Wedding Weekend Recap

Hey folks, I'm back! Boyfriend and I headed to Virginia Thursday night for his little sister's wedding, and just got back.  We missed a heck of a storm in Houston, but both houses look ok. Thank goodness!

Wedding weekend was just incredible. My boyfriend has a huge family, but it is full of awesome people. Thursday night we landed late but had a drink with his brother and sister-in-law in the kitchen before turning in. Friday was a wedding prep day and we helped out where we could before heading off to the rehearsal and dinner. This was followed up with drinks at the hotel bar and then more drinks at a bar down the street, with the younger crowd of relatives (cousins/siblings in their 20's). It was awesome, the family is so welcoming to me and so sweet and fun. And around 11pm I realized I had taken absolutely NO pics for the blog. Sorry blog readers for letting you down, but sometimes life is too amazing to stop for photos... this was one of those times.

Saturday we took it easy before the ceremony at 2, then had a little party in our hotel room (including some bourbon my dad bought at Thanksgiving and some beer we chilled in the bathroom sink) before heading down to the reception.  Again it was pretty awesome, and I snapped exactly 2 pictures:

 Me and Dan at the reception.

The girls: on the left is Dan's awesome sister-in-law Chelsea and on the right is Dan's cousin Mary.

Its funny that we're arranged in height order, this was not intentional. Mary was one of the bridesmaids so you can see the gorgeous kelly green color the bride picked out. Mary happens to be one of the very few people (3, in my entire life) that I clicked with immediately. Its sad she lives in Ohio because if I saw her on a regular basis I know we would be BFFs. Actually, I kinda already consider her one of my best friends and we've only seen each other twice. Sometimes, you just know!

As for week 5 of training. Well it went alright.  We left off halfway through week 4. 

I am happy to report that we did our 5 mile run on New Years Eve to make it 50 miles for December! That was exciting for me. My highest mileage month ever.

Monday- 4 mile run. 

Tuesday- Yoga. Definitely felt it afterwards, having not done yoga for 2 weeks. Can't let that keep happening!

Wednesday- 4 mile speedwork. Speedwork is kinda fun, in a self-torture kind of way.

Thursday- Rest. And travel to Virginia.

Friday- Rest and wedding prep.

Saturday- Oops. Was supposed to be a 6 mile run (which would have been a PDR for me) but after a late night of drinking, we couldn't muster the energy. To be honest I wasn't too keen on running 6 miles and then traipsing around in heels until all hours of the night. And I'm a little glad, because my poor legs had had enough by the end of the night.

Sunday- After an even later night of heavier drinking, we were again in no shape to run. Actually we were hardly in a shape to walk, and spent most of the day nauseous, exhausted, and unhappy. I definitely exclaimed "I'm never drinking again!" I don't drink to excess often, and it was a special occasion, but even so, I went overboard.

I'll leave you with one random note. My shoes:

I went to DSW for unrelated shoes (sensible, comfortable work shoes) and saw these from 3 rows over. I ran to them, in a comical fashion. Before I got there I had already decided that no matter how uncomfortable, and whether or not they had my size, and despite having nothing I planned to wear them to, I would have them. They are actually decently comfortable (it takes a good few hours of dancing/walking/standing for my feet to cry). But the bows! (Not pictured are the 3 inch heels)  I don't have a shoe problem, I've got it under control. Has this ever happened to you? Just me then? Sparkly bows, guys, that's where its at.

What I ate Wednesday

Today I will show you an entire day of eats from last Wednesday:

A post-run (4 miles!) breakfast: 0% plain Chobani, Honey Nut Cheerios, diced apple, sprinkle of cinnamon.

 Lunch: Egg salad (2 hard boiled eggs, chopped onion, dollop of hummus), sliced veggies and pita chips for dipping.

 Random snack: Clementine. I love these little guys!

Another snack: Overnight oats- Chobani, rolled oats, splash of milk, JIF natural peanut butter, blackberries, golden raisins, and a sprinkle of chocolate chips.

 Dinner: It kinda looks like slop, but it was the last of the Healthy Chicken Enchiladas and they were fabulous!

 Finished the night with delicious Passion tea- hibiscus and passion fruit in this herbal tea makes it turn bright purple. Despite its caffeine-free status, it's my favorite tea ever!

That was a yummy day!

January Goals

That other post was about the plan for the whole year. A year is too long to make really specific goals, but a month is just right! As always, there will be one fitness goal and one food goal to focus on healthy living for the month.

Fitness Goal: Yoga

I failed at this miserably in December, only logging 4 classes for the month instead of the hoped for 7-8. Softball still doesn't start until February, so I have another month to give this a shot. Goal is 2 classes per week, and if I can't make a class I will use one of the 2 podcasts I downloaded (they are short sessions, so they should be easier to fit in) to get some practice in at home.

Food Goal: Eat more fruits and veggies

I really need to focus in on getting those 5 servings of fruits and vegetables in. Rather than make this the goal right away, I'll start by incorporating them into breakfast (traditionally my meal least likely to contain fruit or veggies) and mandate that at least one daily snack (if any are eaten) contain a fruit or vegetable. Baby steps.

While doing this, I'll also be working on the long-range goals: Sticking to the SmartCoach plan for my upcoming 10k and cooking one new dish per week as part of my 2012 Home Cooking challenge.

Home Cooking Challenge: a hit and a miss

We are headed back out of town for bf's sister's wedding on Thursday- only 11 days after I came back, and only 1 week after bf came back, from Christmas in Virginia. Since this is a short week I did both my new entree and new vegetable for the week on the same night. Luckily I had the day off work so we ran our 4 miles in the morning, leaving plenty of time to grocery shop and cook!

One of the vegetables I'm most afraid of is kale. Its super green and has the weird frilly leaves and its so full of vitamins it can't possibly taste good! So I decided to face my fears and tackle kale first.

I made Chicken Parmesan as an entree, with Braised Kale and Red Potatoes as a side, both from Cooking Light.

The Chicken Parmesan was SO good. The breading got crispy from being sauteed and the cheese was all melty and warm from being broiled. This recipe is excellent and wasn't very difficult-- though it did leave a host of dirty dishes. No worry, I stuck everything but the pan in the dishwasher.

The kale and potatoes, on the other hand, was super bland. For tomorrow's lunch leftovers I added more ground pepper, a bit more salt, and some garlic powder to the mix to give it some more flavor. This recipe has a good idea (potatoes and garlic should make even me a fan), but it ruins it by separating the majority of the flavor (browned garlic and crushed red pepper) from the veggies for most of the cooking process. Not a keeper, and my quest for the Kale grail continues.

 

Served with Caesar-esque salad with homemade whole grain croutons. Overall not a bad meal.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a fun (and safe!) New Year's Eve last night. I had a wonderful night with my adorable boyfriend. First we went out to The Grove, a restaurant in Downtown Houston.
First bf and I split the Sashimi Tuna appetizer- avocado, raw tuna, topped with mango salsa. So yummy!

  Boyfriend ordered the NY Strip, which came with au gratin potatoes. I ordered the lamb because I love meat popsicles, it came with the most amazing truffled mac and cheese balls. And of course we celebrated with a bottle of wine.

The restaurant was in a park that was having a big New Year's party- a parade, live music, and a light show being projected onto the big Convention Center across the street. We planned to eat dinner there and then wander into the park for the festivities. My boyfriend bought himself an orange light up mohawk (to show his Virginia Tech spirit, of course).  (There's my hair being crazy again!)

However the park was super crowded and we weren't interested in the music so we decided to ring in 2012 on my couch.  We headed home where I had champagne chilling. Since we had an hour until midnight, I whipped up some tuxedo strawberries. Yum!

Fancy champagne, dressed up strawberries, and a funny hat- that's my kinda New Years!

 

This morning after sleeping in, I whipped up a special brunch to celebrate the new year. We had a little champagne left over, so I added it to orange juice for mimosas. Too soon to day drink? Not on Jan 1st! For breakfast I made 9 grain and seed bread into French toast with...

Homemade Berry Compote (serves 2):

• Frozen Berries- I used the triple berry smoothie mix with blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries
• Orange juice
• Sugar
• Cornstarch

Add a handful of the frozen berries and a splash of orange juice to a small saucepan. Add a sprinkle of sugar (about a half teaspoon). Mix and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer. Add about a quarter teaspoon of cornstarch to thicken- this is optional, you could go with soupier sauce.
Leave on low heat until your french toast is ready, then pour over the top. The online recipe calculator estimates because I didn't measure anything this has about 40 calories a serving- way better than syrup!


I also mixed some 0% plain Chobani with some powdered sugar and vanilla extract for a topping.

Then I spent my afternoon cleaning up the house and writing thank you notes for Hannukah and Christmas presents. That's starting the year off on the right foot (adorable penguin feet, that is!), don't you think?

Happy 2012 everyone!