Moving Day!

That was quick! I managed to make the move over to a Wordpress blog in no time! Please come visit me there!

Happy (Running) Thoughts

All the same fun will be had I am just a lot happier with the layout over there! Please come and join me at my new home! 

Same blog name, almost same blog address (channel)!

Happy Running!

Changing Things Up

Hello all!

I know I haven't been around in the blog world all that long but I wanted to let you know that I am currently changing things up and moving my writing and thoughts to another host. When everything is switched over and I am happy with it all I will fill you guys in. 

I love writing on this blog and I just want to make it perfect! This change won't take long you will know where to go to find me soon enough. Until then here is one of my favourite songs with a little help from the movie Shall We Dance!

Happy Running!

One Sweet Love

This morning I was looking through all the recipes that I have saved and I came across the Oh Canada Sweet Potato Stack from Zesty Cook. Since I am a proud Canadian I thought I would have some sweet potato yumminess with my lunch today! 

An Oh Canada Sweet Potato Stack - by Zesty Cook

- 2 large sweet potatoes (I could only find 1 so that was good enough for little ol' me!)

- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil (I used 1.5 tsp because that is what I normally use for sweet potato fries)

- Salt and Pepper 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sweet with parchment paper 

2. Toss sweet potatoes in olive oil

3. Add salt and pepper (how much is really up to you)

4. Bake for 20-30 minutes, then turn the potatoes over and cook for another 10 minutes.

5. Move the sweet potatoes to the top rack and turn down heat to 250 and let the sweet potatoes dry a little bit   and become even crispier.

6. Enjoy! 

Yummy!!

Here is how my Sweet Potato Stack making experience went...

Here is the yummy sweet potato after I cut it up.

After I added the olive oil and salt and pepper.

Ready for baking now.

In the middle when I took them out to flip them.

Out of the oven and ready to eat! I was sooo excited to eat these that I couldn't find the patience to stack them.Now I am enjoying a delicious lunch of the yummy sweet potato (un)stacks and butternut squash soup, yummy!! 

I am getting so close to being done my first semester of this college program, and I am very excited. Of course I go right back to school for second semester on May 3. I must say I am enjoying this down time I have between having all my in class work done and doing the final tests. YAY! My writing teacher actually told us not to come to class anymore, SO that means I get to stay home Monday morning and watch the Boston Marathon!

Other than school I have been enjoying the weather this week and have started running outside more than running on the treadmill, of course those mornings when it is 5:30am and it is pitch black and raining I am thankful I do have the treadmill.

I am off to read and relax and do some Whittle My Middle II and push-ups. I hope you all have an amazing weekend and maybe you will have some yummy sweet potatoes!

Happy Running!

Feelings Show

Good Evening!!! 

I must say that I am a master when it comes to recognizing a bad, down in the dumps, no good mood...and then getting past it so I can finish my day happy! Of course I am not able to do this all the time, but today was one of those days where I could do it.

This morning I spent my time editing my final report for my writing class, it was more so a reflection of the past term, your goals and your plans for the rest of the course and so on. Not a big deal, I just had to edit it. In the end I got it done and handed in a day early, YAY for being ahead! Sadly while I was waiting to get into the class I started to feel like this...

Nothing felt right and I just felt very blah. This feeling continued on during my walk home, I even listened to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, which I must say did result in some giggles, but then when does it not. (If you don't listen to this show you really should, especially if you enjoy your news with a little humour on the side).

When I got home the feeling wasn't lifting, I didn't get it, I am eating very well, drinking lots of water, exercising regularly....It was lunch time but I just wasn't hungry, GAH! What to do?!? I made myself a smoothie jam packed with fruits and Amazing Meal and the feeling kind of started to lift. To continue to fight the feeling I went for a walk downtown and found a nice pair of dress pants for $22 (total), SCORE! 

On my walk home everything finally started to lift and I had a little bounce back in my step. When I got home I knew what I wanted to do...RUN! I cranked the tunes and headed down by the water (of course) and any blah feeling that I had had was gone gone gone! When I got home my new Runner's World was there waiting for me.

Now I am feeling like my old self and am going to head down to the university campus to watch a group of swing dancers perform and then I am going to read my magazine! 

Question: What do you do when you all of a sudden find yourself in a down right horrible mood? Like I mentioned above I generally go for a walk or a run (this time the walk needed to come first because I wasn't in a running mood). If it is sunny out then that always helps! 


Of course some quality time with my boyfriend always makes things better! I think tonight's plan is to be together and read, he has some reading to do from a really large textbook for nursing and I have a novel to entertain my brain.

Happy Running!

The Famous Banana Muffins

By famous I mean that I love them and that I almost always have a batch around the house. I mention these banana muffins in my about me section on Twitter and on here. This recipe is from Rick Gallop's GI Diet book, I have only been able to find the recipe in this specific publication, and I should mention that they muffins are originally called Over The Top Muffins With Pear.

Here is the recipe, I will also add in my modifications...

1 cup All Bran or 100% bran cereal (I have only ever used All Bran Buds, I can't explain why)

1 cup wheat bran

1 1/2 cups plain low-fat yogurt (sometimes I use vanilla yogurt if I don't have any plain yogurt)

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup brown sugar substitute (regular brown sugar works well too)

1 tbsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda 

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup skim milk

1/4 cup canola oil (more often than not I just use unsweetened applesauce)

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 pears, cored and diced (I, of course, use 1-2 mashed bananas instead)

*additions - I put in a few tsp of cinnamon into the the dry mixture because I love cinnamon and today I decided that I wanted to have chocolate chips in my muffins!

1. Combine the cereal and wheat bran in a bowl. Stir in the yogurt and let stand for 10 minutes.

2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar substitute, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (and cinnamon if you want it).

3. Add the skim milk, oil (or applesauce), egg, and vanilla to the bran mixture and stir to combine. Pour over the flour mixture and stir in until just combined. Stir in pear (or banana and chocolate chips if your heart so desires).

4. Preheat the oven to 375F. Divide the batter among 12 greased or paper-lined muffin cups. Bake until the tops are golden and firm to the touch, about 25 minutes. Let cool on a rack for 5 minutes. Remove the muffins from the pan and let cool completely.   

Here are the famous muffins right out of the oven! I always find it SO hard to not eat one the minute they come out of the oven. Sometimes I have to take them out of the oven and then go read a book because I know I want one, but at the same time I know they are too hot...I would know I have eaten one straight out of the oven before, *ouch*.

All cooled and ready to eat, YUM!!! I have experimented with a lot of muffin recipes and this is the one I always come back to. The others have been yummy, don't get me wrong, but I just love these ones the most. If you give them a try let me know what you think!


Running Stuff - I just wanted to let you guys know that I added a Daily Mile widget on the left so you can see how my running and other such exercising has been going if I do not post about it. I don't always mention how far I ran or how I felt because it just doesn't come up, SO now you can see for yourself if you are interested.


I am off to edit my final report for writing class and then I am done with that class until the second installment starts in June! YAY!! My schooling is kind of different because I started in January, so I won't be done until the end of the first week of July, but then I still get to graduate in April of 2011 so I cannot complain! 


Time to put on my editing cap! Have a great day and enjoy the sun!


Happy Running!