Fudge, Star Wars and Other Randomness

My pistachio fudge turned out pretty good! I actually think it's more of a nougat texture, but it's tasty!

I used this recipe, but I let it cook a little longer than it said because I felt like the mixture needed a little longer to smooth out and become less gritty. If I make it again I would use a larger pan so the fudge would come out a little thinner. It's very sweet, so I think it would be better if it was more spread out. A better pistachio to fudge ratio. 

I cut some seriously consistently sized pieces too. Ha!

We'll see what other people think on Christmas.

The Sound of Music was on tv the other night as a sing along - it was basically movie karaoke. Pretty funny.

Tom and I went and saw the new Star Wars on Monday.

And again on Tuesday.

Tom is a big Star Wars fan, so the fact that he wanted to see it again is a big endorsement for the movie. I really liked it too! Have you seen it yet?

I can't remember the last time gas was this cheap!

I got this body butter as part of an Influenster campaign, and I ended up really liking it. I'm officially out!

I'm still looking for my motivation. It's been really hard to get out the door for a run this week. I made it out on Tuesday for 6 miles around the neighborhood, and I wasn't ridiculously slow, which was nice. My made up training plan has gone out the window this month. I'll be back to an actual training plan in January, so my goal right now is to do what I can so I don't feel like I'm starting over when that time comes.

And since no post is complete without a Buddy picture:

Pistachio Fudge and Yoga!

I've been meaning to get out and meet some people around here. I have my running buddies, but they're a 45 minute drive away since we moved.

This morning I made myself go out of my comfort zone and went to a yoga class outside the house.

Crazy, right?

I was a little nervous because I haven't been to a yoga class in years - I've just done yoga on my own or with videos. It ended up being funny though because for all my worrying, there were only 3 other people at the class, and none of them were crazy yoga masters.

Other than my inability to breathe with the teacher counting, I managed to keep up. Plus, now that I've been to that studio, I won't be such a baby about going again.

Funny story: when I was sitting on the floor during the warm up I looked out the window and thought, "what a pretty view!" All I could see were trees and sky. When I stood up, I realized that the studio backs up onto a cemetery. So maybe pretty wasn't the right word...

This afternoon I got some jambalaya going in the crock pot for dinner and attempted to make some pistachio fudge.

I say attempted because it's still setting and I haven't tasted it yet. Hopefully it turns out and we have something to contribute to Christmas dessert!

Nothing like making candy on your patio!

Last year I made Eggnog Cookies, and man were they delicious! I had to get creative this year since we are still kitchen-less.

How was your weekend? 

Do you go to group fitness/yoga classes? 

Tuesday Randomness

I have a bit of a random post for you today.

Monday and today I had a couple of easy 4 milers, which I did on the treadmill because I'm lazy. The irony of being a lazy distance runner is not lost on me. My next half is apparently in 18 days (I just bothered to check), so I'm trying to stick to my training plan even on my lazy days.

Buddy is now perfectly happy to go out on the back deck by himself. He goes where the sunshine goes - as long as we don't wander too far out of eyesight, he's good.

Tom has decided that he wants a barn when we finally move, so we went to a place in Connecticut that we refer to "the barn store."

Some of them are pretty neat looking.

It's officially, officially springtime - the landscapers came and mowed the lawn on Monday. I like the stripes.

Um, don't buy these. I ate them all really quickly. It's a problem I have.

And these are kind of weird. You can always depend on me to test out the new flavors of everything for you :)

Buddy is one spoiled pup. Tom moved his bed into the sunshine this afternoon. Buddy was in heaven.

And some pretty clouds to wrap up my randomness. I swear one of these days I'll have a normal post again.

More Snow and a Candy Jar

I had an easy 3 miles yesterday after my speedwork on Thursday. It wasn't terribly exciting, so I won't bore you with the details. What I will do is tell you about this:

That's right, an online candy store that delivers a candy jar to your front door! You get to pick the size of your candy jar and then pick what will be inside. My mom gave me a gift certificate so I could try it out - thanks Mom! :)

This is what I picked for my jar:

The candy is good too, not that cheap chocolate that tastes kind of waxy. Pretty fun!

We got several inches of snow yesterday, and it's already melting off. I didn't even bother to shovel the driveway because I knew it was going to warm up today (and because I'm lazy and I didn't want to shovel any more snow).

This was Friday afternoon, there's more out there now.

The Sleepy Hollow Half was this morning. I know the roads are pretty clear (and they changed the course so there weren't any trail portions this year), but I have to say, I'm glad I wasn't running this morning. It was cold when I ran it last year (you can read my recap HERE), but there wasn't any snow on the ground.

There wasn't a group run this morning because most of the group was at the race. I slept in instead. I have one last long run tomorrow and then next weekend is the West Point Half - I'm starting to get nervous/excited!

Snow, Peanut Butter and a Tempo Run

Our "heat wave" was short lived - it snowed again today. The snow was wet and the roads were a mess. I spent a lot of time yelling about drivers who had no business on the road. Please take your convertible that you didn't bother to clear the snow off of back home if you're not comfortable going any faster than 5mph. Thankyouverymuch.

I had a much more successful tempo run today. There were still a couple of breaks, but that was because I can't drink water on the treadmill without spilling half of it. I ran 6 miles with 4 @ 8:00 pace. I'm pretty happy with that.

Buddy is perfecting his invisibility game. I came upstairs from my run to find him impersonating a pillow.

Nothing to see here, move along.

There was a ton of old ice building up in the freezer, so I decided to put it to good use by taking an ice bath. And then I had to add hot water because it was so cold that it instantly caused physical pain and there was no way I was sitting down with it that cold. It was still plenty unpleasant, so I feel like it did its job.

I think my fitbit is confused. I'm not sure how I ran 6 miles and only have 9 active minutes.

And let's not talk about how many of these I ate today:

Now that I think about it, I've had a lot of peanut butter today. I had some at breakfast on toast, some with an apple for a snack and an unknown number of peanut butter m&m's. I'm a peanut butter lover, I haven't joined the masses of almond butter lovers yet. I've tried it, it just isn't my favorite.

Are you on the almond butter bandwagon?

Buenos for days!

It's rainy and gross out here, which I guess is a nice change from freezing and windy. Maybe the change in weather will make my insanely static-y hair calm down.

Tom is back at work today, so he was up early and out the door. Buddy is so used to having us both home, he's been pouting and ignoring me all day - except for when I was eating cuties, he loves those, so he came to say hi and see if he could mooch a piece or two.

I decided I should be productive today, so I started off my morning with a delicious egg sandwich for fuel.

It was an English muffin with guacamole, eggs, baby spinach and kale - I could eat egg sandwiches every day.

I followed up breakfast with some dishes and then hit the grocery store to grab some things for dinner.

I'm making this slow cooker Creole Chicken and Sausage from Pinch of Yum - if you haven't been on this site, you're missing out, they have some amazing recipes! The slow cooker is bubbling away and the house smells really good!

Dinner in progress:

This strength training business is sticking around (so far) and I hit the basement for another round of Jillian Michaels No More Trouble Zones. I did it last Monday and was sore for days, hopefully it doesn't last as long this time around. Some exercises felt easier than last week, and some still made me want to fall on the floor and quit - working muscles you don't normally use is hard!

I also added some planks for the Sweat Pink #NoExcuses challenge - day 1 was to do at least a 30 second plank.

I broke open one of my favorite Christmas presents today. Tom's the best. :)

Buenos for days!

The key is to not eat all of them at once ;)

Now I'm off to do some laundry and catch up on some blogs.

Do you ever make egg sandwiches for breakfast? What do you put on them? (I'm always looking for new ideas!)

- My go-to is just eggs and Sriracha - so good!

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A Slow Morning and a Peanut Brittle Fail

I had grand intentions of springing into action at a reasonable hour this morning. Instead, I spent most of the morning drinking coffee and catching up on blogs.

We also watched Peter Pan Live, which we recorded last night. It wasn't amazing, but it was cute. We both questioned Christopher Walken being cast as Captain Hook. I really like Christopher Walken, but he was kind of spacey for most of it.

Buddy was psyched as usual to join me in the basement for my run.

My run today was a shorter and slower one, a conscious decision.

I've found if I am running a specific distance, that I tend to go faster than I plan on because faster = over sooner. But I know there are times I need to run slower. On those runs, I run for time. No matter how fast I run, I can't make time go any faster, it helps keep me in check.

All fast all the time is bound to lead to injury sooner or later.

I made my first solo attempt at making peanut brittle today.

It didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. I followed the directions rather than following my instincts (I've helped my Grandma make peanut brittle for years) and it ended up darker than I wanted it to. Tom says it's not, but it tastes burnt to me.

I'm planning on getting more peanuts and trying again this weekend.

Instructions be damned.