Tag Archives: food

Five Randos

18 Jan

1. I had my third physical therapy appointment this morning. Holy crap it was painful! I told him that the top of my shoulders were still tight and he went to town on them. Seriously, nothing that I voluntarily endured has ever come close.

2. I found the running gear version of Sasquatch – the elusive winter jacket or vest with more reflective detail than just a logo on the chest. It does not exist for a price I’m willing to pay. Seriously, almost every jacket or vest that did have plenty of reflective details was a lightweight jacket. Which just boggles my mind because when does a runner need reflective gear the most? In the winter when’s it cold.

So I abandoned that and looked for other options, such as reflective snap armbands:

How cool are those?

But I did fall in love with this UnderArmour jacket:

It is so cute. It has reflective details on the front, back and sleeves and it says it’s for cold temperatures. But do I trust UnderArmour? I should make up my mind soon because right now, it’s on sale for $84.95, down from $85.00. What a deal! {insert sarcasm}

I’m also looking at this Brooks Nightlife Silver Bullet Jacket. A little more spendy at $108.95 but I would save $13 by no longer needing snap armbands.

This looks like a great jacket and no doubt, would serve me well. I could even go look at it in the store since it’s not a closeout (like the UA jacket). My hesitation is that it’s fluorescent yellow. Yes, I realize that is the point of the Nightlife version but I can’t help thinking that I wouldn’t want to wear the jacket anywhere in public. I mean, admit it. You’ve seen those serious runners walking around in their bright yellow gear and even though you’re a runner yourself and totally understand why they’re wearing it, you still find it a bit weird. It’s just soooooo yellow. (I apologize if you’re one of those runners… who knows? I might join you!)

On the other hand, I might just get the pink version of the jacket. It still has all the same reflective details and warmth factor and it’s $8 cheaper. Travis won’t let me run at night anyway so I only need reflective-ness for about 10 minutes when my run is ending a bit late. That just might be the ticket.

3. I got the green light to post pictures of my adorable nephew!

In the hospital

Sleeping at home

With my mom, now Grandma Sheri

Isn’t he the cutest little thing ever? Can’t wait to meet him in person!

4. Meb Keflezighi runs in Skechers. Several months ago, I was reading an issue of Competitor magazine that I got for free from a race. I noticed an ad for Skechers running shoes featuring Meb. My initial reaction was one of skepticism – after hearing about Skechers was being sued for false advertising with their Shape-ups shoes, the whole company seemed like a sham, targeting the same demographic of people interested in weight loss supplements and detox diets. I was actually so intrigued by the ad that I looked up pictures of Meb running in the NYC Marathon so that I could see what shoes he was wearing. I thought it looked like he was wearing Nikes but apparently I was wrong –  he actually does wear Skechers for running.

The article I linked to above talks about how Skechers wants to break into the performance running market and is using their sponsorship of Meb to help it along. Considering that he PR’ed in and won the last two marathons he ran (including the Olympic Marathon trials), I’m not as skeptical about the shoes as I once was. But… I’m not sure that I’ll be jumping on the Skechers bandwagon anytime soon.

5. I have some friends who are doing a juice cleanse.

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They’re following the Reboot Standard Program, which has you eat only whole fruits and veggies for 15 days (click on the link for specifics). The benefits are supposedly (from their website, with my comments):

  • Boost the number of fruit/vegetable servings you can ingest in a day.  Well, duh! It’d be kind of hard not to, when that’s all you’re eating.
  • Break the cycle of unhealthy eating.  Watch me binge on celery.
  • Retrain your brain to crave fruits and vegetables.  If I can’t kick chocolate in 15 days, I couldn’t do this either.
  • Manage your weight.  I always manage to weigh something.
  • Promote a lifestyle that will lower risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, macular degeneration, cognitive decline and mental illness including depression. General healthy living does this too.
  • Promote longevity. Everyone dies.
  • Decrease aches and pains in joints and muscles.  I wear Skechers for this.
  • Improve your immunity.  Ok, you got me here.
  • Promote increased energy levels. …and increased bitchiness levels.
  • Promote healthy skin, nails and hair.  Only if I stop tanning, biting and dyeing.
  • Gain greater access to digestive enzymes locked away in whole produce through juicing.  Like in kale? Ew.
You can probably tell that I’m not a huge fan of “reboot diets” (which IMO is just a fancy word for detox). Running the risk of being called a hypocrite (since I eliminated sweets from my diet for a month…), I don’t think it’s ever necessary to eliminate entire food groups from your diet, barring an actual food allergy, in the name of “health” or “cleansing.”
Personally, I would go insane if I couldn’t eat cereal. I eat cereal every day. Unless we’re out of milk. And then I cry myself to sleep.
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I’d love to hear your thoughts –
Which running jacket would you choose above?
Would you ever wear Skechers for running?
What do you think about reboot/cleansing/detox programs?

 

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January Goal Update 2.0: No sweets for a month.

17 Jan

Here is my second (and second to last) January goal update. I posted my first update last week. Here are the details of the goal if you missed them.

Not eating sweets has gotten slightly easier, though I am by no means out of the woods. I am still planning to eat Godiva chocolate for breakfast, cupcakes for lunch, and froyo for dinner on Feb 2nd when this silly goal is over.

{source, source, source}

What’s sad is that I’m not even kidding.

Last Saturday a friend brought a delicious-looking butter braid dessert to our football party. I really wanted some so I asked Travis if he thought that was classified as dessert. Without realizing why I was asking, he replied, “Heck yes, this is dessert!” Darnit.

Another friend had brought Coke Zero and even though I’ve realized that I really don’t like diet pop, I was desperate and thought, “Well I’ll just have one of those.” Then I realized those were off-limits too. Bah.

Anyway…

Last week, I said that I was going to distract myself after dinner to avoid eating snacks in lieu of dessert. Well, last week was rough on multiple fronts, one of those being the eating front. I did manage to squelch my after-dinner snacking but… I replaced it with pre-dinner snacking. The minute I walked in the door, my hand was in the box of Oatmeal Squares. I needed to fuel up for taking the dogs on a walk, right? In my defense, I was actually hungry.

So I have two observations this week:

1. Don’t come home from work starving. I get home too hungry to wait for dinner and this is only going to get worse as running mileage increases. I would like to figure out a balance between eating healthy snacks to alleviate hunger and being a big girl by just waiting to eat until dinner is ready.

2. Eating chocolate every day is not bad. When this goal is over, I am going to buy some dark chocolate Dove squares and allow myself to eat one every night after dinner. Seriously, all I need after dinner is that sweet little flourish to signal the end of eating and since it is sorely lacking in this month of deprivation, I have been wanting to find something else that will even just come close. There is nothing. I just want chocolate. And since one dark chocolate Dove square only has 42 calories but contains healthy antioxidants and satisfies my sweet tooth, I think it’s totally justified.

On a more positive note, I do like that my diet is cleaner as a result of this challenge. It has actually motivated me to make some other changes, like cutting out refined carbs, taking a multi-vitamin, and flossing every day. Now, I haven’t actually done any of those things yet but I’m planning to implement one change every month. Otherwise, I get overwhelmed and do nothing. So stay tuned on those…

What is one healthy habit you’ve adopted recently?

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Five Randos

13 Jan

1. I had my second physical therapy appointment this morning. I was dreading it because I thought I was going to be get poked with needles (I even had a blog post title of “Pins and Needles” thought up). But luckily, since I told the therapist that my lower back felt fine still, he said he would leave it alone. Woohoo!

But I still had plenty of unpleasantness to deal with. I told him that my upper back between my shoulder blades was still sore/tight so he cracked that area again, along with my neck, and then proceeded to massage/poke/pull my shoulder and upper back tendons as I turned my head to one side, then the other. That hurt. A lot. Not like the sharp pain of a needle but a deep muscle-y pain – like how your tight IT band feels when you massage when it with a foam roller. My shoulders are sore now, which he said might happen.

He also showed me some exercises I could do to strengthen my lower back and hips. I’ll demonstrate and post them soon, since they’re beneficial for all runners/athletes.

What I’ll demonstrate now is how to lower your keyboard:

With a keyboard tray! It took me until this morning to realize I could push the tray in (I just had it installed yesterday). Before, it was sticking out from the desk by about 8 inches. At that rate, I was going to need glasses from squinting.

Anyway, lowering my keyboard will prevent me from shrugging my shoulders so much – your upper arms should be perpendicular to the floor when sitting at your desk.

2. Lots of TV time this weekend. Tomorrow is the Olympic Marathon Trials coverage (2-4 pm MST – we’re the same as central) and the Broncos game. Go Tebow! I might have to go buy a Broncos shirt tonight…

Sunday, I will be watching My Fair Wedding because fellow blogger Danica’s wedding will be on. It’ll be cool to finally see everything she hasn’t been able to show on her blog.

But I’ll balance that TV time out with two runs – my long run of 7 miles on Saturday and my tempo run of 4 miles on Sunday (moved from yesterday because I ate too much for dinner and would have puked if I tried to run…one of those days).

3. I seem to be a running anomaly. I’ve input several times into the McMillan Running Calculator: my half marathon PR back in 2007, my most recent 5K time, and my most-likely-never-to-be-duplicated 5 mile run in the Denver RnR Half Mary Relay. Those times are all over the board and produce quite the varied results.

With the 3 different times, my predicted marathon finish time could be (respectively):

5:17:58

5:20:24

4:54:08

I’ll take the last one, thankyouverymuch.

Also according to the calculator, my long runs should be run at a pace around 12:45 to 13:15 per mile. Lately, I’ve been comfortably running, without challenge, an easy pace of 11:15/mile for my long runs. But apparently, that should be the pace for my tempo intervals, which I’ve been running at a 9:55 or 10:00 pace (those paces aren’t even on the chart).

So I’ve concluded that while the running calculators may give me a ballpark of +/- 30 minutes for my marathon time, I should just use my long runs as a judge for my goals (and obviously the runs that are closer to the marathon distance, not the 8 miler I just did last Saturday). I’m also planning on doing Yasso 800s for my speedwork during Weeks 10-16 of my marathon training plan. It’d be cool if it really works to predict your marathon time (click the link to read more details).

4. I’ve been waiting for Friday all week long. Regardless, when I woke up this morning, I was surprised that it was already Friday. Which means I have to clean my house because we’re having people over for the game tomorrow.

5a. My favorite lunch as of late has been big salads, thanks to my friends leafy romaine lettuce and Caesar croutons. If it weren’t for those two, I wouldn’t be eating salads. They have changed my life. (For some reason, I get sick of spinach every now and again and won’t eat it to save my life…unless it’s in a smoothie.)

Yeah, I scrimped a little too much on the lettuce for that salad… but I also eat the lettuce first and this was halfway through the salad.

5b. We got new dinnerware for Christmas from my parents. The dishes we got for our wedding were really cute ones from Target but since I am a dish-breaker by trade, we only had 4 big plates left and all of our bowls (minus 2) had giant chips out of them. We are really enjoying our new dishes. Thanks Mom and Dad!

They are the Platzgraff Java pattern.

It’s even prettier in person. They’re still on sale at Shopko if you need new dishes!

What’s your favorite thing for lunch? Do the running calculators predict your speeds correctly?

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January Goal Update: No Sweets for a Month

10 Jan

So I have successfully made it 8, going on 9, days without sweets. And I have to say, it’s been ROUGH.

I have given up foods before as a way to go cold-turkey off a bad habit – because let’s be honest, I’ve tried “to eat less chocolate” and bombed big time. So it works for me to abstain from a certain thing for a while, until the craving goes away or at least decreases. But for some reason, this time has been the hardest.

Maybe it’s because I outlawed all sweets, not just chocolate or pop. Maybe it’s because I entered this goal with a fresh holiday sugar rush that I accumulated, bite by bite, over many weeks. Maybe it’s because I just got so used to ending a meal with a “little something extra.” Maybe it’s because I don’t have any cheat days, or even cheat moments, with this goal.

Whatever it is, I really hope these 8 days aren’t a foreshadow of what the next 22 will be like. 

I mean, it’s got to get easier, right?

It’s the hardest after dinner. I just want… something. Sweet. Chocolate.

Then it doesn’t help that I see all these delicious baked goods on the blogs I follow. Or at friends’ houses. Or on TV commercials.

What I wouldn’t give for a brownie, a blondie, or a chocolate chip cookie.

Anyway… I’ve noticed and not cared that I am substituting other post-dinner snacks for the MIA chocolate. I know that this is partly the result of having eaten dessert for after every meal in the months of November and December, and partly the result of me being extremely addicted to chocolate.

I’ve found that a good remedy for this is to use the snack as a reward for doing the dishes right after dinner, straightening up the living room, walking the dogs, etc. Do something else right after eating, with the promise that if you still want it, you can have a dessert/snack later. About 95% of the time, my craving is gone by the time I’ve done doing whatever. Because I  just wanted to eat more. But once I get out of “eating mode,” a dessert isn’t as appealing (unless, say, you were attempting to go a whole month without one).

I do this with bowls of cereal too. Honey Bunches of Oats is especially tempting (probably because it’s a bowl of sugar). I finish one bowl and immediately want another one. But in order to practice Intuitive Eating, I take a break. If I’m still hungry in 20 minutes, I can have another bowl. If I’m not hungry in 20 minutes, I can have another bowl once I’m hungry again. Overeating often happens because we think, “This is the only chance I get to eat this! If I don’t eat all of it, right now, this second, it’ll be gone and I’ll be unsatisfied for the rest of my life!” Dramatic, yes. But tell me you haven’t acted like this around food.

So this week, I’m going to distract myself after dinner to prevent me from substituting one bad post-dinner habit (snacking) for another (eating dessert).

Do you have any tricks that you use to prevent overeating?

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Training Recap: 12/26 – 1/2

3 Jan

Yesterday was the day of organization. We took down our Christmas decorations and stored them in new totes. We went through clothes, toiletries, and jewelry, throwing out what no one would want to wear and creating a pile of stuff to donate to the thrift store. I organized my dresser drawers, 5 different closets, and even my spices. I also gave the dogs a bath (after our run, it was very necessary) and cleaned the house. Productivity is such a great feeling!

Here’s what my training looked like last week:

Monday: 3.04 mile run (35:50, 11:47/mile), 16 min weight training

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: 2.73 mile hill workout (30:48, 11:17/mile)

I did this run outside my office in Broomfield. I warmed up downhill/flat for a mile, then sprinted 10 seconds up the hill, walked for about a minute, sprinted, walked. Here’s the elevation profile:

According to MapMyRun.com, where I’m running in Broomfield is actually higher in elevation than Wheat Ridge by about 400 feet. Which makes me feel better about wheezing up hills.

And you can’t beat the view:

Thursday: Rest

Friday: 3.04 mile tempo run (31:23 total, 10:19/mile); 18 min Tabata workout

I warmed up and cooled down for .5 mile (1 mile total), running the 2 middle miles at a tempo pace. I wore my 2XU compression tights on this run and once again, I busted out speed from God-knows-where. I ran the middle 2 miles at a 10:00 pace and the other mile at a combined pace of 11:23. Not too shabby.

And then I got my butt handed to me by a Tabata workout. If you haven’t heard of them, the idea is to do something all-out for 20-30 seconds, take a rest, then do it again. This is the workout I did (and I’m sorry, but I can’t remember the blog I found it on):

  • squat with weight shoulder press
  • pushups
  • lunge with bicep curl (alternating legs per set)
  • mountain climbers
  • sumo (wide) squat with single weight tricep extension (behind the head)
  • seated lower body crunches (leaning back and curling knees into chest)
  • jump squats and jump lunges (alternate per set)
  • bicycle crunches

You were supposed to do 6-8 rounds of each exercise before moving on. I downloaded a free Tabata timer on my phone, which makes it easy and brainless to time the intervals of work v. rest. I made 6 rounds of the squats, lunges, and sumos, but I had to call it quits at 3 rounds of pushups, mountain climbers, and lower body crunches (although I added 3 rounds of other core work to make it 6.) Yeah, definitely a good workout – I counted how many sumo squats I did in a single 30 second interval. 10. 10 x 6 = 60 squats. No wonder! This showed me that while my lower body is fairly strong, my upper body and core need some work.

Saturday: 1.1 mile run with pooches (12:55, 11:44/mile); 5.2 mile run without pooches (52:01, 10:00/mile)

If you’re wondering how on earth I managed to run my first mile in 11:44 and then 5 consecutive miles at a pace of 10 minutes per mile, let me tell you about the wind. It was crazy. Power went out in places, portapotties tipped over, sandstorms were blowing from the foothills, windows were whistling. I never looked it up but Travis estimated the gusts were 40-50 mph at times.

Yes, I ran in that.

I took the dogs out for what I planned to be a short 1.5 mile run around the lake. Ha, yeah. The minute I started heading west around the lake (no wind barrier), I was leaning into the wind, tears streaming and breathless (the wind was actually kind of cold). So I said Screw That and turned around. Hence the 1.1 miles.

My route to and from the lake ran north and south and it really wasn’t that bad being out there when you weren’t running west. I tried to think of a route I could do from my house that would run only north and south but it’s a weird, old neighborhood with a lot of streets that end in weird spots. I would inevitably end up having to go west sometime. So inspired by Monica at Run, Eat, Repeat who has her husband come pick her up from her runs, I had Travis drive me 5 miles to the west, so that I could do my entire run going east. As we were driving over there, Travis said, “I can’t believe you’re doing this. I think you’re crazy.” But he knows how stubborn I am so he didn’t argue.

And I will say, it wasn’t that bad. Yes, I got blown around like a ragdoll at times and when the wind died down so that I was running on my own strength, I felt like I was running in slow motion. But I wasn’t the only crazy out there. AND there were other people running west. Now those people are crazy.

The only thing I didn’t like about the run was my hair. I had contemplated wearing a hat but didn’t want to deal with it blowing off. I should’ve worn a headband at least because my hair flyaways were constantly in my face.

If you look closely, you can see leaves flying through the air and mist rising from the reservoir.

So when I wanted to eat my Gu Chomps at mile 3 of my combined runs, I actually turned around and ran backwards, so that the wind would keep my hair out of my face while I ate.

Overall, the run was a success.

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In other news, I tried these two new foods last week and loved them both:

The Pretzel Crisps tasted a lot like mustard pretzels (which I love) and the Pure Almond Dark Chocolate milk tasted just like chocolate cow’s milk. This would be a great alternative for those who are lactose-intolerant and want to drink chocolate milk, or for someone looking for a drink high in calcium (it provides 45% of your daily value). But there’s only one gram of protein, so I’ll be sticking with my cow’s milk and Hershey’s syrup for post-run recovery.

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Food journal update: It is a lot harder than I thought it would be to remember to write down everything I eat. I failed yesterday. Whoops.

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What are the craziest conditions you’ve run in?

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January Goal: Forego sweets for an entire month.

2 Jan

Like most people, I ate way too many sweets over the holidays.

And while I didn’t gain any weight (how did that happen?), I have been feeling on the verge of getting sick for a couple of weeks – which, I believe, is caused by my increased consumption of sugar. This article, among others, says that sugar can suppress your immune system.

Also, in the book The End of Overeating, David Kessler talks about our body’s response to sugar, fat and salt – our brains become wired to seek more of those things the more we consume them. I have found this to be true – the more I eat sugar, the more I crave it. The less I eat sugar, the less I crave it.

I wrote that my goal is to “Forego sweets for an entire month.” What do I consider sweets?

Sweets are anything that have a high level of sugar and provide no nutritional value, such as:

  • all candy (not including gum)
  • all cookies
  • all foods involving chocolate (I know that dark chocolate has some nutritional value, but that’s not the point here)
  • all pop (even diet)
  • all ice cream (even froyo)
  • all foods made of white flour, sugar and butter
Pretty much everything that would or could be considered dessert.

What is not included is the coffee creamer and 2 packets of sweetener I drink with my coffee every morning. It has nutritional value: keeping me sane. 😉

Unfortunately, I have already failed at this goal. I forgot that yesterday was Jan 1st, so I had 2 Godiva chocolates after dinner.  (whoops) But I won’t give up just because of that. I’ll still do it for a month (ending on Feb 2nd then instead of the 1st).

In conjunction with this goal, I signed up for the Food Journal Challenge hosted by Amanda at Run to the Finish.

I also failed at this yesterday (can I be excused because I felt sick?) but will start today. I hope that this will help me be more mindful of my food choices, so that I can respect my body as God’s temple. Today, I will Take Stock of where I am eating-wise and go from there.

How are you feeling after the holidays? Any goals for January?

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The Day After Christmas

30 Dec

If you can believe it, on Monday, we did even less than we had on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We moved from our bed to the couch to watch Little Fockers and DVRed episodes of Bones and Desperate Housewives and there we stayed. Glorious.

But! Monday was officially the start of my marathon training (kinda, sorta, more on that later) so I had to get in a 3 mile run and strength training. We had also talked about going to buy new running shoes at Boulder Running Company, since Travis was in dire need. And we had a 15% off coupon so I figured I might as well buy a new pair too – even though I don’t need them right now, I will soon! I think I’ll start rotating my shoes when I run on consecutive days.

Finally, we got motivated at 2:45 to get running. Unfortunately, my pre-run fuel choice of nachos and caramel corn set off my acid reflux and I hadn’t drank enough water so I had a headache for the entire run. At mile 2.5, I decided to walk the rest. It just wasn’t worth it.

Ok, not quite the start to marathon training I had envisioned…

But no biggie. I know that bad running days happen and I have gotten acid reflux on enough runs that I know it’s just plain stupid that it continues to happen. I need to stop eating tomato-based foods (like salsa!) on days I’m running and start taking antacids before every. single. run. Even when I don’t think I need them. At first on this run, I thought it was the caramel corn attacking my esophagus. It seemed a little weird but the combination of chocolate and coffee once sent me to the ER – so why not caramel corn? But then I remembered the salsa-laden nachos and that made a lot more sense. Even ketchup gets me. It’s so sneaky!

After our failed run, I did 15 minutes of strength training, wiped myself off with a fancy cleansing towelette, and we headed down south to BRC and to get us a juicy burger and some fries for dinner (after all that candy, I was craving something hearty… but still not healthy).

At the running store, I stuck with my tried and true Nike Zoom Structure Triax:

It’s been so long since I bought running shoes that I actually skipped a version, going from the 13 to the 15. Sad. These feel less squishy than past pairs so I’m going to try them out at the gym first, just in case I don’t like them (please, don’t let it be true!).

Travis went with the Brooks Ravenna:

He had ran in the Racers for several pairs and while he liked them, he wanted something with a little more support, since we run on concrete 95% of the time (hey, it’s convenient and free of traffic). Plus, these aren’t horrific colors like the new Racers:

I told Travis that he would look like a Kenyan in those. He didn’t buy it.

After a quick stop at JCPenney to do an exchange, we went to Red Robin for some juicy deliciousness. As we sat there debating menu choices, I had the grand idea to sub a beef burger for a Gardenburger – I mean, I’m not a huge fan of meat so would it really make that much of a difference?

Big mistake.

It did make a big difference. I was craving a juicy burger and while my veggie burger was tasty, it didn’t have the juiciness (ahem, fattyness) I wanted. At least my heart thanks me.

On our way home, we got a call from my family – we were planning a conference call for that night so that we could all talk together a bit, since we were in 3 different locations (Colorado, Indiana and Minnesota).

After we talked for about 30 minutes, we hung up and Travis and I watched Hall Pass. It was a bad, dirty movie. Which made me sad because I really Owen Wilson and Jenna Fischer as actors.

Anyway, this has been so true this week:

Cheers!

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Christmas Day

29 Dec

Christmas morning wasn’t as relaxing as I had hoped… I woke up extremely tired and practiced my math skills while lying in bed trying to figure out the latest possible time I could get up.

Nevertheless, I was still able to make our special Christmas breakfast:

Monkey bread and fruit salad. I LOVE monkey bread and could eat the entire pan all by myself.

Then we went to church, where we thought we had to do projection and lights. But silly us, we were confused. So we got to hang out for an hour before church started. Bah! That could have been sleep!

My church outfit:

After church, we went home and bummed.

Worked on the puzzle, which we finished!

Called our parents.

Ate a lot of mini Snickers bars.

Walked the dogs.

Made our Christmas dinner and devoured it – chicken wild rice soup, green beans and crescent rolls. (There was also supposed to be Watergate salad but I used the cool whip to make the Christmas Trifle, which we ate for dessert.)

Watched Red Dawn – the classic from 1984 with Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen.

It was a very low-key Christmas – just what I wanted.

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A Christmas Trifle

28 Dec

I got to start my Christmas weekend early by leaving work at 1:30 on Friday – there was hardly anyone in the office and I had nothing to do. So why stick around?

I stopped by Walgreen’s on my way home to buy ingredients for what I prefer to call Triple Decker Brownies (call me old-fashioned) and happened to see the cutest sparkly pink nail polish (called A Cut Above). So I spent the afternoon watching Lifetime Christmas movies and painting my nails.

That manicure lasted a whole 6 days.

Friday night, we had dinner and played Catch Phrase with our friends D and Doug. D and I dominated Catch Phrase by winning every single round.

For dessert, we had lefsa (a Norwegian tortilla made out of potatoes – we warm up them up and top with butter and sugar) and Chocolate Angel Food Trifle. I had attempted to make Chocolate Rolled Angel Cake… I even took pictures of combining the ingredients (box of angel food cake + cocoa 😉 ) and whipping the angel food batter into a poofy mess with my pretty white Kitchenaid mixer. I had the parchment paper in the pan. I had the baked cake upended onto a towel dusted with powdered sugar and rolled up all pretty. I had my whipping cream whipped, with what I would imagine were stiff peaks.

But then I made my crucial error. I was making this cake the day before we were going to eat it. The recipe said that you could only refrigerator the assembled cake for 6 hours so I decided to wait to assemble it until the next day.

The next afternoon, after I had painted my nails sparkly pink, I unrolled the towel and found that the cake was stuck to it. I tried to gently unpeel it and the innermost curl broke off. No biggie, I thought. I’ll somehow reassemble it. I painted a white stripe of melted whipped cream down the biggest chunk. But it wasn’t going to work. I couldn’t even get the big piece of the cake off the towel.

Ok, on to Plan B. I knew that the combination of the delicious angel food cake (I had sampled it), raspberries and whipped cream was going to be delicious, no matter what way I served it. So I decided to make a trifle instead.

I tore the sticky, gooey angel food cake into bite-sized pieces and placed them at the bottom of a large decorative bowl (I don’t have a trifle dish). Then I sprinkled on half of the raspberries and a layer of cool whip – I had discovered that my whipping cream was more of a liquid at this point than a cream so I used a small tub of cool whip I happened to have on hand. I repeated those layers one time – cake, raspberries, cool whip. And I topped the trifle with a few reserved raspberries. Voila! A Christmas trifle. And it was absolutely delicious, even if it wasn’t was I had initially planned.

Have you ever had a recipe go awry? How did you salvage it?

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Five Randos

21 Dec

1. We went to Zoolights last night.

It was way cooler than these pictures show – it’s just that our camera doesn’t take pictures of lights very well. We didn’t see very many animals – a snake, a hippo and a rhino was pretty much all but it was still fun!

2. I’ve felt on the verge of getting sick since Sunday but have so far successfully staved it off with eating more veggies and getting more sleep.

3. For the past month, I’ve been buying spinach with good intentions of eating salads every day at work. But every day I looked in the fridge and spinach didn’t sound even remotely appealing. This happens to me a lot – I go through phases of what I like to eat. For a while, I was eating spinach with everything – seriously. I served leftovers on spinach. I put spinach in sandwiches, pizza, smoothies. Now? Eck.

Luckily, I bought some romaine lettuce last week and am back to enjoying salads! Today’s has sliced deli ham, grape tomatoes, sliced carrots, cottage cheese, a tiny bit of feta and sautéed zucchini and yellow squash. I’m sad that I forgot croutons. But I did bring a hunk of French bread filled with refined white flour – redeemed!

4. This week has been the week of the slide. I’m not even trying to pretend to be motivated. I did get laundry done between Monday night and last night. And I made or helped make dinner (as easy as possible). But other than that, I’ve laid on the couch watching TV each night, slept in each morning (and sometimes gotten up to just take a nap on the couch), and eaten my weight in chocolate and cookies, in addition to not working out. And it’s been glorious.

5. We’re supposed to get more snow tonight – 4 to 8 inches.

While I love the snow, I wish I didn’t have to drive in it. It snowed Monday night and I seriously was so scared driving home in my little Ford Focus that I about cried, pulled over and asked Travis to come get me. Instead, I muscled through and once home, drowned my fears in Godiva chocolates. I swear, it seems like every year I get more and more paranoid about driving. If it gets to the point where I can’t handle driving anywhere in snow or rain, I’m seeking professional help.

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