FitFeat

Archive for September, 2011

Key Lime Overload

Sep 28

Posted by Shari B. in Fit on Vacation | 5 Comments

Hi blog buds!  OK, here’s the last recap from our trip.  Thanks so much for following along – I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing some of the sights!  If you missed our other stops, check out Part One:  Miami & Nassau and Part Two:  CocoCay.

Our last port of call on the trip was Key West.  And I was SUPER excited for this stop.  No particular reason other than I’ve always thought the Florida Keys seemed like a neat place to visit.

Early risers again on this day, we were 3rd in line to get off the boat.  Literally waiting for them to unhook the chain on the gangplank!

The first place you come to is pretty much Front Street and also Mallory Square.  We got a ticket for a little trolley ride that would take us all around the island in 90 minutes, which was the perfect way to check out where we wanted to go after the tour was done.

Can you tell I’m excited for the trolley?  :)

We spent the majority of our day touring up and down Duval Street and the blocks surrounding it.

We walked through the grounds of the oldest house on Key West.

We checked out the WILD ROOSTERS!  There are hens and roosters all over the city.

Do you see the rooster in this one?

(He’s chilling in the shade between the two columns on the right side.)

We made up our own “Key Lime Crawl” of sorts and decided we’d try out the Key Lime Pies at different stops to see which one we liked best, as well as other Key Lime themed things.

A piece at the Key Lime Pie Company (they were featured on an episode of “Throwdown” with Bobby Flay.  Rumor has it their pie beat his.  It WAS darn tasty!)

Then we tried a piece at the Hog’s Breath Saloon.

We thought we liked this one better.  Then funnily enough we learned that they source their pie from… Key West Lime Company!  Ha ha!

Our neighbor said we had to hit up Sloppy Joe’s while there, which is a corner bar and restaurant.

But this time I ordered my Key Lime Pie in a liquid (and alcoholic) version. Cory’s drink in the background was Key West Lemonade.

I also got (and didn’t photograph) some Key Lime TAFFY!  I thought I’d bring it home but it didn’t last an hour…!

Last but not least, I had to try something made with CONCH while on this trip.  I chose to roll with a 3 pc fritter that came with Key Lime Aioli.

They were like crab cake balls with chewier seafood.  :)   But the aioli was AMAZING!

By this time, we’d had our FILL of anything even remotely lime.

We saw the southernmost point of the continental U.S.:

The Key West Lighthouse:

The restaurant owned by Kelly McGillis (from Top Gun):

We also walked by Ernest Hemingway’s house (although we didn’t do the tour):

And by Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville:

An old theater that was remodeled into a WALGREEN’S of all things!

And so much more!  We walked our legs off that day.  And ate SO MUCH FOOD!  We got back to the boat in the late afternoon, had a “mango cooler” in the air conditioned lounge…

… and played hookey from the fancy dinner…

…so that we could sail off into the sunset!  (OK, in our case, we were sailing AWAY from the sunset!)  :)

We had such a nice time on our vacation.  And it will most likely be our 15th anniversary before we do another one like this!  Every five years seems to be the trend!

Today’s topic:  What is your favorite KEY LIME food?  If you’re a Key Lime pie lover, where did you have your favorite piece?

Have a wonderful day everyone!

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CocoCay

Sep 27

Posted by Shari B. in Fit on Vacation | 4 Comments

Hi friends!

Oh boy, after spending a week at sea level, eating lots of food, and only walking for exercise, let me just tell you that this morning’s hilly interval run back at 6000′ above sea level was ROUGH.  Rougher than I anticipated it would be.  (Could be due in part to the mild dizzy feeling I’ve had since getting home – like I’m still on the boat.  I didn’t have this issue the first time I went on a cruise.  I’m on the 4th day with it and crossing my fingers that it rights itself soon!  It’s like I put on my “sea legs” but then my “land legs” never showed up at baggage claim.  :) )

Here’s how dark it was at the start of the run this morning:

We were up with the deer this time around! But as is usually the case with running, it was great at the end.  It was a gorgeous sunrise, 55 degrees and I was happy to have been out in it.

***

Some of you commented that you enjoyed seeing the pics from the trip – thanks for letting me know!  I LOVE to look at people’s travel photos.  Two of my Facebook friends recently posted pics from each of their different trips (one a tropical honeymoon and one a trip to London) and I just think it’s really fun to look through them.

Our second stop was CocoCay, Bahamas.  A couple of the cruise lines apparently have each purchased their own islands – I believe Disney has their own and I know Norwegian’s was right next to the one we were on.  CocoCay was previously known as Little Stirrup Cay before being purchased by Royal Caribbean.

With this stop, the ship can’t get in close so they anchor way out and then take you to the island by ferry. Being the early risers that we are, we were on the first ferry over.

Sunglasses and sunscreen – MUY IMPORTANTE.

Bye boat!  See ya after lunch!

Welcome to Coco Cay!

We wandered all around the little island to check it out and see where we most wanted to park ourselves for the day.

And ultimately picked a spot that had a little bit of shade.  It was HOT even at 8:30 in the morning.

We’d anticipated renting a couple of mats to just float around on in the water.  But we saw WAY too many of these jellyfish everywhere in the water and didn’t want to get stung.  Do any of you guys have any experience swimming with these?

But I wasn’t at all scared of the iguanas.

I tried to convince this one that he would like Colorado and my dogs if he wanted to hop in my bag.

The turquoise water is just beyond words.  Absolutely breathtaking.

After the lunch that the cruise line served on the beach, we hung around in hammocks.  I need a T-shirt made that says “I went to the Bahamas and all I got were these stupid freckles”. I don’t really TAN.  I just get pink and freckly!

We decided that some air conditioning sounded good so we took the ferry back to the boat in the afternoon.  We watched a bellyflop contest at the pool and had a drink, then got cleaned up for dinner.  The sun really zaps your energy, so shortly after dinner we were ready to call it a night!

Especially since the next day was the stop I was most excited for:  KEY WEST!!  (Key Lime Pie, wahooo!)

– Shari B. =)

 

 

 

 

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Back to Real Life

Sep 26

Posted by Shari B. in Fit on Vacation | 6 Comments

Hi blog buds!

Thank you so much for reading and commenting last week while I was out of town and not able to respond to your messages.  I am thrilled that my ‘auto post’ function worked in WordPress so that you had something to read while I was gone.  And I was happy to see that Cindy was able to snag one of the Trufflehead apps – who got the other one?

Most of the time when you hear me talk about traveling lately, it’s been for work.  Last week was purely for FUN!  Back in the spring we came across an AWESOME deal for a little autumn cruise that we just couldn’t pass up.  We decided to celebrate our 10th anniversary a little early and celebrate the completion of school a little late.   Granted, we know it was so cheap because it fell SMACK in the middle of hurricane season for the location – but we decided to take our chances.  And then one of our ports of call was recently hit by Hurricane Irene, so we started to get a little nervous as the time drew near. But in the end we got SO lucky with the weather.  It couldn’t have been more perfect!  And as is always the case with me and travel (whether for fun or not), it always feels really great to return home and get back into my own bed, my own routine, and of course, my own FOOD!  After all the food we consumed this week, I feel like all I want for the next week is green smoothies and kale salads!  :)

We departed from Miami, FL and then had 3 stops.  The first was Nassau, Bahamas.  The second was CocoCay, Bahamas.  And the third was Key West, FL (which I was most excited about!).

I thought you might enjoy seeing some of what we saw – so here is a recap of the Miami and Nassau parts.  I’ll share the rest in the next few posts to keep this post from getting too long.

Evening in Downtown Miami:

View from breakfast:

We had time to kill before going to the pier, so we walked for about 2 hours just taking in the Miami air (and by that I mean HOT and HUMID air) and scenery:

Bon voyage!

Ready for the first night’s dinner:

Mmmmm… the food choices were delicious!  I didn’t end up taking any photos of food in the dining room – we had 10 people at our table and it just seemed like it might have been bad manners.  So I kept my camera tucked away. But I did get a few shots of the menu that was posted outside the dining room.

 

The sunrise as we pulled into Nassau – GORGEOUS!

Me before my coffee:

And after:

Colorful Nassau, Bahamas – the first stop:

While there, we took a $3 ferry ride to just walk around the grounds at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, rather than paying the CRAZY amount of money for the group excursion.  And we had so much more fun on our own for no money!

We were even able to check out the aquarium from a distance (we didn’t take the tour – just “happened” to find our way into one end of it)  ;)

The manta ray was the size of a queen-sized bed and I’m not exaggerating – this thing was huge!

He even came to say hello – he looks like he’s frowning  :(   I could have hung out here all day long.

Is there anywhere that Starbucks doesn’t have a storefront? (Would you believe me if I told you I did NOT go in?)

I really didn’t!

Back on the ferry to get back to the ship:

Because it’s time to eat again – gotta get ready!

Frozen MOJITO?  Oh YES please!

LOVE the towel animals!

We were tuckered out at the end of this day!  We packed it full of fun, sun and food.  It was definitely time to call it a night!

In the next post, I’ll recap CocoCay.

Have a GREAT day friends!  Thanks so much for reading!

– Shari B. =)

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Taking Stock After Seeing “Contagion”

Sep 23

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Hi friends!  Hope you are having a fabulous day!

As you may know, Cory and I love to watch movies.  We had a streak where we’d stopped going for a while because they were just getting TOO expensive ($10.50 per ticket!) but now one of our local theaters has been doing $5 tickets for ALL of their movies every Sunday.  We feel a lot better spending $10 for the two of us to see a film than a whopping $21.  So now we are back to seeing a new release every other week or so.

We recently saw the movie, “Contagion” with Matt Damon (among a list of other well-known actors).  Wow, if you are even remotely germophobic, you might want to skip this one!  Every time someone coughed or sneezed in public in the days after seeing the movie, my mind shot back to the film and how quickly infectious diseases can spread.  Not to mention I’m already a little freakish about germs when I travel and seeing this movie RIGHT before a trip was probably not my smartest move…!  :)

It’s a decent movie, a little slow paced, but it definitely makes you think.  I left with an unsettled feeling of how much we take for granted on a daily basis (electricity, running water, functional sewers, fully stocked markets as well as modern technological conveniences) and also feeling quite UNPREPARED for an emergency.   Like maybe I need to be stocking up on some canned food, big jugs of water and a generator.

In the film, when people started getting scared that they could catch this potentially fatal disease, everyone hunkered down and stayed indoors for the most part.  Grocery stores were running low (and were then looted), trash began piling up on the streets because pickup had been suspended, and “regular” life came to a halt.  Then when food supplies began running out, people became desperate and started robbing their neighbors at gunpoint for their stash of food.  Hospitals and pharmacies were overwhelmed with rioters and looters.

You watch this movie, and you may think to yourself, “yeah but it’s just a movie” – I was in that mindset for part of it.  And then you remember what happened after Hurricane Katrina.  People had to rely on the government (and organizations like the Red Cross) for shelter, food, water.  There was a lot of looting going on.

And we’ve certainly seen quite a number of natural disasters around the world lately that could potentially cause similar situations.

I’m certainly grateful that I live in a society that allows so many conveniences for us.  But it also makes me think that it’s put us at a pretty solid disadvantage too.  Most of us haven’t had to “rough it”: live off the land, build our own shelter, find our own sources of food and fresh water.  Yes, there are some that are the exception to that, I know, but in general I’d say the vast majority of us would be ill-equipped to deal with a true survival situation, whether physically or emotionally.

I know this is a bit off the usual FitFeat topics, but I just found it very thought provoking and interesting to mull over.   What are your thoughts?  Have you seen the movie?  Do situations like this (or coverage you see of natural disasters like hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes) get you thinking what you’d do or how you’d react?

– Shari B. =)

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Walk for Farm Animals

Sep 21

Posted by Shari B. in Food Rants | 1 Comment

Hi friends!

I found out about this event completely by chance from a retweet on Twitter recently and since I got excited about it, I wanted to help spread the word.  Let me preface this post by stating that I don’t ‘officially’ fall under the categories of fully vegan or completely vegetarian.  I’m not trying to convince people not to eat meat.  (I will admit I love to see people avoid factory farmed products and minimize their consumption of animal products in general.)  Regardless of “diet labels”, and whether or not you eat meat, one thing is certain.  Factory farmed animals really do live HORRENDOUS lives.  As an animal lover and a compassionate being on this planet, it breaks my heart when I see and hear these accounts.

You may already be familiar with Farm Sanctuary.  (If not, you can read more about the organization HERE.)  I’ve seen Gene Bauer in a few food-related documentaries and I admire what he’s doing.

Here is an excerpt from their website:

We started out by visiting farms, stockyards and slaughterhouses to document conditions, and we found animals literally left for dead. Hilda, a sheep found on a pile of dead animals behind Lancaster Stockyards, was the first animal to be rescued by Farm Sanctuary. She lived with us for more than a decade, and died of old age.

Through the years, we have rescued thousands of animals, and educated millions of people about their plight. People are shocked to learn about the intolerable conditions that are commonplace on today’s industrialized farms.

That’s why “Walk for Farm Animals” appealed to me.  And I was excited to see that there is one in Denver!  It looks like there are a bunch of them all over the country AND early registration is only $15.  If you are at all interested in participating, here is a link to their website to search for locations.  They also have a “Sleep In for Farm Animals” option.

I think I may have a walking buddy or two (more if I count my pups, since DOGS are welcome!).  If you’re in Colorado and think you’ll be attending, let me know!  And if this is something you believe in, pass on this post to help get more people walking for this cause.

– Shari B. =)

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Giveaway: Win A Fun New Cooking App

Sep 19

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, Giveaway Contest | 2 Comments

Hi friends!

Earlier this year, I was invited to participate in something really fun that I’m excited to share with you today.  I was asked to select a recipe to test and write about for a project that was in development at the time.  I have strong admiration for the person who was putting this project together.  She is Deborah Chud, MD.  And her project is called Trufflehead, a new healthy cooking app for iPhone, iPad and iTouch.

I just recently installed the app on my own iPhone now that it’s been released and can’t wait to try some of the recipes from it when I’m back in my own kitchen after I’m home again from “travel mode”.   It is a SUPER SLICK cooking app.  What I especially love about it is the inclusion of video guidance for certain steps IF you need it.  For example, if you are making the artichoke appetizer, but have never worked with a fresh artichoke before and are unsure of how to prep it for use, all you do is click the video arrow inside the recipe and it walks you through the steps.

When I tried the Sesame Slaw with Pea Pods recipe as a contributing blogger, I was provided with the video for destringing the pods, something that I’d never done before.  You can read about my experience with this recipe and the video on the Trufflehead site at this link: Shari Becht’s Sesame Slaw with Pea Pods.

I also love that every recipe has a photograph.  I will almost always pick a recipe with a pic over one that doesn’t when I’m looking in cookbooks.  In this app, I don’t have to choose because EVERY recipe has one.

There’s something here for everyone:  omnivores, vegetarians, pescetarians, vegans.  I saw a recipe in the app for vegan Pumpkin Blondies that I definitely want to try.   Some of the recipes do call for Splenda OR sugar, and I can’t judge because I used to use Splenda myself (but I no longer do).  Deborah addresses the sweetener issue both in the app and on the website, and I appreciate the way the topic is handled.

To learn more about Trufflehead and the cool features included in the app, take a look at this video clip:

Here’s the best part!  Deborah has kindly offered to GIVE a free download of this awesome app to TWO FitFeat readers!

The first two people email talk@trufflehead.com with FitFeat in the subject line will receive a free download.

Let me know if you are one of the winners!

Now, if you DON’T win, you can still purchase this app at a 50% discount for a limited time from the iTunes store.  When I went to check it out at iTunes, the iPhone version was only $1.99 during this sale.  Think about how expensive cookbooks are to purchase and this app only costs $1.99?  That is a steal – and I really mean that because I know that Deborah put a LOT of work into bringing this to fruition.

Have a MAGNIFICENT MONDAY FitFeat friends!  See you soon!

– Shari B. =)

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Tech Break

Sep 17

Posted by Shari B. in Fit on Vacation | 2 Comments

Hi friends!  Welcome to the weekend!

Many thanks to those of you that spent the last three work weeks focusing on cleaner eating, whatever your own version of clean eating entails.  For some maybe it’s less sugar, for others maybe it’s more protein and less starch.  Everyone has their own food journey.  Either way, I sure appreciated the company!  And I hope your body is thanking you for it!  FitFeat will return to normal (read: more random & topic based) posting now so I hope I didn’t plug up your Google readers or inboxes during this challenge.

Today’s questions:  Do you enjoy reading/seeing the food & exercise recaps regularly?  Does it help you come up with ideas for things to do with foods in your fridge and pantry?  I’m a pretty simple eater. I don’t like to take the time for things that are overly complicated or require a bunch of ingredients.  The advantage there (besides a savings of time) is improved digestion.  When you put too many types of food in your system at one time that don’t necessarily combine well, you create internal stress.  Therefore, I feel that the way I eat makes for a relatively boring food blog most days!  :)

A Break from Technology:  I’ve got a lot going on in the coming days which means I won’t have access to my laptop or be on my phone much.  But I’m hoping that I’m able to capture some fun stuff to share with you at the end of it.  I’ve already written a few posts for next week though so I hope you’ll still stop by!   And if you have an iPhone, iPad or iTouch, be sure to check back 1st thing Monday morning for a little giveaway!  (Watch, now I’ve jinxed myself and my “auto-post function” won’t work!  Cross your fingers for me!)

Have a SUPER Saturday and good luck on Monday with the giveaway!

– Shari B. =)

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It’s All Good

Sep 16

Posted by Shari B. in Adventures in Dehydrating, Keeping Fit | 2 Comments

Hi FitPeeps!  It’s FRIDAY!  Wahooo!

It won’t be a ‘relaxing’ weekend on this end at all – for me, it will be ALL ABOARD the BUSY TOWN EXPRESS.  Lots going on!

How about some recap on eats and feats?  When I left off yesterday, I’d just had some Sunrise Juice.  And the rest of the day was just as good!  A bit later for my real breakfast I had some buckwheat groat cereal (previously sprouted and dehydrated) in a mug with almond milk.  You don’t need a lot of these – they are very filling.

Mid-morning I munched on the spicy kale chips I’d made in the dehydrator.  I might have to make more today because that batch is already GONE!  For the record – kale chips in a dehydrator just seem to taste better than those I make in my regular oven.

For lunch I had some leftover Autumn Ragu.

Mid-afternoon I had the simplest, but oh-so-good smoothie:  1 scoop chocolate egg protein powder, 4 oz water, 4 oz almond milk, 1/2 frozen banana and a small squeeze of chocolate syrup.  Blend that baby up and try not to suck it all down in 5 seconds flat.

For dinner I had an inside-out egg sandwich, where the eggs become the ‘bread’ and the ‘bread’ is the filling.  My bread this time was the one I made earlier in the day in my dehydrator, using the pulp from my morning juice.

I’m still up in the air on whether I love the bread or not.

I think I need to try it in something else to decide for sure.

After dinner we ran a few errands and then settled in to watch Jersey Shore.  And I had a few Milk Duds. :D

I took yesterday off from working out.  It just felt like it should be a rest day.  I’ll have one more recap for you to wrap up our cleaner eating challenge!

Hope you are having a FANTASTIC day!

– Shari B. =)

 

 

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Out of Practice

Sep 15

Posted by Shari B. in Adventures in Dehydrating, Adventures in Home Gardening, Keeping Fit | 3 Comments

Hey blog buds!  Happy “JERSDAY”! (New Jersey Shore episode tonight, woot woot!)

I am happily feeling yesterday’s workout.  I did a quick but effective Tabata workout consisting of:

I love the effect that the windmills have on my shoulders.  It’s a total body move that utilizes a lot of core and stabilization, but the light soreness I get after doing them is mostly in my shoulders and upper back.  LOVE that move!  It’s a “new to me” exercise in the last month, so I’m starting with light weights when I do it.  Currently using just a 5 lb DB and STILL feel it!

I took a very chilly 30 minute power walk right after my workout too.

I had 1/2 of a Larabar before my workout.

I hit up Target to look for a travel iron and while I was there I had a decaf soy caffe misto.  I always forget about the misto, which is less expensive (and less caloric) than a latte.  My tall misto was 70 calories and $2.20 or so.  It’s basically equal parts coffee and steamed milk (or in my case, soy milk… still awaiting the arrival of almond milk at local SBUX stores).  So in Italy this concoction is called Caffe Misto while in France it’s Cafe au Lait.

I realized yesterday as I was driving away from Target how out of practice I am at snapping a pic of EVERY thing that crosses my lips, like I did when I first started logging my food on the blog.  It just doesn’t occur to me sometimes like it used to!  So I don’t have a picture of my misto to share!

I also don’t have a picture of my soup and salad lunch that I had at the Whole Foods.  I met a good friend there to grab a bit at noon and I had a kale salad with olive oil, pepitas, dried cranberries and grape tomatoes with a cup of their vegan savory quinoa soup.  It was delicious!

Dinner was completely out of character and not the cleanest…  I think my mind is already in vacation mode, because all I wanted was pizza.  And rather than make a pita pizza at home, I went out to pick up a single slice from a local pizza joint that I’d never tried called Big Bill’s NY Pizza.  Topped with eggplant and mushrooms.

I had intended to add a bunch of stuff to it when I got home, like sliced black olives, spinach, tomatoes – but I was FULL ON lazy last night.  I’m so not loving the dreary weather!  I feel like I need to eat “hibernation” foods!  :D

I do appreciate that I can go somewhere to purchase just a single slice.  This is all strategy on my part.  If I were to order a full pizza, I’d eat too much of it.  It’s not a food I can easily stop eating when I’m full and because I know this I find a workaround.  If I just get a slice and bring it home, that’s all there is.  (I use this strategy with desserts as well, which is why you don’t see me write much about making desserts at home.  It’s better for me to go pick up a single mini-cupcake or cookie than make a whole batch at home.)

Other than lunch, the rest of my day yesterday was pretty lacking in greens and fresh food so I’m making up for it today.

“Sunrise”  juice with carrots, broccoli stem, kale, cucumber, celery and a bit of lemon:

Then I mixed up the pulp and am attempting a raw bread in the dehydrator.  If it works out, I’ll put a recipe out here for it.

And I also have a batch of kale chips in the dehydrator.

This is kale from my garden.  And I refer to it as BABY KALE because the leaves are pretty tiny.  And it’s getting cold so fast here now that I feel like I need to keep harvesting because I think the growth might slow WAY down soon.  It’s getting into the 40s at night and right now as I type this at 9:32 AM it’s still only 52 degrees.  Record breaking heat at the beginning of the month and now I’m digging out mittens for my walks and runs.  WOW.

***

CHECK IT OUT

Now, for something fun if you like giveaways, head over to the Brooklyn Fit Chick blog where she is giving away a copy of Bethenny Frankel’s latest yoga workout DVD.  Of course I entered!  And you should too!  (Who doesn’t love to win a blog giveaway AND get a new workout to do in the process?)  I really enjoy the BFC blog, especially her “What Have We Learned This Month” posts which recap what you’ll find in magazines each month, like SELF, Prevention, More, Oxygen, etc.

Have a great day friends!  I’ll see you tomorrow for the FINAL day of our 3 weeks of cleaner eating!  I’m going to have a STRONG FINISH today and tomorrow!  How ’bout you?

– Shari B. =)

 

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Autumn Vegetable Ragu with Pumpkin, Fennel and Sage

Sep 14

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, Vegetarian | 3 Comments

Hi there friends!

Is it just me or does it feel like today should be FRIDAY not WEDNESDAY?  The weather here is dreary and a little on the chilly side (high of 58 today).  My internal solar battery is running low already today.  I feel like I need a nap or some caffeine.  One or the other.

Hope you guys aren’t getting too sick of me, what with all this daily posting again during the ‘challenge‘ days!  It’ll be over in a couple of days and then I will be back in ‘travel mode’ again so you’ll get a breather!  ;)

So yesterday’s exercise was an EARLY hilly interval running session with some extra-intense intervals on a steep long hill tacked on at the end.  I was feeling pretty beat when it was done.  I’ve been running on an empty stomach again because I noticed I felt less sluggish.  However on this particular day, I wish I’d had something prior because I could have used the extra oomph!

My post-workout meal was a smoothie made with kale, cucumber, frozen pineapple, mint, pepitas and some raw plant protein powder.

Some other highlights of the day included leftover fajita veggies for lunch, this time in a “Southwest” tortilla that I picked up at Whole Foods.

Times two, because it was delicious.  The red, yellow and orange peppers were so sweet and flavorful on their own, the only ‘condiment’ I added was smear of garlic that I’d roasted when I made the veggies.  No need for standard fajita fare here (meaning cheese or sour cream) – it would just detract from the natural flavors of the good stuff!

And a wonderful treat that I split up throughout the day into 2 servings.  A bubbly!!  Mmmmm kombucha!

I was looking forward to cooking dinner because I recently found some tomatoes packaged in an aseptic box rather than in a can!

Love the ingredients list:

Nothing but tomatoes!

I made kind of a pumpkin-infused vegetable ragu.  I’ll call it Autumn Ragu with Pumpkin, Sage & Fennel.  In last month’s Good Housekeeping, there was a recipe for Linguine with Carrot Turkey Ragu that sparked the idea.  But I totally revamped it and did my own thing.  Here’s my take on it:  I sauteed some onion, carrot and fennel, then added fresh garlic, a little cinnamon and some rubbed sage (dried).  I deglazed the pot with red wine then added the tomatoes and a cup of pureed pumpkin.  I let it all simmer for about an hour and then I added some Eden (BPA free) lentils, a pinch of red pepper flakes and some fresh basil. The idea with the lentils was to provide texture (and a little protein) that a meat normally would have.

I spiralized some carrot and zucchini into ribbons to serve along with spaghetti noodles (you can add them to the pasta water with the noodles for the last minute of cooking to take the cold edge off the spiralized veggies).  Whenever I use pasta, I almost always try to cut it down by at least half using some sort of vegetable (like these ribbons, or spaghetti squash or kelp/tofu noodles).

And dinner was served!  (There I go doing something with some Italian influence again.  It looks like a marinara based meat sauce, but taste-wise  you get the pumpkin and fennel undertones with a hint of the cinnamon).

This was another meatless dinner that Cory and I were able to enjoy together.  His review was that the sauce was very “meaty” for not having any meat in it and that the only thing missing was “garlic bread on the side”.   :D

Late evening I had a little Teecino with almond milk and a bit of dry cereal.

So today’s question (which maybe someday should be a whole post topic and discussion):  do you find that you actually USE cookbooks or recipes?  I don’t write out the meals I make “recipe style” very often here, because my hope is that something I make will just spark your creativity with whatever you happen to have in your own kitchen at the time.  I love to READ cookbooks (and I own a bunch of them too) but truth be told I just don’t use them very often.  I have also read through the recipes on a zillion blogs, but have probably only tried a handful over the course of 3-1/2 years of blog reading.  Usually I’ll try a recipe from a cookbook checked out from the library or I’ll adapt one from an online source, like Epicurious.com.

Have a fabulous Friday friends!  (Ha, just kidding:  make that Wednesday!)

– Shari B. =)

 

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