I thought today I’d share a few of the things that have been inspiring to be active lately.

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I’m always amazed with the super long overnight relay races that people do (like RANGAR) and many of my friends and blends have done them.  The whole race is so long that they include 2 vans full of people per team, and part of the race is run at night!  As you read this (Friday and Saturday) the Reach the Beach Relay in happening in Massachusetts.  There is a team of bloggers running, and it includes a fabulous bunch of ladies:  Tina, Monica, Gretchen, Theodora, Anne, Ashley, Sarah, Patricia, Elizabeth, Bridget, Ali, and Melissa!   ALL of these ladies are such an inspiration because I know that not only will they rock out those miles that they are running, but I’m sure they will have a blast doing it.  I can’t wait to read all of the blog posts.  Good luck ladies!!

Side note: Meghann’ of Meals and Miles got proposed to (she said yes!) at the end of one of these relay races in Florida last Winter! You have to check out her posts, Derek (her fiancé) did such a good job putting everything together! (here)

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This weekend, some other good friends of mine are running a 15K! Heather, Jen, and Alicia are running a 15k in upstate New York and I wish I could be there to cheer them on! These three ladies are some of my biggest running supporters and inspirations – not to mention some the most awesome people that I know.  :)

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Remember when I wrote about my friend Ashley who had a bad bike accident last fall? She is back running (and biking, and crossfitting, and yogaing) and is still the amazing and inspiring, goal-setting, Ashley that she was before the accident.  She has run multiple races – including a 50K! – since the accident and is determined to savor each moment.   Nothing but love and inspiration.

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Caitlin of Healthy Tipping Point inspired me with her fitness routines before, and she still does even when she is 9 months pregnant.  She still regularly gets out for a long walk or swim. I am so impressed and inspired by how she makes it a priority to keep as active of a lifestyle as she can at this point in her pregnancy when I’m sure she could make a million excuses not to.

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Other people who you should be following/reading because they are pretty amazing and inspiring people to my fitness in general:

- Mindy of Just a One Girl Revolution
- Cynthia of It All Changes
- Laura of Becoming the Odd Duck
- Carly of Carly Bananas 
- Sarah of Sarah Learns 

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Is there anyone that you would add to my fitness inspiration list??

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!!

2) Yesterday I had a Roseberry smoothie from the co-op.  Here is what was in it: aronia berries (not entirely sure what they are, but they look similar to blueberries), rosemary, strawberries, coconut water, and orange juice.  I never would have thought to put rosemary in a smoothie, but this was SO good.  It was also a deep bright reddish color and looked very pretty.

3) Putting on a garage sale is HARD! Luckily I’m not the one doing the majority of the work, since its taking place at a friend’s house, but still.   It always seems like such a good idea to sell unwanted things to make some money, but the time and energy spent doing all of the little things to prepare for it is the worst. Lets hope that hard work pays off this weekend!

4) Last week, Luigi’s Pizza had a contest on Facebook for someone to come up with a special pizza for the week.  I entered with my favorite pizza ever that no one makes anymore, and they picked my entry! Since they picked my pizza, I got one for free!  So, now I can say I had a pizza named after me.  Oh, and it was delicious.  I may have gone back later in the week to have it for a second time.  I’m not sure how long they are keeping it on the menu, but it is SO good, so you should definitely go try it!  If not, just try their pizza in general.  I hadn’t been there before, but we will definitely be back again to do a full review.  The crust and toppings were all very good!

5) Apparently the weather in Wisconsin has decided it is time for Summer! I don’t know how people in warmer climates (i.e. Texas) run in the heat! I know it probably feels like I was just complaining about it being too cold to run, but I’m now learning that I’d definitely prefer running in slightly chilly temperatures than sunny and warm.  Ooof.

6) A goofy photo of Olive.  Just for good measure.

Full Disclosure: I received this bread from Alexia for free to taste and review. I am not being compensated for this post and these opinions are completely my own.

Remember when I talked about the Alexia Parmesan Lemon waffle fries recently?  Well, when the nice people at Alexia sent me those fries, they also sent me this Ciabatta bread to try!  I love, love, LOVE bread in general, so this was particularly exciting for me to see in the package. Also, I knew that Alexia made different kinds of frozen fries, but I didn’t know they also made bread!

We’ve had these a few times recently, but the most recent time was with the delicious baked salmon that we had a couple of weeks ago.

This bread was super convenient!  It took no time at all to heat it up at the last minute so it was warm when we were ready to eat.  The flavor was really delicious too!  I could definitely taste the rosemary and they tasted very fresh.

The only thing that I didn’t love about them was that they were a little bit too hard for me.  Yes, I realize that ciabatta bread is supposed to have a crispy outside, but these were a bit too hard for me.  However, that is easily remedied by slicing them in half first before buttering and eating them.

Thanks Alexia for another great, convenient, product!

Taste: A-, the flavor is great, but I just wish they weren’t quite as crispy on the outside so they were a bit easier to eat.
Cost: ?  I’m not entirely sure how much they cost in stores, but assuming they are about the same price range as the fries, that wouldn’t be too bad.

Would I buy them again?  I’m not sure.   They were a delicious addition to the meal, but I’m not sure they are something that I need to have all the time.

Has anyone tried these before?
Are you a bread lover like I am?

My weekend is packed full of activity – which is to be expected I suppose when you are celebrating Mother’s Day with two sets of mothers and grandmothers!  Even though there are lots of things going on, I’m determined to savor the little things and not caught up in the drama and frustration that will inevitably be there as well.

• Family Time
• Delicious grilled dinner Saturday night
• Sunshine
• Knitting

What are your plans and cravings for this weekend??!

I don’t go there that often, since bulk supplies last a long time before needing to be restocked, but I really love going there. Although it is just essentially a giant warehouse filled with boxes, the stock changes fairly often and I have fun shopping and looking around at everything.  I especially love going on weeknights when it is much less crazy than during weekends.

Occasionally CostCo inspires my meals.  I really do try to go there with a list so I don’t get out of control buying random things, but some things catch my eye and I just have to have them.  When I was there a few weeks ago they had a great deal on salmon.  I just recently started cooking fish, but I’ve made salmon a few times and I know it is fairly easy, delicious, and healthy.  So, I decided that the salmon would be our dinner that night…and probably leftovers for a few nights to come.  Costco size salmon definitely feeds a few more than 2 people.

After I got home, I started looking for new salmon recipes.  I knew that I wanted something easy and baked, but not really much else.  So I Googled. (Yes, Google is totally a verb)  Of course the internet is filled to the brim with recipes.  This is a generally good thing, it is just often hard to sort through the not-so-great recipes to find the good ones. I decided to go with a recipe I found on AllRecipes.com. You can find it here.

It was really easy to make, and used ingredients that I have on hand most of the time.  In fact, I’m sure someone more creative and confident with cooking than I am could have probably just made up this recipe on the spot.

The salmon turned out really good!  The flaky fish and the crispy herb topping was delicious! Since we had obviously more salmon than we could eat in one sitting, we saved some of it to eat as leftovers.  Meals aren’t always as good re-heated, but we got lucky because this was just as good! The crispy herb crust stayed pretty crispy, even though we just reheated the pieces in the microwave! Salmon success!

Ease: A, it would be pretty hard to mess up the topping, and the salmon just sits in the oven and bakes.  Easy.
Taste: A, really good.  The mix of herbs was delicious, and I loved the crispiness mixed with the fish.

Would I make it again?  Yeah I think so! Hopefully CostCo will have a deal on salmon again soon because that was a great meal AND good leftovers that actually got eaten!

Full Disclosure:  I paid for this meal with my own money and I was in no way reimbursed for this blog post.  The opinions are completely my own.

Ever have a restaurant that you end up going all of the time for family get-togethers?  Well, this one is the one for us.  Both sides of our family often chose Benvenutos when we are going out to eat together.  The northside Madison location is convenient for both of them, so I think that is part of the reason they chose to go there.

Because of its popularity with our families I’ve been there many times over the past few years.  Every time we’ve been there they are never overly crowded and we have great waitstaff and service – even when we are sometimes a group of 10 or more.

A few weeks ago we went there to celebrate some birthdays on my husband’s side of the family.  We went for lunch on a Sunday and the restaurant was not super busy, but there were some happy families filling several of the tables. Our waitress was friendly and bubbly and the service was speedy.

The meal started out with some bread, which was of course delicous.  Their bread is always warm and has a little bit of sweetness to it as well.  It is served with olive oil for dipping. YUM

I got a side salad to start before my meal.  There was nothing particularly special about the salad, but it was a good size, and was definitely made out of fresh, crispy, veggies.

For my entree I had a 10 inch Margherita Pizza which was four cheeses, fresh tomatoes, roasted garlic and fresh basil.  I’m a huge fan of Margherita pizza’s, but this variety was not my favorite.  The “fresh tomatoes” were in a thicker sauce form than I generally like, and the basil was in tiny pieces rather than large pieces of fresh like most others that I’ve had.  The crust was definitely delicious though.  It wasn’t so bad that I didn’t eat it or anything, just different than what I was expecting I guess.

Overall, I didn’t love my meal – but it wasn’t bad, just not my favorite.  I’ve had other things on the menu and I’ve felt the same way about them as well.  That being said, I know many people who love Benvenutos – which is obviously why we keep going for family occasions.  So maybe its just me.

Taste: B, just not really my cup of tea I guess.
Cost: A, my pizza was $9.99 which I don’t think is too bad at all for two full meals worth of locally made pizza.

Would I go there again? Probably.  Even though I don’t love it, I know others do.  Oh, and I do love that bread….so if all else fails, I could just eat that as a meal

Yes, this might be a bit of an obvious realization, but it really just hit me after my Blend 5K run yesterday.  After running 5 miles  last weekend with a surprising amount of ease I didn’t really think 3 would be a big deal.  I sure was wrong about that!

I planned to run my 5K yesterday (Saturday May 5) for a couple of reasons.  Friends were having a Cinco de Mayo party that night so I didn’t want even the possibility of having to run a bit hungover the next day.  Also, the weather predicted for Sunday (today) was rain and storms and there was no way that I was going to run in that.  (and the weatherman was right because it is storming like crazy as I type this!)

So, early afternoon on Saturday I headed out for my 3.1 miles.  The weather was a bit chilly at about 55 degrees, but not so bad once I got going.  I ran a pretty normal out and back loop around my neighborhood.

This 3 miles was not my best run this year in any way.  It started out well enough, but with about a mile down, the humidity crept up on me.  I started feeling hot and slow.  I started to think about the 5 miles that I had run the week before.  Those wet, cold, and gross 5 miles seemed SO easy compared to this!

I kept going.

I saw tweets from friends on my phone, other runners around me, and remembered what I had done the weekend before.  I CAN do this! I have to get home somehow, I might as well keep moving my feet to get there!

I definitely struggled to the end.  Walk/Run intervals were my friend. As long as my feet kept moving, I knew I’d get there.  At this point, it didn’t matter what my time was, I just wanted to make it home and get out of the sweaty humidity.   I ended up finishing in 37:04 – which I know is NOT a bad time at all, it just felt so much worse since I felt so speedy the weekend before!

Things I learned on this run:
- I would 100% rather run in cooler weather rather than warm weather.  Standing outside when it is 40 degrees might be miserable, but it turns out that running in it is much better. Running in warm, sunny, and humid, weather is definitely not my cup of tea.
- Running an actual race is so much different than running on your own.  Even though there wasn’t a ton of crowd support when I ran Crazylegs, there was enough to make a difference in my motivation.  Seeing everyone around you running, people cheering, and wanting to cross that finish line, really makes you forget about how hard you are running.
- I cannot pace myself  very well.  Although I might run 1 mile at a great speedy pace, I burn out fast.  I need to figure out how to fix that.

I’m glad I ran this – especially after how great  I felt after my race last weekend.  It definitely made me realize that not every run will be that great, and pushing myself in warmer weather is definitely harder.  We’ll see what my 5K on June 2nd brings!

Did you do a Blend 5K run this weekend?  How did it go?!
Feel free to leave comments here with your thoughts, or a link to your post!

Full Disclosure: I received these fries from Alexia for free to taste and review. I am not being compensated for this post and these opinions are completely my own.

Remember when I told you about the delicious Alexia Oven Fries that I had with my fish the other night? Well, the nice people at Alexia Foods saw that post and offered to send me some more of their fries to try! I loved the oven fries, so I was super excited to try other varieties.  When I got the box of goodies from them I couldn’t believe how generous they were with what they sent! Not only the one kind that I expressed interest in trying, but also a few others. (I”ll be back to review those too!)  What a great surprise.

The first new variety of Alexia fries that I tried were the Waffle Cut Parmesan Lemon Fries.  I am a huge, huge fan of waffle fries.  I really like my fries to actually taste like they are made of potato, so this variety of fry are my favorite – closely followed by steak fries. Before trying these I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the lemon taste but I thought I’d give them a shot because I definitely liked the rest of the ingredients.

The first time we made these was again as a side dish with fish.  They took about as long to make as the fish did so the timing worked out perfectly!

Once again, I am in love with an Alexia frozen product.  These fries were so, so, good.  They were definitely not strongly flavored, but there was a flavor there and they didn’t taste bland.  As far as the lemon flavor goes, it wasn’t super strong but I did taste a hint of it every now and then.  Really, I wouldn’t say that the Parmesan flavor was super strong either.  As a whole the fries were well seasoned and delicious. Also, just like the other Alexia fries that I’ve had, they actually tasted like real fries!  I’m definitely hooked on this brand – no more lame freezer tasting fries for me!

The only thing that I am sad about is that they are apparently Limited Edition!   Alexia, I sure hope you keep these on your permanent rotation, because they sure are delicious, and I know others agree!

I hope I can find these in a local store because the ones I was sent are long gone, and I’m craving waffle fries!

Taste: A+, absolutely delicious.
Cost: A, they range from $3-4 per bag depending on when/where you buy, but I think they is definitely reasonable for good, quality, delicious, fries.

Would I buy them again? Definitely.  I just hope I can find this particular variety in stores near me!!