Zucchini Noodle Lasanga

Good morning!

There are a couple things that made me really happy this morning:

1. Blooming flowers in my apartment.

1. My upcoming trip to West Virginia over Labor Day weekend.  I will be visiting/staying with my relatives and they are treating Brian and I to a white water rafting trip on the New River Gorge and zip lining through the canopy.  Needless to say, B and I are super pumped.  I need to figure out what I will be wearing on all these outdoor adventures… ie: I should probably buy some shoes that are suitable for rafting.  Hopefully I can find something inexpensive and not have to splurge on a pair of Chaco’s.

2. FOOTBALL SEASON!  I just marked all the Bears games down in my calendar last night and got super nerdy excited about it.  Football season means chili and cornbread season which is one of the best seasons of all!

Last night after work, I met Brian at Whole Foods so we could do our grocery shopping/meal planning for the week.  Here’s what’s on deck:

Monday: Zucchini Noodle Lasagna

Tuesday: Local Trout & Salad

Wednesday: Chicken Fajitas

Thursday: LH dinner with a friend; BS leftovers

Friday: Garlic Mustard Drumettes with Quinoa

Saturday: Takeout

Sunday: Dinner at my parents house

Produce

• 3 medium zucchini
• garlic
• cucumber
• bell peppers (2)
• broccoli
• avocado
• jalapeno (3)
• Lemons (2)
• Blueberries

Meat

• trout (2 portions about .8 or .9 lb)
• ground turkey
• chicken drumettes

Dairy

• shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 small container of ricotta (15 oz)
• Greek yogurt (4)

We had a lot of staples in our freezer/pantry for our meal plan this week, so our overall price was under $70.  Win!

Once we got home and unloaded everything, I got straight to work on making the lasagna.  There is something so comforting to me about lasagna, but I always feel a little too full when I order it at restaurants.  I stumbled across Skinnytaste’s Zucchini Lasagna and knew it would be a crowd pleaser in my house.  Plus, this is a wonderful recipe for the summer when everyone’s gardens are bursting with fresh zucchini!

The only real modification we made to her recipe was that we used ground turkey instead of ground beef and we used my mother’s homemade family marinara sauce instead of canned tomatoes.

Although the recipe is a little labor intensive…

 

The end result is SO worth it.

Oh and don’t be like me and forget to take a picture of the lasagna and gooey, hot and delicious… right out of the oven.  Fail.  Use your imagination, people 🙂

Be sure to check out her recipe here and give it a try!

I Am Not a Baker…

Hello!  Hello!

I write this post to you Tuesday night after dinner as I am trying very hard to bake some brownies… boxed brownies.  See, some people might find that this is not a difficult task, however, I have not been graced with the “baking touch”.  I find that I tend to get distracted while baking because it requires you to step away for a period of time and trust the magical item we call our ovens.  It also forces me to measure out my ingredients exactly and trust that I time everything perfectly.  This is just stressful to me.

Cooking is the opposite.  I feel engaged the whole time, constantly stirring, flipping, grating, prepping – it clears my mind.

In college, my roommate would have 4-5 boxes of different cake or brownies mixtures in her pantry at all time.  I, on the other had, did not even own a bag of granulated sugar until 1 year after Brian and I moved into our apartment.  Nor do I own any baking pan larger than an 8×8 … and don’t even ask if I have muffin or cupcake pans.

Needless to say, I am not a baker.  Today is one of my co workers birthdays who is an extremely talented baker.  The other week she brought in a delicious light yet creamy cheesecake that was so hard not to devour and I don’t even really like cheesecake!  So, what did I think would be a great “gift” to bring her on her special day?  Baked brownies, by a girl who does not bake! 🙂  Hopefully they turned out edible enough, I did slather a generous amount of funfetti icing on top because I figured funfetti anything makes everything better.  I’ll keep you updated.

All of this baking was performed after quite the productive Tuesday.

After work, I headed to the gym and ran 4 miles on the treadmill.  Castle was on the t.v. in front of me and Niki Minaj Pandora was blasting in my ear, I was in a good place.

Once I cooled down a bit, I laid out a yoga mat and did about 20 minutes of foam rolling/stretching before performing this circuit:

I was definitely feeling the burn from all of those burpees.  Brian has really got me hooked on them lately because they are part of his training plan for a Spartan Race he is running.  I forgot how much I love/hate them!

I decided to walk home from the gym instead of taking the bus because it was such a nice night out and because I’m fairly certain a smelled a little bit from all of that cardio.  Didn’t want to force an entire bus to put up with that!  Plus, I had the smooth sounds of Buddy Guy blasting in my headphones to keep me company.

On my way home, I thought a lot about how the summer months are winding down.  There is an elementary school just down the street from me and I have been seeing more and more faculty return to the grounds to prep for the school year ahead.  Where did this summer go?  The end of July was so tame weather wise, I feel we might be surprised with hot temperatures in September – which would be awesome!  Back to school also means that my sister, Kristan, will return back to North Carolina to finish her senior year of college – gulp.  Senior year was the best year, I am insanely jealous that she gets to live it up down south.

Right as I stepped through my apartment door, my stomach told me it was time to eat.  For dinner, Brian grilled up some chicken breasts while I sauteed some fresh zucchini.  We topped the chicken with a little homemade brushetta mixture, avocado and fresh mozzarella cheese.

This hit the spot.

And now here we are.  I am in the dining room, facing the oven and hoping that I don’t over cook these brownies while reading my latest book – Wild – which I am loving!

Ta Ta for now!

Run 10 Feed 10

Rise and Shine!

In my last post I talked about how I’ve been trying to figure out what my newest fitness goal will be now that I’ve completed a half-marathon.  I’ve been doing a lot of research and have made some progress.  I looked up my old yoga Studio Pure Wellness and discovered they have added a lot of new classes since I’ve left!  I went ahead and signed up for a couple of the vinyasa classes to try out the new instructors, but a couple other sessions caught my eye:

PurelyForRunners

Come experience Yoga & cross training for Runners. Get stretched, keep strong, and work out all those kinks that happen after hours of pounding the pavement. Perfect for those in need of cross-training or fighting injuries.

PureAthlete

A special class designed for the Pure athlete or the weekend warrior who wants to work hard. Classes will include circuit training, Tabata intervals, Crossfit concepts and more. Look forward to a well-rounded workout meant to compliment your running/ triathlon/ marathon/ sports regime or just for the average desk jockey who wants to feel the burn!

PureFridayNight

It’s Friday night. You want to be social but you had a long week. You want to work out but you also want a glass of wine. Let’s do both… come for a PureFusion class and have light refreshments afterwards. Meet your mat neighbor, get to know your teacher, and get the best of both worlds: a Friday night with a workout and a happy hour, all while in comfy yoga clothes.

I definitely will be signing up for each of these classes over the next couple of weeks and give them a try.  They sound really interesting and engaging!

I also have come across some really neat races in the midst of my research including the race sponsored by Women’s Health called Run 10 Feed 10.

If you run a 10k with Women’s Health you will provide 10 meals to those going hungry in your local community.  How cool is that?!  To make a direct impact on your local community just by running 6.2 miles?  Sign me up!

The Chicago race is Sunday, October 6th in Lincoln Park, but they also have races set up in New York City and San Francisco.

You should check it out and join me!

Anywayssss – yesterday was a busy busy day at work.  Lots of fun project and activities going on including a free breakfast that was catered by Jamba Juice!  I mentioned in June that my company hosted a pedometer walking competition and my team ended up winning!  Our prize was a kCura sponsored breakfast to give us the healthy boost we need in the morning!  There were small smoothies in all different flavors and an assortment of their breakfast wraps.  I chose the mango smoothie and paired it with their spinach and egg whole wheat wrap – it was so good!

After work, I went home real quick to changes clothes and then went on my first run since Sunday.  The weather was perfect!  My legs felt really good, I felt a little tight in my quads for the first mile and then after that it was smooth sailing.

I ran through the Lincoln Park neighborhood past the zoo and all the way down to the Gold Coast area.  Once I hit that I circled back up and completed my 4 miles.  My brand spankin’ new Garmin watch gave me my splits:

Mile 1:  8:35 pace

Mile 2:  8:41 pace

Mile 3:  8:48 pace

Mile 4:  8:40 pace

It felt really good to be able to run shorter mileage at my 8k and 10k pace!  I’m really looking forward to the Zooma 10k in August.

When I got home, I laid out my yoga mat and did about 15 minutes of stretching until this little stinker decided it was time to play.

Love her.

On the menu for dinner was grilled chicken with pesto, tomatoes, mozzarella and a side of sauteed zucchini.

This was super easy to make.  Brian butterflied a couple chicken breasts and threw them on our indoor grill.  When there was about 2 minutes left to cook, I spread a thin layer of Trader Joe’s premade pesto on top, two juicy slices of tomato and a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese.  I covered them with a lid until the cheese was nice a melty.

The zucchini was just sauteed with a little olive oil and sea salt.  Delicious!

Hope you all are having a fabulous week – get out an enjoy this great weather!

Busy Adulthood Syndrome

Hello, World!

Yesterday was a bit of a weird day for me.  The morning and afternoon went fine – standard as always.  For lunch I threw together a kale salad with fresh mozzarella cheese, cucumbers, peppers, carrots, a Dr. Preager’s veggie burger and a balsamic vinaigrette.

At about 3:00 p.m. I distinctly remember my heart beating really fast and mentally counting how many cups of coffee I had that day.  Only two.  What was my deal?  I went straight home after work, sat on the couch and was still dumbfounded as to why I felt so weird.  Bailey tried to give me some advice on what it might be…

But she was no help. After 20 minutes of just sitting… with no t.v. on and no one home it dawned on me.  Yesterday was the first day in literally 3 weeks where I didn’t have somewhere to be after work or something planned.  No BvB practice, no soccer, no dinner with friends, no work event… I could decide how I wanted my day to go.  Weird.  Honestly, I sat for a while and wondered if I should go to a bar and grab a drink by myself to celebrate this monumental occasion, but then I looked at my calendar and realized… alas!  I needed to run 5 miles as a part of my training plan 🙂  I instantly felt better and thought about that commercial that references “busy adulthood”.  Well I have an extreme case of that and I’m totally addicted!

The temperature outside on my run was perfect!  It was partly cloudy and in the mid-70’s – exactly how I hope the half-marathon will be (a girl can dream right)!  The run went by really fast – there were so many people out and about to keep me company I loved it!  When I left my apartment, I didn’t really map out a route like I usually do.  After my run, I looked at my running app and noticed that the route was kind of strange, but effective!  I will have to use it again for another 5 miler.

The run helped clear my mind and made me feel a lot more balanced than I did throughout the day.

Win.

For dinner I sauteed some zucchini and tomatoes and cooked some quinoa.  Brian was in charge of grilling the chicken.

It was a delicious summer meal.

After our bellies were full and the kitchen was clean, I watched t.v. on the couch with Bailey – it was a great day.

Run Like You Stole Something

My alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. this morning and despite my slight urge to stay under the covers I was eager to get out and run.

4 miles was on my training plan and I was a little nervous that my quads would still be sore from the 10k, but I was feelin good 🙂  I decided to bust out my favorite ‘Run Like You Stole Something’ T-Shirt to give me a little extra boost as I walked out the door.

I obviously put on shoes before I left… 🙂

The streets were quite and the sun was shining – my favorite type of morning.  I decided to map my course through the neighborhood instead of the usual Lakeshore path to add a little variety to my training.  I was a little apprehensive at first because I figured I would get stuck at a lot of stop lights, however, that really was not an issue so early in the day.

My breathe was steady and my legs felt strong – the 4 miles flew by and I was happy that I took time out of my day to focus on my health and well-being.

Running is my favorite form of therapy.

This week, my company started a ‘Walking Competition’ using pedometers that were handed out to us.  I wore my pedometer proudly during my run 🙂 … But the dang thing only picked up half my steps! Guess I was going too fast for it to keep up! Kidding. Obviously.  The employees I work with love theses competitions and get SOOOO competitive with each other.  It ‘s a great activity to promote workplace wellness!  The theme of this competition is: “Steps to Summer.”  The company is divided into two teams – the Lifeguards and the Surfers.  I am on the Lifeguards team and I have a feeling my half-marathon training will help tremendously towards reaching our steps.  Bring it on, surfers!

After work yesterday, I came home to a very bored Bailey.

She was basically begging for a long walk and I was all for it since it was my “stretch and strength” day – and I need the extra steps ;)!  Brian and I took her out around the neighborhood and made a pit stop at Trader Joe’s to stock up for the week.

On the way home, I contemplated what to make for dinner and decided that I wanted something clean, fresh and easy!  Grilled Chicken with Zucchini Succotash popped in my head!

Grilled Chicken with Zucchini Succotash

(Serves two people)

Ingredients

• 2 boneless organic chicken breasts
• 1 Large Zucchini
• 1 can diced tomatoes – no salt added
• 1 cup mushrooms
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
• Salt & pepper to taste
• olive oil

Directions

1. Butterfly chicken breasts and season with salt & pepper.  Heat pan to medium high heat, coat with olive oil spray and cook chicken on each side for 5-6 minutes or until fluids run clear and chicken is cooked through
2. While the chicken is cooking, slice the zucchini and add it to a saute pan with 1 tsp. of olive oil.  Let the zucchini cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add mushrooms and frozen corn kernels to the pan.  Stir and let simmer for 5 minutes
4. Add the diced tomatoes – with juices – to the plan along with the cumin, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.  Let simmer until the zucchini are tender with a slight bite
5. Pour succotash onto grilled chicken and enjoy!

Delish.

This meal took less than 30 minutes to make and less than 10 minutes to eat 🙂 — I was starving!  Plus, the colors of the succotash were so pretty and vibrant… it was a perfect spring/summer meal!

Once dinner was cleaned up and my food was digested, I completed the Tone It Up! videos of the day, grabbed a book and headed to bed.

For once, Monday was a very good day!

Au Revoir!

Jump Start to the Morning

Good Morning!

About three hours ago, I woke up, laced up my running shoes and headed out the door.

4 miles was slotted for my training plan and I had no problem accomplishing my goal with the help of some gorgeous weather and a great play list blaring in the background.

There is something so calming about morning runs no matter how much they make you sweat.  Life seems a bit slower as the hustle and bustle of the city has yet to emerge.

Once I finished and got back home, I did some stretching on my yoga mat and grabbed a protein bar to refuel.

I’m surprised how well I felt during my run this morning because like many Chicagoans, I was up late watching the Blackhawks beat the Red Wings and indulging in one too many glasses of wine.

Dinner consisted of some leftover meat loaf, quinoa and sauteed zucchini and onions.

I made a ton of quinoa because (A.) I went the the gym after work, did a lot of lifting and needed a protein packed dinner and (B.) because I wanted to have enough to bring for lunch the next two days.  Dinner win!

The game last night was really intense.  I’m not a Blackhawks fan, but when they are not playing the Sabres I am a Chicago fan through and through.  Bailey was super stressed out about the game, she wouldn’t even face the t.v. 🙂

I cannot believe it is already Thursday!  I love having Monday’s off because the week flys by.  Tonight I’m supposed to have BvB practice, but from my weatherman’s predictions that might not happen.  Nevertheless, I do get to go to the New Balance store and pick up my race bib/packet for the ‘United Run for the Zoo 10k’ I am participating in this weekend.  These next two weekends are packed with fun activities including another race – the PAWS 8k!  I will be running it and Brian is going to bring Bailey so she can mingle with the other pups and try out the agility courses.  Should be hilarious.

Until tomorrow, friends!