But so glad we get to do it again in a few months when these two can come!
P.S. My blog is under construction. It's a work in progress. I'm trying to get Scott to transfer photoshop from the broken computer to this one so I can use it again! I miss it!
That's what the clerk at the grocery store asked me Saturday night when I was buying some last minute ingredients for our dinners this week. I think she thought I was a little strange when I answered, "Quinoa taco salad." It was followed by a slightly confused look, and a polite as could be, "Ohhh...sounds good." It may not be the everyday traditional lasagna, or hamburgers, but we thought it blew those puppies out of the water. I was a little nervous about trying this recipe out, so needless to say I was relieved when Scott sat down to eat and said how good it looked. Then I felt like a first grader who just got a gold star when Scott said he thought the dinner was picture worthy. Ha ha. He really said that, and he really got the camera out and took a picture. What a nice husband I have. Since we both enjoyed this dinner so much, and it's healthy as can be, I thought I would share it so you can enjoy some healthy goodness too!
Here it is:
Quinoa Taco Salad
Olive oil, as needed
Juice from 2 limes
Sea salt, to taste
2-3 T. chopped cilantro
1 small yellow pepper, diced (**we used yellow this time, but next time I am going to use orange or red because with the corn and quinoa being yellow, it was kind of boring to have yellow pepper too.)
1 C. roasted corn kernals
Romaine lettuce
Tortilla chips
1 large avocado
1 diced mango
Mrs. Dash chipotle seasoning, to taste
Other optional toppings: black beans, cheese, salsa, onions, whatever else you want.
Quinoa is cooked similar to rice. Put two cups of water per cup of quinoa. I made one cup of quinoa for this dinner. Drizzle cooked quinoa with olive oil, and toss to coat. Squeeze limes, and toss again. Season with salt to taste. Broil corn and pepper for about 10 minutes sprinkled with Mrs. Dash chipotle seasoning. Add corn, peppers, and cilantro to quinoa. Stir lightly. Line 4 plates or bowls with romaine lettuce. Top with quinoa, mango, avocado, chips, cheese and other toppings of your choice! Yum Yum!
Scott added chicken to his, but I left it off mine since quinoa already has protein in it. Quinoa is going to be a new staple in this house since it's gluten free and has protein, two things high on my food priority list these days.
I've been having fun finding and trying new recipes lately, especially gluten free ones. Two websites I love are glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com, and glutenfreemommy.com. This recipe is from glutenfreegoddess with a tiny tweaking of my own.
I got an email today from the Boston marathon reminding me that there's only 26.2 days until the race! Well, I guess the email wasn't really "reminding" me of anything. Let's be honest, I visit their website almost every day just to see the countdown they have posted on the homepage. I just thought it was clever that they added a .2 to it. I'm so excited I can barely stand it!
Here's a video that I find hilarious because it's so true. You may have already seen it because I posted it on my facebook profile, but it makes me laugh every time. I'll admit, it describes my life pretty dang accurately at this time as I train for the Boston marathon. OK... it describes the last 5 years of my life pretty accurately. The last part is my favorite.
Anyway, training is going really well so far! I can honestly say I am thoroughly enjoying training for this race. I've found a new love for running this time around that I didn't know was even possible for someone already as obsessed with running as myself. Some days I feel like a puppy dog waiting by the door for Scott to get home so I can go run. In the past it's definitely been more of a love/hate relationship, but now it feels like a love/love/love relationship.
How did this happen? I'm not really sure, but there are a few things I can think of....
1. After figuring out that I was gluten intolerant I changed my diet and started eating much healthier. It's not so fun to run when you have tons of pain in your stomach and you're tired all the time. It's so unbelievably nice to feel normal again! Welcoming Gu back in to my life has also helped a lot. Turns out it's easier to run if you give your body some energy to do it. :) I could write a book about all the stupid things I've done while running and training for marathons. It's quite comical. Maybe I'll do a post about a few someday. But hey, I learn a little each time. I should have it down by #100 I think.
2. More speed work, tempo runs, and awesome people to run with. I've always been so blessed with awesome people to run with, and here I was all nervous that I wouldn't be able to find running buddies or nice places to run when we moved to Texas. I was so sad to say goodbye to the Provo Canyon running trail, and I still love and miss that place, but I've found some pretty awesome places to run here too! Now that I've incorporated speed work and tempo running in to my training, I can't believe I've never done it before! Changing up my training like that has given me measurable results and it's been really fun to see myself hitting times I never ever thought I could hit.
3. Gorgeous winter weather. Every time I'm at the track doing intervals in 70 degree weather, I think about all the people training for the Boston marathon in other parts of the country running through the bitter cold and snow, and I feel sooooo blessed that I'm not! :) Winter running here makes up for the smoldering hot summers. Ask me again in a few months though, and I'm not sure if I'll still be saying that. It's already getting toasty here. I even got sunburned last Saturday on my run! However, for the most part, the weather has been ideal for marathon training, and I love it!
While my training has been going really well, it for sure hasn't been easy. It's been really stressful making sure I get a good run in every day when my two options are 5:00 a.m., or wait until Scott gets home. I've had to be a little creative somedays to squeeze one in, like the night I ran back and forth from Lowes to Target and around the parking lots of the shopping complex near our house so I wouldn't be running alone after dark. Yay for daylight savings though! I now have an extra hour after Scott gets home before I resort to people giving me weird looks down the sidewalks of the shopping complex.
Plus, did I mention that getting up at 5:00 just sucks? It's not so bad when you're getting up at 5:00 for something really cool like Christmas morning, but when I'm doing it to meet the lame treadmill and absolutely nothing good on TV, I seriously don't know how it gets done somedays, but I'm always glad I did it. It's taken many of pep talks inside my head in that bathroom of mine as I drag myself in there to brush my teeth and throw my clothes on. I've grudgingly learned to become friends with the treadmill. Yuck. Oh how I wish safety weren't an issue and I could run outside at all hours of the day without a worry in the world.
I'm not complaining. I feel so lucky, and blessed, and happy that I get to train, I'm just saying it's not all hunky dory all the time. Training has had many ups and downs, but all I can say is that in 26.2 days I will be ready to run! I've never been this excited to run a marathon in my life. It's usually a mixture of dread and excitement, but this one is pure excitement. As I count down the days to April 18, I can't help but think of this song...
There, now I don't have to look at those yucky pictures below anymore when I come to my blog page. Needless to say, I wasn't enjoying the poop streak down Boston's door as my scenery while I checked other's blogs.
All those white things are wipes. He took every single one out and scattered them about. Was he trying to clean up his mess? Who knows.
Don't worry, I deleted the most disgusting picture, and this all went down at 4:00 p.m. on St. Patty's day. I was scheduled to work at 5:00. Guess I don't have the luck-o-the-Irish. Nap time turned in to crap time.
(This was his reaction when I opened the door to find his mess and said, "This is a very, very bad NO NO!")
So, how was your St. Patty's day?
Mine wasn't exactly the pot of gold I was hoping for...
I could say a 1000 words right now, but I'll just let the pictures suffice.
Human Again, the song from Beauty and the Beast, and one of my favorite Disney movies was stuck in my head all day a couple Saturdays ago after a good long run. I finally figured out how to rid myself of the incredibly annoying stomach aches that have been intruding my life for the past few years or so. That little triumph led me to a much happier and energetic self, with a spring in my step, and a Disney song in my head. It's so nice to finally feel human again! Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm so excited that I feel normal again! I'd been keeping food journals and experimenting with different things like cutting out dairy, trying to eliminate sugar (trying being the key word there), lowering fiber intake etc. All sorts of things, but I continued to get annoyingly painful stomach aches, almost always at night. I was sick of feeling like crap and I'm pretty sure Scott was sick of hearing me complain, although he was always really nice about it. He just wanted me to feel better.
I had been getting these stomach aches for so long that I kind of accepted them as a fact of life. I tried to ignore them, but in the back of my mind I knew it wasn't normal, and I wanted to get rid of them, I just didn't know how. Finally, I decided to eliminate gluten. I don't know why this didn't occur to me before, especially since my mom is gluten intolerant. Actually, I know why it didn't occur to me before...I didn't want it to be gluten. I'm a runner, and I love my carbs. The appetizer bread at restaurants is usually my favorite part of the whole meal. Pasta, bread, cookies, cupcakes, all the best tasting comfort food, that's why eliminating gluten didn't occur to me before. Yep, I was in denial.
I think the thing that finally pushed me over the edge to figure this stomach thing out was my Tuesday night track workouts. Since I normally run in the mornings before the stomach pain sets in, I didn't have to deal with it during runs, but I've been meeting a group Tuesday nights for interval training at the track to get ready for Boston. I loved the Tuesday night workouts. It felt so good to run outside, change up the regular running routine, and run with other people. The only problem was my dang stomach.
I read up on gluten intolerance on the internet one night and it sounded like me, so the next day I ex-nayed the gluten from my diet. I instantly felt better. I've been eating a gluten free diet for about three weeks now, and so far no more nightly stomach aches. Except for the 3 days that I messed up and gave in to temptation, but after seeing the direct effect those gluten filled goodies had on my stomach's happiness that night I was recommitted to stick to the gluten free stuff. I'm learning that nothing tastes as good as a happy stomach feels! I'm still working on it though. I've also learned it's not as hard as I thought it would be to eliminate gluten from my diet. I just had to read up on what I could eat, and make sure the house was stocked with gluten free food so I wouldn't give in to temptation when I was hungry. Betty Crocker even makes gluten free cake, brownie, and cookie mixes. I haven't tried them yet, so who knows if they're good, but at least I know I won't have to be cakeless on my birthday! There's pretty much a gluten free version of almost any food out there.
Anyway, I know you all didn't want to hear about my stomach issues, but I figured this was life changing enough for me to blog about. Here's a little song to listen to if you want a bit of Disney to brighten up your day.
Going to plays is one of our favorite things to do, so we were so excited when we heard Wicked was coming to San Antonio! Scott gave the tickets to me as a surprise back in January after I thought we were out of luck and the tickets had sold out. He bought them the first day they went on sale, but made me think that he hadn't gotten around to it. It was a great New Year's surprise, right when I least expected it. I thought if he had gotten them he would have given them to me for Christmas.
We had a fun date night out with our friends Russ and Camille. We went to dinner before at a cute Italian restaurant called La Focaccia. Russ kept the secret from Camille all the way up until that night!
We didn't know picture taking wasn't allowed inside the Majestic Theater where we saw Wicked, so during intermission we snapped a couple pictures before a lady told us we had to put our camera away. This picture is the balcony where we sat with a view of the stage behind us. It's blurry, but it was the only one we got of the stage before we had to put our camera away.
You can kind of tell by this picture how awesome looking the Majestic Theater is. It's really old and the decor and mood of the whole place is so fun.
What a fun night to remember! Now we can't wait to see it again!
