Archive | August 2009

Bittman is my hero.

Tuesday.

Hm.

I’m in the library. This week seems to be dragging. My mother called me this morning and I questioned her intentions. I thought there was an agenda behind this. She doesn’t usually call during the week. My dad is probably reading this and will soon report to my mom that I was questioning her call. Ha. I forgot that we hadn’t talked this weekend. We didn’t get to talk long though because she was at work. I was at work too but our work situations are very different.

Annnnyway, I didn’t sleep well again last night. I’m not sure what the problem is. I got into bed nice and early and fell asleep pretty quickly but then I woke up maybe 3 times last night. I normally sleep through the whole night with no problem. I hope this is a temporary problem because I’m looking a little weary today.

So you would think that due to my lack of sleep I wouldn’t have gotten up at 5:30 to run but…I did. It was COLD outside this morning. I had on two shirts.

Here’s the Garmin:

It was an okay run. The cooler weather makes it much easier.

I ate half a banana when I got back to my house and then had oats with peanut butter and Trader Joe’s Twigs for breakfast:

This was really good. Really. I don’t know why…

I had another banana in the morning and then a few carrots and then a tuna/spinach/sriracha/mustard/barbecue sauce sandwich on sprouted grain bread:

Condiments oh condiments. Sriracha bottle #2 doesn’t really stand a chance. I think my taste buds have gotten used to it because it doesn’t seem all that spicy anymore.

And because I have a crazy love for peanut butter, here’s a NY Times article about it: Bittman on peanut butter

Bittman!! I miss On the Road Again.

Off to work again.

And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

Aug24

Another Monday is over!

I’m currently writing this post in my kitchen at the kitchen table. In my case, it’s also the dining room table because I don’t actually have a dining room. I dream of one day having a dining room with a table big enough to seat more than four. Then I will have people over for dinner all the time. I love to cook for people but in my current situation (one bedroom apartment with tiny kitchen table, it’s not so easy. Some day. SOME DAY.

The set up:

Anyway, weekend recap post time. First of all, there was a decent amount of running. I realized today that I ran Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That brought my weekly total up to 20.5 miles. I think that’s a record for me.

3.79 miles on…Friday?

A terrible 3.5 on Saturday. Late nights will do that to you.

And a gloriously awesome 6 miles on Sunday early evening.

I wasn’t even really planning to run Sunday but then realized that I hadn’t run more than four miles in TWO weeks so I decided to head out. I was planning to do five miles but the weather was so perfect that I just continued. I reasoned with myself that I would get a cookie or something on the way home. (See brownie at the end of this post).

I was also very pleased with my pace! I started toward East Liberty and ended up running all around Shadyside. It was nice to change up the route a little. I can’t really do that on mornings before work because I tend to get lost…and I have time constraints in the morning. I have to get to work..

Bowie is ruining my life right now.

I’m dramatic.

So moving on to the weekend. Friday night I was thinking about staying in but friend Laura mentioned that she was thinking of going to the Thunderbird for a show and I was also sort of considering it so…we decided to go.

It was a good time. There were three bands Ben Hardt and his Orchestra, Jupiter One, and Meeting of Important People. I would link to them if I actually had internet in here but I do not. Ah well. Anyway, the show was good. All three bands were good. Hanging out with friends was good. Even though I was at the bar from like 10 – 2, I only had one beer. I got home around…2:30 and was kind of wired so I didn’t go to sleep until around 3.

This didn’t bode well for my planned early morning run.

The long run didn’t happen as you already know unless you skipped the first part of this post.

I haven’t run in North Park in two weeks. I’m sad about this. I LOVE going there. love love love. I need to get out of the city more often.

Soooo Saturday afternoon, Andy came to pick me up in his father’s truck and we ventured to my Aunt Isabel and Uncle Ed’s house in Robinson. They offered me their old bed because they bought a new one. I already have a new mattress but Andy was in pretty desperate need of a real bed so he got the mattress and I got the headboard.

Uncle Ed and Andy managed to fit everything into the truck. Aunt Isabel and I observed.

Annnnd a few hours later we had attached the headboard to my bed, dragged the box spring, mattress and frame up to Andy’s second floor apartment and assembled everything.

Good thing I occasionally lift 8 pound weights.

I got home and took shower #2, harvested some tomatoes from my porch plant(!!) and then a friend who will remain unnamed indefinitely came over to chat and drink iced tea on the porch.

I think I went to bed around 1:30 that night.

Sunday morning I was up around…okay I can’t remember at all but I did make it to church at 11:10. I’ve never been to that service before. I like it. It was crowded. I like crowded. I think my favorite one is 9:50 though. That’ll be the plan next weekend.

After church, I came home and relaxed for a while. I can’t remember exactly what I did all yesterday… Running, eating, reading, some chores. That’s about it I guess.

I’ve been on a tuna kick lately. I keep making tuna wraps:

With tons of spinach:

Oh I grocery shopped yesterday too. I accidentally bought cinnamon sticks instead of ground cinnamon and tried to food process them to remedy the situation.

It didn’t work.

Here’s the run reward brownie:

Delicious!

Thennnn work today. It was an uneventful day. It was busy and it went quickly.

Oats with puffins and peanut butter for breakfast:

Banana snack in the morning.

Tuna and spinach sandwich and a bell pepper for lunch:

Yogurt snack in the afternoon and then VEGETABLES for dinner.

2 zucchini, some onion, a few Brussels sprouts roasted for 30 minutes plus 2 pieces of toast.

Uncooked:

My blog writing hasn’t really been flowing lately. I guess it’ll come back eventually. I realize I’m saying this at the end of a really long post but you know. yeah.

Alright that’s about it for now. I’m going to a wedding on Saturday so I’ll be out of the city at a berry farm(!) all day.

Have a nice night!

How to stuff…any roundish vegetable.

Aug23

This is a round zucchini:

What is a round zucchini?

A zucchini that is round.

It’s exactly the same, just a different shape.

So I got this zucchini at the farmer’s market this past Thursday. I asked the farmer’s market lady what it was and she said…a round zucchini. I asked what to do with it and she said, “stuff it” so I did. Here’s a lovely little how to for you.

Step 1:
Cut open the zucchini (or eggplant or pepper or tomato, etc)

Step 2:
Scoop out the seeds and get rid of them then scoop out some of the flesh and put it in a bowl for part of the stuffing:

Step 3:
Dice a whole bunch of whatever vegetables you have that might be good inside the zucchini. I used the following:

a carrot

celery

tomato (I think? I can’t remember)

onion

spinach

olive oil

Step 4:
If you use spinach, I would recommend sauteeing with some olive oil so your stuffing mixture will actually fit in the zucchini…

Step 5:
Put your zucchini halves in a baking pan and stuff with your stuffing mixture and then sprinkle with bread crumbs and a little more olive oil (or butter if that’s your thing):

Step 6:
Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. (Note: I wouldn’t do this on an 80 degree day when you have no air conditioning like I did but whatever). I needed stuffed zucchini for dinner THAT NIGHT.

Annnnnd cooked:

There you go. I hope you enjoyed my short, easy how to. I’m working on a weekend recap post that I’ll probably have up tomorrow. Get excited for that one..!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I did (which you will soon see). It was kind of busy but now I’m relaxing on the couch before another busy work week.

I’m enjoying thinking. I love when that happens.

Good Evening!

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