Help for Haiti

Posted on January 15, 2010 | 1 comment

I wanted to just take a moment to recognize the impact of the earthquake in Haiti and share my sympathy for all those people who have lost loved ones in this tragic catastrophe. Thankfully, I don’t know anyone hurt or killed, but I know of people through friends who have loved ones still missing and it’s truly heartbreaking.

When tragedies like this occur, it’s sad to say, but it tends to bring out the best in people. We’ve seen in with the Tsunami, 9 /11 and so many other terrible moments in history.

People always want to do something to help, but they are sometimes unsure of what to do or whom to contact. Thankfully, the company for which I work is collecting donations and matching dollar-for-dollar, so I will be donating through them with my donation going directly to UNICEF.

Here are a few other resources which I found to be very helpful in determining how to donate or help:

10 Ways You Can Donate to Haitian Earthquake Victims
NY Times Article on Ways to Donate
What we can do to help Haiti, now and beyond (By: Bill Clinton)
American Red Cross
Haiti Earthquake Relief: How You Can Help

Update: Also check out Val’s Fundraiser Idea to help raise money for Haiti or any other needs.

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Marathon Decision, Book Review…FRIDAY!

Posted on January 15, 2010 | 8 comments

Good morning all!  Happy Friday!!

So it’s time to announce my big Marathon Decision for 2010. Here it is:

I’ve decided to run the Pocono Mountain Run for Red Marathon on Sunday, May 16, 2010. I made my decision based on several factors and I thank everyone so much for all the feedback and suggestions yesterday. I tried to take everything into account. Here is why I’ve decided to run it:

  • I’ve got two half marathon races in the next few months and I plan to add a few more road races to the list, so I think this will help increase my speed and endurance.
  • I don’t enjoy training and doing long runs in the peak heat of summer (July and August), so hopefully I’ll feel great during my longs runs in March and April.
  • If I don’t qualify for Boston this May, I would still have time to try in the fall of 2010.   
  • We’re planning a trip to Ireland in the fall and I know that it would put a hitch in my fall training. I definitely wouldn’t have enough time to run while in Ireland since we’ll be on the go and sightseeing the entire time.
  • I feel confident that I can increase my speed significantly in the 18 weeks I have for training and have already outlined a training plan.

So there’s my reasoning, now here’s my training plan – I’ve already started!

View my Poconos Marathon Plan in PDF version – I know the image above it pretty terrible. I’m also going to be incorporating some hills, tempo runs and mile reps in the training runs outlined above – I just haven’t decided exactly where yet. I should note that I used Hal Higdon’s Intermediate Marathon Plan as a guide for my training plan.

I feel very relieved that my decision has been made and my training has started! No turning back now. Thanks again for sharing your opinions and thoughts!

And I welcome any suggestions, tips, hints for running faster that anyone has to offer! Do you have any advice to share with me?

Book Review

Finally, before I get into my eats, I have to let you know that I posted my book review for The Weight of Silence. Check it out! Now on to eats:

Yesterday’s breakfast was a honey wheat double fiber English muffin with peanut butter on one side and almond butter on the other, topped with banana. And of course, a side of light cranberry juice.

Lunch was some leftover spinach gnocchi – yummy yum – and some carrots.

My late afternoon snack was some black cherry Stonyfield yogurt with granola.

Dinner was kind of a mish mash. I cooked 4 baby red potatoes in olive oil and lemon juice for a bit, then added chopped up green pepper, onion and garlic and some butter. While that cooked, I microwaved three veggie sausage links. Then I added them to the mix when everything was just about ready. It was soo good – the lemon really gave it a kick.

Dessert was a few of these again…

After dinner I watched the new episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” and I have to say, I’m just not as into it as I used to be. I did watch part of the cross-over episode to “Private Practice”, but then I gave up and read more of my new book instead:

My friend Katie recommended this book , The Historian, after I finished the Twilight series and was on a vampire kick. However, I didn’t get around to reading it until now. And so far I am loving it. I was so into it on the train ride home last night that I almost missed my stop.

I’m so excited for this weekened! I’ve got my friend Kelly’s bachelorette party tomorrow at Foxwoods Casino in CT and I can’t wait! Do you have any fun plans for this weekend? I’m also going to work in 2 runs hopefully – the weather is supposed to pretty warm!

Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend all!

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What to do, What to do…

Posted on January 14, 2010 | 15 comments

Good morning all! Happy Thursday – this week is almost done. Mine has been very busy – how about yours?

Marathon Dilemma

So I want to share my dilemma with you all and get your thoughts. I would really like to qualify for the 2011 Boston Marathon. My first marathon time was 3:54:57, so I have to do some good training to get to 3:40:00. My dilemma is when to run my next marathon.

Initially, I was looking at Fall 2010. However, my husband and I want to plan a trip to Ireland this September and I’m fearful that the trip will interrupt my training and potentially throw it so off course that I won’t qualify. We’d be going for 10 days and I would likely not be running at all.

So my latest idea is to potentially run a spring/early summer marathon in May 2010. I’ve found one in the Poconos that is supposed to be a pretty fast course. But, that would mean my training needs to start…like tomorrow.

So what do you think? Go for the spring or fall marathon?

I should also note that I’ll be running a half marathon toward the end of January and the end of April – so that may help with my speed and training for a May run.  

Ok – let me know what you think. Now on to my eats:

Breakfast yesterday was oatmeal with banana, almond butter and agave.

For lunch I finished up the rest of the leftover tomato-basil soup with some carrots.

Snacks were some Fage Strawberry Greek yogurt with granola (don’t really enjoy their packaging) and two prunes.

Yeah I know, those prunes look gross. But they are pretty decent snacks. I also had an unpictured apple before the work-day ended as well. Then I headed to the gym.

Inspired by my marathon dreams, I tried to run a fast four miles on the treadmill at the gym.

4 miles in 33:20

Not too terrible. Then I did some ab work and grabbed 5-pound weights to do some arm work.

I headed home and threw together a quick dinner. I spotted some Spinach Gnocchi at the store the other day and picked them up. These little buggers are fat-free, but a little bit high in carbohydrates. I made a small batch with some marinara sauce and a side of broccoli sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

Up close is better…

I am slightly obsessed with these gnocchi. They were so chewy and delicious. I could have eaten way more than I did. I think they would definitely make for good running fuel.

Now the question is – when will I be running? Help!!

Have a nice Thursday all – talk to you tomorrow (FRIDAY!!)!

P.S. – I promise a book review is coming soon. And I am really enjoying the next book I’ve started.

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Hair Cut and Hump Day

Posted on January 13, 2010 | 11 comments

Happy Hump Day all! How is your week going? My is kind of flying by – work has been very busy. I am also very excited for the weekend ahead, so I hope the remainder of the week goes quickly.

So here is Tuesday’s recap:

Breakfast was oatmeal with raisins, walnuts, almond milk and a squirt of agave.

For lunch I ventured outside for a salad and got my usual: romaine lettuce, cheddar cheese, carrots, walnuts, dried cranberries and chickpeas with balsamic.

My first afternoon snack was Chobani pomegranate yogurt. I’d never tried this flavor before – it’s always sold out at the places I go to buy it. I really liked it – the arils were actually really good.

Later in the day I had two clementines. However, the second one I peeled was really tough and tasted strange, so I ate about two slices and threw the rest out – sadness.

I was still craving something sweet, so instead I ate one piece of Lindt Lindor Truffles – dark chocolate.

I may have had a few unpictured rice chips as well – bad I know.

After work I headed to a nearby salon for a hair cut. I am weird about getting my hair cut. I used to work in a hair salon as the receptionist from age 13 – 19, so the same two girls would always cut my hair and I trusted them implicitly.

Well, I don’t live in Upstate New York anymore and sometimes I can’t plan far enough in advance to make it upstate for a trim, and my hair was getting out of control. So I searched a few places near my apartment online, read some reviews and made an appointment.

All in all, the experience left me unscathed and hopeful that maybe I can go back to this salon. The guy was very nice and listened to what I wanted. I think he cut it a bit too short, but it will grow out. And I don’t get my hair cut all that often, so it just means I won’t have to again for a while. I’m terrible – I know. But I just hate it.

My one pet-peeve of almost all salons is the product pushing. That and putting gel, spray or any kind of “product” in your hair when you don’t want it. This guy didn’t push the products on me much at all – thank goodness. However, I did tell him right off the bat that I wasn’t much of a “product” girl, so he probably gathered he should tone it down. But that hasn’t stopped others in the past though.

I think I will go back – the price was reasonable, the guy was decent, my hair is in tact (if a bit short), and I didn’t feel that they were trying to “sell me” left and right. Another hair catastrophe diverted.

What about you – have you found “your” hair stylist? Have you ever had to find a new one? Does anyone else get as nervous about getting a hair cut as I do? You’d think I was going to the dentist!

After my hair cut I came home, started a load of laundry and contemplated dinner. It was getting late, I was tired, I was really into reading my latest book and didn’t feel much like cooking. Hence, my dinner turned out to be this:

Awful I know. I should be honest and note that I had two handfuls of chocolate chips. It was not a healthy dinner at all, but I was having some cravings and was feeling lazy.

So today I am completely exhausted because I was up till a little after midnight reading my book: The Weight of Silence. I was so close to the end, I just had to know what happened. So I finally finished it around the midnight hour and may have a review coming later today or tomorrow. It was a good one.

Do you ever find yourself up late at night when you can’t put a good book down? It’s happened to me many times.

Today I am back on the wagon: going to the gym after work, making a decent dinner and trying to get to bed before 11 p.m.

I probably could have finished my book earlier if The Biggest Loser and American Idol hadn’t been on, stealing my attention away. And why couldn’t they schedule their commercials to NOT be on at exactly the same time? It made flipping back and forth impossible!

Until tomorrow…

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Running in the Dark

Posted on January 12, 2010 | 12 comments

Good morning – how’s everyone on this Tuesday morning? I’m doing pretty well. Things have been busy, busy at work and yesterday just flew by. Here’s a quick look:

Breakfast yesterday was a delicious honey wheat double fiber English muffin with peanut butter and topped with banana. And of course, a side of cranberry juice.

No mid-morning snack for me because I ate an early lunch at about 12:15 Lunch was simply leftover tomato-basil soup from Sunday night. And it was even better today – more flavorful.

Looks kind gross in that Tupperware and horrid lighting, but it was good. My late afternoon snacks included some Horizon organic raspberry yogurt with granola and a Larabar.

I flew out of work right at 5:00 because I was pumped to meet up with Katherine for a nighttime run. I can’t tell you how psyched I am that she lives so close, runs at my speed and, if her schedule allows – is always ready for a run. But the girl does have one busy, busy schedule.

Anyway – we started off our run around 83rd and York and headed to the East River. We headed south to 59th street and then turned around. This was a first for me – I’ve never run along the river or in Central Park when it’s dark outside. I always head to the treadmill, albeit with some notable frustration.

Running in the dark was very interesting. The East River Esplanade is actually pretty well-lit, but it has its dark spots. I was surprised to see that there were quite a few other runners out there, even some women by themselves. Katherine and I joked about telling one lone female runner that she could run with us and be our friend – I just don’t think I’d ever be able to get out there by myself in the dark.

Once we turned around, we continued north back past 83rd and all the way up to 107th. That’s about where it starts to get a bit scary for me. Altogether, we ran 5 miles and here is our breakdown (thanks Garmin):

Mile 1 – 9:22
Mile 2 – 9:08
Mile 3 – 9:11
Mile 4 – 8:48
Mile 5 – 9:00
Total: 5 miles in 45:31

I’ve got to also say that although my first 2010 race this past Saturday was technically in colder temps, last night’s run felt pretty frigid. I talked to my mom after the run and she made the good point that even though Saturday was technically colder, I was running in the sun,  so I may have felt some residual heat or warming. That’s probably why last night felt colder to me.

Do you run in the dark? If yes, do you run alone or prefer to have a buddy?

I also feel that city night running is much different than running at night in the suburbs. Even though there are more people generally out and about in NYC, there are also more potential sketchy peeps. Last night I was too nervous to run in Central Park, even with Katherine, hence we hit the river instead.

When I got back to the apartment I started dinner almost immediately, but I did snack on some raisins and walnuts to tide me over. I was ravenous.

Dinner was baked chicken stuffed with chopped apple and feta cheese, with balsamic vinegar drizzled over top. We also had a side of vegetable couscous. Hubby informed he is not a fan of couscous – of any kind. I forced some curry couscous on him a few weeks back and he didn’t like it, but I thought maybe it was just the curry flavor – apparently it’s couscous in general.

Up close

After dinner I also ate the rest of the apple with some peanut butter for dessert.

We finished dinner and started scanning the tube, and seriously, The Bachelor was the only thing on. We started watching it and it was getting on my nerves, so just as I was about to turn the channel they announced that some drama was going to happen in the second hour and one of the girls was getting kicked off. Those producers and editors are darn good, because then I just had to see what the drama was. And what happened next…I watched the whole two hours of the show!

I have to admit, that was a twist that was way better than any of the fake drama they could have planned or instigated. Ha! I’m dying to see this “staffer” that hooked up with Rozalyn. And what exactly happened between them… Oh the drama!

Sorry for getting a little sidetracked. I leave you with some interesting health stuff in the news:

Counting of Calories Isn’t Always Accurate

Healthy Aging, With Nary a Supplement

The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating

New York City leads drive to cut U.S. salt intake

Are you a salter? I salt a few things a bit, but nothing crazy. I know a few people who are salt obsessed and put it on EVERYTHING. Usually without even tasting the dish first.

That’s all for today – have a good Tuesday!

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Monday Already?

Posted on January 11, 2010 | 6 comments

Weekend Recaps – In Case You Missed It:

Friday: I Heart Artichoke Hearts
Saturday: My First Race of 2010!
Sunday: Sharz, A Show and Sleepy Sunday

Good morning – welcome to the start of a new work week. Groan – I know. But before I get into this week, I’m going to do a quick recap of the rest of Sunday.

After waking up a bit late on Sunday, I set to making a quality breakfast. I had planned on making some for Hubby as well, but he had to leave to go play football in the freezing cold. So instead, I made some oatmeal pancakes for myself using Tina’s adapted recipe, which I guess came from KERF. I topped my pancakes with a mashed blueberry, water and sugar mixture. I also had a cup of hazelnut coffee.

My huge breakfast kept me full for most of the day. I had a light lunch pretty late in the day consisting of an apple with cheddar cheese.

After I did two loads of laundry and cleaned the apartment a bit, I decided to make some soup. I popped out to the store to pick up a few items and then set to work making tomato-basil soup (from cookinglight.com) with a side of sautéed brussels sprouts.

Tomato-Basil Soup

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)

Ingredients

  • 2  teaspoons  olive oil
  • 3  garlic cloves, minced
  • 3  cups  fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
  • 3/4  teaspoon  salt
  • 3  (14.5-ounce) cans no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
  • 2  cups  fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
  • Basil leaves (optional)

Preparation

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Stir in the broth, salt, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 20 minutes. Stir in basil.

Place half of the soup in a blender; process until smooth. Pour pureed soup into a bowl, and repeat procedure with remaining soup. Garnish with basil leaves, if desired.

———-

For the brussels sprouts, I just sautéed them in a little olive oil to start, along with some mushrooms. Then after about 5 minutes I added 1/4 cup of chicken broth along with some salt, thyme, pepper and onion salt. I sautéed until they were tender and then removed.

The soup was pretty good and I had enough leftover that I can bring it with me to work two days this week – I love that! Do you plan meals ahead to make leftovers for taking to work? I always try to if it’s a meal I think would be a decent lunch.

After dinner I finished up the blueberries I opened this morning as dessert – but I gobbled them up so quickly I didn’t take a picture.

Then I read a little bit of my new book before bed. I’m reading The Weight of Silence and it is definitely a quick read. I’m already about 80 pages in. I’m liking it so far, but I will keep you posted and will write a review when I’m done.

And so we begin our second week of the New Year – I have a bunch of projects I’m working on at work so I’m hoping my week will fly by. I’m also going for a run with a fellow blogger tonight after work – finally getting a chance to run outside during the week despite the darkness. And then this coming weekend I’m attending a bachelorette party! 2010 is shaping up to be a busy year.

How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun, have any great workouts, good eats or good reads?

Have a good Monday all!

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Sharz, A Show and Sleepy Sunday

Posted on January 10, 2010 | 5 comments

Good afternoon blog world. It’s Sunday and I have to say it’s been kind of a sleepy one so far. It’s been a busy and fun weekend and it’s left both the Hubby and I a little tired today. Yesterday after my race, I had a second small breakfast – I was hungry after that run. I had some pineapple Chobani yogurt with granola and some light cranberry juice.

I may have also had a cup of coffee after my snack. I was feeling kind of tired after the race. But I also drank a lot of water throughout the day. The Hubby and I lazed around and watched a movie before getting ready for our night out. During the late afternoon I snacked on a Larabar.

I loved the Peanut Butter Cookie flavor – yum! But when don’t I like foods with peanut butter?

Around 6:00 p.m. we headed out for a quick bit to eat in our neighborhood. We went to Sharz Cafe, one of my favorites in our area. The Hubby doesn’t have the same love for it as I do, but I always enjoy the food. I also like the “Twilight Dinner Special” they offer. If you arrive before 6:30 p.m., you can eat a 3-course dinner for $21.50. A pretty good deal in my book. I have to apologize – I did not take any pictures. The restaurant is very small and Hubby got especially uncomfortable when I started to whip out the camera. My 3-course meal was:

Appetizer: Mesclun Salad with balsamic vinaigrette
Chef’s Special: Spinach Fettucine with wild salmon in a pink sauce
Dessert: Arborio Rice pudding with dried cherries

I loved everything! As I always do. Do you like dinner specials like this or do you prefer to have the entire menu from which to choose? The Twilight Dinner Menu was quite extensive, so there were plenty of options for me.

However, our late-ish dinner meant we cut our commute to the show pretty close, we arrived at about 7:58 to the theater. We raced from dinner to the theater on 45th and got there just in time.  For Hubby’s birthday in November, I bought tickets for God of Carnage.

It was a really funny show. It was pretty short, about 90 minutes with no intermission. It was only the four characters on one set, but it was hysterical. I really enjoyed it and recommend it. We tend to always see the musicals, but this was a nice change of pace. Do you enjoy non-musical shows?

After we left the show, Hubby went to meet up with one of his guy friends that was having his Bachelor Party that night in the city and I headed home. I tidied up a bit when I got home and went to bed. But when Hubby rolled in at 3:15!! he woke me up. So we both ended up sleeping until 9:45 this morning – very late!

Now it’s time for laundry and cleaning around the house. I pretty much have to do laundry every week or the pile gets out of control. Do you have a weekly laundry schedule? Do you do it on the weekends or during the week?

I also wanted to thank Meg for passing along the Beautiful Blogger Award to me. I did receive it from Katherine a little while back, so I won’t bore you with seven more random facts. But I feel honored to receive the award from Meg – I love reading her blog!  I added a new section on the right side of the page to display my award. 🙂

Have a nice Sunday everyone – back to the grind tomorrow. Boo!

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My First Race of 2010!

Posted on January 9, 2010 | 21 comments

Good morning – happy Saturday! I’m back from my first race in 2010 and I have to say it went surprisingly well, much better than I expected. I was very nervous last night and slept terribly – I was actually up before my alarm even went off. So I got up and had some breakfast before the race.

Then I commenced with the layering. I had spandex pants with knee-high socks on underneath. On my top half I had a Nike base layer, a long sleeve shirt and an outlayer jacket. I also had a hat, neck warmer and gloves. I was very hot by the end of my layering.

I headed out of the house around 7:30 and got to the start right around 7:50 a.m., which was perfect timing. So here’s the race recap:

Race Recap – Fred Lebow Classic (5 miles)

When I got to the starting area up near 98th I looked for my corral. They had asked what our fastest mile time was and I had put down 7:45. I found my corral, which was closer to the start than I expected, and then I got nervous that perhaps I overstated my capabilities and everyone in my corral would run me over. I tried not to worry about it too much. After much talking and singing of the national anthem, they finally started us.

Even though I was closer to the front than expected, it still took me about 1 minute to reach the actual starting line. And then it was really time to run. I started my Garmin and got to work. It was COLD! I totally forgot to mention that. When I left the house it was 21.6 degrees outside. But I quickly started to warm up as we started racing,

At 1 mile my Garmin beeped and I looked down to see that I had run the first mile in 8:29. Not too bad, but I wasn’t sure if I maybe wanted to go faster. So I started to pick it up a bit during the second mile. The second mile flew by and so did the third. But, as I got to the fourth mile things started to get tough. We were on the East side and things started moving up hill. We hit the BIG hill around 73-79th Street and it was HARD. I was thrilled when we reached the top and hit mile 4 at just about the same time.

From 4-5 I was able to pick things up a bit. I checked my Garmin and saw that we had hit 4.5 miles and so I really kicked it in. Finally, I hit the finish and felt wonderful that the race was over and I could head back to a warm apartment. Here are my race stats:

Mile 1 – 8:29
Mile 2 – 8:01
Mile 3 – 7:57
Mile 4 – 8:10
Mile 5 – 7:51
Total – 5.04 in 40:44

Yup, my Garmin said I actually ran a little over 5 miles. I didn’t stick tightly to the inside of the Central Park loop, so I can see how that would be right. So overall, I’m pretty happy with my times. It was the first really cold, winter race I’ve ever run and it didn’t feel awful. It at least makes me a little more confident that I’ll be able to finish the half marathon in two weeks. I’ll have to check the NYRR site tomorrow to see what my official time was.

I’ll just do a quick recap of yesterday’s eats and then I want to relax a bit!

Breakfast was oatmeal with raisins, almond milk and agave with a side of light cranberry.

Lunch was leftovers of the previous night’s Ham and Brussels Sprout Bake:

As well as Chobani yogurt with granola.

Later on I had a Larabar – the Banana Bread flavor. I really liked this flavor.

After work, I picked up my race packet and came home and made some dinner.

Pasta with carrots, goat cheese, artichoke hearts, grape tomatoes, raisins and walnuts. YUMMY!

So that was my night, then I headed to bed early for my race. Now I’m going to go enjoy my Saturday afternoon and a fun evening. Have a great weekend everyone!

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First Book Review: Ahab’s Wife or, The Star Gazer

Posted on January 8, 2010 | 1 comment

I finally wrote my first book review for this blog! I had originally planned to write it on David Cooperfield (otherwise known as the book that took me three months to read – grrr), but I just didn’t have any desire to review it. Sorry.

So, instead I offer up my review of the latest book I read: Ahab’s Wife or, The Star Gazer.

All my reviews will be under the Read page under “Book Reviews.” As long as I don’t encounter another Copperfield, they will continue to be pretty regular.

Have a great weekend! 🙂 I’ll try to post a race recap tomorrow.

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I Heart Artichoke Hearts

Posted on January 8, 2010 | 13 comments

Good morning – Happy Friday!! We made it through the first whole week of 2010. Yippee! Are you all completely ready for the weekend? I am.

I’ve got to eat well today and remember to drink a good amount of water for my race tomorrow morning. It’s a 5-mile race, which is a distance I’ve never raced before, so I’m interested to see how I handle that. It might be tough to find the right speed.

Let me do a quick recap of yesterday. Breakfast was oatmeal with raisins and pumpkin butter and a side of light cranberry juice.

I had an early morning snack of an apple (unpictured) and then for lunch I had the last of the quiche I made earlier this week. That certainly lasted a while.

Afternoon snacks were peach Chobani yogurt (pineapple remains my favorite) with granola and some carrots.

I may have also had some unphotographed rice chips 🙂 If you eat Chobani, what is your favorite flavor?

Toward the end of the day, I prepared to leave work and head to the gym and realized as I was going through my bag that I didn’t bring any workout socks or a sports bra. Where was my head? I considered going home and getting that stuff and then heading to the gym, but knew in my heart it wouldn’t happen. I’ve been a big 2010 slacker so far when it comes to hitting the gym and treadmill. I’m hoping my first race of 2010 will get me back into the swing.

So instead, I came home and experimented with this recipe. Here’s how I changed things a bit:

Ham and Brussels Sprout Bake

Ingredients

  • 20 Brussels sprouts, halved
  • 1 cup cubed ham
  • 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped green white onion (white portion only)
  • 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 tablespoon grated Asiago cheese
  • 1/2 cup sauerkraut, drained
  • 1/2 cup of halved artichoke hearts (drained)
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2 teaspoons dried basil
  • ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 tablespoon Italian-style bread crumbs

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. Toss together the Brussels sprouts, ham, mushrooms, green onion, Parmesan cheese, Asiago Cheese, and artichoke in a large bowl until combined. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, basil, and pepper; toss until coated. Pour this mixture into a 2 quart baking dish and sprinkle with Asiago cheese.
  3. Bake in preheated oven until the Brussels sprouts are tender, about 45 minutes.

I purposely picked a recipe with meat in it for the Hubby, but then he tells me that he’s not the biggest fan of ham. He did eat all of it though. Here is the result:

While this was the first time I ever cooked brussels sprouts (YAY!), apparently artichoke has been the real star of my week. I had the artichoke and spinach dip at dinner with Katie on Wednesday night, this last night and I plan on making a pasta salad and adding the remaining artichokes tonight.

But why shouldn’t it be my star this week? Artichoke has many health benefits. This site discusses some of its benefits at length, including:

“Globe artichokes are an excellent source of dietary fiber, magnesium, and the trace mineral chromium. They are a very good source of vitamin C, folic acid, biotin, and the trace mineral manganese. They are a good source of niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, vitamin A, and potassium. The artichoke has strong choleretic activity (promotes bile secretion in the liver), and choleretics increase the excretion of cholesterol and decrease the manufacture of cholesterol in the liver.”

Not only that, but I love the unique kind of bitter taste of artichoke. It definitely adds a punch of flavor to any recipe.

I will say that although I’m not a huge fan of ham, I did really enjoy this recipe. I might try it again with vegetarian sausage as a replacement for the ham.

Lastly, before it hit my bedtime I had a little dessert:

I spent most of my evening at home trying to organize my email after switching my personal email address from my maiden name to my husband’s name. There is still quite a bit that needs to be done, but gmail is a system that definitely helps make things easier and I thank them for that. Gmail is one of the best “technological” decisions I made in the last decade, along with buying a Mac.

What about you – are you a Gmailer? What tech-savvy things did you try in 2009?

In August of this year it will be time to upgrade my phone and it seems I’ll need to choose from either the Droid or a Blackberry (Verizon). Both really scare me – I am so behind the times when it comes to phones. I hate the touch screen stuff, but everyone else seems to love it! I might be forced to get with the times. :-/

That’s all for now folks! I may have a book review of Ahab’s Wife coming later this evening though. And tomorrow I’ll let you know what I’m reading now…so far it’s pretty darn good! Have a great Friday!

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