Weekend Recap – Recipes and Injuries

I like to take the weekends off from blogging but still took some photos of some of the foods I enjoyed this weekend. 

Step 3 of the recipe - adding sautéed peppers to the cooked noodles.

Friday night I was craving the classic Lenten meal of fish with mac & cheese.  My brother and I were running a 5k Friday morning, so I decided to go with straight white pasta instead of wheat.  We cheated a little by picking up fish from our church’s fish fry to save time, but I whipped up a batch of cheesy pasta from Cooking Light’s Two Pepper Rigatoni recipe.  The only modifications I made were using a combination of Gouda, reduced fat cheddar, and swiss cheese for the 2 cups of shredded cheese, and I topped it with a mix of Panko and Nutritional Yeast for extra cheesy flavor on top – and my family didn’t even notice!  I also added additional chopped bell pepper and doubled the amount of jalapeno to increase the spiciness.

Waiting for the sauce to thicken...

Combining the sauce & pasta before baking

Ready to hit the oven... with some hidden Nooch (shh!)

Cheesey success... ready to eat!

So according to Cooking Light, this makes 8 servings around 400 calories a pop… if that’s right, my brother had 3 servings, I had 2, my fiance’ had 2, and my dad had 1.  Hello, carbs.

The weather Saturday morning was about 42 degrees at race time… much colder than I ever choose to run outside!  I’ve been training for this race on a treadmill and been fine running 3.5 miles a few times per week.  I felt a little uneasy about running in the cold but it didn’t cross my mind too much.

My brother and I got there early enough to pick up our race packets, take the t-shirts back to where we parked, and get in line for the race a few minutes before the start.  We jogged the Clemente bridge for a minute or two to get loosened up, but obviously it wasn’t enough;  about 0.5 mile in, I felt my ankle start to throb with pain.  It was dull enough that I didn’t stop running… heck, I paid $30 a piece, looked forward to this race for weeks, woke up early on my day off, and ate all those carbs the night before!  The last portion of the race started in right field, and you ran the warning track all the way around to homeplate to finish.  I pushed myself really hard and was proud of my burst of speed at the end of the race.

I finished the race with my personal best for a 5k (26:17) – I’m not a runner and never claimed to be, so I was really happy with that time.  However, once I stopped running the pain became much more intense.  I figured continuing to move would help, so we checked out the post race booths – mostly donuts and cupcakes (none for me, thanks Lent), then headed out to breakfast to celebrate.   Here’s a proof of the one race photo I appear in – the white hoodie and black pants by the finish line! 

My amazing brother got 6th place in his age group, finishing just over 20 minutes!  He is so good at everything he does.  His birthday was Sunday, so I let him pick the restaurant and we ended up at First Watch.  I got the triathelete omelet and had them add avocado.

Peek inside!

When I got home I retreated to the couch for most of the morning.  My pup was at my side all day — how are dogs so good at knowing when you aren’t feeling well?

Nurse Bella

My ankle... about twice its normal size!

 Sunday morning I decided to try the GB flour pancakes again, following the same recipe as last time.  Instead of berries I added 1/2 a chopped granny smith apple, 1 tbsp cinnamon (you can never have too much), and 1 packet of Splenda.

The mix looked extra thick, so I added 2 Tbsp milk before plopping them in the skillet.

Almost ready for eatin'!

These cakes are so satisfying, and I have half the batch in the fridge for another breakfast this week!  Definitely a keeper!

I tried the breakfast cookie for the first time this morning and was impressed!  I’ll do a play by play of that this week once I get it perfected.

My ankle was really hurting last night so my sweetheart went with me to an Urgent Care place to for x-rays.  Not broken (phew), but definitely sprained and ugly.  I’m hobbling around work in an aircast and trying to discreetly elevate & ice it under my desk.  Not working out is going to be so frustrating for me.  I’ll take some upper body workout suggestions if you have any.

Being bored out of my mind resulted in a bright pink manicure.

Pretty pink

Blog confession:  While laid up on Saturday, I watched some of the Kardashians in NYC show.  So Scott was talking about proposing and how they should be a family with the baby and all that, but I didn’t see the baby once in 4 episodes.  Where is that baby?!?!