Where's the Beach?

Do you try to eat the so-called super foods regularly? Do you think they're over-hyped or hold true to their nutritional claims? Sometimes I do think certain food trends end up overly hyped, but probably with cause. I don't think anyone will argue that lentils or kale are bad for us. Well, actually, if you have blood clotting issues, then excessive amounts of kale could be an issue because it is high in vitamin K, a natural coagulant. But, that aside, super foods are nutrient-dense foods. They are often cleansing as well as offering healthy doses of minerals and nutrients our bodies need. For example, lentils are a fantastic source of iron, folate, thiamin, and manganese. Quinoa is also a great source for manganese as well as magnesium and even protein. So, why not combine some of these ingredients for a nutritionally dense salad? I had on hand some cooked lentils so I thought I would try pairing those with a massaged kale salad. I wanted to "beef" up the protei...

Morning Run This morning started out painfully early. I woke up around 4:30 to potty. And my alarm was set for just after 5 so we could run. In other words, no point in falling back asleep obviously. But man that makes for a long long day. By 10 am, it felt more like 3 pm. We set out for the run just before 5:30. At least there was a slight breeze today. That definitely helped with the heat/humidity. I will say that our pace was just all over the place though. Zero consistency going on this morning. Our first mile was a slow one (though I thought we were going a bit faster) at 9:58, but then mile 2 was 8:31. Really? How'd that happen? I'll blame it on not being awake. And oddly, that might have been the best feeling mile for me. My legs started to get pretty heavy and I had to concentrate on my breathing. So I felt like my form was getting a little sloppy, which can make you less efficient of course. So, after a slow mile then a fast mile, so continued the varied pace: 9...

Salad Sunday With all the time I had spent in the kitchen yesterday, you would have thought dinner would have been something I had already made. Nope, decided to make two more things: barley and lentils. I keep thinking about the garden lentil salad I had a few times while in Chicago from Argo Tea . It really was incredible. I sort of just made my own version. While it didn't taste anything like the one I had previously, it was really good in its own right. Warm Lentil and Barley Salad Ingredients: 1 cup dried lentils 4 cups water 1/2 cup barley 1 1/2 cups water 1 small sweet potato, small cubed 1/4 cup minced red onion 3 carrots, finely diced 1/4 red bell pepper, finely diced 1/4 green bell pepper, finely diced Red wine vinegar (to taste) To taste: salt, pepper, thyme, parsley, garlic powder, paprika Directions: In large pot, cook lentils in water until tender. At the same time, in another pot, cook barley per package directions (may need a little more water). ...

Rest Day = Time for Errands Is it me or did Monday show up entirely too quickly? I feel like I didn't get nearly enough accomplished from my ever-expanding to-do list. I guess enjoying the weekend is really more important. But now I have to find time to get a wedding gift for a friend's upcoming wedding (this weekend), a gift for my nephew's fifth birthday (party also this weekend), typical errands and chores in between work and workouts. Speaking of workouts...I'm still itching to run in my new running shoes, but it was another insanely windy day. And, I'd promised to meet my friend for spin after work. I did send her an email to check on the status of her legs after yesterday's leg workout. Her reply, "OUCH." She initially thought she would still hit spin to try to work out the kinks. In the end, she just couldn't make it. I totally understood. And in all honesty, a rest day for me today wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It gave me a chanc...

2 on Tuesday  I had every intention of getting up this morning for a "get myself moving" kickboxing workout with abs. However, that did not happen. I just felt so worn out, so I slept another hour. I seriously think that I am just not destined to morning workouts. You'd think I was going to bed really late. But, that's not the case. I'm typically in bed reading by 8:30 and lights out by 9:30. Sigh. Anyway, I was feeling super fatigued most of the morning to be honest. I did take a Zyrtec for the sinus drainage so that might be part of the cause. Sinuses are still drippy though so it's obviously not doing the job. Anyway, Jason and I did get in a lunchtime run. I really almost backed out. But, I think it was the energy boost I desperately needed. It got me moving for starters. I spend my entire day sitting at a desk in front of a computer, most certainly not an energy boost (actually quite the opposite). It was super windy, and not quite 60 degrees when we s...

Thankful for Friends First off, I really want to thank everyone for being so kind yesterday when I posted about my blue day. I debated about the post because I certainly don't want anyone to think that I am fishing for sympathy. I did, however, think that it was important to be honest with what sort of day I was having and to share some great, inspirational posts by fellow bloggers. I hope those words can help you out at some point. That brings me to another point. Friendships. I have blogged about this before, but yesterday it was even more so apparent that friends come from so many, often unexpected places. I received an email from a fellow blogger asking me how I was doing and letting me know that they were there for me. For me?? It was truly heartwarming to get that sort of support from someone I have never met and from someone who is going through so much more in their life right now. And they were seriously concerned about me. Wow. Not one of my long-time friends or even fam...

Friday Follow-Up First off, I want to thank everyone for their great comments! Sounds like everyone is on the same page. I love the open-minded attitudes and notions of living life to the fullest. You guys are awesome! Dinner did end up being pizza...on the grill. Grilled pizza wasn't the intention mind you, it was dark out and not part of the plan. I had turned on the oven to pre-heat and to heat up the pizza stone. When I was done with the toppings and had the dough rolled out, I asked Jason to pull out the stone. It was, well, stone cold. No heat folks. The burners were working just fine, so we have no idea what's up with the oven. Thankfully we have a gas grill that we were able to use. The crust was definitely crispier, but not in a bad way. My half of the pizza was my very predictable Greek style of spinach, artichokes, sundried tomatoes, banana pepper rings, roasted red bell peppers, and feta. Jason had been wanting to try a muffuletta style pizza. One of our favorite ...

Still feeling under the weather unfortunately. It's even more unfortunate because it is a gorgeous, unseasonably warm and sunny day here. I had really hoped to be able to go for a run outside. Alas, that did not happen. I decided to bake and finish laundry. As with all of my bread and dough recipes, I am trying to tweak them and make them healthier where possible. I have been using this Ciabatta Bread recipe from Recipezaar for several years now. It's not a complicated recipe at all, you use the bread machine to do all the hard work, but you still get to take the credit. Here is the original recipe with additions and changes in parenthesis and italics. Ciabatta Bread Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups water (hot) 1 1/2 teaspoons salt ( I used sea salt ) 1 teaspoon white sugar ( I substituted with Agave Nectar per a recommendation from Alicia ) 1 tablespoon olive oil 3 1/4 cups bread flour ( I substituted 1/4 cup of whole-wheat pastry flour just to get...