Tuesday: 3 mile run in the cold

I worked all day, so I had to run when I got home from work. By the time I got home, let Lady out, and mapped my 3 mile route, it was dark and 23 degrees outside. Twenty-three degrees! I don’t think I have ever run outside in such cold! So, before I left for my run, I dressed even more warmly than I had on Sunday. I wore an extra pair of pants over my running tights, an extra jacket over my fleece jacket, and a pair of hiking socks over my powersox running socks. Even so, I was freezing. Even with two pairs of gloves on, my fingers were so cold that I could feel the tightness overtaking my joints. Every step was painful. But my time tonight was better than Sunday’s time. For my 3.22 mile run, I averaged 11:31 minute miles. This would be an incredibly slow pace for someone whose joints don’t seize up in the cold, but I’m proud that I was faster tonight despite the lower outside temperatures. Tonight, I’m feeling optimistic—lupus can’t stand in the way of my goals!

I didn’t realize this until after I completed my run, but despite the pain, I never once considered quitting. I think this is partly because I was pumped about receiving my volunteer packet from the local chapter of the Lupus Foundation of America! I’ve signed up to be an advocate and a speaker, and I’m very excited about this.

Monday: Strength training and stretching

My long runs are generally on Sundays, because that is usually the day that races occur. Granted, right now my Sunday runs aren’t exactly “long.” Even so, my training schedule during the week is fairly light. My schedule for this week isn’t too strenuous:

Monday: Strength training and stretching/yoga

Tuesday: 3 mile easy run

Wednesday: 2 mile run with hills

Thursday: 3 mile easy run and strength training

Friday: Rest!

Saturday: 30 minutes of cross-training

Sunday: 4 mile run

I haven’t worked out with weights in a while, so today’s strength-training has been a little hit-or-miss. I’m trying a large number of exercises to see which ones hurt my joints the most. The ones that work my muscles well without putting too much pressure on my already stiff and sore joints will be the ones that I work on. After it gets warmer this spring, I will retry some of the exercises that hurt my joints to see if there is any improvement.

As far as strength-training is concerned, I’ve really let myself go. Just a few months ago, I was much stronger than I am now. But now that I do not work at a gym, I don’t have access to the weights that I did back in Dallas and I’ve slacked off a lot. Getting strong again will take a lot of effort, but will be worth it. I only own 8 lb, 5 lb, and 3 lb weights, which are perfect right now. But soon I might have an excuse to go buy a new set of heavier weights :-)

Today’s workout:

Upper body: Not necessarily in this order
Tricep dips – 3 sets of 12 reps
French press - 10 lb – 3 sets of 15 reps
Tricep kick-back – 5 lbs – 3 sets of 15 reps
Tricep lifts – 8 lbs – 3 sets of 15 reps
Preacher’s curls – 8 lbs each – 3 sets by 15 reps
Concentrated Curls – 8 lbs each – 3 sets by 15 reps
Crazy 8s – 10 lbs total – 2 sets of 36
Shoulder presses – 5 lbs each – 3 sets 15 reps
Referees – 3 lbs – 3 sets 15 reps
Lateral raises – 3 lbs – 3 sets 15 reps
Front raises – 3 lbs – 3 sets 15 reps
Chest presses – 16 lbs – 3 sets 15 reps
Chest flyes – 10 lbs – 3 sets 15 reps
Bench presses – 16 lbs – 3 sets 15 reps
Girly Push-ups - 20 (I'm so weak!)
One arm rows – 8 lbs – 3 sets of 15 reps
Resistance band rows – blue band – 3 sets of 15 reps

Lower body:
Calf raises – 3 sets of 25 reps
Wall sits – 1 minute holds, 3 times
Plie squats – 3 sets of 25 reps
Leg curls – 14 lbs – 3 sets of 15 reps
Hip adduction – 3 sets of 25 reps
Hip abduction – 3 sets of 25 reps
Genie sits – 2 sets of 12 reps (these put a lot of pressure on my knees and really started to hurt)

Core: A mix of supermans, bird-dogs, crunches, bicycles, planks, bridges, and sit-ups

Stretching/yoga: 30 minutes

December 13: 4 mile run

In my cold-weater gear, minus my hat and gloves.

I was absent from work on both Thursday and Friday because I’ve been sick. I was running a fever and lost my voice. Therefore, it was probably not my smartest idea to go running today. But I sometimes feel out of control with my lupus, and I needed to show my body that I am, in fact, in control. Sometimes a little bit of a mind-over-matter attitude is important.

Even so, I found it really difficult to get motivated. The cold weather disagrees with my lupus, and makes my joints ache. And the warm electric mattress pad kept beckoning me to come back to bed and rest my stiff joints. I managed to crawl out from under my toasty covers, and change into running gear.

It’s kind of amusing that getting ready for a cold-weather run takes 5 times as long as gearing up for a warm-weather run. By the time I was ready to leave the house, I was wearing my running tights and four different tops. All of my exposed skin had a thick and greasy layer of Aquaphor to prevent chapping. I know I look a bit ridiculous when I run in the cold, but I want to keep my joints as warm as possible, and I don’t want any of those lovely lupus-induced facial ulcers that I tend to get. So, a little preventative maintenance goes a long way.

To warm my body up a bit, I ran very small laps around the basement for four minutes before heading outside to brave the elements. At 42 degrees, it was very cold to this former Texan. And, as I said earlier, the colder I am, the more pain I’m in. Therefore, I ran very slowly—so frustratingly and painfully slow! I used Jeff Galloway’s 4:1 split method (four minutes running then one minute walking), which is what he recommends for a 9 minute mile pace. Well, the 4:1 did not give my cold and slow body a 9 minute mile—it was more like a 14 minute mile. When my mother goes walking, she has a faster pace than I did today. Before I got sick and started hurting so much, I was a lot faster. Days like today can be a bit discouraging. I have to remind myself to look at the glass as half-full. I have to remind myself that I was only scheduled for a 4 mile workout, but I went 4.29 miles! And, as my rheumatologist told me, sticking with my running plans will help me feel better physically and psychologically!

Thanks!

Thanks to those who have read this blog. But I'm ending it now--well, I'm ending the domestic goddess part. All of my recipes are going on my examiner page. And all of my sewing projects are going to get posted on craftster.org and facebook.

I'm switching gears and using this to keep myself motivated about running 50 races in 50 places to raise lupus awareness. I will keep the old posts, but all of my new posts will be about how lupus is treating me, and how training is going :)

Melt down

I haven't updated this in a while because we have been eating leftovers thanks to our refrigerator going out. We got a new refrigerator on Wednesday, but some of our frozen meals had partially defrosted. So, we had tacos Wednesday night (from Del Taco because I was incredibly frustrated with the kitchen situation), frozen leftover turkey chili last night, and frozen leftover broccoli chowder tonight (see my examiner page for the recipe).

I'll start posting again as soon as I get our kitchen back into order. And given that I have a lot of pears from my grandparents' house, I will be posting several pear recipes!

New webpage

In addition to this blog, I now have a new webpage. I'm now working for examiner.com as the St. Louis Budget Meals writer. This blog and that page will have some overlap, but there will be many articles and recipes on that page that aren't on this blog. So be sure to check it out often! Thanks!

http://www.examiner.com/x-24872-St-Louis-Budget-Meals-Examiner

Thai ice tea cupcakes

I'm far behind on dinner blogs, but life kind of got in the way last week. I really should update tonight with a dinner, but I just made some Thai iced tea cupcakes for Vivian's birthday (yesterday) and Aaron's birthday (tomorrow). And anyone who knows me, knows I love to eat and to talk about cupcakes. So the dinner post will have to wait.

Cupcakes are one of my absolute favorite things. When my husband and I first started dating, he took me to Sprinkles for their Christmas cupcakes. While we were still living in Dallas, he'd often surprise me with Sprinkles cupcakes. I think I like baking cupcakes almost as much as I like eating them. I've made some rich and sinful green tea cupcakes before, but I've never tried Thai ice tea cupcakes. I was inspired when I saw Thai ice tea cupcakes on Chockylit's blog. (I really wish she'd reopen it! I was so sad when she closed the blog.) I looked at both of her recipes for her cupcakes, and adapted them. The frosting I took straight from her blog with no adaptations.

(Slight tangent: If you have a chance to browse Chockylit's recipes, I really recommend you do so! Chockylit is my cupcake inspiration! She has some creative recipes, and is always available to email back and forth about cupcake ideas. She once helped me in my search for the perfect fondant to fill Cadbury cream egg inspired cupcakes.)




Thai ice tea cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 stick butter, to room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 packets instant thai ice tea with creamer and sugar in the mix
1 large egg, beaten
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large egg whites

Directions:

Step 1: Beat butter with a mixer on high speed.

Step 2: Add sugar and thai ice tea mix. Beat for 2 to 3 minutes.

Step 3: Add egg, and mix for another minute.

Step 4: Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Step 5: In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and vanilla.

Step 6: Slowly add flour mixture and milk mixture to the mixing bowl with the butter and sugar. Alternate between adding the flour mix and the milk mix.

Step 7: In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until they form soft peaks. Fold egg whites into the cake batter, until incorporated.

Step 8: Scoop batter into cupcake pans.

Step 9: Bake in 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool. Then ice with sweetened condensed milk frosting.





Sweetened Condensed Milk Buttercream Frosting
recipe by chockylit

Ingredients:

1 stick butter
7 oz sweetened condensed milk
1-1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Directions:

Step 1: soften butter in the mixer on high speed

Step 2: sift confectioner’s sugar

Step 3: add sweetened condensed milk and about a half of the sugar to the butter and beat until combined

Step 4: add remaining confectioner’s sugar in stages until desired consistency is achieved

The cupcakes have only a slight Thai ice tea flavor, but are still very delicious. They have a really nice moist crumb, and aren't too sweet. The frosting is sinfully sweet. A little goes a long way. Although my frosting is very thin, I decided to only add 1-1/4 cups of powdered sugar. I thought the frosting would be too sweet with more sugar. After tasting the frosting with the cupcakes, I'm really glad I decided to stop adding sugar. They are very, very sweet and rich. Delicious!

Dinners for 9/21-9/22: Chicken and mango quesadillas; curry chicken salad wraps

I was very busy the past few days, and am now playing catch-up. Since this post will be long (sorry), I will try to keep my comments to a minimum.

Back in high school home economics class, I was partnered with Jess, Betsy, Marie, Nancy, and Jennifer. During the cooking portion of one of the classes, we decided to make chicken quesadillas. Somehow, Jess and Bets talked the rest of us into putting mango on the quesadillas. I was skeptical, but blown away when I tried them. The tangy, sweet mango really complemented the sharp and salty cheese and chicken. And I now marinade the chicken first in an acidic marinade that matches the acidity of the mango. I loved the combination of chicken and mangos, and still continue to use it. And not just in quesadillas!


Dinner for Monday 9/21


Chicken and mango quesadillas (inspired by Jess and Bets many, many years ago) this makes 4 servings

Ingredients:
2 TBSP olive oil
1 ½ TBSP lime juice
¼ tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cumin
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 TBSP white vinegar
2 TBSP chopped dried onion
¼ tsp oregano
½ tsp pepper
¼ TBSP paprika
1/4 cup water
1 chicken breast, in bite sized pieces
Half of a mango
1/2 cup shredded or grated reduced fat sharp cheddar
8 tortillas
Oil for the pan


Directions:

Step 1: Mix first twelve ingredients. Whisk to combine.




Step 2: Add chicken. Marinate for 30 minutes.




Step 3: Remove chicken from marinade and cook in lightly oiled sauté pan until chicken is no longer pink. Remove from pan and let rest.

Step 4: Dice the mango. (I love dicing mangos!)

Step 5: Lightly oil a griddle or saute pan. Heat over medium heat.

Step 6: Place one tortilla in the pan. Sprinkle 1/4 of the grated cheese on the tortilla. Top with 1/4 of the chicken and 1/4 of the mango.

Step 7: Top with a second tortilla. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until cheese melts and bottom tortilla becomes crispy. Flip the quesadilla over to crisp the other tortilla.

Step 8: Remove quesadilla from pan. Cut into wedges and serve with salsa (homemade is preferable, but we used Newman's Own)

Dinner for Tuesday 9/22

Curried chicken salad wraps: For this dinner, I used some of the tortillas I made Monday and also the other 1/2 of the mango. This makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
1 1/4 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast halves, no more than 3/4-inch thick
1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon curry powder

Half of a mango, diced

1 cup halved red grapes
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
5 ounces romaine lettuce (about 5 cups lightly packed))
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice

4 tortillas

Directions:

Step 1: Bring the broth and water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add chicken to broth and simmer, covered, for 8 minutes. Turn the heat off and let chicken stand in the cooking liquid, covered, until cooked through, about 20 minutes.

Step 2: Remove the chicken from the broth and cool completely in the refrigerator. Cut into 1/4-inch dice.

Step 3: In a large bowl, stir together the yogurt, mayonnaise, and curry powder.

Step 4: Fold in the chicken, mango pieces, grapes and cilantro and season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Step 5: In a large bowl, toss the greens with the oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper, to taste.

Step 6: Place a tortillas on four plates. Arrange the greens on top of the tortillas. Then top with a scoop of the chicken salad. Roll it into a wrap sandwich and enjoy!

recipe adapted from Elie Krieger

This week's dinners and healthy tortillas

This week’s meals:

Monday: Chicken and mango quesadillas

Tuesday: Curried chicken salad wraps

Wednesday: Broccoli chowder

Thursday: Baked falafel sandwiches

Friday: Homemade pizza – toppings to be decided

Saturday: Lentil tacos (frozen leftovers from four weeks ago)

Sunday: ???

I love tortillas. Tortillas are very flexible—they can be used in many different ways. But the yummy store bought tortillas have more saturated fat than I like since they are made with lard. Even the healthier wheat tortillas contain hard to pronounce unnatural ingredients. Therefore, I like to make my own tortillas. One of my mother’s patients gave me her recipe for tortillas, and I tweaked it to reduce the fat content and add whole wheat flour. They are tasty and healthy. I can make a large batch, and they last for at least a week.

So, today I made a bunch of tortillas. I used several in tonight’s dinner: chicken and mango quesadillas. I put the rest in a large freezer bag—they will be used throughout the week. In fact, they will be part of dinner on Tuesday and Saturday. And if I don’t have time to make pitas, they will be used in Thursday’s dinner as well. Any tortillas that are left over at the end off the week will be cut into wedges and baked as tortilla chips.

Healthier Tortillas – makes about 18 to 20 tortillas

Ingredients:

1 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour
½ salt
½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup canola oil
¼ cup milk

¼ cup water

Directions:

Step 1: Mix dry ingredients.

Step 2: In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients.

Step 3: Gradually add wet ingredients to dry ingredients while stirring.

Step 4: Knead dough and work until smooth.

Step 5: Using a cookie scoop, form dough into balls. Let dough balls rest, covered for 5 minutes. (I like to mix the ingredients in a lidded bowl—it makes keeping the dough covered very easy.)

Step 6: Flatten with a tortilla press or roll out each dough ball with rolling pin to desired round shape.

Step 6a: Although not the most environmentally friendly way to roll out tortillas, using two sheets of plastic wrap helps a lot. Place one sheet of plastic wrap on your work surface, and sprinkle it with flour.

Step 6b: Place a ball of dough in the center of the plastic wrap. Sprinkle top of the dough with flour.

Step 6c: Place second sheet of plastic wrap on top of dough.

Step 6d: Keeping dough sandwiched between the plastic wrap, roll dough out with rolling pin.

Step 6e: Once the tortilla is the desired shape, carefully remove the plastic wrap and use the same plastic wrap sheets for the next tortilla.

Step 7: Cook on hot griddle or hot skillet. Cook for approximately 2 mintues (until lightly brown), flipping tortilla every 20 seconds. (If you cook the tortilla with out frequently flipping, the tortilla gets hard and dries out.)

Step 8: Cover cooked tortillas with a clean kitchen towel while cooking remaining tortillas.

Dinner for Sunday, Sept 20 -- Salmon patties and spaghetti squash

Today, autumn announced its arrival with a chilly, soggy morning. It was one of those mornings where you stay in bed, huddled under the toasty blankets. (In retrospect, I should have made hot tea or cocoa today.) These cold fall days bring out my lazy side since I don’t enjoy going outside in colder weather. So, in lieu of shopping for the groceries for the week, I stayed inside the warm house and vegetated. Sometimes you need a day to relax and take it easy. And that’s part of the reason for our dinner tonight. I decided to make a very easy dinner of salmon patties and spaghetti squash with herbs.

Salmon patties are new to me. My husband used to eat them when he was growing up, and he and his ex used to make them often for dinner. When I was growing up, we ate salmon with soy sauce or teriyaki sauce, but never in patties. So this is a new-to-me recipe that my husband gave to me. I admit that I’ve tweaked the recipe a little by adding fresh minced garlic and doubling the dill. I think both flavors complement the rich flavor of salmon. And after tasting the cooked patties, I was very glad for the garlic addition. I have to admit that, although I liked these enough to cook them again, salmon patties are not my favorite. I definitely prefer salmon marinated in soy sauce and sesame oil. But these were nice and savory.

Salmon Patties:

Ingredients:

1 can (6 or 7 oz) salmon

1 cup soft bread crumbs

3 TBSP finely minced onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 TBSP milk

1 egg

½ tsp dried parsley

¼ tsp dried dill

½ TBSP lemon juice

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

Directions:

Step 1: Drain salmon.

Step 2: Combine all ingredients.

Step 3: Shape into 4 patties that are approximately 1 inch thick

Step 4: Heat a lightly oiled pan over medium heat. Place patties in pan and cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Serve warm.

Spaghetti squash with herbs: I love the sweet and nutty flavor of spaghetti squash. And I really don’t have a set recipe for spaghetti squash. I kind of throw in whatever spices I feel like. But I will try my best to explain how I make it.

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash

Canola oil—for lightly oiling pan

Olive oil, to taste

Garlic, to taste

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

Any other desired spices, to taste

Directions:

Step 1: Thoroughly wash and then halve squash. Carefully scrape out seeds (I going to try saving and drying the seeds to plant next year).

Step 2: Place squash halves, with the cut side facing down, onto a lightly oiled pan. Using a knife or fork, pierce the skin of the squash in several places.

Step 3: Bake squash in 350 degree oven for one hour. Remove and let squash cool until it can easily be handled.

Step 4: Using a kitchen fork, gently scrape around the edge of the spaghetti squash to shred the pulp into strands.

Step 5: Scoop spaghetti squash strands into a lidded bowl. Add olive oil, herbs, and spices.

Step 6: Place lid on bowl, and shake bowl to mix contents. Once it is mixed, it is ready to serve.

Yum!