Red Head, Yellow Dog

Warmer weather is comin!!

I am LOVING the forecast for this week!!

Lot’s of sunshine and highs in the 60s!!

Yesterday I completed my 10 mile long run with some friends in Umstead Park. It was glorious. Perfect weather! Toby came along (duh) and my friend brought his new dog which went surprisingly well! Toby is a scaredy dog though and normally just wants other dogs to leave him alone. You know what kind of dogs Toby is most afraid of? small dogs. Oh yes. Those little white fluffy things that yap at him the second he comes into view. Nothing gets him pulling on the leash trying to run in the opposite direction more than that. Big and bad Golden Retriever? I think not.

Run Stats.

I went and had lunch with James and Noodles and Company (he had to work on Saturday until 9:30!! not cool.) When I came home, I knew I needed some cookies. Yes not one cookie, SOME cookies. So I turned on some pandora…

MGMT station!! my fave right now. Also note gchatting with my sister in the background!ANd what are we chatting about? Blogging. Ha.

And then I finally settled on what to make: Almond Joy Cookie Bars. Oh yes. There were a few tweaks so I could just use what I had on hand. I didn’t have any almonds so those were out. And the only chocolate I had was a 72% cacao dark chocolate bar…which I was not complaining about one bit. I chopped part of that sucker up and dumped it in. I also didn’t have applesauce so I used pumpkin. These were soooo goooood….I may have eaten half the pan…maybe…

And don’t worry, I got some nutrients in in non cookie form. Obviously I was still jonesing for some coconut though!

Spinach smoothie!!

This smoothie had half a frozen banana, a big handful spinach, ice, Frozen strawberries and frozen blackberries in it. Delicious!!

Enjoy your Sunday!

Don’t Steal from Toby

When I got home from school this afternoon, this is what I saw in the cupboard:

The man knows how to keep me out of a peanut butter jar. Hopefully my love for Toby wins out over my love for PB because my jar just ran out…

We got some glocosamine tablets for Toby since golden retrievers often have joint problems and he goes for runs with me pretty frequently.

We were told by the vet that this was the best quality you can get. Supplements aren’t regulated by the FDA so when you buy it from Walgreens or whatever you can never be quite sure how much of whatever it purports to be is actually in the pill. The vet we go to trusts this brand for whatever reason so we decided to go ahead and get that. The same brand was recommended by our old vet too so hopefully they’re onto something.

The peanut butter is to entice little Toby to eat the pills. He won’t say no to peanut butter. Just like his mom 🙂

To redeem himself from banning me from a jar of peanut butter, James made me lunch!

A couple of wasa crackers, spinach, tomatoes, a few olives, capers, some balsamic, black pepper….

and mushrooms he stuffed with some kind of organic artichoke + seafood dip and then put in the oven to cook for a bit. (and put cheese on one of them!)

YUMMM! This was SO good! I almost stopped someplace on my way home to get lunch and I’m so glad I didn’t! Those stuffed mushrooms were delicious and the tomatoes were perfectly ripe. So good.

I also checked with Toby to make sure he still liked peanut butter..because if he didn’t that jar was mine…

okay. I guess he still likes it. Fine Fine. I won’t steal from you Toby.

Now I’m doing work for a few hours and hopefully doing something at least mildly fun tonight! Then tomorrow morning I’m meeting a friend for a 10 mile run with his new pup! Should be fun. especially since the weather is supposed to be nice this weekend. Finally! All this sitting and researching has gotten me in the mood to bake though! I have a black banana calling my name!

7 Mile Run + 7 Layer Dip

This is the face of a dog when you ask them to go for a run with you and they’re comfy in bed.

“You’re kidding right?”

But after some cajoling, and promise of some peanut butter post run (after an appropriate time for his tummy to settle…) we were off! I had 7 miles on the training schedule but ended up doing 7.5. The last five miles were negative splits which I was really happy about! I usually don’t pay much attention to my pace on long runs but this is the first race that I’ve trained for with a Garmin so it’s hard not to try to push myself. I guess this is why everyone loves these things huh??

Today we have a super bowl party to go to and I decided to make seven layer dip to bring along! Layers went like this:

• Organic Refried Pinto Beans mixed with a bottle of chunky Pace salsa
• Lowfat sour cream + light cream cheese + half a packet of taco seasoning

• Guacamole

This garlic press is amazing. When James’ mom first gave it to us, I never thought I would use it but I use it ALL the time now. It’s so easy!

• Shredded Cheddar Cheese

• Tomatoes (I got these on the sale rack – 67 scents! Can’t beat that!!)

• sliced black olives

Yummmm! Hope everyone likes it!!

Dreary Day

It’s a rainy day here in North Carolina!

My friend and I decided to put off afternoon run today in favor of hoping for dryer weather on Monday so I hopped on over to the gym before class this morning. I ended up running for 20 minutes on the treadmill (2.25 miles) and then doing 20 minutes on the crossramp elliptical thing – not even sure what that’s really called?? Anyway I had the ramp at 10 and the resistance alternating between 8 and 10 every 2 minutes. Great workout! On my run I rocked out to the new Girl Talk album which I LOVE! Such great running music!! and it’s free! Doesn’t get much better than that.

I came home to Toby jumping around like he hadn’t seen me in days and got ready for the day! I did what I do pretty much every morning: shower, dress, make up, hair (which lately has meant pinning back my bangs and putting my hair up in a high bun – I have long, thick, curly hair and I just can’t be bothered to do anything with it lately! I’m usually the person with wet hair in my morning classes!) and then make my oat bran + an egg breakfast.

This is an old picture but you get the idea 🙂 I find this breakfast to be perfectly filling and I can make it really quickly with minimal clean up. Hot breakfast in minutes that keeps me satisfied until lunch? Bring it.

And because I finished class at noon today (my 1 o’clock class was cancelled because my Prof was going to speak to the European Council about family law stuff! So cool.) James said he’d meet me at Whole Foods for lunch! SCORE! Wish I had taken a picture but I was too busy enjoying 🙂 My favorites were the Asian tofu, hummus (duh), oil free balsamic dressing and antipasto salad – love the artichokes + olives!

Of course while we were there I had to pick up a few things including dark chocolate covered raisins and chocolate covered Ginger from the bulk bins.

I just discovered chocolate covered ginger. Oh man. So spicy. Love it.

Barbara’s cereal (this stuff is SO addicting. Already broke into the box)

My favorite kind of tofu

I love the texture of this tofu. I don’t think it really needs to be pressed like other tofu does and it always comes out of the oven perfectly crisp on the outside. Plus, it’s always reasonably priced. I think I got this for $1.50?

Now I’m watching Lie to Me on Netflix. Let’s hope for nice weather for my 7 mile run tomorrow!! Have a good night!

Perfect Sunday

For so long, I always was on the hunt for cheap books or people to lend me books they loved. After my sister telling me for the 100th time that I  needed to get my library card, I bit the bullet. So glad I did!! Now, I have so many books at my fingertips. Plus, James will come with me since they have a good DVD collection 🙂

So now my Sunday has come to look a little something like this:

Delicious breakfast. I LOVE this breakfast! I’ve been eating it basically every morning (okay except for today when I ate leftover Ethiopian food from Saturday night – can’t really blame me for that can ya???)

So here’s the breakdown:

• 1/3 c. oat bran
• 1 egg over easy
• steamed spinach
• really delicious salsa

So amazing. I love oat bran. Oat bran is best for savory foods, I think and oatmeal is good for a sweet breakfast.

Then I spend some time learning about corporation law, how to draft a will and what evidence can be admitted at trial. But THEN we go to the library. And I get more books then I’ll be able to read. And spend time meandering down the aisles until James has asked me no less than three times if I’m ready to leave. Thankfully he’s easily distracted so usually after the first two times he asks me to go, he usually wanders off after I don’t make eye contact (key). Then the third time, I usually can’t hold anything else so we leave.

So now Toby has obviously suffered enough so we take him to play frisbee in a big field to get all the crazies out of him.

Happy dog.

Then we come home and I procrastinate doing work by baking!! I mean we NEEDED bread, right?? Learning about limited liability corporations could wait…

I found this recipe for oatmeal bread and it was exactly what I wanted. It was so easy and fast to put together! and it tasted great. So great, that I went ahead and made a second loaf to freeze while I still had the food processor out to make oat flour.

Yummy.

Why is it that the first thing I think whenever I bake something is “where’s the peanut butter?!?!” I think I got that from my mom. Everything is better with peanut butter. Well, every carb at least. Yum.

What’s your perfect Sunday??