What I Ate Wednesday: Insanity Edition

Hey there, blog pals!

So, yesterday at about 5 in the morning I decided on a whim that I would start another round of Insanity today.  As I'm sure is the case with many a 5am snap decision, this may or may not be a good idea.  But, I'm gonna do it, so I guess we'll just see how it works out.  My experience with JCore taught me that I shouldn't promise to blog my experiences every day, as this is extremely unlikely to happen.  But, at the very least I will post all my Fit Test results so I can track my progress on here.  Speaking of, here's how Fit Test 1 went:

The fit test is structured such that you are given 60 seconds for each exercise and the goal is to complete as many reps as you can.

Not too bad for the first day, although I did need to take a break in between the Globe Jumps and Suicide Jumps and then again between the Suicide Jumps and the Push-up Jacks.  I think part of the problem may have been that I ate my Meal 4 about an hour before doing the Fit Test, which was not enough time.  Also, I realize that I live in Hawaii and it's hot here, but I felt like I was extra sweaty when I was done.

But anyway it's Wednesday, and since today is Day 1 of Insanity I figured it would be a good day to do a What I Ate Wednesday post that features the meals I'm choosing from the Insanity Elite Nutrition Guide.  So, here we go:


Meal 1: Proatmeal (oatmeal with fruit and protein powder).

I didn't exactly follow the recipe for this one, only because I had already made a big batch of oatmeal last weekend that I want to finish up before making more.  The main difference was that this had brown sugar in it when it shouldn't have.


Meal 2: Greek yogurt with a diced apple and sliced almonds.

Meal 3: Salad with grilled chicken, cucumber, carrots, farro, pecans, (thawed) frozen peaches, and lemon juice.

This was extra delicious.  I'm not a huge fan of cold salads, so I warmed the chicken, farro, and peaches up in the microwave.  The juice released by the peaches mixed with the lemon juice made a great dressing.


Meal 4: Bean and cheese flatbread with broccoli.

Those of you who are familiar with the nutrition guide may notice that this meal isn't included as one of the Meal 4 choices.  But, for some reason I didn't find ANY of those choices appealing, so I made some substitutions.  To make this meal, I started with the Protein Pizza, then swapped the English muffin for a flatbread and used black beans instead of chicken.  And also left out the marinara sauce, but that's fine.


Meal 5: Scrambled eggs with spinach and feta, whole wheat toast, and strawberries.

This was supposed to be the Dinner Omelette, but I can't make an omelette to save my life.  The scrambled eggs were fine, though, I like having breakfast for dinner :).  I've been blogging instead of eating so now it's cold, but I'm too lazy to re-heat it.  So, cold non-omelette is what I'm having for dinner.


That's it for today!  I'll be back (at the very latest) on Day 14 with my Fit Test 2 results.

Happy birthday, darling :-)

Yesterday at 6:21pm my sweet niece Elizabeth Beatrice was born.  I won't be able to see her until I move from Hawaii in a month and a half, but I'm so happy to welcome her into the world.

Hello, sweet girl :).   We're all so happy that you're here!

Maui No Ka Oi!

I can't believe it's been over a week since I got back from our 3-day weekend on Maui, and I still haven't given you any highlights!  Our trip was so, so much fun, and we loved every minute of it.  It's almost too bad we'll be moving to Missouri so soon, I wish we had time for another visit!  Here's what I learned on my Maui vacation:


1) Maui (weirdly) looks like Ireland/upstate New York....

2) ....except for when it looks like Mars.

3) With appropriate signage, even Porta-Potties can sound fancy:

They are no better on the inside, though, let me tell you.


4) Goats are fun times.

5) If I didn't have to go do this whole PhD thing, I would seriously consider moving to Lahaina.

6) Lavender-flavored baked goods are delicious.

7) You are never too old for these kinds of shenanigans:

8) Cinnamon roll french toast exists, and it is the bomb.

Maui was seriously great, and the pictures really don't do it justice.  My parents will be spending a few days there when the come to visit in July, I hope I can convince them to bring me back some goat cheese!

The ABCs of Sarah

Hello, friends!  I first saw this survey over at Pain Free Kitchen, and I thought it would be fun to do.  Here we go!

 
Addictions:  Right now it's Dark Chocolate Truffle coffee from Target, watching Lost on Netflix (I've never seen it before, so I don't even know what's going to happen!  It's so crazy!), giving my pal Maureen complete play-by-play recounts of every episode of Lost I see, Green & Black's 85% dark chocolate, and 'Madness' by Muse.

Source

Bed size:  Full, maybe?  I don't really know, the bed was here when we moved in.

Chore you hate:  Cleaning the shower.  I don't really like vacuuming, either.

Dogs or cats:  Well, I really like cats, but I'm allergic so I can't have any.  So dogs, I guess.

Essential start of your day:  Breakfast!  Recently I've been making breakfast sandwiches and burritos over the weekend (using these recipes) and freezing them so I can just grab them on my way out the door, and this has been working pretty well.

Favorite color:  Hmm...I'll say orange.  But I pretty much like every color.  Except for mustard yellow, and the combination of black and white.

Gold or silver:  Gold, 100%.  It just looks way better on me.

Height:  5'6".  A guy once mentioned that this was pretty tall for a girl.  But then when I said thank you, he said, "That wasn't a complement."  So, who knows. 

Instrument you play (or have played):  Piano and flute.  I wanted to play the drums in high school, but my mom said no :-/.

Job titles you've had:  Baby sitter, Sales Associate (at FYE), Undergraduate Teaching Assistant, regular Teaching Assistant, Teacher's Aide, Front Desk/Breakfast Attendant (at Harding House Bed and Breakfast), Product Tester (at Dymo-Mimio Interactive Teaching Technologies), and ORISE Graduate Fellow.

Kids:  None yet.  Gimme a couple of years.

Live:  Kailua, Hawaii.  Only for like 2.5 more months, though!  I'm making a list of all the stuff I want to do before we leave, and I'll try to fit at least one thing in for every weekend we have left.  This weekend might involve mini-golfing here.


Mom's name:  Catherine

Nickname:  My nickname in middle/high school was kind of Sunny, but no one really called me that on any sort of regular basis. 

Overnight hospital stays:  Just one, when I was only a few days old.  I had an infection or something.

Pet peeves:  Oh my goodness, I hate it when people walk behind my car while I'm trying to back out of a parking space!  Also when people leave crumbs in the butter, peanut butter in the jelly jar, etc.

Quote from a movie:  "You're a handsome devil; what's your name?"

Source

Right or left handed:  Rightie.

Siblings:  Just my big bro, Jordan :).

Time you wake up:  Currently I've been waking up at 5am Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to work out, 5:45am on Tuesdays and Thursdays (although generally I snooze until 6), and whenever I feel like it on the weekends, although it's usually no later than about 8:30am.

Underwear:  The more brightly colored, the better.

Vegetables you dislike:  Hmm...it's kind of a cliche, but I'm not a huge fan of lima beans.  Or water chestnuts.  Or seaweed, if that counts as a vegetable.

What makes you run late:  Hitting the snooze and generally moving slowly in the morning.  Also the fact that Kevin now gets up around the same time that as I do and immediately turns on the Daily Show (which totally comes on at 6am because we live in Hawaii!).  Every day I tell myself I can't stop and watch, but I always do.

X-rays you've had done:  I had an x-ray of my knee once.  I don't think it showed anything unusual, though.

Yummy food you make:  I think it's pretty apparent that I make all of the yummy food.  ;-)

Zoo animals:  Peacocks!  And Golden Lion Tamarins.

Okay, that's it!  Now you know all about me.  Have a good weekend!

Mini Souffle Pancakes with Cinnamon-Vanilla Maple Syrup

Last Sunday was awesome for two reasons.  First, it was Cinco De Mayo (and who doesn't love Cinco De Mayo?  No one, that's who.).  Second, it was my sweet boyfriend's 25th birthday!  Last year for his birthday I made him some Mexican Lasagna, but since we don't have an oven this year my options were a little more limited.  I eventually decided to just skip the Mexican theme, and started his day off with some of these delicious pancakes:

I found the recipe in Shape magazine.  The original recipe included a blood orange maple syrup, but blood oranges were the one ingredient I didn't have and I didn't feel like trying to locate one (is it even blood orange season right now?), so I decided to just wing it in the syrup department (read: I made something up).


Mini Souffle Pancakes
From Shape magazine
Makes 12 mini pancakes.  The original recipe says it serves 4, but Kevin and I had no problem eating half a batch each.

Ingredients
3/4 cup flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 egg
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
3 tbsp soy or almond milk (I used regular milk)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg white


In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  In a larger bowl, whisk egg, then add in Greek yogurt, milk, vegetable oil, maple syrup, and vanilla.  Fold flour mixture into yogurt mixture until just combined and set aside.

In a deep bowl, whisk the egg white until it holds soft peaks (the original recipe says to use a balloon whisk, but I used an electric hand mixer).  Gently fold the whipped egg whites into the batter, making sure not to overmix.

Lightly oil a non-stick pan.  You can use a spray to do this, but I like to pour a little vegetable oil on a paper towel and use it to lightly rub the surface of the pan.  Then, spoon about 2 tbsp of batter per pancake into the pan and spread into 3-inch rounds.  Cook for about 2 minutes or until a few bubbles form on the pancake tops.  Flip and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more.  Repeat with remaining batter to make 12 pancakes.

Kevin's pancakes got chocolate chips!  Also there are too many bubbles on top of those pancakes on the left, and I should have flipped them sooner.

The cinnamon-vanilla maple syrup sounds fancier than it actually is.  I poured an unspecified amount of maple syrup into a microwave-safe cup (maybe like a cup), added an unspecified amount of cinnamon and an equally unspecified amount of vanilla (if I had to guesstimate I'd say probably like a teaspoon of each), and stuck in in the microwave for about 45 seconds.  Then it went on my pancakes!

These pancakes were pretty good.  The one thing I will say is that they didn't have a ton of flavor by themselves, probably because they were designed to go with the blood orange syrup.  If I were to make them again I might add some cinnamon to the batter, and maybe a little more maple syrup as well.  Kevin's pancakes actually turned out a little better, partially because the chocolate chips gave extra flavor, and partially because they came out fluffier than mine did (probably because I waited too long to flip mine).  That was fine, though, it was his birthday so I was happy he had the extra-yummy pancakes!  :-)

JCore Final Fit Test and Recap

Sooo....I finished JCore like 2 and a half months ago.  Anyone with a real burning desire to know the outcome of my final fit test would likely have died of the suspense by now.  Luckily for everyone, however, probably no one like that existed.  So, great!  Anyway, here's how I did:

All in all, not bad.  It's definitely nice to see that I improved pretty consistently over the 40 days of this program.

Here are some other things I learned from doing JCore:

• I am so uninterested in fat-free dairy.  I am seriously done with fat-free dairy.  For real.
• I don't need to eat a minimum 1750 calories to feel full.  I also don't need to eat every 2.5 hours either - provided that I'm eating more of the right things, i.e. protein and vegetables.
• I can cut most added sugars from my diet on most days and be fine.
• I greatly prefer whole eggs to egg whites - although egg whites are useful to have around for some recipes, like Oatmeal Protein Pancakes.
• Conundrum -  it is much easier for me to get 100% DV of iron when I'm eating bread, but much harder to stay within my calorie budget.
• Knowing my workout will only be 20 minutes start to finish makes it so much easier to just get up and do it.

Overall, I thought JCore was a good program.  I appreciated that the workouts were short, didn't need equipment, and could be done in a small amount of space, and that the nutrition program was easy to follow and stick to.  I'll likely go through another 40 days of JCore some time in the future, but for now I'm doing the Basic program from You Are Your Own Gym (along with Boot Camp and TRX).  My Boot Camp class will last 6 week and You Are Your Own Gym is a 10-week program, and after that I might do another round of Insanity.  Maybe.  I'm also really interested in doing Jillian Michael's Body Revolution program sometime soon, and trying out CrossFit, and maybe even getting Hip Hop Abs now that it's so cheap (it's like 20 bucks now, and also I love Shaun T), but 3 workout programs at a time is probably enough for now :P.

Dal Makhani and Homemade Flatbread

Can we talk about how I'm the boss at dinner?  Just for a second?  Okay, great.

I had never made lentils before, but I decided I was going to so I bought a bag from the grocery store.  And then the bag sat on the shelf for days and weeks and months, getting pushed farther and farther towards the (shadowy, uncharted) back of the pantry until I had forgotten all about their existence and my desire to eat them.

And then I found a recipe.

A recipe for dal makhani, specifically, from Can You Stay For Dinner (which, btw, I am completely obsessed with at the moment).  I remembered the poor, untouched bag of lentils sitting in my pantry and I recalled a recipe for 2-ingredient flatbread that I had been wanting to try.  It was like fate.  Or coincidence.  One of those two things.  Anyway, here's how you do it:

Dal Makhani
Adapted from Can You Stay For Dinner
Makes like 3 or 4 cups, maybe?  I don't really know, I'm sorry.

Ingredients:
1 cup dried lentils
15 oz can tomato puree
1 T grated ginger (I use the kind that come in a squeeze tube in the fresh herb section of the grocery store)
1 t minced garlic (I use the jarred kind, but it's about 2 cloves of real garlic)
2 T butter
cayenne pepper to taste
plain yogurt to taste (the original recipe calls for cream but I didn't have any, nor was I interested in buying some just for the 3 T needed)
 
Measure and rinse your lentils, then put them in a pot and cover them with a few inches of water.  Bring the pot to a boil, then let the lentils simmer on medium heat for 20 minutes or so until they are softened.

Once the lentils have finished cooking, drain the water then return the lentils to the pot.  Add the tomato puree, ginger, garlic, butter, and cayenne pepper.

The garlic is totally in there, it's just under the cayenne pepper.

Here's the part where I realized I should have read the recipe more carefully before I started cooking:  at this point, the lentils need to simmer, covered and on low, for another hour.  So, dinner was a little later than originally anticipated, but it gave me time to finish up the flatbread.  Speaking of which:

Two-Ingredient Flatbread
From The Little Things
Makes 4 pieces

Ingredients:
1 1/3 c self-rising flour
5 oz yogurt (I used Greek yogurt)
salt (technically this is a third ingredient, but whatever)

First I should start by saying that I don't actually own self-rising flour.  But, I do own regular flour, baking powder, and salt, so I made my own.  Following this technique, I combined 1 1/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour, 1 1/2 t baking powder, and 1/2 t Kosher salt.

It should be noted that the original recipe is to make 1 cup of self-rising flour and I didn't do any actual math to adjust it up to 1 1/3 cups, I just approximated.

To the dry ingredient(s), add 5 oz yogurt (I measured with my kitchen scale) and mix to form a ball of dough.  I didn't add any additional salt at this point, but I probably should have and I will next time.

Divide the dough into 4 pieces, and roll out each piece to about 1/4 inch thickness (this of course is another approximation; I just rolled it out until it looked right).

This is what we call 'making do with what we have.'

Then, place one piece of dough at at time on a hot grill pan for about 2-3 minutes each side, until they are a little puffed and have nice grill marks.  You may suspect that a grill pan is on the list of things I don't have in my kitchen, and you would be correct.  But, I do have a George Foreman:

It totally worked, too.

Eventually the lentils will be done cooking, and when that time comes stir in enough yogurt to get to a color you like.

The verdict?

This was delicious.  I've honestly never heard Kevin say, "Mmmm!" that many times for anything else I've ever made him.  The flavors of garlic and ginger were such a great combination, and the flatbread on the side was perfect, especially with a little butter on top.  I'll definitely be making this one again.