Friday Funk
Ah, I can’t believe how fast this week went!
My half marathon training has been all messed up this week due to me moving things around after vacation so yesterday turned into a rest day and this morning was my 3.5 mile run and strength training. So how was the run? AWFUL… just like my 3.5 miler on Wednesday…
I think I’ll blame the Shakespeare Festival for this one. The play was AWESOME!! I so loved it. If you don’t know the plot of The Taming of the Shrew then just think 10 Things I Hate About You medieval style. The actors were hysterical and interacted with the audience so well. If you’re ever in Colorado over the summer I HIGHLY recommend attending a performance.
I give it two thumbs up!
I managed to snap one picture of my mom and I and 2 of the stage before a mean man come over and made me delete the stage pictures 😦 Okay, he wasn’t really mean but I hate getting in trouble 🙂
The show ended at 10:40 which is already past my bedtime. By the time I got back to my car, took my mom home and finally got into my own bed it was midnight, bleh! I set my alarm for the morning knowing full well I’d be tired.
The Run:
- Mile 1 – 9:45
- Mile 2 – 9:41
- Mile 3 – 9:37
- Mile 3-3.5 – 8:56 pace
- Total = 33:31 (9:35 average pace)
Impressive huh?? Yeah well it’s not hard to get good times when you stop and rest as many times as I did! I don’t know why I’m struggling but it’s not making me very confident about running 13.1 miles in the future 😦 Anyone know any mental tricks because I really do believe it’s all in my mind.
Post Run Breakfast = watery oats that refused to thicken!!
I boiled a cup of water then added 1/4 cup steel cut oats and cooked for ~25 minutes which seemed so long then when the liquid finally cooked out I whisked in a banana and boom the oats were super watery again!
I finally just gave up and poured them in a bowl with blueberries and cocoa nibs. Not the best bowl of oats but is any bowl of oats ever bad? That’s what I thought.
Can you tell I’m in a bit of a funk? Hence the extreme lack of pictures and crappy running attitude. I’m not enjoying this but I’m hoping by 4 pm I’ll be done with work and in a better mood!
OH.MY.GOSH.I.ALMOST.FORGOT.MY.EXCITING.ANNOUNCEMENT.
Joey had a divine proposal this morning:
He asked if he could blog for me while I’m in New Orleans next week.
My response: “THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!!”
Not only will this make my vacation stress free (finding time to blog while on vacation is surprisingly hard — I’m in awe of all those awesome ladies who manage to do it) but I think it will be REALLY cool to see a male perspective on the blog.
My day feels a little brighter now 🙂
HAPPY FRIDAY!
Vacation Recap!
Okay, okay time to finally tell you all about my vacation and by that I mean the food I ate on vacation.
In case you weren’t keeping track of my daily activities (and I don’t know why anyone would) here’s how the vacation went:
- Thursday: drive to Las Vegas (Dinner at Sea Blue)
- Friday: Las Vegas all day (Wynn Buffet & Jerry Seinfeld at Caesar’s Palace)
- Saturday: Drive to LA (Dodgers Game) then drove from LA to Anaheim (dinner and fireworks in Disneyland)
- Sunday: DISNEYLAND
- Monday: DISNEYLAND (Dinner at Goofy’s Kitchen!)
- Tuesday: DISNEYLAND & Angels Game
- Wednesday: Drive to San Diego (breakfast at Cafe 222, afternoon at the beach & Padres Game)
- Thursday: Drive the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco + stop in Morro Bay for lunch
- Friday: Biked across the Golden Gate Bridge, had lunch in Sausalito & Giants Game
- Saturday: Drive all day to Salt Lake City
- Sunday: Drive all day home
That’s a LOT of driving for 11 days!! And Joey did most of it, oops 😛
We did a lot of eating too. Roll the vacation food highlights reel!
Course numero uno at the Buffet at the Wynn — I HIGHLY recommend this buffet if you happen to be in Vegas. I think I’ve been to a total of 4 and this was BY FAR the best!
Hers = salad with tomatoes and capers, some kind of ceviche which I’d never had before and did not like (ceviche is cold??) and mussles!
His = salad drowning in ranch dressing, tomato soup + bread. We shared the mussles but I think Joey was a little weirded out by them…
Crab legs were the obvious highlight of the buffet, which meant a long line but I snacked on some sushi while we waited 🙂
Crab legs, sushi, shrimp + cocktail sauce, edamame. Word to the wise: before eating sushi off your boyfriends plate make sure he hasn’t accidentally drenched everything on the plate in melted butter YUCK!
We skipped the pasta area and headed for the steak and veggies. Going clockwise: corn (so so good), curried chickpeas, roasted veggies (is that a patty pan squash?!), mashed potatoes (yuuuum), beets (not my favorite) and asparagus (just how I like em!)
Joey got steak of course and I tasted it of course. Pretty good but not quite as good as the steak he had the night before which practically required no chewing.
Remember this picture? Believe me this is only a small portion of what was available in the dessert section. They have an ice cream counter and you can add your own toppings but we figured there’s tons of places where you can do that so we passed on the ice cream.
Starting with the “green thing” and going clockwise: mint cake, oreo mousse, raspberry mousse, strawberry shortcake, apple pie and some sort of pudding thing that obviously didn’t make any lasting impressions. We took a bite then rotated through then I finished the shortcake and Joey ate the oreo mousse. The tiny sample size dishes + sharing + sampling instead of finishing = perfect amount of dessert!
On the way out of Vegas I stopped by Starbucks and got some oatmeal and a banana. Verdict: NOT as good as anything I’ve made at home (it was so thick!) but at least it cured my hunger.
So glad I chose to make a samich in the car before the Dodgers came considering this was what they had available in the All-You-Can-Eat Pavillion!
Dinner was enjoyed in Downtown Disney at an italian restaurant called Naples Ristorante e Pizzeria. We started by sharing a spinach salad with goat cheese and candied walnuts. Usually I don’t like walnuts but when they’re candied they’re GOOD!
Whoa, giant pizza!!! The sizes were individual, large and family so we went with large and were pretty surprised when this was set in front of us. We proceeded to stuff our faces with pizza but only made a little more than half way through 😦 Notice anything weird about his pizza other than it’s size? Yes, it has pepperoni and sausage! Most of the pizzas had meat and since I’m not actually a vegetarian (I just prefer to order veggie over meat) I let Joey get his fill of meat.
Other Downtown Disney highlights included this strawberry margarita at Tortilla Joe’s
Followed by these veggie enchiladas. Is queso fresco not a wonderful cheese?? And I rarely get to eat it 😦
Favorite breakfast = Open faced egg sandwich with spinach and feta + potatoes at La Brea. I also had a chai latte that “tasted like Christmas” haha
Peanut Butter and Banana Stuffed French Toast at Cafe 222! Whoa, were this rich. Joey and I shared an order and each only ate one piece and to be honest I felt a little sick afterwards 😦
We did, however, sit next to three Dodgers players and Joey was far too distracted…
Well there you have it, our California extravaganza in a nutshell. Now it’s time for Beanie and I to head to the Rockies game!
Chowww
Back at it
I fully intended on posting yesterday. However, after not seeing my family for 11 days (2 years in Dorsey time) we had a lot of catching up to do. Lunch was enjoyed at Udi’s, of course. Then the bad news came…
While I was gone Puppy’s health took a turn for the worst. He needed a ventilator to breath and his heart was taking up his entire chest cavity. My family made the decision to put him down and because they were afraid the news might ruin my trip they decided to wait until I was home to tell me. While I’m glad they waited, I feel bad that I wasn’t there to comfort my sister, who took it pretty hard 😦
As you may have guessed, I didn’t have much of an urge to post after hearing about Puppy so I spent the rest of the day with my family. Losing a pet is always hard, especially when it happens so fast (2 weeks exactly!) but I’m determined to keep my own spirits up and what better way to do so then by sharing food pictures?!
Because one meal with my family wasn’t enough I also joined them for dinner. My mom claims this dinner isn’t blog worthy but I assured her that to me, all my food is blog worthy he he 🙂
An assortment of burgers was purchased from Whole Foods: chicken for my dad and myself, spicy peach turkey for my sister and Joey and beef with blue cheese for my mom. Beanie, my dad and I went bunless, which apparently results in a messy looking burger!
Burger atop lettuce, topped with ketchup, mustard, tomato and avocado. Plus coleslaw and corn on the side. I must admit chicken burgers are a little too dry for my taste and the corn was lacking in the flavor department, BUT the company more than made up for it 😀
Welcome back to oatmeal!!
After what seemed like an eternity, I had a real bowl of amazing oats. These were of the steel-cut variety.
I’m playing around with liquid amounts/time for steel cut and today’s turned out pretty good.
- Boil 3/4 cup water
- Add 1/3 cup oats
- Cover, reduce heat to low and cook 15 minutes
- Add in 1/3 cup vanilla almond milk, 1T chia seeds (the last of my container, eek!), 1/2 banana, cinnamon and vanilla
- Whisk until banana is completely mashed up
- Recover and cook 10 minutes
- Top and enjoy! Side Note: Every time I type joy my fingers automatically type joey haha
I topped mine with fresh organic blueberries, PB and Just Bunches. I also had to let these sit in the fridge for ~7 minutes till they had cooled down enough to eat.
By the way did I mention I returned from vacation Sunday evening and busted out 5 miles on Monday morning? An 11 day running hiatus can’t slow down this girl!
Happy Tuesday, make sure to give your pets a hug today 🙂
Lauren Loves Good Food 