Comments (8)

By Liz, November 30, 2009 11:36 am

Whew! Where has the weekend gone guys?! I can’t believe it’s Monday already. With all the baking and stuff of Wednesday, Thanksgiving on Thursday and working all weekend…this holiday weekend has flown by! I’m looking forward to a week of getting back into the swing of things…plus a little homework. Heelllo research paper and a speech. Should be fun, huh…;)

So, Thanksgiving must be discussed. I went running in the morning and completed a 9 mile run in 1 hr and 19 minutes…which is quite faster than my usual long run pace and I hadn’t ran since last Saturday, so it was definitely a great run. Also, running made me nice and hungry for my dinners. I went to two dinners…can you say food coma?

This Thanksgiving dinner was at Jacob’s sister’s house. The good: my squash-couscous dish, turkey…the bad: Pillsbury crescent rolls (really bad, like trans fat bad), canned cranberry sauce (or should I say high fructose corn syrup sauce), mash potatoes and sweet potatoes with marshmallow (not that bad) and green bean casserole (no that bad either). Gosh darn, I love those crescent rolls, although I know they were completely unhealthy and contain ingredients I avoid…but c’est la vie. I also had two slices of my pumpkin cheesecake.

I really liked how this cheesecake turned out. I used the recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I followed it almost to a T but I used less sugar and used some reduced fat cream cheese…oh and more pumpkin, cause pumpkin rocks!

The above dinner was at my parent’s house. However, their friend from Colorado, Donna, visited and she cooked the meal. The good: all of it… Donna can cook! This dinner included steamed green beans with almonds sauteed in butter, free-range roasted turkey, wild rice with oysters, roasted onion and gravy. Some Bianchi Zin was savored with dinner. Loved it!

And… I had a slice of my kabocha pie with fresh whipped cream!

Accompanied by the Bianchi Late Harvest Cabernet Sauvignon. Yum!

The amazingly delish slice:

I love Thanksgiving not only for all the delicious food, but also for the family. I truly enjoyed spending time with all my loved ones and that is what made Thanksgiving such a wonderful day. I was also quite full, with two dinners and what not, so comfy sweats were very much appreciated by the end of the night. I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

Friday was “How Many Meals Can You Eat of Turkey” day.Although breakfast was a slice of ezekiel with peanut butter, which did not include turkey, for lunch I had a turkey filled salad with lettuce and carrot…and woodtock dressing of course!Plus some perfectly thawed strawberries. This was seriously the perfect light lunch after such a food filled day on Thanksgiving.

Friday afternoon was very fun! Jacob and I went to an afternoon Bikram yoga class. It felt amazing to stretch and focus and sweat! It also made my body feel a lot more rejuvenated and light after food overdose…I felt pretty much back to normal.

After Bikram, we stopped in my favorite health food store, New Frontiers and I tried my first fresh veggie/fruit juice! It was called the Perfect Blend and had beets, carrot, apple, celery, ginger, and lemon in it. Soooo amazing!! It made me want to get a juicer even more. Also, I can now understand why Alison is big on the juice! I had a little something solid on the way home. too…which was a banana with almond butter. However, driving and picture taking are not conducive with each other, so no picture.

Dinner was turkey meal number two…

This meal included a wing, steamed veggies, my homemade cranberry sauce, leftover couscous, and some chocolate for good measure. Very satisfying.

Saturday was a whirlwind of work and the night was a whirlwind of tiredness…I think the past few days festivities really caught up with me and I called it a night quite early. However, the dinner I made was delish…and incorporated turkey!

I made a grilled cheese stuffed with turkey and steamed veggies on the side. However, I have a secret to amazing grilled cheese with more flavor…Worcestershire sauce! Actually, this is a trick my parents would use whenever they made grilled cheese. It adds so much more flavor and a little kick to an otherwise blah grilled sammie.

Oh, and I might have baked a batch of perfectly fudgy walnut brownies.I totally demolished two of those bad boys. Heaven!

Okay, we’re almost all caught up...Sunday was not too special. I worked and met up with a group of people in my English class in the evening to work on a presentation due next week. The highlight of the evening was getting drinks with a friend afterwards. It made studying much more worthwhile

Oh, on a side note, yesterday I was taking pics of my lunch (which was a turkey leg and couscous). However, I realized that there was just no way to make my drumstick look appetizing, actually it looked pretty gross. This side note really had no point, I just thought it was funny how the leg looked icky.

Anywho, we are here at Monday now…oh glorious Monday! Is everyone getting back in the swing of things alright?

I started my day off with, what may be, the best biscuits I ever made.These fluffy whole wheat biscuits look straight out of a restaurant. I think the whole tablespoon of baking powder may have been responsible for that! They tasted amazing, too.I topped mine with butter, pumpkin butter and cranberry apple butter. Two perfectly seasoned (salt and pepper) eggs accompanied my biscuits. What a way to start a Monday folks!

Well, I believe a run is in order today. I’ll be doing that right after work. And, mucho homework awaits me, too.

Some random ramblings: Now that the cross country season is over my training is going to be a bit more sporadic. I was thinking of either making a serious plan for myself, or just having fun with it. Well, fun took over and I have decided to just do workouts that sound fun to me in the moment. If that means yoga, then yoga it is. Or maybe I really want to pump some iron. Or maybe a good ol’ 5 miler is what the doctor ordered. I just going to play it by ear for the next few weeks until I have to get serious with my training again. However, my rest week is over (even though I only took 4 full days of rest, but eh) and I will be working out regularly, as in 6 days a week, like normal. On another note, I have to admit, my eating habits have been going a bit off the healthy path. I’ve been eating a few too many sweets, drinking a few to many drinks, eating whole plates of pizza and not getting enough veggies. I don’t think I’ve gained weight, but I don’t feel that great inside or out. Pretty much what I’m saying is that I am human, and I’m going through patch here where I’m not practicing what I preach. I’m not going to all of a sudden restrict myself, or diet or anything. I’m going to let this run it’s course but make sure I have healthy options available.  *end ramble*

Have a great Monday y’all!

Comments (5)

By Liz, November 25, 2009 10:55 pm

Well, I just can’t believe that it’s Thanksgiving time already. It just hit me today! It’s probably all the cooking I’ve been doing…I’ve made a pie, a cheesecake and I’m about to make squash dish for tomorrow Whew! The kitchen is a bit of a mess.

The pie I’m making is extra special.

What’s that yellow slop in the bowl you ask? Well, it just happens to be some pureed kabocha squash. I thought it would be fun to try an alternative pumpkin pie by making a kabocha puree. Fun!

Making a squash puree is ridiculously easy. I cut the squash in half (and de-seeded) and roasted it on a baking sheet (with water) for 30 minutes at 375 degrees (until it was tender). I then scooped out all the squash and pureed it in the food processor until it was very smooth. I then proceeded to make my pie just as you would a regular pumpkin pie. I haven’t tried it yet…so who knows if it’s good or not. I can’t wait to try it and see how using kabcoha worked!

Jacob took a funny pic of me while I was scooping out the squash (and drinking my fave wine ever!).

He said I was holding it like a baby. I do love kabocha a lot…but not that much!

Dinner tonight was a bit nutritionally void, but heck….it was tasty.

The night started with a beer (my other favorite beverage) while I began whipping up a pumpkin-maple cheesecake.

An then I may or may not have baked 3 Amy’s pizzas…just might have. Jacob and I were doing our last minute grocery shopping and I reallly didn’t feel like cooking, so we splurged on Amy’s pizza. They were actually half price at the store, so it was even more reason to get them. Amy’s is a great company to buy frozen meals from too, so I didn’t feel too bad.

And I kinda ate that whole plate. I actually wasn’t too full, which was suprising. So ya, not super healthy (or healthy at all really) but sometimes pizza just sounds good and that’s okay with me.

Have a great Thanksgiving guys! I’ll be pretty busy tomorrow. I am planning on running 10 miles in the morning to prep my appetite for 2 Thanksgiving dinners. Yep, you heard right…two Thanksgiving dinners. Should be fun…

Enjoy the holiday….cheers!

Comments (3)

By Liz, November 24, 2009 8:53 pm

Haha, that’s probably what you are all thinking bout now! I am really sorry for completely dropping off the face of blog Earth. The weekend was kinda crazy and hectic and the weekend craziness ran into Monday. But here I am all ready to give y’all the full recap!

So let’s get down to business…STATE!!

First, the stats: I ran the 5k in 21:34 which is my best time all season. I sure went out with a bang! My team got 8th out of 32 teams competing. I was personally 155th out of 200 runners. So, I was kinda back in the pack but whatever. I mean, at least I was at State! Although I ran a great race for my last XC race at my school, I still feel like I could have done better. If y’all remember my race at Mt. Sac two weeks ago, I mentioned that I really dug and pushed my pain threshold. This race, I didn’t work as hard as I could have. It was hard and painful, sure, but it wasn’t as intense as it should have been. I credit all that to the fact I wasn’t sure what I was racing for. The past few races have had a lot of meaning to them. At WSC regionals, I was running to be at least the 7th girl on the team so I could go on to So Cals. At So Cals, it was all about going on to State. And then I was at State and I wasn’t really sure what my motive was for running the race of my life. It’s kinda like when you complete a goal, such as losing weight, and then you reach that goal and you don’t really know what to do with yourself. So, long story long , I just didn’t get my head in the game until about halfway through the race. Eh, I still set a PR so I can’t complain. Also, my aunt and uncle, grandma, mom and dad and Jacob all came to watch me run, so that was very special.

Some pictures of all the fun:

All the gals dressed up for dinner on Friday night. Aren’t we so perty!

Cougars cougars are the best! C-O-U-G-A-R-S…Goooooo Cuesta!!!

Just workin my butt of going up a hill

Me and my Grandma after the race.

I am actually really happy that the season is over. It was a ton of fun, I’ve made some amazing friends and I’ve gotten faster and faster as the season progressed. However, I am happy that for this whole week I am not supposed to run or do much of anything active. I am also looking forward to the short off-season I will be getting to focus on more strength building, yoga and other fun activities I do not get to enjoy as much when my focus is just running.

So, that was Saturday. There was a drive home, relaxing and such, dinner and a bit o partying included in the rest of the day and night. I do want to highlight the dinner I made Saturday night which was fab-u-lous!

I made a stuffed kabocha squash dish. I baked the kacocha at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. While the squash was baking, I cooked some quinoa (1 c. dry). After the quinoa was done I mixed in a chopped apple, dried cranberries and grated zuchinni(1 med sized). I seasoned it with cinnamon, nutmeg and about a tsp of maple syrup. I let this cook on low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the kabocha squash was all baked and tender, I added chopped walnuts to the quinoa mixture, then stuff each kabocha half with the quinoa. I sprinkled more cinnamon and a drizzle of maple syrup on top and put the stuffed kabocha back in the oven for 5 min. I served it with green beans on the side. Super super yummy!! It was a sweeter dinner, but not overly sweet…I went light on the syrup. This dinner was also very satisfying. I recommend it for when you’re in a fall mood. While this was baking it filled the kitchen with fall-y smells. It made me happy.

Let’s see…what’d I do Sunday? Well, I worked…but then I saw New Moon. I’m just gonna say off the bat that I have not read the books (but I am going to). Also, I didn’t really like the first movie much. New Moon wasn’t half bad though. The acting was a wee bit better. The action scenes were cool. Jacob and Edward were hot (Jacob being a tad hotter ). However, there were some scenes that were waaaaayover acted and just too dramatic. The highlight of the movie though was the scene with Thom Yorke’s (from Radiohead) song “Hearing Damage.” Really cool song and cool scene.

Yesterday was pretty darn great. Another great Monday in the books. It’s funny, because last Monday was really good, too. Funny, eh?

I did the usual stuff…like working, yada yada…but the afternoon and evening were special. As you all very well know, it’s Thanksgiving in the US this Thursday. Since all the roomies and I are parting ways on Thursday to spend time with our families and stuff, we decided to do a roommate Thanksgiving last night. We did the whole shebang…turkey, green bean casserole, mashed taters, rolls, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce and stuffing. Yum-o!

I filled my plate with all the goodies. I almost finished it all too…ate about 3/4. Jacob did the turkey…which was pretty darn amazing for his first turkey ever. Kudos Jacob! I made the cranberry sauce using Jenna’s super simple recipe. It was waaay better than canned….I loved the chunks and tartness of the scratch version. My other contribution was pumpkin pie.

I was such as goof and almost forgot to take a picture until I ate half!! Silly me :p Not to toot my own horn or anything, but my pie turned out really good. I used the regular Libby’s pumpkin pie recipe for the filling. However, I cut the sugar down a bit (by about a 1/4 cup) and I added more spice than called for. I love my pumpkin pie spicy! For the crust I just coarsly ground 1 1/2 c. pecans in the food processor and mixed the nuts with 2 tbsp melted butter and 2 tbsp sugar. I pressed the but mixture in the bottom and sides of a 9″ pie plate and baked it for 15 minutes before filling it with the pumpkin mixture. Justin (my roommate) made real whipped cream to go on top. Sooo good! I also got a special treat to go along with the pie.

The Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc from Bianchi. I really liked it. I thought it was great along side the pie, and even good by itself. It was definitely sweet, almost too sweet at first sip. However, this was one of those wines that as you keep sipping it just gets better and better and you notice new flavors with every taste. Unfortunately, I don’t think my roommates liked it that much. I liked it though and would buy it again in a heartbeat.

Whew…today was not nearly as exciting as the last few have been. I had school…which almost no one was at by the way due to the holiday. I went hiking with a couple girls on the team after lunch, which was fun. It was the first “workout” I’ve done since State and it felt good to get the legs moving. Our hilly hike lasted about 2 hours. I love doing exercise with friends because the time just flys! I had a great time.

Nothing much else going on here now. Just some vegging out in front of the tv and hanging out with the boy (aka Jacob). Have a great night and I promise I won’t be m.i.a. tomorrow! Adios!

Comments (9)

By Liz, November 8, 2009 2:17 pm

Hellooo there! How’s Sunday treatin ya?

I’m floating on cloud nine right now because Friday I ran one of the most amazing races of my life annnnd the girls cross country team is going to STATE IN TWO WEEKS!!! I’m beyond stoked!

Let’s catch y’all up…

We left on Thursday morning at around 10:30am. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off all morning…getting my food together, packing and I had to take a test early for one of my classes. That’s what I get for not planning ahead, but thank goodness for Jacob who is a sweetheart and helped me make my snacks and pack up. Love that guy!

I wore my new Skins all day on the can ride down to LA. My legs felt amazing the whole way. I didn’t take any picture of my eats…I just nibbled on 1/2 a veggie sandwich, one of my homemade Liz-a-bars and drank lots and lots of water. We stopped at a shopping center about halfway there and I picked up some crack Starbucks. Tall cafe Amerianos with a splash of half and half with 2 pumps pumpkin spice=my new love.

When we arrived at Mt. Sac (the college the race took place at) we ran the course super easy. I ran 3 miles super slow in 30 minutes.

We were all pretty pumped for Friday and in great spirits!

We checked into our hotel, chilled out for a bit, then headed to dinner at Romano’s Macaroni Grill. I had some rosemary bread, a side salad and whole wheat penne with tomato basil sauce, broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, shrimp and parmesan cheese.

It was a pretty good dinner for eating out. I ate about half of my salad and pasta, so didn’t end up too full.

After dinner, we had a meeting with our coaches. We talked about our goals for the race. Brian, the head coach, talked a lot about pain threshold and pushing past our limits. Pain is my personal obstacle, so talking about this really hit home. I vowed to myself Thursday night that at the race I would push myself, push past my limits, and embrace the pain.

Thinking, talking with the girls, sleep…

6:30am came early. We got dressed in our uniforms and went for a shake out jog/walk as a team before breakfast. Breakfast was my usual pre-race breakfast…1 slice Ezekiel bread, spread of peanut butter and a banana. I drank a cup of green tea, too. I have to admit, I was pretty nervous and contemplative about the race. I did not want to break the promise I made to myself. I am really scared of the pain of racing…it hurts!

So, we arrived at Mt. Sac and hung out for a bit.

All the girls drew and painted fun stuff on their arms and legs. Some people did paw prints (we’re the Cuesta Cougars), and others wrote motivational words on our hands. Here’s what I wrote…

The caterpillar represents our connectedness as a team. All our initials are in each part of the caterpillar’s body.

Here is the race in pictures:

So, I kept my promise to myself and pushed my pain threshold. I finished in 21:49 for a 3-mile course. That is my best time I have ever ran a Cross Country race. I am so proud of myself and my team. We kicked some real XC butt!! We placed 7th as a team out of 28 teams. I placed 125 our of 186 people. This race will really go down in history for me as one of the best experiences of my life.

It was so great to be done with the race. I watched and cheered on the guys (They placed 18th out of 28). After awards and such, we piled back in the vans and headed home. Lunch was at Souplantation…a salad, soup, bread, pasta, pizza, fro-yo buffet place. Totally my kinda buffet! I definitely ate my $8.30 worth of food!

I was pretty exhausted when I got back home at 8:30pm. Bed was niiice!

Yesterday was really really really boring. I worked 8-5, felt really sick all day and went to bed super early. I didn’t eat much either because my stomach felt weird all day. Ick.

Today has been going much better…

I woke up and ran 7 miles in 66 minutes.

I made whole wheat pancakes and eggs for breakkie….which I completely forgot to take a picture of!! *slap on the hand* It was delicious though, trust me.

I rushed to work…and made it just on time!

I ate one of my new favorite foods for lunch…Oh Kabocha squash, you are delish!

And, I also had one of my oldie but goodie favorite foods…Celery and peanut butter never goes out of style!

I have something to look forward to after work, also. Jacob and I are getting me a special purchase…and we’re visiting a good friend who we don’t see nearly enough. Fun stuff!

Depending on when I get home tonight, I may blog later tonight or tomorrow. Have a great Sunday evening guys!

Comments (7)

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.