My kind of taco salad

Oh was this good.

We had some leftover 99% fat free ground turkey and ground pork from some meatballs we made last week, so tacos were on the mind. But I wanted to make this more of a salad than a taco, so that’s exactly what I did.

I cooked the ground meat in the skillet and added some taco seasoning. Then I chopped up some romaine (ok, more than just SOME) and topped it with some of the meat, some crumbled tortilla chips, salsa, a little bit of cheddar, scallions, and avocado. Phew! That’s some good eats right there. And it was really simple.

I finally went back to work today after a long week of being snowed in, and I must admit-it was nice to have an excuse to get dressed in real clothes, do my hair and put on some make-up. And as much as I hate waking up before 6 a.m., I missed starting out my day at the gym.

I decided since my hip was bothering me earlier this week to start my workout on the elliptical to see how I felt. I might have to continue doing this because it’s a great way to warm up and it’s much less strenuous on my body. 20 minutes on the elliptical, then 20 minutes hard on the treadmill. I find that I can run much faster after warming up well on the elliptical too. It felt good to be back!

But now it’s not even 9:00 on a Friday and I’m ready for bed. I’m so lame…

Oh how I love to hate you

Being snowed makes me sleepy, lazy, semi-depressed, and hungry. Well, not so much hungry as bored, which makes me want to eat. But today I needed to break out of my rut because I was starting to get cranky.

That’s when I remembered my old friend Jillian and her crazy ass 30 Day Shred.

I spent 20 minutes listening to her talk in her forceful but encouraging way, doing pushups, jumping jacks, static lunges, and everything else that I can’t seem to remember. Every time I do her workouts, it’s like I block it out when I’m done.

Yeah, she’s that good. And bad at the same time. That bitch. (sorry sorry I still love you!)

After hangin with Jillian, I realized I must have not recovered from my fall last week because my knees are still bruised (I couldn’t do girl push-ups because of it) my shoulder felt a little weird, and my back really F-ing hurts. But, overall, the workout put me in a much better mood and I didn’t feel like a big waste of space.

Oh, and remember that kick-ass loaf of bread I made yesterday with my neighbor Sue? Oh yeahhh check out my breakfast.

Damn was this good. (and now that I think about it, I should have cleaned off those crumbs…)

I cooked one whole egg and one egg white, topped it with a slice of Provolone cheese, and placed it on 2 slices of toasted homemade honey wheat bread. YUM.

I decided that since this bread is fresh and probably won’t last long that I should probably freeze it. I sliced it up, wrapped it in wax paper, put it in a gallon size zipper freezer bag and hopefully it will stay fresh.

I’m trying to change up my breakfasts but honestly, it’s either oatmeal or eggs. Or my Heabified pancakes. I normally don’t have time for eggs but I need to try something different. What can I make at work that’s quick, easy, filling, and good for me? I’m talking something I can put in the microwave…or maybe make the night before that will reheat well?

So it’s back to work tomorrow after being home for almost a full week straight. Good thing we have a three day weekend coming up to recover from this mess!

Homemade honey wheat bread …. with a little help from my friend

Day five of being snowed in called for something fun to keep myself from going crazy. We had some insane blizzard like conditions outside. Visibility was nil, and it was so windy that I feared we’d lose power.

 

So when my neighbor Sue mentioned she wanted to make homemade bread, I was all over it.

I’ve tried making bread before and I’ve never been 100% satisfied with the way it’s turned out. That is, until today. This bread was so freaking good, I can’t believe I didn’t buy it at a fancy bakery. Really. It’s that good. And what I like about it most is that it’s sweetened naturally.

We took the recipe from www.bigoven.com. It took us about 3 hours from start to finish to make it but it was SO worth it.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour divided
• 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 tablespoon salt

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, combine 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 cups whole wheat flour and yeast. In a saucepan, heat milk, water, honey, butter and salt to 120 degrees F-130 degrees F.

Add to flour mixture.

Blend on low speed until moistened; beat on medium for 3 minutes. Gradually stir in remaining whole wheat flour and enough of the remaining all-purpose flour to form a soft dough.  (We actually used a wooden spoon and our hands for this)

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes.

 

Almost….

Done!

Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Shape into two loaves; place in a greased 8-in. x 4-in. x 2-in. loaf pans. (We placed them on my baking stone which I somehow forgot to photograph)

Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. We added some slits to the dough to make it look authentic..or something like that. Bake at 375 degrees F for 40-45 minutes. Remove from pans to cool on wire racks.

I don’t care who you are. You will LOVE this bread. I tried a piece with some butter, and a small sliver with some PB, and both were fabulous.  This would be good as a sandwich bread, eaten with eggs…you name it. And it has a slightly sweet taste from the honey, but not overbearing in any way. It’s a wheat bread but it’s not overpowering, so if you’re not a fan of wheat, you’ll still love it. Promise.

Hip flexor issues

I was fortunate enough to make it to the gym this morning despite my fear of losing my parking spot. I’m glad I went though because there were tons of spots open when I got back. If I hadn’t gone, I would have been one cranky Latina…and well, we can get pretty feisty sometimes.

I had a hard time getting into my run this morning. I’ve been finding that I have to warm up longer at a slower speed before I can get into my groove. I’m not sure if it’s just because of the weather or what, but once I got into full force, I was feeling OK.

That’s until I stopped.

I did a five minute cool down, 1/2 of which was walking, and that’s when I felt it. This nagging pain in my hip/groin/quad area that I just can’t put a finger on. What the hell is this? I’m not 100% sure if it’s my hip flexor or not, but I’m thinking that’s where it is. Also, I’ve had an on again, off again muscle spasm in said quad. I’m not sure if this is related but, it’s a symptom so if you’re out there reading this, let me know what you think. I’ve iced the area a few times today to help keep injury to a minimum. Hopefully this will help.

I’m feeing frustrated because ever since I got the stress fracture in my foot over the summer, running on the treadmill has been causing me pain. Not EVERY time but about 85% of the time. So stop running on the treadmill silly! Well, it’s not that easy.

Yesterday I ran outside and felt fine. No issues in the foot, and this hip thing didn’t bother me. And since I’m training for some big races this year, I obviously HAVE to run on the treadmill some don’t I?

I’ve been using the elliptical for at least half of my workouts to break it up and keep myself injury free, and it looks like I’m going to have to use it a little more. I guess using the elliptical is better than not being able to work out at all, so I’m staying off the dreadmill for a while.

UGH.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: STUPID SNOW! And stupid Dreadmill.

We’re anticipating another 8-12 inches of snow tonight and all day tomorrow. Here we go again!

Dealing with Cabin Fever

So we had about 2 feet dumped on us this weekend, and I was fortunate enough to have the day off from work. (Well, kind of. I had to work from home.)
But we’re gearing up for another snow storm; 8-12 more inches to start tomorrow afternoon into Wednesday.

Awesome.

I got the call that I have to report to work tomorrow, but we’re planning on closing early since the snow is supposed to start in the early afternoon.

The only good thing about having to go into work tomorrow is that I’ll get to go to the gym.

So what’s a girl to do when she’s snowed in?

First, I made sure to shovel as much of my car out as possible without any help. I worked on it for about 2 hours total, and man did I work up a sweat.

Second, I decided to venture out this morning for a run. Well, if you can call it that. I ran only on the sidewalks that were cleared (so my run was only about 2 miles) but the were 2 tough miles since I had to climb over huge snow piles to get from one sidewalk to the other. At one point, I actually ran through a path of somewhat shoveled snow, which was actually the most fun part of my run!

I walked by this snowman and it made me laugh.

I had every intention of taking more pictures but the zipper on my vest was stuck so I couldn’t get it out. Bummer!

I was so excited for the Superbowl yesterday that I had 2 beers! I know, I know…2 beers is nothing. But it’s more than I’ve had in a long, long time.

We made our own chicken wings, homemade pizza with fresh mozzarella, red onions, and baby bellas.

  

And a cheese and crackers spread.

 
This blue cheese we used was SO.GOOD.

It wasn’t huge, there were only three of us, but it was yummy and fun.

And I just got word that I have tomorrow off from work. Sweet!

New England or Virginia?

One of the reasons why I was excited to move to the DC area was milder winters. As long as I’ve been alive, I’ve lived in the northeast, and every winter I say “I’m moving south!” or “I need to move to the desert!” Now I know that northern Virginia still gets cold, but I didn’t expect this!

This one dumped around 2 feet of snow on us! I wanted to go for a walk and grab a cup of coffee to enjoy the weather but it so bad outside that I didn’t want to get hit by a car (the sidewalks weren’t clear.) And I tried calling the local cafes and Starbucks and they were all closed, so I was stuck on the couch.  At least we have a shovel this time!

Instead of being angry at Mother Nature, I decided to play around in the kitchen.

First up: Breakfast

OK the picture is a little deceiving, but I made a kick ass omelet with stir fry veggies, provolone cheese and leftover mini potatoes from dinner a few days ago.

I used 2 eggs and one egg whites and a ton of veggies. It was SO.GOOD. Oh, and I like ketchup on my eggs. I know, some people think it’s gross, but it’s just how I roll.

The Stir fry veggie theme continued into lunch with another one of my new loves: Coconut butter. I think I’ve died and gone to heaven it’s so good.

I took some fresh stir fry veggies, steamed them and placed them on some cooked brown rice with a dollop of Coconut butter. YUM!!!

After lunch I tried to shovel my car out. BAD idea. I spent 2 hours out there and all I did was re-hurt my shoulder. Maybe I’ll attempt more shoveling tomorrow. Stupid snow!

Tomorrow we’re making a kick ass Superbowl spread. Stay tuned.

Ice is not my friend

Well, at least not the ice I’m talking about.

We had a snow/ice storm this past weekend and apparently our groundskeepers didn’t do a complete and thorough job of cleaning off our walkways.

Picture it: It’s Monday morning 6 a.m. and it’s pitch black. It’s about 16 degrees and I’m lugging my bag and myself to my car to go to the gym. I wore my boots since I knew there was snow on the ground, and I was all geared up for a 5 mile dread-mill run. As I was turning the corner and hitting the unlock button on my car, WHAM! Down I went.

I landed right on my face and right shoulder.

I got up, brushed myself off, let out a little “tee hee I hope no one saw that,” got in my car, and drove to work.
It wasn’t until I was done with my run (yes, I’m an a-hole, I ran anyway) that I realized I hurt myself. I mean, seriously, I just fell, it wasn’t like I got into a car accident! How many times have I fallen in my life? During a soccer game? I’ve fallen, gotten up, and kept going! No biggie!

Well this time, I really did a number to myself.

I worked all day, but man am I hurting. I am so pissed that I wasn’t able to talk to property management, but you better believe that after I got home and almost slipped on the same freakin patch of ice that I called and left them a message. (it’s on the pathway to my house from the parking lot and the management office, so I had to walk right by it) Stupid winter!

Needless to say I won’t be working out for the next few days. I’ll have to find something else to keep myself sane…