WIAW-24 Hours

Date: September 3, 2014

Author: astottler

Happy Wednesday! I wasn’t planning on participating in WIAW but here we are!

I’m currently sitting at Starbucks blogging. Aaaand it’s 7am. Gotta love those 5:45am spin classes! I got my gym membership back for a month so I can go to my favorite classes. When I went to sign up, they gave my mom a free week guest pass and personal training session to try and get her to try it out. I’m currently putting pressure on here to go but she’s intimidated! So if anyone has some advice for first time gym goers, we’re all ears!

I don’t have a picture of yesterday’s breakfast, but we’ll do a 24 hour period of WIAW, so here is today’s. A cappuccino-I thought a 5am wakeup merited a full-caff (although I may be feeling it a bit already!).

Plus a spinach and feta wrap.

Lunch yesterday was at Calafia Cafe. I had a delicious rock cod tostada.

And since it was basically next door, we stopped in to Tin Pot, my favorite ice cream place. Ever. I’ve tried some of the famous places in San Francisco (Bi-Rite and Smitten), and while they are deliciously amazing, this is still my favorite. I had Tcho Chocolate and it was fantastic as always. It’s amazingly creamy and just perfect in every way. Plus they put melted chocolate in the bottom of the cones so they don’t drip.

As a pre-Crossfit snack, I had cheese and crackers. This is a recycled picture but the same thing. I got this amazing Blueberry Goat Chèvre. Amazing.

You can find it at Trader Joe’s. Do it.

Crossfit last night was good. Today will be my last day of Crossfit before my race-I’m cutting myself off! We worked on handstands and split squats. Then, the WOD was the following:

10 minute AMRAP:

7 Overhead Squats (75#)

14 toes to bar

21 burpees

Dinner was cheesy polenta with mushrooms. It included creamy polenta topped with fontina and broiled. Then, sautéed mushrooms were added on top. Delicious. It’s from the Cookign Light app! On the side, we had a salad of arugula, mixed greens, and mint leaves, topped with aged white balsamic and lemon scented olive oil. So fresh.

For dessert, I had a leftover chocolate muffin with ricotta orange filling.

A perfect way to end the day!

What did you eat today?

WIAW-Soup!

Date: August 5, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! Remember how last post I wrote from the airport during my delay? Well…I didn’t get back that night. My flight kept getting pushed back later and later, and then we were switched to a much smaller plane and the plane was way overweight…so I spent another night in NY. I got to spend some extra time with family at least! Never mind the 6 hours spent at the airport…

Monday’s flight went without a hitch, thankfully!

Anyways, despite that whole debacle, let’s celebrate Wednesday! Thanks to Jenn for hosting the fun!

When I got to the airport Monday, I thought I deserved a cappuccino. Decaf though!

I also picked up a whole wheat chicken wrap with balsamic. So good!

I actually made it back in time for Crossfit that night, and worked on back squats with a pause at the bottom (it’s way harder-believe me!) and handstands. I actually held a handstand! Briefly, but still! I had a spotter, and then suddenly I wasn’t waving around anymore-and it surprised me so much I hopped down pretty much right away! I’ll expect it next time!

Afterwards, I went to Whole Foods for some things for the week and dinner. I had Minestrone with cheddar, and a whole wheat roll. Plus an unpictured kombucha.

Since this is totally relevant to food (not), I’m still going to include it. My new room is really cute!

This morning, I woke up super early to run 4 miles. It was very dark out. And humid. But I felt good and maintained a decent pace-and more importantly didn’t trip and fall on the brick paths!

Since I don’t have run pictures, I’ll show you a few of my new commute…over the Potomac and into a different state…

Breakfast was some amazingly large blueberries and an abnormally large banana topped with sun butter.

Lunch was too ugly to merit a picture, but snack was blueberries and plain yogurt in a sunflower seed jar. Thank goodness too, as I didn’t have any of the right sized tupperware!

After work, I headed to Crossfit. We worked on split jerks, and then the WOD was the following:

10 minute AMRAP partner workout:

Partner 1: 3 curtis P’s (dumbell hang snatch, lunge left, lunge right, push press) and then bear crawl WITH dumbbells the length of the gym and back

Partner 2: hold hollow rock position

Switch after each round.

It was a fun one…not as annoying as I was expecting-I normally hate dumbbell cleans.

After Crossfit dinner was something super easy-balck bean soup topped with cheddar, and a side of corn bread from Whole Foods. The corn bread at WF is way better here than in CA…

And now I’m off to make sure my carrots aren’t burning!

Have a great Wednesday!

WIAW on Stormy Days

Date: July 15, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! (Feel free to ignore the fact that I’m posting Tuesday night. You get the idea.) As usual, I’m celebrating WIAW with Jenn!

I have lots of good things to share, including a recipe! Yay!

Before I get to food, let’s talk about workouts. I was all set to go to Crossfit after work Monday, but I walked outside to a giant storm, and then the Metro stopped running, so I missed the class, and didn’t feel like going to the late class.

Anyways, this meant Monday was rest and today was a 3 miler! After pouring all afternoon, I decided to take a chance and go for it during a break in the rain. I did my usual 3 mile route.

Yeah. I live here.

And this is not a bad turn around point:

Yes, the Washington Monument is EXACTLY 1.5 miles away, so it should be pretty clear why this is my typical route now!

On the way back, storm clouds began to threaten. It started POURING right as I was running up my block. Talk about lucky!

The run also felt fantastic. I was running on rested and not “just woke up and it’s 6am” legs, plus I’m been working hard in my training, and it’s certainly paying off. This is week 3, and each week I’ve done this route. I’ve done it faster each week, and each week it feels better. Week 1 was super slow for me-10:18 pace. sat week was 9:48, and today was 9:29. And it wasn’t like it was an all out pace, so it’s a good start!

Now onto the part everyone actually cares about. Food.

Breakfasts have been the same old-sunflower seed butter with lots of fruit! Plus chai tea since I’m laying off the coffee.

Lunch Monday was leftovers of Cheesy Mushroom Quinoa plus some yogurt.

Lunch on Tuesday was extra special. I was on trip at work, and the food they prepared us was amazing and beautiful.

I’m not sure how much I should talk about work on here, but I will say this gives me so much hope for the future of America’s school food system!

I piled my plate high with all kinds of delicious salads. One of my favorites was a ginger root salad. This is the first context in which I’ve actually enjoyed beets!

I also got to take leftovers home with me, which made a great pre-run snack/dinner.

And finally-for the recipe!

Coconut Flour Arepas

*Edited to add: this is based on the fantastic Blogilates recipe for healthy quesadillas!

Ingredients

2 T coconut flour

1 ear of corn

2 T water

6 T egg whites

1/8 t baking powder

salt to taste

Directions

1. Mix together coconut flour, water, egg whites, and baking powder in a small bowl.

2. Remove the corn from the cob, and add to mixture.

3. If mixture is too thin, let it sit a moment. The coconut flour may take a bit of time to absorb the water, but this will still be fairly runny. Add salt if desired.

4. In a large pan, add a touch of olive oil and heat the pan.

5. Once pan is hot, pour mixture into pan.

6. When bubbles begin to form on the surface, flip and cook through.

7. If desired, sprinkle with salt, and fill with desired fillings. I used smoked gouda.

Delicious, and comes together in minutes!

What is your favorite type of cheese?

Not for everything, but I love goat brie. If you haven’t tried it, you absolutely need to!

WIAW-The Battle of the Can

Date: July 8, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! Thanks for your feedback on length of posts-I’ll try to Goldilocks it and have it juuust right-not too long or short!

Thanks to Jenn for helping us celebrate this day!

My morning began with a hazy 5:30am wake up call. I’m pretty sure I was hungry when I woke up but too dazed to realize it. I’ve had the worst time falling asleep lately so I’ve been dragging a bit!

Somehow I made it out the door…but managed to drop my iPod on the cement twice. The on/off button jammed down and it turned itself off…indefinitely. Hopefully it can be fixed!

The first run of the week was a 3 miler. I’m going to run the same 3 mile route for a while to compare paces.

And you can’t beat this view! It never gets old.

My pace this week was 30s/mile faster than last week, which is much closer to where I need to be! My legs have still been feeling sort of off though!

Breakfast was a quick fruit bowl with a beautiful glob of sunflower seed butter.

…And then coffee at work.

I had a lunchtime meeting thing at work so I didn’t have time to buy anything there, and I got back too late last night to deal with cooking anything. So I grabbed what I could.

I swear, this was the crunchiest lunch ever! Everything was SO loud, in a very quiet room. Whoops!

After work, I headed to Crossfit. It hasn’t been anything too crazy the past couple of days. Today we worked on split jerks, which really needed work for me. For the past 3 years, I’ve had my left leg forward as my dominant leg. Today I learned I’m much better on my right leg now. Go figure…

The WOD was a 10 minute EMOM of 10 double unders (or 20 single unders if you are me) plus 2* russian kettle bell swings. Except every minute, the amount of swings increases by 2, so the last set had much less rest time!

As soon as I stepped outside, I could tell a storm was coming. It was INSANELY windy, and also dark! I wasn’t worried about getting rained on though because every time I’ve carried my umbrella, the rain has held off. And I had my umbrella. I literally got back 2 minutes before the storm started.

While it was all dark and gloomy outside, I whipped up a new to me recipe. Anne’s “Cheesy” Mushroom Quinoa. I added extra kale in place of boo choi (I could’t find it) and olive oil in place of coconut oil because I couldn’t rationalize buying an entire jar of it. I also had a nice little moment when I realized my beans were in a can and I lacked a can opener. I got it open, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend my methods! But I still have all my fingers so I guess it’s all good!

This was such a good dish for a gloomy evening, and i’m already looking forward to leftovers!

I also whipped up some more banana bread! This is the third time since I’ve been in DC! It was lemon-blueberry banana bread, but the recipe is not ready to share yet.

It tasted good still, but I’m having a lot of trouble getting the lemon flavor to come through. Any suggestions? I used the juice of a lemon, lemon rind, and 1.5 teaspoons of lemon extract. More lemon juice? Maybe lemon concentrate? Is that a thing?

And there’s my day!

What was the best thing you ate this week?

WIAW-Summer Food and the Official Start of Half Training 4.0

Date: July 1, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! I feel like this week has already been flying by! Only 2 days left until the weekend-how is that possible? Let’s celebrate with What I Ate Wednesday!

Before I get into the good stuff (aka the food) I want to talk about a few things I’ve done the past few days! Sunday, I went to the Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market, and got some fresh peaches and greens for my favorite summer salad. Afterwards, I went to Target to pick up a few things. Prior to the weekend, I had only rode one Metro line. Sunday, I rode them all. I’m pretty sure I officially live here now! One thing I want to do sometime is play Metro roulette. Get on a random line and then get off at a random stop to explore. We’ll see.

On the fitness front, Monday kicked off the official start to my training cycle for my 4th half marathon! How crazy is that? 4? I knocked out an early morning 3 miles. For some reason, my Garmin kept losing me, so I’m not sure if I’ve actually gotten slower or if it was losing its little mind…Either way, I have no problems waking up for these views.

Can you guess which picture I stopped to take, versus just shooting on the run?

Now, onto the food. I’m insanely, insanely proud of Sunday’s meal. It was probably my most beautiful creation. I made my Grilled Peach and Chicken salad, but baked the chicken instead of grilled it and sautéed the peaches on the stove.

Plus a hunk of farmer’s market fresh whole wheat bread. What more could possibly say “summer”?

I feel like I should just stop there with that picture. This also marks my first time cooking chicken. That’s right-I’ve never cooked chicken. I’ve done ground turkey and even fish, but never chicken! (At home my dad would usually grill). It was insanely easy and came out way better than I was expecting!

Also, feel free to ignore the fact that it’s in a loaf pan. Kitchen tools are a bit sparse around these parts…(But a loaf pan was clearly a priority.)

For breakfasts, I just haven’t been feeling the yogurt+berries+sunbutter, although I need to eat that tomorrow before my berries go bad. Instead, I’ve been feeling the lighter fruit salad with sun butter. Currently in the mix is a banana and blackberries. Monday this was prepared and eaten in 3 minutes flat. Not ideal, but better than nothing!

In terms of lunches, I packed lunch on Monday. Baked chicken, plus roasted broccoli and cauliflower, and mashed sweet potatoes with sage.

Lunch on Tuesday was bought from the cafe at work. I needed to buy something. I had the pleasure of only doing half my laundry on Monday, and being one quarter shy of actually being able to dry it (and how the heck do you hang dry socks??). I’m spoiled at school because our laundry is free, but I managed to not have any bills the quarter machine would accept. Hence why I needed to buy lunch-just to get quarters and smaller bills. I got a hummus veggie pita on a whole wheat pita.

These things are massive. The pita is stuffed with tons of veggies, hummus, feta, and provolone. I was glad to be eating this alone because it’s kind of a mess!

Plus an impulse buy of marble bread. This seriously is my weakness.

After Crossfit today, I went grocery shopping. Twice. Apparently coconut flour is much more rare here? I was at Trader Joes and couldn’t find it, and with the knowledge that dinner would therefore be a ways off, I grabbed a protein bar. I’m not a proponent of artificial sweeteners in general, but it is what it is. This is one of the few protein bars out there with no nuts, and I munched on it as I walked to grocery #2.

Even at Whole Foods, I barely found it. In CA, there would be like 5 different types…

Once I FINALLY made it back, I whipped up a quick dinner. Coconut flour quesadillas, from Blogilates. With plenty of avocado and a side of grapes.

It didn’t come out as well as I would have liked-I didn’t add enough water to the batter so it was sort of dry. Take 2 is tomorrow night though so I have a chance to fix it! This may be my go-to easy meal for a while because the recipe calls for 4 oz of meat, so I was left with 12 oz leftover, which I cooked up and froze. Now that I have coconut flour, the other ingredients are staples. So maybe I can get food on the table before 8:30!

That’s all I have today-I have an early workout (followed by lots of coffee) on the Lincoln Memorial steps!

What is your favorite summer food?