Amelia: Marathon Post

Hey kids!  Miss me?  I took a bit of a blog hiatus, but I’m hoping to be back to regular posting and commenting.  (I’m JUST catching up on what everyone’s doing.)

Soo since I abandoned y’all for so long I figured I owed you a big post.  And not just any big post.  A big post with a BIG announcement at the end! Yay!

First up, I wanted to share some pics from my experience volunteering at the NYC Marathon!  For the second year in a row I joined the Junior League to hand out wet sponges to the runners at Mile 17.

The sponges:

 

Elite women – led by Paula Radcliffe:

Elite men:

Volunteers:

My favorite part of volunteering for this race is yelling for the people who have their names on their shirts.  You can tell how much they appreciate it.  A bunch of people actually thank the volunteers while they run past.  This FLOORS me every time.  I want to say “you’re at mile 17!  you don’t need to thank me!  you’re my new hero!”  I have to remember to do this in my next race.

In my opinion this is the absolute best way to see the marathon.  You cannot get any closer to the runners.  It’s so inspiring to see everyone pushing themselves to do their best on one of running’s biggest stages.

I was so inspired by the runners that I threw my name in the lottery for next year’s race!  With any luck, I’ll be taking sponges from my fellow Junior Leaguers next year, rather than handing them out!

Before I hit the streets of New York, I’ll be sprinting through one of New York’s newest hot spots.  The new Yankee Stadium!  Next weekend I’m going to be participating in the The Damon Runyon 5K Run/Walk for Cancer Research.  This race, which is just starting this year, sounds very exciting and different.  It goes through the baseball stadium and ends on the track that surrounds the field!  My one reservation about this race?  Since it goes through the stadium there will be STAIRS!  Hmm that could be interesting during a race…

Ok, shall we get to that big announcement?

Writing it on the blog makes it real doesn’t it?

Eeek!

I’M RUNNING A MARATHON!!!

Yep, that’s right, Disney here I come!  26.2 here I come!

Now before my readers freak out and start worrying about how I’m going to train for this in just two short months, I should let you know I’ve been planning this since late July.  After running two half marathons, I knew I wanted to give myself a new challenge.  I decided a marathon was the best way to test myself.  Since I started seriously running I knew that I wanted to take part in the Disney marathon.  It is supposed to be so much fun (perfect for a first marathon) and I absolutely LOVE Disney World.  Seriously.  I want to live there.  In the park.  In Cinderella’s castle preferably…

I’m psyched about this crazy new running adventure.  I had a lovely 16 mile run today and I’ve been plugging through my training schedule (which I got from a Runner’s World magazine btw).  I can’t wait to share more with y’all soon!

Anyone else ever done a marathon?  Any tips would be amazing!

 

 

Deirdre: Baked Tofu Virgin

First, an AC/DC Halloween picture:

An angel and a devil

Okay, let me first say I’ve always liked tofu. I am one of those weird omnivores that really likes supposed ‘vegetarian’ food. I like tofu plain and raw. It tastes good to me in any form. I have used it before in stir-frys. I’ve eaten it plain on salads and fried from Chinese restaurants, but I had NEVER baked it in the oven a la Gliding Calm.

But the other night I made baked tofu and it was delicious.

I didn’t use the rub Gliding Calm uses, but I followed her baking method. Instead I dipped the tofu in a little bit of vinegar and this:

Adobo! Adobo is a blend of various spices and since I usually use it on meat I thought it would work on tofu. I baked the tofu in the oven at 400 degrees for 35 minutes. It turned out well. Next time I will be a little less liberal with the Adobo because some bites were especially salty, but I do love salty foods so it was all good.

In other news, I finally saw Wicked on Broadway and I was so in love with the songs that I purchased the soundtrack on iTunes.  People who know me know that I am obsessed with musicals. I’m actually listening right now to one of my stations on Pandora that just plays songs from musicals. I mean wouldn’t life be better if we could just randomly burst out in song? I think so.

Here are some of my favorites:

-Wicked ( a newbie, obvi)

-RENT (I’ve seen it 3 times and know every single word)

-West Side Story (Romeo & Juliet meets gangs that dance=awesome)

-Grease

-Sound of Music

-Guys and Dolls (if you haven’t, you gotta watch the movie because Marlon Brando was a STUD who could sing!)

-Beauty and the Beast

-My Fair Lady

Fun Question: Any musical fans out there? What are some of your favorite musicals? Don’t worry I won’t tell anybody!

Deirdre: Bribing You With Dog Pictures

So hi old friends! Yes, its been way too long. I had to go home for a family emergency and then haven’t gotten my stuff together to post. So now I’m gonna try to win back your affection by bribing you with pictures of Marty, my family’s dog.

Sound like a plan?

Marty McFly (yes that’s his full name) is six years old. My family actually got him a month after I went to college. The joke was I was replaced with a dog. He is the sweetest and one of the best parts about going home to Cleveland (besides my family of course!)

So do you like me again?

Now its time for food.

I was inspired by one of Bobbi’s post a while back to make some pumpkin chili. Please note that I didn’t follow her recipe exactly because I didn’t use corn or turkey, but thanks Bobbi for the inspiration!

Here were the ingredients:

Look at that steam!

I combined all the ingredients, brought them to a boil, and then let it simmer for 10 minutes.

I have to say I could barely taste the pumpkin and the pumpkin seemed to mute some of the spiciness to the extent that I had to add some Texas Pete to kick it up a notch. On the plus side, I felt that the addition of the pumpkin made me feel full faster and definitely added some nutritional value.

In Top Chef news, both of the Voltaggio brothers are still in the competition so our bet is in full effect. On last night’s show, tempers flared between the brothers despite being on the same team. They are fiercely competitive with each other so it should get interesting as the season progresses.

Fun Question: Last thing you ate?

I just had some wasabi flavored almonds.

Deirdre: Banana Cookies & Purplepalooza

Happy Hump-Day! I hope you are all having a good week.

A past weekend I saw that I had four bananas that were about to go bad. I decided I should put them to good use and immediately googled banana cookies. I found this recipe. I made a few adjustments:

-I used vegetable oil instead of butter because I didn’t have any.

-I used only a half a cup of sugar and then a half a cup of unsalted creamy almond butter.

-I used whole wheat flour.

-I didn’t add any nuts.

I think the cookies turned out pretty well. They were definitely healthier than most cookies I’ve ever made, and when I brought the cookies into work a co-worker said ‘you could taste the fact you didn’t use butter.’ I appreciated the honest input and I will admit they tasted healthier but I liked them. They were like banana bread in cookie form.

Yesterday, I had absolutely no desire to go to the gym. I just wanted my day to be over, but I knew how good I would feel if I worked out so during my lunch break I made a new workout playlist.

I didn’t make it all the way through the list, but it still totally psyched me up . It is filled with a lot of music I’ve just gotten and some oldies but goodies. Rap and country are some of my favorite types of music to workout to because they always pump me up. I punched out 40 minutes on the elliptical and power-walked for 10 minutes on the treadmill. I ‘burnt’ 421 calories.

So in this post, I talked about how I own way too many purple things.

Exhibit A

Of course my gym water bottle on the far right and my home water bottle to the left of it are BOTH purple. Also, I hope you notice that not only is my iPod case purple but so are my headphones. Ridiculous! Anyone else have any color themes with her/his belongings?

Fun Question: What is one of your favorite quotes from one of your favorite movies?

Here are two quotes from one of my favorite movies, Say Anything:

-Corey Flood: No. The world is full of guys. Be a man. Don’t be a guy.

-Lloyd Dobler: I am looking for a dare to be great situation.

Amelia & Deirdre: TOP CHEF BET

There are many things that Amelia and I have both like and a few of these things are : friendly wagers (bets), delicious food, and the television show on Bravo called Top Chef. For those of you who do not watch the show, Top Chef is a competition reality show which pits young chefs against each other. Every week they cook various meals either individually or on teams with other chefs. Eventually, someone is named Top Chef and they are rewarded with prize money and various appliances. Amelia and I have been watching the show for a few years now and it is definitely one of our favorites. Amelia is definitely a foodie  (and an amazing cook) and the longer I live in New York and read blogs the more I feel I have become a foodie. Besides the food aspect, the show always has a small selection of hot guys! This season, the hottness comes in the form of:

The Voltaggio Brothers!

We each have our favorite.

Amelia’s favorite is Bryan Voltaggio.

My favorite is Michael Voltaggio.

(all photographs courtesy of bravotv.com)

They each have their own unique styles both in the kitchen and in their outward appearance. Bryan is very clean cut and Michael has tons of tattoos. They cook differently, but they are some of the best competitors this season. They have finished in the top four chefs almost every week so far and the majority of the weekly contests have been won by either one of them. They are certainly forces to be reckoned with on the show.

So we got to thinking and we decided it would be fun to have a friendly bet. If your favorite Voltaggio brother wins/goes farther in the competition, then the other person has to cook you two full meals.

We will definitely let you know how the bet goes and you will get to see the pictures of the amazing meals the loser cooks.

So who out there watches Top Chef? Who are your favorites?

Besides the Voltaggio Brothers, we like Jennifer Carroll.

Amelia: The Gossip

Ok guys, I have to share one of my obsessions with y’all!  I am ADDICTED to the show Gossip Girl!  It is such a guilty pleasure show and I looove it.  The characters are so much fun, the clothes are ridiculous, and they film right here in NYC!  In fact, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing them working on the show several times! Oh…and then there’s Chuck Bass.

If any of you watch it you probably know the third season kicked off last night.  Of course I had to do something special for it!

I decided to make a fun, but easy, dinner for Deirdre and myself.  The menu included stuffed bell peppers, spring mix salad, wine, and a small dessert.

I’d never made stuffed peppers before, but I found a recipe that seemed simple.

Greek Orzo-Stuffed Peppers (I’m a big fan Yum Sugar – great site for recipes.)

The recipe turned out to be a cinch.  I think the most difficult part was mashing up the chickpeas with a fork.

Peppers, with the seeds cleaned out, ready to be stuffed:

The filling, heating up on the stove:

All put together:

I can’t stress enough how easy this dinner was!  Along with the salad, it was plenty of food and made tons of leftovers.  This is definitely a good option for vegetarians.  The only change I might make is adding some spice.  However, this shouldn’t be too difficult because the recipe is very flexible.

While eating and enjoying the show we had this wine:

And for dessert:

Mint Milanos and Raspberry Tarts – cause we’re classy

As for the show?  Ahhhhmazing!  As always.

Just in case you didn’t fully appreciate my obsession, here are some of my photos of the cast.  I’m a TOTAL stalker!

And one of Mr. Bass himself (Ed Westwick) (He’s in the picture I swear.):
Any other Gossip Girl fans? Who’s your favorite character?  I love Blair – so devious!

Deirdre: TOO Much Fun

Hey there!

Everyone recovered from the three day weekend? I finally am. And sadly work is in full swing. This week has been very busy. I wish it was Friday at 5:30 p.m. already!  But let’s focus on the fun from the past weekend, shall we?!

On Friday, Amelia and I got the opportunity to meet the fabulous Allison of Green Dog Wine!

Wow, that looks like a lot of beers on the table! It was two for one ladies night, how could we resist! For anyone who reads her blog (and if you don’t already, you should!) Allison is just as funny, nice, and down to earth as she is on her blog. We just kept chatting and chatting away about everything blog and life related. I definitely monopolized the conversation a few times (sorry Amelia!) because she’s a fellow Clevelander and we discovered we knew many of the same people. Cleveland is really like a small town in the sense that if you know 50 people you know everyone. We were so sad to say goodbye to her but look forward to when she’s back in NYC again. Allison, it was go great meeting you!

Amelia and I hadn’t eaten yet so after Allison left we walked over to a nearby Blockheads for dinner. While Blockheads is known for their cheap frozen margaritas, I stuck with a Corona Light. I ordered the chicken quesadillas and they were huge. I ended only eating half the filling out of the right side and left the shell.

On Saturday, Amelia and I went to Governor’s Island. It is located in New York Harbor near Lower Manhattan. If you take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty you can see Governor’s Island. To get to Governor’s Island  you take a free 5 minute ferry ride.

View of the Brooklyn Bridge and a heliport

When we got there, we discovered this adorable man-made beach with a great view of Manhattan.

Who says there aren’t palm trees in New York?

I had a suprisingly delicious and affordable lunch of burgers and fries along with a refreshing beer.

I was one happy camper!

After lunch, we explored the Island. There were tons of cool art displays. And there was even free putt putt (minature golf for you non-Midwesterners!) Each hole was specially designed and had a different theme. Below is Amelia golfing at the brain hole!

After exploring an art fair, we left. It was an amazing day. Sunday was full of football watching and more beer consumption. And on Monday we went to TARGET! I haven’t been to a Target in such a long time and it obviously showed. We spent 2.5 hours there! And I probably spent too much money, but it was mostly on stuff I really needed like…

A new lunch bag!

I have to admit that I’m not the best at packing my lunch. So I thought I’d give myself a little incentive. It was also with this purchase that I realized I own way too many purple things. I know its my favorite color and all but on Tuesday I had a purple purse, purple lunch bag, and purple change purse. These items go with my purple Ipod case and purpleblackberry case. Its a little nuts! Next post I will show you a picture of all my purple items.

All in all it was a great weekend so I’ve been in denial all week that it’s over. There was definitely some unhealthy eating, but overall I’ve gotten back on track. I am so exited fall is coming because that’s my favorite season!

Amelia: Little Voice in My Head

Hola everyone!  Hope you’ve had a nice weekend.  The sun has finally come out again here in NYC so I’m looking forward to a nice Sunday afternoon.

I realize I haven’t updated y’all recently on my exercise schedule/training.  Well…you’re gonna have to be in suspense for a bit longer.  I’ve got a couple big things coming up, so I’ll wait to outline everything that I’m doing.  However, I will let you know I am trying to branch out with my workouts!  Always a good thing right?  I love running, but I know it won’t do everything I want for my body.  However, I’m trying to incorporate new things that will strengthen my muscles that I use for running.

My first new thing?  Pilates!

I bought this DVD a while ago (a loooong while ago), but had never opened it.  I decided to give it a try last night.

(Amazon)

I’ve always heard good things about how Pilates can lengthen and tone the body.  Also, I know it has an emphasis on engaging the core muscles.  Obviously, a strong core is a big help in running.  I did the mat workout portion of this DVD, which was about half an hour.  I have to admit it was tough!  I am a real slacker when it comes to ab workouts, so that focus was difficult for me.  On the other hand, I blew through some of the leg workouts without a problem because those muscles are so much stronger for me.  Overall I was very pleased with the DVD.  Like I mentioned I only did the mat portion, so I’m interested to see what non-mat Pilates is like.

After the Pilates I did a few new shoulder exercises with weights.  On Friday I asked my friend from work for advice on strengthening my arms for running.  There are times during long runs that I notice my arms are killing and aren’t pumping along as they should.  Since I’m lucky to have a gym rat friend at work he hooked me up with some basic exercises that should help.  My arms already feel stronger! Lol!  After some stretching, I figured I was done with my workout.  I was totally spent from the challenge of it, but I felt amazing.

So there I was standing tall in my living room, so proud of my efforts when it happened.  This little voice in my head said, “What are you so proud of?”  WHAT?!  EXCUSE ME?  Where the heck did that come from?! It took me a second to realize that my head seriously just had that thought.  Now I’m not going to lie to y’all and say I have 100% self-confidence all the time, but I at least thought that I appreciated myself enough to give myself a pat on the back when I’ve worked hard.

Clearly there is something in my head that is having a tough time with what I’m trying to do.  There’s some mean little voice that’s saying, “So what?”  Can I do more? Of course.  But having a cruel little monologue in my head undermining my efforts is NOT helpful.  I have accomplished so much over this year so I refuse to let this voice take over.

This morning I decided to show that voice who’s boss and went for a 6 mile run.  I kicked ass on the run AND enjoyed myself.

And just as a further F-U to that voice of self doubt?  This is how I did the last mile of my run:

(Eeek did I really just post that? LOL.)

I’ve been dying for the confidence to run sans sweaty shirt ever since I saw Meghann and Caitlin posting on their blogs about what a confidence boost it was.  Well, this morning it was hot, humid, and the perfect opportunity.  I may not have a lovely tan or perfect abs, but I had the confidence to go for it today.  So little voice, THAT’S what I’m proud of!

Your turn!:  How would you prove that mean little voice wrong?  How do you show self-doubt who’s boss?

Deirdre: Pizza Quesadillas

Hey! How’s your Friday going? I can’t wait for the weekend. I’m going to dinner and drinks tonight in the city,  and then I’m going to Philly on Saturday for my friend Anne’s 25th birthday party. I’ve never been to her ‘hood so it should be a lot of fun.

This week I made a delicious, easy dish I like to call Pizza Quesadillas.  I absolutely love making quesadillas with black beans and cheese on my George Foreman Grill so I thought why not pizza? The only ingredients were a whole wheat wrap, spinach, marinara sauce, and mozzarella cheese. First, to wilt the spinach I put it in the microwave with a splash of water for about a minute. Then I just spread the sauce, added the spinach, and topped it off with some shredded mozzarella.

I will admit it got a little messy! Make sure you put the collection dish underneath. I might have put a little too much sauce, but I really liked how gooey and tasty it was!

The whole dish only took 5 minutes to make which is great for me because after work I like to make quick meals I don’t have to stress over.

On the exercise front:

Tuesday: 40 minutes on the elliptical at 11 crossramp and 10 resistance. calories ‘burnt’: 417 (plus another 15 minutes on treadmill at 5 resistance while I watched the end of a Bones episode!)

Thursday: 25 minutes on a Star Trac elliptical and then 25 minutes on a bike calories ‘burnt’ 362

I gotta say those 25 minutes on the Star Trac on Thursday were much harder than the 40 minutes I did on the regular elliptical on Tuesday. Its amazing how just the added element of arm movements can make me so tired! This obviously due to the fact that I still lack in upper body strength, but I’m working on it.

Thanks for all your tips regarding Amazing Grass. I tried the berry flavor this week with soy milk and bananas in the blender. It was delicious. And seriously how great is that shaker?! I take the subway to work and there are NO spills even if the shaker gets knocked around in my bag.

In response to my question from last week, I learned that many of you met your significant others in high school, college,  or at a party. Good thing I’m going to a party this weekend.

Fun Question: What was your first pet? 

My first pet was a teddy bear hamster who we called Hans because he was constantly running on his wheel like he was some sort of hamster body builder.

Deirdre: Just Add Water?

Currently watching Cocktail (I told you I have an 80’s obsession) and I’m thinking how much I liked Tom Cruise pre-Scientology.

Anyway,  I’ve  gone to the gym twice this week and I plan to go on Saturday. On Tuesday, I did the elliptical for 40 minutes at level 10 for both incline and resistance. I ‘burnt’ 400 calories which made me pretty happy. Today, I went on the elliptical for 35 minutes and ‘burnt’ 315 calories. I alternated between 12 for incline and 8 for the resistance and 6 for the incline and 4 for the resistance. Then I walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes for a cool down. I am still feeling a little weak after I workout. Maybe I need to eat a snack later in the day.  I used to think it was because I was dehydrated, but I had at least 40 ounces of water today before I even worked out.

Product reviews (all products from my fantastic HLS swag bag)!

Pine-4-Pineapple

I thought these were delicious. I normally  have a  love/hate thing with dried fruit because sometimes they taste funky to me. This was definitely love. It was such a sweet refreshing post-workout snack. The pieces were big enough that I saved one piece for dessert.

I was super psyched to try Amazing Grass for the first time. Since I’ve never tried pure wheat grass I decided to start slow so I chose the chocolate flavor. First, I mixed it with some water because that’s what the package said, but I never remember reading anyone else doing that so maybe I wasn’t supposed to.  Then I put the mixture in the fantastic shaker with vanilla soy milk. I thought it tasted chocolatey, but most of the Amazing Grass mixture seemed to sink to the bottle. Maybe I didn’t shake it enough? Should I have not added water? Yes, only I could somehow screw up a recipe this simple.

I can’t wait for the weekend! I might be seeing two movies this weekend which almost never happens.

Fun Question: How did you meet your significant other (or your more recent ex)?