I'm going to run a 5k.
OhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGod.
What the hell do I think I'm doing? I have never in my entire life done anything remotely similar. In highschool, the two P.E. credits that were required nearly sank me. I reluctantly did half a credit each year, going to the Y and working out. In college P.E., when we were supposed to walk and then run and take our pulse, I got out on a technicality. I wrote a research paper on my medical issues (Conversion Disorder with Myoclonic Episodes, aren't you glad you asked?) instead of a semester's worth of exercising.
Yet here I am.
I have bought a "Couch to 5k" app for my phone, and my sister has agreed to run with me. We are going to run a 5k at Oktoberfest. The Husband and I are going to get up at 7am M-F, and MWF I am going to go "run" and he will look after the kids. TR (that's Tuesday-Thursday) I am going to cook breakfast for him. The Husband's dearest wish in this world is hot biscuits and bacon for breakfast, and we have never really embraced a lifestyle that required us to get up early enough to cook breakfast on a workday. So everybody wins.
O. M. G.
This appears to be happening.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Friday, July 19, 2013
Green Eggs and ... Oatmeal?
Pro tip: you can hide a cube of frozen spinach in a large bowl of oatmeal and it will be practically indiscernible (other than the fact that your oatmeal is now green). It probably helps that, having been pulverized in the blender, there are no bits that get stuck in your teeth.
I don't know about you, but any day I can get in some dark green leafy vegetable without really noticing is a win in my book. It is something of a joke (ha ha, it is to laugh ...) in my husband's family that I do not eat green vegetables. This is untrue. I will happily eat my weight in green bell peppers, cucumbers, and spinach-mixed-with-any-kind-of-melted-cheese. Pretty much all others are suspect, though.
This week I have been avoiding thinking about eating, weight and weight-losing. I feel like this particular week that's ok. Last Sunday The Husband and I had a major heart to heart, which resulted in several changes about the way we run our little home, including, now, a husband-wife Bible time at night after the kiddos say goodnight. (woot! woot!) There were several gut-wrenching, shamefully petty things (why is it that the gut-wrenching is often also petty?) that I admitted to and am trying to change, with modest success. So I feel like, even though I haven't been monitoring my intake well (there's been a fair bit of sugar going down the hatch), my energies have been focused on some pretty positive changes for me and mi familias (no idea why that came out in Spanish), and I'm definitely going to cut myself some slack.
The number: 258
Go forth and eat green oatmeal, mis amigos!
I don't know about you, but any day I can get in some dark green leafy vegetable without really noticing is a win in my book. It is something of a joke (ha ha, it is to laugh ...) in my husband's family that I do not eat green vegetables. This is untrue. I will happily eat my weight in green bell peppers, cucumbers, and spinach-mixed-with-any-kind-of-melted-cheese. Pretty much all others are suspect, though.
This week I have been avoiding thinking about eating, weight and weight-losing. I feel like this particular week that's ok. Last Sunday The Husband and I had a major heart to heart, which resulted in several changes about the way we run our little home, including, now, a husband-wife Bible time at night after the kiddos say goodnight. (woot! woot!) There were several gut-wrenching, shamefully petty things (why is it that the gut-wrenching is often also petty?) that I admitted to and am trying to change, with modest success. So I feel like, even though I haven't been monitoring my intake well (there's been a fair bit of sugar going down the hatch), my energies have been focused on some pretty positive changes for me and mi familias (no idea why that came out in Spanish), and I'm definitely going to cut myself some slack.
The number: 258
Go forth and eat green oatmeal, mis amigos!
Thursday, July 11, 2013
With Extra Foam on Top
I am in the habit of dropping by Starbucks two or three times a week. Particularly on mornings when I have taken The Husband to the office so that I have the car, I like to pop in and grab a latte or a coffee frappuccino and maybe a bite of bagel or pumpkin bread (oh, their pumpkin bread!) to share with Big Bit. It is a lovely way to start the morning and I don't know anywhere else where you can get a non-greasy breakfast through a drive-through window.
Trouble is, it's expensive. A grande latte is $3.10 + flavoring is $3.65 + tax is about $4.10. Now, there are some days, when it seems like a mocha latte is literally all that stands between me and the ruin and destruction of all I hold dear, and $4.10 isn't that much to pay for staving off Armageddon. But other days, when I just need something caffeinated and hot and it didn't make sense to fire up the coffee pot at home just for one cup, it's a smidge painful. Actually, $4.10 isn't so painful, but when you add two pieces of pumpkin bread ($4.50) plus tax (call it $0.55) that means that your coffee bill for the week is going to be pushing twenty-five bucks and that, my friends, is painful. Particularly when your husband makes about as much as a high school teacher.
Enter my lovely friend, the espresso pot. The Husband got me this one (I think) last Christmas and a lovely milk frother to go with it. They've been gathering dust for a while, but now we are definitely making up for lost time.
Libby's Recipe for a Very Large Latte
4 tsp coffee syrup (optional)
1/2 cup espresso
2 1/2 cups hot milk*
Pour ingredients in order into a very large mug, or two medium-sized ones.
*To froth your milk, heat your milk in a heavy saucepan on about medium or a little higher. When the milk is hot but boiling, stir gently with a frother or whisk vigorously with a whisk until you have a lot of foam. To pour, hold the foam back with a spoon and pour in the hot milk, and then spoon the foam on top.
I use Cafe Bustelo espresso, and it would appear that I am getting about 10 pots from 10 oz. A 10-oz can at Walmart cost about $5. (Apparently you can get it much cheaper on amazon, but I haven't done that yet.) So a pot's worth is $0.50.My pot makes about a cup of espresso, so if I just reuse the second half cup the next day (which I've done and can't really tell a difference), it's $0.25 per latte.
I use caramel coffee syrup from Target, which cost about $6. Four teaspoons of that cost about $0.33.
Milk costs about $3 per gallon, and so 2 1/2 cups of it cost about $0.47
So, my much-bigger-than-a-Starbucks-grande latte costs me $1.05, and I can tone down the sugar if I want, or use sugar-free syrup, and get mountains of foam that would never fit in a Starbucks coffee cup.
Trouble is, it's expensive. A grande latte is $3.10 + flavoring is $3.65 + tax is about $4.10. Now, there are some days, when it seems like a mocha latte is literally all that stands between me and the ruin and destruction of all I hold dear, and $4.10 isn't that much to pay for staving off Armageddon. But other days, when I just need something caffeinated and hot and it didn't make sense to fire up the coffee pot at home just for one cup, it's a smidge painful. Actually, $4.10 isn't so painful, but when you add two pieces of pumpkin bread ($4.50) plus tax (call it $0.55) that means that your coffee bill for the week is going to be pushing twenty-five bucks and that, my friends, is painful. Particularly when your husband makes about as much as a high school teacher.
Enter my lovely friend, the espresso pot. The Husband got me this one (I think) last Christmas and a lovely milk frother to go with it. They've been gathering dust for a while, but now we are definitely making up for lost time.
Libby's Recipe for a Very Large Latte
4 tsp coffee syrup (optional)
1/2 cup espresso
2 1/2 cups hot milk*
Pour ingredients in order into a very large mug, or two medium-sized ones.
*To froth your milk, heat your milk in a heavy saucepan on about medium or a little higher. When the milk is hot but boiling, stir gently with a frother or whisk vigorously with a whisk until you have a lot of foam. To pour, hold the foam back with a spoon and pour in the hot milk, and then spoon the foam on top.
I use Cafe Bustelo espresso, and it would appear that I am getting about 10 pots from 10 oz. A 10-oz can at Walmart cost about $5. (Apparently you can get it much cheaper on amazon, but I haven't done that yet.) So a pot's worth is $0.50.My pot makes about a cup of espresso, so if I just reuse the second half cup the next day (which I've done and can't really tell a difference), it's $0.25 per latte.
I use caramel coffee syrup from Target, which cost about $6. Four teaspoons of that cost about $0.33.
Milk costs about $3 per gallon, and so 2 1/2 cups of it cost about $0.47
So, my much-bigger-than-a-Starbucks-grande latte costs me $1.05, and I can tone down the sugar if I want, or use sugar-free syrup, and get mountains of foam that would never fit in a Starbucks coffee cup.
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