Rants, Recipes, and Running

Happy Saturday! Here are my "current" currently's. Current Book : "If I Stay". It's an easy summer read...which I'm in dire need of, with my poor reading skills lately. It's about the outer-body experience of a teenager who got in a tragic car accident. She's watching her body in the ICU, and trying to decide whether to stay or go. It's really interesting to the nurse in me. Current Excitement :  It is looking like the next guarenteed weekend Ryan & I will have together is in August when we go to Minnesota for a week @ the lakes w/ family! Lame that he works so much during July, but I'm focusing on the positive!! Cannot wait to see family and meet my niece/God-daughter Evelyn! Current Fashion : I'm really loving the maxi dresses. Only for evenings out. It's too damn hot to wear a maxi dress during the day in Tucson (for this girl, anyhow). Current Drink : Iced Green tea with Raspberry @ Starbucks. I've sipping ...

I think it's been established, but Ryan and I are a bit spontaneous when it comes to weekend get-aways. Back in May, we had planned on going to San Diego for a 3-day-weekend last weekend. But Ryan's work scheduled changed 6 times (I'm not exaggerating). So we decided to put that dream on hold for while. We didn't know if he was going to have the weekend free until 3:45 pm on Friday. And when he called with the news that he did - I started packing like a mad-woman. We had the car loaded up, and we were headed up the mountain by 5:30 pm for a camping trip! We were having a discussion with someone recently about camping, and how it's so much work and planning. But we have proved that theory wrong! But our "camping skills" did not happen overnight. Here are a few tips about camping, that I've found help tremendously. And I will finish off with a short rant about the "ugly" of camping. 1.  Heavy duty plastic containers will be your best fr...

I've been finding my "mojo" in the kitchen again lately, and we've been cooking some really fun stuff! I made a recipe last week that I had to share. It was so fun and delicious. I thought this would make a really good dinner party appetizer. Especially in the summertime. How I came up with it: We bought our 1st "produce share" through a Groupon this month. It was $20 for a basket of fresh, organic, local produce. In the basket, we got eggplant (and green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, oranges, and garlic. Mmmm). I'm not a big eggplant fan, but was determined to find a way to like it. So I decided that basil and tomatoes (and cheese) make everything good. Ingredients: (super easy!) 1 eggplant, sliced handful of fresh basil leaves sliced tomatoes whole mozzarella 1/2 cup balsalmic vinegar 1/4 cup olive oil s & p to taste How to make: Slice the eggplants, and soak in a container with the olive oil & balsalmic (10 min) Grill for ab...

I've been doing a lot of reminiscing lately. Last year at this time, we were packing for our 5 month adventure to San Antonio, TX to Randolph Air Force Base. I remember feeling optimistic. In fact, I remember thinking San Antonio was going to be this lush, green, fabulous city of love. It wasn't . It had a fake, man-made river with cheesy chain restaurants along it, that drunk people frequently fell in. It was in a horrid drought. The highlight of San Antonio was it's movie theater that served delicious beer and food! I didn't love San Antonio. However, believe it or not, I look back at that phase is fond memories. I am recently finding myself longing to relive some of those days, believe it or not. I counted down the days to returning to AZ, but I remember even thinking, "I'm going to look back on this phase with a soft heart...." I was right! I miss cozy nights of crock-pot scrambled eggs in our humid & tiny Air-Force-Inn hotel room. So here ...

I stole this one from my sister Lisa . These are always fun! They are also a good distraction when I just don't know what to blog about....;) 1.   What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?   Stumble into the bathroom, put on my contacts, get dressed in my workout clothes that I lay out the night before. If I'm lifting weights, biking, or swimming - I eat a piece of toast with peanut/almond butter. If I'm running, I chug a big glass of water! 2.  What do you eat for breakfast?   Whole wheat toast with peanut butter or almond butter for a pre or post-work out. Before leaving for work I will make a smoothie with berries, spinach, protein powder, flax seeds, and almond milk. 3.  What’s your go-to weeknight meal?   Fish tacos. We always have tilapia in the freezer - and it takes 10 minutes to cook.   I season and cook the fish with peppers and onions. Serve it on a tortilla with spinach, greet y...

One of the 1st weekends we lived in Tucson, 6 years ago (!!!!), we decided to head downtown one Saturday morning to "check out the city". We had visions of walking around shops, and having lunch at one of the bistros. When we got downtown, our expectations and reality were very diverse. Everything was closed. Garbage layed in the streets. No cars were around. No people were to be seen. We walked a few blocks down, thinking, "Up ahead is where the action must be". All we found was a homeless man sleeping on a bus bench. Well, 6 years later, things have changed drastically. Over the past 2 years, there has been a huge push to make downtown Tucson cool again. And it has worked! Now you go downtown, and it bustling with new restaurants, coffee shops, yoga studios, apartments, new construction everywhere, and a street car that takes you from the University of Arizona, to 4th Avenue (an arts district), to downtown . In the evenings, you will find live...

I don't know if you've noticed my absence of recipes, but my abandoned kitchen tools have. It's just not fun to cook for yourself. It is so much easier to just heat up some boring black beans and eat it with a salad when you have no one to cook for. Now that Ryan is home, and we are adjusting to "married life" under the same roof again - I am rekindling my love of the kitchen! I made a recipe on Sunday afternoon, that I just had to share! Green Lentil Curry . I bought a bunch of bulk lentils from Sprouts last week, and had the thought to make them ahead of time for lunches during the week. And I found the perfect recipe for this! And it was so easy ! I found the recipe on Pinterest, made a few little changes. It is so good!!! 2 cups green lentils (dry) 1 14 oz can coconut milk (I used the lite version) 8 oz tomato paste 3 cups water 1/2 large onion, chopped finely 6 garlic cloves 1 tsp turmeric 1/2 tsp coriander, ground 1 tsp curry powder 1 ...