cooking

Rain, Rain, Don’t Go Away

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Unfortunately, the running dread that I woke up with on Friday morning lasted all weekend.  Fortunately, I had great workouts anyway!

Yesterday’s run.  Lots of wine+not much sleep=slooow leisurely run.  After a few miles the two (petite) cups of coffee I drank finally kicked in and I was able to speed up a bit and actually run some sprints.  The whole run felt excellent and reminded me how much I LOVE RUNNING! I covered 4.55 miles along this route and appreciated the cooler temperatures and even the tiny bit of drizzle.

My mother-in-law brought me a stack of Vegetarian Times magazines along with the pumpkin, this women knows me so well!  The first magazine I browsed had a recipe for falafel, which sounded perfect for lunch since I had garbanzos soaking in the fridge already.  It is so rare for me to follow a recipe and this one I followed almost to a T!  I didn’t have baking powder and I sprayed the pan to cook them instead of the 1/4 inch called for to panfry. Here’s the recipe, they were very tasty!

We also had spinach salad, corn on the cob, and the yogurt sauce from the recipe

And these AMAZING corn chips

No salsa necessary (I never thought I would say that about anything!), these buggers are perfect straight out of the bag.

After lunch my darling husband made my day!

Those are raised beds for our garden! Yay!  And they are made with free lumber from a nearby construction site (he asked permission)! Yay!

The herb garden is coming right along

My sister sent this gorgeous “pineapple sage” over with my mom as a housewarming present

We have wonderful neighbors right next door. In fact, they helped us in our decision to buy our house.  We were a bit skeptical about the neighborhood but after meeting them during a walk-through we felt much better.  Pascal and Jasmine have been so kind and generous since we moved in, Tate even showered over there the first two days we lived here while our plumbing was being fixed.

They invited us over for dinner last night and it was really lovely.  They have lived all over the world and their 1880’s house is full of incredible furniture and artwork from Africa, Russia, and France, including three GIANT armoires that have been in the family for over a hundred years that they shipped here from France!

Pascal is French and cooked all French food and served delicious French wine.

And so much food! I think we ate for 2 hours!  In the little pots in the back is a zucchini soufflé, the bowl of brown is an eggplant puree, and the quiche, oh the quiche, is smoked salmon.  They also served a warm and crusty baguette, harring (which I was able to politely ignore), homemade aioli, a tasty tapenade of olives, garlic, and anchovies, and dessert!

Upside-down apple pie!  Oh, how I wish you could hear the French name from Pascal, it is much more beautiful and fitting for this lovely thing than my description.

Whew!  I crashed after all that lovely food and wine!

Today is a cool and rainy day here in C’ville and I must say, I am not complaining!  It was definitely a day for oats.  Pumpkin oats.

Homemade pumpkin puree.

The “oats” turned out to be more pumpkin than oats but was awesome nonetheless, especially with 1/3 cup warm soymilk, a tablespoon of chopped nuts, and two pinches of unsweetened coconut.

I am going to puree a bunch of pumpkin to keep in the freezer so I can have pumpkin oats at the press of a (microwave) button.

Mission Get Moving had a very successful 6 week run.  I got moving.  A lot.  Everyday.  So I think it’s time for a new mission.

Introducing

Mission 10k PR

I have run a few 10 k’s in the past and I honestly don’t remember what my times were but I don’t think it was under 55 minutes so that is what I am going for.

There I said it.  It’s out there.

My plan to achieve this involves increasing my endurance through long runs and my speed through sprint workouts.  The 10k is the Charlottesville Fall Classic a mere 3 1/2 weeks away.  I know, it’s a bit late to start a training program but I have been running several times a week for almost 2 years now and upped both my speed and distance lately already.

Mission 10k PR Week 1

  • Long run 6.5 miles
  • 2 speed workouts (34-50 minute runs with sprint intervals)
  • 1 easy run (35-50 minutes)
  • 2 days full body workouts (upper, lower, and ab strength)
  • At least 3 yoga sessions

It’s going to be a good week!

Mom In Mom Out

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What a delicious whirlwind of a weekend.  And it’s not over yet!

First thing first, Sunday morning breakfast!

I usually eat oats or yogurt but today was an eggs day.

With leftover black beans and quinoa.  It was exactly what I needed on this wet morning.

My mom arrived in town Friday evening.  She and I had a really nice and tasty dinner at Milan Indian Restaurant, the service was attentive, the presentation was lovely, but the “medium” was NOT hot at all.  Next time I will order hot and tell them that I am serious about my spice!

Yesterday was my mom’s birthday and we hit up the Farmer’s Market and the Vegetarian Festival, both in downtown C’ville.  I did something very unusual for me and didn’t eat a real lunch, just snacked.  It was HOT and my appetite was not super high anyway.  There were loads of take home samples from Nature’s Path and Mary’s Gone Crackers and the representatives kept saying “take as many as you want”.  I took them seriously.


My momma got a plate of food from the Whole Foods stand that included this little chocolate tofu pudding thang.

Check out this creepy pumpkin from the Farmer’s Market

So anyway, after sampling crackers, granola bars, chocolate (Equal Exchange chocolate=AMAZING), coffee, tofu, cheese, and bread my mom hit the road back to West Virginia and I hit the workout.

After a quick exercise dvd full it was time to get ready for the next round of mom, Tate’s mom this time!

Tate’s brother, Gavin, lives in C’ville too so he came over for dinner and brought me flowers!

The sunflower is from my mom and the yellows in the back are from Gav-o

I love having fresh flowers in the house!  It livens everything up.

Gavin also got into my weights and did a very creative 2 minute workout 😉

My mother-in-law brought us this awesome pumpkin from her garden.  Apparently the seeds are “hull-less” and great for roasting.  Yummy.

Mission Get Moving went great this week.  Zumba and Pilates classes didn’t happen for these reasons but I feel like I more than made up for it with 7 days of great workouts (well, number 7, today, WILL be a great workout).

The weather prediction for the first half of the week is rain. Yay!  It’s been so flipping hot and dry that a few rainy days sounds lovely.  Enjoy your Sunday!