salt + vinegar kale chips

Franklin is home! He is feeling much, much better, but is still working out whatever little bug he got. He has pretty much returned to his normal self, but you can tell he is just exhausted. I am so happy to have the little guy home. :)

Sleepy boy...

While Franklin napped, I decided to make him some food. The vet had some bland dog food that I could have bought, but I decided I would just make it myself to save some money... although that $8 for dog food is pennies in comparison to what we spent at the vet this week. Ugh!

I simply overcooked some brown rice in water and boiled some chicken tenderloins and then shredded them. We are starting him on a very small amount of food to start and we will slowly increase depending how he feels.

While I made Franklin his food, I decided to give kale chips a try. I have been reading and hearing about kale chips for the better part of 2 years, but I had never tried them. My produce box had a bag of kale in it last week, so I was excited to give it a shot. I am so glad I did.

Salt + Vinegar Kale Chips
no measurements, just use your best judgment.

Kale
Olive Oil
Vinegar
Sea Salt

I washed the kale and then spun it dry in my salad spinner, but paper towels would work just as well.

I added the kale to a zip lock bag with some olive oil and shook it up a bit. Then I massaged the oil into the leaves through the bag. Once they were coated, I added a few shakes of red wine vinegar to the bag and shook some more.

Next, I spread the leaves on a cookie sheet and added some sea salt. Baked at 350 F for about 30-35 minutes and they were done. Nice and crispy!

I had every intention of putting these on a nice plate and taking a better picture, but they never made it off of the cookie sheet. :) I think I will be making more tonight.

We have all the ingredients and the recipe ready to go for How Sweet's Grilled Corn and Cheddar Quinoa, but we still haven't made it. I have started to make it the last 2 nights, but due to Franklin getting sick, and then trying to get the house in order last night, I just gave up on making it. Tonight, it is happening! It looks so delicious!

Instead of making a real dinner last night, I opted for some leftover rice from Franklin's food and an egg with red pepper flakes on top. It was easy and so yummy.  I heart egg yolk so much.

It was another long night last night, making sure Franklin could get outside as soon as he needed to, so I am pretty tired. A certain someone, whom I won't name here on the blog... cough..Mike..cough, was supposed to come downstairs in the middle of the night and let me go upstairs to sleep while he stayed with Franklin... but that didn't happen. Some team player. ;) I hope after getting our house cleaned tonight, I can hit the hay pretty early.

I have a BIG weekend ahead of me, celebrating my birthday with my friends. I am so excited about what they have planned and can only imagine the stuff they haven't even told me about yet.

Have a good one everyone! I am off until next Thursday, so if you don't hear from me before then, just know that I will probably be drinking a margarita by the pool instead of working.

Happy 4th of July, too!

frankfurter whoas

Our favorite little blog pup is a under the weather.

We had to spend the evening in the emergency vet last night, where Franklin ended up having to stay the night. Poor little puppy.

This is not the puppy we all know and love. He needed some fluids and antibiotics, but hopefully he will be better soon!

That little puppy IV is so freaking cute.

Feel better soon, Franklin!

hungry no more!

Since we have been really busy over the last several weeks, we haven't taken a lot of time to stock our kitchen with the foods that we normally have on hand. Our grocery trips have been quick and short lately, getting just enough to get us through until the next week. We are still getting the weekly produce delivery, and without that, I think we would be living on take out or eggs. Because of this, our breakfasts and lunches have seriously sucked... like I mean peanut butter and jellies and granny smith apples.  Who eats granny smith apples for lunch? ugh.. not this girl.

Each evening, as we are driving home from work, I am STARVING. Like, I mean, I can't even focus I am so hungry. I know it is because I haven't been eating a solid breakfast and lunch, leaving me starved by 5 pm. Last night, I decided that I had had enough.

We stopped by a friend's house on the way home from work and I raided their pantry. I sampled several different chips, crackers, and chocolates as soon as we got there. I thought about what to make for dinner the entire time we were there and couldn't wait to get home to start cooking. Even though we didn't get home until almost 8, I went ahead and made what was on my mind.

My sister and I are always sharing recipe ideas and last week, she sent me a message with a picture of her leftovers that said; "I think my new favorite meal is roasted veggies, pasta, parmesan cheese, olive oil, and garlic." Ever since I got that message, that combination would not leave my brain.

I know that my sis just uses what ever veggies she has on hand, so I decided to do the same, even though I have some really random vegetables right now, thanks to GoLocal.  So, no matter what veggies you have on hand, here is a recipe for Jaime's Roasted Veggie Pasta. Don't mind the massive amount of olive oil in the recipe, I got 8 servings out of this dish, so per serving, it is just right. 

Jaime's Roasted Veggie Pasta

1 sweet onion, chopped
Vegetables, cubed (last night I used an ivory eggplant, garden carrots, and an acorn squash. Jaime has used broccoli, cauliflower, brussell sprouts, etc. so have fun with it!)
4 garlic cloves, left whole
5 tablespoons EVOO
3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
2 lemons
Sea Salt, to taste
Red Pepper Flakes, to taste
1 package of whole wheat penne pasta (or whatever pasta you like)

Preheat oven to 400 F. Place your cubed vegetables, garlic, and onion into a baking dish (I always use parchment paper to reduce clean up). Add 3 tablespoons of the olive oil to the veggies, along with sea salt and red pepper flakes. Mix with hands and rub the veggies with the EVOO. Roast in oven for about 30-40 minutes, depending on the type of veggies you have, until soft. While your veggies are roasting, cook pasta according to package directions.

Last night, I decided to also use up some of the red and green peppers we had, so I sauteed those in olive oil while everything was cooking. I also threw in some chopped tomatoes at the end of the roasting so that they would still be crisp.

Once the vegetables and pasta is done cooking, mix them all together in a large serving bowl, along with the last 2 tablespoons of EVOO, parmesan cheese, and squeeze the juice from the lemons onto the mix. Stir together and serve! I had some avocado that I was afraid would go bad, so I diced it up and threw it on top of our servings for last night.

By the way... ivory eggplant is delicious! The skin is not bitter like purple eggplant and is so good!

I am currently eating my leftovers for lunch and am sooo happy I made plenty. We will be eating this for lunch all week!

--

Mike and I got up a little early today so we could run together. The weather was perfect for a morning run, considering lately it has been so humid and miserable before 8 am. We did the normal path by his work, a quick 3 miles.

When we got to 3 miles, we were both done! We went our separate ways and headed to the gym/work to get ready for our day.

I had packed myself some overnight oats for breakfast this morning and they were AWESOME. I don't know what I really did differently, but they were amazing. Here is what I threw in: old fashioned oats, skim milk, chocolate protein powder, 1 teaspoon peanut butter, a little sprinkling of shredded coconut, and a few squares of dark chocolate.

It was like heaven. Seriously, try this combo today.

Look at me, 2 posts this week?? Whaaat?!

easy guacamole

We are still sort of recovering from a relaxing weekend at the lake. A friend invited us to his family's house at Lake Gaston, so we headed there as soon as we got off last Friday night. Though it was super relaxing and tons of fun, we didn't get nearly enough sleep and probably drank a little too much, leaving us feeling pretty groggy to start the week.

We had a blast boating, swimming, eating lake food (lasagna), and just enjoying some friends. We have all decided we plan to make this a monthly trip... we will see how that goes.

 
The pups are also recovering from a weekend at the lake. Deluca would not stay out of the water. I have never seen him so happy and puppy like before! He was dancing around all weekend, getting into mischief and getting yelled at way more than he ever has. I don't know what happened, he seemed to have switched places with Franklin for a weekend.

Let's see, he barked his head off, refused to stay out of the water, even when we needed him to dry off, swam his little tail off, and had one episode of jumping out of the boat to chase after a cat. All the while, my perfect angel, Franklin, was off the leash, prancing around and listening to every word we said. What??!!!

Needless to say, the two of them crashed on the way home.

It was a good weekend for the whole family. :)

When we got home from the lake, we came home to a produce box full of awesome veggies. This was, by far, one of the best boxes we have gotten.

Local blueberries, local white eggplant, local kale, local sweet potatoes, grapefruits, lemons, cilantro, tomatoes, green pepper and ripe avocado. Since I wasn't in the mood to cook a big meal, I immediately whipped up some easy guacamole and toasted a whole wheat tortilla to use for dipping. Since I knew that wouldn't fill me up, I also fried 2 eggs.

Anytime I make homemade guacamole, I get some kind of comment about how difficult it must be. It is soooo the opposite! It tastes 10 times better than store bought, and is so easy! Let me share the quick  and easy recipe with you.

Easy Guacamole
2 ripe avocado
1 large fresh tomato or 2 roma tomatoes, chopped, liquid drained
1/8-1/4 cup red or white onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
juice of 1 lime
pinch sea salt
pinch black pepper
pinch garlic powder

Using a fork, mash your avocado. Add in the chopped tomato and onion, a few good squeezes of your lime, and your spices to taste. Voila... guacamole.

--

I am finally feeling rested enough to start getting back to my running this week. I have a BIG birthday weekend coming up, so I want to try to get at least 3 runs in before Saturday.

Have a great Tuesday!

fanny pack

Well, now that I have Lindsay's attention...

Hey everyone!

Let's just skip the uncomfortable discussion about where I have been and how sorry I am that I have been MIA. To be brief, my super awesome, easy job where I could play all day has sadly come to an end and I am forced to actually work for my money. I know... tragic.

After many conversations with my uber-supportive husband about maybe putting the blog away for now, he has encouraged me to just post when I can. We can all agree that it has helped me tremendously with sticking to my goals and you can be rest assured that I am still photographing my food and runs, even when I can't post about them. I guess just the thought of posting them, keeps me going.

So, let's just jump right in, shall we?

This morning I got up super early to be able to attend a staff meeting at the hospital. I work so infrequently there, I usually never make it to the meetings, but today I was already up and figured I would go. They gave me a super sweet new mug too, so it was definitely worth the trip.

I wore my running clothes so I could easily go for a run after the meeting. I went to one of my favorite trails, that is really close to the hospital and did 3 miles, which was a good run considering I haven't ran in about a week. I did get to use my new running belt that I purchased from TJ Maxx last week... aka... my running fanny pack, which was pretty awesome.

Super nerdy photo, and please don't mind my gross sweaty underarms... but instead, keep your eyes on the belt. You try taking a self photo of your mid-section... it isn't easy.

I love that this belt has a pocket that can hold my phone, my car key, and any other items that I may need during my run. I can tell that for longer runs, I will be so glad I can store my fuel and some chap stick in there as well. It also has a water bottle that goes with it, which fits into a carriage on the front of the belt. For my shorter runs, I won't need that, so I do wish there was a way to remove the carriage all together.  But, there isn't and the belt was only $12 so I will deal.

There is also a small ID pocket where you can write your name and any medical alerts that you may have. That way, if I am ever found face down after a run, they will know who I am and that I am allergic to penicillin. Good stuff. :)

What I don't love about this belt, besides the non-removable water carriage, is that it rides up throughout my entire run. Mike used this belt last week on his 20 mile run... yeah, we will get to that in a second... and he thought the belt was the bees knees. He raved about it non-stop. I think that for guys, their hips are smaller than their mid-section, which helps to keep the belt at their waist. Since I have a smaller mid-section than my hips, the belt rides up constantly. Definitely something I can deal with for $12, but I wanted give you my full review.

I had been wanting something like this for a while, so I am glad to finally have one. Plus, I am happy I didn't spend very much on it. It is a great thing to have, but since these things are normally in the $30 range, I would have been disappointed if I had spent that much.

Breakfast this morning was a return of an old favorite.... overnight oats, eaten COLD!

Nothing beats a cold bowl of oats after a sweaty run. All that fruit in there... all from my produce delivery box, which, by the way, is 10 times better in the spring and summer than in the winter. The fresh fruit is amazing!

This mornings oats were a combination of fresh, chopped peaches, fresh blueberries, fresh blackberries, old fashioned oats, chocolate protein powder, and skim milk. DELISH!

--

Last night's dinner was stolen from another blog that I read. It is pretty rare that you open a food blog and the recipe that is featured that day includes ingredients that you already have on hand. Especially when the recipe includes peaches and blueberries.... who has that on hand? When I went to How Sweet's post yesterday, I knew what we were having for dinner.

Her photos are out of this world, but here is my rendition of her Sweet and Spicy Glazed Chicken, Corn and Avocado Tostadas, with Blueberry Peach Salsa. The only changes we made were adding black beans and using whole wheat flour tortillas, making them more into tacos than tostadas.

Then everything fell out of my first taco, so I piled the leftover toppings onto the 2nd tortilla, creating a monster pile.

I am getting full just looking at these photos. This recipe is for sure going to become a part of the rotation at our house. They were so awesome. Next time, I will take the time to make them into tostadas instead of tacos, since I think they would have been really good on a crispy tortilla.

I have to hand it to Mike, he assembled this entire meal, while talking to me on the phone giving him the instructions. He got home before I did yesterday, so he put everything together and it was ready to eat when I walked in the door.... love that guy.

Speaking of that guy.... um... when did my husband become a runner??? He ran 20 miles while I was in Vegas last weekend. I am beyond impressed with his dedication. He is weighing in at about as much as I did when I started this blog, a short 9 months ago... Way to go, babe! I am so proud of you!

Oh yeah... I also went to Vegas last weekend... so much to catch you up on!

Have a great weekend!

ummmm...... hi?

awkward pause.... 

Remember me?

I know it has been a while, but I am hoping things are starting to get back to normal for me. It has been pretty crazy, but I really think this blog helps to keep me on track, so I don't want to give it up just yet.

Wanna know what I have been up to besides working my butt off? Allow me to share...

Along with putting in some serious extra hours at work, I am pretty happy to report that my eating and running have remained the same as usual. I have been getting at least 4 runs in per week, trying to keep up with my push ups and sit ups (not doing so good with that), eating relatively healthy, and spending lots of quality time at home with Mike and the pups.

 

You will understand the massive amount of drinking after reading below...



Wanna know what these guys have been up to lately?

Let's begin with Franklin...

 

That damned dog.

And Deluca? Well, he has just been sweet as pie. :)

Always allowing Franklin to lay, jump, hump, kick, or cover him in mud.

Does anyone remember why we got a 2nd dog? I sure don't.

Aaaannnnndddddd..... I'm BACK!!