Things you find in the kitchen surprise!

It's time for another recipe! Brought to you by...the miscellaneous foods that have been accumulating in my kitchen! I think this one turned out excellent- and now I have lunch to bring to work for the next five days.

Take 1 cup Quinoa and boil it in water unless it is soft, and all the seeds pop open. I mixed the last of the red quinoa that's been in my cabinet with some white quinoa.

Then take all the vegetables that have been hanging out in your fridge starting to whither as you try to figure out what to do with them. Saute them! I sauteed the 2 carrots, one zucchini, and half a turnip in olive oil, then sauteed the onion, and seven scallion stalks, and red pepper in vegetable spray.

Then I threw in the can of kidney beans I've had sitting around since the last time I made chili.

Then after everything was cooked to perfection I mixed it in a big bowl with the nearly full can of tahini, a splash of lemon juice, and a few shakes of cumin and paprika. Heavy on the cumin.

Its delicious- looks like mush though.

Then I divided it into five containers and threw it in the fridge. This might even be good to eat cold.

According to Myfitnesspal each serving has about 534 Calories (23 grams of fat), and 17 grams of protein! It's also loaded with iron, 78% DV of vitamin A, and 46% DV vitamin C.

Just keep running, just keep running...

This past weekend I did the Run the Rocks 5K up at Red Rocks Amphitheater. Before it started my foot hurt so bad I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it. But once the race got started I found my stride, and my foot felt great! The first two miles were amazing: downhill and flat, with the Rocky Mountain foothills providing such beautiful scenery it made me remember how lucky I am to live in Colorado! Mile 2-3 was all uphill, and with the added altitude (6,400 feet above sea level) I enjoyed a steady walking pace while enjoying the day. At the third mile marker uphill turned into stairs. After climbing the stairs the race ended at the top of the amphitheater with a cool expo featuring evol burritos, skinny girl smoothies, and ice cream!  I wore my new five fingers for the first time too, and after those three miles they are broken in quite nicely.

Last weekend Adam and I did the Zombie Dash. That was a scavenger hunt that led us to several downtown bars where we had to perform challenges like moving a stack of can using a piece of spaghetti in our mouths, zombie movie trivia, and getting ping pong balls into cup in a "Z" formation
(which we dominated). As we ran from bar to bar we had to figure out the clues telling us where to go and we got to be dressed as zombies!

Aches and Pains and gulp! A Diet!

My body feels like its falling apart! I think I may have fractured a bone in my foot during the Rock and Roll Marathon (just a hairline fracture, most days it feels okay). Since the race I've cut back my exercise drastically. Every time I run my foot starts to hurt, and swells up. I'm trying to not run as much, but its hard to quit! When my foot swells up it doesn't fit into my vibram five fingers, so yesterday I wore my sneakers for a walk-workout on the treadmill. The heels of my shoes are so beat up that a mere hour of walking caused a giant blister on my already injured foot.

After the post marathon workout slow down I started to gain weight. My intake of calories hadn't dropped as fast as my exercise did, and I found the scale telling me I was back up toward 139 lbs. I haven't weighed that much since I started marathon training a year ago, and since I can't run like a maniac for a while I've decided to go on a... diet!

I've been trying to work more low-impact exercise into my day- taking the stairs instead of the elevator, doing weight lifting classes at the gym instead of running, and trying to do more yoga. It's not the same! The spike in adrenaline, the dripping sweat, the extended caloric burn- they're just gone! So I'm trying the ichoice diet (groupon'ed it!) which includes a daily multivitamin, a carb blocking powder you add to water, and a high fiber/protein meal replacement shake.

So I've been eating a lot healthier than I usually do. My normal day's meal usually looks like a fruit smoothie for breakfast. All last week I added kale from the CSA to the smoothies. I'm finally out of kale! With breakfast I take the multivitamins, and an iron supplement. Then at work I have some kind of fruit for a snack, usually an apple, or a banana. Then about half an hour before lunch I'll drink the carb-blocker powder. Lunch is usually a salad- filled with carrots, celery, dark leafy greens, spicy pumpkin seeds, tomatoes, and Ken's light sesame-Asian dressing. If I'm feeling like I'm not getting enough protein I'll throw a pouch of tuna in there as well. When I get home from work I'll have a small snack, maybe carrots with nutella and peanut butter, or a half-cup of veggie chili. Maybe a cup of tea with honey. Then later in the night I'll drink the meal replacement shake. I usually either blend a banana into it, or make a side of roasted veggies with sea salt to bulk up the meal, and finish it off with a calcium/vitamin D supplement. Using the myfitnesspal app I was able to track my iron and calcium intake, and without the supplements I wasn't getting enough. While trying this diet I've stopped taking my normal multivitamin- extra vitamins just get peed out anyways.

I think I'm already seeing results (its been less than two weeks) but that all might be psychosomatic.