Under the Weather

We're kind of under the weather over here today. All those kids we work with are little germ factories, so it's kind of a wonder we're not sick all the time.

Mostly I just have a cold and no energy, it's really nothing major - but it's still no fun.

In more exciting news: Tom made an awesome dinner the other night. Ribs, mac and cheese (from scratch) and kale. I almost ate myself to a Thanksgiving level of fullness. My picture ended up really dark, but you get the idea. 

I thought the clouds looked cool when I woke up the other day.

The insulation was delivered on Tuesday. Tom gave them a little tractor assistance so they didn't have to move it all by hand.

The whole process is pretty cool, and extremely messy. They put mesh up on the walls and then blow in the cellulose insulation. There's more to it than that, but that's the general idea.

The drywall is supposed to get delivered tomorrow so they will start installing that in the next few days. Pretty soon it will look more like a a finished house and less like a construction zone!

For dinner tonight we made a previous Blue Apron recipe again. Chicken and Udon Noodle Soup. It's delicious, and super easy. The recipe calls for a dried lime and chicken demi-glace, but we just used lime zest/juice and chicken stock and it still turned out amazing.

Nuun has officially released its new and improved formula and the new Mango Orange Nuun Energy flavor!

I have to go through all our kitchen boxes to find all the Nuun tubes I have lying around so I can decide if I actually need to re-stock or if I just need to reorganize ;)

Running With Buddy and a Recipe

My GPS watch still isn't working right. I've tried all the troubleshooting fixes, and now it's looking like it may end up getting replaced. At least it waited until after the marathon to stop working.

Even though I'm mostly watch-less (I can see some of the stats after a run, but nothing during) I had a really good run on Sunday. It's the first run since the marathon that I can honestly say that about. I threw on an audiobook and went on my way - and I enjoyed myself! It was pretty great.

Buddy has been loving my new running schedule. He has two days a week penciled in where he gets to come with me. We do 2-3 miles and he gets insanely excited when he sees his running leash. He knows it's different than going for a walk. On a walk he stops every few feet to sniff things, but once we're running he's good about not making any abrupt pit stops.

I made a pretty tasty (and easy) dinner tonight. I was inspired by this recipe from PaleOMG, and made some additions. Ok, one addition and some hot sauce. Plus, butternut squash never cooks as quickly as recipes tell me it will.

I completely failed to take a picture before we ate it all, because I was busy worrying that I overcooked the eggs (I didn't).

Butternut Squash Hash

Adapted from this recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 small butternut squash, peeled and diced 
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 pound chorizo
• 1 bunch kale, roughly chopped
• salt, pepper and granulated garlic, to taste
• 4 eggs (or however many you want to squeeze in there)
• hot sauce

Instructions:

• Place a cast iron skillet or pan over medium heat. Add butternut squash and onion.
• Cook butternut squash and onions a few minutes (5-10) until edges are browned. Turn heat to low and cover pan, cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until squash is soft. 
• Once squash is mostly cooked, add chorizo. Break chorizo into small pieces, and cook until completely cooked through.
• While chorizo cooks, add kale, and cook until wilted. 
• Use a spoon to press in 4 little crevices. Crack eggs into the crevices. Place a lid over the pan and cook until eggs are cooked to over easy (or to preference), about 3-4 minutes.
• Serve with hot sauce! (we used Cholula, because it's good on everything)

Fridays are for Doughnuts

I woke up at 6:50 this morning, for absolutely no reason at all. It was pretty dumb.

Buddy thought so, too.

We got more snow overnight, not much, but enough to cover up the dirty old snow and make the yard look pretty again.

Since I was up anyway, I hit the store early. I may have had an ulterior motive.

The store was nice an empty compared to the pre-"blizzard" shopping the other day, much more peaceful.

I semi-successfully ran this afternoon. I taped my ankle and started out walking for the first mile. The next 3 miles were ridiculously slow, but not terribly painful. Plus, finishing a run, no matter how slow, was really good for my mental health. Cutting a run short is brutal, mentally.

I spent some time with my legs up the wall after my run, and have been icing my ankle.

Come on, recovery!

I'm still trying to figure out what's wrong with my ankle. It's not a running pain that I'm familiar with. I assumed that since it was fine during my long run on Sunday and then it had a few rest days (sick days) that it would be ok, but I was clearly wrong. It does seem to be getting better than it was though, so fingers crossed that it keeps improving!

I'm making Slow Cooker Sesame Garlic Chicken with rice and roasted broccoli for dinner. It smells really good and it's making me hungry.

What's for dinner at your house?

Red Curry, New Workouts and Fun Mail

I made super tasty red curry for dinner last night. I pretty much followed this recipe and added cooked chicken, broccoli and a bag o spinach.

It's SO good! We eat it over rice and topped with chopped peanuts, green onions and some toasted coconut (because I randomly decided to toast coconut yesterday).

I'm back to my training plan, which means no run today. I have speedwork on Thursday, so I wanted to save my legs. The other day I was reading a blog (I can't remember which one) and they were talking about Fitnessblender. 

Fitnessblender is another video workout site and as an added bonus: it's completely free! For real.

Since I want to be able to rock my run tomorrow, I didn't want to do anything too crazy today. I ended up finding a core/back workout that was a nice, easy workout. It made me focus more on form and muscle control.

I'm actually thinking about doing this after a run, I think the stretching and core work would make a really nice cool down.

I also did a quick arm workout.

Buddy was more than ready to go upstairs by the time I finished.

I got fun mail today! 

I pretty much live in this purple sweatshirt, so (with the help of a Christmas gift card) I decided to get another one in a different color.

I got this one in black. 

I also grabbed this tank while I was at it.

Merry Christmas to me! 

What's the last fun mail you got?

Eggnog Cookies!

The holidays are a time for sweets. There's no doubt about it. Holiday candy pops up in the grocery store, and you know all the limited edition holiday ice creams find their way into my basket. I can't help myself!

My family has always done a lot of baking/candy making around the holidays, and I'm keeping the tradition alive, within reason.

I am very aware that there are only two of us in the house, so I'm trying to not make too many things. We really don't need to have 8 different kinds of cookies in the house. I don't think. 

This afternoon I decided to try a recipe that I found on Cooking Classy for Eggnog Cookies, and they are really good.

Eggnog Cookies 

Recipe from Cooking Classy

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, plus more for topping
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp rum extract
1/2 cup eggnog

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
3 - 5 Tbsp eggnog
1/2 tsp rum extract
3 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon for 30 seconds, set aside. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix in egg yolks one at a time, blending just until combined after each addition. Mix in vanilla extract, rum extract and eggnog. With mixer set on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Scoop dough out by the heaping tablespoonfuls and drop onto Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheets, spacing cookies 2-inches apart. Bake in preheated oven 11 - 13 minutes. Allow to rest on baking sheet several minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Cool completely then frost with Eggnog Frosting and sprinkle tops lightly with nutmeg.

For the Eggnog Frosting:

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter until very pale and fluffy. Add in rum extract and 3 Tbsp eggnog and mix in powdered sugar. Add additional eggnog to reach desired consistency.

Things I did differently: 

• I used a handheld electric mixer, and a spoon. I'm old-school (and I don't have a stand mixer).
• I didn't line my cookie sheets with anything, they were perfectly fine and didn't stick at all.
• I didn't actually measure anything for the frosting and cut back on the amounts of everything. The comments on the recipe said it made a lot of frosting, so I made less. And I still have a bunch leftover.
• All of my butter was salted, because I'm a rebel.

I am really glad I made them small, because they're pretty rich, but really delicious!

Do you make any special holiday treats? 

Group running and Spicy Mustard Chicken

This morning was really early. I was confused when my alarm went off, and then I remembered it was Saturday.

I think I'm getting used to the colder weather, because this didn't seem too bad.

I was actually ready to go at a perfectly reasonable time this morning and had time to relax with my coffee.

I've decided that I should always run in a group of 3 or more. There's always one person who is doing well and it helps pull the group along. There were three of us at my pace today and we were all in the lead at one time or another. It really helped keep us moving when one or the other of us was slowing down.

The tree is starting to look more Christmas-y! (Yes, I tied my stocking to a lamp. Don't worry about it)

I made Spicy Mustard Crockpot Chicken for dinner tonight. It was ridiculously easy. I didn't really measure anything, because that's not really my thing unless I'm baking and it actually matters.

It was delicious with Brussels sprouts and broccoli rabe. I will definitely make it again!

Apple Toffee Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe

I was inspired by Janae's apple dip the other day and decided to make cookies this morning.

Apple Toffee Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Adapted from THIS RECIPE

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup raisins
1 granny smith apple, peeled and diced
1 cup Heath toffee bits

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. 

Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. 

Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats, raisins, apple and toffee bits; wish you had a bigger bowl; mix well. 

Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. 

I had to experiment with bake time a little. The original recipe says 8-10 minutes, but mine ended up taking around 15 minutes per tray. I think it's because of the extra stuff I added, but it could also be that I made my cookies a little bigger because they're better that way. :)

And now we have way too many cookies for two people. 

There are worse things.

I hope your Sunday is off to a good start!