Tag Archives: peanut butter

PB On the Bottom

May 14, 2010

Happy Friday!

Until I figure out the camera situation, I hope you don’t mind some older pictures. Thursday’s breakfast was a strawberry-banana-flax bowl of oats using my Dad’s method: peanut butter on the bottom.

He’s been trying to get me on the peanut butter on the bottom train for a while now but, as a food blogger, I like my toppings to be seen. I tried it for him this time though, and it is good! It’s always a mystery whether you’ll get pb in your spoonful or not. I like making eating fun :)

My work lunches have been better than I thought. On Friday they served swordfish. I wish they wrote what kind of dish it was though. It was in an amazing sauce. I had it with a side of rice and veggies.

The desserts there are a killer. Luckily I think I will eventually get used to them and not need one every day. But for now, I can’t pass them up! Look at this presentation:

It ended up being layered red velvet cake in there!

Working in NYC is amazing. Although expensive, I’m on a mission to find some free fitness related things to do there. I went to my favorite free fitness offerings on Lululemon’s website. Not only do they have free yoga in Bryant Park on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, but they have a run club through Central Park! Now if only my schedule would sync up to the times.

One suggestion I have for free fitness activities is to jump around between different places. Most gyms offer free day passes to try them out, or a first yoga class free at a yoga studio. I already got my first guest pass and am trying out a new gym on Saturday :)

Question:

  1. How do you find free things to do in your city?
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Up and Down

May 10, 2010

First off, I did it! 6.2 miles through Bear Mountain. Oddly enough, if I had to describe it in one word: peaceful. I love trail running! I had no ipod and no watch, I just ran to the pitter patter of everyone’s feet on the trail. Six miles through the woods never got boring.

I started the morning in a rush. I had only given myself a half hour to get ready. I basically only had time to throw on my clothes, fill up a water bottle, and make a quick breakfast – peanut butter/banana on wheat roll.

The starting line was packed. I think there were 580 runners in total yesterday. I got my bib and tried to keep warm in the freezing cold of the morning.

Then we were off!

I kept a steady pace most of the time. There were quite a few hills but they had nothing on the hills in the woods behind my house. And lots of hills means lots of down hills to make up for it!

I was expecting hills. What I wasn’t expecting was rocks and mud. I didn’t need an ipod because I spent most of the run concentrating on the ground. I even saw someone wipe out right in front of me (they were ok!). Obviously, it was a lot of fun!

The hardest part was that, since I couldn’t find my Garmin, I had no idea how close I was to the end at any point. One finished marathoner cheering us on told us we had 1k to go. I picked up my pace, only to find that it was basically 1k of a large, winding, rocky hill. Gosh, it was rough – but I finished strong!

Two of my favorite people were there to cheer me on. My Mom woke up at 7am on Mother’s Day, after going out on Saturday night, just to stand outside in the cold for hours and watch me. They’re the best! The official chip times weren’t posted yet but, according to my parent’s watch, I finished in 59 minutes and 40 seconds.

I noticed a lot of people wearing barefoot running shoes. Apparently there are quite a few benefits of barefoot running:

  • less problems with recurring ankle sprains, chronic foot injuries, and plantar fasciitis.
  • greater agility
  • less deformed toes
  • improved balance
  • prevention of varicose veins

On the trail I heard someone complaining about wearing them though. I think this course was way too rocky to not be wearing sneakers. I wouldn’t mind trying them on a grassy trail though!

When we got home, I made sure to compensate for my Mom’s less than ideal Mother’s Day morning. I made apricot parfaits! I boiled dried apricots in orange juice for 20 minutes, and then pureed them. Went with a layer of yogurt, a layer of whipped cream, and topped with wheat germ.

Around 3 we headed over to my Aunt’s house for a Mother’s Day dinner. There was tons of carbs for my choosing! I had some of my grandmother’s famous baked macaroni & cheese and some of my Aunt’s cavatelli with broccoloi rabe. On the side I had ratatouille, made by me (recipe here).

As always in the Kokopelli Cookie household, there was an array of desserts.

Oreo cheesecake, oreo ice cream cupcakes, cookies, and chocolate peanut butter cake (it was also my cousin’s birthday). The ice cream cupcakes were SO good. The perfect end to a perfect day :)

Questions:

  • What did you do for Mother’s Day?
  • Would you ever run barefoot?
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The Dog Bowl

May 4, 2010

Is there any bowl or dish you hated growing up? Yeah, weird question. Who hates on bowls or dishes? Well, I do! My Dad LOVES this white bowl which, to me, always resembled a dog bowl. It’d be perfect for a little puppy to be eating out of, not me! Since then this bowl has been termed “the dog bowl” but I’ve noticed myself eating out of it more and more lately. The reason being when I make my Dad and I oats, I need two of the same size bowls to make sure I give us even portions. Note to self: go buy cute matching bowls!

I was rushing for breakfast yesterday so I had a bowl of “rice oats,” or just leftover brown rice microwaved in some almond milk. The add ins:

  • Raisins
  • Chia Seeds
  • Mighty Maple pb

I might have gone overboard with the peanut butter. I’m the worst at portion sizes! I have no natural sense of measurements.

Speaking of portion sizes, in the past couple years I got a bit obsessive with calorie counting and measuring my food and all that good stuff. Recently I had decided just to go with the flow, and not worry about anything and hope for the best. It worked! I weighed myself for the first time in 3 months yesterday and I was at 118. I’ve finally found my happy weight :)

Lunch was a mediocre dish of barley mixed with too little pesto, shredded carrots, and tomatoes. I think it needed some spice. I usually cook my grains in veggie broth, but I forgot to do it this time.

After work I snacked on a handful of almonds while running errands.

And made it to Mark’s for dinner. Cold cuts were on the menu so I made myself a veggie sandwich.

On the onion bun:

  • avocado
  • roasted asparagus
  • roasted zucchini
  • provolone
  • oil & vinegar

I thought it was so cute how it looked like a little burger with that bun!

My back/shoulder muscles have been KILLING me since doing that boxing Wii game. I think the soreness is actually worse today! I’m going to attempt my last long run before my race on Sunday, go walking with Cassandra, and then be a taxi drive Mark to the DMV so he can get his own car back on the road. I also have to get something fixed on my car. Ugh, I hate car stuff!

Then tonight is LOST, so I’ll do anything before that to make the day pass quicker :)

Questions:

  1. Does any of your dishware have a name?
  2. Do you know your happy weight? It took me 2 years to figure it out. I always felt I had to be lighter. This time I let the mirror tell me when I looked good and then weighed myself. That way, It didn’t matter what number showed up.
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