This week’s running plan started with a comedy of errors…

Saturday, January 28th: 7 miles in New Jersey:
I was in New Jersey for my nephew’s 3rd birthday party.  Making sure to pack my running gear, I did not want to get off schedule.  Saturday morning I made a deal with myself – I had to get ready to run after Barefoot Contessa at 11:30 am.  I went upstairs and got out my running clothes and realized I was missing a sports bra.  GAH.  What to do?  Seven miles is a long time without a sports bra.  Desperate times call for desperate measures – or a trip to Target.  Phew.  I then put my ipod on to realize it was dead as a doornail.  GAH again.
I am so glad I made that trip to Target – I had a great run – it was gorgeous out. 

It was so warm – I ran through the same neighborhood a million times – I saw one guy cleaning his car at least 3 times.  He must have thought me crazy.  I tried to run my seven miles SLOW.  Every time I thought I was going fast, I would look at my Garmin and slow myself down.  That was challenging for me – usually I look to run at a certain speed.  I’m trying to save my “fast” speed for race day.  Seven miles with no ipod – I think that is a new record for me….I loved it.

January 31, 2012: 4 miles with Matt
Back in Massachusetts again!  The threat of snow showers kinda made me excited to run this morning – I was hoping it would be snowing ever so lightly as I ran.  No such luck though – Matt and tackled and completed 4 miles.  This 4 miles felt a lot harder then the 7 I ran on Saturday.  Perhaps the temperature difference? 

That 4 miles pushed me to 53 miles for the month.  I’m pretty excited about that!

February 2, 2012: 4 miles with Matt
Today was definitely a struggle.  Thursdays are my 3rd long day of the week (I have class Tuesday and Thursdays and Wednesdays I work from 8:00 am – 8:00 pm) – I did not want to get out of my nice, cozy bed this morning.  Either did Matt.  As I have realized many times before – getting up and dressed is the hardest part of a run.  Today’s run was about the same weather as Tuesday’s but today we were able to run negative splits.

Now on to Saturday’s 8 miler…!

I have been REALLY on the hunt for quick meals this semester.  Unfortunately my schedule gives me 3-4 crazy, long days.  Right in a row.  Even my weekend feel rushed because I’m trying to catch-up on everything else that I didn’t do during the week.  Oh you know.  Cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping.  The fun stuff.  Heck I’m a few weeks behind on Private Practice and Desperate Housewives.  Times must be desperate. 

When looking for meal ideas to go to the grocery store, Matt reminded me of this spaghetti and egg dish I made a little while back – it was a great meal that met my time crunch.  Fast.

This dish literally can be made in the time it takes to boil water and cook some pasta.  My kind of meal.

The garlic oil adds such a great flavor to the pasta and the egg makes it nice and creamy – in fact, the egg pieces are my favorite part. 

This pasta dish is a great meal paired with a side salad or even some carrot slices (to speed up prep). 

For a meal that I normally have the ingredients for, this is a great way to have dinner on the table in 15 minutes. 

I have never been much of a football fan.  When in grad school I began to appreciate college football, but the pro stuff was just never of an interest to me.  Super Bowl Sunday meant a “feast” as we used to call it growing up – lots of appetizers to snack on during the game.  My dad watched the actual game while the rest of us watched the commercials. 

Not having cable tv anymore, Matt and I are hoping to find a way to watch the Super Bowl – especially since my favorite team is playing (I’m not divulging what team it is )

Matt and I love fried pickles – whenever we see it on a restaurant menu we order it.  Recently I found a recipe for oven fried pickles and decided to see if it matched the deliciousness of really fried pickles. 

It did.

These my friends are amazing – I was very impressed.

The panko crusted up quite nicely.  Matt was even surprised at how good they were – he said they had a good crunch and flavor.  He called them “a respectable replacement for fried pickles and even better than some fried pickles he has had.”  Apparently we are fried pickle connoisseurs. 

Try them.  You won’t regret it.

I love tacos.  Too much probably.  I would eat them every week if I could – or if Matt wouldn’t be opposed. 

Since embracing an essentially meat free diet, I have yet to find the perfect taco replacement.  Meatless crumbles just do not compare to ground beef – and considering their ingredient list – I try not to use them too often. 

Sometimes, I am not the smartest tool in the shed – I have no idea why it took me so long to think of lentils as a replacement for my beloved ground beef.  I love lentil snobby joes.

So I found a recipe and tried it.

I think this is the closest you will get to ground beef tacos.  The flavor was excellent as was the texture.  Matt wasn’t the biggest fan – but I didn’t expect him to be.  Tacos aren’t his favorite and he has food texture issues.  I won’t even tell you what he describes ground beef to be like. 

I topped my tacos (on a flour tortilla) with shredded cheddar cheese, lentils, mixed greens and tomatoes. 

These lentils also make a great taco salad – use leftovers to top a salad and dress with a spoonful of salsa. 

A great taco substitute – and it didn’t take too long to prepare.  A winner in my book. 

I have always enjoyed coffee flavored things – ice cream, cookies…mocha if you will.

When I turned to page 184 of the January/February 2012 Cooking Light magazine, I knew I needed to make them as soon as possible.  My intuition was correct.

It was love at first bite.  Even Matt loved them even though he doesn’t normally like coffee flavored food.

How does that not look good?

Even though I used the 1% milk, the muffins were still rich and moist.  The coffee flavor was the perfect level – not too weak but yet not too strong.

Matt gave them a “delicious” rating.

A snowy start to my running week…I guess winter is really here.

Saturday, January 21: 6 miles on the treadmill
It is no secret that I LOATHE the treadmill.  Running for me is a time to relax and enjoy the scenery – get a breath of fresh air.  Not feel like a hamster running on a stationary object.  Alas, the white stuff falling from the sky changed my plans for today so I spent some of my Saturday afternoon on the treadmill in my apartment gym.  I do have a 10 mile race in about a month. 

I played some “games” on my treadmill increasing the speed and incline during commercials.  That plus the TV kept me entertained.  In June we quit cable so it was interesting to watch TV not on Hulu.  There were new commercials.  My 6 miles felt like forever – especially when CNN switched to a show about money.  Boring.  Oh well – I can at least cross 6 miles off my list.

Monday, January 23: 3 miles on the treadmill
The wet mess left from our snowstorm on Saturday pushed me to the treadmill again this morning.  Fortunately I had the gym to myself and was able to enjoy some of the Today show (which interestingly has no commercials for the first twenty minutes)…unfortunately the novelty of TV has worn off.  I struggled through my 3 miles and am glad I was able to finish.  Hopefully the warmer weather coming our way means no more of this:

Tuesday, January 24: 3 miles OUTSIDE with Matt
Check out the temperature today.

Hello?  On Saturday it snowed 7 inches.  Today 50 degrees.  Welcome to New England.

Matt and I set out and were VERY disappointed to find that although most of the snow was gone, the sidewalks were still a disaster.  Because we live on a pretty busy street and were running in the morning before people had enough coffee, we decided to run ONLY down two side streets – I’m not a fan of running on the road on a busy street.  In order to get to our 3 miles, we had to run these side streets multiple times.  It got boring real fast.   We did manage to run a full 3 miles but I was hoping for 4. 

I would appreciate if this temperature stuck around until the middle of February – my runs would be so much more pleasant!

I am headed to New Jersey this weekend – where I hope to do my 7 mile run.  10 miles is in my reach!

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m obsessed with Pinterest.  I have been finding recipes left, right and center that I want to make.  Now.

Like this one

This dish is heavenly.

So creamy and tastes exactly like a spinach and artichoke dip – yet you don’t need the dippers.

As Matt said – this was the perfect merger of spinach and artichoke dip and macaroni and cheese – one does not over power the others.

Agreed completely.

A few weeks ago I had an unexpected and totally fantastic friend stop by for dinner.  I had not planned anything and was very thankful my apartment was at least presentable. 

After examining the contents of my pantry and consulting with my internal cooking memory, I recalled a recipe I had seen a few weeks ago for a homemade tomato soup on Stephanie’s blog.  I knew I had the ingredients for a grilled cheese as well.  Not the most gourmet of meals but we were operating on a fast turnaround time.

Tomato Basil Pesto Soup

Tomato Basil Pesto Soup
Serves 2-3

• 1/2 onion, diced small
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 29oz. can plain tomato sauce (I used a box of Pomi Strained Tomatoes)
• 1 cup milk (at least 1%)
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tbsp basil pesto (I used Classico Basil Pesto)
• salt & pepper, olive oil

1. Sauté the onion in 1/2 tbsp. olive oil for about 5 minutes, adding the minced garlic during the last minute.  Season w/ salt and pepper.
2. Add the tomato sauce and bring to a boil.  Turn down to a simmer, cover and cook 10-15 minutes. 
3. Stir in the milk, H20 and pesto.  Season with additional salt and pepper as necessary.
4. Cover and let simmer to warm for another 5 minutes before serving.

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This was a decent, fast tomato soup.  Next time Matt said he would have added more garlic and perhaps some dried garlic, dried basil and dried parley.  I would also recommend blending the soup once done in the blender or with an immersion blender to make the soup smooth.  The onion and garlic chunks were a little odd.

All in all an decent soup – I will probably make this instead of buying a canned soup because it was a lot cheaper and did not take long at all to make. 

Thanks Stephanie for a great recipe. 

Last weekend, while having our normal debate of “what to have to breakfast,” I stared at the bananas on my counter and then went to my guilty pleasure, Pinterest, to seek out some options. 

I sought out a recipe that was Peanut Butter Soynut Butter and Banana but then after some deeper consideration, realized it was easier to add soynut butter than chocolate to a muffin.  Deep thoughts for a Sunday morning.  No?

Matt claims to “not be a fan of muffins” but yet ate two of them straight out of the oven.  In all fairness, I would probably eat something straight out of the oven if it was made while I was relaxing on the couch. 

However, these muffins, he has continued to eat.

I wonder why?

For me, it was love at first bite.

How could you ignore the chocolate with pieces of banana?  If that doesn’t convince you, take a closer look.

This is a great recipe that used all my just about brown bananas and has served as both a breakfast and dessert treat.  That’s money in my book. 

Growing up, a Club Sandwich was probably in my top 3 meals.  Typically I got it whenever we went out to dinner and for my birthday I always requested a turkey club sandwich for my special meal. 

Primarily a vegetarian now, instead of missing one of my favorites, I decided to take matters into my own hand.  With the help of Gardein (disclosure: I was provided with a coupon by Gardein for this meal) I created a Grown Up Chicken Club. 

Not to toot my own horn, but I was pretty impressed with my effort!

This sandwich has so many possibilities…add cheese, instead of bread – serve in lettuce wraps, used sliced avocado instead of avocado mayo…

I really enjoyed this grown up chicken club.  The arugula added a nice kick and the smoky flavor of the “bacon” complemented the avocado mayo nicely. 

That brings me to the avocado mayo…something worth repeating.  Next time I would add a little less olive oil as that was most of what I tasted (could have been a weak flavored avocado).  That recipe has amazing potential – next time I do the Real Food Challenge, I can see the avocado mayo as a great substitute on sandwiches and with tuna. 

I really love the Gardein products (and I’m not saying this because I received a coupon) – they are a great alternative meat product and are the best meat replacement I have tasted.