Menu Planning - 1/3/11

Happy New Year everyone!!!  Well Adam has expressed the need to lose a few lbs (while I continue to gain, good luck hubby), so I thought I would start figuring out some meals for the week and why not post them as well.  This is what I am thinking for this week.

Monday - Wild rice pub burgers, homemade baked sweet potato fries, and roasted broccoli
Tuesday - Leftover butternut squash soup (from Vegetarian Times magazine), grilled cheese sandwiches
Wednesday - Cottage cheese and noodles (BTW, we have switched to using elbow macaroni)
Thursday - Trader Toe's simmer sauce with chicken and tofu (and veggies) with brown rice
Friday - Smoky Bean Burritos or homemade pizza

Hope everyone has a great week!

549.22

That is the number of miles I ran this year.  Not great for a runner, but considering I had to get a house ready to put on the market, sell a house, buy a house, move out of a house, renovate a house, move into a house, and then get pregnant and be sick for 3 months, I think 549.22 isn't too bad.  I had a good 4-5 months probably where running wasn't a priority.  I spent a lot of time packing up and unpacking.  I was hoping to get another run in today so I could have made it over 550, but we decided to go to the Georgia Aquarium instead.  There is a mermaid show going on right now and we knew Hope would love it (and she did kind of).  My goal for next year is 750 miles, which is 14.5 miles a week.  Of course right now I am not doing that many miles a week so I am going to be in a deficit in the first part of the year, so I better bump it up after the baby comes. 

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Creamy Tomato Jalapeno Pasta

I found this recipe in my Vegetarian Times magazine and it was a vegan creamy pasta recipe, so I thought I would give it a try.  I made a few tweaks to the recipe to have to work for our family (aka we like a lot of sauce).

The ingredients

After the chopping and the shredding

The sauce coming together

The pasta and sauce combined, yum!

Creamy Tomato Jalapeno Pasta

adapted from Vegetarian Times

Ingredients

• 3 roma tomatoes (about 1.5 cups), diced
• 1 Jalapeno, chopped (I only used 1/2, but it wasn't very hot, so next time I would use the whole)
• 1/2 cup vegan mozzarella cheese (or a monterey would work too)
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened soy milk
• 1 tablespoon vegan spread (Earth Balance and Smart Balance with Flax are both vegan)
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 8 oz. pasta (we used angel hair tonight because that's what we had)

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to packaging.
2. While pasta is cooking, melt 1 tablespoon margarine in a large skillet over low heat.
3. Mix in flour and whisk for 30 seconds.
4. Add in soy milk and whisk until flour mixture is worked into the milk.
5. Add in mozzarella cheese and stir until the cheese is melted.
6. Add in tomatoes, jalapeno, salt, and pepper and stir to combine.  Let simmer for about 5 minutes.
7. Add pasta to the sauce to combine.
8. Serve!

Serves 4. 

I combined the pasta with a simple green salad and some homemade lemon garlic tahini dressing, which is also vegan (and delicious). 

Reflections of . . . 2010

Well I am looking forward to 2011 and thought maybe I should reflect 2010 as well.  I saw on Brittney's blog about summing 2010 and thought I will use some of her questions to reflect 2010 for me.

2010 in 3 words

1. House - buy and selling
2. Getting pregnant
3. Running safely through pregnancy

Top 10 moments of 2010

1. My sister's wedding (love you Val and Eric)
2. Getting an offer on our house just 8 days on the market
3. Running my 3rd half marathon since my daughter was born (she was 1 year, 5 months old)
4. Ran the Race for the Cure 5k
5. Moving into our new home (yeah)
6. Anniversary dinner (OMG it was soooo good) at Basil's
7. Ran the Peachtree Road Race 10k
8. Finding out I was expecting #2
9. Running a local 5k race while being 5 months pregnant
10. Christmas morning with my daughter

Best Purchase of 2010

Our new house, although it wasn't perfect when we bought it, we are making it perfect one room at a time.

The night you felt the prettiest in 2010

Well being pregnant half the year makes it easier for me to pick this one (yeah, the first 6 months of the year).  I would say at my sister's wedding. 

The best meal you ate in 2010

Yeah, we are going back to Basil's for our anniversary dinner.  It was incredible.

Goals for 2011

Already posted that.

What I want 2011 to bring?

This is not a resolutions post but more of a what I want to happen in 2011.  Goals if you will.  I didn't post this last year, but I thought it would be fun and then at the end of the year, I can look back and see how I did.

1. Get Hope into a "big girl" bed (hopefully Jan. 2011)
2. Get nursery ready for new baby (again Jan. 2011)
3. Clean out office/gym area and make it more defined and less cluttered (Feb. 2011)
4. Birth a healthy baby (ideally without having to be induced this time) (March 2011)
5. Make a smooth transition from a family of 3 to a family of 4
6. Develop a schedule where I can get in my workouts with 2 kids while still nursing (that is going to hurt those early morning workouts, any advice?)
7. Get back into pre-pregnancy running shape (no date because I don't want to try to over due it)
8. Participate in the Race for the Cure 5k (this is in May, just 6 weeks after I am due, so I say participate instead of run, because I may be pushing a double jogging stroller in this one)
9. Run the Peachtree Road Race (10k), ideally in under 55 minutes (PR is 50:02), but again, not going to push myself.
10. Run the 13.1 Marathon in Atlanta in October
11. Would like to run some more (3 new) local fun races (5k's and other lengths that aren't traditional)
12. Develop a stronger relationship with my husband (see they aren't all about running)
13. Have 110 blog entries in 2011
14. Run 750 miles in 2011 (I would love to say 1,000 but with the whole pregnancy and giving birth thing, I think 750 is going to be ambitious enough)
15. Stay healthy and fit

15 sounds like a nice round number, so maybe we will just end it there.  Wish me luck!

Santa loves runners

Well it appears I was a very good girl this year because Santa was very good to me, especially when it comes to running.  I did know I was getting my new running shoes (Mizuno Wave Creations) because they were on sale 2 months back so I had the hubs get them for me and store them as a Christmas present.  I can't wait to get into these and see how much different they feel than my old ones.  I am in desperate need of some new running shoes.

Lucky for me, my FIL is a big runner and has been for years.  He always gets the hubs and I a book for Christmas.  Last year he got me a 2 year subscription to Runner's World magazine.  This year he got me a The Runner's Rule Book by Mark Remy.  I have already started to go through it and it's a fun read.  I will have to let you know if I find some good rules to live by.  Rule #1 is "Have Fun."



And this is what pushed me over the edge.  Adam or Santa got me the Bob Duallie Jogging Stroller.  I couldn't believe it.  I am still in shock.  I didn't even put it on my Christmas list because I know just how expensive it is and didn't think anyone would be spending that kind of money on me.  I had planned to save up and buy it myself.  But Adam surprised me with it on Christmas Day.  It's so pretty!

Now, all I need is a few accessories for my new jogging stroller (and a 2nd baby) and I am all set.  Was Santa good to you?

Christmas cheer

Here are some of the things that we do during the holiday season that I thought I would share.  I came from a family that had an "evergreen" tree (aka fake) and Adam came from a family that always got a fresh tree.  I do like the smell of a real tree so we have adopted the idea of getting a real tree and have ever since we were married.  We usually go out the Saturday after Thanksgiving and get our tree so we can have it up for a while.  Here Hope is checking out all of the trees to determine which one she thinks we should get.

Before Hope, Adam used to go over 20-30 trees to determine which one was the "one."  Not anymore.  We only got to look at 3 trees before Hope was running all over the place.  Luckily #3 was the winner.  We were so impressed by it, we think it might be our best tree yet.  

I know once Hope gets a little older we will be doing some crazy decorating on our tree, but for now we keep it simple.  I usually do silver and red balls, but I was afraid Hope would try to play with them and break them, so we did white lights, red bows, and plastic icicles. 

And of course, what Christmas holiday would be complete without some cookie decorating.  We were in charge of some dessert for a family function, so I let Hope go crazy with some icing on the cookies (and some sprinkles).  She had a blast!  We are going to ice some brownie bites for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.  Should be interesting.

What do you do for the holidays?