Monthly Archives: March 2010

No Rest for the Weary

Posted on March 15, 2010 | 5 comments

Good morning all – have you adjusted to the new time yet? I was actually so exhausted from my busy weekend that I was able to go to bed fairly early last night and adjust to the change a little bit easier.

My weekend was fabulous, but exhausting. I travelled to Albany on Friday night and had a nice dinner with my parents at Beff’s.

We were home pretty early and I went to bed at a decent hour so I could run on Saturday morning before the impending rain and all my activities. I was up by 6 a.m. and ate an English muffins with peanut butter and bananas for fuel. I was out the door a little before 7 a.m. and had a wonderful run. I did almost the same run as the last time I was home (when my Garmin and I got in a fight and I basically had a miserable run).

This time, the run was perfect. I felt really great, the predicted rain was holding off and I ran pretty well. Here are my run stats:

Mile 1 – 9:00
Mile 2 – 8:55
Mile 3 – 8:29
Mile 4 – 8:17
Mile 5 – 8:36
Mile 6 – 8:15
Mile 7 – 9:15
Mile 8 – 8:55
Mile 9 – 8:33
Mile 10 – 8:09
Mile 11 – 8:38
.25 – 1:54

Total mileage  was 11.25 in 1:37:01

I was feeling pretty good after this run. My fastest mile (mile 10) was partially run on my highschool track. I really picked it up and enjoyed doing some speedwork there. My slowest mile (mile 7) was one giant hill. I purposely added a bunch of hills to this route because I know that the Poconos marathon is going to be hilly. It scares me a bit that I was a little bit slow during that section – I hope I can maintain my speed during the marathon.

Overall, it was a great run and it started sprinkling just as I got back to my parent’s house. Very lucky!

After my run I showered and headed out to my friend Jenny’s bridal shower at the Edison Club in Rexford, N.Y. It was a lot of fun and the food was delicious. We had a brunch/lunch selection of food and I went with both:

I was ravenous after my run and cleaned this entire plate. 🙂

And then there was a delicious bananas foster crepe for dessert. And you know how I love crepes…

Yummy! Jenny’s bachelorette party was that evening as well, so after we wrapped things up at the shower, we headed to our hotel in Saratoga to get ready for an evening of bachelorette fun! 

We spent the beginning portion of the evening in the hotel suite eating some amazing dips, veggies and pizza (sorry no photos). Then we headed out on the town. Here’s a lovely group shot of many of the girls:

The bridey is the lady in the middle in white! The rest of us were garbed in some Irish green attire since the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Albany took place on Saturday and we knew most people would be celebrating in Irish style. Such a great time – I can’t wait for the wedding!!

So now it’s Monday and back to the grind. I have plans for a nice, easy run on the treadmill after work (since the rain is still lingering in NYC) and then I’m heading to bed early again.

Did anyone else watch that new program Minute to Win it last night? I’ll admit that it totally hooked me. I was really rooting for the Rachel girl – I thought she could go pretty far. But don’t worry – you won’t catch me practicing at home or anything – I’m content to just watch.

And starting tomorrow, I think the weather in NYC is supposed to be amazing!! Can’t wait. I may have to do a nice Central Park run after work finally. I hope the nice weather hangs on through the weekend. Have a great day all!

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Posted in Dessert, Running, Travel, Uncategorized

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Where Did All the Food Go?

Posted on March 11, 2010 | 24 comments

Good Morning all! We’ve made it to Thursday – doesn’t it feel great? Although I am a bit sad that the rainy weather is moving in. This sunshine and warm air has been positively blissful!

More bliss – getting in a nice 4.5+ run with Katherine and Liz this morning! The temperature gauge claimed it was 47 degrees outside when I left the house, but it sure didn’t feel that warm. However, it was great to see so many other runners out in Central Park – it made it feel like Spring is finally here.

I’ll just do a quick recap of yesterday (Wednesday). I did not run in the morning, so I was up a little bit late and had some Kashi Heart to Heart cereal with blueberries for breakfast.

My morning went by really fast. All of  a sudden it was lunch (don’t you love that?) and I broke into my very ripe banana and PB&J on an Arnold Thin.

Little messy, lots of yum.

Afternoon snacks were: Yoplait yogurt with Galaxy Granola (we’re all out of Chobani) and an Apple Pie Larabar.

Human Garbage Disposals
Hubby and I went shopping last week (on Tuesday) when we were out in Staten Island getting our taxes done. It was a big load of food, to say the least. I said to him as we were going through the check-out that it looks like we’re feeding a family of four. We had soo much food. And the thought of carrying it up four flights of stairs frankly scared me. I tried to insist we put some things back. We didn’t.

It seemed ridiculous to me then. But now – I can’t seem to find any food in the house! We’re almost out of fruit, the only veggies we have are frozen, no Chobani, etc., etc. I told him last night that with the way things disappear, I feel like we must eat an incredible amount. And maybe we actually do, the food just happens to be healthy and so we don’t gain weight.

But this only serves to validate the fact that if you want to eat healthy, it’s going to cost you. A person goes through healthy, fresh foods so much faster than processed and packaged foods. I can understand why someone would buy canned goods, and pre-packaged meals and items – they will last them so much longer. I think one of the key goals in fighting the obesity epidemic has got to be to somehow make fresh, healthier foods more affordable and accessible to low-income individuals.

Sorry for that little rant. It just always boggles my mind how much food the Hubby and I go through alone – we are human garbage disposals it seems.

How often do you go grocery shopping? Do you ever feel you run out of food too quickly? Do you buy in bulk to make fewer trips or go as needed?

Anyhow – onto yesterday’s post-work activities. I headed to the gym and knocked out 5 miles in 43 minutes on the treadmill.

Then I headed home and ate a quick leftovers dinner. My Tomato Tortellini Spinach Soup leftovers had absorbed most of the liquid (note this if you decide to make it – add more broth – definitely 6 cups). I decided to eat it anyway and sprinkled on a bit of shredded cheese. It was yummy and very filling. The tortellini were especially flavorful from absorbing the liquid. I also threw a few sun-dried tomatoes on there as well.

After dinner I relaxed and watched Superbad on t.v. for a bit and then headed in to bed to read Angela’s Ashes around 9:00 p.m. I literally laughed out loud at one part and I just have to share:

Frankie is talking about how clean and nice it was in the hospital: “I lie in bed and think of the hospital where the white sheets were changed every day and there wasn’t a sign of a flea. There was a lavatory where you could sit and read your book till someone asked if you were dead.”

I don’t know why this cracks me up s0 much, but it does. The last line and his tone is just hysterical. This is his tone throughout the book. I’m just past page 200 and there’s about 360 pages in the book. Yes, it’s sad in many respects to read about the poverty they endure, but Frankie’s narration is  just great. You can’t help laughing despite the terrible conditions and things that happen to this family. So far I really like it – hopefully a book review to come soon.

Have you read Angela’s Ashes – did you like it?

That’s all for Thursdays – have a good one!

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Posted in Books, Running, Uncategorized

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A Couple’s Run Gone Bad…

Posted on March 10, 2010 | 13 comments

Happy Hump Day all. How is your week going? Mine is going by pretty quickly – thank goodness.

I started yesterday off by skipping my morning run and opting to sleep in instead. I know – I’m so lazy. But I really love my sleep.

For breakfast I had a 3-minute breakfast cookie and was impatient with letting it cool, so it fell apart a bit. Oops. Still yummy.

I grabbed a coffee on my way into work and snacked on a granola bar around 11:00 a.m.

For lunch I had a salad with romaine lettuce, carrots, cheddar cheese, walnuts, dried cranberries and chickpeas – with balsamic vinaigrette.

Late afternoon snack was…what else – Chobani yogurt with granola.

As the afternoon progressed the weather outside looked absolutely amazing. I texted Hubby to see if he might be game for an after-work run. He finally relented and said yes.

I flew home after work and got ready for our run. Hubby seemed a bit hesitant when I told him my plan was to run 4-5 miles. His first run of the season was on Monday night and he probably ran about 2.5 miles. He agreed to the distance, but only if we could take things slow.

Things started off okay – we ran about a 9 minute mile pace for the first two miles. However, as we got close to the end of the promenade around 115 Street there were some shady characters milling about and it made me uncomfortable. I told Hubby I’d like to pick up the pace a bit when we passed them on the way back.

Well, he had his headphones in and thought I was just saying I wanted to pick it up in general on the way back. So, as we turned around and passed those sketchy peeps I picked up the pace a bit. But then once we were past them, Hubby didn’t say anything about our speed, so I thought maybe he wanted to push things a bit longer.

Well…apparently he did not want to push things. We finished our run and he was not a happy camper. He had not intended to run that fast on his second run of the season and I think I pushed things a little too hard. I guess I’m so used to him zooming right by me when we run that I thought he is just always that speedy. I forgot that I usually don’t start running until the Spring (as does he) and generally have to take things easy at first and build up my endurance and speed.

Sorry I pushed you Hubby! 😦 I hope you’re not too sore today. Here are our stats from the run: 

Mile 1 – 8:58
Mile 2 – 9:06
Mile 3 – 8:40
Mile 4 – 8:24
.36 – 3:03

Total mileage – 4.36 miles in 38.18

Do you run with your significant other? How do you balance your differing endurance levels and speed?

To be fair: Hubby has definitely pushed me on many, many runs in the past. They were all pre-Garmin, so I can’t tell you exactly how fast we were running. But, I clearly remember finishing the Central Park loop (6.1 miles) in about 50 minutes, which was a record for me at the time. And he was completely unphased and wondered why I was nearly hyperventilating. A taste of his own medicine perhaps?

After our run last night, I had to throw in the last load of laundry (that I avoided didn’t have time for this weekend) so dinner needed to be quick and easy. I made one of these fellas:

Mmmm ketchup and pickles – yum!

A little while later I was definitely in need of some dessert. I decided to get creative a  make a mini cookie. It had:

1/8 cup granola
1/4 cup oats
1/4 cup egg whites
1/8 cup of protein powder
1 packet of Truvia
Drizzle of agave
1/2 teaspoon of peanut butter

I nuked it in the microwave on high for 45 seconds and it was amazing!

It was a little sticky, but it was delicious and gave me that dessert taste that I needed. It probably had a few more calories than necessary, but oh well.

You’ve seen many a glass of wine on my blog, but here’s just a few more reasons why it’s usually my alcoholic drink of choice.

A few more reasons why I love wine… 

The Claim: A Glass of Wine With Dinner Aids Digestion – I love wine, so I’ll go with this one. Although I have no clue if the wine I pair with my food with actually aid in digestion, I think it best to at least give it a try. 😉

Wine may help women keep weight in check – ok, I’m not sure how much weight (pun intended) I’d give this study, but again – It might be a good idea to conduct my own study to substantiate. 🙂 

Have a good hump day all – I’m sad that I’ll be pounding away on the treadmill tonight – no running buddies around or willing (the consequence for pushing Hubby too hard last night). 😦

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Six Miles and Successful Soup

Posted on March 9, 2010 | 16 comments

Good morning all – how is your Tuesday morning going? I set my alarm this morning to go running, but it did not happen. I was very much enjoying my sleep. So – to the gym it is tonight!

A quick recap of yesterday eats starts with a yummy oatmeal, banana and peanut butter breakfast. This has been a recent favorite – it’s really creamy and filling.

Monday morning passed along quickly and soon it was time for lunch. I had leftovers from Sunday night’s pasta dish and it was delish.

Looks a little less than delicious in the heinous light and old tupperware, but it was yummy. Afternoon snacks included Chobani yogurt with Galaxy Granola and a small snack bag of walnuts and raisins.

I bolted out of work at 5 p.m. and flew home to get ready for a nice evening run with Katherine and Bodhi. After my 15 miler on Saturday and my speedy run on Sunday, I was ready for a nice longish not-so-fast run. Here are our stats:

Mile 1 – 8:58
Mile 2 – 8:53
Mile 3 – 9:16
Mile 4 – 9:25
Mile 5 – 9:18
Mile 6 – 9:07

Total mileage: 6.04 miles in 55:23

Not too shabby! My legs were feeling mighty heavy throughout this run. We headed out at 6:00 p.m. and it got dark faster than I expected. Running with Katherine and Bodhi really makes me want a dog…but I doubt Murphy would like that and our apartment is way too small. Still – it’s nice.

If you’re a dog owner, do you take your pup on your runs? How far can your dog comfortably run with you?

Once I got back from our run, I set to work on making dinner. I bought a huge bag of baby spinach a little more than a week ago and wanted to be sure to use it up before it went bad. I decided to make my mom’s: 

Tortellini Tomato Spinach Soup

 1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup minced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
4 to 6 cups chicken broth (can also use vegetable broth)
1  14 oz. can whole tomatoes, crush them up 
1  9 oz. package fresh tortellini or dried tortellini
Salt and Pepper to taste
Dash of Parsley and Basil
6 oz. package fresh baby spinach – tear into pieces
Parmesan Cheese

Directions
In a 3 quart soup pot, heat olive oil over med. high heat and saute onion for several minutes then add garlic stirring for few minutes then add broth and tomatoes, parsley, basil, salt and pepper ;  turn heat up to high and bring to a boil – add tortellini and cook according to package instructions.  When tortellini is almost done, add spinach.   Cook few minutes till spinach is wilted.  Once you dish soup into bowls, shave parmesan cheese over the top and serve. 

Takes about 10 minutes to prep. and approx. 20 to 30 minutes to cook.

The end result:

This is seriously one of the easiest soups to make and it came out great. It was delicious and filling. Thanks to Hubby for picking up the missing ingredients for me yesterday so I wouldn’t be late for my run. 🙂

The rest of my night was low-key. I did not watch The Bachelor wedding – I just couldn’t do it. I went to bed pretty early and am looking forward to doing the same tonight.

Have a great day all! P.S. – it was 57 degrees out when I went running last night. YAYAY!!!

16 Comments

Posted in Bloggers, Recipes, Running, Uncategorized

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Fun and Run Sunday

Posted on March 8, 2010 | 12 comments

Good morning all – it’s Monday again already. Whoever decided that weekends should only be two days and the work week five days was a cruel person. I think it should be reversed.

I’ll start by giving you a quick recap of Sunday, which was a busy and beautiful day. I woke up pretty late  – around 9:15 and had a light breakfast of granola with blueberries and blackberries.

I kept my breakfast light because I was attending a fun blogger lunch at noon. I met up with Lindsay around 11:45 and we walked over to Candle Cafe. I’ve eaten dinner there before, but had yet to try brunch/lunch.

I was really craving some breakfast-brunch food and was excited to see waffles on the menu. I ordered the waffles, along with a much-needed coffee. The waffles were delicious – they came with banana, apple and candied pecans on top. I gobbled them right up while enjoying some lively conversation with five other fellow bloggers. Here we are:

From the front left, that would be me, Lindsay, Katherine, Dori, Ashley and Melissa. Katherine and Melissa had just finished a run in Central Park and oh how it made me jealous. I decided I needed to squeeze a run in at some point in the afternoon. It was a lovely gathering and the conversation was wonderful – I can’t wait to do it again in the near future!

After my brunch/lunch I headed home to start the dreaded laundry. I settled on doing two loads and then squeezing in a run – the sun was beckoning me.

I finally made it out around 4:15 and headed to the promenade along the East River. My run yesterday felt good, but it didn’t feel fast and although I should have been taking this run slow as a recovery, I decided to test my speed a bit. Here are my stats:

Mile 1 – 8:04
Mile 2 – 8:08
Mile 3 – 8:23
Mile 4 – 8:03
.52 – 4:35

Total Mileage: 4.52 miles in 37.13

It wasn’t particularly easy to maintain that pace, but it did feel good to be moving faster. I’ve decided I definitely need to work more fast runs like this into my week, along with some hill-work. It’s time to get serious if I want to try to qualify.

Have you ever tried to increase your speed – what kind of workouts did you do?

After my run, I cleaned the apartment a bit and then made some dinner. I was inspired by this recipe from Cooking Light.com, but definitely made some changes.  

Pasta with Chicken and Spinach

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 cup)

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups of wheat pasta  (9-ounce) package fresh cheese tortellini (such as DiGiorno)
  • 1  tablespoon  pine nuts
  • 1  teaspoon  olive oil
  • 6  4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1/8 cup of chopped onion
  • 1  (6-ounce) package fresh baby spinach
  • 1/4  cup  (1 ounce) preshredded Parmesan cheese
  • 2 Laughing Cow Light Swiss Cheese triangles
  • 1/4 cup of dry white wine
  • 1 tablespoon of butter
  • 1/4  teaspoon  black pepper
  • 1 large chicken breast 2  ounces  prosciutto, thinly sliced

Preparation

1. Cook pasta according to the package directions.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add nuts to pan; cook 1 1/2 minutes or until toasted, stirring occasionally. Then add garlic and onion to pan; cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add spinach and chicken to pan; cook until chicken starts to brown and spinach is wilted. Add the wine and butter – cook for 2 minutes. Turn down the head and add laughing cow cheese and mix until evenly distributed.

3. Add pasta to the pan and toss with chicken and spinach mixture.

I enjoyed my meal with a glass of red wine.

It was very yummy and the Hubby said he liked it much better than some of my recent “crazy concoctions.” 🙂

After dinner, we settled in to wait for the Oscars to start. To make it a bit more interesting, I printed two ballot forms from online and gave one to Hubby to fill out and one for me. Here’s my blue ballot:

A little while later I decided I needed a snack for the start of the show. I slathered some peanut butter on a few triscuits and finished up the blackberries.

And then we watched The Academy Awards. And boy did they go on forever! For some reason, I didn’t think this year’s show was all that funny or entertaining. I just kind of kept waiting to check off my ballot boxes.

What did you think of the awards?

As I said in a previous post, I wasn’t such a huge fan of The Hurt Locker, but my instincts told me it was going to win. And indeed, I was right. I ended up winning our ballot guessing contest by only missing 7 categories as opposed to the Hubby who missed 10. He picked Avatar to win more awards and I agree with him that it should have won more, but my gut said it just wasn’t going to happen.  

By the time the awards were over it was waaay past my bedtime. Hence, I’m a tired little lady this morning, but will hopefully wake up as the day progresses. Have a great Monday all!

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Posted in Bloggers, Recipes, Restaurants, Running, Uncategorized

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Feeling Better 15 Miler

Posted on March 7, 2010 | 7 comments

Happy sunny Sunday afternoon all! I hope everyone is having a great weekend and got a chance to enjoy some of this nice weather.

I started my weekend off very low-key on Friday night. I was exhausted from a busy week and came home to veg with the Hubby. We were super lazy and ordered pizza, stayed in and watched the movie 2012. I know what you’re thinking – terrible movie, but actually….I didn’t hate it like I thought I would. It was very action packed and absolutely ridiculous at times, but it held my attention.

I went to bed around midnight on Friday and was up and out for my long run on Saturday by about 8:30.  I fueled up with my usual English muffin with peanut butter and banana (no pic).

Happily, this long run wasn’t a terrible as the last one, but I’m still not feeling fast enough to even come close to qualifying for Boston. Here are my stats:

Mile 1 – 10:17
Mile 2 – 8:41
Mile 3 – 8:57
Mile 4 – 8:56
Mile 5 – 9:10
Mile 6 – 8:29
Mile 7 – 8:57
Mile 8 – 8:45
Mile 9 – 9:13
Mile 10 – 9:06
Mile 11 – 8:46
Mile 12 – 8:42
Mile 13 – 8:58
Mile 14 – 9:42
Mile 15: 8:53

Total Mileage – 15.05 miles in 2:15:56

And I brought my hand-held water bottle along this time. When I trained for my first marathon I went with the fuel belt hydration method, but it annoyed me every now and then. I decided to try out the handheld version for this training. I didn’t mind carrying it too much. It was a little heavy and cold in the beginning, but it was also cold outside, so that probably didn’t help anything. I was glad I brought my water. I tend not to feel as thirsty when I’m running in colder weather, but my body really does need more hydration than I think.

What is your preferred hydration method for long runs?

After my run I was pretty tired. I had planned to do laundry and clean a bit, but I ended up being pretty lazy. I refueled from my run with a Chobani yogurt with Galaxy Granola and Apple Pie Larabar.

It was a lazy afternoon and a lazy dinner. I just had some Kashi Heart to Heart Cereal while we watched The Hurt Locker. I know this movie got rave reviews, but I wasn’t really a fan.

So who else is excited for the Academy Awards tonight?!! I can’t wait. I just got back from a brunch/lunch with a few fellow local blogettes (love that term) and I’ll give you a full recap tomorrow – it was lots of fun. But for now, it’s time for lots of laundry, hopefully a quick 4-5 mile run, figuring out what’s for dinner and getting ready for the Academy Awards! Have a great Sunday all!

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Friday After Five Already?!

Posted on March 5, 2010 | 7 comments

Holy Cow – where did the day go? It’s already Friday after 5 p.m.! And my day started super early with a 5:40 a.m. run with Katherine and Liz. Here they are:

Oops and Bodhi of course! Can’t forget him – he was our guard dog for the run. Aren’t they just the cutest?

We ran from York to Central Park and then ran a little ways along the outer drive and back. There were a few other runners out as well. We ended up running about 4.5 miles – a nice start to a Friday morning. 🙂 Thanks girls!

Now for a quick recap of yesterday’s eats. Yesterday’s breakfast was Kashi Heart to Heart with blueberries.

Lunch was a salad and my afternoon snack was Chobani with more Galaxy Granola (unpictured).

My day was busy and flew by. I didn’t eat my yogurt until about 4:30 p.m. Then after work I headed to the gym to squeeze in a 5-7 mile run. I definitely ate my yogurt too close to my workout – oh the stomach pains! I managed to finish 6 miles in 51:33 – I just could not force the last mile. I’ll never do that again.

Luckily, by the time I left the gym my tummy was feeling better and just in time for a nice stomach-jarring dinner: tacos.

I packed them pretty full…

To be honest, these didn’t hurt my stomach at all. I was wary about eating tacos the night before a morning run, but they didn’t bother me in the least (thankfully for my running companions – hehe). I made myself three tacos, but was so ravenous I ate four.

And yes, I apparently still needed dessert.

Blueberries and blackberries with more Galaxy Granola.

Now it’s the end of the day and time to head home. I am looking forward to a quiet evening at home with the Hubby watching a movie, maybe making some pasta, and heading to bed early cuz I have a lovely 15-miler planned for the morning. Hope it goes better than last weekend. 😦

What’s on your weekend agenda? Are you going to take advantage of the nice weather forecasted? Do some spring cleaning? Or maybe just relax?

I also have a Sunday lunch planned with some UES bloggers which I’m pretty excited about – so stay tuned and have a great weekend!!

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Lots of Updates!

Posted on March 4, 2010 | 9 comments

Happy Thursday – we are almost at the weekend! I definitely need a break. I’ve been exhausted this week and super busy. My morning run did not happen today, so it’s off to the gym for me tonight.

Updates! Updates!
Before I recap yesterday’s eats, I wanted to point out a few updates on my blog. First, there is a new section on the top navigation bar called “Reviews.” This section will be for book reviews, product reviews, restaurant reviews and anything else I can think of. And in that section, I just posted my latest book review of The Historian. I also updated my “Currently Reading” page. You should check them all out!

Secondly, stay tuned for my very first product review to come shortly. My food recap will give you a nice sneak preview.

Breakfast yesterday was delish – oatmeal with banana and almond butter.

I snacked on a nice big apple around mid-morning (no pic) and then for lunch I had chicken breast deli meat with mustard, a slide of American cheese and baby spinach on an Arnold’s sandwich thin.

I also had a Chobani blueberry yogurt with some granola.

The granola in my yogurt was this kind:

Galaxy Granola
I received a sample package of Galaxy Granola on Tuesday evening and gave it a try with my yogurt. Galaxy Granola is baked in fruit rather than oil, which means it has 70% less fat than most other granola. The sample pack Galaxy sent me to test out had three flavors:

Vanilla with almond, cranberry orange and not sweet vanilla. I tried the not sweet vanilla first (blue bag) and used it in my yogurt. I was expecting that it might have a less-flavorful taste, but it was really good with just the right hint of sweetness, but not overpowering like some of the more sugary granola out there. I’ll have a full product review coming soon!

This granola also has no artificial ingredients, no oil, no corn syrup and no processed sugars – nice! Galaxy recently started a blog called fruitnotfat and they are on Facebook and Twitter. Plus, in honor of National Nutrition Month, they are giving away a bag of their delish granola to the first 50 people to contact them. So head to their site quick – it will probably go fast!

On to my afternoon. I completely forgot that I had signed up for another camera class until I got the reminder on Tuesday morning from Adorama. The class was from 6 -9 p.m., so I knew I would need some snackies to hold me over.

Around 4 p.m. I ate a Larabar and some veggies with balsamic vinegar.

This Adorama class was called EOS Discovery Day and it was all about the basic functions and tools of an SLR camera. This class was much better for me than the last one I took. The instructor was great and talked about so many things: ISO, shutter speed, aperture, auto focus, exposure, flash and helpful photography tips. They also provided us with a great booklet filled with helpful, digestible info (not like a camera manual). That booklet really made the class worth the money for me. I took a lot away from the class, but now it’s really going to be about practicing what I learned and getting comfortable with all the settings.

I was seriously wiped out and hungry after that class and finally got home around 9:45 p.m. I snacked on some triscuits with cheese and also ate a big bowl of blueberries and blackberries.

I set my alarm last night for 5 a.m. with grand plans of going for a morning run, but I was zonked out. I plan to hit the gym tonight to try to squeeze in 5-7 miles.

Have you ever taken a camera class? What’s the most helpful tip anyone has given you about an SLR camera (from a class or anywhere)? How long did it take you to get comfortable with your SLR options and move away from the automatic mode and into the “creative modes” (as the instructor called them)?

Have a great Thursday all – talk to you on Friday!! 🙂

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Taste Buds and Tax Time

Posted on March 3, 2010 | 19 comments

Hello blog world! How’s everyone’s hump day going so far? I didn’t get up and run this morning, so it was kind of nice to sleep in a bit. It was rainy and dark outside, so I was happy to snuggle under the covers. Here is a quick run-down of yesterday’s eats.

Yesterday, after my run with Katherine, I had a lightish breakfast of an English muffin with peanut butter and jelly. We were all out of bananas. Sadness.

As I headed to work I was hit with a big wave of hunger and knew I needed to stop for something else to nosh on before I got into work. I stopped at the little shop next door and got a coffee, banana and seltzer. For some reason, I was really craving seltzer water, which is not a normal thing for me.

Changing Taste Buds
I’ve never really been a fan of seltzer water until I had it a few weeks ago at my old boss’s apartment. It’s so funny how your tastes can change just like that! I also didn’t used to like onions or tomatoes and now I love both!

Do you have any foods or drinks like that – that you disliked for a long time and then all of a sudden discovered you enjoy?

Coffee is another one for me. I never drank it until my first job out of college and I’ve been hooked ever since. I also don’t know how I got through 8:00 a.m. classes in college without coffee.

So I ate my second breakfast and then didn’t have lunch till around 1:30. I picked up a salad and some salt and vinegar pop chips.

Later in the afternoon I snacked on a chobani yogurt with kashi go lean cereal and a Larabar.

After work I headed home and quickly gathered my stuff to head to our tax preparer. I barely had time to think about dinner, so I ended up just chowing down on a bowl of Kashi Heart to Heart cereal with a little bit of granola and almond milk.

Tax Time!
The Hubby and I filed jointly for the first time this year and boy does the government like to tax married people. We didn’t end up owing anything, which is good, but we didn’t get as much back as we wanted either.

I used to love tax season because I would get a nice big refund check. Now I get more nervous that we’ll have to pay.

Do you love or hate tax season?

I’m just glad we got that over with.

Health in the news…

Even More Reasons to Get a Move On: Duh – exercise is good for you and helps with aging. Nothing too new here.

Check out this site: http://www.eatright.org/Public/ maintained by the American Dietetic Association. It has some great info in honor of March being National Nutrition Month.

In Obesity Epidemic, What’s One Cookie? 

Foodborne illness costs U.S. $152 billion annually: study: Very scary data – I hope that Congress actually tackles food safety standards this year.

Have a great Wednesday everyone!

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Delicious Dinner and Garmin Gripe

Posted on March 2, 2010 | 15 comments

Good morning – how is your Tuesday going? Mine has been pretty busy and productive so far. But first, let me talk a little bit about the dinner I went to last night.

Megan from the  Runner’s Kitchen organized a dinner gathering with a few fellow local bloggers and blog readers. We all met at Caravan of Dreams for what turned out to be a delicious meal. Our group of girls consisted of myself, Megan, Katherine, Liz, Irina, Jess, and Jacqui.  

Katherine and I traveled from the UES together and quickly realized that neither one of us is very good at navigating. We got ourselves a little lost and ended up showing up about 10 minutes late. Oops – sorry!

After we finally managed to point ourselves in the right direction and get there, we quickly settled in to look at the menu. Caravan serves organic vegan food and the menu was gigantic. I seriously experienced a slight feeling of panic because there were soo many things I wanted to order, I wasn’t sure how to narrow it down.

I settled on the: BURRITO MONOSKI with seitan, black beans, brown rice, sautéed vegetables, guacamole and salsa. I didn’t snack much yesterday, so I was ravenous and wanted something filling. We placed our orders and our salads arrived quickly – I pulled out my camera, turned it on and watched as it told me to change my battery pack. I’m a bad blogger. Seriously – everyone’s food looked amazing and smelled amazing. I’m sorry I can’t back that up with some nice photos. 😦

I chose the burrito monoski because it sounded great, but I was also interested in trying Seitan for the first time. So what is seitan?

Source: “Although it is made from wheat, seitan has little in common with flour or bread. Also called “wheat meat”, “wheat gluten” or simply “gluten”, seitan becomes surprisingly similar to the look and texture of meat when cooked, making it a popular meat substitute. Seitan is also high in protein, making it a popular protein source for vegetarians.”

I can say with all honesty that my meal tasted like a regular chicken burrito. Maybe even better. It was flavorful and large and had plenty of guac and salsa – what more could you want?

Caravan also has a diverse tea menu – yay! I ended up ordering the dessert tea, which had a delicious vanilla flavor and aroma.

Our dinner was very nice – I was at the end of the table, so I feel like I missed out on chatting with some of the girls on the other end, but overall it was great to talk about running, good food and more NYC restaurant recommendations than I can even remember. These girls knew their restaurants and I was trying to keep all the names in my head – no such luck.

Katherine, Liz and I headed back to the UES together and Katherine said she was game for a run the next morning. YAY!

So today my training plan called for a 7-mile run, but let’s be honest, with the way I felt after my Sunday 14-miler, there was no way that was happening. I was still sore and thought that a nice 4-5 mile run sounded manageable.

We met at the crack of dawn…actually pre-dawn, there was no sun yet, and set out for a run on the streets of NYC. I finally got to meet Katherine’s dog Bodhi and he was so adorable and such a good runner. I loved when I would have to run a bit behind him because there wasn’t enough room for the three of us on the sidewalk and he would look behind him every now and then to see where I was – like he was checking on me. 🙂

Last night, Katherine and I had been talking about running on the city streets and how she had heard from others that Garmins don’t work very well. I told her that mine worked perfectly last time and I thought we’d have no problem.

WRONG! Katherine was indeed correct – my Garmin seemed to have some problems locating us and ended up telling us we were running super slow, then super fast and then that we hadn’t run as much as we thought.

Katherine used www.mapmyrun.com to map out our route and it looked like this more or less:

It came out to be a 4.56 miles. Now, here is the Garmin run:

Look similar right? Well, when you zoom in a bit, things get a little funky:

It seems like we were zig-zagging and cutting corners left and right, but we really were not. At then end, I ran from Katherine’s apt to my apt, which added about .29 more to the total and according to Garmin the run only reached 4.29 miles. According to mapmyrun, when we reached Katherine’s apartment we were already at 4.56 miles.

So who knows what the precise mileage was, but I am a bit annoyed that my Garmin seems to have such a hard time when I run the city streets.

Has anyone else who lives and runs in a major city (with lots of tall buildings) experienced the same problem?

I like running on the streets when it’s too dark for the park or promenade, but guess I will have to settle for a general estimate of my mileage.

The highlight of the run though was most definitely when we saw the sun rise at 6:04 a.m.!!! So early!! Daylight Savings here we come! 🙂

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