The Tiny Kitchen Assistant said it was spicy (it wasn't), but he had no problem eating the chicken pieces.

I had planned to make enchiladas for dinner, but as I looked at the day’s calendar, it hit me: we were going to be overbooked for the afternoon, and dinner had to be ready as we rolled in the door. It was going to have to be a Crock Pot kind of night, but what was I going to cook?

I looked in the pantry and had a “what if?” moment. It was a gamble, but it worked.

Behold: enchilada soup.

Ingredients

• 4-5 cloves of crushed garlic
• 1 bottle enchilada sauce
• 1 large can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups water
• Chopped fresh cilantro or cilantro puree
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (mine were still frozen)
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can corn, rinsed and drained

Mix the enchilada sauce, tomatoes, water, garlic and cilantro in the slow cooker. Add raw chicken. Set on low and ignore all day.

With 15-30 minutes until serving, remove the chicken and shred with forks. Return to the slow cooker.

Add black beans and corn and heat through.

Garnish with shredded cheese, avocado, sour cream, cilantro, tortilla chips… whatever you have on hand to make it look fancy. I also whipped up a couple of quesadillas to serve on the side, a vaguely Mexican version of the traditional tomato soup and grilled cheese.

Results

The Tiny Kitchen Assistant claimed that it was “too spicy,” but I think that was his general aversion to soup talking (we have an ongoing debate about the difference between “flavor” and “spicy”). I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it tasted fairly similar to the soup that I order at a favorite local restaurant.

An independent, non-family reviewer said, “Yum!! The soup was great. Light and tasty and perfect for a winter night.” Excellent!

Express Meatless or Leftover Chicken Option

You could easily make this with any chicken you have on hand. I could easily imagine an express version, cooked on the stovetop, using shredded leftover rotisserie chicken, or a meatless version that omits the chicken entirely. Just mix all of the ingredients together and heat through.

It appears that I hoard lipsticks.

This was the most entertaining and surprising question that I’ve been asked lately. To the front of the queue with you!

Dear Betty,

I love The Hairpin column, “What’s Actually in Your Handbag Right Now?” So… what’s in there?

- Curious in Columbus

I should probably start by saying that it depends on the season. Ladies, you know as well as I do that you’ll live to the size of your handbag. I carry a much smaller bag in the spring and summer without issue, yet somehow when I switch to my larger winter bag — purchased when the Tiny Kitchen Assistant was a baby and still needed to carry an arsenal of diapers, wipes, snacks and spare clothes every time we left the house — I immediately fill the bag to the brim. I’m not quite sure how or why this happens. I’m also consistently amazed by how much crap can fit into one bag.

If nothing else, I think that this is a purse that says, “I’m prepared for any eventuality.” Either that or, “I never clean out my purse.” Maybe a little of both.

Contents include:

1. The empty pouch that once held my headphones before I left them on a Swiss Air flight from Zurich.
2. The armband for my iPhone, I guess in case I feel an urgent need to run and don’t have time to stop at home?
3. My Road ID. Also handy for an urgent run, although I should just invest in the one that attaches to my shoe.
4. A packet of peanut butter. Usually I carry these in my running bag, so I really don’t know why I have one in my purse.
5. My massive wallet. I’ve had this thing since we lived in our old house, so more than seven years now; the leather is stretched to hold everything. In addition to money and credit cards, it also holds every membership/club card/discount card that I’ve ever been issued. It’s been the best, most durable wallet that I’ve ever owned. A friend gave me a beautiful new wallet for Christmas, but I’ve opted to save that for travel to prevent it from being stretched out and ruined by all of the junk.
6. Prescription sunglasses. Don’t leave home without them.
7. Crayons and a small notebook. Because you never know when a restaurant will lack ways to entertain your kid.
8. Approximately 35 hair elastics (only 3 pictured), which I yank out of my hair immediately after a workout. No wonder I can’t ever find one in my bathroom.
9. A combination lock for the gym. No, I haven’t been to the gym lately. No, I don’t know why I’m carrying it.
10. An orange pen, in case of an editing emergency. Yes, sometimes I do need to edit at a moment’s notice.
11. 11 different lipsticks and lip glosses, because I never remember to put it on before leaving the house. Then again, I don’t remember to put it on when I’m out, either. But thanks to this arsenal of cosmetics, I could!
12. Lactaid. Because there’s nothing worse than finding a great menu option and having to decline because of the cream content.
13. The key to my husband’s Chevy Volt, attached to a Tiffany & Co. leather keychain from a Nike+ half marathon.
14. A bag of quarters in case I need to feed a parking meter.
15. The program from the Tiny Kitchen Assistant’s musical performance last week, in which our last name was spelled wrong.

What’s in your handbag? And if you cleaned it out for a photo shoot like this one, would you be surprised by what you found there?

Lest you think I did nothing this week, I did a fabulous job of helping the boy polish off this Nutella strawberry waffle at the food festival.

The day: Sunday morning, around 7:00 AM.

The scene: Bed.

Me: “I was going to get up early to run, but after the boy woke me the second time, I turned off my alarm.”

The Husband: “Didn’t you get up early yesterday for something exercisey?”

Me: “Umm, yeah.”

The Husband: “Why would you give up sleep to get out of the house early two days in a row?”

Me: “Hi, I’m your wife. We’ve met before, right? Have you not noticed this behavior before?”

The Husband: “I still don’t get it.”

In the past few weeks, nothing has gone according to my training plan. Not even close. So when I miss my workout, for one reason or another, the guilt level has been a little bit high. But in the middle of the night when I shut off my alarm without even the slightest protest from my guilt-addled brain, it was abundantly clear that what I needed more than anything was some extra sleep, even if it only amounted to an extra hour. My body and brain just needed that time, and I shouldn’t go arguing with that.

That’s not to say that I haven’t done anything this week. There was circuit training, Pilates and a really good power walk with a friend. No, that wasn’t exactly the plan, and yes, I did miss a few workouts because of a sick Tiny Kitchen Assistant, but I can’t actually see any practical way that I could have done things differently.

Tomorrow’s entry on the training calendar suggests that I should be running 3-4 miles. It’s a school holiday, so I have two choices: get up early and run before sunrise (son rise?) or work something active into our day’s plan. It doesn’t seem unreasonable that I could merge some hill repeats into a hike up the ridge. Is it the same as a 5k run at race pace? No, but it might be the most practical way to integrate life and a workout.

How have you spent your holiday weekend?

It certainly looks like mac & cheese.

When I saw the Cooking Light recipe for macaroni and cheese with butternut squash, I was intrigued. I’m always looking for ways to make favorite comfort foods a little less heavy and more nutritious, but without sacrificing that special something that makes them comforting to begin with.

I showed the photo to the Tiny Kitchen Assistant, who didn’t catch the whole butternut squash thing. “It looks good, but it needs cheddar. It’s not mac & cheese without cheddar.” Easily fixed, my boy. So behold, the modified recipe that meets the TKA’s exacting specifications.

Ingredients

• 3 cups cubed peeled butternut squash (I pre-cut the night before, and it was about one quart baggie full)
• 1 1/4 cups fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups fat-free milk
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons fat-free Greek yogurt
• 1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) shredded Gruyère cheese
• 1 cup (4 ounces) grated cheddar cheese
• 1 pound elbow macaroni, shells, or whatever your favorite mac pasta may be
• Cooking spray
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) or seasoned Italian breadcrumbs

As strange as it seems, this is the base for the cheese sauce.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine squash, broth, milk and garlic in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer until squash is tender when pierced with a fork, about 20-25 minutes. Remove from heat.

Carefully pour the hot squash mixture in a blender. Add salt, pepper and Greek yogurt. Cover and blend until smooth. Pour squash mixture in a bowl. Stir in Gruyère and cheddar until combined.

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain.

Add pasta to squash mixture, and stir until combined. Spread mixture evenly into a 13 x 9-inch glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray. Top with bread crumbs.

Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until bubbly. Serve immediately.

This, however, does look like a proper cheese sauce.

Results

I love any night where the Tiny Kitchen Assistant says, “Mmmm, something smells delicious!” His official analysis is that it’s “super tasty… and that’s really all I have to say about it. Tasty.”

It takes more than an hour, but if you do some prep work the night before, it can be a weeknight meal.

It can stand alone as a main dish, but would probably be better suited as a side.

FYI, the hyperlinked titles will take you to Amazon.com, while the cover images will send you to Powells.com.

Run Like a Mother

Sure, Sarah Bowen Shea and Dimity McDowell of AnotherMotherRunner.com frame the book in the context of mother runners, but I think it’s an honest, valuable book for anyone who tries to maintain that delicate balance between fitness and work and family and and and….

The sequel, Train Like a Mother is scheduled to be published in March. I’ve already pre-ordered my copy!

Born to Run

I’d stopped running — completely stopped — when I read Born to Run. It was the first running book that gave me my “a-ha!” moment and got me to ditch my overly structured running shoes in favor of something more minimal. (Some would argue that I’ve gone too far in the minimalist, unstructured direction, but the ideas behind the decision are still valid.) It’s a great look at physiological form and function in an isolated society untouched by fitness marketing.

Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes

Look, I hardly lump myself into the category of marathoners and Ironmen, but it seems to me that if I’m really being thoughtful about food as fuel, then I should look to the example of people who need the absolute best in nutritional balance. I’ve read several books about athletic nutrition, but this is the one that seemed to be the best blend of scientific “why” combined with practical suggestions for what kinds of foods to eat.

Brain Training for Runners*

Is it all in my head? Maybe not all of it. But after realizing that I did (or believing that I did) better at Zumba in a mirrorless classroom, I started thinking about how much of my athletic performance is mental. I’m starting to suspect that my brain is holding me back more than my body is. Let’s see if this book can help me change that.

* Still reading this one. Conclusions are yet to be determined.

See what I mean? Long, narrow and with high arches.

Right now, everything that I’m doing running-wise is in the context of my time at the UCSF RunSafe clinic. Last week, I talked about what I’d learned in terms of improving my strength, flexibility and muscular imbalance. Today, we’re going to talk about running shoes, lament the inconsistencies of sizing, and take a look at arch type and pronation.

If you look at my footprint over there on the right, taken as I walked across the room at UCSF, you’ll see that I have a relatively high arch. This should mean that when I run, my foot should naturally roll outward, which would suggest that I would be naturally inclined to under-pronation (this post from Runner’s World gives a decent explanation of pronation types). Instead, I over-pronate and roll my foot inward.

I am, literally, a walking contradiction.

I've spent two years in the most minimal shoe I could find.

For more than two years I’ve been running in the weirdest shoes possible, Saucony Shay XC racing flats. They have no cushioning, zero support and are not the kind of thing that serious distance runners wear. These are the sorts of shoes that normal people would use for a speed workout at the track, but not for a half marathon, yet I wear them for everything from track to trail because they’re cut extremely narrow and are one of the few shoes that I’ve found that actually fit my foot in terms of width. They are not, however, doing my overpronating feet any favors.

Now, while the general rule of thumb is not to fix what isn’t broken, watching myself in slow motion showed me that I really do need a bit more support if I want to avoid injury. My current stride just isn’t sustainable, particularly over long distances.

And so the quest for new shoes began. I started at my local running store, where they’re helpful and knowledgeable, but the fact of the matter is that they seem to equate large feet with a need for massive amounts of cushioning and support. As someone accustomed to running in an ultra-minimal 5 oz shoe, I’m not really interested in migrating to an über-stability 11 oz monster that feels like I’m running with cinderblocks attached to my feet. The modified minimalist shoes that I’m looking for aren’t carried in stock in my size.

Zappos came to my rescue once again. My house may look like a shoe store exploded in my living room, but they have the varieties that I want in the sizes that I need.

The label says narrow. The fit says otherwise.

Asics

I tried a few different models of Asics running shoes, primarily because they’re one of the few brands that are made in narrow widths. Unfortunately, even narrow Asics are still too wide. At my local shoe store, we took a narrow GT-2160 and still had to add in a Superfeet insole to keep my foot from sloshing around. As someone who prefers minimalist structure (or lack thereof), a heavy shoe plus an insole feels as awkward as moon boots.

Mizuno

Mizuno comes in narrow, too. Unfortunately, they were just as wide on me as the Asics had been. Same problems, no resolution.

New Balance

While they may come in narrow — and a slightly more truly narrow than the Asics or Mizuno shoes that I tried — the New Balance length was consistently a full size smaller (or more!) than expected. For some people, this might not be a problem. When you have a big foot, like I do, scaling up a size just isn’t possible because they don’t make them that large. When a New Balance 12 fits like other brands’ 10.5s, I knew that they weren’t the solution for me.

Saucony

Since I was already running in Saucony, my UCSF shoe recommendations were all Saucony styles. While these shoes aren’t made in true narrow widths, they felt less wide than any of the supposedly-narrow Asics or Mizuno shoes that I tried. However, the lengths were inconsistent. I ordered three pairs from Zappos, all the same numerical size: my toe touched the end of the Peregrine trail runners; I had slightly more room, but not much, in the Fastwitch; and the Mirage had a full thumb’s width of space between my toe and the end of the shoe. I’m thoroughly baffled.

Brooks

The Brooks PureProject seemed like my shoe dream come true: an entire collection of minimalist shoes designed with varying degrees of stability. Online reviews showed people talking about how narrow they were. But would they be narrow enough for my feet that are built as long and thin as pencils? I anxiously waited for the UPS truck to arrive (yes, I have gotten many boxes from Zappos lately, Mr. UPS Man; don’t judge me).

The first pair that I tried were the slightly more substantial PureFlow. They weren’t drastically wide, not to short and not too heavy, but they still felt… not right. I was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, there wasn’t a running shoe for me.

The winner!

And then I tried on the PureConnect.

It was like I was sliding my feet into a well-worn pair of slippers. My heel was nestled securely. My toes had room to move, but not so much room that I felt like I was wearing flippers.

Only time will tell if they help to compensate for my overpronation, but for right now, at this brilliant, glorious moment, I’m in love.

I tried on 22 pairs of running shoes to write this review. No, I’m not a compensated endorser for any product. No shoe company has ever heard of me, but I’d sure have a lot to say if anyone wanted to listen. 

The snowflake tree.

I spent the week trying to find time to fit in a run. I planned to go on Monday after my circuit training session, but I couldn’t lift my legs. Then I was going to run before Zumba on Tuesday, but the rain didn’t cooperate. Wednesday was Pilates. Thursday was circuits and Zumba. Friday is always my well-deserved rest day. So when was I going to make time for a run?

But there was no doubt in my mind that no matter what happened during the week, I would run on Saturday for Sherry Arnold. I had no excuse; I don’t live in a cold, snowy and icy part of the world, and Sherry had already been in my thoughts for every workout since I first heard of her disappearance.

When I woke in the wee small hours of Saturday morning with a raging headache (evidently the same headache/virus/germy nasties that manifested themselves in a flu-like Tiny Kitchen Assistant later that same day), it would have been easy to turn off the alarm and just stay snuggled in the bed until someone dragged me out by a limb. Instead I got up, out the door and logged a quick two miles before my Zumba class.

As I passed, I found myself wondering if Sherry liked wine.

My route took me past the iron and stone gate of a winery, and past fields of dormant vines. When I finished, and stood by my car turning off my various tracking devices (Runkeeper, Garmin), I realized that I was standing under a beautiful flowering tree that was shedding white petals like snowflakes. No, it’s not the same as running in Montana, but it seemed surprisingly appropriate.

Tonight, Sherry’s cousin, Beth, reported that Races2Remember, the organization that created the bibs for this virtual run, told her that more than 20,000 bibs had been printed.

Twenty. Thousand.

Try to wrap your brain around that for a moment.

Sherry was a woman from a small town in Montana, yet her story touched so many lives beyond her community, beyond her immediate family and friends. Complete strangers from all over the world all shared in this one moment, one where we stood up to the cowardly a-holes who took her from this world too soon, and one where we will continue to stand together to remember another mother runner.

From Beth:

“Cannot thank you enough for spreading the word, participating and caring about Sherry and her family. Without the power of social media, this would not have happened. The running world rocks.

Today the good guys win by a landslide.”

Shredded and ready for sandwiches.

So here it is, the dead of winter. Your grill is buried under eleventy-seven feet of snow. And more than anything in life, you’re fantasizing about grilled foods. Burgers. Beer can chicken. Pulled pork.

Guess what: I can help you with that last one.

It turns out that you can make pulled pork in your oven. Decent pulled pork. Ok, maybe it doesn’t taste quite the same when you’re not sitting in the backyard with a beer in your hand and the ballgame on the radio, but it’s a start. And it just might give you a glimmer of hope that summer will come.

Marinade time aside, this recipe takes about 3.5 hours from the first moment it hits the oven.

Note: Some people have suggested that true pulled pork should be slathered in BBQ sauce. While I’m all for a saucy, messy sandwich, I cook the pork without. Why? BBQ sauce has a lot of sugar in it, and that sugar can burn when it comes in contact with high heat from a grill or oven. Wait until after the pork is cooked, and toss the meat with the sauce before serving.

Ingredients

• Boston butt or pork shoulder, about 5 lbs total, trimmed of hard fat
• Coffee BBQ dry rub, or meat rub of your choosing
• Liquid smoke
• Yellow mustard
• Water

Covered in seasoning and painted with smoky mustard mix.

Instructions

I like to maximize the surface area of the pork for the most spice-coated flavor, so I cut mine into four chunks, each about the size of a large orange. Coat liberally with spice rub. Allow meat to soak in the spices for at least an hour, but it can rest as long as overnight.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with foil. Spray a cookie rack with nonstick spray, or grease with oil. Set the rack inside the baking sheet.

In a small bowl, mix equal parts of liquid smoke, water and mustard. Arrange the pork on the rack and paint the smoky mustard mix over the pork.

Cover the pork with parchment, then cover the parchment with foil. Seal well. This will keep the heat and moisture trapped inside.

Roast for 1.5 hours. Remove foil and return to oven until the meat is well-browned and reaches an internal temperature of at least 190 degrees, about 30-60 more minutes, depending on your oven and the size of the meat chunks; larger pieces take longer.

Remove the meat from the oven, tent loosely with foil, and allow to rest for 15-20 minutes. Shred the pork into bite-sized pieces and toss with the sauce of your choice.

Serve on buns topped with your favorite cole slaw. Baked beans make a great side dish.

Yeah, it was a hit.

Results

It’s always a good day when the Tiny Kitchen Assistant walks into the house and asks what smells so good.

Time-consuming for an ordinary weeknight, but the leftovers will carry you for days.

He not only wants to eat this the first night, but he asks for it in leftover form for several nights afterward, long after the last shreds are gone. “Are you sure that we don’t have any more of that yummy pork in the fridge? Can you check, please?”

“I can see you creating a chart with scales of ease across the top and some kinds of terms of satisfaction down the axis and putting a rating system in it for how to choose recipes.”

And it was at that moment that I smacked myself on the forehead and wondered why I hadn’t thought of this myself.

I looked into a couple of different methods: bar charts for different factors, nutrition assessments… but pretty soon the at-a-glance chart became a complicated series of factors. I decided to simplify things to their essence and came up with the Betty Barometer.

You’ll soon see this barometer appearing in all of the Betty recipes with a dot in the appropriate spot. In an ideal world, all recipes would have the dot appearing in the upper right quadrant, but let’s face it: sometimes there are more time-consuming recipes that are just better suited for adults and weekends.

Let me know what you think of the new system!

Her: That post about the gait analysis was hilarious. I could just imagine you trying to hide under your chair as they showed the video. I couldn’t stop laughing.

Me: Uh, thanks?

Her: No, really. I like that you really talked about how it made you feel. It was good. But the real question is what did you learn? Was it just humiliations galore, or do you actually have knowledge to share?

Good point. While I may have looked like an extraordinary train wreck on the video, my issues were really pretty common to most runners.

Many runners have a weak core (abs and back) and glutes, combined with tight hamstrings. In my case, I had decent core strength thanks to years of Pilates, but my hamstrings were tight and my glutes and quads were unbalanced, with one side stronger than the other.

Increasing overall strength and flexibility can do a lot for improving running form, particularly later in your run when your body gets tired and form naturally deteriorates.

Core Strength

Start with basic abdominal curls. I prefer Pilates-style curls:

You can include hip bridging:

You can also take it to the next level with the single leg bridge for core, hips and hamstrings:

The analysis also recommends a tripod plank, although it suggests balancing on elbows instead of hands as they show here:

Quads

Isometric wall squats are a great way to start building strength:

Once you build good strength and balance against the wall, you can move on to adding a large stability ball behind your back for added core workout, or you can do a free form squat as if you’re trying to almost-but-not-quite sit in a chair. For those squats, make sure that your back is straight, your weight is on your heels and your knees are not extending out beyond your toes when you bend.

Glutes

Strengthen the glutes (butt muscles) with a basic clam shell exercise:

Single leg squats can increase strength. Doing this advanced maneuver on the Bosu as shown also works the core at the same time:

Hip hikers also increase gluteal strength:

Hamstrings and Hip Flexors

Release your hip flexors with this stretch:

Calf Stretch

All runners need to stretch their calves for flexibility and strength:

In the coming weeks, I’ll talk a little bit about their nutrition recommendations: what to eat in general, how to fuel on long run or race days, and how to refuel afterward.

If you have any specific questions, let me know!