Category Archives: Recipes

Dinner on the Fly, Biggest Loser Makes Me Cry

Posted on November 11, 2009 | 8 comments

Well, unfortunately my tentative plan to run outside with the hubby last night did not come to fruition. He’s been very stressed and busy with work lately and he ended up having to work later than he thought. So I was forced to hit the gym and treadmill after work. My workout consisted of:

4 miles. increasing speed from 6.3 to 7.2 (averaging a 9 min mile)
100 crunches
25 alternating leg lowers (for abs)
Extensive stretching

Check out this article in the NY Times about running in tough weather: Train the Mind to Run Right Through Winter. I don’t mind a little rain or snow, it’s the absence of light that holds me back. I think NYC is a pretty safe place, but I don’t like to test the limits more than necessary.

When I got home from the gym I began throwing together dinner. I wasn’t working from a recipe or anything, but it ended up turning out delicious! Here is my make-shift recipe for it:

Tomato and Goat Cheese Stuffed Balsamic Chicken

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
10-12 grape tomatoes halved
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of goat cheese
salt and pepper to taste
sprinkle of Asiago cheese

Preparation
In a small bowl or measuring cup combine the balsamic vinegar, chopped onion and grape tomatoes. Set to the side.

Slice a pocket into each chicken breast starting in the thickest area of the breast. Fill the pocket with as much of the tomato, balsamic and onion mixture as will fit. Then insert 1 tablespoon of goat cheese into the pocket as well, spreading it out as much as possible.

Place the filled chicken breasts in greased baking pan. Drizzle lemon and balsamic vinegar over the top, salt and pepper lightly, and sprinkle a dash of Asiago cheese. Cook in the oven at 375 for 20-25 minutes. Remove and drizzle the remaining balsamic vinegar, onion and tomato mixture overtop. Serve over lettuce or rice. Here’s what it looked like:

The hubby gave it his seal of approval.

After dinner I had…can you guess?

More pumpkin bread!

The rest of my night consisted of watching The Biggest Loser and getting emotional (why do I always end up crying?!), and then reading David Copperfield for a bit (I’m 440 pages in – moving slowly but surely).

I have to say, I didn’t really want Shay to leave BL yet. And did I miss her “big reveal”? I only saw Daniel’s. My bet is that they are going to have her on again next season – just like they did with Daniel. I’ve never watched the show before this season, but for some reason I got hooked this time around. I think the transformations are amazing. I’d like Jillian to come train me for a day or two.

I got to bed later than I wanted, but had a very good night’s sleep (no kitty waking me up at 5 am!)

Breakfast this morning was a multi-grain English muffin topped with peanut butter and banana. I got a little eager and started eating it before I took a picture – notice the big chomp taken out:

Today’s lunch is a repeat of yesterday’s leftovers. Why did I have so many leftovers you may wonder? Well, the hubby took one look at the Quinoa dinner I was preparing on Monday night and promptly decided he would not eat it. He went out and got two slices of pizza for himself instead. Hence, I ended up with more leftovers than anticipated. Note to self: for the time-being, only make Quinoa dinners when Bill is not home for dinner. Hopefully he’ll come around later.

Snacks for the afternoon will be two clementines and a bag of raisins and walnuts:

It looks like I’ll be hitting the treadmill again tonight to up my mileage for Pile on the Miles. I’m praying this weekend is nice so I can do a nice long run in Central Park.

Are there any recipes you make that your significant other refuses to eat? How do you accommodate varying likes and dislikes in your household?

Am I the only one who cries when watching The Biggest Loser?

8 Comments

Posted in Books, Recipes, Running, Uncategorized

Pumpkin Bread, Quinoa…and Chemicals?

Posted on November 9, 2009 | 3 comments

I needed to switch breakfast up a bit today, so instead of oatmeal I had a multi-grain English muffin with peanut butter and some light cranberry juice.

I have to say that it didn’t hold me over as well as oatmeal. I was hungry by 10:00 a.m.! Any ideas on what I could add to my English muffin to keep hunger at bay? I’m thinking of doing half peanut butter-topped and half jelly-topped next time. 🙂 And then later, maybe peanut butter and banana on top!

Morning snack was the usual granola bar (no pic). And then lunch consisted of: carrots, Greek yogurt with oats, and some of my mom’s delicious pumpkin bread!

The bread was pretty much like a dessert at lunch – good thing I only had one slice with me. Here is my mom’s recipe for this deliciousness!

Crumb Topped Pumpkin Loaf

Loaf:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsps. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin pie mix (not just canned pumpkin)
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Topping:
1/4 cup butter – cut up into small pieces
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/3 finely chopped walnuts

Loaf: Beat egg and sugars in large bowl. Beat in pumpkin, oil and vanilla till smooth. Add flour, baking powder and salt – stir just until moistened and it comes together. Fold in walnuts. Spoon batter into 9x5x3 loaf pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.

Topping: Mix butter pieces, brown sugar and flour in small bowl until crumbly. Stir in walnuts. Sprinkle over batter.

Bake loaf at 350 for 50 to 55 minutes, until wooden toothpick tests clean. Cool in pan on rack 10 minutes then turn out onto rack to cool completely.

I’m not a huge fan of Pumpkin Pie (I know – I’m crazy), but this bread is one of my favorites.

Afternoon snack: rice chips and two clementines

After work, I stopped at Jack Rabbit Sports to see if they had any good ear-warmers for cold-weather running. Then I popped into a nearby health food store that I just noticed a few weeks ago to browse their selections.

Dinner tonight was a new adventure: Quinoa!

Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
1 can beans, drained
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
10 grape tomatoes, quartered
½ green bell pepper
½ cucumber
juice from 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
dash cayenne pepper
dash cumin

Directions:
Boil quinoa in a saucepan with 1.5 cups of water until all water is absorbed. Set aside to cool.

Combine all chopped veggies and drained beans with lemon juice, vinegar and spices. Toss with quinoa, add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

It was a decent meal – but not my absolute favorite. I used red wine vinegar because it was all I had, but I think if I make it again I would get some apple cider vinegar.

I’ll likely have another piece of pumpkin bread for dessert!

!Chemicals!
Here’s my last commentary of the night. I came upon this article today:
Chemicals in Our Food, and Bodies – an op-ed in the NY Times. Reading things like this scares me half to death!

“While most of the studies are on animals, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported last year that humans with higher levels of BPA in their blood have “an increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and liver-enzyme abnormalities.” Another published study found that women with higher levels of BPA in their blood had more miscarriages.”

The fact that BPA is being found in so many things is even more terrifying. It started with water bottles, but this study says it’s also been found in many canned goods. Canned soups are sometimes my go-to “quick” food if I don’t have time to or feel like making a “real” dinner. BPA has already been banned in Canada.

What do you think? Have chemicals like BPA and MSG changed our bodies significantly? Should they be banned?

3 Comments

Posted in Recipes, Uncategorized

Bitten by the Marathon Bug?

Posted on November 5, 2009 | 5 comments

I was warned it would happen. I scoffed at such claims. One marathon was certainly enough for me. But…after applying for the NYC Marathon lottery yesterday (wholeheartedly assuming I would not get in), I started thinking about the “what ifs.” What if I do get in? What if I can run it fast enough to qualify for Boston? And as I thought more and more about the “what ifs,” I found myself becoming more and more excited. I think I’ve been bit!

Now if my husband happens to be reading this right now, he probably just let out a huge groan and possibly even some swear words (love you Bill!). The day of my first marathon he was the most supportive husband ever…but leading up to the race, I can’t say he was initially too enthusiastic about my decision to run a marathon.

Training is hard. Training is draining. Training affects not only your life, but also the lives of the ones around you. Schedules need to be rearranged to fit in long runs, exhaustion kicks in and you become a less “fun” spouse, and the list goes on. Not to mention the obvious fear that you’ll hurt yourself. (Think Detroit Marathon where three runners died). All of this led him to be a little wary.

But what they say is in fact true – once you run one, you’ll inevitably want to run more, potentially with the elusive goal of qualifying for Boston. The desire is even stronger if the goal isn’t too too far off.

I had an interesting back and forth today with a fellow blogger/runner. Britt of RunnerBelle has run 11 marathons and started off running at around a 4:30 pace. She has now finished a marathon in under 3:30! I asked her for some advice on increasing my speed and here is some of her feedback:

“I am a huge fan of speed work, the only way I have found to get more comfortable at a faster pace is to push your paces on shorter runs. I do a mix of tempo runs, 1600’s w/ 800 jogs, 800’s w/ 400 jogs, also some races thrown in. For NYC, I added a 1/2 marathon and a relay race into my training as well as some 5k’s and 10k’s. During the spring I’m fortunate that we have a couple of 1/2 marathons and a 20 miler leading up to Boston that really seem to help me find my pace. Believe me I know what it is like to be up around 4 hours and think that getting under a 3:40 is impossible. Before I qualified for Boston, my times were going up around 4:30! But I committed myself to speed work, hills, my long runs and adding in a few races along the way. It really seemed to work for me. Also I really looked at what I was eating, realizing that was my fuel for my runs and I needed the best fuel possible. This resulted in me dropping almost 20lbs, which also helped my speed too! I’ve gained a little of it back, but now I think I’m at my happy weight. I’m also fairly muscular from kettlebell, so I’m not a waif-ish runner. Hopefully that helps some! Happy Running!!!” Britt

That just fueled the fire to run another one even more! Thanks for that Britt.

Now on to my day and food/workout recap. Breaskfast was oatmeal, but wait for it…. with Apple Butter instead of Agave and raisins. I definitely used a little too much. I’ll stick with about a tablespoon next time:

Lunch was leftover salad mixings from the night before. I wanted to use it up before the lettuce wilted (I hate that). I also had some strawberry Greek yogurt with oats.

Snacks for the day included: carrots, chippers and dried prunes with lemon.

Sticking to my Pile on the Miles plan, I hit the gym after work and did the following:

3.1 miles in 25.47 (7.2 start – 7.6 end)
core exercise

My body is feeling a little sore from the past three days at the gym after having taken almost two full weeks off. But it’s a good sore.

Dinner tonight was this:

With goat cheese mixed in:

Which is this recipe:

Pasta and Goat Cheese Delight

Ingredients
• 10 ounces baby spinach, rinsed
• 1 cup of bow tie pasta
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• half a package of grape tomatoes, quartered
• 4 ounces crumbled goat cheese
• Nuts (any kind – I used pecans halved) – handful

Directions
Tear or chop up baby spinach into small pieces and set aside. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain and place in a large bowl. Drizzle olive oil over pasta and add salt and pepper to taste, spinach and tomatoes; gently toss. Add goat cheese and serve warm or room temperature.

And for dessert:

Now it’s time to clean a bit, grab my book and try to head to bed early. I’m so excited to finally see Bill tomorrow! It’s been almost a week since I last saw him. And I almost forgot that I’m also excited to watch the Yankees Ticker Tape Parade tomorrow at work. It will be right outside our office. I will definitely have my camera with me!!

5 Comments

Posted in Recipes, Running, Uncategorized

The Tuesday Wrap Up

Posted on November 3, 2009 | 2 comments

Tuesday is coming to an end and it’s been a busy day. First, I want to talk a little bit about this new, great book I got called Clean Plates NYC. It’s a guide to the “healthiest tastiest restaurants in Manhattan.” I seem to be eating out a little more than I would like, so I figured this might be a helpful tool in selecting where to go.

Besides providing a list of healthy restaurants, the book also delves into building the diet that’s right for you, and for once the author doesn’t tell you that you MUST become a vegetarian, like so many others I’ve read. In all fairness, he touts fruits and veggies a lot, but he allows for meat as well. It’s been very enlightening, especially his discussion on wheat…

“Wheat is the highest in gluten of all the grains. The majority of wheat crops are genetically modified. Given its ubiquity, wheat is not easy to avoid. That, plus the fact that it has addictive qualities, means that we tend to consume way too much of it. I suggest making an effort to steer clear – or at least cut down – in part because wheat’s high gluten level means it disrupts your digestive system, even if you’re not allergic. Reduce the percentage of wheat in your diet, and I suspect you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much better you feel day to day.”

Yikes – so my wheat bread sandwiches aren’t as great as I thought. I’ll have to figure out how to begin to limit my wheat intake (even wheat pasta should be eaten in moderation) and see how it affects me. I will have to start experimenting with other grains (stay tuned).

Lunch today was a mish-mash of food: carrots, yogurt, rasins & walnuts, and some new chips I picked up called Rice Works Salsa Fresca. I chose them because they are made from brown rice – No Wheat – and are Gluten Free! We’ll see how long this wheat moderation lasts.

Today was my day to get back into the swing of working out. I made it to the gym after work (it was soo dark so early) and this was my workout:

4.5 miles on the treadmill – increasing speed from 6.3 and finishing at 7.4
85 sit-ups, 50 side crunches, 20 leg lowers (abs)
25 squats with 5 pound weights

I need to start incorporating more strength training into my routine.

Question: What are some of your favorite strength-training moves or exercise?

After the gym, I stopped at the nearby school to cast my vote (yay for civic responsibility) and came home and made this recipe:

Fruited Brown Rice Pilaf

Ingredients
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 1/4 cups hot water
3/4 cup uncooked brown rice
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 red apple, chopped
2 tablespoons walnuts
2 chicken breast – cubed and cooked

Directions
1. In a large saucepan, saute onion and celery in butter until tender. Stir in the water, rice and bouillon; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 50-55 minutes (less if using instant rice) or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. Remove from the heat; fold in apple, cooked chicken breast and walnuts.

It was good to finally eat something home-cooked! The apples in this recipe were a really nice surprise.

EVENT
I also wanted to share this article link to a book review in the New Yorker: Flesh of Your Flesh. I haven’t read Foer’s Book, Eating Animals, but am considering picking it up. I’ll be going to his book reading at Barnes & Noble in Union Square on November 16th. Any NYCers or visitors should check it out! Thanks go out to my co-worker Tiffany for sharing the article and event info with me.

Have a nice night!

2 Comments

Posted in Books, Recipes, Uncategorized

Productive Sunday

Posted on October 25, 2009 | Leave a comment

My Sunday has been very productive so far – filled with eating and running, and probably some reading later. I started off the day with some oatmeal (topped with Agave nectar), a few raisins, light cranberry juice and tea.

After breakfast, I finished up the last load of laundry (I don’t know how we go through so many clothes), vacuumed and cleaned the apartment, and then decided it was time for a run.

I can’t believe I haven’t run at all since the marathon two weeks ago. (BTW – that is NOT recommended. I definitely should have been running easy). I decided before I even left the apartment that I would take it slow. Then I realized that I had left both of my running watches at my parent’s house after the marathon. So I wouldn’t be able to time myself even if I wanted.

I ended up running about 5 miles and it didn’t feel too bad. But I could definitely tell my endurance and speed had declined a bit, even with only two weeks of inactivity. If I had to guess, I’d say I ran for about 46-47 minutes.

During my run, I also got a chance to see some of the costumed dogs participating in a costume contest at the East River Dog Park. They were hysterical and I was wishing I had my camera. It was such a gorgeous run too – 60 degrees out!

Dinner for tonight is homemade chicken noodle soup. It’s a recipe my mom gave me and I loved! I posted it in the recipes section. It was delicious and now we have lots of leftovers!