From 5K to 15K. Nope, not yet.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my spontaneous stupidity when I signed up for a 15K running event.

You can read that blog post here.

In summary, this was stupid because I had only run a 5k distance before and had a short amount of time (just over a month) to train up to the farther distance. I got my run training app downloaded and hit the pavement. Things were going well for the first couple of weeks. I was still scared, but growing in confidence that I could finish and in a respectable time.

So where are things now.....

I got a cold. Not a big deal, but it did throw off my running schedule for a week. When I started to feel better, I went for a 5-miler. It was a struggle, but I still finished within my time range goal even though I had to walk often. I had slightly less than two weeks to run day. My plan had always been to do a least one 7-mile run before the big day.

Then, that cold developed into a sinus infection. Suddenly, I found myself in the final week before the run barely dragging myself through the day. It was rough. I started to feel better and knew I had to get running again as time was running out.

So I went out to attempt a 7-miler.

And struggled. Hard. I was worn down. I was achy. I barely finished 3-miles. I had to slow down for coughing fits. I was as slow as I had ever been.

The big running event was only three days away.

I have a bad habit of being too hard on myself. I don't do a good job of letting go of things I actually have no control over. Whether it was the chunk of money I spent on registration or to show how tough I could be, for a day or so I thought I HAD to do this. I was stressing out. I knew this wasn't going to end well.

Then, I realized THIS was stupid. The stressing. The worry. This isn't life or death. I don't have anything to prove to anyone or myself. It is one day. It is one event.
Could I make a futile attempt at a distance I'm not healthy enough to do right now? Sure.
Would it be miserable? Yeah.
Does it matter if I do it or not? Nope.
In my heart, do I want to do this right now? Nope.

Here I am the day before the run.
I've resigned to the fact that I am not going.

I haven't yet resigned to the fact that I don't need to waste time worrying about my decision. That I need to just let it go and get on with it. That I don't need to sweat the small stuff. This is a life lesson I am still learning as I get older.

I'm not running a 15k...yet.
Someday, I certainly will.

From 5k to 15k

Maybe.

In most of my daily life, I am overly cautious and responsible.  I was always the "good kid" and I have continued to be the "good adult." I don't speed. I don't cheat on my taxes. I follow the rules. I don't make waves. I don't send my food back when it isn't right. I wait in lines without complaining.

But every once in a while, I'm sure as a direct result of this "goodness," I do something completely spontaneous and stupid.

Sometimes these things are downright dangerous and sometimes they are silly and small. Past spontaneous stupidities have included, but are not limited to, skydiving attached to a guy named Bubba, walking into a rave party in a foreign country, and running off to Hawaii to elope with my husband.

Since I am now a mom, my spontaneous stupidity isn't dangerous anymore, but it still appears as "doing-things-not-properly-thought-out-and-then-kicking-myself-later."

For example, signing up for a 15K running event when I have never run farther than 5K in my life. That is just over 9-miles.

Oh, and the running event is only about 4-weeks away.

And I barely tolerate running.

Why did I do this?
Besides the whole spontaneous stupidity thing?

As you may know if you follow this blog, my journey to better health and fitness has been a squiggly one. I struggle to lose weight and maintain weight loss. I struggle to keep consistently active. I have found that I do better when I have a short-term goal in sight, such as completing one entire exercise DVD program in 60 days or running in a specific event on a specific date.

Over the summer, I have been running in 5K events. I have enjoyed this. The events are fun, I usually have a small group of friends running in the same events, and I get a free t-shirt. I will do almost anything for a free t-shirt .In the back of my mind, I entertained the idea of bumping up to a 10k distance next spring.

Then, I saw an advertisement for the Hot Chocolate 15k/5k in Chicago.
My husband has run this race and raved about the swag and chocolate fondue fountains.
Running toward chocolate? This I want to do.

 I had planned to run the 5k, but somehow my brain got hung up on the idea of really challenging myself. I need a real kick-in-the-pants this time of year. Why not run farther than I ever have before? Why not run farther than I honestly think I even can?

So before I could think about it too much, I went and registered for the 15k.

Then, I freaked out.

That is a big distance jump in a short amount of time. Is it even possible? Is it even possible for me?

To be honest, I don't know.

Right now, I am just focusing on getting to 10k and hoping I can rotate running/walking/stumbling to get the rest of the way. I am using a running phone app called RunDouble for a training schedule, I borrowed a jogging stroller from a friend, and I'm trying to keep the mindset that I am all in.

My running partner and me

I know my biggest obstacle right now isn't physical, but mental. Running is hard for me and I almost panic when I get farther than 5K. I think I have to stop even though my body could still go. I think about the distance and feel overwhelmed. I have to focus on one mile at a time. I still have to slow down and walk for short bursts often, but so far I'm slowly getting farther and faster than I have ever been before. Will I be ready?

 I'm not confident I can get up to a long enough distance in time and I'm not sure what I'm going to do as the event approaches if I feel like I won't be able to pull it off. Will I not even go? Will I go and finish no matter how long it takes?

To be honest, I don't know.

But I'm going forward anyway.

Mainly because it cost a nice chunk of change to register, but also because I've never regretted a single one of the spontaneous, stupid things I have ever done. Ever. No matter how stupid.

Time to make a running playlist that will last for 15k. Oh, man.

Sweet Garden Eats

Back to trying some new recipes and sharing what works for me and for my picky eaters.

These recipes I had no trouble getting my family to eat because these are two new recipes I tried that are sweet. One is still a sneaky way to once again get my kids to eat a vegetable they normally wouldn't, while the other is so good, you will want to eat it morning, noon, and night.

Summer Squash Bread

They call this a bread, but I would say it is more like a cake. This is not something I would serve with a meal, but as a dessert. As you can see in the recipe, it has a lot of sugar in it, but also an entire large squash. So perhaps it is far from the healthiest way to serve squash, but it is delicious and my kids were thrilled that I had baked a "cake." There were dances of joy, everyone on their best behavior, and shouts of "Cake! Cake! Mommy is the best!" My oldest even asked if I could make it for his birthday cake.

It IS really pretty darn good, especially with a cup of coffee.

Blueberry Breakfast Bars

So these blueberries did not come from my garden, we went to The Blueberry Ranch in northern Indiana earlier this summer and stocked our freezer with their organic blueberries. 

I spotted this breakfast bar recipe in the latest issue of Parents magazine. I though it would be great to make ahead of time on the weekend and have handy to pull out for breakfast. My oldest, in kindergarten, has a long school day so we need to eat big healthy, hearty breakfasts, but I don't always want to get into too much preparation and cooking in the morning. 

This recipes uses blueberry preserves in addition to the whole blueberries. Preserves are yummy, but also high in sugar. If you want to serve these bars and not have the sugar, there is a fairly easy way. You can find or make no-sugar blueberry jam with only three ingredients: blueberries, honey, and lemon juice. Here is a recipe to make your own Honey Blueberry Jam.  This is the recipe I used. 

These breakfast bars are amazing. A new family favorite of everyone for anytime. These can keep in the fridge or be frozen for later use. Eat them cold or warm them up in the microwave. My kids loved to dip them in milk and my husband and I loved them with our morning coffee. These travel well for an on-the-go snack. I make a large batch on the weekend and we use them for breakfasts and snacks throughout the week. Love, love, love these breakfast bars. 

As always, I love to hear about recipes you have tried that you think I (or my little heathens) might like. 

Have a great day! 

Garden Eats

I like food. A lot.

I have not, however, always enjoyed cooking. Perhaps only because I didn't really do much of it until becoming a mom. Despite my amateur status, I enjoy trying out new recipes and learning to make foods myself that I would have purchased in the past.

When I blog about food, my goal is to share recipes I have tried that did not make me cry in the kitchen and that I could get my entire family to eat.

The last couple of months, I have been able to harvest a variety of fresh, organic produce from my garden. I triumphantly hull a rainbow of vegetables into the house, only to have my kids wrinkle their noses and announce, "Yuck!" I make vegetables anyway, put it on their plates, and then watch them push the vegetables around and make dramatic faces of distaste. Someday one of these vegetables may accidentally get into one of their mouths, but until then, I do want some of these healthy nutrients to get into their bodies. To do so, I play dirty. I look for recipes that disguise the vegetables from the eyes and palates of my little ones in the form of foods they love, such as chips and fries. Then, I laugh a low, evil laugh as they unknowingly gobble up a wide variety of "Yuck!"

Here are some of the recipes I've tried the last few weeks that went over really well.
If you click on the brown name of each dish, it will open the link for the recipe.

Baked Sweet Potato Chips

I have made this easy Martha Stewart recipe several times in the last couple months and my family couldn't get enough. I especially enjoyed adding the spritz of lime in this recipe. It gave the chips a summer evening flair. To get these chips crispy, I would suggest soaking the sliced pieces of potato in water for an hour or a few hours to remove some of the starch. Trust me. It will make them better.

Kale Chips

Kale chips are kind of a thing right now. I keep seeing people posting about them on Facebook and pinning them on Pinterest. There is a reason for this - kale is super healthy for you and kale chips are incredibly delicious. I thought for sure my kids would not fall for these because the chips do come out still green and obviously leaf-like. Lo and behold, my kids fell hard in love with kale chips.

That is once I got them right.

There are many different ways kale chips can be prepared. They can be salty, spicy, cheesy, and more. I glanced at this recipe and went for it: oven 350 degrees, toss kale leaves in olive oil and salt, put them on a baking sheet. How can something so simple be messed up?

If there is a way to mess up a recipe, I will discover it for you. Watch them while they are in the oven. Closely. They need to bake only a few minutes and the difference between the perfect kale chip and a black curled wisp of ash is apparently only seconds. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades....and also kale chips.

I don't even have a picture of kale chips I have made, except for the first-attempt wisps of ash. As soon as I take them out of the oven, my family starts hovering around and eating them off of the baking sheet before I can even get the chips to a bowl or plate. Yes, that good.

Eggplant Fries

I ended up with only two eggplant, but they were huge. I had no idea what to do with them. I went searching for something I thought the kids would like and found this recipe for Eggplant Fries. My oldest was onto me and didn't eat very much, but my 2-year old loved these. They are very messy to make, but come out very tasty and fun to eat.

Baked Zucchini Chips

Zucchini exploded out of my garden this year. I could not keep up. I donated several, made zucchini bread, zucchini pancakes, and zucchini guacamole. I had never tried Zucchini Chips before. My kids ate them, but I think these were the favorite of my husband. He wanted me to make another batch he could snack on at night.

I know it is healthier to make the last two vegetables in their most basic and not breaded form, but these recipes got my kids to eat vegetables they normally wouldn't even allow to touch their plate. I'm hoping this will lead them to someday accept these vegetable when they are able to discern the underlying flavor. For now, I'm just happy zucchini and eggplant entered their bodies. I'll take it.

If you try any of these recipes, or if you have a similar recipe you like even better, I'd love to hear about it.
Feel free to share in the comments.

Out of the rut, into a single bag of groceries. Cannonball.

I'm know this blog may be nothing new and mind-blowing, but recently, I've been putting much more thought into the meals I prepare for my family and my trips to the grocery store and I thought I would share some of what I've been doing. Of course, I've been trying to make healthier choices, but I'm also trying to save money and time and come home with everything I need to make meals for the week so I don't have to keep stopping by the store on the way home everyday.  My husband and I, both foodies, are really bad grocery impulse buyers. It is not unheard of for either of us to go to the store for milk, just milk, and return with a trunk full of food.  We both enjoy trying new recipes, ones that often need unique (usually equals expensive) ingredients that we use for that one meal and then the ingredients disappear into the back of cabinets and refrigerator drawers, never to be used again. This is wasteful on many levels. As part of trying to be healthier, less wasteful, and save money, we started thinking about ways to better plan and make meals.

Also, as busy folks are apt to do, we fall into dinner ruts. My husband and I will make the exact same kid-friendly meals over and over and over until even my 4 year old, usually thriving on routine, sighs, "Oh...this again." These kid-friendly meals (although we parents hate to admit it) are usually more fast than the healthiest choice, and although perfectly fine some of the time, shouldn't necessarily be in such a constant rotation. So my other goal is to expand our meal plan, while also getting more bang for my buck.

To kick off this new idea, I saw this article in Eating Well magazine and decide to follow the suggested meals exactly as the article said. The idea is for five dinners, with ingredients that fit into one bag, and costs around $50 or less. Indeed, with some of the ingredients already in my kitchen, I was able to buy the rest at under $50 dollars and carry it home in one reusable bag. I was impressed by how fast and easy these meals were and how delicious. Everyone in the family loved them.

I won't go into the recipe details because I would suggest you check out the article itself, but I will share a few quick thoughts about how each dish went over at my house.

We started with the Spring Pizza, which I had actually made before and my husband and I loved. My kids, however, balked at my tainting of the traditional, so they ate plain cheese versions of this with asparagus on the side (which I had to tell them were trees and they were giraffes just to get them to nibble at it). I also didn't have the traditional pizza crust on hand and didn't make my own, I used a flat bread. We love this pizza and I've made it a couple more times since.

The curry scallops and cilantro rice was also pretty good. The main problem with this dish was chef error. I am not very good at cooking seafood, despite watching years of Top Chef, and I overcooked the scallops. I could almost feel Tom Colicchio and Padma burning holes through my face with their glares of disapproval. The cilantro rice was a hit all the way around the table.

Next came Cincinnati Chili, I lived in Cincinnati for over a decade, so what I did to change this recipe is a cardinal sin. I confess. I did it, not only did I add beans, but I substituted the ground beef. Don't cry, Cincinnati friends. Usually I try to serve red meats only once or twice a month, and eat vegetarian a few days per week, so I used the vegetarian ground-meat substitute crumbles instead. It still satisfied the constant craving I have for Skyline and my kids still gobbled it up with oyster crackers. If you aren't too concerned about calories, don't forget the mountain of cheddar cheese on top.

The Pork and Snap Pea Lo Mein was the favorite dish, grown-up and kid-approved. The flavor was really good and something I hadn't tried making at home before, I don't know why because it was easy and quick. I also threw in the asparagus that we had leftover from pizza night. My husband took the leftovers to work for lunch and said he thought it tasted even better the next day.

And last, the Rice, Cheddar, and Spinach Pie. This reminded me of a quiche, but with rice as the base instead of custard. This was extremely easy and took only minutes to prepare. Everyone liked it, even my kids, despite the green stuff, which they picked out. We ate it as our main meal, but it would also be a great side or to take to a carry-in. There was a little bit of a crispness to the bottom and side and a comforting flavor. I'll be making this again as a comfort food on a cold, snowy day.

  At the same time, I'm trying to lower my grocery bill to keep within a certain budget and plan weekly meals before I go to the store so I am buying only what I need. I especially liked this idea of getting five meals out of one bag of groceries because having multiple meals over many days using the same ingredients obviously saves money. So not only am I going to directly follow this example from Eating Well, but I'm also going to continue trying to plan my weekly dinners based on the meals sharing many of the same ingredients and avoid having tons of ingredients around for a meal I made weeks ago slowly going bad and being forgotten in the bottom of the fridge and cabinets. Because that happens often and is wasteful on many levels. And gross. I'm trying to plan my meals, make the list of what I need, and only buy what is on the list while I'm at the store.

I am also trying to use bases and fillers for meals that keep well and can be used for many different types of dishes. For example, I keep brown rice, lentils, whole grain pastas, and Japanese noodles always on hand. These can be added to soups to make it go farther and be more filling. Also just adding vegetables and/or a protein with a sauce or spices can make a quick meal when you are pressed for time and ideas.

Just this past summer, my husband and I have even more of an effort to grow our own food. We planted our largest garden yet and are using a small cold-frame to keep greens growing even into the winter. We have our children help us and even have their own small plots. Surprisingly, they will often eat what they gather and wash from the garden, even though if I put it in front of them, they would say, "Yuck!" This spring we will begin to raise some chickens to have a constant supply of fresh eggs.

These are just a few things I've been trying and I would love more ideas or things that have worked for your family. So feel free to share in the comments!

Also I've had these pages bookmarked as I've been looking for more ideas and recipes:

This 7-Day Budget-Friendly Menu Plan and Shopping List
Skinnytaste  - website with fabulous recipes and meal ideas
USDA: eating healthy on a budget tips and links
Budget-friendly Healthy Meals from the Food Network