Gung Hay Fat Choy!

It’s Chinese New Year!  The year of the Dragon!

We started our Chinese New Year festivities with a potluck play date at the park with our friends.  Everyone brought a Chinese entrée to share and everything so delicious.  We had dumplings, doughnuts, a variety of noodles, fried rice, orange chicken and of course fortune cookies.

Emmalynn insisted on wearing her Mulan costume for the occasion.

The kids decorated dragon masks and made lanterns, which Allana loved almost as much as the dumplings.

For the potluck portion of the program, I brought Sesame Noodles to share.  This dish is so simple and tasty served either warm or cold as a side dish or a main entrée.

The Rachel Ray recipe I use calls for angel hair pasta but I prefer spaghetti for this dish, so I sent hubby to the store to buy the ingredients for me.  He returned with spaghetti rigata.  Um…ok! At least it wasn’t linguini!  Actually, hubby’s mistake worked perfectly because spaghetti rigata noodles are square and resemble lo mein noodles.  (This is where Iron Chef Allan would chime in to tell me that was his intention all along.)

Sesame Noodles

(Adapted from Classic Rachel Ray 30-Minute Meals)

Ingredients

1 pound capellini (angle hair) or spaghetti rigatta

¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce

2 Tbsp tahini

2 Tbsp toasted sesame seed oil

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 inch gingerroot, peeled and grated or ½ tsp ground ginger

3 scallions, chopped

1 large carrot, grated

Toasted sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Crushed red pepper flakes for garnish (optional)

Directions

Bring a large stock pot of salted water to a rolling boil and then add pasta.  Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine soy sauce, tahini, sesame oil, cayenne, garlic and ginger.  Whisk until smooth.

Drain pasta and immediately chill in a large bowl of ice water to blanch pasta and prevent further cooking.

Drain and dump chilled pasta into bowl with sauce and combine until noodles are evenly coated.  Add veggies and toss to combine.

Serve in soup bowls garnished with some extra sliced greens of scallions, sesame seeds and a little crushed red pepper.

Thanks for joining our weekly Friday Food Fight.  Link up and see what everyone else is flinging this week.  

*Also shared at*

This morning was no different than any other morning over the past three weeks.  I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and my jaw was throbbing.  So, I popped 800mg of ibuprofen.  Fabulous.

It was another slow start morning waiting for the pain to subside, but today was slightly different.   A couple hours later, I felt good.  Really good, even after yapping on the phone with my SIL for an hour.  So, I tested the pain boundaries with some light housework and still no pain.

I decided to test the boundaries a bit more with a walk to park with Little Lion Man.  I even wore my Garmin to pace myself from walking too fast (or even running) or walking too slow.

The mile walk to the park felt great.  Just the exercise and sun I needed to feel good about me again.  Little Lion Man loved the change in routine after being cooped up in the house for nearly 3 weeks and slept for 2 hours afterwards, which was an added bonus.  I really needed that too.

So there it is.  I did something today.  Finally.

2 Mile Walk

Time 34:14

Ave Pace 17:48

Max 12:26

Some might say I’m on Pinterest too much.  But here’s the thing.  It’s adding value to my life.

Yes, most social networks suck me in and have me wasting time chatting, tweeting and responding to stuff, but Pinterest is different.  It pulls me and is helping me become a better person.

It motivates me.

It helps me organize.

It helps me plan menus for my family.

It helps generate decorating ideas for my house.

And as creative and ingenious as I think I am, there are people on Pinterest far more ingenious and creative than me.

For example, I would have NEVER thought to store grocery bags in a wipe container before Pinterest.

That’s green ingenuity at its finest, folks!  And if you were already sitting on this gem of a green idea, then you should have shared pinned it.

You could have gone viral on Pinterest.

As for my adaptation to the grocery bag dispenser, I didn’t have an empty Wet Ones or Clorox wipes container to use, but I have tons of empty baby wipes containers laying about my house.  So, I recreated this creativeness with one of those.  Viola!

I’m sure someone will share some cute, creative way to cover the Luvs label or the wipe container with fabric or scrapbook paper and some Mod Podge. I’m sure it’s out there on Pinterest.  I just haven’t looked for it yet.  Until then, I’m fine with this happy little Luvs baby handing me grocery bags for to dispose of dirty diapers.

And she tucks away nicely in Little Lion Man’s changing table dresser drawer.

Thank you, Pinterest, for my handy-dandy dirty diaper bag dispenser tip.

Now, I just need to learn understand how to make the bags pop out of the container.

He also said he wants me to continue on a soft foods diet for 2-3 more weeks until my next follow-up visit.  Have I mentioned how shitty a soft foods diet is?  If someone has any suggestions besides potatoes, toast, pasta, oatmeal, soups, yogurt or applesauce, I am all ears.  I feel like I’m carb loading without the luxury of being able to burn the carbs.  Speaking of carb loading, my doctor said I could drink beer which is good because wine was burning my steenky holes.

And if someone tells me one more time about all the weight they lost on a soft foods diet, I may just throw my yogurt at them.  I haven’t lost a pound because my body just doesn’t work like that.  It’s like my body feels a famine has hit and shifted into survival mode to begin storing fat.

I haven’t started running yet, but my surgeon said I could start whenever I feel ready.  I figure I would just judge the pain each morning.  If one day I wake up and feel nothing, then I’ll run.  That just hasn’t happened yet.

On good days when the pain is minimal, I try to do house work.  However, I think I’ve tried to do too much too soon because the next day, my jaw hurts like a mother.  Then, I waste the day doing nothing but lying around until the pain subsides.  It really sucks.

I really hope I feel better enough to run an easy 3 miles soon because Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon is only 2 weeks away.  YIKES!  Someone please tell me that I can do this.  I’m sure it’s all
in my head, but I feel like I’ve lost my strength.  I feel so weak, which I am sure is a result of the pain and this stupid soft food diet. I guess you really are what you eat.   I would love to be able to run an easy 10 miles with my friends, Faith and Chrissy this Sunday.  We’ll see.

The worst part is I brought it upon myself, like a sadist.  I should have done it 20 years ago when I was younger and my body would have healed faster and my parents would have paid for it and my mom would have played nursemaid and done all my laundry for me.  But I was too busy having fun living life.  Now I have a real life with a family and children depending on me and I can’t do squat except sit around eating fattening soft foods all day.

But there is an upside to all of this!  I’m being forced to rest which probably a good thing given the problems I had with my heel and my self-diagnosed plantar fasciitis.  Either all the ibuprofen in my system has helped with the issues in my foot or not being able to run.  Either way, I haven’t felt any pain in my foot for weeks.  When I wake up in the morning, I can walk flat instead of using the sides of my feet.  It’s all very strange.

Speaking of plantar fasciitis, Suncoast Running is hosting an injury prevention clinic this Thursday at 6:30.  I’m planning to attend even though I seem to have healed my heel, but I’d still like to go to learn how to avoid the issue in the future.  Hopefully, I’ll learn some good tips.

Mmmmmm…tips.  Great.  Now, I’m hungry for beef tips.

*Proudly submitted to Stacy Uncorked.*

Besides the pain, I’m still on a soft foods diet which is so annoying and almost as painful.  Even soft foods like toast, oatmeal or bananas get trapped in my steeky holes which causes me pain and then I’d rather not eat it.  So, that leaves me slurping up soup and wishing for chicken wings.

Speaking of chicken wings and other deliciousness, I’ve been torturing myself with food porn on Pinterest.  When I first created my recipe board, it was titled, “Eat, Drink and be Merry”, but when I was laid up in bed due to my wisdom teeth, I decided to change the name to “Food, Glorious Food”.  Everything I came across looked so good.  I can’t wait to be off this soft diet to sink my teeth into those dishes.  It’s sad how much I miss real food and beer.

But now think I should change my Pinterest recipe board title to “Food Porn”, due to the primeval sounds I make looking at each photo and recipe.   “Ooooooo.  Oh wow. What I could do with that.”

So thanks to my stinky holes, I’m a bit impotent in the kitchen these days, but once these pits heal, I’ll be doing the dirty deed again.   For now, I’ll just keep drooling over my Pinterest food porn and all the food, glorious food.

Visit Xmas Dolly and Hairbows & Guitar Picks for more Music Monday fun.

Our Soup Sundays would help us spice our usual menus by trying some recipe as well as returning some forgotten favorites into the mix.  Upon our first installment of Soup Sunday, we decided to try a new recipe and Rachel Ray’s Chicken Salsa Soup.

Does anyone tear recipes out of magazines and store them into a notebook?  Well, this particular recipe had been tucked away in my notebook for a couple years.  Such a sin, because this soup is too delicious not to try!  And it was a perfectly delicious pick to start our Soup Sundays!

We modified the soup recipe by adding chicken breast instead of thighs, because we don’t like dark meat.

Also, before you start the soup, you have to make the Rachel Ray’s Salsa Fresca.  It’s the base for the soup, but it is also delicious with tortilla chips or as topping to any Tex-Mex dish.  There’s a ton of cilantro in it, which I love, because you can never have too much cilantro in salsa!

Rachel Ray’s Salsa Fresca (Borrowed from Everyday with Rachel Ray Magazine.)

Ingredients

1 cup packed coarsely chopped cilantro

2 cloves garlic

½  onion, coarsely chopped

1 jalapeño chile, halved lengthwise

2 ½ pounds ripe tomatoes (7 or 8), cored and quartered

Juice of 1 lime

Salt

Directions

Using a food processor, pulse the cilantro and garlic together for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides, add the onion and jalapeño and pulse until finely chopped; transfer to a medium bowl.

Working in batches, add the tomatoes to the food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add to the cilantro mixture. Stir in the lime juice; season with salt.

Rachel Ray’s Chicken Salsa Soup (Borrowed from Everyday with Rachel Ray Magazine.)

Ingredients

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 head garlic, cloves finely chopped

2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts

One 32-ounce container (4 cups) chicken broth

1 ½ cups Salsa Fresca

Salt

1 avocado, thinly sliced lengthwise (optional)

1 cup chopped cilantro (optional)

¼ cup sour cream (optional)

Directions

In a large Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 3 minutes. Add the chicken breast and broth, bring to a boil and simmer for 4 minutes. Stir in 1 cup salsa, cover and remove from the heat. Let stand until the chicken is cooked through, about 45 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and shred.

Return the broth to a simmer; season with salt. Add shredded chicken to pot.

When ready to serve soup, top each bowl with avocado, cilantro, sour cream and remaining salsa.

Now link up and see what If I Could Escape and Gone Bananas are flinging for this week’s Friday Food Fight.  

*Also shared at*

Every year, we observe the holiday by watching Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.  Then, we discuss it and follow it up with a writing activity.  When I saw this MLK writing activity floating around Pinterest, I thought it would be a great extension to our usual MLK activities.

After we watched the speech, we discussed what Dr. King’s dream was for our country.  Did Dr.King’s dream become a reality?  Are all people treated equally today?  What’s your dream? 

When Emmalynn said her dream was to be a pony, I realized I needed to clarify the question, “What’s your dream?”  I explained to Emmalynn, “It’s not a dream that you have when you sleep.  It’s a hope for the future of the world or for others.”

What’s your dream for the community or the world?  

She understood the difference and wrote a wonderful response.

“My dream is to help the world.  I would help people by making sure that they have homes, families and don’t get separated.”

I love Allana’s dream too.

Aren’t they beautiful girls with big, beautiful dreams for the world?  And speaking of beautiful girls, my niece, Meghan, joined us for our MLK fun.  You can read about Meghan’s dream here.

Nope.  Five days later, I’m in excruciating pain.  I can control the pain with the help of 600-800 mg ibuprofen, but if I forget to take any pain reliever, then I’m suffering all over again.  It’s awful.

Since the pain was so bad, I assumed I had dry sockets and begged the surgeon to squeeze me in for a quick examination.  No dry sockets, but I’m just taking a really long time to heal which has something to do with my… eh hem…age and deep, long roots that touched my jaw bone which required about 1 mm of my jaw bone to be removed.

I was told after the surgery to refrain from any exercise until my follow-up on the 23^rd, but according the surgeon after today’s visit, I may need to wait even longer due to my slow healing process.  Fantastic.

This means I may have to wait even longer to resume my half marathon training.  I had hoped to be able to pick up at 10 miles this Saturday, but I won’t know until the 23^rd and even then, I may not be able to jump back into running.  With the Rock ‘ Roll marathon only few weeks away, this is not good.

Honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking.

Plus, I’m on this soft food diet. Have I mentioned how much I love food, I mean real food?

Being laid up for a few days, I’ve spent a lot of time watching TV and surfing through Pinterest.  Playing around on Pinterest staring at food I can’t eat was torture.  But at least I have some fabulous menus planned when I can real food again and some wonderful play date ideas when I’m ready to get out and play again and some outstanding organizational skills to start implementing when I’m feeling better.

Yeah, I’ll get right on that.

I feel a bit like Ren of Ren & Stimpy because all I have left are stinky steenky holes.

I wish I had photos to share of my gnarly, bloody wisdom teeth to at least make this post a bit more interesting.

But I got nothing.  No photos.  No running, just Pinterest to make me feel even more inadequate amuse me and make me hungry.  Fan-f*cking-tastic.

*Proudly submitted to Stacy Uncorked, because when I blog about my training, it’s usually pretty random.*

If Dr. King were still alive today to witness the Occupy Wall Street movement, would he call them communists or would he stand beside them to speak out against cooperate greed and plea with the powers that be to level the playing field between the haves and the have-nots?

If Dr. King were alive today, what would he ask of us?

Wake up everybody.

Visit Xmas Dolly and Hairbows & Guitar Picks for more Music Monday fun.

This weekend would be a step back week and I wasn’t sure if I would be up for a 6 mile run after surgery.  So, I ran the miles today.  I strapped on my Garmin and hit play on my MP3 player, but my player was dead.  Oh good Lord!  Six miles with no music?  Oh well.  It has to be done.

I opened the door to begin my music free stride.  Oh good Lord!  It’s raining!  And it’s windy!  Oh well.  It has to be done.

But man, that wind was tough!  My legs were not happy and told me every step of the way.  I tortured them yesterday for speed work and now my legs underwent some unplanned resistance training.

After 3.1 miles, I hit a lap so I could judge my 5K pace.

3.1 miles

32:35

Ave Pace 10:31

Max Pace 8:19

So, it wasn’t as good as Monday’s 3.1 mile, but then there was some serious wind today!  And Oh Law, my legs were hurting!

About 4 miles into the run, I experienced a cramp in my side, which was so ironic since @LocalAdventures referenced me and my hydration techniques on his Janathon report yesterday.  In the comments section, I stated how hydration is such a difficult balance for me.  If I drink too little water, I cramp.  If I drink too much water, I cramp and then I need to pee.  So which was it today? 

I only drank about 10 oz of water and I peed twice before my run, but I must have been soaking up every drop of rain water to feel a cramp and a need to urinate.

And that wind! UGH!  At four miles, I was so done and my legs forced me complain out loud in the dark.  I’m sure if I had music, I would just sing away the pain to distract myself.  Instead, I cried out, “Oh Law.  My leggggs huuurrt!”  Plus, having no music caused me to startle and panic over every little rustle I heard.  What was that? A rat? A lizard? A rabbit crazed lepus?

But, when I hit the 6 mile mark, it felt good great but oh Law, my legs hurt!

6.20 miles

Time 1:08:24

Ave Pace 11:02

Max Pace 9:08