Skip to main content

Cranberry Cookie Balls & Runner's High

Happy Hour on the Deck
After work, we met my cousin and his family at a place called Cajun's Wharf to listen to a band that he used to jam with. Cajun's is notorious for their awesome deck overlooking the Arkansas River. Even though it was incredibly hot out, there was a nice breeze that kept us cool.

We had such a nice time catching up with my cousin and his wife (and 2 kiddos). My cousin and I are only 7 months apart in age and are really more like brother and sister. We actually lived together for a while in the early college years. I am really rallying for them to move here ;-)
 
 
 
 
 
Pizza Friday & Pool Party Prep
We got home around 7:30 and got to work on pizza for Pizza Friday. In other words, a pretty typical Friday evening for the most part. However, we did spend some extra time in the kitchen prepping for today (friends over for pool time). We put together my Black Bean & Corn Salsa for starters.

Black Bean & Corn Salsa
Ingredients:
1 cup frozen corn, defrosted (or canned rinsed and drained)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained (or fresh cooked)
1/4 red onion, finely diced
2-3 jalapenos, finely diced
1/2 red or green bell pepper, diced
1 can no-salt diced tomatoes (or fresh, we didn't have enough), well drained
To taste: sea salt, pepper, cumin, red pepper, chili powder, lime juice, cilantro


Directions
Mix all ingredients in bowl and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.

Then I knew I wanted to make a dessert treat. I saw a post from Kristina at Spabettie for Garbonzo Cookie Balls and knew I wanted to try them. Since we were having friends over today, I thought a nice little treat would be good to have on hand (aka perfect excuse to make these). Rather than using chocolate, I went with cranberries for a Peanut Butter & Cranberry Cookie Ball. These are both gluten-free and vegan.

This has to be one of the easiest and most versatile cookie recipes. Honestly, you could add other dried fruit, white chocolate, dark chocolate, or even just chopped nuts. I will most definitely be making these again (and again).

Hot Runner's High Run
This morning I knew I had to get out as early as I could for a run because of the heat. But, it is the weekend and I wasn't going to go for a 5:30 am run. Sorry, just not happening. I got up a little after 7 and ate half of a banana. I hit the river trail at 8 am and it was already upper 70's. Thankfully, the trail was mostly shaded at that time though.

I made myself slow down more than I would normally have done. Because I am not really used to the heat just yet, I thought it was best to play it smart. I also had a chat with myself about it being ok to walk if I needed to. I have it in my head that if I am going to run x miles, that means "run" not walk x miles. I know that's so stupid, there's nothing wrong with walking breaks.

Anyway, I also told myself to listen to my body and not push myself farther than I should go. My mileage has been dropping lately and I'm starting to get worried I can't run farther than 6 miles. Over the past few weeks, my long runs have only been 5 miles, they used to be 9 and 10.

I ended up having a really great run, despite the heat. I made it 6.2 miles, and on the drive home was actually wishing I had gone farther because I felt so good. Runner's high much?

So, the rest of the morning was spent trying to finish straightening up the house and the yard for our friends coming over this afternoon to enjoy the pool. It's just a few people, not a big bash by any means. I also made some Kalamata Hummus to snack on. I believe my friends are going to be bringing fruit and other summery type snacks. Should be a good time. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and recap tomorrow.

Daily To-Enjoy List
  • A run, no matter what distance or what speed. 
  • Pool time with friends.
  • A little disconnecting from computer land.
  • A relaxing evening with Jason and our 2 furbabies.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Love in Photos

In honor of Valentine's Day - Love in Photos Husband Family and Furbabies Friends Even if you're not a fan of Valentine's Day - I hope you have a wonderful day and remember the loves in your life.

Hump Day and More Pineapples

Full-Body Workout  I'll readily admit that getting up this morning was quite painful and almost didn't happen. I forced myself out of bed though not exactly excited about tackling a full-body Pyramid workout. Sort of daunting at 5 am really. I did the warm up from Shock Cardio Cardio Core Circuit (cardio only premix) then hit the weights. It was a pyramid up only so I increased my starting weight. I topped it all off with the first 2 1/2 drills from the cardio workout. I ran short on time and was basically spent. Squats into Plie Squats Step Ups (seriously hate these especially at 5:30 am) Incline Chest Flyes into Chest Press Pullovers into DB Underhand Rows Step Ups (freaking again) Static Lunges Overhead DB Press into Lateral Raises Deadlifts Kickbacks into Overhead Extensions Hammer Curls into Alternating Curls Calf Raises I am so excited to report that my new cross-trainers and running shoes arrived today. Can't wait to test both of them out. I waited way way way too

Hitting the Gym and Lazy Means Creative Tex-Mex Creation

Sunday, Gym Day Why do vacations and min-vacations go by so quickly? Just doesn't seem quite right. Anyway, we left Branson around 9:30 am to head back home. It was a pretty uneventful drive back, which is usually a good thing. We got home and unpacked, then I headed up to the gym. I started with a 10-minute treadmill run to warm up before hitting the weights for back and light legs then abs. I went with a giant set for back then supersets for legs. GS - 4x8 Underhand barbell rows Pullovers Double-arm rows SS#1 Rear-leg elevated lunges (Bulgarian Split Squats) - 3x8 Calf raises - 3x20 SS#2 - 2x8 Walking lunges Plie squats with low-end pulse Single-leg deadlifts - 2x8 I did some ab exercises, stretched, and called it quits. Lazy = Crazy Dinner I may have made it to the gym and washed a few loads of laundry, but I never made it to the grocery store - lounging in the pool trumped grocery shopping. This meant getting creative with dinner. We had another package