Family

Please excuse my silence...a long overdue trip was taken back to my hometown to spend time with the woman I have always looked up to.

Happy 92nd Birthday Grams.

Salmon & Dill Croquettes

I am FAR from a food blogger, a dietician, or a chef...but every once in a while, I run across an amazing recipe that share-worthy.

My SIL gave me a bunch of old Oxygen magazines a while back and I recently busted a few out and stumbled upon this recipe while pursuing the pages and feeling badly about my body image. (damn you fitness models)

Of course, being my Mother's Daughter, I had to add a little twist to the ingredients list to it to sass it up.

Salmon and Dill Croquettes
Adapted from Oxygen Magazine

Ingredients

1 Medium sweet potato, peeled and diced
1/2 Small onion, diced
1 16 oz can Salmon, drained (I used Trader Joe's brand)
2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 whole eggs
1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
1 tablespoon old bay seasoning

1 Clove fresh garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon Sea salt
1/4 teaspoon Ground black pepper
1/2 cup Yellow cornmeal

Preparation

1) Preheat oven to 400 degree F.
2) Steam sweet potato and onion in about 1/4 cup of water until the potatoes are soft and the liquid has been absorbed. Add more liquid as needed to complete the cooking process. Place potato and onion mixture in a large mixing bowl.
3) In a bowl, mash the salmon (bones included) with a potato mashe.
4) Add the salmon to the potato mixture. Add mustard, eggs, seasonings, garlic, lemon juice and dill. Mix together.
5) On a small plate, pour out the cornmeal
6) Take 1/4 cup of the salmon mixture at a time and use the palms of your hands to roll it into a ball. Roll the balls in the cornmeal mixture to coat. Add more cornmeal as needed to coat each croquette evenly.
7) Place croquettes on a lined/greased baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve Hot.

I served mine over my "go-to" Kale Salad, with a spritz of a new Truffle Oil Spray I discovered last week.

So Yummy!

How to Staycay...

In a day. No hotels involved.

Wade and I woke up BRIGHT and early on Sunday morning to get our long runs in. 10 sweaty, humid miles later we reconvened for coffee, ran into our friends and had a nice little morning. On our walk back home Wade said to me "let's pretend we are on vacation today!".

If anyone knows my husband, this is slightly out of character...but I was totally on board!

We cleaned up, took a power nap and headed out the door to start our mini vacation day.

First stop:

Modern Steak

We shared fresh oysters and I ordered the Warm Lobster Salad and Wade enjoyed the Shrimp and Artichoke Tortellini. Cocktails were enjoyed as well. The interior of this place is TO DIE. I want to live there. So so perfect.

 We were already at Scottsdale Fashion Square, so we walked over to check out the Nordstrom's sale, where Wade scored some new sunglasses and then we popped into the Ted Baker store where I was treated to a shiny little present. He's very sweet.

Next Stop:

Papago Brewing Company

Beer tasting. Twist my arm. We each sampled 3 beers and then settled on a small beer for enjoying. Great brewery, good beers. Good service.

Final Stop:

Talking Stick Resort and Casino

1. Blackjack Tables. Low bets only. Make lots of new friends.
2. Weasel your way into fancy restaurant as a "VIP" and get private seating.
3. Eat delicious food.
4. Drink equally delicious wine.
5. Enjoy rooftop bar.
6. Wander down to cigar bar.
7. Listen to live music...Stevie Nicks covers, love love love.
8. Drive home WAY past bedtime.

I told him to "be serious". Lordy.

Waking up this morning sucked and I got a well deserved ass beating by Naydine and a Bosu Ball at the gym. I really wanted to throw up. But, I felt much better afterwards. Silver lining, right?

Today was clean clean eating after all that indulgence. But it was one of the BEST days we have had together. So fun, so carefree, so close to home. We made a promise to do this more often.

Does anyone else do this in their hometowns?

Lightweight

Just an FYI. 1 beer and 1/2 glass of wine gives me a fierce buzz. Work events are awesome.

#officiallyold

Construction Zone

So a month or so ago (who knows) I talked about a few new updates we were doing to our lovely Casa.

See.

It's happening!

Fall Racing & A Weekly Update

Is it bad that it's only July and I'm already planning my races for the Fall and Winter? Monsoon season has hit AZ and it has me yearning for cooler morning temps and sunny afternoons.

I'm dreaming off cold start lines and running with gloves. Planning my runs around the weather sucks...if I'm not up at 5:00 am, I'm pretty much stuck with running on the treadmill or late at night. Which I don't do well, because that gives me crazy legs.

I have already registered for a couple of races, which makes me super excited to keep plugging away at the miles!

I'm also very excited that Wade signed up for his first Triathlon! He has been talking about it for months and finally took the plunge and registered for an Olympic Distance race here in Tempe. I'm looking forward to be his support crew and #1 cheerleader.

Here is what I have as a "definite" so far:

August 19th, 2012

America's Finest City Half Marathon

San Diego, California

 

October 7th, 2012

Rock 'n' Roll San Jose (yup, I'm a sucker)

San Jose, California

November 4th, 2012

Women's Half Marathon

Scottsdale, Arizona

February 17th, 2013

IMS Arizona Marathon

Glendale, Arizona 

I'm looking to find something (possibly a half) between August and November to keep me motivated and in shape. There is no shortage of races in December, so I just need to pick what I want to do.

I'm really happy with my past week of training...today is the 1st day I have taken off running since last Friday....8 days in a row so I am grateful for a day of nothing! It should work out that I have 6 days on and 1 day off each week, but some juggling of last week's days forced me to switch my rest day which I used as an active rest day and took a Flow/Vinyasa at the gym.

This past week was the first week I accomplished 6 days/week of running, which I have never done before. I was a little worried that I might not be able to hang or that my body might be angry with me, but I actually feel great and stronger than ever! My only struggle continues to be working on speed because I am still experiencing a lot of soreness throughout the week from my workouts with Naydine. This week was the first time I incorporated speed work into my training in weeks...it was really tough trying to amp up my pace with intervals on really sore legs and arms. I'm thinking my pace might be less than desired at my next half  (AFC) but that's OK because I feel good. My new Mizuno's (more on that later) have been amazing and I don't want to jinx myself, but I think I have found another "go-to" pair of distance shoes.

Recap:

Monday: Legs/Abs w/ Naydine + 5 miles easy (treadmill)
Tuesday: 6 miles (outside, hot @ 90 degree temps)
Wednesday: Upper body w/ Naydine + 5 miles easy (treadmill)
Thursday: 5 mile intervals -1 mile w/u,  5 800's at 8:15 with 400 jogs + cool (treadmill)
Friday: 5 miles (outside, humid & hot)
Saturday: 11 mile long run @ cabin + driveway plyo. Hilly, slow and humid + high altitude
Sunday: REST

Total Miles: 37 (yay!)

My Saturday reward was a mini DQ blizzard (yum) and a couple of these:

 (no need to dress up at the cabin, don't judge me)

Next weeks goal is to maintain training schedule with 4 days of weights and increase speed. Wish me luck.

Did anyone else have a successful week training/running/lifting/yoga-ing?

A Place for Pride

My husband is oh so handy. Look what he did for me (and him too). I made sure to tell him that I have more bling than he does. He loves me.

(Please ignore the messy closet)

I might not have any 1st place medals (actually I have one from a very very teeny tiny small race), but I am proud of every.single.one.

Where do you keep your medals?

Plyo...its no joke.

"I really hate you today".

Yup, I told Naydine The Trainer this today. You see...I was NOT in the mood.. In an attempt to get my ass in gear and rack up some some miles, I ran 5 Saturday and 10 Sunday for a total of 30 miles/week...and I slept like crap last night. I woke up grumpy, tired and not excited about my 7:30 appointment with the Ball Buster.

I begrudgingly dressed myself and marched my unhappy ass in the gym and was greeted with this:

"Today is PLYO, get ready to get your butt kicked!" (*smile)

Ew.

I got busy and spent 30 minutes sweating, swearing and making my heart rate rise to levels I was slightly concerned about. Even some old dude stopped to watch. I'm sure I looked as stupid as I felt performing some of these moves.

She fondly refers to me as "her little firecracker", yeah, I got a firecracker for ya.

After completing 30 minutes of hell I marched my butt upstairs and hopped on the treadmill to get in my 5 miles. The first 2 miles were awful. I felt wobbly and uncoordinated and was quite worried I might fall off and cause a scene.

But I didn't.

I am glad I doing this though, its so nice to have someone to hold you accountable, to keep things exciting, and to make you laugh even when you want to punch her in the face.

Don't worry, I didn't take photographic evidence of this mess.

End of story.

Double Digits

Today was the first time I got back into the double digits...I ran 10 boring-ass miles on the treadmill.

After too much wine last night, I just couldn't get up at the butt crack of dawn to beat the heat, so I did the next best thing. I have about 6 weeks until my next half, so I better get my butt in gear.

Running hungover is rad.

SF Photo Bomb

Day 1

A BIG Birthday. A Flight.. A Westin Lunch. An Upgraded Room. A Seafood Dinner. Many Many Drinks. And we just might have gotten escorted out of a club #2...whoops. I swear it wasn't me. (side-eyeing my husband)

Day 2

A Hangover. Irish Coffees at Buena Vista. Wine Country (nuff said). Sushi Dinner.

Day 3

A Drag Brunch. Shopping. A Bar Tour. A Thai Massage. Clam Chowda

Day 4

Union Square Shopping. China Town. A Goodbye Lunch. A Flight.

Wade and I have traveled to SF together and separate and it was really fun and refreshing to see it from a local's perspective. I can't wait to visit again in October! (hint, I'll be there for a race too)

Reality

We are back. Back to Arizona. Back to reality. Back to the heat.

We spent 3 nights and 4 days "just being" in San Francisco. No touristy events, no plans, no schedule. Waking up when we pleased, just going where the day took us and spending time with my friends that I have missed so much.

It was so fun.

Highlight of the trip? Wine Country, hands down. So beautiful, serene and of course, the wine and company couldn't have been better.

I have lots of pictures....some will be posted, some not. But here is a favorite to share.