Kitchen experiments

It's a well known fact that I'm known to be a pretty picky eater.  I've actually come a LONG way in the past few years (Mike gives himself credit for this) but I still have lots of room for improvement.  I try to make at least one or two new things every week in an effort to broaden my horizons.  After seeing our favorite food blog make fried green tomatoes, Mike has been dying to try it out.  We went to a farmer's market yesterday and found the biggest green tomato I've ever seen (for only $1!).

We decided to combine the dish with another food new to us both: acorn squash.  I'd had a recipe I've wanted to try for awhile now and it was definitely worthwhile!  We served them both with a fresh halibut filet for a unique dinner combination.
We made the acorn squash by halving it and digging out the "pumpkin innards" and slicing it into 8 pieces.  I recommend an awesome knife and strong boy for this job as it didn't appear to be easy.

We placed them on a baking sheet, covered them in foil and baked them for 35 minutes at 400 degrees.  When the time was up I covered them in brown sugar and stuck them back in the oven (uncovered) for about 20 more minutes.  They were served with crumbled bacon on top (we used Morningstar Farms veggie bacon which tasted far better than it looks!).  They had a great mix of flavors and we were both fans. 

Mike was in charge of the tomatoes.  He sliced them up and coated them lightly with salt, pepper, and flour before dredging them in eggwhites and cornmeal.  They were fried for a few minutes on each side until crispy and golden on the outside.  He really liked them but I was not a fan of their slimy insides!  

Mike can't leave a recipe alone so these have red pepper flakes thrown in the mix.

Saturday Run

I decided to take advantage of the not-quite-as-miserably-hot morning today and the fact that I found a slightly less hilly area nearby to get in a good run.  Most of the streets immediately around us are major roads with no sidewalks so I was excited to find a large, new neighborhood filled with sidewalks and trails about a mile from our house.  For those of you from Gainesville, it reminds me of Haile Village Center with lots of shops and a mix of single family homes, townhouses, condos, shops, etc.  Mike dropped me off a little before seven (the road to get there is STEEP and I didn't want to be burned out before I even got started).  This was my first run with my Garmin GPS watch that we got back in May.  Apparently tall, city buildings are really good at blocking the satellites and it never worked well downtown.  I was pleasantly surprised by it's performance today!  I didn't use any of the advanced features for my first go, but enjoyed knowing my exact pace, time, distance, etc.  I planned on doing 5 miles and then walking home but a little way into my walk home I got bored and decided to just run it out.  The watch tells me my total stats:

and my splits:
Mile 1 - 9:54
Mile 2 - 10:15
Mile 3 - 9:52
Mile 4 - 10:07
Mile 5 - 10:16
Mile 6 - 10:51
Pretty cool!

When I got home, I wanted something cold for breakfast so I decided to make a new smoothie I'd been wanting to try.  It was amazing!  Mike, who is a self-proclaimed smoothie master, admitted it was the best he's had too.

Ingredients:
~5 ice cubes
3/4 cup frozen strawberries
1 banana (I couldn't get the frozen one out of it's peel so I used a fresh one)
handful of fresh blueberries
half a handful of frozen chopped spinach
1 scoop stawberry Whey Protein powder
Splash of vanilla flavored almond milk (if you haven't had this stuff, go to the store now and get some- it's life changing.  I could seriously drink a carton of it every day. mmmm!)
1/2 a cup regular milk

Blend it all up and enjoy!

Another move

As of today, we are officially moved out of our downtown apartment and into our new rental house in the 'burbs.  The move was relatively uneventful and we are loving our new space.  Our house is located in a neighborhood about 10 miles out from downtown, close to Brentwood, TN.  It's surrounded by lots of new restaurants we can't wait to try and the staples I need to survive: Publix, Target, Panera, (and the greatest TJMaxx/Homegoods ever which I've already been to like 5 times).  The area is really pretty and extraordinarily hilly.  I know I'll miss the convenience of our downtown spot to the excitement of lower Broadway but we're loving having a third bedroom and huge deck and backyard.  Plus, we have a completely awesome flagpole to hang our Gator flag come September 4th (priorities, people!).  Here's a few pictures Mike took before we moved in.  We are busy decorating and finding places for all our stuff.  I'll snap some more pictures of the place once things are a little more organized!

Quick Cardio

Because of our recent move (more on that soon!), I'm forced to adjust to life without a gym and get creative with at-home workouts that can be done with little to no equipment.  This morning's comes from How Sweet It Is and is a quick but challenging workout. Hubs thought I was insane when he woke up to me jumping around like a crazy person. 

50 jumping jacks
20 alternating lunges
10 tuck jumps
20 squats
60 sec high knees
10 squat jumps
10 burpees
60 sec jump rope
20 sec mountain climbers
25 pushups
60 sec plank
REPEAT!

Kitchen goodies

As is often the case during midterms or finals week, I find myself distracted by online shopping. I've been toying with the idea of wanting an apron for awhile now so I clicked on over to my favorite store for all house related items and found a whole bunch of fun things that would brighten up our kitchen. Our apartment has a teal/brown/green scheme and these things would all fit in perfectly!

{Petula Blue-Green Apron/Potholder and Mitt Set of Two, $10.95-$18.95}

I LOVE these matching dish towels.

{Petula Blue-Green Dishtowels Set of Two, $11.95}

And think these are oh-so-pretty as a classier way to make use of these colors.

{Jocelyn Embroidered Placemat/Cotton Mint Napkin, $3.95-$8.95}

So pretty! Makes me (almost) wish I used cloth napkins...

{Twisted Bead Napkin Ring, $3.95}

These towels look soft and ultra-absorbent.

{Waffle/Terry Dishtowels Set of Two, $12.95}

I'm always needing of smaller mixing bowls and end up using ones way too big and then having them take over the dishwasher.

{Mini Parker Bowls, $3.95}

On a slightly unrelated note: If your house is anything like ours, you get very annoyed with the measuring cups attached to the ring... especially when your husband refuses to put them back together in the right order or thinks it's funny to hide them separately in random drawers. Extra bonus: they have 2 of each size so you don't have to wash during a recipe!

{Magnetic Measuring Spoons, $7.95}

If only I could find a rug my little Jasper couldn't get under and run around the kitchen with!

13.1

This past weekend Mike and I ran in Nashville's Country Music 1/2 Marathon! It was the first time either of us had run that far and it was awesome. We'd heard about the race when we first moved to Nashville and decided if we were ever going to do it this was a great opportunity. We nervously registered about the first of the year and have been training ever since.

Our training went really well for the most part. We ran 3-4 times a week with our long runs increasing by about a mile each Sunday. Mike ended up with some sort of foot injury with about 5 weeks to go that kept him completely off his feet for almost 10 days. I had some bad hip pain with about 3 weeks to go and didn't run for that entire week. Taking a week off with that little time left till the race left me in a bit of a panic. With two weeks till race time I decided I really needed to get 2 more hour-ish runs in and a final long run before tapering. This may have been unnecessary, but I knew mentally I would feel better about trying 13 if I had done 11. I pushed an 11-, 9-, and 7- mile run that week. The 11 miler was HARD and left me equally nervous and confident. The week up to the race was great as our plan had only a few, relaxed runs.

We picked up our race packets Thursday at the expo and loved walking around and looking at all of the vendors exhibits. People were buzzing with excitement and it really helped motivate us! There were weather reports of 100% chances of severe thunderstorms for Friday night and all day Saturday which left everyone a little anxious. We woke up Saturday at 4:30 to get ready to go and there was no rain! Our drive to the race start took us through a little bit of the course and it was so exciting to see everything being set up. We got to Centennial Park around 6 and had a little bit of time to drop our gear bags off, stretch and get into our race corral.

{pre-race}

The number of people was incredible! There were somewhere around 32,000-34,000 runners!

{photo from the Tennessean}

The start time approached really quickly and before we knew it we were running! It was kind of surreal at first and hard to keep a slow pace as the first two miles were mostly downhill. We knew the next 5-6 would be a steady uphill as we'd run this part of the route many times. The run seemed to fly by. All of the support was incredible. I couldn't believe all of the people out cheering. There was a band every mile and a half or so and some very creative signs along the way (think: "Run like Elin Woods is chasing you," "Chafe now, brag later," and "Your feet only hurt because you're kicking so much a$$phalt"). I think Nashville treats this as a sporting event to tailgate for. There were tons of people in their front yards drinking and partying (yes, at 7 in the morning!). Many of them offered runners beer, mimosas, and snacks. I couldn't believe it! I decided to pass on the alcoholic beverages while running but was grateful for all of the water, cytomax, and fruit. Miles 1-10 seemed to fly by. We kept a pretty steady pace that we were happy with and just enjoyed the run. By mile 11 I was anticipating the finish and things started to get hard. I was thirsty and my legs were tired. The last mile and a half were mostly uphill and kept winding back. I knew the stadium where we were to finish was so close and yet we kept turning away from it! People were walking all around us and medics were treating lots of runners who had collapsed on the side. I was ready to lay down and go to sleep but Mike said "you made me run this crazy thing this far we're not stopping now" and so I kept going. That last stretch was one of the hardest things I've ever done but running over the finish line made it all worth it!

{photo quality awful because it's stolen from the race photos- still begging Mike to let me order them!}

I know it sounds cliche but it was such a great feeling getting our medals and seeing all the triumph in the people around us. I think I drank like 4 bottles of water in those first 15 minutes. We decided to forgo the post race celebration as we could tell the storms were coming and we had about a 3/4 mile walk back to our apartment. Overall, the race was amazing. It was way more fun than I imagined and I was so proud of being able to run the whole 13 miles without stopping! I definitely recommend the experience to anyone who has been thinking of doing it. Mike swore all day Saturday he would never do it again and Sunday was already looking up other races! We can't wait to do another one!

Chef Mike

M surprised me with a pre-Valentine's day dinner complete with wine and appetizers. The time and effort he put into finding recipes, shopping for the ingredients, and preparing the meal would have impressed me in itself. I was so happy, I didn't care if it was good. But then I realized just how amazing each and every bite was and decided it was one of the best meals I've ever had. We had delicious appetizers of 3 cheese fondue with apples and bread for dipping and homemade bruschetta. The main course consisted of pecan crunch coated salmon with red potatoes and green beans. He offered my favorite dessert of vanilla bean cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory but I instead opted for a few spoonfuls of leftover salmon topping. It was that good.

{White wine with bread and apples for the cheese fondue}

{three cheese fondue}

{homemade bruschetta}

He made a vase of the most amazing tulips, which I adore. We also used our new china for the first time and it was a million times prettier than I'd imagined! I love it and can't wait till we can use it for a house full of guests one day!

{delish!}

He did such an awesome job... I think I'll keep him for, oh, forever. :)