Archive | October 2009

Optimism & Pink Tank Tops

It is Tuesday. I started writing this blog post about a half an hour ago and got completely sidetracked by looking at old pictures on the computer. I included a lovely one at the end of this post too…

First read about my boring meals!

Peanut butter oats with Kashi h2h + a pear for a morning snack. Pears are so good! Need to buy them more often. I think it’s currently pear season.

The morning went quickly at work then I went for a walk with a coworker to the Strip District. I changed into my sweet blue and pink pumas (with tights & work clothes) and we ventured out. We probably walked about 2 miles total. The weather was great outside today!

We got back into the office and I had lunch. BIG salad:

baby spinach (pretty much an entire bag)
1/2 apple
craisins
broccoli slaw
almond slivers
blue cheese
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
honey
black pepper

I don’t really have anything exciting to report to you today. I walked home from the bus stop with a bus riding friend who I’ve known for over a year now probably. He was dressed casually and I commented and he said he was laid off Friday. He works for a non-profit and was laid off due to budget cuts. I feel very sad for him. He seemed to have a positive attitude about it though! We discussed that there must be a reason for this and maybe him being laid off was just what needed to happen to force him into a change that he might not have made otherwise. Anyway, I hope it all works out for him.

Little poem that I liked:

A crowd of troubles passed him by

As he with courage waited;

He said, “Where do you troubles fly

When you are thus belated?”

“We go,” they say, “to those who mope,

Who look on life dejected,

Who meekly say ‘good bye’ to hope,

We go where we’re expected.”

- Francis J. Allison

On a lighter note…

Gina & me circa 2004

Have a nice evening!

SQUASH season is upon us.

Oct26

Hello blog friends! It’s been a while. I finally uploaded pictures from my camera and I had 38! Let’s go over a few…

Not sure when I took these pictures. I think it might have been before my run with Aaron. I can’t tell by what I’m wearing because I’ve been wearing that black shirt pretty much EVERY time I run. I wash it… I just have a very limited cold weather running wardrobe.

Onnnn Wednesday I ran about a mile or so and met Aaron to run together for the first time. He’s just recently gotten into running and has been running maybe about a month now. His house is about 2 miles away from my apartment.

Psyching myself up for the run or something:

We ended up running almost 3 miles together! It was fun! Yep.

One of the nights last week I also finally decided to figure out what this thing was:

I got it at the farmer’s market a few weeks ago and it’s just been sitting in my refrigerator ever since. I suspected it was a kabocha squash. I Google imaged Kabocha and confirmed my suspicions. I cut it in half, scooped out the seeds and roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper:

It was AMAZING! Now I know what all of the HEAB hype was about. Delicious! It’s a little softer and creamier(?) then butternut or acorn squash. I tried to track down more at this week’s farmer’s market but couldn’t find any. hm. I saw them at the grocery store (also referred to as buttercup squash there) but even at 99 cents a pound, these things are EXPENSIVE. They’re cheap cheap cheap at the farmer’s market.

After the run with Aaron and showers in our respective houses, Aaron made pizza. TJ’s whole wheat pizza crust & pizza sauce & grape tomatoes & mozzarella/provolone & LOTS of red onion & spinach. This pizza was GREAT! I’m not sure why… We actually managed to cook the crust completely so that was good plus I think it was all the red onion and full-fat cheese.

Farmer’s Market Thursday happened. BEETS!

Friday morning oats and tea and City Paper.

Friday night I grocery shopped then got to bed early in preparation for my planned Saturday morning long run. Same shirt and more pictures of myself….

I got to North Park by about 9 AM. Fall is happening here in Pittsburgh!

I did two laps around the lake which is supposed to be 5 miles each but really it’s like 4.75. I didn’t bring the Garmin and did a nice, slow pace. I set the stop watch on my ipod though and it ended up being 1 hour 38 minutes. The weather was perfect! I love running outside of the city. It’s worth driving 25 minutes or whatever. Suburb running!

Aaron was out of town doing some shows — blog article here and interview here and got back into town really early Saturday morning. He slept for a while then came over and made pumpkin pancakes after my run! TJ’s pancake mix + pumpkin and maple syrup. Also, coffee with coffee grounds. Oops.

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After breakfast (at noon), we planned to go to the craft store and try to work on Halloween costumes. That didn’t happen and we ended up lying around until dinner time…

I had frozen an extra pan of enchiladas back in August so we pulled them out and baked them with extra enchilada sauce:

Enchiladas and sweet potato/butternut squash fries. Yes. YES. mmm.

Aaron looked at this picture and said “muscular arm….”

After dinner, I wanted frozen yogurt. We thought about it for a long time and ended up driving to Squirrel Hill and getting soft serve ice cream. I had vanilla with rainbow sprinkles.

Sunday was church in the morning and then cooking and cleaning the WHOLE afternoon. Two friends and their two year old daughter came over for dinner. I made lasagna rolls (Giada recipe here ), dinner rolls using Ted’s dough function and a King Arthur Flour recipe here with a few tweaks — I replaced the sugar with honey and cut back on the butter to about 3 tablespoons. I also made a spinach salad with bosc pear, craisins, almond slivers and blue cheese. The dressing was balsamic vinegar, olive oil, yellow mustard, honey, black pepper and salt. It was good! Our guests also brought over a great cake! It was white cake with a jelly filling and covered in white chocolate flakes. I am a BIG white chocolate fan. Dark chocolate is lame and bitter. I like sugar.

Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of our dinner party. I was embarrassed about it because I don’t really know them too well and I guess not everyone takes pictures of their food… Ah well. It turned out great with the exception of me overcooking the dinner rolls a tad. It was okay though!

We also discussed all doing a run together on Thanksgiving!!! There is a race called the Harry Holland Gutbuster Race (something like that). There is a 2, 4 and 8 mile route. Two of us are planning to do the 8 mile and the other two are going to the 4 mile. I’m excited for it!! Run 8 miles then eat TWO Thanksgiving dinners. Yes, looks like I’ll be hitting up dinner with Aaron’s family then Aunt Isabel and Uncle Ed’s after. Lot’s of pie!

Anyway.. back on track now.

That brings us to today. I brought the leftover salad in for lunch today:

Work went quickly today then I got home after waiting for the bus for TWENTY minutes and decided to go for a run. I almost napped instead but it was 60 degrees and sunny soooo I drank cold coffee…ate a cold, plain pumpkin pancake and ventured out. Very surprisingly, it was a great run! I ran a little faster than normal and it was just great. I’m not sure why? I’m going to attribute it to the pumpkin pancake. Maybe I need to work more refined carbs into my pre-run eating. I really think it helps.

5 miles in 44 minutes!

SWEATY (and wearing the same shirt again…)

I showered and then made a big bowl of steamed spinach/egg whites/cheese and tomato sauce. Then I had a bowl of oatmeal with wheat bran and PUMPKIN! It’s been so long since I’ve had pumpkin oatmeal. It wasn’t as good as I remember… Definitely prefer peanut butter.

Ah well. Now my stomach is full though I bet I’ll get hungry again pretty soon.

I’m getting a little excited for Halloween and a few other EXCITING things happening.

Embracing change!

Most people can look back over the years and identify a time and place at which their lives changed significantly. Whether by accident or design, these are the moments when, because of a readiness within us and a collaboration with events occurring around us, we are forced to seriously reappraise ourselves and the conditions under which we live and to make certain choices that will affect the rest of our lives. — Frederick F. Flack

Goodnight!

Weekend recap on a Thursday?? I am a slacker.

Oct22

The rest of the weekend!!

Saturday morning, Aaron and I drank coffee and ate oatmeal really quickly and then headed over to Heinz Field for the American Heart Association Heart Walk. It was supposed to be a 5K walk but I’m told that they shortened it because of the weather… It was like 40 degrees and rainy.

9 AM on a Saturday! Poor Aaron. I keep dragging him to these things.

My company gave us t-shirts that we were supposed to wear… but I forgot mine in the office. Blue shirt to the left would have been me too if I wasn’t forgetful.

Blurry:

Better:

The walk lasted about an hour and then we drove over to Colangelo’s in the Strip District to say hello to Aaron’s brother who was working there. Aaron sampled some kind of cheesy/bacon/pizza thing.

PIZZAS! This place was packed on Saturday. I’m going to have to go back and try something. It is connected to La Prima coffee which I’ve never had…but I hear good things. I am no coffee connoisseur friends but I like coffee A LOT.

We wandered the Strip for about two minutes then came back to my apartment, hung out for a bit then parted ways. I had plans of going to the gym but napped instead. It was the most restful nap. I guess I was feeling pretty exhausted from not sleeping too much the past couple of days.

Saturday night we went to see the new Michael Moore movie, Capitalism. We went to the Southside theatre. Haaate the Southside on Saturday nights but this wasn’t too bad actually. Probably because we didn’t wander from college-kid infested bar to college-kid infested bar… Comments about Capitalism — It was entertaining. It made me think. It did not make me hate Capitalism. It did not make me hate Michael Moore. These are good things. It’s worth seeing though maybe it’s not worth $9.25. I’d recommend renting/redboxing/netflixing.

Sunday… Church in the morning, then group then grocery shopping then Aaron coming over! I baked another loaf of bread with Ted (glorious bread machine). This time I used the following:

4 1/2 cups TJ’s white whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp rapid rise yeast (ENOUGH with the impatience Pamela)
2 Tbsp flaxseed meal (omega 3s!)
1/4 cup milk
2 Tbsp vital wheat gluten

Check it out:

That bread is HEARTY. I think it weighs four pounds. Yep so Sunday evening consisted of chatting with sister-in-law Sam, baking with Ted, listening to Aaron practice songs on his guitar and laundry. Exciting!

Monday morning = WORK

It was a coworker’s last day so he made us eggs benedict for breakfast.

Office egg station:

Eggs Benedict (minus the ham for me) + potatoes:

I really like that picture. Hm. Compliments myself.

After work Monday, we went to August Henry’s for happy hour to celebrate coworker’s last day. I had a beer — Big Hop. Brewed in Pittsburgh! So I haven’t been drinking much AT ALL lately and got a slight buzz from one beer. Fun!

I stayed there until about 630, waited for a bus for FORTY minutes and finally got home at 730.

Of course I baked another loaf of bread when I got home…

4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
2 1/4 tsp REGULAR yeast
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp flaxseed meal
1/4 cup milk

This loaf was for Andy. He said he liked it! Though I don’t think he would tell me if he didn’t like it.

We met up and exchanged my loaf of bread for some of his pumpkin bread! It was good!

I had some with lunch:

I also had a piece of my whole wheat loaf with lunch.

Okayyyy, I wrote this on Tuesday. It’s Thursday now! I’m lying on my couch and I may have just watched Gossip Girl on my laptop. Yeah. I did that. HA.

Okay! Time to publish this before I let it sit on the computer for another two days. ALMOST THE WEEKEND!

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