How Have I NOT Tried This Before!

Ok, so I am most likely a day late and a few dollars short here, but I have been meaning to try spaghetti squash for a while now. I had some big doubts, but a friend (Thanks Lauren!) kept sending me some pretty amazing looking recipes on Pinterest that she swore by, so I decided to give it a try. I shared the recipes with Nate, and he was not buying it, so I decided to do some experimenting at lunch today and leave Nate some left overs from last night's holiday get together.

This experiment did not start out well. Apparently, we do not own a knife that can cut a spaghetti squash in half, so after some maneuvering and almost losing a few fingers, I managed to get the darn thing cut in half...well...kind of.

Not cut in half...oh well...

I was pretty grossed out by the smell and having to clean out the inside seeds/goop. Icky. Not so much a fan...this experiment was not going well...this was already strike two and the darn thing wasn't even in the oven yet.


I put the squash in the oven at 400 degrees for 45 minutes, and after about 20 minutes a pretty yummy smelling aroma came from the kitchen. Ok, things are looking up. When I took it out, I was very curious to see how much "spaghetti" a single squash would yield. I started raking away at it. Now, I am pretty easily amused, but this was rather fun. And I couldn't believe that half the squash filled up a bowl this much!

1/2 a Spaghetti Squash! Wow!

I decided to leave the other half for later and added some garlic (I LOVE my new pampered chef garlic press), butter and grated cheese to my bowl. As I was doing this, Nate came in from his workout and began asking questions about my experiment. Without any coercing (yay!) he decided he wanted in, and claimed the other half of the squash as his. He had his with garlic, tomato sauce and cheese.

Even the boy can do it!

We both woofed down our bowls. This was super filling and yummy. I began pulling up some other recipes to try with them, and Nate is totally on board with giving them a try. So, there we have it. I am way late on this one, but now we have another pasta substitute!

YUM!

Flour-less, Dairy Free and no sugar added "Cookies"

When I first made my "pretend cookies" over a year ago, I stuck to a pretty plain recipe - 2 bananas, 2 cups of oats and some craisins - mix em together and pop them in the over for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. They were pretty good, but certainly did not taste like a real cookie, and certainly did not have the consistency of a real cookie.

As I was putting groceries away today, I found 3 extremely old bananas in the pantry. Seeing as I HATE throwing out food, I decided to give the cookies a try again, but play around with the recipe. I took the basic recipe, but this time added in cinnamon, and some PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter with Chocolate.  I also cooked them for 25 minutes (and on my brand new pampered chef stoneware!!) to help the middles firm up a bit.

These were WAY better with the PB2 and the cinnamon, and had a much firmer consistency with the additional 5 minutes of cook time. They could just actually pass as a cookie now! I was also very pleased to find some use for my PB2 with chocolate. I accidentally bought the chocolate kind and was very disappointed when I sat down to eat my nightly apple + peanut butter last week. It just was not the same with the chocolate, but I figured I could find some recipes to throw it in! Voila!

Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom...these didn't last long! 

Recipe of the Week: Slow Cook Quinoa, Chicken and Lentil Chili

It seems that I've been on a roll with experimenting in the kitchen, so I figure this might just become a weekly segment. I dug up a half a dozen recipes that I'm dying to try, so I have decided to give one a try each week.

This week's winner (and it was a winner!) was Quinoa and Chicken Chili (and then I decided to add lentils to thicken it up a bit) in the slow cooker. Monday's are my long day at work, and then I hit the gym, so I tasked Nate with giving the chili a few stirs when he got home from work. When I walked in EXHAUSTED at 7:00 tonight the first thing he said to me was "I've been taking licks from the spoon, and this is really, really good." Woohoo! I win! Of all the new recipes I've tried, the hubby said this was his favorite, and he has already requested that it be made again as our Marathon Monday meal.

I kinda borrowed from 3 different chili recipes to put this together...but this is what I did...

2 cans diced tomatos
1 can black beans
1 cup of salsa
1 cup of quinoa
1 cup lentils
1 chicken breast cut up into little pieces (may do it without this next time and make it a meatless Monday meal)
Chili powder and Cumin to taste

Dump in all into the slow cooker. Cook for 8 hours on low.

Thank God for the slow cooker that automatically switches to "heat" when it's done...this meal was sitting in there for 11 hours today before we actually got to eat it.

Just another one of my recipes that looks like mush, but is actually delicious!

On another note, Hanson's Marathon plan starts in 15 days! I'm beginning to get a little bit nervous about running six days a week given that there is already a foot of snow on the road and it's super icy! I've resolved to just see what happens with training this winter and give this plan the best I can give it under the circumstances, knowing that it lends itself to my summer schedule more so than winter. Time shall tell! 

Pasta-less "Mac and Cheese"

When I started my clean(er) eating adventures in August 2012, I knew that dinner was going to be my biggest challenge. First of all, I hate(d) to cook. It was easy enough to substitute cereal for egg bake at breakfast, salad for lunch everyday, and fruits and veggies for snacks. But dinner...I was not ready to conquer. I had a bit of a transition phase last spring where I attempted some new recipes, but nothing really stuck.

However,  in August, I quit eating pasta (a staple of our dinner once or twice a week), and the need for dinner recipes arose. We got by for a month or two on our old staples (grilled pizza, paninis, chicken meals), but after noticing how much better I felt without pasta in my diet, I decided to give cutting back on bread/wraps a try at the end of October. Now I was really stuck...what the heck do we do for dinner.

Hence the obsession with quinoa and cauliflower this last month. The recipes you can make with these two ingredients are endless. I am sure you are all tired of hearing about my cauliflower pizza crust (yumm...I want some just thinking about it) and the quinoa bean salad (already made and in the fridge for tomorrow's late night dinner), so I've decided to do a little experiment over the next few weeks (well..let's be realistic, months) and try a new recipe every other week or so.

This weeks adventure - Cheesy Quinoa and Cauliflower, otherwise known as Pasta-less Mac and Cheese.

When I told Nate last night at the grocery store we would be having Cauliflower and Quinoa Mac and Cheese his response was "NO" with a disgusted face. His claim was that you can't mess with a classic. Understood, but we were trying it anyway. I told him if he didn't like it, we could go out and grab a bite, my treat.

And the verdict...DELICIOUS. Even Nate liked loved it (although he said MORE CHEESE for next time). This was seriously good...it tasted (and smelled) like mac and cheese, minus the consistency. This is definitely going into our meal rotation. And this recipe gets big time bonus points for how easy it is. It took 20 minutes to cook and only required dumping the quinoa, chicken broth and cauliflower into a pot and leaving it until it was done. Add cheese and viola! I am thinking for next week I am going to cut the recipe in half and add in some chicken! Enjoy!

This may look like a bowl of mush, but I assure you it is delicious! 

Cauliflower Pizza Crust Revisited

A few weeks ago, I tried out a new recipe for a cauliflower pizza crust. We both ended up loving it and have had it every Sunday night for dinner since. While I love eating it, I do not love making it. It is a lot of work (which is why it has become our Sunday night dinner - only night with time to make it). I had shared the recipe on a long run with a friend, and she tried it out and came back with a few tips for speeding up the process.  The result - MUCH easier to do AND more crust! (yum, more pizza for me!).

Here is what we changed...

Instead of chopping of the cauliflower and putting it into my teeny tiny food processor, I boiled it for about 15 minutes, strained it, and then mashed it up in a mixing bowl. Same result (riced cauliflower) - a lot less work. From there on out, I followed the rest of the original recipe doubled (used 2 eggs, 1 cup of cheese, and upped the amount of basil and red pepper - I don't measure spices, I just throw them in).

If you decide to try the recipe and boil the cauliflower instead of putting it in the food processor, I have some tips (learned from mistakes made- oops!) - you are going to need to strain/squeeze the water out of it like CRAZY as it retains way more water when you boil it. Also, you may want to cook it for 3-4 minutes longer if you boil the cauliflower.

Revamped and doubled the recipe = a LOT of pizza...yum!

Thankful...

Today, and everyday, I am thankful for...

My amazing and supportive husband, who gets my quirks and loves me for me...flaws and all. 

My job. I LOVE kindergarten and I LOVE Walton. 

Obviously I can't post a picture of my kids, but this is
where the magic happen. 

My sole sisters, who share my crazy passion for self-torture. Who are relentlessly positive and always there for me. Thank you. 

Thanksgiving Day 4 Miler

Moose Pond 1/2

The fact that I truly, deeply love running. It keeps me physically and mentally healthy. It has taught me how to survive hard times and persist. It has taught me how to take care of myself. 

Look closely and you'll see a smile! 

My puppies. They are my babies. 

Nightly Cuddles

My family, who I greatly missed this Thanksgiving. 

7/7/12

My cousin Matty, who I also greatly missed this Thanksgiving. Today was hard, reminiscing about last year. Thank you for watching over all of us. 

Motivational Monday...

I am totally geek-ing out on motivational quotes these last few weeks (and rightfully so - with the addition of strength training to my routine, and some consistency with cross training, I feel like I have been pushing myself way outside of my comfort zone). I have also decide to commit myself (to the insane asylum) to trying the Hanson's Marathon Method for my Providence training, beginning January 1st. This plan is intense and will require a pretty large time commitment, especially during the already busy school week. I took some time last weekend to make myself a lovely OCD inspired spreadsheet of my running schedule for the 18 week program, complete with the required paces for each workout (Hanson's is VERY specific about what pace you should be running for each workout). I'll admit..I am WICKED psyched to give this a try. I am psyched because this is going to be a HUGE challenge. I know I am going to have to dig deep, and really push myself outside my comfort level...

But, I'm a firm believer in this....

And, let's not forget this...

I have made some contingencies with this plan, just in case I find it to be way too much for me to handle (if it is going to result in injury). But I keep seeing race reports from people who have committed to this plan, and the results are staggering. And, it makes sense. Cumulative fatigue. Doing one long run, once a week, it not going to teach your body to push through the demands of a marathon. So, it's time to take on the challenge. I've already BQ-ed at Hartford, let's see if I can push the envelope and BQ by more. 

So, I guess you can say I'm pretty "run-bunc-tious" about this whole thing...

And just in case this post isn't corny enough for you, here's one more...

Always. 

*Corny quotes brought to you by Pinterest