Seeing Red

Things I learned cooking dinner tonight:

– cast iron skillets are not non-stick

– cast iron skillets are freaking hot- the sleeve of a sweatshirt is not adequate protection.

Lessons learned. Moving on.

I made corn cakes with black beans for dinner- I thought using the cast iron skillet that’s been in my cupboard for years would make it “authentic’”. Well forget that- they’re a pain in the butt- and darn heavy too!

Black Beans & Corn Cakes

Heat a can of rinsed black beans over low heat while preparing corn cakes. Season with chili powder, cumin, and oregano.

Corn cakes:

3/4 cup cornmeal

2-3 Tbsp flour

1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup egg substitute

1t chili powder

salt and pepper

1/4 tsp salt

2/3+ cup of frozen corn kernels

Mix dry ingredients together, then stir in wet. Add corn kernels. Make like pancakes using 1/4 cup of batter for each corn cake. (Note: if using cast iron skillet, use gobs and gobs of nonstick spray or oil)

Serve corn cakes topped with black beans, salsa, sour cream, and a dash of cheddar cheese if you want. I added a bit more oregano, and dinner was done!

I didn’t think it was going to be enough, so I also popped a sweet potato in the microwave while I was cooking the corn cakes. Then I mashed it up skin and all and formed two patties. Threw those in the pan for a few minutes on each side and seasoned them with garlic salt and cinnamon.

Weird how the random things end up being so good!

(Random side note: the husband thought these corn cakes would be good “southern-fied”- topped with cabbage and black eye peas. ew. Guess that’s why I cook?)

Wondering if I cashed in on my reward?

I did!

I got this for Christmas but never really paid attention to it.

I thought it was just some lotion samples. Last night I opened it to steal some lotion from it, and I saw it was actually a spa kit! (Hello Heather, it says spa on the box)

It has a bath oil thing, body lotion, foot cream, and tea. I thought it was so cute it included tea!

When I woke up this morning with a thousand things running through my head to get done, I knew just what I needed! I’m not really big on baths for the most part, but it sounded like such a good way to relax that I figured I’d give it a try. I felt so relaxed and refreshed afterwards! (I think it’s really because I took 10 minutes to chill haha)

(I may or may not have completed 80% of my work first as intended…you’ll never know!)

I’m wearing red tomorrow, are you?!

Tomorrow is National Wear Red Day! It’s part of GoRed for Women’s campaign to encourage people to “stand up and speak out” against heart disease. Awareness is an important part of so many health issues, heart disease included.

I’ll be doing something pretty cool for Wear Red Day tomorrow…but you’ll have to wait until then to find out what! 😉

Now for some Thursday night comedy action..Office and 30 Rock here I come!

Breaking the Rules

After my rough experience on the treadmill yesterday, there was nothing that was going to stop me from running outside today. Except for what was going to stop me.

I pulled on my warm running tights and half-zip shirt, grabbed my gloves, headband, adn RoadID. I wrapped my Ipod band around my arm, and as I put my headphones on, I walked up to the crosswalk that leads to the park I run in.

And then I was greeted by this:

Nooooooooooooooo!!

I thought about my options.

1. Go to the gym and try the treadmill thing again.

2. Go home and run near the neighborhood.

3. Don’t run.

None of those options satisfied me.

1. I was dressed to run in 40 degrees- I can’t imagine running in that gear in the hot sweaty gym would be fun. Going home to change and back to the gym would take way too long, and there’s construction on that road making it take even longer to get there.

2. Running near my neighborhood means running on the hard cement sidewalks. My feet don’t care for cement.

3. Well now, that’s just silly.

So I went with option 4:

Duck under the gate and run in the park anyway.

I like option 4 🙂

Look closely at that picture….you can see asphalt behind the gate. That’s not hazardous. I was willing to risk it.

Being extra cautious, I decided to take the run slowly and even stopped to take a few pictures of the snow covered park. The part you can run in is really just a road that loops around an old military battle site. You can take a walking or driving tour that talks about the history of the battle, but I haven’t done that yet.

The closed gate was kind of nice- I didn’t have to worry about getting in the way of any cars. (By the way- I was not the only one to sneak in- I passed plenty of dog walkers ;))I did the loop once, then turned around and did the loop the other way around.

I almost peed my pants when I saw a cop car driving towards me.

Then I used my reading skills and saw it was only a park ranger. He just waved and kept driving. By the time I got back to the park entrance, the gate was open.

The ranger must have been scouting it out and realized it was not in fact hazardous.

I wore my old Asics today in case I needed to run through snow or enountered any mud. (Still don’t want the new shoes getting dirty yet!) I can now officially say I LOVE THE MIZUNOS!!! I thought it might be coincidence, but after a week of wearing the new Mizunos and not having many aches and pains, then a day in my Asics- it’s definitely the shoes. It still hurts a little, but it’s loads different. My feet don’t feel as beat and bruised in the Mizunos, and it takes longer for my knees to start hurting. I guess change can be good, huh?

After my run I came home and heated up a quick lunch of leftover baked pasta and a new flavor of RiceWorks chips- Parmesan and Sundried Tomato.

The flavor was just screaming at me to try- it’s good, but I think I like the regular ones better. I probably won’t be buying these anymore though, the bag is more than half empty to start with—not cool.

Well I’ve got lots and lots to accomplish today! Being that procrastinating is probably my best skill, I’ve decided that if I knock off 80% of it by this afternoon, I’m rewarding myself. 🙂 (Of course with the stipulation that I finish all of it by the end of the day…)

Smarty Pants Oats

Guess who finally got smart with her oats?

——–> this girl! <———

Since emptying the pantry every morning can sometimes be quite the ordeal, I decided I was going to put together some pre-measured baggies for my oatmeal. However, 1. I didn’t have mini snack baggies and 2. that seemed awfully wasteful.

So I dumped all the dry ingredients that usually go into my oats into a re-sealable plastic container!

I put in oatmeal, wheat germ, flax seed, cinnamon, nutmeg, and coconut.

Now all I have to do is put in the wet ingredients and whatever mix-ins I want for the day.

It’s throwing off my dry-to liquid ratio just a bit since normally I start with plain oats, but I’ll have it perfected in no time for sure 🙂

I went with almond butter this morning instead of peanut butter. Gotta give love to the other nut butters too 🙂

Have a great day!!