Month: October 2015

On Half Marathon Training

LaurenLeave a comment

You know, I really meant to write something more substantial about our half marathon training than the “ran BLANK miles this weekend, went well” statements from my Weekend Things posts.  But seeing as the race is SUNDAY, I guess I’ve found myself in a Now or Never type of situation.  And I’m also feeling kind of nostalgic about the past three months of training, so it turns out now is actually a good time to write it all out.

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Going into this half marathon training business, I really wanted to be all nonchalant about the whole thing.  More to convince my brain that it wasn’t a big deal, than to convince anyone else it wasn’t.  Which means not stressing out about early morning running or obsessing about what I should eat for breakfast before a long run.  And you know what?  It totally worked!  As it turns out, you can’t plan ahead for how a run is going to go — shocking, I know — so I just took it all in stride, pun intended 🙂

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And in the spirit of my theme for 2015, I let go of any expectations for this training.  I ran back to back half marathons in 2010 and 2011 and I felt like my downfall for half #2 was that I kept comparing it to half #1.  What a monumental waste of energy that was!  So this time around, I’m hella slower (HI, 11-minute miles!) and though that was kind of annoying because I’d just attained speed status (for me, at least) for the Bolder Boulder, I just decided it didn’t matter and I didn’t care.  Turns out a no pressure attitude is the best attitude.

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The Grain Bowl of Your Dreams

Lauren5 Comments

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Bon Appétit regularly posts this picture and in what I can only assume is an act of pure cruelty, the link takes you to a recipe for some Turmeric-Tahini dressing and NOT to a recipe for that delectable-looking grain bowl.  Why, Bon Appétit, WHY?  Well last week, I took a closer look at that grain bowl and decided I could probably do it up myself.  And guys, I gotta say, I think I nailed it!

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We made this salad the week before (which, for the record, is phenomenal and will be in regular rotation from now on), so we had leftovers of both the lemon dressing and the tahini that came in really handy for said grain bowl.  Basically, it went like this.

  • Cook wild rice and mix it with a few tablespoons of lemon dressing
  • De-rib and finely chop a head of lacinato kale, then massage with lemon dressing
  • Roast two sweet potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper
  • Pan-fry some slices of halloumi cheese
  •  Assemble bowl with rice, kale, sweet potatoes, cheese, a handful of sunflower seeds, a sprinkle of parsley (though next time I’ll use dill) and a generous drizzle of tahini

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In other news, an alternate title for this post would be: WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME ABOUT HALLOUMI CHEESE?!  It tastes like Muenster, but saltier and non-melting, so you can actually grill/pan-fry slices of it until golden brown.  I mean, it’s also NOT cheap.  But for special occasions, like a Wednesday night, ya know?  Life as we know it has now changed.

So what do you think, Bon Appétit, am I hired? 🙂