Shannon's Vegetarian Chili

What a great, gloomy Saturday it was! I don't know about you, but I love rainy days like today. It's fun to just relax and be at home with my boys!

After we got home from Denny's and the farmer's market Jake went down for a nap and Phil convinced me to play Wii. I hardly ever play it with him and now I remember why....he beats me every time! And the competitive side of me just can't stop until I win...or until Jake wakes up. :)

My friend, Shannon, gave me a vegetarian chili recipe to try (I posted at the bottom). I got everything done and set it up in the crock pot and then went to the gym for an awesome workout! Speaking of food and workouts, I'm going to be adding two new tabs - the first will be recipes the second will include my workouts.

Okay so the chili was AWESOME! I highly recommend it. The cilantro did it for me. That's one of my favorite spices and it really tasted yummy in this chili. We had a delicious fruit salad with fruit from the farmer's market to go with the chili.
















Shannon's Vegetarian Chili

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4 celery stalks chopped
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• 2 tsp. oregano
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2 cans red kidney beans
• 1 can tomato sauce (calls for veg. stock/tom. juice/water)
• 2 cups corn
• 1 green bell pepper
• (1 jalapeno - optional - I didn't use)
  

Directions:

1. Saute onions, celery and spices (through cilantro) in pan for about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes with juice and bring to a boil, transfer to crock pot, add beans, and stir well.
   Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours.
2. 30 minutes before it's done, add the corn and green peppers. (I sauted the green peppers first - optional, of course :) ).
3. Cover and cook 30 more minutes.
   

Denny's or the Gym??

You guessed it - I chose Denny's this morning! I had good intentions of going to a boot camp class at the gym this morning, but Jake gave Mommy and Daddy an early Christmas present and slept until 8:10 this morning!! That's amazing for him. Wow, it felt good! I really wanted some time with my boys more than going to the gym, so we headed to Denny's. I love that they have some healthy options! We shared the "build your own" grand slam. It's a good deal! I got oatmeal, fruit and whole wheat pancakes. I shared the pancakes with Jake and brought the rest home for his breakfast tomorrow. Phil got to choose the other 3 items. Jake made friends with just about everyone in the restaurant, of course!

I love this - Phil was looking at the kid's menu and said "these portions are all we really need." WOW! I never thought I'd hear those words come out of my hubby's mouth!! He does listen to me sometimes!:)

Speaking of Denny's, I used to work at the corporate office in Spartanburg. What an experience! :) I sure learned a lot but was glad to make the move back to Greenville and to my dream job at ScanSource! I do miss the discount at Denny's and City Range, though!

After breakfast we headed to the farmer's market to get some delicious, fresh fruits and veggies. Today I'm planning to make a vegetarian chili recipe that a friend gave me for dinner! I did forget two things I needed for it so I'll either substitute something or run to the grocery store before popping it in the crock pot. I'll let you know how it goes!

I'll head to the gym later today or do a workout DVD. Happy weekend!

Hair in my face!!

I have struggled with my hair in my face since I started running 2 years ago! I tried everything...hats are too hot in the summer, bobby pins still let hairs come loose and tickle my face, stretchy head bands always come off and bother me during my runs. I recently saw some people wearing the head band things (whatever you call them) like in the picture here. Definitely one of the best investments I've made!! I LOVE it! I hesitated buying one since it was $15 for a pack of 2...but I am so glad I did it! I no longer have hair tickling my face and can focus on running! Now if I can just figure out how to keep the hair in the back off my neck!!

My Healthy Eater

Yes, that is grapes, whole wheat pasta, 3 kinds of peppers, and onions on Jake's tray. Oh yeah, and prune juice for medicinal purposes (poor little guy!). :)




So far my 14 month old is a healthy eater. I really hope to keep it this way! I'm not saying I'll never let him have chicken nuggets or fries, but I intend to limit that and teach him from a very young age how to eat healthy. We went to a BBQ place a few weeks ago with my parents, and it happened to be "kids eat free" day. We typically bring his food along when we go to a restaurant, but since it was free we decided to get him something. We chose chicken strips and green beans. We thought he would love the chicken (he loves meat), but he was more interested in the green beans and Mommy's grilled chicken than his chicken strips. We thought it was funny - aren't all kids supposed to love chicken strips?? :) Oh well, I'm not complaining! I'm sure it will be more of a struggle as he gets older (I know their tastes change), but for now I am going to fill him up on fruits, veggies and lean meats and I'll deal with that when it gets here! Eat up, Jakester! :)



It has been a really crazy week, but I've been able to get some workouts in. Phil has had "month end" this week at work. If you or someone you love is in a finance or accounting position you probably know what I'm talking about! It's thet time of month I dread. We don't see much of him the few days before and after month end. It's always a hard week for all of us - Phil working really long hours, Jake not getting to see Daddy. But yes, we are very thankful that he has a job and are glad another month end is over!

I had a good run today. I have been bringing it inside to the "dreadmill", but it has really helped with my speed training. It's a lot easier for me to keep the quicker pace and push me to keep going to my next goal. I am anxious to get back outside, though...come on fall!! I'm really looking forward to my trail run in 2 weeks!!

Not Just Another Taco Salad

I had a delicious salad today thanks to my wonderful husband! I was going to take a shower after a workout this weekend, and he wanted to make me something for dinner. I told him I was just going to have a salad with black beans and salsa. He just can't deal with me eating something so "boring"...so he said he'd get it ready for me. I have to admit, I was a little nervous. He gets a little crazy when he cooks throwing seasonings and this and that together that don't seem to mix well in my mind...though most of the time it works out pretty well. :)

When I got out of the shower, I smelled something delicious! He had seered some tomatoes (one of my new favorite things to do!) and warmed the black beans and salsa in the pan with the tomatoes. He topped a big plate of delicious green leaf lettuce with that mixture. Yum, yum!! I have been dreaming about it since I ate it, so I had to make it again for lunch today. I added some onions to the pan and topped the salad with a half of a serving of baked tostitos crunched up and some cilantro (another favorite of mine!). I finally took a picture of one of my (Phil's) creations. It was every bit as good as it looks!
















Delicious veggies cooking up in the pan!
















Beautiful salad, all ready for me to eat!

I had a good workout today. Unfortunately the heart rate monitors weren't working, so I am not sure how many calories I burned. That's okay, though, it was great anyway! I hope to get a speed run in tonight if I have time.

Delicious and Filling Baked Oatmeal!

I forgot about this awesome recipe that my friend, Theresa, shared with me. I found it in my recipe book this weekend and made it this morning. I'll share it at the end of my post, but first I want to share a little bit about Theresa!

Imagine my excitement when I found out that our trainer that we hired at work, Theresa, used to be a personal trainer at a local gym!! She too used to be a little overweight and unhealthy (I really didn't believe her until she brought in an old picture) but made the decision to get healthy and never looked back! She is so passionate about health and exercise and I have always enjoyed talking to her and getting great tips from her. She ran my second race ever with me. It was a 5k...my first race was a 8k with lots of hills and I did great so I thought the 5k would be easy, breezy! Boy was I wrong! It was much hotter and way, way more humid than the 8k in North Carolina (Tryon). I thought I was going to die but Theresa stuck with me the whole way and encouraged me to keep going!! That same 5k (Race for the Cure) was my first race after I had Jake. Theresa planned to run with me but got sick and unfortunately couldn't make it. But as I came to the hill that was so tough the year before I heard her cheering me on and encouraging me...so she really got me through two of my toughest races and she wasn't even there for one! :) She also told me when I wasn't eating enough calories and encouraged me to eat better and more - especially in the mornings. She has taught me and encouraged me so much more than this, but I just thought I'd share a couple of things about how much she means to me before I share her delicious recipe. She tweaked it from the original to make it healthier.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1/3 cup splenda brown sugar blend
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/8 cup sugar free applesauce
• 2 Tsp canola oil
• 2 egg whites
• 1 cup skim milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or almonds)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix dry (minus nuts)
3. Mix wet
4. Mix together
5. Pour into greased bread pan
6. Sprinkle with chopped nuts
7. Bake 30-40 minutes (I think about 32 minutes is perfect!!)

It's a great pre-race meal for me too. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Fueling up for a Run

I don't know about you, but I still struggle and am still learning more about what to eat before/after a workout. I think I'm doing okay until I hear another new idea!! But I just try different things and see what works for me. This article on Active.com was really good. It gives you menu ideas for pre/post workout. I actually follow a lot of these tips, so I was encouraged! If you don't already read articles on their website, I highly recommend you do! I have learned so much from this site. You can also follow them on Facebook here. It's another way I stay motivated! I love seeing other people's success stories.


As I mentioned earlier, we have been focusing on eating more things this week that keep us full longer (mostly from what I learned from the nutritionist last week). It has really helped so much! I haven't been "starving" this week like I mostly am. I have always focused on eating healthy and every few hours when possible, but now I'm paying attention more to how much/what I'm eating. Here's an example of how I've been eating:

• Breakfast within 45 minutes of getting up - plain oatmeal (made w/ water) with just a tspn. of vanilla yogurt and blueberries or strawberries in it with some flax seed. Very filling and yummy!
• Snack - fruit and either almonds or walnuts
• Lunch - that garbanzo bean meal I posted the other day and a piece of fruit.
• Snack - kashi bar (w/ 6 grams of sugar or less - some have more-also the sugar should be less than 1/4 of the carbs in the bar).
• Dinner - varies but trying to keep my portions down and fill up on lots of veggies (examples are the recipes I posted earlier this week).
• Sometimes we end the night with a serving of lowfat frozen yogurt - the Publix brand. We love it and don't feel too guilty about it. I don't even keep ice cream in the house because we both love it too much! But you will always find Publix frozen yogurt in our freezer!! :)

What a great day we had today! We started off the day with coffee with my friend and Jake's girlfriend. It was fun! Then after a quick nap, we met another good friend for lunch. Jake and I love Fridays!! :) Tonight was card games with Mom and Dad.

On another note, I am so excited for my friend Leena who is running her first 5k next Saturday!! Do you remember your first race?? I do, like it was yesterday! I remember that fear of "I don't want to be last!!" and "I hope I can do this!" I know she's going to do great and have a blast and I can't wait to hear about it.