Runner Envy

Hola, mi amigos! How’s the weekend going??

Mine started out a little frantic. (Is this becoming a recurring theme??) I dropped my Blackberry Thursday night and after lasting me just fine through the last year, it finally decided to give up and give me the white screen of death. After shelling out $100 to the phone insurance company, I should have a new phone on Monday. Today, however, was not Monday. It was Saturday, I had to be up at 8, and I had no reliable alarm clock.

Last night when Keenan got home, around 2am, he set his phone alarm for me, and we went to sleep. We woke up this morning to Arlo puppy kisses, and I rolled over and asked Keenan what time it was. He checked his phone, and mumbled, “Oh crap.” We had slept in until 9. I promptly got up and starting scurrying around the house trying to get ready.

Luckily, I had tried to be a good girlfriend the night before, and had packed all my own food for today, plus Keenan had brought me some food back from the restaurant, so I was all set in that department. I was ready in half an hour, and made it to my ferry with no problem at all.

When I arrived in Seattle this morning, a surprise awaited me. I had completely forgotten that this morning was the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon, and I entered Seattle to the sight of a bunch of people in spandex with big yellow signs on their chests. Honestly, I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I almost started crying. I was so jealous that all those amazing people were out there running their hearts out, culminating months of training, and living out their dreams. I wanted to be them.

I have been so frustrated lately with my crazy schedule, my complete lack of free weekends, and now having my boyfriend coming home in the middle of the night most nights because of his job. I’m trying to handle this stress as well as I can, but since I barely have time to run (my anti-anxiety drug of choice), it’s getting incredibly hard for me. I run as often as I can, but I itch for it every morning that I wake up and I know that I won’t have the opportunity. As I announced a few days ago, I am still planning on participating in the Whale of a Run on July 30th, and will be training as much as my schedule allows.  I’m also spending a considerable amount of time in serious thought about the direction I want to take my life right now, mostly career-wise.  Obviously, something needs to change.  I’m just not sure what, at this point.

Sorry, for my incredibly long rant.  I honestly didn’t plan on going that far into negativity town, but one of my favorite things about my blog is that it really does give me the opportunity to express myself, and anything that I’m feeling at a given time.  Thank you so much for your readership and support.  It means the world to me. 

On that note, let’s see what I took to eat at work today!

I downed a giant green smoothie for breakfast on the ferry this morning.  I made it myself, with coconut water, chai seeds, vanilla Sun Warrior, frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, banana and spinach.  I added extra strawberries, so it was kinda brown, but EXTRA good!  I wish I’d had a chance to snap a picture!

My lunch was this amazing Mediterranean wrap that Keenan brought me home from the restaurant last night.

It was loaded with their delicious in-house-made hummus, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, red onion, and white balsamic dressing.

My salad for the day was a bit different than usual.

Spring mix, tomato, red onion, mushrooms, chickpeas, quinoa, and Goddess.  It was definitely a good combo, but adding a grain (well, technically a seed) to the salad just made it a bit too heavy for me.  I love my afternoon salads because of how light and energizing they are, but this one didn’t have quite the same effect.  Definitely a good choice if you want something a bit heartier than a basic veggie salad though!

My dinner was more quinoa, with kidney beans, frozen veggie mix (broccoli, caulifower, and carrots) and tamari.  By the time dinnertime arrived the veggies had thawed, and I just warmed it all up in the microwave, as usual.  It was a great combo.  Unfortunately, I forgot to grab pics before it was gone.  My bad…

Time for me to head home and try to go to sleep with my Ar dog, so I can try to have a slightly more sane day tomorrow.  I just have to keep telling myself, it’s almost Monday!  Keenan and I are both going to have Monday and Tuesday off.  I really excited to have a whole “weekend” to spend with my amazing boyfriend. 🙂

Hope you have a great night!

❤ Lindsay

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Good afternoon, folks! 

I am still on a roll with the sleeping in thing.  I stayed in bed until almost 12:30pm today, before finally getting up and preparing for work.

Last night was pretty fun.  As soon as I finished blogging last night, I realized that we were out of frozen berries, and decided to make a trip to Costco to grab a bag of frozen strawberries.  Frozen berries are kind of an essential in our household, since they’re a critical part of a great green smoothie.

On my drive out to Silverdale the weather was acting all sorts of crazy.  It was bright sunny, but pouring down rain at the same time!  Washington is totally crazy sometimes.  When I got to the Costco parking lot I looked up and saw a gorgeous double rainbow in the sky.  I tried snapping a few photos, but I realized later on that my data card was still in my computer at home.  I could have smacked myself.

I grabbed that bag of strawberries at Costco, and also came out with a large container of fresh blueberries, a flat of granny smith apples, and a giant bag of tortilla chips.  I actually ended up freezing the majority of the blueberries, as well, and leaving a few out for my snacking pleasure.

Hitting up Barnes and Noble was next on my agenda, but I couldn’t find any books that really caught my interest, so I went next door to World Market.  World Market is like a candy store to me.  So many fun things to ooh and aah over!  I left with a package of soba noodles and four fun placemats to use for food photography, and then headed to Target to check out the new food department.

Our Target recently went through a major re-model to make room for a whole mini-grocery store in the back, including some produce.  I picked up a few things, including a couple of ingredients for my dinner and soem merlot.

By the time I got home I was starving again, so I quickly poured myself a glass of wine and started putting dinner together.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

4 bell peppers
1/2 large onion
1 carrot, peeled
1/2 cup mushrooms
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 cups quinoa, cooked with veggie broth
1/4 cup Daiya shredded mozzarella

Directions

1.  Preheat the oven to 375F.  Chop onion, mushrooms and carrot into 1/4 inch pieces.

2.  Coat a saute pan with cooking spray, and cook the onion, mushroom, and carrot for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

3.  Once the mushrooms are soft, remove from heat, add the peas and quinoa, and mix until combined.

4.  Cut the tops off of the bell peppers and remove the insides.  Place in a baking pan, and fill each pepper with the quinoa mixture.  Top each pepper with a sprinkling of Daiya shredded mozzarella, and bake for 30-40 minutes.

5.  Enjoy!!

These peppers are fantastic.  Please do yourself a favor and make them asap!!

Anywho, I hope your day totally rocks!  I am off to work!

❤ Lindsay

Dinner in Half an Hour

Good evening bloggys!  Doing well, I hope! 🙂

After I last talked to you, I grabbed a handful of cashews, and headed out for my run.

I decided to run around the bridges by my house.

I continued running around the park until I reached my goal distance of four miles, then walked home.

That is the first time I’ve run four miles since last year.  I felt incredibly strong the entire time, and I kept thinking how good it feels to be out accomplishing something for yourself.  That’s really probably one of my favorite reasons to exercise.  You never regret a workout.

When I got back in I made myself a green juice from a recipe I had seen posted on Katelyn’s blog earlier today.

This:

Became this:

 Juice always makes me feel so energized, and this blend was particularly light and refreshing!

Once my juice was gone, and I had relaxed a bit I set about making dinner.  I wanted something quick, easy, and nutritious, and this meal accomplished that goal perfectly.

Instructions:

1.  Put water on to boil for desired amount of quinoa, adding boullion to the water.  Preheat the oven to 400F.

2.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.  Put frozen green beans in a gallon-size plastic bag, along with a bit of olive oil and a minced garlic clove.  Shake until the beans are evenly coated in oil, then place on the baking sheet in a single layer, and bake for 20 minutes.  Add quinoa to broth, once it comes to a boil, then turn down low to simmer.

3.  Make Mmmm Sauce and set aside.

4.  Open a can of kidney beans, rinse, and set aside.

5.  Once the quinoa and the green beans have finished cooking, place some quinoa, kidney beans, and green beans all on a plate, and cover in Mmmm Sauce.

So delicious, but so easy. 

Nothing for me to do now, but sit back, cuddle with my puppy dog,  and wait for my boyfriend to get home from work!

Have a wonderful night!

❤ Lindsay

How to Start on Your Path to Health Part Three

Did you all do something Earth-friendly yesterday?

I decided to go pick up trash in the park near my home.

Arlo and the bf helped.

Of course we took time to stop and smell the flowers.

After our trash collecting adventure, we watched the Boston vs. New York NBA playoff game, and I enjoyed a Blue Moon Spring Blonde Wheat Ale or two.  The Celtics smashed. Or course. 🙂  (I’m rooting for Miami, but the bf is pulling for Boston.  We’d love to see a Celtics vs. Heat round 2!)

After the game, we went home and I cooked up dinner.  Quinoa, zucchini and Mama Pea’s Mmmm Sauce.  Simple, but delicious.

The curry flavor of the sauce really stood out to me, in a good way.  I’m having leftovers for dinner tonight. 🙂

How to Start on Your Path to Health Part Three

Congratulations! You have been working hard for the last two weeks to establish healthy habits in your life that will lead to a better, more energetic future!  How are you doing on your goals from last week?

If you missed the first two parts of my How to Start on Your Path to Health series you can find them here:

• Part One
• Part Two

This week is simple.  If the time limit of your goal has not yet been reached, then continue working on that goal, plus add another goal.  Refer to Part Two to learn to how to set the best goals for you.  If your goal was just for the week, and is now complete, then come up with a new health-related goal to work on for the next week.  You can also build on the goal that you accomplished this past week.

My task for you this week is reading labels!  No, I don’t mean the calorie, fat or carb contents.  Percentages aren’t what makes a food.  Instead, I want you to break these old habits and just start reading the ingredients in what you’re purchasing.

When you take the time to find out what’s in your food, I bet you’ll be really surprised at all the nasty stuff you’re putting in your body everyday.  All the preservatives and dyes at the end of the list, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and enriched wheat flour at the beginning of the list.  When you see these, I challenge you to put them down and find another product with a shorter, better ingredient list.  They may cost a little bit more, but this is your health we’re talking about here.  Those extra dollars you’re spending now could keep you from spending many more dollars for medical treatment in the years to come.

Not only will your body thank you, but your taste buds will as well.  When you finally get used to not having HFCS and other bleached, overly processed ingredients in your diet, you will realize how much better REAL food tastes!  All the complexities of the flavors of healthy, organic foods will be realized.

Give it a try and let me know what your thoughts are throughout the next week!

Did you accomplish your goal from last week?  If not, what do you think was your biggest barrier?

What will you be doing this week to improve your health??

❤ Lindsay

Quick and Easy Quinoa Bowl

Hey!  How’s your weekend going?

It’s been all work, work, work around here.

And I am exhausted for some reason.  I have a feeling I am going to sleep all day tomorrow.

Wanna see something funny?

I realized that if I want I can stick my tummy out far enough to make me look pregnant.  Yes, I know this is ridiculous.

Normal...

...Preggers.

I bet I could really freak out my parents or close friends if I did that after not seeing them for a while. 😉

After I  got home last night, I decided that I needed to figure out something quick and easy that I could take to work with me, since I was out of soup.  Yesterday, I ended up eating Top Ramen noodles made with water from the coffee pot at work, drained in the sink in the employee lounge, and seasoned with three soy sauce packets.  Total fail.  It was a complete act of desperation, and can never be repeated.

To keep the same thing from happening to me today, I decided to make myself a work snack ahead of time.

Meet the Quick and Easy Quinoa Bowl!

Yeah, there are veggies hiding in there.

I apologize for my schweaty bowl...

Basically, I just cooked up a cup of quinoa with a cube of veggie boullion.  When there was about 10 minutes left in cooking the quinoa, I tossed in some cut up broccoli and asparagus and allowed it to steam.  (This method saves some of the nutrients of leaching out into the water!)  Once it was all cooked, I divided it between three small bowls, added half a cup of rinsed, canned kidney beans, some Braggs Liquid Aminos, and refrigerated.

Okay… two of the bowls were refrigerated.  The other bowl went in my tummy immediately. 🙂

Hope you like it!

❤ Lindsay