‘Merica

Hi Friends!

Remember when I used to post about food? Instead of running and my bike and Sarah Palin?

Me neither.

Honestly, I’ve been lazy, and haven’t been cooking much. Unless making sad faces at one’s husband until he takes you out for dinner counts as cooking. Then I’m Julia Child.

But I have an hour to spare before we go to a BBQ, and I actually made some food today, so I’m going to share!

Tomorrow is our half (yikes!) and I’m a little paranoid about having food I wanna eat at this BBQ, so here’s what I spent an hour doing this afternoon:

I got some hummus made

plated up with veggies (I blanched the broccoli. Raw broccoli isn’t my fav. Blanch it? Suddenly I wanna eat a pound)

Then I made pesto

(If you adore fresh basil Trader Joe’s has fantastic potted basil plants for like $3. I buy them every summer, and then revel in my ability to eat the most pesto ever for months on end)

Mixed up the pesto with bowties and tomatoes

And because clearly that isn’t nearly enough to bring, I chopped up some watermelon

Watermelon is delicious. My husband hates it. I’ve tried, I can’t eat an entire watermelon myself. Well, I can, but it’s a poor choice. So I was excited for an excuse to buy one.

And because I love America, themed foods, and sugar, I made these strawberries.

Have a fantastic 4th! When you wake up late enjoying your Monday off tomorrow, think of my 6:45 am start time!

Pre-Game

So this weekend Baby Brother has been visiting to run Bridge to Brews with us (and to see his favorite sister of course)

Yesterday, we went out for a happy hour, to help fuel ourselves for the race.

We hit up the McCormick and Schmick’s on the waterfront to get our pre-game on. I’m a fan of the view

We’re serious athletes, so you should take this as a lesson on how to prepare for a race.

Hydration is important in the days leading up to a race. I had a berry drink of some sort. Which was basically a smoothie

Healthy and hydrating.

Alternately, you can go the boys’ route and combine hydration and carbo-loading. We love the harborside McCormick’s because it’s also the PDX Full Sail, which means you get a bunch of pub-only brews

hydration + carbs = multitasking!

Don’t tell me alcohol is dehydrating. It’s a liquid, it hydrates you. Science.

It’s also important to have protein

And healthy fats

(Fats are healthiest if they’re consumed with a carbohydrate. Again, science.)

And when all else fails, you can’t go wrong with the hummus platter. You just can’t.

We also had burgers and fries. Just to double check that we got enough protein. And carbs. And super healthy fats.

And that friends is how you properly pre-game for a 10 k. I promise.

It’s science.

Race Recap tomorrow!

Super

When I was little my daddy would buy all sorts of snacks for the Super Bowl, and bribe us to watch it with him.

Chicken in a Biskit were my kryptonite.  I’d ignore the fact that football made no sense at all if I could get my hands on a box of those.

(Source)

And my daddy knew that.

No regrets.  Not even the part where I adored chicken flavored crackers, which in hindsight is kinda a gross idea for a flavor.  Although I am now sketched out that it’s spelled “biskit”.

Now, to my father’s joy I’ve married a football fan.  I’m stuck watching game after game, even without questionably flavored crackers as bait.

Since yesterday’s game was kind a big deal and all, to appease both members of our household we went to McCormick and Schmick’s on the waterfront.  It has a killer happy hour and it’s the Portland location for Full Sail, which we’re always fans of.

So basically: food for me, beer for the husband.

And, in what I think may have been a bribe to keep me sitting still (not unlike the Chicken in a Biskits of my youth) my husband got me this yesterday

an iPhone 4!  My old phone had went to Jesus the night before, and he convinced me to get an iPhone-I’d been using a non-smart phone.  You know, like the pioneers had.

I may have been playing Oregon Trail and Angry Birds while watching the super bowl.  It happens.

Like I said, the happy hour at McCormick’s is great.  We had edamame hummus

Two bucks friends.

Plus cheddar tots with chipotle ranch

Which were amazing

And polenta with chicken sausage

and an unpictured cheeseburger and fries.

(Plus several unpictured adult beverages)

Did you watch the super bowl?

Anyone else bribed to watch sports as a child?

Ladies who lunch

So, I noticed some of you guys commented on my lunch in my last post, so I thought I’d give you guys a run down of how I make super quick lunches.

Being a sub means sometimes, you get a call at 9:35 for a job that started at 9:30.  And is 25 minutes from your house.  I’ve learned to get dressed and put together fast… But I had practice on that in college.

Eating, on the other hand, wasn’t something I was too into in college…. (unless quad americanos and popcorn with a side of cigarettes are what you’d call breakfast AND lunch)  So packing lunches has been more of a challenge.

If I’m at home I’d much rather have a happy, warm lunch, so I don’t wanna pack stuff, and then be sadly eating my cold lunch at home if I don’t work.  So pre-packing is out.  (I do pre-pack the fiance’s lunches, and I have a method for those too….)

Here’s what I do…

First, I check the fridge for protein options

Yesterday my fridge had yogurt, hummus, and peanut butter.  I’ll also do cheese with crackers, but we’re out of crackers, so I didn’t even consider the cheese.

We always have peanut butter, yogurt, and cheddar cheese in the fridge.  I’ve totally categorized artichoke dip in with this in my head before.  Not kidding.  It has cheese?

Then I see what I’ve got for veggies

Yesterday it was carrots, celery, tomato, and broccoli.

We always have at least carrots and celery in out house.

And I check out the fruit

We had strawberries, bananas, and apples

I try to keep at least two types of fruit (this time of year it’s generally oranges, apples, and/or bananas) on hand

And I look for other fun things to add

Pretzels, pudding, mini lara bars, almonds, cereal, granola bars

I usually do some sort of fruit + yogurt or fruit + peanut butter, veggies + dip, and something crunchy and carby.

And I keep extras, like the almonds, the lara bars, and the granola bars in my bag just in case.

Here’s the lunch I ended up with

Celery, carrots, tomato, and hummus

And some random sides

pretzels, apples, peanut butter.

I try to pack more than I think I’ll want, so that I have snacks.  And on days when I’m really in a hurry I’m not above throwing a whole jar of PB in my bag.

There are some things I don’t do in my lunch…

I don’t do things that have to be microwaved because some days you’ve got about 20 minutes to eat.  And if you have to wait behind two or three other people to heat your food, you just don’t have time.

And I don’t pack meat because I try and keep that to one meal per day, and that’s generally dinner.  Plus, lunch meat is icky.

I don’t pack sandwiches partly because I don’t adore them, and partly because getting all the stuff for them out takes a while, and makes more work for me.

I don’t generally have a main “meal” to my lunch, more smaller components.  Again partly because of the microwave, and also because I like to be able to snack through the day-its easier to snack with a lunch like this.

But that’s how I do my two minute lunches!  They’re not super exciting, but they’re better than PB&J, and fast!

Do you pack lunches?  Whats your method?

Working Lunch

Fingers crossed I’ll have my camera fixed soon (it’s from Costco, and they’re good about getting stuffed fixed…)

For now, cell phone pics!

I told you guys last week I got some POM in the mail.  Of course, you know where it was going

You’re not surprised.

(Delicious btw!)

I made french toast with some POM syrup that was redic, and when my silly camera works again I’ll show you!

I’ve been working all week.  IN THE SAME CLASSROOM.  It’s fabulous.  It’s also made my eats largely packed lunches.  And given me less time to blog….

My breakfasts have been provided by this new friend

(Thank you, Costco and the fiance!)

I have been eating green smoothies like they’re going out of style.  Yesterday I made one with POM and frozen raspberries.  It was insanely good.

I’m on my lunch/prep right now.  Working = packing lunches.

Daily

Carrots/celery/hummus. Crackers too but they missed the picture. I’m thinking I may have eaten my body weight in hummus this week.

Fruit of some sort is daily too.  Today it’s oranges and a banana

and something else…

Did PB and apples the other day

Yesterday

Yogurt thang.  Plain yogurt, flax, walnuts, a lifetime supply of cinnamon, and banana.

Looks gross.  Tasted good.

Today

I have no idea what this is.  I had chickpeas leftover from making my second batch of hummus this week.  And spinach, peas, parm, spices?  No idea.  But I like it.

And on the “wtf Portland” front, this was my deck on Tuesday morning.

Seriously.