Run Eat Repeat (latestItemTitle)

Posted: 25 Jul 2012 08:15 AM PDT

My last post about ready made Pico de Gallo had a comments that pre-chopped veggies are expensive. True, very true.

Here's my trick: I go to the pre-chopped and organic sections of the store first. If something is on Manager's Special or Sale I grab it. If not, I (reluctantly) buy the veggies and chop them myself.

If you look you can see the pico de gallo has a 50% sticker on the outside

And yesterday I went into the store for seltzer and walked by the organic section to see if there were any deals. Yep! I scored a pack of organic kale and that became dinner!

The thing to remember about getting something on special like that is you probably have to eat it pretty soon since it's coming close to it's expiration date.

So, I prepped the kale to eat for dinner. If you're not familiar – you can cook with kale or make kale chips, but if you want to eat it as salad you should let it marinate with dressing to soften. Most hippie dippie peeps call this "massaged kale".

I dumped all the kale into a big mixing bowl and added TJ's Peanut dressing and liquid aminos. Mix it up and place in the fridge till dinner.

The volume of the salad went down considerably in the massaging process.

I topped it with a Quorn "turkey" burger and almonds.

Morning

This morning I woke up and got ready to hit up YOGA. Finally. I scored a Groupon deal for 10 classes at my favorite yoga studio this week and decided it was a sign. Unfortunately, I thought the class was at 6:30am but it really started at 6am so I missed it. I am going to the Friday morning class. Promise. Instead I took a 3 mile walk and did a plank.

This afternoon I am doing a practice triathlon run with the group. We are doing a short run, bike and swim to get a feel for the transitions. I have no idea what I'm going to wear though! I don't have a triathlon suit and don't really want to swim in my regular running clothes.

It's a backwards tri, so it's not like I can swim in my swimsuit and then put on running shorts or something. I will probably just wear running capris and a tank for the whole thing and call it good. The race is this Sunday so I don't have time to try different things and don't want to spend money on a suit since I'm not sure I'll do this again…

Breakfast!

Since I wanted to hit up yoga I put one of those Morningstar sandwiches in the micro and this Dole shaker out for Ben to eat for breakfast. I was trying to be fast so I could get out the door!

Then, I dropped a container of TJ's chocolate covered espresso beans and they went EVERYWHERE! Ha. So much for rushing. Have you ever tried to sweep up something like this? It's like trying to herd marbles. Not easy.

My breakfast – a pancake with 1/3c egg beaters, 1/4 oat bran, cinnamon, baking soda and lots o' nut butter. Plus lots o' iced coffee – not because I need it but because this batch tastes extra delicious Smile

Am I Weird

I don't listen to music during the day. I only recently started listening to music more in my car even! I would turn it on occasionally in the past, but not often. In college my commute was about an hour to school and work and I would only listen to NPR or nothing. Yep, just sit in silence with my head movies and drive. I think it's because I have too much on my mind (which isn't a good thing) and I need to chillax, but maybe I'm just a weirdo.

Question: Am I weird? Are you weird?

Do you listen to music at work or while doing school work? In the car?

Healthy Eating Tip–Pico de Gallo FTW

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 02:17 PM PDT

I am a lazy cook. I enjoy ~~eating~~ cooking, but don't have 2 hours to chop veggies or make sauces from scratch. So, I am all about the Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade style of cooking. I realize you should be careful with this since convenience foods can add unnecessarily processed ingredients into your meal. Yes, I know ~~everything~~.

But sometimes they are just that – convenient!

One of my favorite ready made foods to buy and cook with is salsa or pico de gallo.

I use jarred salsa for enchiladas, crockpot salsa chicken, mixing it with beans and more!

And pico de gallo opens a whole new set of possibilities. It's basically just finely chopped tomatoes, onions and cilantro. Sometimes it has jalapenos. I could never chop veggies this finely so I feel like this is fancier than my big ol' chunks of tomato.

Add pico to salads (even if it's not a Mexican style salad – I swear it works)

I also use it in omelets or scrambles.

Most of the time I use ready made pico de gallo for my guacamole too! I will never be able to dice veggies that fine (without a trip to the emergency room) so it's extra helpful for a dish where you need teeny tiny pieces.

Add some lime and spices and you're good to go.

Today is National Tequila Day – are you celebrating?

I'm not allowed to celebrate since Jose Cuervo makes me put on too much makeup and try to dance in heels I can't even walk in. Plus, he got my BFF pregnant. Kinda.

Got any good uses for pico de gallo to share?