Patience, my friends!

I know my blog template is looking pretty haphazard these days - it is a work in progress! :)

I'm currently designing a new header and a couple other fun things, with the help of ZestyCook. I'm not very artsy or creative at this type of thing though - any suggestions for color, style, pictures, etc???

Today was a 5 miler. It was a bit warm for my liking, but I tried to psych myself up by thinking that the too-hot weather was simply preparing me for the chance that the marathon may be a warm day! This helped a bit :)

Breakfast was this, times 2.... I also finished off my potato salad, er I mean my yummy raw vegan cauliflower with creamy caper sauce :) It was just about 1/2 c. though, not worth a pic.

Are you sick of avocado salads yet??? I hope not.... I am seriously in a rut here. I need to replenish my supply soon... this salad was fabulously tasty (avocado, greens, homemade dressing) but not very exciting because I sliced my thumb open during the prep time soooooo I did not feel like continuing to cut up more veggies after that!

Snack time!!! I wanted to do a side-by-side product comparison :) Both products are 70% cocoa, and similar ingredients, except the Lindt bar is made with real sugar vs. Newman's Own Organics uses organic cane sugar.

The sugar stats are way higher for the NOO, and as a result this bar definitely tasted sweeter! I prefer the thickness of the NOO bar (the Lindt is very thin), and I do like that it was slightly sweeter.

However, I am more apt to binge on the whole bar ;) when it is sweeter - thus, I am more likely to want to buy the Lindt over the NOO because I LIKE being able to stop after 2 (or 4) squares, versus inhaling the entire bar.

Ok guys, I have a baby bok choy hiding out in my fridge and I'm not sure what I feel like doing with it. I love to experiment with new veggies, but surprisingly I've NEVER cooked with bok choy!

I'd love to hear about your fave bok choy recipes!!

You know you're a runner when...

...you relish being outside while it's raining with no umbrella, while watching your fellow pedestrians run for cover! This morning I woke up determined to get right back to my normal diet and exercise regimen, after taking a bit of a hiatus for our fabulous weekend getaway! This may sound like a negative thing to some people - after having an indulgent vacation - but I was sooooo looking forward to it!! We had a great time, but I love feeling healthy and accomplished, and I am much more apt to feel that way when I am eating right and exercising on a regular basis.

Here's a quick recap of yesterday: Mike and I had breafast at the Village Deli, which is one of the restaurants along Kirkwood in Bloomington that has probably been around since my dad went to school there decades ago. I had an egg white omelete with tomatoes, mushrooms, and advocado, a chocolate chip pancake, and some OJ. I was a bit worried that the chocolate chip pancake would be tiny since on the menu it said "one pancake", but have no fear - this guy was bigger than the plate! It was a great "last vacation meal".

A few hours into our drive home, we snacked - yet again - on some veggies with hummus. Until recently I had forgotten how much I love hummus, but now that I'm back home I'm going to go without it for a while - I plan to really give this RAW thing a shot (hummus isn't raw because it is miscombined). For those of you who missed my earlier posting, I am trying this for a few reasons, but mainly because I frequently get terrible stomach pains after eating various foods, and I'm going to try this out to see if it helps with that.

We stopped at a Costco in IN on the way home, and let me tell you, NOTHING makes this girl happier than buying food in bulk, and on top of that, not having to pay taxes on it! Illinois, puhlease take a lesson from Indiana will ya....

We mostly got huge quantities of produce, some salsa (Mike goes through the regular sized jars in ONE SITTING), salmon (for me) and hot dogs (for Mike) to grill, etc.

Once back in Chicago, I unpacked all of my stuff and decided to go to Best Buy to look for a juicer. I have my little heart set on a Breville Fountain Juicer, and there are two kinds - the compact for $100, and the "Plus" for $150. Since I'm pretty sure they have the same functions but one is simply large, the smaller one will suffice for me since I'm not juicing for a large family here. Unfortunately, they were out of the smaller one! I'll have to go back at another time.

Today I went for a run first thing, and knocked out an easy 5 miler. It was a glorious, party-rainy day and it was great!! It really does crack me up to see the walkers running for shelter from a few rain drops, while us runners get an extra spring in our step at the first drop, and hope for more! I had planned to run to the gym to go to a yoga class afterward, but I was so wet from the rain that I felt I owed it to the other yogis not to go to class smelling like a wet dog.

Breakfast today was FAB. U. LOUS. I'm sure many of you have heard of Gena's creative idea to throw a frozen banana into a food processor, blend for a few minutes, and it makes what tastes exactly like soft serve ice cream - well, I am here to tell you, that it DOES!!! When I was little my mom always threw frozen bananas into milk shakes so I know that they had great flavor, but I had never tried that sans milk. It helped to cut mine up a bit first since I was using the mini foood processor, but it was sooooooo good that I made two bowls full.

Then, I went downtown to take my camera to get fixed... the flash is broken :( and I know i owe it to my readers to provide quality pix, unlike the blurry nonsense that I have been posting the last few days! Cross your fingers I get it back soon!

I'm sad that I don't have my camera since I made a pretty awesome raw lunch today, if I say so myself. I threw some frozen red peppers (some hard-core raw-ists don't buy frozen veggies because they have been flash-cooked, but these were just frozen because I threw my fresh peppers into the freezer last week to store them), a bit of celery, one tomato, and some water into the blender. Ialso a 1/2 scoop of nutritional yeast, to make it a bit cheesy. I spiced it up with some salt, garlic, paprika, cumin, and some Penzey's BBQ seasoning spice. I also threw in about 1/3 c. pepitas and blended this too, to give it a bit more of a texture.

This soup rocks! It is super light and refreshing. Salads sometimes bore me, but lately I've been obsessed with cold, gazpacho-type soups. Sorry I don't have a picture of this!

I have a ton of random bits and pieces of produce sitting around our place (leftover from our fam party last week) - do you have any favorite cold soup recipes?

iWant an iPhone!!!

Hello readers!

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! I know I did! :) I know I'm a bad blogger for not posting about Saturday ON Saturday, but I am out of town and it's been tough having internet access.

Yesterday, I woke up bright and early (but not exactly bright-eyed and bushytailed) so that I could get to my 6am running group. When I attended the first training run of the season two Saturdays ago, to my dismay I realized that there were NO bathrooms by our meeting point. This is a problem because as all athletes know, hydration is crucial, especially when you are running long distances and especially when you are in hot and humid Chi-town!!! I also NEED my morning coffee on those 5am days - for the mental boost it gives me, and also, some recent studies have shown that it can actually help with physical performance, as well.

So, how do you down a cup of coffee and an adequate amount of water and not have to use the bathroom, you ask? After pondering this and some of life's other profound questions, I decided to: heat up a couple tablespoons of water, stir in my instant coffee, and chill in the fridge overnight. Then, in the morning, add a splash of soy milk, and there you have it: instant, chilled espresso shot! Ok that was an insanely long paragraph about an espresso shot haha, and for that I apologize. But it really was a great idea, you have to admit ;)

ANYHOO, it ended up being another good run - thank goodness since my last short run was so discouraging due to the heat. I ended up switching into a slighter faster pace group, and I felt a lot more comfortable at that speed so I was happy about that. All of the runners I've met so far have been very cool people, as runners tend to be! :)

After I got back to the condo, I made some waffles for Mike (drizzled with leftover melted walnut brittle - which is essentially walnuts in a caramel sauce mmmmm) - but I just stuck with a Green Monster.

We headed for Indiana, and for lunch at my parent's house I had an awesome caprese sandwich. I LOVE the combo of tomatoes, fresh basil and fresh mozz together with a bit of EVOO, balsamic, S & P - you really can't beat it! I also had some raspberries on the side. Sheesh, I feel so lame talking about food without showing pictures of it haha, but Saturday was quite a busy day as far as eating goes, so I'll keep talking....

Went to the wedding ceremony which was gorgeous - I've never heard of the color combo of lime green and deep purple, but together it looked very cool and Katie looked gorgeous! It was a full Catholic mass, and afterward we went back home to kill time before the reception.

...and began the process of stretching our stomachs for what was to come.... meaning I had a sip of a bloody Mary but decided it was entirely too boozey and too spicy for me, and then to get rid of the spicy flavor I had FOUR chocolate covered cherries. At least they were small :) And some blue cheese which was delightful as always.

The wedding was also completely studding. Props to the fam of the bride to putting together such an extravagant event!!! I will post some pix once I can. I had a couple apps, some salad (skipped the bread because I knew I would go crazy during the dessert course.... and I sure came through in this department ;) !!) The vegetarian entree was skewered grilled veggies, with a side of more veggies and some potatoes. I then had FOUR pieces of cake (yes, four seemed to be the magic number of the evening ladies and gentlemen) over the course of the evening. I also had a few drinks, mostly just some white wine and some Bailey's on ice!

After we got back, Mike and I were somehow still hungry, as astonishing as that may seem. Soooo I made him his favorite, "nacho surprise", which of course I helped him eat like any good wife would. I also finished off the night right with some of my Grandma's homemade cookies.... I knew they might not be there by the next morning... so I wanted to grab them while they lasted ;)

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SUNDAY:

I woke up naturally feeling the wrath of the night before - not so much the drinking, but the overindulgence of food!! So I went for an hour walk and did some crunches. I would have loved to gotten in a long, sweaty workout at the gym, but I am not a member at the gym in my parent's town so a walk was the only option (I couldn't run since I ran Saturday, and try not to run back-to-back days).

For breakfast, I made a GM, and then made a HUGE batch of guacamole for my lunch today, and also so that I would have enough for tomorrow. I snacked on some of the guac and some red pepper spears while driving with my mom to my grandparent's house, who live about an hour away. We visited my grandmother in the nursing home for a bit - my grandma is having a hard time dealing with having to be away from her house, husband, and cat, but overall she seems to be much healthier thankfully! Here are some pix I found on my grandparent's computer: these were on Thanksgiving of 07 when Mike and I first told my grandparents that we were engaged!!

My grandpa and I left the nursing home to go to my FAVORITE restaurant of all time, The Olive Garden. Ok, ok, I know there is better food out there in the world, but I have loved the OG since I was little and I am always a happy girl to go there! :-) My grandpa and I split an app of stuffed mushrooms (his choosing). They were good, but doused in butter so I just had two tiny ones. We both got the unlimited soup-salad-breadsticks deal, which I took FULL advantage of. I gave my grandpa my soup, only had one breadstick, but had 4-5 bowls of salad!! That stuff is truly like crack. I think the teenage waiter was a bit scared of my voracious appetite for their salad!

Gpa and I headed back to the nursing home for a bit, and now we are back at his house for the night. I am going to be staying with him for a couple days, and I don't have the ability to connect my camera to his comp and don't have wireless for my laptop, which is why I won't be putting any pix up today or tomorrow.

I truly apologize for this because I know you guys like to see pix! However, please bear with me and keep checking back :) I promise to get back to my normal schedule on Tuesday or Wednesday!

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Also, tomorrow don't forget to come back tomorrow for my first posting of the Marathon Monday series!!! :)

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P.S. I REALLY, really want an iPhone!!! I'm desperate to have the wireless internet function wherever I go.

I'm also not happy with the clarity of my camera photos, and I'm hoping the iPhone pix will turn out better. The main features that I want are the camera, wireless internet capability, and a GPS function, which I assume it has.

I haven't done much research yet about this but I think there are a few different types of iPhones out there now - do any of you have one? Which one? Would you recommend it? I'd love to hear some feedback from you guys! Thanks! :)