Baby it's Cold Outside!

The current temperature in my little beach town in North Carolina is 24 degrees. I don't know if you know this or not, but it doesn't get that cold here all that often. Especially not for a week at a time. We are all freezing are bums off. Even the dog.



I have been doing my training runs on the treadmill, mostly because I've been running at night and I think my community has "hit a jogger win some cash" policy, but now I'm stuck in there because of the cold. Here lies the problem though. This is the forecast for Friday/Saturday (my 5k across the high rise bridge across the waterway is Saturday).



I don't own cold weather running gear and I'm not used to running in it. So, this should be a very interesting and cold experience for me. I am still looking forward to it though!

I can't say enough how much I love my Nike+Ipod and how it's made such a huge difference in my running. It showed me my stats for 2009 last night and I think the numbers speak for themselves.



Not too shabby for someone who couldn't run for more than 40 seconds straight a year ago!

If you haven't checked it out already, be sure to check out my post for Meatless Monday this week, the Roasted Veggie Pizza I made was was amazing! (If I do say so myself...) It also helped me have an on-point day yesterday, which was a double bonus. I always love when a recipe works out well and ends up being very tasty and healthy! :)

Anyone have any suggestions for good (affordable!!) cold weather running gear?

Meatless Monday – Roasted Veggie Pizza

 

After the holidays my body is CRAVING veggies, so I was looking forward to this Meatless Monday. I always crave pizza, so I decided to combine the two and make up my version of a Roasted Veggie Pizza.

Roasted Veggie Pizza

1/2 small head of broccoli florets

1/4 of an onion cut into slices

1/4 pint of Grape Tomatoes cut in halves

1 small orange (or whatever you have) pepper cut in half

1 good handful (sorry, that’s the best measurement I got) of kale

1 whole wheat pizza crust (I got mine from the Deli section of my grocery store, I usually make my own.)

1 cup light tomato sauce

3/4 of Reduced Fat Italian Blend cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, place all veggies (except kale) on a roasting pan sprayed with cooking spray, mist veggies with cooking spray, sprinkle with salt and pepper and place in oven for 15 minutes.

While veggies are roasting, roll your dough out as thinly as possible and place on a pizza or baking sheet. Use a fork to poke dough holes (to keep it from rising too much) and place on the bottom rack of your oven (below the veggies) for 5 minutes.

When veggies are done, remove from oven, chop pepper into pieces. Remove pizza dough and top with tomato sauce, kale and roasted veggies. Sprinkle cheese on top and place back into the 400 degree oven for another 15-20 minutes until crust is golden brown and cheese has melted.

The result is yummy in my tummy!

Easy Like Sunday Morning Baked Oatmeal

 

My Mom has been in town for the weekend and she will be headed back home later this morning. This makes me sad, but I want to send her off with a tummy full of good food! I kept reading about people making baked oatmeal*. I combined a few different recipes, tweaking to include what I like (and had on hand) and cutting out additional fats. Here is what I came up with.

Easy Like a Sunday Morning Baked Oatmeal with Berries (totally deserves the long-ass name)

2 cups quick cooking oats

2 cups skim milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup raisins

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup Sugar Free Maple Syrup

3 tsp Splenda Brown Sugar Blend

1/2 cup frozen mixed berries (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray an 8x8 pan with non-stick spray. Combine all ingredients above in a bowl and pour into prepared baking pan. Place in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until desired consistency.

Remove from oven and cut into 6 sections. I topped ours with frozen mixed berries that I put in the microwave for 2 minutes (stirring every 30 seconds) and sprinkled with Splenda. What resulted is a filling, yummy breakfast that looks pretty too! This was quick to throw together and I usually have everything needed on hand.

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday morning!

*Baked Oatmeal Recipe Inspirations can be found:

TJ’s Test Kitchen – The Oatmeal Experiment (I’m really not a stalker, I promise! She just has great recipes!)

AllRecipes.com – Baked Oatmeal I and Baked Oatmeal II

With a little help from my friends...

Welcome to 2010 everyone! I hope it's going well for you so far! For me? It couldn't be better!

Jeff and I had our friends Jeff (yep, there's 2 of them) and Kelly over for New Year's eve. They arrived with their overnight stuff because we didn't want anyone drinking and driving.



We had some good food choices to go with all the booze. I made the WeightWatcher's Festive Feta Spread which I served with some homemade crostini. It was really delicious, but I do recommend making it the night before because the longer it sits to blend, the better it tastes!

Then, the drinking began!



My sister had gotten me these beer bands for Christmas 2008, we used them to mark our levels of intoxication.

I was quite proud of my last minute decorations, I think I put together a cute presentation. Even though it was just going to be the 4 of us, I wanted it to be a fun night!



We talked about the past year, the past decade and shared stories, achievements and failures. We laughed, we drank and drank some more. At midnight we used Skype to call our dear friend (and Kelly's sister) Katie who recently moved to Orlando. It was nice to be able to celebrate the turning of the new year with her, we miss her so much!



Even Chaser got a little carried away in the moment!



I rang in 2010, somewhat healthy (if you exclude the booze), safely (I didn't even leave my house) and with some amazing friends. It made me feel good to be with people (even by way of videoconferencing) that mean so much to me.

On New Year's Day my Mom came down to visit and she'll be spending the rest of the weekend with us. We had our Christmas with her last night and my family continues to surprise me with their generosity and love for me and also for The Hubs. I am truly humbled and I consider myself a very lucky girl to have such amazing family and friends in my life.

So, on this, the 2nd day of 2010 I am feeling very grateful for all I have been given in my life. This is the breath of life. This is what it's all about. I think we lose sight of that from time to time when we get caught up in the day to day.

As the song goes "I get by with a little help from my friends..."

2010 Goals, not resolutions, but goals.

Last year I made a deal with myself that I would no longer set "resolutions", instead I would make a list of realistic goals and do my best to stick to them. I feel as if "resolutions" set you up for failure. There's just too much hype.

I did OK with my goals of 2009, my goal was 50lbs I lost 44 (gained back some of the 44 though going into January), I ran a 5k, I paid off a few debts....but some of my goals will roll over for 2010.






Tonyne's Goals for 2010

1. Continue on the path of health and wellness.


2. Run a 10k and at least two 5ks (first scheduled 1/9).


3. Pay off at least 2 credit cards using The Debt Snowball Effect.


4. Read 1 book per month.


5. Work on improving my marriage. It's not rocky or anything, but we did have a rough patch last year and I want to make sure that things only improve from this point on. I saw the following quote on facebook recently and I think that's what I mean by this goal:

   If all husbands and wives would make it a goal to treat their spouse better than their spouse treats them, how much better would our marriages be?

I think that's a good start. I constantly set goals for myself throughout the year, but these are going to be the main focuses.

I hope you all had happy and safe celebrations! I plan to make the traditional ham, greens (kale for me) and black eyed pea dinner tonight which I will get to enjoy with my Mom who has decided to come down for a weekend visit!

I look forward to the challenges and good things to come in 2010. I wish you all health and happiness in the new year!

What are some of your goals for this year?