WIAW, Not Really Feeling It...

I haven't been blogging much for the last week. Sometimes life just gets in the way. Today has left me feeling pretty blue. With all the sadness of Boston, I have a few friends dealing with medical issues involving their loved ones, and it has all left me really wanting some good news.

The good news I was hoping for didn't happen so overall my day has been blah. Watching the endless weather coverages of storms and tornados seems to be making it worse.

There was also a suspicious truck that caused a scare not too far from my office this morning, and I drove by as they were blocking off another street downtown because of a suspicious package as I was leaving work this afternoon. I am kinda feeling like the whole world has gone crazy.

Even my treadmill sprints and rowing this morning haven't been enough to pull me out of my Wednesday funk. So, lets try distraction, shall we?

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How about a little WIAW? Honestly, I have no idea what I ate this week.

First up we have lunch from Friday. I took a break from all the cookie baking and we got some takeout from O Asian Fusion. Veggie lo mein and spring rolls. Yum. Is made a repeat on Sunday for lunch when I ate the other half.

If you bake 700 cookies for a charity event, you might have leftovers. That being said, I think I have eaten about 500 cookies since Friday. Sparkly sugar cookies with dark chocolate almond milk. This looks so good I might have to walk into the kitchen for a repeat now.

I will wait until I finish my post.

I was browsing around on Pinterest and came across a new recipe that looked simple so I decided to give it a try. No one at my house eats broccoli so this was all for me.

One cup quinoa, two cups broccoli and 1 3/4 cup of veggie stock. Brought it to a boil and simmered for 15 minutes until all the liquid was absorbed. Then stirred in a cup of white extra sharp cheddar and some salt and pepper.

Couldn't be easier, and it's full of good stuff.

So there you have it. Nothing earth shattering, but I actually ate some new things this week.

For now I will leave you with this.

Josh and the crazy dogs. Rocky is terrified and Penny is interested in the storm as it comes in. About two seconds after I took this she laid down on Josh's legs and now has her eye on the tv. I think she is hoping that Gary England is going to turn into a dog, a horse or maybe a swimming event. She really loves to watch those sorts of things. Crazy dog.

We could be spending some time in the storm shelter as the storms move in. That will sure help my mood.

Here is to tomorrow being a new day. Breathe in. Breathe out.

 

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Thoughts...

Before I became a runner I had no idea what the Boston Marathon was. No idea what it takes to get there, or how it is a race unlike other marathons. I didn't know that not only do you have to meet the qualifying time but just because you meet that time doesn't necessarily mean you can get in. {For me to get in before I turn 40 I would have to run a 3:40 marathon.}

I was so excited to get race updates when my friend Patti ran Boston two years ago. Talk about race envy. This year I was quite excited about Marathon Monday.

I listened to the women's race while I was spending time in one of the walking rooms at work Monday morning. It was really hard to not run on the treadmill while listening to the race coverage.

I was deeply saddened a few hours later when I heard about the bombings at the finish line. It is hard when we are again reminded of the evils that exist in this world, and I don't know any runners that have not been affected by the horrible turn of events.

This is part of why it hits home for me.

This is my favorite picture from my first marathon, the OKC Memorial, two years ago. Josh and the girls waiting for me in the rain at the finish line. It is unimaginable to think that anyone's family and friends could have been in danger for being out there to cheer on the runners.

We are 12 days away from the OKC Memorial Marathon, a race that came out of a terrorist attack. I don't think there will be any runners our there that won't be carrying the saddness of Boston with them as they Run to Remember. We will do what runners do, we will run. With a heavy heart and the knowledge that the world has again become a little less innocent.

 

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Best Day Ever...

I cannot type that without thinking about Spongebob Squarepants. My girls used to love watching Spongebob with their dad. I can hear him singing about the best day ever.

Friday was probably not really my best day ever, but it sure was a good one. I took the day off from work so I could get ready for Beer Sprocket on Saturday, so really my Friday sort of started when I got off work on Thursday.

I headed from work to my favorite local running store for a ladies night. They had wine, talk about my second favorite physical activity yoga, and had sports bra fittings.

One of my favorite four-year-olds was there. (It was a girls night.)

Avery learned that your "girls" are you boobies. She is the cutest. She loved the Nuun lemonade cupcakes I made, and she wanted to share her water with Lance.

I had a sports bra fitting and I have decided my next sports bra will be the Rebound Racer by Moving Comfort.

I got home and got to baking. I started with chocolate chip and Nutella with white chocolate chips.

I made the cookies smaller than I normally do, they were more of a bite sized cookie. Because of this I baked them a little differently, because of that the Nutella cookies didn't turn out like I wanted them to. I decided to leave those cookies at home.

I got up Friday morning and got to baking again. I rolled out two batches of sugar cookies and two batches of chocolate sugar cookies. I had the last batch in the oven when I left to go take the Friday morning hot yoga class at the yoga studio I have been going to. There is almost nothing I love more than a yoga class at a time that I normally wouldn't be able to go to. It was a great class, my arms were worn out by all the vinyasas.

After yoga, I made a couple batches of Sweeties, and then all that was left to do was make the chocolate frosting for the chocolate sugar cookies and the frosting for the regular sugar cookies. Other than a blister on my hand from scooping out over 600 cookies in 24 hours, and a sore hand the whole thing was very uneventful. All the cookies were done by the time I would have been getting off work Friday afternoon.

The cookies were ready to rest overnight before I boxed them up on Saturday morning.

Does this look like 600 cookies? Well it was about 580 or so. Not too bad for a days work.

 

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WIAW Random Eats...

This is a themeless WIAW post. I have had some very random eats this week.

On Saturday morning I had an awesome 12 mile run. Our first mile was 9:44, mostly because we were stuck behind some other people in the group on the sidewalk, the second was around 9 minutes and then after that they were all sub 9 minute miles. Including a few that were right around or under 8:30. Average pace was 8:46. It was a beautiful morning too, a little windy but warm enough that it wasn't uncomfortable at all.

I came home and made an egg sandwich with some leftover broccoli and Brussels sprouts, half an avocado, and a little cheese. Yummy! I have seriously been loving avocados. I can't believe I waited 38 years to get on the avocado band wagon.

After a trip to see the girl that cuts my hair, then to Ulta and Sally Beauty Supply, I took the girls to the mall so they could buy some more My Little Pony stuff. Then we headed out to the Medieval Fair to do some people watching and just enjoy the beautiful day.

I am surprised I got Camy to look at the camera and give me a fake smile.

Carson is always up for a self portrait. All I can say about the Medieval Fair is that there were so many people there that made very poor decisions when it came to their fashion choices on Saturday. Very poor decisions.

We didn't really partake in many of the food offerings, the girls and I all had cherry limeades that were very refreshing. On the way back to the car we stopped and got these cake and ice cream on a stick things. Delicious! Chocolate ice cream with chocolate cake, coated with dark chocolate; what more can you need in a dessert?

Sunday morning before I smoked us out of the house using the cleaning setting on the oven I whipped up some homemade blueberry muffins. I hear blueberries are a superfood, but when you combine them with sugar and flour does it retract from their super food-ness?

Finally, I was actually able to hard boil some eggs correctly last night. I made egg salad with avocado and had breakfast on the go this morning.

On a completely unrelated note, I bought a new nail polish on Saturday. I decided that I could no longer frighten my fellow yogis with my unpainted runner's toes so I painted them with the new color I picked up.

I just don't know how I feel about the color.

I think it might be a little too pink for me. Maybe it will have to grow on me.

So there you have it, some eats, some running, and some randomness from my week. So tell me, how do you eat avocados?

 

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Not Everything in the Kitchen Has Been Bad...

I have had a few failures in the kitchen recently. It has not been all bad.

I did make some awesome Nuuncakes this weekend. I also made some blueberry muffins on Sunday morning.

We were at Sprouts on Saturday afternoon and I picked up some fresh blueberries. I promised Carson I would make some blueberry muffins on Sunday morning.

What is it about fresh baked blueberry muffins? They were very good. My family doesn't get as excited about muffins as they do about cookies and cupcakes. Maybe I should put a little buttercream on these and they would get a warmer reception. I have said before that muffins are cupcakes that are not living up to their full potential. Might have to not do the streusel topping if I'm going to go with buttercream.

Beer Sprocket is coming up this weekend and I am still working out the plan in my head. I am thinking I'm going to be doing cookies this year, change it up a bit. I did a little searchig and actually found a recipe for a cokie that uses a cherry fruit ale; I had to give it a try.

These were ok, not bad, but not fabulous. Definitely not Beer Sprocket worthy. These did turn out better that my other kitchen disasters today. Oh well, the thing with a new recipe is that there's always a chance that you just aren't going to love it, that's why you should always ave a practice run.

I did learn that the cleaning setting on my oven works wonders. I probably won't wait four years to use it again. It really stunk up the house and made it a bit smokey. We ended up heading to the movies and the grocery store while the four and a half hour process was going on. We even put the dogs in the garage so they didn't die from smoke inhalation. They were a bit freaked out by that.

Who knew that my oven could be so clean? Certainly not me. Have you even cleaned your oven with Easy Off? The self cleaning setting is a much better option. Just make plans to be out of the house when you use it.

 

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Spreading a little Nuun Love...

One Nuuncake at a time.

I love Nuun. I am constantly throwing these little tabs in my water bottle, I always have tubes in my purse, my car and a supply in my kitchen. I was excited to put together an application video to be a part of their Hood to Coast team this summer.

I decided that I needed to come up with something good for my video so I decided to combine my love of Nuun with my love of baking. (After all, I am always combining it with my running.) Lots of people use Nuun in their adult beverages, so why not use it in some cupcakes?

Here's how it came together.

As with most good recipes you start with butter and sugar.

Then a couple of egg whites. If you look closely there is a little bit of yellow in my egg whites. Separating eggs is not always an exact science.

Then the flour mixture goes in. Helpful hint: beat slowly when you add the flour or you will end up with a nice cloud of flour in your kitchen. Is White Lung something that bakers suffer from? Instead of coal dust, a combination of flour/baking soda/bakig powder/salt.

Then the buttermilk. Did you know you can make your own buttermilk by adding a little bit of lemon juice to regular milk? I never use regular milk when I bake, so I just add a little bit of lemon juice to almond milk instead. So in goes my fake buttermilk.

Finally I mixed in some Lemonade Nuun. I love, love, love this flavor. So good! The perfect addition to this recipe.

I baked these mini cupcakes for 15 minutes and then topped them with vanilla buttercream. This is my go to frosting. Butter, powdered sugar and vanilla these three simple ingredients make a frosting that is just heavenly.

I am sure you are asking yourself, how did they taste? Seriously, the cake ws so light and fluffy. The combination of the lemonade flavor with the vanilla buttercream really worked well. I took some of these for after our long run on Saturday and got good reviews. My girls loved them, and the one I dropped on the floor was gobbled up by Penny the pig dog.

Does she look like a dog that would eat cupcakes that didn't taste good?

So there you have it, what I am calling Nuuncakes. Cupcakes made with Nuun. Fuel and hydration all in one. I have plans to make some cherry limeade cupcakes this week alog with another batch of these. Spreadig the Nuun love one cupcake at a time.

 

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Failures in the Kitchen...

Do you ever have those days where you just feel off your game? Well I am, definitely.

After eating hard boiled egg sandwiches with avocado for breakfast a few days last week I decided to hard boil some eggs last night so I could have a few more sandwiches this week. I boiled the eggs last night and put them in the sink with cold water to cool down.

That was my first failure. When I got up this morning and I realized that I forgot to put the eggs in the fridge last night. They sat in the sink overnight. First failure of the day.

I decided I had time this morning to make another batch. I put the other half of the dozen eggs I bought on sale at Sprouts this weekend and boiled them while I got ready for work. When I peeled the first one to make my sandwich I discovered failure number two. I guess I didn't boil the water enough because they were not cooked enough. Six more wasted eggs.

I ended up going with a scrambled egg whites sandwich with avocado. Of course, the first avocado was not good when I cut into it. Failure number three.

I didn't get a picture but it was a yummy sandwich. A lot more work than I was hoping for a breakfast on the go.

I remembered to buy more lasagna noodles so I could make crockpot veggie lasagna for dinner tonight. There you have failure number four. I needed a lot more sauce and more seasoning and then it might have been edible. It was not good.

I ended up having this for dinner.

Frosted Mini Wheats (chocolate and regular mini bites) with an almost too ripe banana and almond milk.

It's a good thing I got the eggs on sale at Sprouts, because I have another half dozen on the stove now boiling. I am really hoping these turn out.

 

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