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This week’s meals

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I’m a day behind but it’s been a busy week – and the weather has been wonderful, so I haven’t wanted to come home and sit in front of another computer. I guess I should get a power cord for my laptop – that way I could sip wine and type on the back deck.

Unlike last week, we didn’t stick to a meal plan per se, but we did cobble meals together or snack on what we had on hand.

Friday: my favorite black bean soup topped with nooch, pickled jalapeños, roasted corn and not shown, a big handful (or two) of leftover tortilla chips from Easter. So good!

Saturday: sorry, no photograph: I made mini pizzas on top of leftover pitas from Easter with pasta sauce and vegan mozz. cheese from TJ’s. The beau made pasta I do believe = fend for yourself kind of night.

Sunday: Tofurky hotdogs with Lay’s wavy chips
Monday: we had a family photoshoot with the beau’s fam but we stuck with our plan of ordering takeout from Moscatiello’s. We had this wonderful pair of customers at the shop who constantly supported us and one year they asked us to participate in a fundraiser for heart health, and we did, and it’s been tradition to help out every year. Taylor loves their eggplant parm. sub, I don’t really care for their Italian food (I think it’s because without cheese it’s pretty bland, ha) so I ordered a make your own mini pizza with fresh basil, mushrooms and spinach… and a side of fries. Sorry no photograph, ate this pretty late at night.

Tuesday: taco pasta! SO SO GOOD! I adapted the recipe from here. You’ll need:

1 package “ground beef” crumbles | half yellow onion | EVOO | taco seasoning | 2 cups stock | 1 jar salsa | 8 oz rotini pasta | we added in about half cup frozen corn | couple tbsp nooch | handful or two of Daiya cheddar cheese

Super easy: saute the onion in a little EVOO until it starts to be translucent. Add the beef crumbles and stir until heated thru (I also added a splash of stock because they seemed dry). Stir in the taco seasoning, we had about a tbsp left over from previous meals. Add the pasta, stock and entire jar of salsa and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer for about 15-20 minutes. It took 18 minutes in our kitchen – taste pasta to know it’s done. Turn off heat, sprinkle in the nooch and stir in the cheese. It was delicious! Top with avocado, cilantro, tomatoes – anything you’d add to a taco! FYI leftovers: were kinda dry in the morning. I added a little extra salsa 🙂

Wednesday: at home Indian dish

Thursday: the beau’s empty the fridge of all veggies stir fry. Adapted from Bosh on FB – it’s called the nice spice rice. We used all of the kale from our Field Goods delivery, corn (can you tell we have SO MUCH frozen corn ha ha), red pepper, asparagus and broccoli. Also a repeat meal in our rotation.

Friday: was suppose to be green bean casserole with BBQ tempeh. Friday morning I went to find the recipe and my server was doing maintenance = I couldn’t access my blog. I was home near lunch and thought I’d try it again… well, I assumed we had green beans because we had an overflow of those as well in the freezer, but we must have eaten them all. No green beans. After grabbing a couple of PBRs and fries at a local dive bar after work with co-workers, I ate chips and salsa when I got home. The beau got Chinese takeout after we enjoyed TNO.

This week we drank: a six pack of tall PBRs, a six pack of Corona Lights, a growler from Rare Form, a bottle of red wine and one and a half bottles of white wine. The beau wants to try this crazy thing called “not drinking throughout the week”… I may or may not partake in that challenge. Ha! Especially on taco Tuesdays!

So there you have it. Not perfect but better than what has happened in our past. The month ends tomorrow, I’m excited to see our numbers and if all this planning has paid off.

Budgeting and Meal Planning

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Occasionally I go through this phase of WE MUST BUDGET! I then set a budget, we stick to it for a while but then stray off because life is good and I know we aren’t breaking the bank. It’s not like we are missing payments, heck I just paid off my student loans, the beau just got rid of his cc debt annnnnnnd we bought a house. Not too shabby. I still have cc debt from that time I was making minimum wage during graduate school and decided living on the edge was the only way to live (totally was at the time) and the beau still has student loans and now we’d like to do some house upgrades, sooooo I’m back into the WE MUST BUDGET phase. Ha! Here’s my process :

Step one: create a budget. So many resources out there online and the nerd in me loves excel spreadsheets. A little modification now that we are married – what’s yours is mine now happening – and we’re all set. I think the word budget scares a lot of people into thinking that they have to be extremely frugal and sit home and do nothing. No. You figure out how much you make, subtract out savings and non-negotiable payments and split up the rest for food, beer and baseball games. Baseball games include both beer and food FYI.

Step two: figure out what you are currently spending on all the categories in your budget. This my friends is the best part (also the scariest). I did this for the month of March and we spent, no judging here, over $500 on alcohol that month. This included our weekly Friday beer and pretzels, a Green Day show (2 beers were $25!), and random ass trips to the liquor store. Insert jaw drop! Groceries came in just over $530 for the month and dining out, which there’s bound to be a drink mixed in there somewhere, $390. That’s $1422 in food aka fuel for a MONTH! I’m sharing these numbers for accountability; I’m determined to get those numbers down and have more spending cash (and savings too!). We had other categories that were out of whack but I’m in a wedding this summer and the beau bought a car, so I see those evening out.

Step three: figure out a game plan. I instantly turned to meal planning. If we have a plan, we tend to stick to it. Our refrigerator isn’t magnetic = we had to ditch the dry erase board, so I’m back to good old pen and paper with washi tape. Did you know that each month the USDA releases a chart with the average cost of food plans? You can check out February’s here. I’m using this as an inspiration: I’d love to spend $760 or less – that’s more than half than our current spending and a ton of money that could be invested.

Even though I’m starting this mid-April, I’m determined to drastically reduce our mindless spending. First up: the alcohol. Instead of drinking at the bar every Friday, we are going to fill up our growler. Instead of making random trips to the liquor store, we are going to take advantage of a wine club and have a certain amount shipped to us each month. It’s discounted and if we drink it, we drink it. If we don’t, it’ll help fill out our wine rack in the basement. It’s not a fixed expense, so we can stop it at any point. I’m aiming to cut our previous spending in half and spend no more than $250 on alcohol from here on out.

Food. We sure do love to eat and when we don’t feel like cooking (or don’t know what to cook), we tend to order Chinese takeout. And I can state with confidence that my hips don’t need anymore dumplings! I came up with a meal plan for the remainder of the month, starting today. Only Fridays are “locked in” with meals, as I plan to use the crockpot. I chose to do this for the simple fact that on Fridays I don’t feel like cooking – as my mother would say on Friday nights when asked what was for dinner, SKIP. A great way to enjoy a cheap, healthy meal with little to no work. And for clarification, I’ve only planned out our dinners. Both of us are really good about packing a lunch / the beau eats at home and both of us eat prior to leaving the house in the morning.

We have all but two ingredients (crispy onions + pizza dough) on hand to make the following meals:

Friday crockpot meals for the remainder of the month:
– tonight: veggie chili
– black bean soup
– BBQ tempeh with green bean casserole

To prep to keep on hand / freeze for quick meals: southwest quinoa burgers (makes ten)

Anytime meals in no particular order:
– taco salad with soy chorizo
– one pan Spanish rice
– portobello tacos!
– one pan Indian dish
– nachos!
– Shepard’s pie
– pizza or calzones
– frozen burritos
– breakfast for dinner! (pancakes, soy sausage, hash browns)
– the beau’s empty-the-fridge peanut wok meal

Note: there are only 13 meals planned with 17 days remaining this month. I tried to be realistic with how much we’ll want to eat out – like our friend is celebrating one year as a #girlboss so we may go out while downtown. Maybe we’ll skip a drink to save cash, maybe we won’t. We also grabbed some pasta and frozen meals at Trader Joe’s to help us avoid Lee Lin. As we cook our way throughout the month, I’ll try to share more recipes, like the one pot Spanish rice, and post photographs a la IG. Oh! And in case you were wondering, since I’m being open and accountable, our total spending last night on groceries was: $180.16 which did include a six-pack. I’m sure we’ll be back at the market for more fresh veggies and last minute items, but so far, we’re well below our numbers last month. Phew!

Back with an update on numbers in May!

This for That: Veggie Stock

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Oh hey, it’s April and I turned 30 in January, holler!

I’ve probably got at least eight unpublished posts sitting in my drafts folder, three of which probably start by acknowledging that little tidbit of information. The number really means nothing to me but the day was special and I have a couple of great photographs to remember it by. In true Jona fashion, I made a list of hopes and goals for my new year; those too were never published due to my lack of motivation to log on and share. So here we are today. Was that the most random start to a post or what?

Okay, one of my goals for the new year is to start making healthier life swaps. You know, do this and not buy that. Examples that fall into this category:

  • learn to bake my own sourdough
  • brew my own kombucha (I know how to do this and have done it in the past, I just need to teach myself to stick with it)
  • make my own almond milk
  • learn to pickle veggies
  • make my own veggie stock

All seem simple enough, right? I think they are, they just require more time to learn and master (and become a habit) and then once that happens, they’ll all become something that I can pass on to my future kids. That’s scary – I turned 30 and I’m all of a sudden thinking about what life stuff I’m going to pass on one day. But I do want the majority of those things to be resourceful, healthy and based around the kitchen. Skipping to the bottom of the list and starting with the easiest: MAKE MY OWN VEGGIE STOCK.

I have to admit, I haven’t purchased a can/carton of stock or broth in probably a year. And that’s because my mom keeps our fridge stocked with… stock! So why may you ask did I want to learn how to do this/create the habit of making my own? Well, for a couple of reasons.

  1. It’s free! And stock is expensive if purchased at the market!
  2. To recycle some of my waste.
  3. It’s healthier! Not that I worry about my sodium and healthy fat intake but I don’t add salt to my stock AND more stock in the fridge = less oil I cook with. Steaming is my go-to when cooking veggies and requires no EVOO.

Here we go!

Step one: save your veggie scraps. I pop everything into a tupperware container (you could use a freezer bag) and store it in the freezer. My favorites: shiitake mushroom steps, broccoli stems, the butts of onions, carrots, squash… basically any leftover veggie gets incorporated.

Step two: once the container is full, plop the contents into a big soup pot. I always add two cloves of crushed garlic, 1-2 bay leaves, and some peppercorns. Herbs would be great too – I freeze any leftover stems with the rest of the goods, so I always skip the herb step.

IMG_1472Step three: Fill the pot with water and boil for at least an hour. My last batch got super dark (flavorful) quickly, so I actually made two batches from the same set of veggie scraps; I also have a small soup pot. Basically the darker the stock, the better!

IMG_1473Step four: strain out the veggie scraps and store in an air-tight container. (Photograph shows only the first boil – the second batch fills an entire kombucha growler.)

It’s that easy and if you’re constantly eating your veggies and keeping any scraps in the freezer, you’ll always have a supply of stock on hand. Perfect for homemade soups, tofu/veggie scrambles and flavoring grains.

 

The Oola Fitness Challenge

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Probably about six months ago I started following Oola via social media and after seeing some of their posts that I thought were inspirational, I finally checked out their website/blog. I had completely forgotten about signing up for their New Year #oolafitnesschallenge and then when the emails started appearing, I kind of panicked because I wanted to participate but honestly hadn’t thought about my goals for the new year. I typically do this on my birthday, because realistically, that’s the start of a new year for me.

Here I am on the seventh day of their challenge and I’m finally starting – but in my defense, I had been thinking about my fitness goal since the initial email on the first of January. This year I’m finding it difficult to put my fitness goals down on paper. Yes, I want to stay consistent with my running and yes, I want to become faster and stronger like every other runner, but I also want to focus on why I want to be those things and why I love the sport so much. I want to remind myself that even if I don’t progress this year, that’s okay; my performance may not reflect my happiness. (Doesn’t mean I’m not going to put in the effort to reach those things.)

The fitness goal that I am creating for myself in coordination of this #oolafitnesschallenge is to help three people cross a finish line in 2016.

I am not a professional runner, I know this. And I know that I don’t know how to write training plans, that’s why I’ve hired a coach in the past, am constantly Googling and asking questions of friends who do kick ass at running. But I do know the basics and most importantly, I know how to have fun. I’ve had so so many people help me cross a finish line that I think it’s about time I give back and share the running love.

This form of help may come in many different ways: standing on a sideline cheering someone on with big, obnoxious signs. Early morning training runs or speed work in the rain. Running every step of 26.2 miles with someone and reminding them that yes, we are going to finish! Giving words of encouragement over tea when making the initial decision to lace up. Crossing the finish line is a feeling like no other and I want to be a part of it because happiness is a contagious feeling… and one can never have too much of that in their life.

I’ve got a few ideas running through my mind (no pun intended) and already a couple of friends have reached out to me with their fitness goals for the new year, but no plans are set into motion just yet. Its going to be an exciting year and I can’t wait to see how this all unfolds.

 

My Goals for MHRM

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Well, the weeks have gone by (quite quickly) and I’ve shared reviews of how my training went and I figured it was about time to discuss my goal for this marathon. Ready for it?

To cross the finish line!

These past two weeks have been extremely hard for me both mentally and physically while tapering. I’m of course running fewer miles to give my body a period of rest but I’m also still fighting off this hip/hamstring/calf problem. I don’t dare call it an injury because I don’t think it is one and don’t want to jinx myself. I’ve been receiving physical therapy twice a week with an AMAZING therapist and his positive outlook has me repeating positive affirmations internally throughout the day. But in reality, running still hurts.

Last week I also pulled a neck/back muscle while in New Hampshire; a recap of that trip to come soon. That only seems to happen to me once a year and when it does, it’s bad. It feels impossible to go about your daily life and for five days I pretty useless. I did try running once and while I had relief during the run, things just tightened up immediately following the stop of my watch. Holding my water bottle during my last ten miler on Sunday didn’t feel good and now I’m left questioning my hydration choices for race day: I’d like to be as comfortable as possible fully knowing the pain I’ll be facing in my right leg/hip.

Of course this is NOT how I wanted to feel the last three weeks of my training cycle but I’m keeping my eyes on that finish line, and golly, do they tear up often when visualizing the end. I cried Tuesday morning on my way out the door when I read a text from my best friend mentioning that she wants to run a couple of miles with me on Sunday. I cried typing that out. The amount of support I have is tremendous and I am thankful for every friend, text, word of encouragement. I’m an emotional girl. Tapering is an emotional time for just about every runner. Thank goodness I am not PMSing!

Back to my goal: to finish. I of course had a time goal this entire summer while training but am trying to push that number out of my head. It’s admittedly VERY hard to do; I’ve been constantly thinking about every possible what-if. I now have to race on the cautious side just in case things get hairy very early in the race, but I’m also reassuring myself that I CAN run through it. I put up with the pain and cramping for the last 12 miles of my 20 miler. And I’ll have company. A teammate and new friend of mine is planning to start the race at my estimated pace- which is what I personally think I can run for 26.2 miles. We’ve ran almost every single long run together and it’s a comforting feeling knowing his goals are similar to mine. There are pace groups that will be running similar paces, which will help keep me motivated to continue moving forward too. Oh, not to mention all of the fellow runners and spectators that will be along the course 🙂

So that’s it. Yesterday I got up to run my last four miles with a group of friends under the moon and stars. It was chilly and perfect. The remainder of my time will be spent reading inspiring quotes and probably bawling my eyes out watching The Spirit of the Marathon (there’s a II now I guess?!). Oh and painting my nails badass black. Any other good reads or films I should cram in before Sunday morning? Weeeeeee! Here I go!