WIAW: Food and Fitness

You know the drill, it’s What I Ate Wednesday, sponsored by Jenn at Peas and Crayons, where we rundown a days worth of eats. Except this time, I’m not gonna do Wednesday or even Tuesday. I figured I go for broke and do the “weekend.” It still starts with a W so it should be perfectly acceptable, and far be it from me to break the rules.

See, I love structure, plans, and rules and think people should adhere to them at all times…at least the ones I strongly believe in. The rest, eh, not so much. For example, if for years, you could always make a right hand turn on a red light, and suddenly the city decides to throw up a No Right On Red Side, I would consider it a flexible rule (a soft limit, so to speak – wink, wink). I figure I’m grandfathered into the old system and therefore, it’s perfectly acceptable for me to go right on red. See, logic. Perhaps flawed logic, but logic nonetheless.

So the month of July is all about the eats and being fabulously fit. Let’s start with the fabulous part (although the food was pretty good this weekend too). You probably know by now, I love to work out, I really love to sweat and spinning has captured my heart.

What you may not know is I typically work out at lunch time during the work week (Monday – Friday). I try to go five days a week, but will settle for four. I only work out on the weekends if I didn’t hit my quota for the week or I’m feeling particularly spunky, and I don’t consider anything a work out unless I’ve put at least 30 minutes worth of effort in. I generally do cardio at the gym with an occasional weight circuit, and in the evenings when I’m watching a little television, I may bust out a Tank Top Arm or Ab Workout. And of course, I track every work out on my calendar, and I do it in code because I’m stealth-like and cunning…or because I don’t want people to think I’m a total nut job.

Replace “lose weight” with “Work Out” and you get the picture. P.S. These are not my abs, but I wish to hell they were.

In May, I got my funky groove on 20 out of 31 days or 65% of the time (still dazzling with my math skills) and in June, I did a solid 13 out of 30 days, 43% of the time, which isn’t bad since I was struck down for a week with the Plague (or silly infection, but the Plague sounds much more intimidating). Basically, I work out, and I love it. I don’t do it to look good (although it’s a perk I’d live with, if I had to), I do it because I want to. I love the way I feel getting ready for a workout, the way I feel during, and especially the high I get after. It’s my thing and wild horses couldn’t pull me away (I’d do a double take for a unicorn though).

I think it’s safe to say we’ve covered the fitness portion of today’s challenge. Time to bring on the food. It’s a weekend worth of eats, so fasten your seat belt and get ready for the wild ride (or at least some fun photos).

Friday night, the Hubby took me out to dinner at a new joint in Lakewood, Jammy Buggers. It was your classic bar food, but stepped up a notch. I’ll be honest, I generally don’t mess with bar food because as a vegetarian, it’s hard to find something to eat which isn’t a) fried, b) a salad, or c) a pasta.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not surprisingly, this place was no different. I ordered goat cheese ravioli with leeks, roasted peppers and asparagus in a sherry garlic sauce. It originally came with chicken and pancetta, and they were kind enough to make me a meatless version. It was good, but missing a little something, something (probably the meat, ha, ha). What I really enjoyed though was every table got a little bowl of homemade chips which definitely had some onion action going on. They were damn delicious, but I’m a sucker for chips. Always have been, always will be. One of things I’m looking forward to eating on my Canadian vacation is some dill pickle potato chips. Yep, you read right; don’t knock ’em until you’ve tried ’em. They are out of this world and most definitely horrible for me, but one bag a year isn’t going to ruin me. Remember, all good things in moderation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I kicked off Saturday and Sunday with coffee and my latest issue of People magazine with Paula Dean on the cover. Spoiler alert, I’m going to lose my shit over this Paula Dean article, but I will try to be brief, bearing in mind I’m not always good at brief. I take huge issue with her marketing and profiting off food which, when eaten often, greatly increases your odds of getting sick. Low and behold, she finally owns up to having diabetes for the past three years when a prescription drug company paid her to endorse their product.

All that aside, people make mistakes so if she’s willing to change and engage in better healthier decisions when it comes to food, then more power to her. I’m thrilled she’s losing weight and getting her health under control. She has a huge following, so she could be a role model for other folks in the same condition. What makes me bat shit crazy though is her statement about people’s pretty intense reaction to her diabetes announcement a few months ago. She was shocked by the “depth of hate,” (it was rough, I’ll grant her that) and…wait for it….says, “This is not something I chose. I have been given lemons and I had to try and make lemonade – without sugar.”

Here’s the thing, Type 2 Diabetes didn’t just fall into her lap. It wasn’t a natural disaster where she just had to accept the consequences. She did in fact chose it, whether consciously or unconsciously, she ate and smoked (yes, she’s a smoker too) her way to Type 2 Diabetes, both things which severely increased her risk factors. I wish her the best, but I’m not sure how far she’ll get if she can’t accept responsibility for how she got there.  Humph – tirade over!

Back to my happy place. In addition to coffee, all weekend long I drank water spiked with lemons, limes, and fresh mint from the yard. It was so refreshing, and I couldn’t get enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For lunch one day, the Hubby and I whipped up a salad with cherries and blue cheese.  I got the recipe courtesy of Pinterest via http://confessionsofaspoon.blogspot.com/2012/06/cherry-blue-cheese-salad.html, and the flavors were spot on. I will absolutely be having this salad again, maybe even tomorrow, if I’m lucky. We also made a pizza with our now defrosted Tomato Sauce, frozen a few weeks back. We topped the pizza with fresh mozzarella, havarati and parmesan cheese, and then threw some tomato and red onion slices over the whole thing. It was sooooo good, and I finally got to satisfy my craving. Check that off the list.

 

 

 

 

 

I also managed to turn my pretty little garlic scapes into Pesto. Just in case you aren’t familiar with scapes, they come from the bulb of the garlic, get snipped in the spring and have a “mild” garlic flavor. I will say, this dish isn’t for the faint of heart and “mild” isn’t really accurate. Intense, over-powering, and potent are all more appropriate adjectives. The Hubby only managed a few bites before throwing in the towel, and I, of course, refused to back down from a challenge and ate my fair share. As a result, it was the only thing I could taste for the rest of the day, despite several teeth brushing and mouth-wash rinsing incidents. I still have a ton left over and despite its bullying nature, I think it would be great as an accent, maybe added to pasta or eggs. If I introduce it in small doses and mix it with other food, I think the flavor will really shine, without beating you over the head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And in predictable fashion, I snacked on fruit all weekend long. Such a wonderful, wonderful thing. Ya just gotta love fruit….and sparkly glitter. Sparkly glitter is cool too.

Happy Independence Day! I hope you don’t have to work, and I hope you have a great day.

Have you ever had garlic scapes before, and if not would you try them?