Runs for Cookies

September 18, 2011

Surprise (or not)

You would think that after taking a hiatus from my computer yesterday, that I'd be loaded with things to blog about this morning. Unfortunately, I spent most of my time lying on the couch watching Lifetime Movie Network and trying to get over this stupid cold. It's moved from my throat to my sinuses now, so I'm blowing my nose constantly.

I have managed to stick with my no-eating-after-7 challenge, and it hasn't really been hard at all. That surprises me! But I've been going to bed at about 9, so I'm certainly not hungry when I go to bed. I've been craving comfort foods galore while I've been sick. Yesterday, for dinner, I made the mother of all comfort foods (to me, anyway)--chicken noodle casserole, otherwise known as "Jerry's Chicken Casserole Surprise". Here's the story about that:

Shortly after we were married and moved into our new house, and I was pregnant, when I went to the bathroom I noticed that I had some spotting. I was really nervous and scared, because it was so early in my pregnancy. My mom had a miscarriage with her first pregnancy, so I was worried that was happening to me. It was a Sunday evening, so I couldn't go into the doctor's office. I decided to wait until Monday morning to do anything.

Knowing that I was a nervous wreck and feeling really upset, Jerry decided to try to make dinner. He'd never cooked anything in his life, so he was clueless--but instead of asking me, he got out a cookbook that my aunt had given me and he found a recipe for chicken-noodle casserole. He made it, and it turned out pretty good. I couldn't eat much, because of my nerves. Turns out everything was fine with my pregnancy (Noah is now 7!) and now that casserole is total comfort food to me, because it reminds me of that night.

I don't know why he gave it a name that would possibly be used in a school cafeteria--"Jerry's Chicken Casserole Surprise". Apparently he felt like he had to rename it because he cooked something? When I asked why the "surprise", he said, "I don't know. Don't all casseroles have the word 'surprise' in them?"

Comfort food tastes so much better when you're sick. I've been having "Screamin' Rice" for breakfast the past few days. Screamin' Rice is something that we had as kids--actually "Cream of Rice" with butter, sugar, and milk on top. For some reason, we called it Screamin' Rice, so that's what I call that combo to this day.

I feel kind of bad that I have no pictures to post over the past couple of days. Oh wait, my kids went squirrel hunting for the first time with my dad...

Eli, my dad, and Noah

They actually shot a squirrel, too! Eli was soooo excited to go. For days, he kept asking me if it was time to go squirrel hunting yet. His teacher heard all about it, and he was counting the minutes. So of course he was thrilled when they got a squirrel. I don't know that I've ever tried squirrel meat. My dad used to hunt them and cook them when I was a kid, so I probably tried it, but I don't remember. My dad always gave me the squirrel tails after he skinned the squirrels... gross, huh? Hahaha, I loved it. He gave Eli the tail from the squirrel they just got, and Eli is going to bring it to show-and-tell on Tuesday. His poor teacher ;)

And I guess I will leave you with a "Google search of the day". (If I can remember, I'll post one of these on each of my entries, since the blog post I did seemed to be a hit):

Hmm, what a great question! I think a better question is, why are you wearing long pink shorts?

What is your mother-of-all-comfort-foods? Is there a story behind it? Share, please!

September 16, 2011

RECIPE: Indian Lentil Soup

Dede, a reader of Runs for Cookies, e-mailed this recipe to me when she learned I like lentils. She said she got it from the newspaper years ago and made a couple of changes. And then, because I can never leave a recipe alone, I made a change or two myself. ;) I've been eating it every day for lunch, because it is delicious!

Here is a printer-friendly version!

Indian Lentil Soup

2 tsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup of red lentils
4 cups of broth (I used chicken broth)
1 (15 oz) can of crushed tomatoes
1 medium potato (about 6 oz), peeled and diced
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
1/2 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. turmeric
dash (1/8 tsp) of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a soup pot over medium heat and add the olive oil. Cook the onion in the oil for a few minutes, and then add the garlic and cook for a minute. Add the broth, lentils, tomatoes, and spices, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, partially-cover it with a lid, and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the carrots and potato, and simmer, covered, until veggies are just tender, about 20 minutes. Makes 4 servings, about 1-2/3 cups each.

September 16, 2011

Evening snacking

Ever since I can remember, evening snacking has been a problem for me. I like the feeling of getting cozy on the couch in front of the TV after the kids are in bed, and snacking--usually something sweet. Personally, I don't think there is anything wrong with eating in the evening--I did it throughout my entire weight loss, and had no problems losing weight that way.

I was reading through my old blog yesterday, and came across an entry I wrote in 2007 after an experiment I had done. For 30 days, I didn't eat after 7:00 pm. I initially did the experiment to see if I would lose more weight that way, even when consuming the same number of calories as when I ate at night. In the end, the weight loss was pretty much the same. But I learned a lot about myself in those 30 days. Here are the results (copied from my old entry):

1) Knowing that I had to get in all my points before 7 PM changed my food-mindset. Prior to the experiment, I would eat much more lightly at breakfast and lunch, so that I'd have a lot of food for dinner and then snacks at night. I went hungry though out the day often because I was "saving" points for later. If you're a compulsive/binge eater, you know that hunger can set you up for bingeing! So while doing the experiment, I knew that I had to eat all my points before 7 PM, and therefore, I ate a higher point breakfast and lunch, and almost the rest of my points at dinner (saving a few for dessert to immediately follow dinner, rather than for TV time at night).

2) I stopped thinking about my night-time snack. During the day prior to the experiment, I was constantly thinking about what I was going to indulge in later that night after the kids went to bed (even if it was within my points range). Once I knew that I couldn't eat after 7 PM, I quit thinking about it!

3) I stopped emotional eating. This was a huge difference I noticed!! My eating at night was completely an emotional thing--I liked to curl up on the couch with my favorite TV shows on and something sweet and indulgent to eat. It made me feel cozy and comfortable. While doing the experiment, I started by switching to green tea for that same effect, but after about 2 weeks I even quit having that. I didn't feel like I needed anything at night!

4) Food lost that "good food/bad food" title. This was very weird to me, and somewhat hard to explain. I always used to think of certain foods as "good" or "bad"--ice cream was "bad" and broccoli was "good". Those are two extremes, but all foods pretty much had a label like that. Before doing the experiment, I tended to save the "bad" foods for nighttime snacking. During the experiment, I just chose to eat what I wanted, when I wanted. If I wanted ice cream, for example, instead of waiting until the kids went to bed, I would eat it after lunch. What's the big deal? It stopped feeling like a "bad" food to me, because I wasn't eating it at night.

So, after reading that in my old entry, I was feeling inspired to try it again. Starting today, my husband and I are going to stop eating after 7:00 pm. Calorie-free beverages are allowed, but that's all. And while I'm at it, I'm going to *try* to go 30 28 days without sweets (the wedding I'm in is in 30 days, so I'll do this challenge for 28 days). I feel like I've been eating them waaaay too often lately, and I feel like I need to "reset" my taste buds/sweet acuity. I'm going to try to get creative and still have dessert every day--I'll just have to experiment with desserts that aren't sweets.

I know what you're thinking: "Really, Katie? You suck at finishing your challenges."

Totally valid point. I am notorious for starting challenges for myself and not finishing them. But if I consider how many times I attempted to lose weight vs. how many times I was successful, well... it doesn't hurt to keep trying!

So anyways, I've been battling with a cold for about a week now, and it's driving me crazy. This morning, I felt like I was swallowing razorblades. I watched a movie, drank a few cups of tea, and then felt so guilty about skipping my scheduled easy 3-miler, that I decided to just go run. I ran really easy, and now I have two days off of running, so hopefully I'll be feeling better before Monday's long run (9 miles).

Now, I think I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon lying on the couch (to treat this cold, of course).

Do you find night time snacking to be a problem for you? Have you ever tried to give yourself a cut-off time?

September 15, 2011

This is why I don't bake

I've mentioned before that I LOVE to cook, but I'm not much of a baker. I don't like to follow recipes, I don't like to measure ingredients, I like to make substitutions for ingredients, etc--all of which led to many baked goods disasters in my kitchen.

Yesterday, I created what was quite possibly the ugliest cake EVER.

It was Jerry's birthday, and I wasn't planning on making a cake until the last minute. It seems like we're ALWAYS on some sort of diet on our birthdays, so we never have birthday cakes. Well yesterday, I was thinking how sad that is, so I decided to make a cake. I found a recipe in a book for a peanut butter-chocolate cake (sounds right up my alley, no?!) and I had all the ingredients on hand.

I tried really hard to follow the directions and measurements. I baked it in a 9x13 pan, just like the recipe said. However, I tried to invert the cake onto a glass tray thing, and that's when it totally fell apart. So I put all the pieces back together onto the tray, and figured I'd just double the batch of frosting (because what's the harm in THAT?) and cover up the mistakes.

Hahaha, it didn't quite work out that way. (Oh MY! I just uploaded the pics to my computer, and almost died laughing. It looks even worse than I remember):

This is after piecing it back together (before frosting, obviously)

After putting on the peanut butter frosting

I do want to point out, however, that this cake tasted SO GOOD--totally making up for it's fugliness. Jerry laughed when he saw the cake, but when he tasted it, he was in love. The peanut butter frosting was amazing--it tasted just like the center of Mrs. Fields Peanut Butter Dream Bars (not that I know what those taste like, or anything). And the cake was really moist.

I had a ~~sliver~~ large piece, and sent the rest to work with Jerry this morning (except for two pieces that I sent in the kids' lunches. I'm glad I did that, otherwise I'd be stuffing my face full of chocolate-peanut butter goodness.

The kids were so cute when Jerry came home from work last night. We had his favorite dinner ready, and Eli grabbed a beer out of the fridge for him--Noah and Eli hid behind the door, and when Jerry walked in, they yelled, "Happy birthday!" and Eli gave him the beer. Jerry said it was the best greeting ever.

This morning, with a belly that was probably still full of cake from last night, I had to do a 45-minute tempo run. I knew it was going to be cold today, so I wore my Under Armour Cold Gear pants and a running jacket. I was still a little shocked when I stepped outside and realized just how cold it was! I was hopping up and down at the bus stop.

When the kids got on the bus, I did an easy 1-mile warm-up, then ran comfortably hard for 3 miles (my goal was about a 9:00/mi pace, but I didn't want to focus on the pace so much as feeling like it was hard, but not TOO hard). I didn't look at the Garmin until I was done:

Yesterday, someone asked me what website I use to show these screen shots--I use www.runningahead.com. You don't have to have a Garmin to use it, but I like that I can upload my Garmin info to it.

What is the worst kitchen disaster you've ever had? I think mine has to have involved steel cut oats. For the life of me, I cannot cook steel cut oats without either burning them, boiling them over, or undercooking them. I can cook just about anything else--but steel cut oats just aren't my thing!

Steel cut oats in the microwave

Steel cut oats on the stove

I've since learned to cook them in the slow cooker. But I never think that far ahead!

September 14, 2011

Helicopters

Today, my husband is 31 years old. WHERE DID THE YEARS GO?! When we first started dating, he was 18. I'm having such a hard time coming to terms with the fact that I will be 30 come January. No longer in my 20's. It will be a sad, sad day for me.

Anyway, Jerry left for work at 5 this morning, when the rest of us were in bed. When the boys woke up, I told them that it's Daddy's birthday today, and the first thing Eli said was, "We should buy him some beer!!" Hahaha. Jerry is just as into beer as I am into wine. He loves trying all different beers. When I go to the grocery store, I'll pick some random six-pack hoping that he hasn't tried it before (but he always has). So Eli was right on when he said we should buy him beer.

My mom came over to walk with us to the bus stop. After the kids went to school, I went for my scheduled five-mile easy run. I didn't look at my Garmin even ONCE the entire time, which is good. On my easy runs, I've been really focusing on trying to run easy enough to be able to hold conversation (if I had someone to converse with), and when I see how slow I'm going by looking at my Garmin, I get discouraged and speed up--which defeats the purpose of an "easy run". My average heart rate was 145, which is pretty much right where it should be for an easy run.

WOW! Just as I was writing this, I heard a loud helicopter outside. Which isn't unusual, because we live next to Lake Erie and when people go missing (fishermen, swimmers, etc) the coast guard flies around looking for them. But I stepped outside, and I seriously thought this helicopter was going to crash across the street from my house. It was going a sharp downward angle, and then flew about 15 feet off the ground. It took me a minute to realize what was going on. They were spraying something on the marsh. My dad told me that the state got a huge grant to fix it up, and they're going to kill all the weeds and crap down there and then it'll be like a man-made lake or something. Which I'm excited about!

See how low it's flying?

This is what it looks like now... they're going to kill EVERYTHING and clean it up

A couple of years ago, I heard helicopters all night, and later discovered that a bank robber was hiding out in the woods and marsh across from my house--the helicopters were looking for him. Since I live on a peninsula, there is only one way in and one way out, so there was a road block for a few days. The cops would search your car every time you drove down the road to make sure the robber wasn't in there. He ended up getting away anyways, and they found him in another state a few weeks later.

The news came out here and interviewed Jerry (while I wasn't home), but I made Jerry call the news channel later to tell them not to use his interview. In it, he had said that his "wife is scared because she's home alone at night while he's working midnights." REALLY, Jerry? Why don't you just leave the doors unlocked with a sign on it for the robber to come right in, too?

Does your husband say stupid shit sometimes where you just want to smack him?

September 13, 2011

RECIPE: Homemade Chocolate Muffin Tops (mock Vitatops)

One of my favorite snacks is a chocolate Vitatop with fat free Cool Whip. The Vitatops are so good, but SO expensive. So after buying a muffin top baking sheet at a garage sale, I decided to create my own Vitatops. You can find the original recipe here. I altered it to my liking.

Here is a printer friendly version!

Homemade Chocolate Vitatops

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Dash of salt

2 egg whites (or 3 Tbsp of liquid egg whites)

1/4 cup baby food prunes (you could use applesauce, but the baby food prunes are richer, sweeter, and have more fiber)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup almond milk

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup water

A few chocolate chips to sprinkle on top (optional--I chose not to use them)

Combine all the wet ingredients in a bowl. Add the dry ingredients and stir until smooth. Pour a scant 1/4 cup of batter into a muffin-top pan (if you don't have a muffin top pan, you could probably make these in a regular muffin pan or just pour the batter into 1/4 cup mounds on a baking sheet). Top with a sprinkle of chocolate chips, if you're using them.

Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and let them cool. Wrap individually and freeze. When you're ready to eat one, just unwrap it and nuke it in the microwave for 20 seconds. I love these topped with Cool Whip!

I got 9 1/2 muffins by using a full 1/4 cup. You could stretch it to 10 muffins if you use just barely shy of 1/4 cup of batter.

September 13, 2011

1000 Ways to Die

Actually 1001 if you count death by peanut shortage. Have any of you ever seen this show--1000 Ways to Die on Spike? They were running a marathon of it yesterday, and I happened to catch an episode. It was AWESOME and of course I recorded the rest of the marathon. It's kind of morbid, but it's a show about actual (and very strange) ways that people have died. You would never actually think that these things could happen, but they are based on true stories.

For example, one guy was throwing lawn darts (in the 70's, of course) and his girlfriend flashed him. He ended up throwing the dart straight up in the air, and it came down right through his head. Another example: There was a driver's ed. instructor that was really frustrated at one girl, who walked away. He leaned across the driver's seat, and started banging on the steering wheel while he was yelling at her. He set off the airbag, which broke his neck.

While morbid, and kind of graphic, the show is kind of tongue-in-cheek. I laughed just as much as I said, "NO WAY!" while watching it. The titles of each story are hilarious. It kind of reminds me of a real-life version of the Final Destination movies.

Anyways, this is a lucky week for me!! I have never ever won a giveaway before... and I actually won TWO this week. I won CLIF bars from Donald at Running and Rambling, and I won a Burt's Bees package from Ellen at Fat Girl Wearing Thin.

Oh! I made something a few days ago that I'm super excited about. One of my favorite snacks is a chocolate Vitatop with cool whip. But Vitatops are insanely expensive--$1 each on SALE. So I decided to try and make my own from scratch, that would have similar calories, fat, fiber, etc... and TASTE, of course. At a garage sale on Saturday, I found a muffin top baking sheet, so it was meant to be. I found a recipe online, and then altered it to my liking, and they turned out perfectly--just like Vitatops. I will never again be spending $4 on a box of 4 Vitatops. I posted the recipe here, if you'd like to try it out.

The only thing missing is the few chocolate chips on top. But you know I can't have chocolate chips in my house, ever again.

Well, my laundry is not going to do itself, so I better do some housework.

September 12, 2011

I might as well be dead

I really hoped it wasn't true. I read about it first on Krista's blog, and then after my heart quit racing with fear, I hauled my ass to the grocery store to check it out for myself. Found the aisle I was looking for, and taped to the shelf was the note:

"Due to a peanut shortage, we will not be carrying the store brand of peanut butter until further notice. Also, JIF has stopped making the reduced-fat peanut butter and the honey peanut butter until the shortage is solved."

Now, my heart lies with Smucker's natural peanut butter, but it doesn't matter in this case. THERE IS A PEANUT SHORTAGE, due to all the rain this year. No peanuts=no peanut butter.

And I die.

I did buy ~~a few~~ nine jars--and one of them was the size of my head. I might go buy some more. After all, there is no such thing as too MUCH peanut butter, right?

Laugh all you want, but don't come crawling to me when you're dying for a PB&J next year, and you have no peanut butter stocked!

Anyway... I think it's hilarious that you all thought I'd have a high-pitched voice! I've always disliked my voice because I think it's too deep and manly--and I want it to sound pretty and feminine. But your comments made me think maybe it's not so bad.

And my accent? Of course I grew up thinking that I was the one without the accent, and everyone else "talks funny". But when I listen to myself on video, I definitely hear a northern hillbilly-like accent. In Michigan, we definitely stress the vowels.

I'm not sure if the video I submitted will even be used, but I'll let you know when I hear anything. I was told to send a close up video and a full-body shot. I liked the close-up ones better, but I don't know what they'll use (or IF they'll use one).

I fucked up my binge-free streak this weekend :( It started so innocently, with a pan of Hungry Girl's Chocolate PB Fudge (brownie mix+pumpkin+peanut butter). You put it in an 8x8 pan, and then cut it into 36 pieces--36!! Who is going to eat just 1/36th of the pan? Not I.

Then I topped that off with a Reese cup flurry. But I justified that because the Reese cup flurry has Reese cups in it (duh) and those have peanut butter in them. With a peanut shortage looming overheard, the Reese cups probably won't be around long, and then I won't be able to have a Reese cup flurry for a whole year! So it was perfectly okay that I got a ~~small~~ medium one, right? RIGHT?

Anyway, back on plan today. After the kids went to school, I did my long run (8 miles) and went grocery shopping. The day is going by waaay too fast.

What is one food that you would rather die than not eat for a year? Mine is DEFINITELY nut butter. Peanut butter, to be specific.

September 11, 2011

Outtakes

So, I might as well just announce it now... I'm a goddamn GENIUS. Yesterday, at a garage sale, I bought a Rubik's Cube for a nickel. I've never solved one, so I just thought it'd be fun to try. And I DID IT! Okay, Jerry said I must have a disclaimer that I Googled the solution, but it still takes some serious brainwork to do it.

A Rubik's "before" photo

And about an hour and a half later... a genius, I tell you

Now, you might be wondering, "Katie--why is your ~~face so greasy~~ hair did? You never do your hair!" Well, there is a reason for that, too. The PR Director of Sparkpeople contacted me yesterday and asked me if I could make a short video clip of myself. All I had to do was have a video of me saying, "You can do it!" however I wanted to say it. I think it's going to be some promotional thing for Sparkpeople. Anyway, at first I thought, "No WAY am I going to do that--it will sound so cheesy!"

But of course I did it.

I did my hair and make-up, so I didn't look TOO dumpy, and then Jerry and I went outside and did about 60 "takes" of me saying "You can do it!" All I kept thinking of was in Forrest Gump, when Jenny says, "C'mon, Forrest, you can do it!" in a really gumpy voice. Anyways, when we watched the clips, I put together a bunch of the "outtakes" from our little video session, and I thought I'd share them with you. I know, I'm so thoughtful.

(Oh, and I should probably clue you in on something... I say something about how I can't "do the 'm' sound" in the word filming. Ever since I broke my jaw, I've had a numb lower lip. And when I'm smiling or laughing, I can't bring my lips together well, so my 'm' and 'b' sounds come out like a 'v' sound. Jerry and I are always laughing about it. So that's what I'm talking about when I say I can't do the 'm'.)

That is my first (published) video of me actually talking. Jerry and I had SO MUCH FUN making the video clips. We laughed so hard (as you can see in the video).

September 09, 2011

Google has all the answers

For the life of me, I cannot come up with anything to blog about this morning. It's still pouring rain outside, although I managed to sneak in a 4-mile run this morning between downpour. Since I have nothing to write about, I will at least humor you with some interesting phrases that people Googled to wind up on my blog...