March 2010

Who Doesn't Love Free?

by Heather on March 31, 2010

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Hey y’all!  How’s your Hump Day going?  Mine’s AWESOME!!!  Why?  Let’s see…

Mustache Madness was/is today, and even though I don’t LOVE Nate’s mustache, it has been great to see the entire company participate in something fun.  There’s been a lot of laughter around the office!  Also, it’s the end of my company’s fiscal year, so they arranged for the ENTIRE COMPANY to have a free 10-minute massage from Bodywork Boutique!  Talk about raising moral, that definitely did it for me!

Sad part:  it’s one of my co-worker’s last days (she’s amazing – everyone loves her).  I don’t want her to go, but the cool thing is we got FREE pizza to celebrate her working here!

I had this slice, which had tomatoes, olives, green bell peppers, and onions.  I took off the pepper and tomato though…for some reason it was tasting weird.  The rest was good though!  I also had a small slice of a small cheese pizza.  THEN we had amazing carrot cake, made by Leeann!  Too bad I was so excited and it tasted so good that my camera didn’t have a chance to take the picture.  Oops!  I was pretty proud of myself though because I wanted to eat another 5+ slices, but I didn’t.  It feels good to say ‘no’ when it’s something I know I shouldn’t eat more of but really want to!

My run/walk was great (I didn’t go as fast, but I didn’t quit either…so excited!) and I had the rest of my FREE Oikos and FREE Wholesome Foods Bakery crunch!  A match made in heaven:

Tonight we are going to take the dogs to the dog park, cook dinner together, do a little workout, and then watch my new love, Modern Family, and hopefully a movie.  I know this is a stark contrast to my post yesterday, but I’m thankful to have realized what my problem was before I let it go to far.  And thankfully today I feel great!

What was the FREE thing you got/participated in?  What were your thoughts on it? Obviously the last thing I got was free pizza, which is always a winner for me.  I didn’t LOVE all of the toppings on my first slice, but once those were off it was phenomenal!  And I think we all know what I thought about the free massage :)

And just to have a random question, shower or bath? I like both of them; I definitely take showers way more than baths, but I love just soaking in a warm bath when I’m cold, stressed or tired!

{ 17 comments }

Mustache Madness

by Heather on March 31, 2010

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Good morning everyone!  First of all, thank you so much for all of your amazingly sweet comments on my post from yesterday.  It’s so nice to be able to put things in perspective before it turns into a bigger problem!  As I said yesterday, I want my focus to be authenticity in the things that I eat, the way that I move, the way that I love, and the way that I worship.  And I am at peace with that!

Today I’m just going to do a run-through of the eats since yesterday’s snack, and then move onto a much bigger happening!  Dinner last night was take-out from Chili’s since we were headed over to Jason & Steph’s house for The Truth Project.  I had a black bean burger with mustard, lettuce, tomato, and pickles:

And some fries with ketchup:

Steph had a chocolate cream pie to share!  I was only able to eat about half of the slice though…I was stuffed!  3 cheers for recognizing I was full!

We were running late this morning (explanation to follow) so we stopped at Starbucks.  I got the Spinach and Feta wrap:

SOOO tasty!  I love the tangy saltiness of feta.  As Anne says, feta makes it betta!

OK.  Sigh.  Every year our company has a mustache growing contest (alongside a couple of REI stores and Pearl Izumi) to help raise money for Trips for Kids Denver, a non-profit organization that provides mountain bike outings and environmental education to underserved, urban youth who would not otherwise be exposed to such activities.  Anyone in any of the companies involved that wants to participate pays $20 to enter, and anyone who wants to judge the contest pays $5.  Nate’s participating, and I’m a judge!  The guys in our office take this contest VERY seriously, though.  Here’s Nate’s photo from last year:

Since it’s such a big deal (and we could actually win something awesome!), I made sure to print out several templates for Nate to choose from:

Which one should he choose?

The pre-shave photo (he has had a beard for almost 3 years!  A couple months after we got married we took a trip to visit his family in Arkansas and he forgot his razor…and never shaved again!)

Y’all, my husband is the MOST attractive man on the face of this planet.  With the exception of this picture.  He knows this (because I told him about 20 times), but my stomach churned when he had these little things on his chin.  I almost threw up.

Thank goodness I pleaded with him enough to shave them off!  Here’s the stud getting ready for work:

So pensive!

Mmmmmmmmmm.  I’m a lucky girl :)

The only reasons I’m really OK with this are 1) it’s to benefit something bigger than ourselves, 2) he’s so hot the rest of the time, and 3) he’s going to shave it once the pictures are posted for voting.  Plus, I am kind of excited to see him beard-less!  It’s been way too long :)

Have you ever done something crazy (maybe not a mustache contest, but you know what I mean) to dress up?  What was it?  Also, if you have pictures you should email them to me (heathersdish@gmail.com)  I’ll try to post them tomorrow and link back to your blog :) My favorite is the Ugly Sweater Party we had over Thanksgiving 2008.  We went all-out!  Want proof?  Here you go!  :)

Hope y’all have a great day! :)

{ 21 comments }

Filling the Void

by Heather on March 30, 2010

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Happy gorgeous afternoon to EVERYONE!  Man, it is such a gorgeous day out :)

Just to jump right in, lunch today was some homemade soup!  I shall call it Corn and Black Bean Chowder:

This soup seriously couldn’t be any easier!  Just dump all of the following ingredients into a big soup pot, cover with water (I didn’t measure in cups), and simmer for an hour on low:

  • 1/2 of a large onion, grated
  • 3 medium potatoes, grated
  • 2 small packages of frozen corn
  • 2 large handfuls of baby carrots, diced
  • 1 or 2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp dried red pepper flakes
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3-4 chicken or vegetable bouillon cubes

The starch in the potatos makes it very chowder-y, and the chili powder and red pepper flakes are a good spicy balance for the sweetness of the corn and carrots.  YUM!!!  I had it with another handful of carrots and a whole wheat sandwich thin with 1 slice of cheddar (split between the 2 sides).  Filled me and kept me full for a while!

I also got a surprise later in the day:  Nate scored some sweet Bolle sunglasses for me!

Please excuse the cheesy smile…I was pretty excited.  My head, as it turns out, is a very difficult one to fit with sunglasses, so when I find a good pair it makes me pretty happy :)   I wore them on my walk today, and they worked perfectly!  Upon my return I indulged in a little something different today…some Oikos with peanut butter (WHAAAAAAA?!) and some of my Nuts & Seeds Crunch from Wholesome Foods Bakery:

Y’all, that cup ‘o’ goodness didn’t even stand a chance!  I’ve never been cool enough to put peanut butter in my yogurt, but this is a must-try.  So good, and cool and creamy to help me cool down from my workout!

Today I had the chance to have a really great conversation with Jessica from How Sweet It Is (by the way, I love her!)  She gave me some really helpful advice on blogging and a short rundown of some of the stuff she learned at Fitbloggin’.  Eventually the conversation turned to numbers (as in number of hits on the blog per day/month/year) and I was overwhelmed at some of the stuff she shared that she heard at the conference.  We both share a dream of writing a book one day, and would love to have our blogs become a platform for “being discovered”; however, with the cold, hard, minimum number of views that were said to be “required” I just don’t know when, or if, that will ever happen for me.  I started to go into a slight state of depression when I realized that my dreams are (according to the editor that shared at Fitbloggin’) quite far away.  I even went so far as to think that there’s no way I’ll be able to gain that kind of readership until I lost weight…I mean, everyone loves a solid success story, right?

I headed out on my walk and after about 5 minutes came to a realization:  the void that I feel when I think about my future “career”?  That’s something that I’m trying to fill with the number of views I get on the blog.  That void is the same void that I have tried to fill with eating food, not eating food, working out, not working, trying to be a full-time people pleaser, and trying to not give a crap what people think of me.  And guess what?  That void hasn’t been filled, with the exception of one thing:  my relationship with Jesus Christ.  I know that not everyone who reads this will be a believer, and that’s fine:  it’s a choice that we all have to make.  I am a believer though, and I just came to the realization yet again that the only thing that has ever healed me, the only thing that has ever made me whole, is the unconditional love of God.  Therefore, I will continue to try to make that my main focus (as ADD as I can be with my life) and not be defined by one worldly thing or another.  I have faith that God will provide whatever it is that I have in store for me, and I will rest in the fact that I have always been loved, always been cherished, and have always been completely beautiful in the eyes of my Maker.

Thanks to all of you who read my blog!  My true hope and prayer is that I can help encourage and touch someone’s life in some way every day.

On that note, what do you want more than anything in the world, right now? I simply want to be happy with myself where I’m at right now.  I want to always be conscious of the fact that my life is not my own, and be used for whatever the Lord has in store for me.  Oh, and I want a cheeseburger.  Like real bad :)

{ 27 comments }

It's CRAZZZY

by Heather on March 30, 2010

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Morning everyone!  How are you guys doing today?  I’m doing great…thanks to Miss FoodCents and her recommendation to sleep with a humidifier I woke up headache-free and happy!  Thanks girl :)

Last night’s dinner was CRAZY with a capital ‘C’!  I made barbeque chicken/black bean crazy crust pizza!  (I know I said I was going to have soup, but I changed my mind and made it for lunches instead…recipe coming this afternoon so I can show a picture of it too!)

What makes it crazy?  There’s no yeast, so it’s really fast and really good!  It’s not going to have the same texture as a traditional crust, but my mom used to make this for us all the time growing up!  Here are the ingredients for the crust:

  • 1 cup flour (can use regular, wheat, or a mix of the two)
  • 2/3 cup milk (I used nonfat)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp Italian seasoning
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper

Whisk together until smooth.  Pour onto a greased 9 x 13 sheet pan.  Add whatever toppings you want:  cooked meat, veggies, etc (just DO NOT add the cheese and sauce yet).  Bake for 25-30 minutes at 425 or until the crust is golden brown.  Add sauce and cheese, then bake another 10-15 minutes until cheesy is melted and bubbly.  Done!  It’s so crazy I just had to make this face:

Attractive, I know :)   SO for our toppings, I did Nate’s half with grilled chicken breast, and mine with black beans.  I also added quartered mushrooms, red onion slices, and frozen corn.  The sauce of choice was a bottled barbeque sauce (KC Masterpiece?), and topped it all with a sprinkling of mozzarella and parmesan cheese.  So good!

For dessert we were going to make mixed drinks, but by the time I figured out how to get the oven to self-clean, unloaded the dishwasher, did some laundry, and read some blogs we decided to go for some Oikos chocolate yogurt:

It’s just.so.good.  You guys really should sign up for the contest just to potentially get some of this!  At the end of the night we went through our closets and did a preliminary clothes weeding.  I would say I got rid of half of my stuff, and I still have plans to go through again.  I feel like the rest of my life is sort of “starting over” as far as learning how to live healthfully and happily, and I don’t need to stare at all of my old clothes because it only takes me back to self-doubt.  I feel better already!

I woke up, did some yoga, showered, and had some banana oats with peanut butter and the very last 2 Tbsp of my Dylan’s Chia Granola.  Definitely going to have to get some more soon!

And a tall glass of iced coffee:

Breakfast of champions!  One of my co-workers (who’s a foodie too!) brought me some cookbooks to check out.  The first one is a 5-ingredient vegetarian book:

AND an Indian cookbook!  I’m pretty excited to try some of the stuff out of this guy:

I haven’t had a lot of Indian dishes, but I think this will be a fun exercise in learning to cook from different cultures.  I would also love to try Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking sometime just to learn more about classic techniques.  Food is such a cool thing since it changes as people change…LOVE that!

What’s your favorite cookbook?  Do you use cookbooks a lot, make up your own recipes, or go off of the internet? My favorite cookbook thus far (that I’ve used the most anyway) is the America’s Test Kitchen cookbook we got as a wedding gift from one of Nate’s cousins.  I usually just make up my own stuff with the help of either that book or the internet!

{ 21 comments }

Running Machine

by Heather on March 29, 2010

Don’t forget to check out the contest for F-R-E-E Greek yogurt!

Hey guys!  Happy Monday afternoon to all of you :)   Sad as it is to admit, lunch today was rather bo-ring and had NO COLOR whatsoever.  Behold the veggie burger-sandwich thin combo of old:

And the dry, flavorless (unless served with hummus!) Kashi Heart to Heart crackers:

They really weren’t my favorite and I kept getting wheat shreds stuck in my throat.  HACK!

The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to keep my dogs quiet…with this great weather all anyone wants to do is go outside and play!  I tried to get action shots of both, but the only one that came out was this one of Bunker:

RAWR!

During lunch I went for my run/walk, and I did it again pain free!  I did the walk 3 minutes/run 2 minutes combo for 30 minutes, then switched it up to walk 2 minutes/run 3 minutes on the way back, then ran the last mile.  I did the mile in 20 seconds less than I did the other day!  WOOHOO!  I’m turning into a running (NOT racing) machine again!  My prayer (and it truly is a prayer) is that I can continue to build up my strength and eventually be able to run for extended periods of time when I want to. I’m never going to do it again as a way to just burn calories!

When I got back I was so excited that Nate had stopped at Whole Foods and picked up some fruit!  I selected a nectarine from the bag:

BUT before I had a chance to bite into Nate came over and said his was bad.  We checked mine and it was definitely not in good shape either.  Oh well, so it goes.  We might try to go get our money back from Whole Foods, but I just don’t know if we have the energy to do it!

Dinner tonight is going to be some sort of roasted corn and black bean chowder with cheesy crazy crust bread (recipe to come!).  Then methinks I should hit up the grocery store because we are severely lacking in the fruits and veggies department!

I’m going to go with one of Kelly’s questions tonight:  What’s your most embarrassing story? Mine involves de-pantsing a complete stranger (yes you read that correctly, email me if you need details!), falling off of my bike on the busiest street in my college town (I have scars on my toes – yes, my toes – to prove it!), and getting pooped on by a bird in Mexico.  I promise I’m normal ;)

{ 17 comments }

Pizza Lovin' and a Giveaway!

by Heather on March 29, 2010

Good morning everyone!  How are y’all on this fine Monday morning?  I must say I love the weekends…’nuff said :)

SOOO remember how I had baby fever?  And how I was so excited to work in the nursery yesterday at church?  Yeah…baby fever is officially gone!  I guess crying babies will do that to ya :)   It’s just as well though because we really do need to wait a little bit before we start popping out kiddos!  Lunch was pizza at Old Chicago:

Jason, Steph, and Amy were so kind as to order half of a pizza with veggies for me!  However it had a TON of green bell peppers and green chiles…yuck!  Thank goodness Jason likes them!

We had a great time, and got to go home and take a nap for a little bit.  We also walked the dogs down a little trail by our house and let them sprint around for a little bit.  I really can’t wait for all of this snow to melt and dry up so we can finally take the dogs to the dog park without them getting covered in mud!  They’re going to run their little hearts out this summer!  We headed over to our pastor’s house for some prayer time, and then had a mini-date at Rock Bottom.  Three cheers for nachos!

We think they got these wooden boards to put the nachos on so they could spread them in one layer and therefore downsize the portions.  I was kind of bummed, but I suppose that’s probably a good thing!

We also got a side of heaven guacamole:

SO GOOD!  When we got home we got to cleaning and doing some stuff around the house that just didn’t get done this weekend.  We also went to bed early because I think we were still recovering from skiing all day on Saturday!  I love Winter Park, but I will say that their catwalks (the flat part in between more difficult runs) are F-L-A-T and SO hard to ski!  You either have to pull yourself along using your poles, or “skate” on your skis to get any sort of speed.  That just wears my legs OUT!

This morning I woke up, did some yoga, and made something I haven’t really had in a long time:  PB&J Oats!

They were delicious, but I really couldn’t finish the last 1/4 of them!  I enjoy oats, but I really love having GMs in the morning.  They’re perfectly filling and make me feel so healthy!

This afternoon I’m going to attempt running again, and couldn’t be more excited.  Then tonight we’re going to clean out our closets and drawers to get rid of stuff we no longer wear and no longer need.  I’m really excited about doing this because every time I look in my closet I see a huge section of stuff that I can’t wear anymore because of my weight gain.  I’m going to get rid of most of that stuff.  Now, I know you must be wondering, “If you’re losing weight why wouldn’t you keep the stuff that you’re trying to fit into?”  Thing is I spend way too much time obsessing about fitting into those clothes again, and not enough time being joyful in the person that I am right now.  I’ve never gone without clothing, and I feel that by ridding my closet of these “ideal” sizes, it will help me to focus more on being thankful for who I am right now.  There will be some things (i.e. pants, dresses, things that are more expensive) that I will be keeping, but I’m going to think long and hard about what I’m keeping and what I’m giving away!  Have you ever gone through your closet for a similar reason?  Any thoughts?

AND, speaking of giving things away, Stonyfield has so generously offered to give one lucky reader an Oikos tote bag with 1 free 16-oz coupon and 4 free 5.3-oz coupons!

I’ve got to admit, Oikos is my favorite brand of Greek yogurt.  It’s absolutely delicious, creamy-tart, great for snacking/cooking/baking, and it’s completely affordable too  If you’ve never tried Greek yogurt, or if you adore Greek yogurt, this is something you’ll want to win!  This is for US residents only, so if you’d like to enter you can do one or all of the following:

  1. Leave me a comment telling me what your favorite yogurt flavor and topping combo is;
  2. Tweet “I want to win some Oikos Greek yogurt from @heathersdish and @Stonyfield” and let me know you tweeted;
  3. Mention this giveaway on your own blog, then let me know in the comments with a linkback to your post!

The contest will be open until 5pm Mountain Time on Friday, April 2.  Like I said, this is a great way to try some amazing Greek yogurt!  Hope y’all enjoy, and I can’t wait to hear from you!

{ 141 comments }

Last Dance With Mary Jane

by Heather on March 28, 2010

Morning!  How was y’alls Saturday?!  Mine was fantastic:  we got to ski an amazing powder day at one of our favorite mountains with great friends!  Let’s back it on up to Friday night though.  Dinner was BREAKFAST (“Binner” as our friend Ben calls it :) )  We made scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrown casserole, and cinnamon roll French toast!  I was hungry, so I piled my plate up with eggs and hashbrown casserole:

Not a ton of color, but it was yummy!  I was so jealous of this plate of cured breakfast meats that everyone else got to partake in:

Anyone who’s a vegan might be cringing at that one, but I was definitely a little sad :(   7 more days till I can eat meat again, and the closer to Easter it gets, the harder it gets to refrain!  I know I’ll make it, but as much as Lent has helped me to appreciate the foods that come from the ground and has shown me how I don’t NEED meat, it’s also just reinforced how much I enjoy meat!  Good thing I didn’t give up dessert though because this was AMAZING!

To get the completely artery-clogging recipe, just click here.  The pecans on top are hand-picked by my parents from Texas (probably what makes it so darn good ;) )  I had 2 small slices, but probably should’ve stuck with just one since I was pretty full.  Community group was a lot of fun, and it just felt so good to share life with my good friends!  I love them all :)

Yesterday morning we went to Starbucks for breakfast (I did a short iPhone post) and then David, Emma, Nate, and I headed out to Winter Park.  It snowed pretty much the whole way there, and we were so excited to see 7 inches of fresh powder on the ground!  It was a great day of skiing, but I was kind of sad since it was likely my last time out to the mountains this year.  I was pretty excited to go ski the Mary Jane side of the resort though!  It’s a little more difficult and less traveled, but SO much fun!  My knees were starting to ache, so Nate and David went and skied a bowl while Emma and I stopped to rest and snack.  I was STARVING so I got the only vegetarian option they head:  mac & cheese in a bread bowl (no picture, sorry, I don’t know where Nate put my point and shoot).  Really?  My inner Carbzilla rejoiced, but I was a little disappointed in the lack of options.  Oh well…I ate the pasta and little bread and threw the rest away before I could mindlessly eat the rest.

On the way back home we stopped at a gas station to use the restroom and grab some coffee.  In the bathroom I totally sliced my thumb open on the toilet paper holder!  SO gross, and it was bleeding everywhere.  Good thing they had band aids there.  I think my thumb nail is bruised too though = no fun.   Regardless, we decided that homemade pizza sounded AMAZING for dinner.  As soon as we got home Nate was the best husband ever and took over cooking since my finger hurt so badly!  We made a batch of dough from one of our cookbooks and then cut it into 4 pieces to make 4 small pizzas with.  Here’s Emma’s:

She was so sweet and made a slice without sausage on there for me!  ‘Twas delicious. I had a Guinness while I waited for my pizza to bake:

And then I wrapped my Guinness bottle in the fake fur liner for the hood on one of my ski jackets.  Totally normal, right?

What it comes down to is I just love playing with different ways to photograph stuff and saw the fur on the table (I zipped it off since I thought it might snow).  So much fun!  Then pizza was ready:

It had marinara, mushrooms, asparagus, red onion, Roma tomato, fresh mozzarella, and parmesan!  SO good…and I ate all but one slice.  That’s right, don’t be scared :)   Nate was also amazing and made a slice of his that didn’t have meat on it, but I gobbled that down before I took the picture.  Oops!  After dinner David and Emma left, and we snuggled on the floor with the dogs before hitting the sack.

Breakfast this morning is a smoothie that has spinach, but is not even a little bit green:

  • 1 cup nonfat milk
  • 9 frozen cherries
  • 4 frozen strawberries
  • 1 banana
  • 1 cup spinach
  • 1 packet hot chocolate mix

I just used the last of the spinach I had in the fridge, which wasn’t a lot compared to what I normally use.  It’s delicious anyway!  The rest of the day is just going to be going to church (where I’m serving the nursery – YAY BABIES!!!) and then likely relaxing/cleaning/grocery shopping the rest of the afternoon.  Should be a fun day!

I am so excited to have been featured on Tastespotting twice this week!  I always get rejected (I think they could use a better word) by Foodgawker, but Tastespotting is very easy to use and they are very communicative via email as well!  Being on there has made me realize that I want to work a lot more on my photography.  I have the equipment to do it, and I think it would be a really fun, creative endeavor to improve my pictures on the blog (today is obviously excluded :) )  I look forward to seeing what I can do!

Are you interested in photography?  What sort of camera do you use?  Any special editing software? For the majority of my pictures I use a Nikon D200 with a Nikon 50mm F1.8 prime lens.  I also use Photoshop and Lightroom for editing!

[OR]

If you’re married, what did you and your husband/wife dance to for your first dance? We danced to Jack Johnson’s “Better Together” :)

{ 22 comments }

At the Park

by Heather on March 27, 2010

Morning y’all! How’s Saturday treating you?

We are hitting up Winter Park with our good friends David and Emma for one last day of skiing! I finally tried the spinach, egg, and feta wrap from Starbucks and a coffee…I really liked it! Definitely the perfect fuel for a day of hard skiing.

Hope y’all have a wonderful day, and check back for the recap later!

What’s the BEST bowl of pasta you’ve ever had? What was it/what was in it? I gotta say I’ve had a lot of great pasta but a great one was homemade gnocchi with a wild boar ragu… YUM!!!

{ 6 comments }

BFD

by Heather on March 26, 2010

BREAKFAST FOR DINNER! That’s what’s cooking for tonight anyway…but first, lunch.  I had a MorningStar Farms veggie patty with mustard and cheddar and the rest of my roasted brussels sprouts:

I’m so going to miss my brussels for the summer, but I’m glad we had one last go around before then!  I really like these veggie patties, but I HATE water chestnuts, and these things are swimming with them!  They’re easy to pull out, but I’ve had a couple of patties where they make up the bulk of the meal.  BLECH.  Those are right up there with tofu on my list of things that I hate the texture of!  I digress…

BUNKER!

And KEIRA!

Love my puppies :)   We got to leave early from work today which made the day fly by.  When we got home we immediately started cooking dinner for community group tonight!  If you remember from a couple of days ago we were supposed to have that on Tuesday night but got snowed in instead.  SO tonight we are still having BFD with eggs, sausage, bacon, hashbrown casserole (the real deal!), and cinnamon roll French toast.  HECK YES!  There will be pictures my friends, there will be pictures :)

As for workouts, nothing has happened yet today because it started raining before I could get outside.  I’m thinking tonight I might do a workout that I recorded from FitTV, but honestly I’m not sure if I’ll get around to it.  Maybe today will just be a rest day!  Besides, tomorrow we’re getting in one more ski day at Winter Park, so it’s probably a good idea to save my legs for that, right?  Right!

What foods do you hate the texture of? Like I said, I hate tofu and water chestnuts, but I’m also NOT a big fan of green bell peppers (just the flavor anyway) or radishes.  EW!

{AND}

In light of Tyler’s hilariousness, which boy band(s)/singer(s) or girl band(s)/singer(s) do you secretly love? I must say I’ve been dancing to Backstreet Boys and N’Sync the past couple of mornings while getting ready, but I wouldn’t turn down some New Kids on the Block either :)

{ 11 comments }

Feel-Good Friday

by Heather on March 26, 2010

Happy Friday everyone!  I know I don’t even need to ask, but are y’all ready for the weekend?!  I know I am!

Last night when I got home I did the FIRM Power Yoga DVD, which was great because it really helped stretch out my legs.  It’s not the most amazing and technical video, but I like that it spends a LOT of time in each pose so that my body can stretch, relax, and really learn how to be in new poses.  I felt completely invigorated afterward!  I was on my own for dinner since Nate was hanging out with our friend Robbie, so I went with another Couscous Veggie Wrap, maple roasted sweet potato, and a knock off of Bethenny Frankel’s Linguine with Spinach, Chives, and Ricotta recipe:

The maple roasted sweet potato was probably the best one I’ve had, and I hardly used any oil this time around!

And the pasta was GREAT!  Like I said, this is Bethenny Frankel‘s recipe, but I adapted it to what I had on hand:

  • 1/2 cup whole wheat penne pasta, cooked to al dente
  • 1 Tbsp dried chives, reconstituted with a little bit of pasta water
  • pinch of salt and pepper
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 cup ricotta cheese
  • 2 Tbsp grated parmesan
  • 1 cup baby spinach

While the pasta was cooking I mixed all of the other ingredients together.  I then added the hot pasta to the sauce mixture, which wilted the spinach and combined all of the flavors.  YUM!

And the not-so-colorful but ever tasty Couscous Veggie Wrap:

This was a perfect dinner!  All of the flavors were different, and they all satisfied in some way or another.  I also had a chocolate Oikos later for dessert (because I apparently didn’t get enough chocolate with the brownies earlier in the day!)

Amazing.  Seriously, Oikos has got it going on! The flavor was great and not too sweet.  I would HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend getting these as a great alternative to ice cream or something.  I know I will be!  I know I talked about celebrating, but once I got home all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and watch TV (SHOCKER).  We watched the usual Thursday night shows, and I made sure to show Nate the episodes of Modern Family I recorded.  I think I thought it was a lot funnier than he did!

This morning I just slept in til 7 (I normally get up around 6) because as good as it felt to run and do yoga yesterday, I just wasn’t feeling up to it today.  I kept snoozing the alarm while I laid in bed thinking about how great I would feel if I got up and did something, but I just did NOT feel like moving.  I think it’s probably best to rest a little bit today, although I am still planning on walking for an hour (if it’s not snowing again).  Have you ever had a time where you really listened to your body and found success with that? I made a favorite for breakfast:

Oats with peanut butter (turns out the gross oily peanut butter is MUCH better when it’s refrigerated and then melted into oats!), banana, and Dylan’s Chia Granola!  This was a perfectly filling breakfast and made for a VERY happy tummy :)

In other news, it’s T-minus 9 days til Easter, which means that I can eat meat again!  WOOHOO!  Not sure what I’m going to have as my first meaty meal, but I’d love to hear any ideas you guys might have!  I know I’ll probably need to ease meat back in to my life, and I still plan on going meat-free a couple times a week, but I’m just so stoked about being able to eat like a normal person again.  I don’t do well with restriction… ;)

Hope y’all have an incredible Friday!

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