Slow Down Saturday and Q-Balls

Happy Saturday everyone!
Its the weekend! Its nice to finally have two days to settle down, prioritize, and spend some time with my boys. My folks are coming to town on Tuesday for a short visit so I need to get our place cleaned up and finish my spring cleaning (that I started about 4 weeks ago...). I've taken a few days off of working out mostly because I am just feel very run down. Today is the last day of my antibiotic (root canal next Friday - yay...) so I hope once that works its way out of my system, I'll start feeling better.

So a goal as of late is to start using everything I have at my disposal before replacing. This means using almost everything in my cupboard and fridge before going to the store and REALLY focusing on only going to the store once every 10 days or so. This has forced my hand at creative ways of preparing food that will be both healthy and edible (especially to the discerning palates of my husband and toddler).
My husband and I have been eating healthier and recently discovered the amazing powers of Quinoa. But really, I only had one recipe and I can only eat so much chicken so I made up this recipe for Quinoa bites - "Q-Balls" (as my husband dubbed them). The troops devoured them so they were a hit. So many people asked me for the recipe that I'm going to start something new and share it on here.

Not the best angle for a picture but these are finished and in the pan

Ingredients

1 Cup water (or chicken stock for extra flavor)

1/2 quinoa

1 large to extra large egg

1/2 Cup Parmasean Cheese

1/2 Cup diced, raw onion

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 oregano

 

Hardware

Saucepan

Large Mixing Bowl

Mini Muffin Pan (Sprayed with olive oil or Pam)

Preheated oven at 350*

 

Directions

1. Prepare the Quinoa by bring the 1 cups of liquid and 1/2 cup of quinoa to a boil in a saucepan and then reduce it to a simmer and cook, covered, until the liquid is absorbed and the quinoa is tender. Cool to room temperature
2. In a separate bowl, mix the onion (keep it raw), cheese, egg, and herbs together. This will be pastey and chunky but this is ok.
3. Add the room temperature quinoa to the mixture. You want this at room temp so you don't prematurely melt the cheese or scramble the egg.
4. Dish your mixture into a lubed mini muffin tin. This will be sticky and will definitely stick to the muffin tin if not sprayed thoroughly. *You can use a muffin liner but not metallic - use paper.
5. Put in the middle rack of the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until slightly golden on top.
6. Remove from the muffin tin (if a little sticky still, run a knife along the side of the muffin tin to release).
7. Let rest for at least 10 minutes before enjoying so they set up a bit.

These are good alone or what I did was make a marinara to dip them in so it was like a little Italian bite of deliciousness. My husband ate 9 of the 12 so I think they were a hit.

Enjoy!!!

Back at it Again

The last 2 weeks have been ups and downs and craziness. My wonderful sister (in-law - we all know how I don't like that phrase) graduated from undergrad on the 5th so that weekend was full of family in town and really good food and making cracks about how she's a big girl now. Follow that with a week of doctor's appointments, dentist appointments, and the never ending goal of potty training the most STUBBORN almost three year old, there was barely time for running or making dinner. Finally, this past weekend was mother's day and so flipping cold I stayed in bed...

So here is a quick run down:

Graduation

It was awesome seeing my husband's family. We did family photos on that Saturday morning around campus (as my husband, his parents, and his sisters all graduated from the same school) and my son cooperated - occasionally. It all culminated in my sis-in-law graduating on Sunday and then a nice big family dinner with aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. At the end of it when we were all saying goodbye, my husband's grandfather - Dido - gave me a hug and thanked my husband and I for having such a beautiful son. <Enter tear trickling down the face here.> He then said "Having a family is the best thing in the world, right?" <Enter several more tears shed in the car on the way home due to the sentiment behind the message and the love I have for that man.>

Potty Training

Yea... We have our good days and bad days. Yesterday was a good day. Today not so much. I will say this though, all those websites you see that say you can potty train your kid in 3 days are a big HOAX! They never took into account my kid...

Health

I need a root canal!! Found that out last Wednesday. I found a great new dentist (and by great I mean PHENOMENAL). The technician who cleaned my teeth and did my x-rays was just who God wanted me to run into at the time. She was sweet and caring and way more empathetic than any other medical professional I have ever encountered. I don't have fear of the dentist. I used to but then a C-Section cured me of that (nothing is worse than that). But this woman... I have never laughed so hard at a dental visit before LOL. Only bummer part of all of it is I need a root canal and got put on an antibiotic that is kicking my butt. One is scheduled for next Friday... woo...

 The sky I was given to accompany my 5k on Mother's Day...

Running

Its going as well as it can right now given my antibiotic and injuries. I did a virtual 5k on Sunday for Mother's Day. I rocked it out of the park... Definitely my fastest 5k time yet. But its now Wednesday and I'm still feeling it. I really need to get better at stretching. Yesterday, I went for my first run with my son in the jogging stroller and totally wasn't prepared for it. I started too fast without realizing that I had to push my 36lbs. kid in a 20lbs. stroller in 75* weather. Well, I made it 18 minutes and then walked the rest. I was tight, didn't fuel well enough during the day (ice cream before a run probably not advisable), and just didn't have control over my own pace. Lesson learned...

My view from the road yesterday... I love corn fields and can't wait till they are planted!

Mother's Day

It was nice. Quiet. My husband made breakfast and dinner and gave me the ability to go for my 5k. We called all the mothers in our lives (grandmothers, great grandmothers, mothers, aunts) and had my son leave voice mails for them. Seriously, I wish I had a recording of them because they were HILARIOUS.

I'm still dealing with some emotional baggage that I can't quite come out and talk about yet. I'm doing a lot of reflection and meditation and really starting to see things for how they are, not just what I'm perceiving. The weather is getting beautiful now so I'm outside a lot more and hanging out with my son is just tons of fun. Except getting him to stop playing outside in which case its an utter disaster.

Have a wonderful day friends!!!!!

Kathy

Spring Time is Here

Hello spring time... Nice of you to join us finally.

However, due to the WONDERFUL and UNPREDICTABLE weather where I am, I think we bypassed spring, straight to summer, and next week we'll make another detour back to winter... Got to love trying to figure out what wardrobe we should be in.
Yesterday was beautiful. I woke up and went for a run in the morning. I'm just running for time right now, not distance. I did 30 straight minutes and went just over 2.6 miles so I'm getting back into the swing of things now. It was so foggy and I got really wet but it was cool and refreshing. Besides, I love being able to say I ran through a cloud.

But not only did I put those miles in, I also went for a 4 mile walk with my beautiful sis-in-law (which really she's just my sister... I've known her longer than my husband (her brother) and the in-law title just gets in the way...) and my son, got mildly sun burnt, and just had a nice day. My son has never hit the pillow as hard as his head hit it last night. A lovely side-effect of nice spring weather. Might hit the park up with him today but its supposed to be hotter and sunnier than yesterday so, we're playing that by ear. I might instead bake some of his favorite cookies with him - its his great, great grandfather's recipe that I got from my husband's grandmother (only the best baker in the world...).
We heard back from the vet. Nothing is wrong with my dog (other than his psychological issues of thinking he's a human in a dog body) so probably after his round of anti-biotics is done and he's fully vaccinated, we'll be up and running together again. Our community also opened a new dog park by the trail we run so I really want to check that out with him. Hopefully, he won't try and eat any of the dogs. It will be nice to have him back. He's a good pace dog to keep me from running to hard too quickly and I don't know how much longer until the weather get hot that we'll be able to run together. He's the only long distance Jack Russel I know...
My legs are feeling a lot better right now. I think a few more weeks of just running slowly, running for a set amount of time and not pace, and listening to my body are in order before I start my training program. But that's a start. I need to build my endurance back up and that's just going to take time. I've also decided to stop weighing myself for the time being. Its just dragging me down. I know I'm eating well and I'm exercising regularly so I just need to trust that.
I am just looking forward to the spring and summer. I got my husband hooked on sitting on our patio at night so yay! No more television!! I am looking forward to walks with my boys (husband, son, and dog) and trips to the park and everything smelling like sunscreen. I'm still definitely a fall and winter person. Watching me swim is like watching a fish try to fly. I'm not a huge fan of hot and I burn like toast left under the broiler too long but I do love the concept and metaphor of spring and summer. New birth, new growth, new adventures.

What are your exciting nice weather plans?

Kathy