Catching Up

I’ve been MIA, haven’t I?  The last two days were crazy busy, and I am spending this morning trying to catch up.

First I want to show you this really cool product that was sent to me by Todd at Makai’s. It is a portable table set, made for camping, but I don’t camp. However, I frequently eat on the road and this will be fantastic to keep in my car. Last weekend I went to a horse show, brought my yogurt breakfast, and forgot a spoon. If I keep this set in my car, I’ll always have everything I need. This is what it looks like all packaged up:

And here are the components:

Plate, mug, bowl, fork, spoon and knife. Isn’t it great? It seems very durable as well, and it can be stored in the net pouch. I love it, thanks Todd!

When I last left you Sunday I had made mango pancakes and a cherry tart. Then I ran some errands, and stopped at Panera. I really had a craving for a mozzarella tomato panini, so I got one to go. When I got home I opened it up to put my own pesto on it, and this is what is inside:

I was so sad. It is pathetic how little of everything there is in there. The sandwich is 90% ciabatta and oil, 10% tomato, mozzarella, and basil. From now on I’ll make my own paninis, I do have a panini maker after all.

Monday morning I had to get out early for the CT scan of my kidney, and I wasn’t sure until the last minute if I would even be going, since my insurance company never approved it. But I decided to go ahead and pay out of pocket, because I really wanted to get it over with and avoid any more frustrating bureaucratic phone calls between the insurance company, the radiology place, and my doctor’s office. The CT scan was quick and easy, even with the IV contrast, and then I stopped at Starbucks for coffee and a spinach feta wrap.

Then off to work, and since I had not packed any food I went to California Tortilla for a salad. They call this a salad, but it is not one of the healthiest salads I’ve ever had. It is delicious though! It is the southwestern salad with pork carnitas and honey lime dressing. Yum.

In the afternoon I went to job #2, and in the evening I went to job #3! I never even had time to take photos of dinner, which was another salad I picked up at Safeway, and some hummus and bagel chips. I didn’t get home until 11PM, and I was exhausted.

Yesterday morning I went for my first run in my new Saucony Kinvara 2 shoes. They are light as a feather, but nice and cushiony as well.

I did another heart rate monitor run, I really like doing this. I never look at my pace, just my heart rate. Mile 1 I aimed for 140, Mile 2 145, Mile 3 150, and Mile 4 155. Then I walked a mile. Split paces ended up being 12:10/11:35/10:41/10:38. The humidity was 95%, but temps were only about 70. I enjoyed this run so much, I’m not sure if it was the shoes, or the cooler temperatures. Sometimes you just have a great run, you know?

When I got home I had a Chocolate Banana Almond smoothie:

This had light chocolate soy milk, chocolate protein powder, banana, almond butter, coconut oil, chia seeds and ground flax seed. It was so good I might make another one today.

For dinner I made this Sweet Potato Chickpea Curry, that came out amazing! You must try this recipe. The ingredients are very simple. I didn’t have a jalapeno pepper on hand, so I used the Rotel tomatoes with chilies instead of regular canned tomatoes. And I didn’t have peas, so I used edamame.

I sauteed onions, garlic and ginger for about 5 minutes, then added curry and stirred for 30 seconds or so.

Then add the sweet potato in chunks, water, chickpeas, salt, pepper, and the ingredient that ties it all together – coconut milk.

Simmer for about 15 minutes until the sweet potatoes are soft, then add the tomatoes and edamame. That’s it! It made 4 servings, one for dinner and three for lunches or the freezer.

Out of this world! I served it over brown basmati rice.

Today is catch up day, and I’ll try to fit in some strength training at some point. Or maybe swimming later in the afternoon. Tomorrow morning I meet with the doctor to get the results of my CT scan. Every time I think about it I get anxious, and I get that nervous feeling in my chest. So I try not to think about it, because there is no point in worrying, there isn’t anything I can do today and when I find out what it is I’ll move forward from there. But still…..