Monthly Archives: November 2013

Christmastime is Here

Hey guys! Since 12 Days Of Christmas is going on, I haven’t had much opportunity for a normal post! I wanted to catch you all up on some things and eats!

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First, here’s a Turkey Trot photo! The biggest reason I chose to do a Turkey Trot 10k specifically was to increase my ability to eat. I think that may have been counterproductive-I am incapable of taking a race easy and pushed more than I was planning, which ended up kind of killing my appetite. Not that I still didn’t stuff myself! But I swear I must be getting old-I feel like it takes less and less each year to fill me up. Bye bye teenage metabolism…

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I had a healthy dinner of cheesecake on Thanksgiving before being dragged out “Black Friday” shopping. I put that in quotes because it wasn’t even Friday so you really can’t even call it that. I of course went with the blessing of my parents-to be honest I didn’t want to buy anything but it was a chance to hang out with some friends form high school who I basically haven’t seen in 2 years. It was crazy-at the mall we ran into SO many people from high school! That was fun! But after being awake at 5:30 for the turkey trot, shopping at 1am was the last thing I wanted to do. And my feet were demolished-they’ve been bothering my lately in eh arches, and standing around a lot on the day of a race was not good. 

Here’s Friday breakfast-ambrosia and an english muffin.

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A lot of time yesterday was spent prepping things for 12 Days of Christmas, including tons of baking. ImageImageImage

Then, it was time to get a tree! Whole Foods has a ton of beautiful, full, healthy trees, for a very good price. They were probably half of what we’d pay at a lot. 

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Here’s the winner!

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We could tell how fresh it was quite easily-we’ve never had a tree anywhere near this heavy before (meaning it’s full of water). My dad can normally manage the tree on his own, but this time I had to help him carry it and load it onto the car-putting those Crossfit skills to work! Push press to the top of the car? 

I also bought some dorm decorations-a mini tree that came with lights, plus this cute little poinsettia! We can’t have poinsettias at home since they’re poisonous to cats (and my cats like to eat flowers), but there are no cats in my dorm!Image

This means we’re going to have 3 plants in our tiny dorm room, so it’s basically going to be a forest. 

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In the evening, I had the pleasure of going to a class at my old Crossfit! It was great. So, so great. I miss that gym so much. I can’t even explain what is so different, but they are so much more my Crossfit family. 

The strength portion was bench presses. I haven’t bench pressed in a good 2 years. And even then I’ve only done it like 2x. Needless to say my bench press was pretty weak. I’m not great at arm strength things in general-my legs much stronger than my arms. 

The WOD was 400m run-12 deadlifts and box jumps-400m run-10 deadlifts and box jumps-400m run-5 deadlifts and box jumps. It was a good and fun one! There’s no question my box jumps have improved-this height seemed a bit scary for a WOD before I left but it was no big deal this time! Maybe what I don’t like about my school Crossfit is that not a lot of the WODs involve lifting really heavy. Who knows. I actually stayed a little late to help them build a giant structure to hang 15 foot ropes from-which was an interesting process to say the least!

Then, it was dinnertime!

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My grandma is the best-she made a ton of butternut squash soup just for me! It is absoutely amazing topped with creme fresh and cranberry orange relish. So. Good.

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Plus some other leftovers!

Then, one of my best friends came over to help me bake the Healthy Polka Dot cookies. We had a blast. I totally winged the recipe (I guess you guys probably don’t want me to tell you I had no idea what I was doing and said YOLO multiple times when adding ingredients), but it came out PERFECT. Exactly what I was hoping and more.

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Selfie with a dirty blender.

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Confession-we weren’t really sure what the texture would be like-we thought it might turn out more like cake, so here’s a shot from the outtake reel:

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I mean, they did make perfectly fine mini cupcakes, but I preferred the cookie form!

Then, we went and saw Catching Fire! I’m not sure how I rallied myself for a 10:30pm movie, but the movie was really good!

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I actually went to the midnight premier of the first Hunger Games! I read the books a while ago, and the 2nd and 3rd book kind of blurred together in my mind, so I wasn’t exactly expecting the ending, but I really liked it! Although cliffhangers? Not cool. (At least I considered this a cliffhanger.)

Well, now we’re all caught up! I have a track workout and weights planned for today-I’m not the Jingle Barbells workout-and then dinner with another friend later! Hope you all are doing well!

Best movie you’ve seen lately?

 

On the Third Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me

3 new recipes!

2 workouts

and 1 amazing family.

I don’t post a ton of recipes, but since we’re approaching my blogiversary, it was time to get to work in the kitchen! I love low sugar recipes, and these lack the sugar without the flavor. Enjoy!

 

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

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Ingredients:

4 ripe bananas

1 egg (or 2 whites)

2 T oil (I used canola)

1/3 c milk

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 c cocoa powder (I used dark chocolate, hence the color)

1 c flour-I used whole wheat pastry

1 T honey

1/2 c bittersweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mash bananas and mix all ingredients besides the chips.

3. Stir in chips

4. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 until done.

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Cranberry Banana Bread

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Ingredients

4 ripe bananas

1 egg (or 2 whites)

2 T oil

1/3 c milk

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

1.5 c flour (I used whole wheat pastry)

2 t cinnamon

1 t vanilla

1/4 c packed brown sugar

1/4 c dried cranberries

1/2 c chopped fresh cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mash bananas and mix in all but cranberries.

3. Stir in both types of cranberries.

4. Bake for about 50 minutes or until cooked through.

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Healthy Polka Dot Cookies (Mint chocolate)

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Ingredients

2 ripe bananas

4 soaked dates (unsoaked should would but may not blend as well)

1 full square Baker’s chocolate (unsweetened)

1 T butter (or coconut oil)

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

3/4 c cocoa powder

2 eggs

1 t vanilla

3/4 c flour (whole wheat pastry or any type)

3/4 c mint chips

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Makes 24

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Warm bananas in microwave, and then blend with dates until smooth.

3. Melt Baker’s chocolate into banana mix.

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4. Using a mixer, blend in all but flour.

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5. Mix in flour with mixer.

6. Stir in mint chips

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7. Drop onto cookie sheet-about 2 teaspoons per cookie.

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8. Bake for about 9 minutes, depending on oven and cookie sheets, or until cooked through.

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Enjoy!

 

On the Second Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me…

2 brand-spanking new workouts!

And 1 amazing family.

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Make sure you warm up each movement and work your way up to a heavy weight!

Use a heavy weight for the back lunges and superset with body weight lunge jumps.

For the RDLs, use a barbell at a heavy but manageable weight.

Heel raises 3 ways is: toes forward, toes in, and toes out. 

Use the barbell for bent over rows. Make sure not to lift with back.

The conditioning should be quick and straight through. The weight for front squats should be about 50% or less of your one rep max. 

Enjoy!

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I love the idea of triathlons but I hate swimming. And kind of love rowing. And it’s cold in the winter, so let’s take it inside! Start with a 5k row on the rowing machine, move to the treadmill and run 5k, and then get on the spin bike (or normal bike I guess-not sure how the distances would work out) and bike 10 miles. Bonus points if you race a friend!

On The First Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me…

One AMAZING family. I am so thankful. And how appropriate that the first day of Christmas fall on Thanksgiving? They are the best. Image

Even though my sister is in Michigan right now!

Today just proves how awesome my family is. My parents woke up at the crack of dawn (well, it was dark) to take to and support me in a Turkey Trot.

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Also-so much respect for this guy: he ran the whole 10k with the ship!

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I had plans to take a fast for me but still easy pace of 9:00. I went out pretty fast-my first mile was 8:10-so clearly I have no ability to not go hard. This race was pretty hard, but definitely a ton of fun. And it was nice to see my race pace in the 8s again!Image

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After cleaning up, we headed to my Grandma’s house. She really outdid herself on the cooking front this year. I was SO blown away. Check out all these desserts-dark chocolate pecan pie, key lime pie, pumpkin cheesecake-all from scratch.

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We had a 24 pound turkey (for 6 people), mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, 3 types of cranberry sauce, ambrosia with homegrown oranges, butternut squash soup, green beans, rolls, orange maple sweet potatoes.

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Check out that concentration!

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So thankful. I have no words.

What are you thankful for?

Thanksgiving Eve

If you’re reading this on Thanksgiving, then Happy Thanksgiving! I wanted to pop in quickly to share some eats from Thanksgiving Eve (it’s currently Wednesday night). 

Today was our last day in Napa. We decided to go out for a nice breakfast at the hotel restaurant. I ordered fruit with yogurt, which was of course delicious.

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What really stole the show was the Belgian waffle. Can you believe I hadn’t had a waffle in months? I haven’t had one at school yet-it used to be a weekly thing! My closest dining hall doesn’t have frozen blueberries to top it with (so totally not worth it) and the lines at the other dining hall WITH the berries are insane, so that’s not happening. But this little guy was fantastic! My family ordered one for the table to share.

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Topped with vanilla berry compote.

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On our way into downtown, we made a stop at Whole Foods-the granola bar I wanted to eat before my Turkey Trot is no longer carried by my local Whole Foods-sadly we struck out in Napa as well so I’m going into the race on an untested breakfast (YOLO). However, we did see that this Whole Foods had a coffee bar, and decided it would probably be a good idea to test it out.

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A cappuccino-of course. I also tried some of my mom’s Pumpkin Spice Caramel latte, and I actually really liked it! I normally can’t do sweet coffee, but this wasn’t too sweet (ok, or that coffee-y). Maybe next time!

After walking around downtown, we stopped in an interesting marketplace for lunch. We decided on a Venezuelan place, and each ordered an arepa. 

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It should be no surprise that mine had avocado! It also had tofu, plaintain, black bean, and garlic aioli, all on a sweet corn “bun.” Delish!

And since we were in a marketplace, there were plenty of dessert options. I had a pumpkin pie cupcake-it was filled with caramel! I probably could have done without the buttery icing though!

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And on our way out, we stopped at an Italian bakery for what were more or less cream puffs-mine was milk and honey. 

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Dinner later was a new to me flavor of kombucha, plus broccoli and an omelet with mushrooms, spinach, and gouda.

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And of course, I’m enjoying plenty of love from this guy.

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Now, I’m off to hopefully fall asleep and dream of trotting turkeys! I have my playlist made (which may or may not be half Christmas music), my clothes laid out, and my alarm set! Now I just need to get sleepy…maybe I’ll go read my textbook for school-that should do the trick! Yayy finals in a week. 

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! Enjoy your Turkey Trots, but make sure to take in all the precious family time you can get!