This week’s favorite song is “All Kinds of Kinds” by Miranda Lambert. Seriously, this girl can do no wrong in my book. I love the song and the general message (we need to accept everyone because it takes just about everyone to make things work). Happy Friday!
My Day As A Zookeeper
There are many things I love about my company (helloooo sabbatical!), but today exemplified one of the major ones. Each year my entire organization (hundreds of people across North and South America) take the day to do community service. We do community service throughout the year, but this is one day that everyone does it all at once. There were several options – this year I chose the Folsom Zoo Sanctuary. We had a couple different projects that we worked on while we were there – I chose to help out with cleaning some of the cages and enclosures.
Here are a few pictures from the day – all of these are animals that I was in the cages with! This is Gus, a horse whose mother was a horse in Canada that was bread for her urine – apparently the urine of a pregnant mare can be used in some menopause medication. She was constantly kept pregnant and the male foals were sent off to the glue factory. Gus was rescued. He’s a sweet guy who was very happy with his hay.
This is a Barbados Blackbelly Sheep… there were two in the pen and they were both a little shy, but eventually ate some hay I gave them.
We also helped clean out the wild pig enclosure, where we met Wilbur and Templeton. Seriously, how cute are those names? Great Charlotte’s Web reference, for those of you who didn’t pick up on it. While in there, the pigs sort of kept to themselves, but we did get to see a bunch of peacocks!
Seriously, it was a really great day and I’m so glad we had the opportunity to go help!
Meatball Stroganoff
Today I tried a new recipe for dinner – meatball stroganoff (sans mushrooms, of course). I found this recipe in a magazine and it sounded good – it’s a lighter version of the traditional stroganoffs. Enjoy!
Ingredients
Egg noodles
4 teaspoons canola oil
1 1/4 cups diced yellow onion
12 ounces ground sirloin
3 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
12 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup beef stock
1/3 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
dash of nutmeg
Directions
Place a foil lined jelly roll pan in the oven on the middle rack. Preheat to 450 degrees (leave pan in the oven). Cook the noodles according to package. Drain and keep warm.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 teaspoons oil and swirl to coat the pan. Add onion and saute for six minutes or until tender. Place the cooked onion in a small bowl. Combine beef, bread crumbs, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl. Stir in 1/3 cup cooked onion. Shape beef mixture into 16 meatballs (1 1/2 inches each). Place meatballs on preheated pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 450 degrees for 12 minutes, turning after 6.
Return the skillet to medium heat and add remaining 2 teaspoons oil. Add mushrooms, garlic, and paprika to pan – saute for eight minutes or until mushrooms are lightly browned. Add wine to the pan and cook until liquid almost evaporates. Sprinkle flour over the mushroom mixture and cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add stock, bring to a boil scraping the browned bits. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes or until sauce slightly thickens. Stir in the remaining cooked onion and remove pan from heat.
Stir in remaining salt & pepper, sour cream, mustard, and nutmeg. Add the meatballs to the sauce and toss to coat. Spoon sauce and meatballs over the noodles and enjoy!
Chicken
Cutting chicken is serious business.
Don’t Fear The Reaper, DMB Style
Yesterday I met up with Sean, Erin, and Clarissa for the Dave Matthews Band 2013 Summer Tour at Shoreline Amphitheater. If you ever get a chance to see him live, do it. I had an absolute blast!
As always, it was an amazing show. What I love most about DMB is that lawn seats are all you need. You take a blanket, have a beer, and just relax and listen to the music. His songs morph into these epic jam sessions and his in-between songs banter is absolutely hilarious.
He played “Crush” (my favorite song), but I think one of the best moments if the show was their cover of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” by Blue Öyster Cult. All I could think about the entire time was “needs more cowbell”! It was a seriously good cover. I always judge a band by how well they play live since we all know what kind of magic the folks in recording studios can work. DMB is honestly one of those groups that I think is way better live than on a recording. There’s something amazing about a very talented group of people coming together to just make music!
Good Morning From Shadow!
I know it’s not Saturday, but I got this really cute picture of Shadow this morning and thought I’d share. He’s been such a good puppy the last couple of weeks with Mike being gone. He’s used to a lot of attention and Mike normally does a lot of “rough” playing with him that I don’t do. Top that off with the fact that all weekend it’s been really smokey here so I’ve kept him inside and you’ve got a lot of built up lab energy. He has been breaking the rules and snuggling in bed with me at night… shhh…. don’t tell Mike!
Ok, so I may have said “the B word” to get him to look at the camera (biscuit). Don’t worry, I followed up with one for him. It makes me sad to see how grey he’s getting… a reminder that time passes for us all I guess. He’s also got more of the fatty tumors that labs apparently get… I’ve been told by the vet that they’re pretty normal and that they don’t like to do anything to them unless they bother the dog.
Ten
It’s really interesting to me how different training for a marathon is this time around. Last year every run was a mental test where I was thinking “this is the farthest I’ve ever run”. I was unsure if I could do it. Now I have confidence in my body and my mind that I was lacking last year. I know I can get through the runs, even if the worst should happen. I know how to deal with all of the little aches and pains. Dare I say, I’m actually enjoying it. I’m taking time to look at the scenery and to stay in tune with my body.
Today I test drove the Clif Shot Bloks. While they didn’t upset my stomach per se, they didn’t exactly sit well either. I ended up with a really bad side cramp that lasted for about three miles after I took them. I think that they might have been a little too much for my tummy to digest, but fortunately it didn’t rebel. I did like the consistency and taste – they were strawberry flavored and the consistency of swedish fish. I do love a good swedish fish, but maybe it’s not the best idea while running. I may give the jelly beans a try next weekend – they seem to be a favorite of many of my runner friends.
In other news, you might notice that my blog has a different look and feel. I decided tonight that I wanted a change, so I switched it up. What do you think? Do you like it? Use the comments spot below – I value your feedback!
Favorite Song Friday – “Maybe I’m Amazed”
This week’s favorite song is “Maybe I’m Amazed” by Paul McCartney, which has special importance to me – it’s the song that Mike and I danced our first dance as a married couple to at our wedding. Mike actually picked the song and I fell in love with it. It’s really strange – I’ve heard the song on the radio about five times this last week and I’ve been missing Mike (he’s still fighting the Rim Fire). Every time I hear it I’m reminded not only of the love of my life, but of our amazing wedding and how much fun it was. It definitely puts a smile on my face! Enjoy!
Fitbit One
In preparation for my second marathon in December, I decided to take my training and eating (and general fitness) a little more seriously. A few days ago I invested in a Fitbit One… a cool little wireless device that helps track all sorts of fitness metrics. Here are some of the things it tracks:
Sleep: This is probably one of the coolest features in my opinion. When you go to bed (after you’re done reading, watching TV, etc) you press a button on the Fitbit and it starts timing your sleep. Through the magic of modern technology it tracks how many times you wake up during the night as well as how many times you were restless (but not necessarily awake). In the morning, you push the button again and it stops tracking sleep and goes back to steps (although if you get up in the middle of the night, it keeps track of steps too). You can then sync up with your computer or smart phone to see how long it took you to fall asleep and how effective your sleep was.
Steps: The Fitbit keeps track of steps similar to a traditional pedometer, but with an internet and smart phone interface. Your standard daily goal is ten thousand steps (recommended to maintain a healthy lifestyle) which is roughly five miles. You can update this goal if you find you’re more active and too easily hitting the daily target.
Mileage: The Fitbit also keeps track of mileage – the goal is five miles per day, but again, you can change that if you’re more active.
Calories: The Fitbit tracks calories throughout the day, including the calories you burn sleeping, sitting, etc. If you’re looking to lose weight, this is a great tool to better understand calories in vs. calories out.
Flights of Stairs: The Fitbit also tracks how many flights of stairs you climb each day.
The online and smart phone tools also have some input areas – you can track things like body weight, blood pressure, heart rate, water intake, blood glucose, and food. I’m using the food tracker to better understand what helps or hurts my running… I’m terrible about remembering those sorts of things (especially over the eighteen week training program), so it will help me identify any trends. I’ve noticed that I have no concept at all of calories (or protein or sodium, for that matter) and looking at them is helping me to make healthier, more informed choices!
I am so excited about this… being a data geek, I love something that gives me data to analyze! It costs $99 (available on Amazon, at Target, or direct from Fitbit) and is well worth it if you’re looking to improve your lifestyle!
Nine
One of my favorite things about running near my house is that it’s a little bit off the beaten path. One of my favorite areas to run is this great little road that has some hills and winds through the country. Normally I see all sorts of fun animals… horses, cows, deer, etc. This morning I was treated to a rare sight… the llama. They’re used to guard sheep around here as they’re apparently very protective and effective against coyotes and mountain lions. This “little” guy was just hanging out by the creek watching me run on by.
All in all, today was a good run – nine miles. I tried a new fuel since I seemed to have some “tummy troubles” the last time I trained for a marathon. I have always used Gu to refuel, but decided to give something else a go. Today’s experiment was with Power Bar’s Energy Blends. This one was banana and blueberry. I was a little bit leery, but it actually tasted really good – they use real fruit, so you don’t end up feeling like you’re choking down frosting. It was more like a smoothie than anything. I took it at five miles so that I would have another four of running and could see what it did to my tummy… no troubles here! Next week I’m going to try Clif’s Shot Bloks. Fingers crossed!
For those of you that run or do endurance activities, what’s your favorite way to refuel? What works and what doesn’t?
Down The Road I Go 