Recent Lunches, Dinners, and Desserts

My hamstring feels so much better! I may try running outside today OR I may not. I don’t mind not running, but the weather is so nice for this time of year and I already did barre and pilates so far this week. I’m just so proud of myself for realizing that my hamstring hurt during Saturday’s run and that I was smart enough to back off immediately, rest it for a few days from running/walking, and feel like myself again. I just don’t understand why people push themselves into injuries.

Recent Meals

I eat oatmeal every day for breakfast but never take a picture of it. However, I had the baked oatmeal at the Premier Diner on Monday for lunch and did take a picture because it’s such a big beautiful bowl of goodness.

From what I understand, the diner makes one batch of baked oatmeal every morning. When it runs out, they don’t make more until the next day. I was lucky to get a big bowl served with a side of milk that I pour on top to mush everything up — it’s just so good.

In other lunch news, I had this big chopped salad from Town Bagel. I would be lying if I listed the ingredients – I really don’t remember well enough to do so.

I do remember what was in this salad that I made for lunch:

• Romaine
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Mushrooms
• Onion
• Dr. Praeger’s Veggie Burger
• Chickpeas
• Avocado
• Feta Cheese
• Balsamic Vinaigrette

My new routine after yoga is to come home, shower, and make mashed avocado on Ezekiel toast and/or an egg on toast. There’s mashed avocado under that egg, by the way.

The staff at Mario’s gets really confused if I walk in to order something other than “my usual” which is the whole wheat margarita pizza to go, not heated up.

I decided, on a whim, to order the eggplant pizza for a change. The girl rang it up but the man who usually boxes up my pizza put the whole wheat margarita pizza in the box first. When we told him I did something crazy and got a different slice, he boxed the eggplant pizza but they gave me the margarita pizza to take home (for free) too.

My son ate my free margarita slice so fast as a snack before I could even decide if I wanted a bite or to wrap it up.

I always say how much I enjoy the lentil pasta from Trader Joe’s – I really do! It’s so great to have on hand for a quick and easy, healthy but always tasty dinner.

I cooked mushrooms in a pan with olive oil while cooking the lentil pasta separately. Then I combined everything in the pan with the Trader Joe’s plant-based bolognese sauce. Really is such a good combination!

Apples!

I mentioned last week that I’ve been back to eating an apple almost every night.

This was an organic honey crisp warmed with cinnamon and a little bit of peanut butter.

And this apple was a Granny Smith not warmed, sprinkled with cinnamon, peanut butter, and a few dark chocolate chips.

A little blurry but I’m including it anyway!

And finally, a big box of Godiva.

best long run ever & workout recap

Oh hi. Happy Valentine’s Day!

So many chocolate truffles to choose from at Godiva!

Before you go eat your Valentine’s chocolate, let’s take a look at my workouts from the week.

Monday – 3 Miles treadmill & 20 Minutes Elliptical

I was not feeling up to a major sweaty workout. Even with Sunday off, I think last week’s miles and Saturday’s fast paced finish to my long run left my muscles tired. I skipped Pure Barre and went with an easy 3 miles on the treadmill which felt nice and comfortable BUT BORING so I switched to the elliptical to finish up my time in the gym.

This was my hungry day which I wrote about on Wednesday. Click here if you missed it.

Tuesday – 7.50 Miles

I felt much more normal and ready for a good treadmill run this morning.

Miles 1 – 3 easy @ 6.3 – 7.0

Miles 4 – 7  harder effort @ 6.8 – 7.7 plus cool down

I always gravitate to the treadmill closest to the mirror. Do you have a favorite treadmill in your gym?

Wednesday – Pure Barre Mile High DVD & 5 Miles

I was more than ready for Pure Barre today and thrilled to get outside for a run!

Thursday – 8 Miles

I woke up thinking I would brave the cold and run outdoors until I looked outside and saw a coating of snow on the ground. There went that idea – way too slippery. I don’t remember much about this run other than I finished the last 3 miles around an 8:00 min/mile pace.

Later in the morning – Yoga For Runners: Pre-Run

Friday – Pure Barre Studio Series DVD & 30 Minutes Running

It was around 16 degrees but no wind or ice on the ground so for sure I was running outside! I wasn’t cold at all, although I wasn’t outside for that long. Beyond 30 minutes, I may have started to feel it.

Saturday – 14 Miles

It was very cold (16 degrees? 18 degrees?) but I wanted to run outside before it got even colder – temps were dropping and it was going to get real windy.

I am so glad that I did!  I had my best run maybe ever?

If MapMyRun was correct, I finished 13.1 miles around 1:43:30 which is almost 2 minutes faster than my PR.

I think running in such cold weather kept me going fast without realizing it. I didn’t even feel cold while I was out there thanks to several layers, a hat, scarf and the best running mittens ever created.

I don’t think lululemon still sells these fluff over mittens but if you can find them, they are worth every penny.

Sunday – No running, maybe yoga

In case you missed it:

I shared Part Two of Finding Balance Between Our Diets & Workouts on Tuesday and a fun New Treadmill Workout on Friday!  Suzy tried the workout  and really liked it. Let me know if you try it 🙂

And since it’s so cold at the moment, it’s worth revisiting my most recent winter weather workout favorites post!  I definitely needed these essentials yesterday.

[bctt tweet=”Best long run ever & workout recap #running #workouts #purebarre #longrun #fitfluential #treadmill”]

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Is it beyond frigid by you this weekend? Did you run outside or indoors?

Is today a rest day or workout day?

What kind of chocolate do you plan on eating today?

 

Red Mango BOGO and Chocolate Chip Waffle Iron Cookies

 

Ten years ago today someone had their first Valentine’s Day:

My little bunny.

Time flies by, just flies. Although, it sure goes slow when you are snowed in. Just saying.

I bought the little boy his special Valentine chocolates earlier this week since I knew the snowstorm was coming and I couldn’t risk not having a box to hand him this morning.

If you recall last year, he requested Godiva. This year however, he failed to request anything, most likely because he is too busy “oovoling” everyone.

So instead of going Godiva, I went to a local chocolate store and picked out some goodies.

Chocolate covered pretzels (one with m&m’s just because I couldn’t pass it up), chocolate covered oreo’s and my favorite, the giant nonpairels – they are the best!).

As I type the word “chocolate” over and over, I hear myself saying it in my head while suddenly realizing that if most of you heard my New York accent version of “chocolate”, you would probably have what to say about it since it sounds most like “chAWclate”.

Sure, I could have made all of this but sometimes it is nice to have it done for you and if I want to be totally honest, I like going to chocolate stores because I like the way it smells.

And because I like to get gumballs from an old-fashioned gumball machine.

Anyway, I am super excited this morning.

Red Mango Buy One Get One Free = Double yogurt for me.

Did you honestly think I would share such an offer? Not even my Valentine would stand a chance getting in on this deal.

My plan is to make my parfait and then make another cup full of only yogurt (no toppings) to bring home to my freezer, the freezer I didn’t clean out yesterday. There is always room for frozen yogurt, trust me.

I know what you are thinking – soft-serve frozen yogurt is just not the same from the freezer. I agree. However, Red Mango does well for itself when stored in the freezer and allowed to come out and soften for a bit prior to eating.

And it’s free. So why not?

I am also excited since today is Davida’s Great Valentine’s Day Bake Off Link Up Party.

She posts the most delicious of recipes daily but this week has been all about dessert. No wonder I like her.

In fact, her post yesterday was for these incredible chocolatey Black Bean Lava Cakes which I had every intention of baking after cleaning the pantry but the little boy only wanted to bake my original chocolate chip cookies.

Don’t get me wrong, very little beats a fresh from the oven simple and original chocolate chip cookie, especially mine, but when you have so many recipes in front of you each day, so many new pins and so many yummy looking treats in your mind, it is hard to just settle on your tried and true.

Let’s call this a compromise – Chocolate Chip Cookies made on the waffle iron. FINALLY! I know that I posted about waffle iron options months ago, pinning a bunch of the recipes yet doing nothing with them.

Until yesterday.

Easy. Fun. Chocolatey Chippy.

I loosely followed this recipe but since I had to make adjustments based upon what I had, here is how it went down:

Chocolate Chip Waffle Iron Cookies:

• 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
• scant 1/2 coconut oil 
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 egg plus 1 white
• 1 tsp vanilla
• pinch salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
• chocolate chips or chunks  – I never measure, don’t go less than a cup though

* I did half butter and half coconut oil because I only had a 1/2 stick of butter left in the house and the recipe called for the full stick. I like combining the coconut oil and butter but you can absolutely do all coconut oil or all butter.

The recipe had called for two eggs but I did the one egg and one white – I just felt like seeing if we would notice the lack of an extra yolk – we didn’t.

**I used regular flour  but I have a feeling you can attempt to healthify these with white whole wheat flour, oat flour or whatever else you have on hand.

Directions:

Melt butter and coconut oil in microwave safe bowl. Whisk together melted combo with eggs and vanilla. Add in flour, baking soda and mix. Add in oats and chocolate chunks (or chips).

Drop about 2 tablespoons on each square of the waffle iron. Close and let cook for about 2-3 minutes. You can totally open it up and check on them after a minute. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

They will still seem soft when you take them out of the waffle iron but do crisp up after a few minutes. Amazing texture yet you don’t even notice that oats were involved in this waffle cookie at all.

I have grand plans for this waffle maker now. Grand. Along with tackling waffle iron potatoes, I may even consider making my own waffle cone bowls like I get from Cold Stone Creamery.

All of this chocolate and cookie talk has made me super hungry so I am going to go now and eat breakfast. In case you were wondering, I have already started mentally preparing myself for tomorrow’s long run which has no choice but to be accomplished on the treadmill.

Since I always look on the bright side, at least I have access to a treadmill.

Have a very Happy Valentine’s Day and a wonderful weekend – be sure to check out Davida’s Link-Up for some great dessert ideas!

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Do you have a recognizable accent?

Ever make cookies on the waffle iron?

What kind of chocolate are you most looking forward to eating today?