Deva by Definition

Top 5: Foods While Half Marathon Training

2012-01-27T23:37:00-05:00

All of the running involved in my half marathon training is making me hungry. On days I run, I often find myself looking to eat the contents of my refrigerator, and this has meant some higher grocery bills in an effort to satisfy my hungry runner's appetite. If you looked in my refrigerator and pantry right now, you would see a variety of foods intended to keep us both happy and full. Some of my favorite snacky foods are ones that are high protein, but I'm enjoying my cookies, granola bars and chocolate as well. That being said, here are my top five foods (and drinks) for keeping post-run hunger at bay.

1. Greek yogurt. I love Greek yogurt, especially Fage 2%. It's creamy, thick, and high in protein, and is delicious mixed with some cacao nibs, honey, and shredded wheat. I like to keep this on hand for breakfast, snacks, or as part of lunch. The combination of fat and protein definitely help keep me full and it's versatility (I love using it like sour cream), keeps me from getting bored!

2. Cottage Cheese. I tend to be hit-or-miss on cottage cheese. When I want it, I really want it, and when I don't, I really don't. Lately, I've been on a big cottage cheese, especially as a snack. I buy the lowfat kind and enjoy some whenever I feel like some cottage cheese. I like it plain, but I've also used it combined with or in place of ricotta in lasagna and stuffed shells!

3. Almonds. I used to keep almonds or walnuts on hand all the time, and stopped. I don't know why I did, because almonds are one of my favorite snacks whether I am training or not. One ounce is really portable, and a small handful holds me over when I get hungry between breakfast and lunch.

4. Mini Pretzels. I love pretzels. They're salty, crunchy, and fun to dip into melted cheese, peanut butter, and hummus. On days that I want something salty, pretzels are my first choice. Tortilla chips are my second. I love them!

5. Gatorade. I know it's not necessary, but as someone who sweats a lot while running, I find that having regular Gatorade or G2 available - especially while training - is essential. It helps to keep me hydrated, and I can definitely tell a difference after runs when I don't have some Gatorade, compared to when I do. My beverage of choice is water, but after a long or a particularly grueling run, I reach for Gatorade.

While I know the list is a little dairy-heavy, that's what I've been reaching for most since starting to train. Greek yogurt and cottage cheese help keep me satisfied after a run, without making me feel weighed down or sluggish. I reach for the others less often, but still frequently enough to include them on our weekly grocery list, where they weren't before.

What are some of your favorite snacks to help with post-workout hunger?

Cooking from Everyday Food

2012-01-26T23:29:36-05:00

My mom recently got us a subscription to Everyday Food Magazine. I love it because it's basically like a small cookbook in my mailbox every month. In fact, my favorite cookbook is an Everyday Food compilation, and I'd say we use it more often than any of our other cookbooks. The pages throughout my cookbook are spattered from cooking, and the book often falls open to our most-frequently-made dishes.

Our first issue of Everyday Food arrived not too long ago, and after I eagerly read through it, I bookmarked a few recipes for us to try. The most recent issue is filled with a plethora of lighter recipes, which I am finding perfect for after-the-holidays (and going into Valentine's Day!). The recipes that stood out to me were a Chicken Tortilla Soup, Braised Chicken Thighs, and a few recipes for desserts!

The Boy and I decided last week that we wanted to try one of the bookmarked recipes, and settled on this one: Braised Chicken Thighs with Winter Vegetables. The recipe looked fairly easy, and even though the cooking time was a bit longer than I'd prefer, it sounded like a good and filling one-pot meal.

When we went grocery shopping, we were able to find all but one of the ingredients: the savoy cabbage. We made the decision to make the recipe without, rather than change plans. Because of the amount of time needed to put this meal together, we made it for Sunday dinner, after I got back from a seven-mile run.

The recipe was easy enough to follow, and I was lucky to have an oven-proof skillet. There was a lot of sautéing and taking the pan in and out of the oven, but overall, I found the recipe to be more hands-off than anything else. While the chicken was braising in the oven, the house smelled incredible: like bacon and chicken, onions and carrots, mustard and garlic. We couldn't wait to dig in once the pan was out of the oven and on the table.

My first bites were incredible: the chicken was tender and flavorful, with a hint of the Dijon mustard used in the braising liquid. The potatoes and carrots were perfectly cooked - soft, without being mushy. Neither The Boy or I liked the apples - they seemed to absorb a lot of the Dijon flavor, to the point of being overwhelmingly mustardy, but everything else was lightly flavored. The bacon added a rich, almost smoky quality to the chicken and vegetables, and was a nice compliment to the chicken. I would absolutely make this recipe again.

Have you made any fun recipes lately?

Late to the Party

2012-01-25T08:59:16-05:00

Have you ever had the feeling that you were late in realizing something, or just late getting somewhere? What about feeling like you were late to the party? Well, that’s how I’ve felt as I’ve discovered a few new apps, books, and sites around the internet. Like I was late in finding them – and now I’m wondering how I lived without them! Here are just a few of the fun things I’ve been enjoying lately!

Zite. From its description, Zite is a personalized magazine for your iPhone or TouchPad. Zite works by taking a look at what you Tweet about, as well as blogs in your Google Reader, and along with your own selections regarding topics that interests you, pulls together a great magazine for you to read while on-the-go. The articles in my Zite run the gamut from the NYTimes, to department of health releases, to blogs, graphs, and beyond. The fun part: the more you use Zite, the more it gets to know you, and the more personalized your articles become. If you follow me on Twitter, you've probably noticed me Tweeting articles that I've found through Zite - and those articles are also ones I "like" in Zite, helping the app find similar articles for future "editions." Zite updates hourly, so you'll have an ever-changing list of articles, right at your fingertips.

The Hunger Games. I've been hearing about The Hunger Games trilogy all over blogs and in real life for several months now, but didn't pick it up and read it until after I saw the movie trailer at the end of December. The length of time it took me to pick up the first book and read it surprised almost everyone I know, because The Hunger Games trilogy falls within the realm of books I like to read: it has a sci-fi/fantasy element, lots of suspense, and definitely kept me turning the page. I was impressed when I finished the first book, and immediately ordered books two and three on Amazon. It took me 12 hours to read the entire trilogy, and the author definitely left me wanting more at the end.

Pinterest. Surprisingly, I was an early adopter of Pinterest, but when I first got access to it, I had trouble understanding the point of it. Was I just supposed to pin stuff to boards? What was the purpose? It wasn’t until recently where I sat down and really explored Pinterest that I started to get the hang of it. I've found recipes, crafts, and fun photographs by simply exploring the "recently pinned" section of Pinterest. I've even had a few of my own pins "repinned" by others - mostly recipes, but yummy ones for sure! Now that I "get" Pinterest, I'm definitely using it to my advantage - and finding more and more uses for it every day.

Even though some of these things have been around for a while, and I’ve been using one for a few months now, I feel like I’ve just discovered what everyone else already knew – how awesome they are. For now, I am going to keep exploring Zite, eagerly await the Hunger Games movies, and enjoy Pinning!

What about you – what are you into lately?

What else would be making that noise?

2012-01-24T08:00:00-05:00

I was standing in our bathroom, bundled up in pants and a hoodie and had just finished drying my hair when our heat kicked on. Through the ductwork, I could hear this odd scraping and banging noise. My first thought was that something was wrong with our furnace – because what else would be making that noise through the ductwork?

Making my way downstairs, I poked my head into the toasty living room. The Boy had the pocket doors pulled closed and a space heater on, making our living room the warmest room in our house. Leaning in, I asked him what the noise was. He thought it was someone scraping their car of the ice that had accumulated over the weekend, until I told him that I was pretty sure it was coming from the basement.

Curious, we both set off downstairs, where the dryer was running – and scraping and clanging. We immediately turned it off, pulled all of the still-damp clothing out of it, and attempted to work out the issue. While I was grateful it wasn’t our furnace, I was a little taken aback that it was my dryer: all of my socks were in the basket full of still-damp clothing, and we had no clue what was wrong.

The Boy popped the top off of the dryer, exposing the drum. Looking inside the dryer housing offered no clues, and neither did looking inside of the dryer itself. Rotating the drum manually led us to determine that something was scraping the side of the drum, but we couldn’t figure out what – or where it was being scraped. After a half hour of investigating, we decided to let it be for the night, to Google, and to see what we could to do fix it on Monday. I knew I’d have to rewash the clothing that was in our dryer, but I didn’t want to risk further damage trying to repair the dryer without first determining how.

Monday came and The Boy and I spent a good bit of time on Google, searching for solutions. After dinner, The Boy set off downstairs with his laptop and our toolbox to see what he could do to repair it. After an hour passed, he came upstairs, where I was napping, and asked if I wanted to come down to assist – he’d found the problem and needed to put our dryer back together so we could finish our laundry.

I quickly gathered up what I needed to go downstairs to help out, and as I was heading into the basement, I saw just how much the dryer had been disassembled, and just how simple of a machine the dryer actually is. The dryer was completely opened up, with the drum gingerly placed on the mat by the washer. The Boy was double-checking the reassembly before putting everything back together again.

When I asked what the problem was, I was told that a screw had managed to go through the washer, and got stuck between the drum and the side-wall of the dryer, which was what was causing the scraping as the dryer tumbled. Fortunately, we caught the issue before it caused any damage, so all we had to do was remove the screw and put everything back together.

Reassembly was a little more complicated than I thought, but eventually we had the dryer all back together. Finally, we were able to plug it in, and then, it was time for the final test: turning it on. We were both thrilled when it turned on and there was no scraping and no wobbling. It sounded exactly how a dryer is supposed to sound.

I’m eager to finish up the last of my laundry for the week – I need some clean kitchen towels and socks! I’m grateful that the repair was something relatively simple, and not something more involved. Mostly, I’m learning just how much we can do on our own – with the help of Google.

Vlogging the Half Marathon: Week Three

2012-01-23T17:00:00-05:00

Just a few things:

1. I’m a little chatty in this video

2. I really like sleep!