Army Strong!

Today I took the Army Physical Fitness Test at work and as my workout. This test is to see how many pushups and sit-ups you can do in two minutes each and how fast you can run 2 miles, then you get a score out of 300 (there's also an extended scale, but that gets complicated) based on how many you did. That score can help you with promotions, awards, or maybe just bragging rights. Not to brag or anything, but when I took the test 2 months ago, I did get a 300 with 48 pushups, 80 sit-ups and a 15:30 two-miler (see? Bragging rights) Today, I didn't do as well, with 49 pushups, 73 sit-ups and a 16:55 run. Not my best work, but still okay with it.

Now, I have to mention the coffee situation, because there is none. What?!?!?! Luckily, I planned ahead and bought these Starbucks iced coffee packs that you just pour directly into a water bottle and voila! Instant coffee fix.

It's pretty good and, either way, it's better than nothing.

I also got to wander around in the woods for awhile doing land navigation. It was the perfect weather, nice and cool, and there were some mean hills along the route. Even found a surprise along the way.

Living the Army dream.

Lay Off Me, I'm STARVING!

So, yesterday, I made it through my first day back to work in about a month. Barely, but I did. And now I know that whoever 'they' are, they are right to say that you should never let yourself get to the point where you are starving, because then you end up eating more than you should.  That most definitely happened last night, but it was out of my control yesterday.

After working an 11-hour day, my usually, 45-minute commute turned into about an hour and a half. I was STARVING by the time I walked in the door. I tried to tame my hunger with some cauliflower and Bolthouse Blue Cheese dressing, but the damage had been done. 

I'm talking Chris Farley as a fat girl, starving.

I made the Hungry Girl Mac n' Cheese and it was tasty; however, next time (and there will be a next time) I'm not going to bake it. I'm just going to eat it after pouring the ooey, gooey, cheesy mixture all over the noodles and cauliflower.

This was one time where I did follow pretty close to the original recipe, I just halved it so that it didn't make 4 servings:

Cauliflower Mac n Cheese
(6 points for 1 1/3 cup)

These are the measurements to make 4 servings, I halved each ingredient-3 cups frozen cauliflower florets
-4 1/2 oz. (about 1 1/4 cups) uncooked high-fiber elbow macaroni
-5 wedges The Laughing Cow Light Creamy Swiss cheese (I used 2)
-1/4 cup fat-free shredded cheddar cheese (I didn't halve this)
-1/4 cup fat-free milk
-2 tbsp. fat-free sour cream
-2 tsp. Dijon mustard
-1 tbsp. butter
-1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
-1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8" X 8" baking pan with nonstick spray.

2.  Place cauliflower in a large microwave-safe bowl; cover and microwave for 3 minutes. Uncover and stir. Re-cover and microwave for 2 - 3 minutes, until hot. Roughly chop cauliflower, return to the bowl, and cover to keep warm.

I used the colorful cauliflower. It doesn't effect the taste at all, it's just pretty

3.  While the cauliflower is cooking, cook pasta. Drain pasta and stir into cauliflower. Cover to keep warm. 

4. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine cheese wedges, shredded cheese, milk, sour cream, and mustard. Mix well. Microwave for 1 minute, or until cheeses have melted. Stir. 

I used coconut milk instead of dairy milk just because that's what I drink and I used greek yogurt instead of sour cream. It all worked out in the end

5. Add cheese mixture to the pasta and cauliflower. Stir to coat. Transfer contents to the baking pan.

This is where I'm going to stop next time. Look at that ooey, gooey-ness! No need to bake it away and you'll save a point for not using the bread crumbs

6. In a medium microwave-safe bowl, microwave butter for 20 seconds, or until melted. Add panko breadcrumbs and seasonings, and stir to coat. Evenly distribute mixture over the contents of the baking pan.
Bake until lightly browned, 25 - 30 minutes. 

Look, I even portioned out the other half for lunch for today (I had to, otherwise I would have eaten it all!)

I also made the zucchini boat to go along with my cauliflower mac n' cheese (did I mention that I was STARVING!?):

Zucchini Boat
(2 points for 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese)

1. Slice a zucchini in half. Slice off the bottom to keep it stable. 

2. Brush with olive oil and top with garlic or garlic powder. 

3. Top with sliced tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste. Use mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese or mixed blend.. 

4. Bake 375 for 20 to 30 minutes until soft.

No complaints, I just recommend you do cook it all the way. I was too hungry to wait till it was all the way done

I was proud of myself because I also fit in a 3-mile run after the long work day, and I of course made time for a glass of wine before bed.

I look tired...and old

Okay, now back to work!

Back to Work

Today is my first day back to work in about a month. Not impressed. I forgot that there are two 4 o'clocks in the day and I wasn't ready to see this one yet.

Last night for dinner I made the stuffed acorn squash, which of course, I did not follow the original post exactly. So, here we go:

Stuffed Acorn Squash
(9 points - sweet potato, black beans and avocado)

-1 acorn squash
-1 can of black beans
-1 sweet potato
-1 tomato
-banana peppers (my hubs doesn't like spicy, so I switched the jalapeno for the banana peppers)
-garlic seasoning

1.  Peel the skin off the sweet potato and cut it up into little cubes, sprinkle with garlic seasoning and bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, or until soft

2. While those are baking, rinse the black beans and let them drain a bit

3. Cut up the tomato and banana pepper and mix together with the black beans. Put this mixture in the fridge to let the flavors marinate together

Isn't that beautiful!

4. Once the sweet potatoes are done, add them to the bean, tomato, pepper mixture and put it back in the fridge

5. Preheat the oven to 400 and cut the squash in half, length wise. As I've mentioned before, this is easier said than done. Use a sharp knife and a mallet if you need to.

It's no joke

6.  Scoop out all the seeds and stringy stuff from the center

7. Spritz the inside with butter and bake face-down on a foil-lined baking sheet for half an hour

8. Pull it out, score the inside with a knife, spritz with more butter and put back in the oven for 15 minutes, facing up

9. Pull back out, and let it cool for about 15-20 min.

10.  Scrape the goodies off the sides of the shell and fill each side with the bean, potato mixture, sprinkle with more garlic seasoning and put back in the oven for 15 minutes

11. Pull out of the oven and let cool. It will be hot!

12. Cut up the avocado, and put it on top.

Because I'm going back to work, my workout schedule is going to be a bit screwed up. This week, it's all up in the air and I'm just going to workout as I can.

Yesterday, I also did a little crafting and made a maxi-skirt, so I got my dress-up on:

If you don't hear from me in the next couple days, it's because work is taking everything out of me. I'll post later.

Eat Like a King

Don't you love after you go grocery shopping and you have these amazing three course meals because your fridge and pantry are fully stocked? That happened for dinner last night.

So we started off with the buffalo tempeh (directions at the bottom of this post), which is a new addiction if mine. The tempeh is so filling and I found a very low-cal buffalo sauce from Target's Archer Farms brand. Next, we had a pizza crust in the pantry, so I topped it with some pizza sauce, mozzarella and avocado. We devoured the entire thing! Then, dessert. Oh, dessert. I got the original idea for our dessert here, but I made quite a few of my own modifications. 

Baked Pineapple

(6 points for half the recipe, 7 if you add whipped cream as a topping)

-1 pineapple

-1/2 cup coconut flakes

-1/2 cup macadamia nuts

-4 tablespoons Malibu Coconut Rum

1. Cut up the pineapple and put it in a foil lined baking pan (I am not patient enough to cut the pineapple and use its shell to bake in like the original post. This isn't as pretty, but it does the job)

2. Pour 2 tablespoons of Malibu over the pineapple

3. Top with coconut and macadamia nuts

4. Pour 2 more tablespoons of Malibu over the whole mixture

5. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, or until the macadamia nuts start to brown. Enjoy it while it's still hot

 See how the macadamia nuts turned nice and golden in the oven

I topped mine with a dollop of light whipped cream

The only problem? Trying to run 8 miles after eating half a pineapple. Oh, the citric acid was terrible, so there were some walking breaks, but I still completed 8 miles! Walk or run, miles are miles.

I tried another new recipe for breakfast this morning, and once I work out all the kinks, I think it will be a regular staple for weekend breakfast. As usual, I made some adaptations from the original post, so here's my take:

Oatmeal Pancakes 

(5 points for 2 pancakes)

-1/2 cup rolled oats

-2 egg whites

-1 ripe banana

-1 tsp of cinnamon

-1 tsp of vanilla extract

-mixed berries (or whatever you would like to put in yours)

1. Mash up the banana really well then add the rolled oats and give it a stir

2. Add the egg whites (or egg substitute if you have it) if you don't know how to separate the yolks from the white, just crack the egg and half and pass the yolk back and forth between the two halves over your mixing bowl and the whites will roll off into the bowl (I tried to take a picture, but it was hard since the hubs is at work and it's just me). Give it all a stir

3. Add the cinnamon, extract and whatever other stuff you'd like to be inside. I used mixed berries, but you could add chocolate chips, chunks of banana, nuts, just realize it will change the point value

4. Pour half the mixture into a greased up pan (I forgot to grease it on my first one) and cook for about 3-5 minutes on each side

They really don't need anything like syrup or butter because all the ingredients make them pretty sweet. They were a perfect day starter.

This is me trying to show you how to separate the whites from the yolks, but one hand had to hold the camera

Side-note, here is my homemade vanilla extract that has been sitting since Nov. 2011. To make it, all you have to do it add vanilla beans (you can get them from Walmart) and vodka and just let it sit. Every so often give it a shake

I used my handy-dandy pancake flipper for these beauties and just gave it a flip after 4ish minutes

See the burn marks? Remember I said I forgot to grease the pan for the first pancake? Yea. The second one turned out great though!

Grocery shopping

I am finally going grocery shopping for the first time since getting home almost 2 weeks ago! Wish me luck!

First, though, I have to share this hilarious picture that I got from a Buzzfeed article. This answers the question that I am most commonly asked (just replace 'vegan' with vegetarian):

I told you, it's everywhere!

So, I looked up a couple recipes before going to the store so I have an idea of what I need, here's some things I'm hoping to try in the near future. Stay tuned to see how they turn out:

-Stuffed Acorn Squash

Here's the original source

*drooling*

-Baked Mac n' Cheese

Another attempt at a low-cal Hungry Girl mac n' cheese, here's to hoping it's better than the last time (scroll about mid-way down)

-Baked, Cheesy Veggies

Recipe was from Facebook, so I'll post it when I try it

-Zucchini Boat

Another Facebook gem

Okay, I'm starting to drool so it must be time to go get some groceries and get cooking!

Also, I haven't done my 8-miler today, yet, but I did mow the lawn. I'll do the run later tonight. Baby steps.

Must-go Stew!

You know it's time to go grocery shopping when you're making 'must-go stew.' This was something my mom taught me and it's when you're fridge is getting so bare that everything 'must go' into the pot to make dinner!

Must-go stew changes every time, and really, as long as you have some kind of broth, some veggies and maybe a starch, you are good to go. I was lucky enough to have some seafood broth, red wine, half an onion, 3 potatoes, half a bag of peas and carrots and a scoop of couscous. Voila! There's dinner (and lunch for the next day).

Lunch today was absolutely amazing. Me and the hubs went out to eat (again, we're getting low on food at the house. I swear I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow!) and it was such a beautiful day that we were able to sit outside by the water in Old Town Alexandria. We went to a place called Chadwick's, that we used to frequent for brunch quite often, and I had a drool worthy sandwich. I had smoked mozzarella cheese on a ciabatta roll with an artichoke and olive spread with onion rings on the side. Don't let anyone tell you that it would be hard to be a fat vegetarian, because it's not. The sandwich originally came with meat on it, but I asked if they would be able to do it without and the waiter recommended extra mozzarella instead. Yes, please!

Look at that spread oozing out! Yummo!

It was nice to get out today, too, because it's been rainy and gloomy here the last couple of days, so I haven't left the house much. But I took this as an opportunity to get a little dolled up:

Now, I haven't worked out yet today, but I swear I will.  Monday, my 6 mile run was so hard! I wanted to quit, but I just slowed it down instead and pulled through it. Whew! But yesterday, I switched up my workout and ran my 7-miler because a friend came and ran with me and I never say no to a buddy run. It was even raining and we still did all 7 miles, including hills! So, today, when I workout, I will do my weight workout.

Which, by the way, that weight training is starting to pay-off. I can now do a pullup! It's still with my palms facing me, so I know it doesn't fully count, but I'm one step closer to being able to do one with palms facing away! 

Lazy Sunday

The drive-in was a good time last night, but with getting home at 3am, it is making for a very lazy Sunday. Which, there are no complaints here with that.

The hubs even made me breakfast in bed (hash), while I snuggled with the kitten and read my Kindle. Who would have it any other way?

Looking forward, my workout plan for the week is, hopefully, this:

Monday - 6 miles
Tuesday - speed, weights
Wednesday - 7 miles
Thursday - speed, weights
Friday - 8 miles
Saturday - 3 miles
Sunday - rest

Now, get back to bed!