April Recap

I know, I know. I'm such a slacker. It's close enough to the middle of the month that I figured I would just do a quick recap of what's been going along re: goals.

Cooking: We ended March with Grilled Taco-Barbecue Chicken from Betty Crocker. Of course, I made some changes. We wanted to try out the rotisserie attachment on our grill, so we did a whole chicken instead of just breasts. It was pretty darn tasty. Although, Ben said he could do without the cumin in his BBQ sauce.
My first recipe for April was White Chili from Recipezaar.com. I only had one can of chilies on hand, other than that, I followed the recipe! But next time I would use two cans as it wasn't quite zippy enough for us.

Weight-Loss: I have remained steady. I suppose that means I should get my butt in gear. We think Zoey is down a pound or so. Today we went to the doggie park for the first time this year. She had a blast running around and playing with other pups.

I guess that's about it. Hope you have/had a great Good Friday.

Not What I Expected

Well, all-in-all this weekend wasn't anything like I expected it would be. Friday I was supposed to go to a party at a friend's house who is joining the FBI. Mid-way through my volunteer thing on Friday afternoon, I started to get a migraine. And it came on fast. And hard. I took some Advil on the way home. Got home took some more and went to bed. Ben woke me up when it was time to leave. I felt OK so figured I would go. By the time I got to the bottom of the stairs, my head was pounding. So I sent Ben off alone. He had a good time though. I slept and watched some TV.

Saturday I was supposed to go to another friend's house for a game decathlon. But I still had a lingering headache, so I didn't really feel like socializing for 10 hours. So I stayed home.

I did make dinner last night. I tried a new recipe: Beef Stuffed Bread from the 2001 Taste of Home Cookbook. It was OK. It wasn't bad, but it was kind of blah. If I were to make it again, I would use Pepper jack Cheese Soup instead of plain Cheddar. (Maybe it was blah because I actually followed the recipe??!! I'm going to use that as an excuse to always play with the recipe).

Today is the only day that has gone as expected.

Why I don't run in the winter

This morning Zoey and I went for our normal walk. We were rounding a pile of snow when all of a sudden I was on the ground. I somehow managed to slip. Thankfully all my skydiving training kicked in and I did what I am sure was a very graceful PLF (Parachute Landing Fall - let the soft spots absorb the shock). I am sure I will have a nice blue patch on my butt! Zoey was so cute, as soon as she saw me fall she ran over to check on me. Such a good protector. But that just goes to show you that it is unsafe to run with conditions like we have. It could have been much worse if I was moving faster. I know that you can run on treadmills, but I hate treadmills. My normal stride is too long, so I end up shortening my stride which just kind of messes me up.

Speaking of treadmills, I did (grudgingly) use one on the cruise. I decided to start on my resolution to run 100 miles. I wanted to run on deck, but the first day I tried to the running deck was closed due to the wind. So I went inside to the gym. The first day the treadmill and I took some time to get to know each other. It was somewhat broken - it wouldn't register my heart rate. Oh, well. I picked a speed and started running. I thought it was going well until I looked down and saw that in 8 minutes I had run about 1/2 mile. So I continued to increase my speed to try and find the "right" one. The second time I ran, I picked a different machine. This one worked for heart rate. Except it kept getting mad at me because my heart rate was higher than it thought it should be, so it kept decreasing the speed. So, despite my best attempts, those two days I only ran 1.7 miles each day. Third time is a charm... I went to yet a different machine and just picked a manual workout. It was great. I ran at the speed that I wanted to and finally got up to 3 miles (in the same time frame)! I was so excited! So, all in all I ran 6.4 miles on the cruise. Only 93.6 left to go!

Also on the topic of resolutions, last night I made a new recipe: Cabbage Rolls with Vegetables and Bulgar from the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook. I couldn't find Bulgar at the store (anyone know where to find it? I looked in the bulk section, the organic section, rice and beans section and baking section and couldn't find it) so I used white rice instead. It was pretty good. Although since I was using rice instead of Bulgar I had to change the cooking times and I think that resulted in crisper veggies than what was intended. Ben thought that it was tasty. The only problem is that it so low cal (only 173!) so we were both pretty hungry around 9.

Catch a Falling Star

At our old house we had nice, mature trees everywhere. I really liked the shade that they provided as well as the shelter from the wind on my morning walks. At our new house, the trees are young and short. As much as I miss the old trees, one great benefit of the young trees is that I have a full view of the sky. In the last few weeks I have seen 4 shooting stars on my morning walks (yes, it is dark enough at 5 am to see stars). I wake up hopeful that it is a clear morning and I can gaze at the stars as Zoey and I walk. I love it!

This Friday I leave for India. I am super excited to meet my team and get to experience the culture first hand. Neetha and Vaishali (Ben's teammates that were here this summer) have graciously offered to show me some sights. It is going to be a whirlwind of a trip! I hope I can keep up.

As I have been getting myself ready for the trip, I have also started to get Ben ready for my absence. Yesterday I taught him how to use the washing machine. Last night I made a batch of chili and am planning on freezing it for him. Today I threw some chicken in the crock pot before I left for work for shredded chicken for quesadillas. I probably won't do too much more since I'm sure he will be going out too.

I just realized that I should probably expand on the whole washing machine thing... our washer is a side loader and yesterday Ben saw me put the detergent in the little compartment thingy. He commented that he wouldn't have thought to put it in there.

Kitchen Experiments

One thing that we noticed as we were packing... we have a lot of food that we never eat. Some of this is due to free GM samples that just don't appeal to us. But mostly it's because we forget what's in the cupboards. So, we are changing our ways and trying to eat what we have.

Friday night we were planning on having soup. It was a dried mix of split peas, barley, Lima beans and seasoning. It was supposed to take 2 hours. But after 4, the beans were still not soft. We were hungry so we gave up and got Chinese take-out. (I think we cooked it at too low of a temp in case you were wondering). Yesterday for lunch we decided to put it back on the stove. We added some salt, pepper and chicken bouillon because when we were tasting it on Friday night it was a little blah. Turned out pretty good. Next time instead of buying the mix, we are just going to make it ourselves.

Yesterday morning we were hungry (unusual for Ben, not me). We didn't have milk, so we decided on oatmeal. We didn't have a lot of add-ins, but we did have brown sugar and chocolate chips. Turns out that this is a tasty combo (a little weird on the texture front, but tasty all the same).

Our final cooking adventure for the weekend was last night. We had some frozen chicken breasts that I had seasoned with "Santa Maria" seasoning before freezing it. I put the frozen chicken in a covered baking dish, added about 2 tbsp of butter and water and a bouillon cube and put it in the oven. In the past when I have done this, the chicken has turned out slightly dry. Not last night! It was great! Even Ben was impressed. He asked what I did so we could duplicate it again. Not sure what the trick was - it could have been the oven (we now have convection, so I put it on "Convection Roast"), or it could have been the things I added. Not sure, but we will cook it that way again. (Note: It was in the oven for almost 2 hours since it was frozen).

Last night we also had sweet corn. Yum! It is the best I have had in a long time.