for me now…but if there is a time in my life when running is not as important, then I may try it again. Oh, and also, there may have been another variable that affected my race and it may not have been the no-grain thing, but I have a pretty strong feeling it was my diet change that affected my race this morning.

Okay, so that was the lowlight today. However, the rest of the day was great. My mom came to watch me race, which was wonderful. I felt bad because I sucked so bad, but her support really made me feel better. After the race I went over to my mom’s house and made her brunch. Before I started cooking my mom offered me a cinnamon roll my dad made her for breakfast a la Pillsbury. I just couldn’t say no!

I made quite the delish brunch if I do say so myself!

I made multi-grain pancakes with whole wheat flour, oat bran and cornmeal. These turned out light and fluffy and oh so yummy! I dipped my pancakes in a little less than a quarter cup of pure maple syrup. I also made omelets similar to the one I had yesterday. I used two eggs, and filled the omelet with spinach and parmesan cheese and topped the omelet with 1/4 of an avocado. My mom and I ate and chatted about life and stuff. Great company and great food! I had a funny thought when I was cooking for my mom…What college student cooks for their parents? It’s usually the other way around! Haha…I just love to cook, and I’m pretty sure my parents love my cooking…so it’s all good.

Apparently, I went back on the grains right away. And I gotta say, those pancakes were darn good!

After brunch, we went to do a little shopping. My mom got me a few essentials…I got a pair of skinny jeans (which make my legs looks awesome btw!), some undies and 2 bras. You can’t go without underwear! I got my mom a pair of really cute owl socks when we were out, too.

We stopped by my dad’s work (he’s a tasting room attendant) at Bianchi. Bianchi has my absolute favorite wine ever…their Pinot Grigio! I had two tastes of that, plus a sauvignon blanc, a chard and a few reds. Here’s my dad hard at work.

My mom and I sat and talked for a bit at the winery…deep conversations about life ensued…and then we headed back to her house and I went home. It was quite the eventful day, and I really enjoyed spending some quality time with my mom.

I was pretty famished when I got home. Some beef stew was scarfed.

As well as a bit of chocolate.

I have a casserole in the oven to eat and share with the roomies right now. I may also be going out tonight with a girlfriend. We’ll see…one of my friends flaked out already, so I’m just playing it by ear.

Have a great Saturday night!

And Happy Birthday Momma!