Running

I've been running again, and despite the pain in my IT Band, it's been going fairly well.  The problem I am having is the difference between jogging 6-10 miles and running 3-5 miles.  I have been jogging with my friend Janine, and we do 9 to 9 1/2 minute miles for 6 to 10 miles, depending on how she's doing.  I love to run with her, because we visit the whole time, and my knee never hurts jogging but once we stop, I am immediately recovered.  I doubt my heart rate gets up very high, which probably means I'm burning fat, but that may just be wishful thinking.

I called my dad and complained about my ability to jump on a treadmill and run 7 1/2 minute miles but then the agony I suffer with my knee for days afterwards.  He then told me how he understands and when he runs 10 miles, at a 6 minute pace on his treadmill his feet really hurt him.  WHAT!?!?  6 minute pace for 10 miles???  I am such a slacker!!!  I was impressed with 2 miles at 7 1/2 minutes.  What I realized is that I am setting the bar way too low. 

So to help motivate me, I've decided to track my running.  I'm going to try to work up my speed, while at the same time work up the distance.  I'm going to be happy jogging 6-10 miles, because it'll help with endurance, and on the treadmill I'm going to try to work on increasing my speed for shorter runs 3-5 miles, and then we will see how I do.

I'm keeping a log, but at this point in time I'm able to run 6 miles at 9 minutes, without working too hard and I yesterday I ran 3 miles at 8 1/2 minute pace without feeling too tired. (I also had to go slow because I had to buy another new pair of shoes because the Nike's I bought were so stiff that it not only hurt and made my feet go numb on the stairclimber but cramped my foot and injured my toe while running.)  This week I'm going to take it slow  and steady and then kick it up a little next week.

Goal, to run 5 miles at a 6 minute pace.

The Two Day Sandwich

I love this sandwich.  It's probably one of the best french dips ever...it just takes me 2 days to make it.  Scott always asks why I only make it once a month, or so and I just shake my head and smile.  It's hard for me, since I'm not driven by "what's for dinner?", to think ahead enough to make this sandwich.

Here's the recipe to my favorite french dip.

Rachel's French Dip Sandwich

~Roast Makings~

3-4 lb roast

3 Tbls. Traeger Beef Rub

3 Tbls. minced garlic

3 Tbls. Balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 Tbls. Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp. dry mustard

~Sandwhich Makings~

Sliced sourdough wheat bread

sliced sharp cheddar cheese

4 Tbls. sandwich sprinkle

Rub the roast with the beef rub and garlic. 

Place roast in crock pot and make several slits to the top of the roast. 

In a small bowl combine the remaining ingredients and pour over meat. 

Cover and cook 4-5 hours.

Once done, thinly slice and store in a container with the juice from the crock pot.  

The next day, take the meat and warm it on a hot grill. 

Warm some of the au jus from the container.

Butter the bread. 

Place the meat, and cheddar cheese on the bread and sprinkle with the sandwich sprinkle. 

Grill on a Panini Maker and serve warm with a side of the au jus.

Believe in More than Luck

I recently read two books that had so much to do with death and what happens with what we do with our lives after someone we love dies.  The first book I read was What the Night Knows by most favorite popular fiction writer, Dean Koontz.  I have loved reading Koontz since I was in high school.  When I found him, I made it my mission to read all of his books.  He's a fabulous writer, who takes just enough sci fi to make it seem like it could really happen. 

In this book, I was so entertained by the parts of the book that dealt with why, as a society it's so easy to believe in luck, in karma, in evil and so hard to believe in God.  It talked about people using God as a way to "get out" of their bad behavior by saying God forgives them, but that's not actually how it all works.  I feel like we do live in a world where people want to believe in other things, even bad things, before they want to believe in God. 

I'd like to think that what you put into something you get out of.  I put my heart and soul into my relationship with my family, I work hard to make my business successful, I have the most amazing and supportive friends, who I love and support too.  I want to believe that my life is as wonderful as it is, because I am willing to work for it.  I don't think that it's up to God whether I have a good marriage, happy children, strong friendships or a successful business. I think that is up to me.  But I do think it's important to believe and trust that there is a higher power.  I think that God is someone or something that we should believe in, especially when you truly want to make a difference and not use God as a crutch.

Which has very little to do with the book, but leads me right into the next book, The Life and Death of Charlie St. Cloud.  This was a very entertaining read.  Quick and easy and yet gives you hope and the desire to believe that life after death does not need to be angels in heaven but really can be about our loved ones still wanting to be with us and still be a visitor in our lives. 

Both books deal with death and what happens afterwards.  Charlie St. Cloud is happy and gives you hope while Dean Koontz write about the scary side of death and all that can happen with that.  Interesting to me that I read them back to back.  Funny how life works out...



Baked Chimichanga

Scott and I have been eating Baked Bean and Cheese Chimicangas for years.  When I was a vegetarian, way back when, I use to search my vegetarian cookbooks for recipes that I thought Scott might enjoy too.  This recipe hits the spot...even if my children only really enjoy eating the outside shell!  They say the "crust" is yummy.  Only my children would be willing to eat the crust!

Bean and Cheese Chimicangas

1 can of refried beans

2 cups of shredded cheese

1/3 cup salsa

1 tsp ground cumin

1/3 cup of butter

8 tortillas

Heat oven to 475. 

Combine beans, cheese, salsa and cumin.

Put butter in a pie plate and microwave until butter is melted.

Place one side of a tortilla in the butter.

Remove and fill with bean mixture.

Roll up envelope fashion and place seam side down in 13x9 inch baking dish.

Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy!

Recreating the Blimpie Sandwich

In all my years of living in Salem, I have missed Blimpie's the most.  I will admit to being addicted to Cobby's sandwiches, but since Scott and my kids love them too, and it's so close to the Boise townhouse, I get it often enough that I'm over most of my cravings.  But Blimpie's is not close to the townhouse, and Blimpie's is not in Salem.  

 I use to eat their sandwiches all the time when I was in college and adored the bread, the cheese (no meat, I was a vegetarian the whole time I was in college), the lettuce, the onion and, of course, the oil and vinegar.  No matter what I did, I could never figure out how to recreate that sandwich or find a sandwich shop that did as great of a job.

But now, I've found the recipe.  I was so excited to open up my Food Network Magazine and find the perfect recipe for an Italian sandwich.  I have had to make them 3 to 5 times a week since finding it, and I swear Scott is going to put us in the poor house, because the meats are so expensive.  It's worth it, but it is so expensive.  I've tweaked a few things but here is the recipe.

Rachel's Version of a Blimpie's Sandwich

1/2 white onion, thinly sliced

8 slices sourdough wheat bread

red wine vinegar

extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 lb provolone cheese

1/4 lb genoa salami

1/4 lb ham

1/4 lb mortadella

1/4 lb capicola

1/2 head of iceberg lettuce finely shredded

1 tomato thinly sliced

dried oregano

Soak onions in cold water.  Drizzle with vinegar and olive oil on sliced bread (2 Tbls each).  Layer cheese and meat, lettuce and tomato.  Drizzle with vinegar and olive oil and sprinkle with oregano. 

Serve and enjoy!

Catching up on Reading

Wow, it's been such a long time since I've written on this blog.  I started this one, because I felt like I was getting so lost in motherhood.  I felt like everything I did, everything I said, everything I was, had to do with raising Sawyer.  I wanted to make sure I took care of me at the same time.  And not just by working out and eating healthy, by mentally being a person outside of being a mother.

I, of course, have been reading and cooking these last two years, but just not documenting what books I've liked (or don't) and what great recipes I've found (or haven't had time to find).  I started to track my books on facebook and realized that I was willing to blog about books again.

My most recent and favorite book that I've read is Room.  What a fantastic book.  I didn't know what the book was about, just grabbing it off the list of books in Sarah's kindle library (which has been so much fun because now we read the same books, at the same time and can discuss them right away), and when I realized it was being told by a 5 year old boy, I was very skeptical.  A boy, that is living in a room, with his mother, and they don't go outside or leave the room at all.  It's a book about overcoming the cards that life has dealt to you.  It's about how to adapt and how someone really can take a situation that is so overwhelming, so difficult, so awful and yet turn it into something else.  I love it.

Oprah was not a book that touched me, or made be feel anything or showed me how to be better, live better or have more compassion.  It was a book that made me realize all it not always as it seems.  I realized that someone who you can feel like is so compassionate, so caring, so insightful and asks all those hard questions, really may be just doing it all to increase her bottom line.  May really be in it to win it, and not to help save the world from itself.  May quote things like, "Live you best life", which is an amazing way to look at life, but was really just saying it so that the average housewife would want to watch the show and try to see what Oprah says to do next.  I still appreciated all the great things Oprah, the show opened my eyes to and all the great advice people on her show gave (such as making sure to love your husband and then to love your kids)and, of course, Dr. Oz and his book You on a Diet.  But I am less impressed with Oprah, the person, now that I have read this book.  She's definitely a hard worker, and person that has amazing drive and determination and definitely deserves everything she has...but it's just what she's done along the way that is so interesting to read about.  It's the other side of Oprah that was really eye opening.

     

There are a number of other books that I have recently read and have enjoyed.  I just would like to start writing about books that I have just finished instead of going back and reviewing all the books I've read in the last 2 years.