Category Archives: Food for Thought

Mac & Cheese Long Run

Food for Thought, Workouts, , , ,

Happy Saturday morning to ya! Hope you had a great start to your weekend last night. Mac and I hit the sack early and slept for a little more than 8 hours! It’s so nice to wake up without an alarm.

We rolled out of bed at 7 AM feeling refreshed and ready to hit the pavement. I checked the weather to find that is was 48 degrees outside! Nippy!! I pulled on some running tights and  a long-sleeve Lululemon top that I bought just for mornings like this and set off to accomplish something I’ve never done before: 6.2 miles.

Obviously Mac had to sit this one out. Like I’ve mentioned in the past, anything over 1.5 miles makes his ‘tiny dog syndrome’ kick in, and I have to drag and/or carry him the rest of the way if I want to keep running.

The run was fairly easy for me today, and my running pace was immediately faster than normal. I’m going to chalk this up to the cooler temps.

photo(76)I made it in record time! Well, according to my records at least. 🙂 It felt great to run that final stretch down my street and have my Runkeeper app tell me I was over my goal of 6.2 miles. I’m so ready for my 10K on October 12th! I was most worried about making the distance without stopping, but now that I know I can do it, I only need to focus on maintaining my endurance and possibly increasing my time.

So you’re wondering why I called this post the Mac & Cheese Long Run? Well because it was exactly that…

Kraft Factory
Kraft Factory

This is the Kraft Factory that I run by each time I mention going on longer runs. Yes, Kraft as in the Macaroni and Cheese that we all know and love. Most days, the parking lot is full, and I can see smoke coming out of those pipes. But today was slightly different. I got right next to the building (on the sidewalk of course), and I could smell Kraft’s macaroni and cheese just like there was a big bowl sitting right in front of my face!

kraft mac cheese blue boxUmm YUM!! I continued to smell the delicious cheesy stuff for about another mile. I even changed my breathing from my mouth to my nose (which I don’t like doing) so I could get a good whiff of it!

The craziest thing to me is how Kraft’s mac and cheese has such a distinct smell and taste compared to a homemade mac and cheese. It’s very distinguishable! And when you’re about 4 miles into your run, it makes it hard to focus when all you want is a big bowl of carbs to dig into. But I got quite a kick out of it. People driving by probably thought I was crazy as the whole thing had me laughing out loud at myself. So lesson learned: keep your nose ready for some cheesy goodness if you’re ever running down Bennett street in Springfield!

Breakfast

I made it home from my run and stretched well while sipping some water to rehydrate. I was then ready for coffee and FOOD! I brewed my Candy Corn flavored coffee this morning from Target and immediately poured myself a big mug full along with a splash of Pumpkin Pie Spice creamer. It hit the spot after being chilly during my run! I wanted the warmth to continue. So I toasted some bread while I microwaved 2 eggs with a splash of almond milk.

photo(72)A little raspberry jelly perfected this sandwich with the awesome combo of salty and sweet. My eggs got extra nice and poofy in the microwave making my sandwich extra filling!

photo(74)Mmmmmmmm eggy goodness. This hefty sandwich left me super satisfied, but I also had a small cup of Greek yogurt on the side for extra protein.

photo(73)And now I’m very full but still sipping on the coffee. I can’t get enough of the Fall-flavored coffees. But tomorrow is the FIRST DAY OF FALL!!! So my obsession is finally legitimate.

The rest of today will be spent teaching a Jazzercise class (yes, I’m crazy, I know) and doing some Fall decorating with a tiny and extremely whiny dog.

photo(75)For some reason, every time Nick leaves for a longer amount of time, Mac goes into this annoying & whiny mode until he returns. I may have to go to Hobby Lobby to A) Look at all the Fall decor that is 40% off today! and B) Get away from my annoying furry baby for a bit. I love him, but momma can only handle so much.

Have a great Saturday! Get out there and carve some pumpkins or something!

SWMO Kappa Delta Alumnae Meeting

Daily Life!, Food for Thought, , , ,

Phewwww! It’s been a busy day/week! Who’s ready for Friday?!

Today started out with teaching a 5 AM Jazzercise class. I switched schedules with another instructor so I could have this evening free. Tonight was my first meeting with the Southwest Missouri Kappa Delta Alumnae Chapter!

I graduated from Drury University in May 2011, and though I really loved my sorority, I was ready for a break from the meetings/time requirements that it required after being active for 3 years. Sidenote: I only attended Drury for 3 years. I took the fast track and got my degree early. So no, I didn’t attend college anywhere else or drop out early. 🙂 I’m just that good.

I received an email from my sorority’s alumnae chapter about a month ago inviting us to attend the first meeting of the Fall. I finally felt excited about being active within my sorority again! So I took this as a sign that it was time for me to join up officially with the alumnae chapter.

Up to this point, I didn’t feel like it was the best idea for me to be super active with the alums because the chapter was still full of active members that were there when I was active. I always looked up to the alumnae when I was a student and didn’t know how this relationship would work out since I was almost the same age as the senior class members. After almost 3 years, most of those girls have graduated, and I finally can feel like an alumni!

The meeting invite said we would be planning this year’s calendar events, which is exactly what we DIDN’T do. HA! The eclectic group of women that welcomed me into their meeting tonight were far to friendly and chatty to get any ‘real’ work done. We spent 2 1/2 hours just eating and chatting about our lives and our time spent in the sorority. They were all so warm and inviting. I could tell that they were definitely sisters, even though there was a 50 year age different between some of us.

We eventually rounded out the evening by deciding that we would meet once every-other month since our schedules can be so crazy. We may get together soon (in October) for a wine tasting. But the next official event will be a cookie exchange in December. I may be old fashioned, but I can’t think of anything I’d rather do on a Thursday night than eat holiday cookies with some awesome ladies & sisters.

Dinner

BBQ was provided by our host, and we were all asked to bring our favorite side dishes to complete the meal. I opted to make a cold Quinoa & Cucumber salad to go along with the BBQ.

photo(84)But I also had to make some sweets for dessert! I found an amazing recipe for Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies on Pinterest and jumped at this chance to be able to bake.

photo(79)They were too delicious for words! And healthy-ish with no added oil or butter. I think I’ve found my new Fall go-to cookie recipe. I also saw a recipe on Pinterest that only required a Spice Cake mix and a can of pure pumpkin. They looked like little pumpkiny dough balls in the pics, so I will be trying those soon as well! (Thinking the addition of chocolate chips might be necessary here!)

Needless to say, getting this food ready last night completely destroyed my tiny kitchen, but it was well worth it. And everyone enjoyed the food (or seemed to!), so that’s what matters most! They oohed and aahed over the pumpkin cookies. I think the Fall-like weather made them even more enticing this evening.

Breakfast

photo(86)Breakfast today was the usual when I’m running late. And this banana was a little past its prime. ughhhhhh. But the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Luna bar made it all okay. 🙂

Lunch

Lunch was quick and full of quinoa! I had some leftover quinoa from making the quinoa salad for tonight’s meeting. I threw that together with some leftover steamed veggies and wrapped it all up in one of my low-carb wraps.

photo(80)Supa healthy, right? Yeah it was until I added a little Lite Ranch dressing to give it some taste! The veggies were overcooked (my fault!) so they weren’t too tasty by themselves.

photo(86)I also had a little more quinoa by helping myself to the salad that I took to my meeting tonight. I made way too much of the salad so it didn’t hurt much for me to sample a few bites ahead of time. I felt like I was cheating on my typical lunch salad of romaine and veggies, but I suppose enough veggies were consumed regardless!

All-in-all, today was fun! I am now trying to deal with my completely full food baby. Did I overeat? Oh yea. No question about that one. But with my pumpkin cookies and some raspberry cookie bars someone else brought (and then sent home with me!), I couldn’t not be stuffed right now. So I think it’s time to hit the sack and start fresh tomorrow with healthy eating.

Jazzercise, Work, Jazzercise

Daily Life!, Food for Thought, Jazzercise, ,

My Mondays tend to be a little overwhelming, schedule-wise. I begin by teaching Jazzercise at 5:40 AM, then I rush home, shower, and make it to my office by 8 AM. I then have the typical work day til 5. This is then followed by me rushing home to spend time with Mac and have a quick snack before heading off to teach my 6:45 PM Jazzercise class. By the time I make it home around 8 PM, I don’t have much energy and I tend to hit the sack by 9.

Sounds insane, right? Well it’s only 1 day a week that I agreed to have this schedule, making the rest of my days seem slow and unproductive (even though that’s usually far from the truth!). Plus, I love what I do, so one day of craziness is well worth it! Today’s schedule stayed right on track, and I am now in my post Jazzercise stupor. I am still in slight recovery mode after running the 5K with a belly full of Mexican food this weekend, but after today I should be back at full speed! I ate fairly lightly today to help ease my sore tummy. So let’s back up a bit…

Breakfast

Breakfast was my typical grab-n-go, so I’ll spare you the boring pictures. I enjoyed some cinnamon roll flavored oatmeal with a banana and some Greek yogurt on the side. Light and filling!

Lunch

Lunch started with a quick salad that was basically half romaine and half sugar snap peas. I was craving my green veggies I think!

photo(71)I was then SUPER lazy and grabbed a Lean Cuisine that had been hibernating in the freezer a little too long.

photo(70)This little baby ended up being the best Lean Cuisine I’ve had in a long time! It was part of their ‘Spa Collection’…whatever that means. And it was amazing. I will definitely be on the hunt for sales on these from now on!

photo(69)The plus? It actually looked like the picture on the box! The chicken was yummy and it had tons of veggies to fill me up.

Dinner

I kept dinner tonight light because I snacked quite a bit when I got from work at 5. I decided some Italian style veggie soup would suffice.

photo(68)Isn’t it funny how it resembles the minestrone soup from Olive Garden, especially in the festive bowl I chose? I got a kick out of it, and it made my meal feel fancier. I also had some steamed veggies on the side, which I severely overcooked. Oops!

So most of my food today was packaged and not the freshest. But I guess we can’t be perfect everyday. I’m just ready for bed after having that big bowl of hot soup!

I hope your Monday went well! I’ll catch you all in the AM after we get some rest!