Yeah, you’re not surprised I follow Jillian Michaels on Facebook, are you?

I will say, I was proud to see quite a crowd at the gym early this afternoon. Weekend afternoons are usually pretty dead, but it was hopping around 1PM today! I got in a run, spin, & weights workout! Kevin let me stay extra long since he was just at home doing homework.

After church, we dropped off some long overdue library books and swooped into Panera. We shared a Pick 2. Isn’t that crazy? I had the Sonoma Chicken Stew and Kevin had some sort of a 1/2 sandwich. I picked out every last pea. I want to learn to make the stew at home. Without peas.

Kevin was trying to conserve on calories so he could snack it up during the Super Bowl. And I like to workout on an almost-empty stomach so it worked out for us today. Most days I’d like a Pick 4 or 5. Why don’t they offer that?

What a studly nerd. He doesn’t know yet that he still has his name tag on. Hehe.

Super Bowl Snack #1 was ELR’s Jalapeño Cheddar Hummus with Kevin’s favorite Red Hot Blues.

Super Bowl supper plans started innocently enough…

I spotted this fun spice mix at Whole Foods last night and decided to make some chili! Kevin and I can usually never get it spicy enough so we were really excited to try a new flavor.

Key word: “usually.”

I was careful to follow the directions perfectly so it would be a good balance with the tomatoes, the beans, and the spicy factor. I took one cavalier taste out of the pot and regretted it for a full 5 minutes! My lips burned, and it was fiery all the way down my throat. We ended up two more cans of tomatoes + two more cans of beans. I also diluted mine with Greek yogurt. I still couldn’t eat it. And now, of course, we have a HUGE pot of it!

I ended up saving the day with some homemade mac ‘n’ cheese to which we carefully added a few TBSP of the chili. It was so delicious!! But still spicy! I loved the flavor, and now I need to think of some more ways to tone it down! Help!

My baby sisters got me some Reynolds heart-shaped pans for Christmas, and it’s the month of loooove so it was time to bust them out! Those things are awesome, by the way. I spent all afternoon thinking that I wish I had them when I taught in the DR! We were constantly baking for the sweet-talking high schoolers, and these would have been perfectly portion-sized and disposable!!! We had a heart pan that we used frequently, but it was HUGE! And we were constantly giving it to people who did not return it in a timely manner (Ahem! Yoalba!!!!!).

Kevin’s Super Bowl dessert was a heart-shaped brownie with vanilla frozen yogurt & marshmallow fluff topped with chocolate sprinkles. I just went with a huge bowl of the No Sugar Added Vanilla Fro Yo. Just perfect!

I think we stayed well under 4,200 calories!

And now for my 2 Favorite Things About Super Bowl Sunday:

1. Diet Coke is on sale! 4/$10!!!!! That’s a steal.
2. It means football is over till the fall.

You thought I was going to say the food, right? Or the commercials. Nah. Kevin watched it while working on filing our taxes. I was mostly cooking and harassing Boyd.

What’s your favorite thing about Super Bowl Sunday? I don’t really think it’s a day that deserves a special title, but at this point, why fight it? Maybe I’ll fight it in 4 years by throwing the best party ever for the Olympic Marathon Trials. Or maybe just to watch the Olympics this summer…

Any ideas what I should do with all that leftover chili? I’m thinking some will be frozen, some will be used with baked potatoes, but I’m just not sure what else!!

What’s your favorite shape to bake things in? Haha. I do love to bake in a heart! I was just trying to avoid asking you about your estimated calorie intake today. That’s probably too personal, right? Haha.

Kevin’s boots versus my boots:

Hey, I figure my feet won’t get wet in them. Kevin laughs when I walk in these shoes because I have extremely good posture. Gotta suck in that core so if I trip I don’t wipe out!

As I get sicker and sicker of winter, I’m really getting into these mixed up workouts. Yesterday, I had the idea to do a “gym tri.” I wanted to do run-bike-row, but I didn’t like the idea of going all out on the rowing machine for 15 minutes. My poor hands would be all blistered! So I went for run-bike-stepmill!

I did this workout for mileage so I was really pushing myself, but I had short breaks every 15 minutes when I switched machines.

My stats:

Run: 2.14 (7:00 pace)   Bike: 6.78      Stepmill: 2.12 (7:04 pace)

I think I took it the easiest on the bike portion. I wasn’t really sure what a “good” amount of mileage would be to complete in 15 minutes since I’ve not been real into biking. I set the bike to an easy-medium resistance and did what I could. My overall mileage was: 11.04. I was drenched when I finished!

Can’t wait to try to beat that number sometime soon! It was a fun workout because I never spent too long on one thing!

After our Marriage+ class tonight, we had a little pot luck to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We were asked to contribute a salad, and we’ve been loving the quinoa lately so this is what we came up with!

Caprese Quinoa (via How Sweet Eats)

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 16 oz container of grape tomatoes, quartered
• 3/4 cup fresh mozzarella pearls (or just buy a fresh mozzarella ball and cut it into chunks)
• 10 large basil leaves, cut into ribbons
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Prepare quinoa according to directions on box (which is most likely: 2 cups water + 1 cup quinoa, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes). Depending on whether you want your quinoa hot or cold (it’s great both ways) either let it cool completely or immediately add in the tomatoes, cheese, basil, salt and pepper. Drizzle about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil over top and serve!

There was also a recipe to make a homemade basil oil to drizzle over the quinoa, but I just put in extra basil and drizzled the regular olive oil to my liking.

Funny quinoa pronunciation video: I saw this on Ellen while I was running!! Haha. I can’t stop watching it!

See also Hors d’oeuvres & Aeropostale, & ok, just one more, Jake Gyllenhaal!

I can’t stop: Onomatopoeia

Hehehe. I can’t stop giggling. I love the quinoa one so much.

Aren’t you excited that it’s only Saturday?! I can’t stop thinking that it’s Sunday! Yay! We still have a whole day of weekend left!! Although that annoying Super Bowl thing is going on. Haha. I’ve already made Kevin James some Super Bowl snacks, but I might be hanging at the gym. It’ll probably be really quiet!!

Link me your favorite quinoa recipe! I also loved this one for Thai Fried Quinoa. I’m not even going to ask about the Super Bowl. I don’t wanna know.

When I got home from the gym today, Kevin James wanted to take our little bundle of joy out for a romp in the snow!

The snow as practically deep enough for the poor Boykin to drown in!

We taught him a new trick! Snow mountain climbing!

Of course, he hesitates when I call him. Haha.

The two best buddies.

Embracing the snow!

Seee, I haven’t lost my edge!!! I don’t think I’ve done a snow angel since about 2007…

(In Iowa… in a studded belt!! I guess I was a little tougher back then because I was in short sleeves).

The Boykin and I! Of course, the one time he’s actually looking – my eyes ae closed!

Just so you can get an idea… that’s all snow we got in basically 1 day! And it’s snowed more since then!

Time to go inside!! Trust me that whole photo shoot took about 15 minutes. Lol. My mother-in-law says that I’m in winter denial with my refusal to actually have/wear actual warm clothes.

What’s your favorite snow/winter activity? Ice skating. And snowball fights.

Giant M&M Cookies (via How Sweet Eats)

makes 18 large or 36 small cookies

2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) of salted butter, melted and cooled

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup mini m&m’s (or something else that you love)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Mix the flour and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, mix the butter and sugars until they are combined (and look like the first picture above). Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir until mixed. Gradually add flour and mix until a dough forms – it will look crumbly at first, but it will come together. I even used my hands to help at one point. Fold in the m&m’s.

Divide the dough how you choose (1/4 cup portions for 18 large cookies or 2 tablespoon portions for 36 smaller cookies). Shape each portion into a ball with your hands then pull each ball into two equal pieces. Turn each half so that the rough side of the half (what used to be the inside of the ball) faces upwards and then squish both halves together. Place the dough rough-side up on a baking sheets. If you’re doing large cookies, I’d leave about 2 inches in between each.

Bake for 12-15 minutes (large cookies) or 8-12 minutes (small cookies) or until the edges are slightly brown. The centers should be
soft and puffy. Do not over bake. Let cool completely then dig in!

Read those directions carefully!! There is special baking tip that totally works to make huge cookies!! And aren’t huge cookies the best kind? I was so nervous, but they turned out great! As big as a small child’s face and very soft & chewy! Hooray!! A great alternative to the regular Valentine’s cutout cookies that I was sooo not in the mood to make! What with the chilling and the rolling pin. Wasn’t going to happen today!!

Baking in a snowstorm calls for a scarf underneath your apron while you bake!

Rush hour traffic in the Denver Tech Center this morning…

There were less than 10 people on my 12th floor office today. Seriously. Dead. We’re back home already and Kevin is “working from home.” We laughed because if we were back in Winona, basically everyone would still be in the office till 5PM. Even on a crazy snowy Friday!!

I’m planning an extra long snow day workout!! Because that’s the kind of thing I do.

Happy Friday!! Still no phone call about the job, by the way. They promised me a phone call by the end of the week, but I’m afraid the snow is going to have a negative impact there since the school is undoubtedly on a snow day. We shall see.

Gourmet brick oven chicken with spicy sauce! La Polleria is a darling Peruvian Style Chicken restaurant that is family-owned, and I love that they are totally upfront about the ingredients they use. Most of them are displayed in the front of the store!

La Polleria serves authentic “pollo a la brasa” also known as Peruvian Style Chicken that is roasted in an imported brick lined charcoal fired rotissere oven from Peru. We start with fresh all natural Red Bird Farms chicken that is then marinated with a special family recipe.

The menu.

I couldn’t resist starting with an empanada!! I never ate them when I had on a street stand practically on my front stoop, but I was dying to have one after all these months. Apparently Kevin never got to taste one when he visited me in the Dominican Republic. I was probably in a fight with the empanada guy at the time.

The empanada came dusted with powdered sugar!  It was a chicken-stuffed empanada so that was a little different for me, but we really enjoyed it. Kevin asked me how it was different from Dominican street empanadas. I laughed and said,”This is like a gourmet empanada.” The Dominican empanadas I’ve had are delicious but flat as a pancake and super fried. I loved the pizza flavor and I always recommended it to bystanders when I was hanging at the corne stand with my home boys.

I tackled the fries first. I honestly do not like meat that is attached to the bone. It just grosses me out. But I have a nice husband who put it on his plate and gave me little tidbits without yucky skin or bones. The flavor was insanely good.

Mmmm…. aji sauce! Spicy!

My second side was mac ‘n’ cheese. (At least it was made with organic pasta!!). I love any restaurant that serves mac ‘n’ cheese!

I’m pretty sure I deserve this less-than-flattering photo that my cute husband took of me. I figured I might as well post it since this is basically how I always look….

The interior of the restaurant was simple but cozy. We were extremely content in our cute little booth. The service was amazing! Two brothers were running the restuarant. How cute is that!? They were both very courteous and the food came quickly and was hot & fresh.

SNOWING! It’s supposed to snow like crazy!

The pollo & me!

Flashback to Chicken Day in the DR!

Down there the sides were yucca and tostones!

And maybe some corn!

Speaking of which…

I got my passport photo retaken. Man, I am freakishly pale!! I can’t believe how many chores there are to do when you move multiple times and get married. And I know by the time we get it all done… we’ll be moving again. Our lease is up this summer and I don’t see us staying in a cramped 1-bedroom now that we sold our house (yay!).

Are you getting a snow day tomorrow?!!? I’m sure it’ll be an easy day anyways.

Check out my kettlebell workout… you’re going to need it if you want to scarf that many fries! Or the gigantic cookies I have coming up for Cookie Friday!

I did this workout for time. I set the stopwatch on my iPhone when I started. This ensured that I wouldn’t squander time texting and drinking water. Can you guess how long it took me?

I haven’t had a lot of experience with kettlebells, but I bought one on a whim a few months ago. Since then, we’ve moved a few times, and I lost my Jillian Michaels kettlebell dvd!! I look for it every night before bed (seriously, ask Kevin, he hates it!!), but to no avail. However, I did find a full-length Bob Harper kettlebell workout on YouTube (right here) which I did the other day to reassure myself of my form. I would suggest checking it out. It would’ve been hard to perform some of these exercises with only pictures & text as my guide.

I went ahead and pasted in a photo of each exercise with links to directions. I always just familiarize myself with the moves, and then take a little post-it to the gym. Or the back of  an envelope. Whatever works!

Kettlebell High Pulls: Instructions

Figure 8′s: Instructions

Kettle Bell Swings: Instructions

Kettlebell Rows: Instructions

Plank Jacks: Instructions

Reverse Lunge Pass-Through: Instructions (alternating legs!)

My time:

Not too shabby, right? I will admit that I DROPPED the kettlebell during the Figure 8′s move twice! And at that point there just happened to be 2 other people in our tiny apartment gym. Oh my.

By the way, you could totally do this workout with dumbbells. The only one that might be a little weird is the Figure 8′s, but you could totally switch that up with some shoulder presses or something. You could also change the cardio, but you might want to change the segments then. 1.25 miles riding bike is a little easier!!

I was apparently pretty pleased with myself. I ran a bit more afterwards just to keep up my mileage. I totally want to try this workout again and try to beat my time. But another modification I might make is hacking off the first and last quarter miles. I would still do them as a warm-up & cooldown, but I wouldn’t count them for time. Make sense? I’m always thinking of better ways to compete with myself.

Do you kettlebell? I’ve heard it really carves a rocking core, and my core needs some work so I’m trying to embrace it. I hope I don’t break anything. Or hit anyone. I’m pretty clumsy. I want to try out the heavier ones at the gym, but my 10-lber is fun to play with at home.

SUPER AWESOME DATE NIGHT COMING UP!!!!!!!!

I hope it doesn’t snow.

I guess the post title was kind of a spoiler, right?

This is the only item of purple clothing I own, people! Purple is my least favorite color second only to blue. And yes, I’m very childish about it. If something is blue, I just don’t want it. (For the record, navy blue is an exception because I just consider it a neutral). But anyhow, I saw this little gem at Forever 21, and I had to have it!! I like to wear it when the Zumba people are coming in… just to intimidate them.

Let’s get to the real part. I managed to grab the computerized spin bike thinger today! Yay! I was totally gunning for it yesterday but our gym’s version of Angelina Jolie was hogging it. I’ve been trying to stay off my feet a little more (hahaha) since my left foot is still feeling a little wonky. So this is my version of taking it easy.

I Googled for some DIY spin workouts, and I even printed one off. But I left it in the car. With my water bottle. So sad. Now I can run miles & miles, but I can’t be bothered to walk back to the car for a little thing like a water bottle! Sigh.

By the way, if you’re interested, Matt @ Athlete’s Plate has a great post about creating your own Spin class.

Check out who was creeping on the stepmill directly behind me!?! It was hard to get a clear picture because we were both very bouncy. He’s just paying me back for all the times I’ve stalked him!

I ended up semi-following one of the built-in interval programs. I liked that it counted you in to the next thing, but I cheated and stood up more than I should have. I haven’t done spinning in a while, and I don’t want to be too sore!

If you’re curious, our gym has a lot of actual spinning classes. Practically every hour in the before/after work time slots. But I don’t like to commit to an hour or more when spinning/rowing/whatever is really secondary to running. And always will be.   Plus I like to do my own thing and rock out to my Don Omar Pandora station!

I ran afterwards during Jeopardy!  (seriously none of the 3 college students knew which singer Eddie Cibrian was married to?!) 4.52 in 38. I probably should have stopped sooner because I could “feel” my foot, but I made a poor choice. I hope I don’t pay for it later. I feel like it’s been “so long” since I’ve had a good run.

Today was definitely a clean-out-the-fridge kind of day! Lunch was a baked sweet potato with a side of plain Greek yogurt (for sour cream) and pizza green beans. Kevin did not believe me, but they did taste kind of like pizza topped with a little marinara & mozz. I love green vegetables dipped in marinara sauce when we are having spaghetti or something so I figure I would just do it straight up! If you see speckles everywhere – that’s garlic powder. Got a little garlic happy!

Dinner was equally uninspired with a nice double pasta combo!! Half with No Sugar Added Marinara & half with a nice nonfat Greek yogurt/garlic/basil/mozz sauce I concocted. And the last vegetables in the house!

By the way, I also did my pushup challenge today when I got home from the gym. I’m debating methods for modified pushups? What do you do? I kind of like the idea of just doing”half” pushups. On your toes, but only going halfway down to practice.

Check out these ladies:

They put me to shame, shame, shame!! Could you beat them!?

Fill in the blank “You should see me ___________.”  Haha. I wonder what you’re going to say! Mine should probably say “run” since that’s really the only thing I can do to impress people. And it’s nto even that impressive here in Denver. Haha. I guess play piano, but I’ve lost some of my mad skills living without a piano.

Favorite pasta sauce? I need to learn to make some from scratch, right? Preferably from my window box garden. Haha. That’s not going to happen anytime soon. I prefer my sauce to be tangy and truly prefer No Sugar Added varieties.

Do you spin? I’m going to try to work it into my impulsively complex, totally not-scheduled workout routine. Along with pushups, rowing, and kettlebells. Working out is so fun!!

P.S. It’s February!!! Be looking forward to a little lovie series that includes our How We Met story!!

I was originally planning to buy the Korma sauce I had seen the other day, but when I read the labels – this one seemed like a better idea. Spicier & lower in calories. Don’t you love that those 2 things often go together? I’ve noticed that when I order at restaurants (for example: at Firebowl I always order one of the spicer sauces because it’s the lowest calorie content).

We paired the sauce with boiled carrots, celery, cauliflower, and potatoes. Unfortunately, we were impatient and didn’t cook the vegetables long enough so they were pretty crunchy. But the sauce was awesome. I want to try a Vegetable Korma recipe from scratch one day soon!

Jar meal #2:

My wandering grocery store eye spotted this green chile sauce, and I knew it could be the starter for a delicious meal. And only 5 calories a serving!!! You could have the whole jar for less than 100 calories. I should have one for lunch someday! Haha.

Layer of green chile sauce on the bottom. Inside the tortillas: refried beans pureed with fresh spinach & red onion. More sauce and part-skim cheese on top. These were so filling I could barely polish off one! I don’t know what my deal is tonight.

Oh. Check this out. Remember my failed Cookie Friday Hot Cocoa Cookies?

Well. I still had the dough in the fridge. And it was just sitting there making me look like a loser. So I put some in a ramekin, and made kind of a hot cocoa cake!! Awesome, right? Kevin was definitely a fan. He has to have something sweet after dinner.

My Least Favorite Exercise: I can’t even begin to describe to you how much I despise push-ups. They are, hands down, my least favorite exercise. I don’t even like doing them on my knees.

But I’ve decided, that I need to get my act together and learn to pump out a few. Maybe not 100 at a time, but a decent amount! I bet you’ve heard of the 100 Pushup Challenge. I did the pre-test the other night. Trust me, I can do ALMOST 1 pushup. I have to do this weird jiggle to get myself back up. Isn’t it so weird that I can’t do pushups? I do a lot of planks. I’ve been exercising almost every day for about 3 years now… It’s time to conquer this once and for all. I’m happy because I’ve convinced Kevin to do it with me. I think he just wants to do it because he knows it’s something he can totally kick my butt at. Running definitely comes more naturally for me so I get a little cheerful annoying with it.

I eventually want to be able to do this tough girl exercise: Bosu Burpee Pushup

Now that looks fun to me!

What’s YOUR least favorite exercise? Anybody with me on the pushups? Want to try the challenge.

What’s your favorite meal from a jar? Nutella doesn’t count.

How are your 2012 Resolutions coming? I ran 216 miles in January! Well on my way to my impulsive goal of 2012 miles for the year!

Parfaits: Vanilla Greek yogurt + blackberries & strawberries + granola.

I’ve been working on developing my spiritual gift of remembering family members’ food preferences and remembered that my mother-in-law is a big fan of sweet potato fries. I decided to experiment a little and came up with a nice skillet of fried breakfast sweet potatoes! I added cumin and red onion to make them nice & savory (so Kevin would eat them!). The eggs were baked in a ramekin with basil, halved cherry tomatoes, turkey bacon, and parmesan cheese and served with a toasted English muffin.

For dessert, we had leftovers of the best chocolate cake ever!

I know what you’re thinking! Yes, I even made my in-laws get some exercise in! We hiked about 3.5 miles over in Cherry Creek Park. I was actually kind of the one holding the group up!! My left foot had really been bothering me after my multiple poor decisions in breaking in new shoes! It’s feeling better now, but I almost thought Kevin James was going to have to carry me back.

But they got me back for that intense workout…

We all have our nerdy little hobbies. Kevin and especially his dad are apparently big into Lionel train sets.

We decided a train store would be a good place for single girls to meet NERDY available men with lots of disposable income!

I was sorely disappointed that there were hardly any trains chugging around the store!! I just wanted to see them running and doing cool stuff with smoke.

I consoled myself with some celebrity gossip while I waited for them to check out engines and whatnot. I have no clue.

Our next stop was a lot more exciting! We’d heard about the Tattered Covered bookstore from some friends, and it was something I knew my MIL would enjoy – so it was my perfect chance to check it out! Because otherwise we all know that I’d spend the whole weekend either at home or at the gym!

I was in heaven!! I couldn’t figure out what to look at first!

Paper dolls of great authors caught my eye. I had to send the George Orwell section to my old roommate, Megan. Nobody loves Georgie more than Megan! I was more of a fan of the Jane Austen dolls myself.

I couldn’t resist paging through a book about dog tricks! Never gonna happen with Boyd! But when I get my Vizsla… I can only dream of a dog who can jump rope with me!! I love it!

My in-laws live in Winona – the craziest restaurant there is probably Perkins. So we took them out to our favorite Indian place – India’s Restaurant.

They peer pressured me into ordering something different from my usual Chicken Tikka Masla. I went with Naryal Chicken (chicken cooked in a deliciously flavored coconut sauce). Yum! I loved it, but it was definitely way spicier than anything they’d ever given me there. I usually always order “medium” in spiciness. Kevin and his dad both ordered it “hot” to show what real men they are.

For some reason, I neglected to take any pictures on Sunday. I was kinda beat. But we really enjoyed bringing Kevin’s parents to our Young Marrieds Sunday School, and they obviously didn’t leave town without checking out Yogurtini!

What’s your favorite section to browse in a bookstore? Cookbooks, health, fiction, and children’s books. I found an awesome children’s book called Red Sled. I absolutely loved it! I made Kevin look at all the pictures with me.

How spicy do you like it? Mild, Medium, or Hot. I usually go with medium at a restaurant, but I make things pretty spicy at home. My nose is always running.

Where’s your favorite place to take visitors to your city? We’re really not very good at this yet, but if they are from the Midwest they usually enjoy the restaurant selection.

Let me be clear. I did not fail to MAKE cookies — it’s just that, the cookies were a failure.

You see, I really am firm in my belief that “too much of a good thing is a good thing”, and I put way too much marshmallow fluff. I’m sure this is a perfectly good recipe for Hot Cocoa Cookies – if you follow it correctly.

As you can see, that didn’t stop Kevin from scraping them off and eating a few! I decided to give myself a little grace since I was out of flour last night, and I was not in the mood for another flop!

And since I have to do everything I can to prove that I’m good enough for the baby of the family , I decided to think up a super chocolatey recipe for my father-in-law.

And then I remembered Deidre’s famous chocolate cake. She even made it for our wedding! We were emailing it up (like always!), and she sent me the link.

I was really nervous about the bundt cake flipping, but I decided to go for it!

Too Much Chocolate Cake