Well, today was my first day back at work, and in true expansion-at-work fashion, THIS arrived on the conference room table right next to my desk at 10 am:

Ummm, yes, that’s leftover red velvet wedding cake with cream cheese icing. Next to my desk. Where I sit all day. At 10 am. Always a good sign … or never a good sign, depending on who you ask. I must say, it was comforting to return to work and know that nothing had changed while I was away 🙂

Another exciting conference room arrival happened to be waiting in the wings as well, just a glance away.



So far, my office is batting a million for the day, wouldn’t you say? I made myself a little bowl with two end slices of cake (for maximum frosting coverage, obviously) and some PB&Co peanut butter pretzels.



I nibbled on the pretzels throughout the morning but somehow managed to cover the bowl with a plate and save the cake for afternoon so that I didn’t accidentally take more and more slices until I had eaten the whole thing. As it was, I ran back to the cake tray every time someone took a piece so I could collect the abandoned crumbs!

Another morning snack happened when Jessica, my desk neighbor, came back from an errand and plunked this treasure chest of fresh coconut down on my desk:



She got it from the usual man on the corner, but it was extra dry today for some reason (usually it’s hanging out in its own juice) and she wasn’t a fan … so she gave it all to me! I do not turn up my nose at fresh coconut, dry or otherwise (although I think that’s a recent development because I used to hate coconut). I tested out a small piece, and it was definitely “crunchier” than normal, but still tasty. I brought the rest home to use for a future kitchen project. Any suggestions? (I’ve already done raw macaroons — I want to try something different but still desserty!)

I spent the afternoon with Inginia in the parent and me group, and one of the moms brought this amaaaaaaazing chicken noodle soup for lunch, all spicy with Mexican seasonings:



Ummm, I had three bowls of it. Typical.

For dessert, I had an orange. And for dessert dessert, I had another orange.

When I got back up to my desk, there was no wedding cake left of the conference room table. Thank you, god of non-profit agencies! Confident that I still had my two little cake slices stashed in a bowl behind my tissue box, I polished off the peanut butter pretzels.



And concluded my snack with a spicy-sweet treat from Belkis’ candy jar:



I met my second grader for our second to last counseling session (sadly, my new position won’t allow me the extra time I had as a student!) and then came back to my desk to finish my first day back in the same way I started: with cake!

I did not even touch one morsel of the food I packed for today, so it’s waiting in the fridge at work for me to rescue it tomorrow. I could not imagine a more fitting way to come back to work after three weeks of vacation! Things will get hectic and busy soon enough (err, starting with the return of classes tomorrow night!), so it was nice to have a pleasantly soft start back, complete with welcoming office food 😀

Has anyone ever brought leftover wedding cake to YOUR office? What is the most unique work/school food contribution you have ever received?

Last night’s dinner was a repeat of my lunch salad … minus the chips and egg and plus roasted purple cauliflower! (That sentence is exclamation-worthy due to the purple-ness, duh).

On the side, I had 1/3 a corn on the cob that I wrapped in foil, husk and all, to bake for 20 minutes at 450 and then kicked up to a broil for another 15:

At which point I peeled the cob completely and broiled 5 more minutes for some char.

I thought I’d be good for the night after that, but I got hungry again around 8. I was all ready for bed and everything! But everything must halt when hunger strikes. I defrosted a slice of healthy cheesecake and had it with some chia-tapioca pudding and blueberries on the side:

(OK, maybe I didn’t defrost all the way. It’s hard to wait!)

Also last night, I set to work on a breakfasty creation inspired by my carrot pudding cake. This time, the cake involved a package of Peeled dried mango:

(Obviously, I ate some as I chopped, soooooo good.)

In addition to the mango, I used two grated carrots, 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut, splash vanilla, the 3/4 cup peppadew piquante juice left in the jar (I used the last of the peppadew for my salad), an egg, vanilla, cinnamon, a pinch of salt, about 1.5 tsp baking powder, and 2 tbsp dry millet. I baked in ramekins at 375 for 40 minutes, and four mini carrot “cakes” were born:

One of them was for breakfast, heated with Artisana cacao bliss of course.

I’m big on texture, so I think it’s important to show you that, even with no flour, the texture still gets very cakey!

I was nervous about how the peppadew juice would work because it was spicy, yikes! But I love it! There’s a small hint of heat in there, but the sweetness still comes through.

Breakfast part two was courtesy of [California’s] berry season 😛 I let 1/2 cup plain yogurt marinate with a 1/2 cup mixture of golean crunch and All-Bran Strawberry Medley and then topped it with banana, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and hulled hemp seed.

Messed:

This perfect breakfast came following my triumphant return to 5am gym trips. (It’s now light at 5am, yay!! So much has changed in three weeks!) I kept it light at the gym because I’m no longer training for a half marathon (wooooooooot!), so I did 15 minutes steps, arms (oh arms, how I’ve missed you!), 15 minutes elliptical, and stretching/abs … and then I WALKED home to enjoy my meal with a tall glass of water:

OK, it’s back to work for me today! I hope I remember how to get there 😛

Do you forget how to do easy easy things after a long break?

I’m working very hard on enjoying my last day of vacation today! I’ll be back at work tomorrow and back at class Tuesday night. Where did these three weeks go???

I did some food prep for the week this afternoon, which involved cooking 1/2 cup each of brown rice and BRM triticale berries in 2.5 cups of whey left from Greek yogurt-making. I forgot about the cooking grains until my nose led me to the burning pot! The grains happened to be cooked perfectly, and I scraped the crunchy bits out of the pot for a snack with a strawberry and some soymilk, mmm:

I labored down my steps and outside to try to grease my achy and creaky legs with some walking … and I stumbled upon some exciting grocery finds! Purple cauliflower:

Samoas ice cream:

My grocery stores NEVER carry the fancy Edy’s flavors (and I totally missed the boat on buying girl scout cookies), so I almost screamed in the aisle when I saw this! And it was the only one. Fate.

The top was all melty when I finally got back home:

Hmmm, which new find did I try first?

There was no contest, was there?

Lunch was a salad with cucumber, tomatoes, spicy peppadew, a hard-boiled egg, feta, and the last of the TJ’s rice and bean chips (a sad moment).

In other new food news, I brought these colored tapioca back from my mom’s house last weekend. She gets carried away in Asian grocery stores.

I soaked the tapioca for an hour or so in water until they soaked it all up and got soft.

Then, I cooked the tapioca in a boiling mix of 1.5 cups unsweetened soymilk and 1/2 cup water, stirring until it turned into pudding, mmm. For flavoring, I decided to mix it into the chia pudding. Plus, the tapioca was more or less devoid of nutrition (aside from the soymilk, which is of questionable value) while the chia pudding was jam-packed with nutrition. Might as well spread the wealth!

I was right — the sweetness from the dates and the vanilla flavor was strong enough to translate into the tapioca-chia mix, and the result was a brilliantly varied array of balls.

I inaugurated the pudding concoction with none other than my new Samoas ice cream 😀

Layers: 1/2 cup chia-tapioca pudding, 1/2 chopped apple, 1/4 cup samoas ice cream, blueberries

Yum infinity.

Cookie piece!

SO excited about this ice cream!!

Have you had any fateful food finds lately?

OK, I might be slightly stiff and sore and creaky today, but I suppose that’s to be expected after running 13.1 miles yesterday 😀

Last night, I parked myself on the couch and didn’t move for the rest of the night except for food. It was glorious. Except that I got hungry again and again and again. Running 13.1 miles will do that to you, I suppose. (Yes, I actually am on a mission to mention how I ran 13.1 miles yesterday as many times as possible.)

Dinner started with three salsas:

First was yogurt mixed with the last of my mango-peppadew salsa (once again, this salsa is delicious but reminded me more of cooked fruit than salsa — the first two ingredients are mango and apple! — so that’s how I used it) and topped with chopped strawberries and hulled hemp seeds.

For the side, I whipped out the two TJ’s salsas that Elisabeth sent:

The habanero lime salsa was soooooooooo spicy, but the peach salsa was mild and sweet. I mixed the two together for a perfect balance and used the blend for dipping the TJ’s rice and bean chips.

These chips are slowly quickly becoming an addiction. I’ve only had them for a few days, but they’re almost gone! And the thought makes me all shaky (or maybe I’m shaky because I ran 13.1 miles yesterday, hehehehehe).

Soon, I was hungry again, so I heated the rest of mom’s Indian pudding (mom, is there another batch in your future? do you think this mails well???) and topped it with a big blob of real vanilla ice cream:

And finally, I ended things with a slice of healthy cheesecake and some strawberries:

To be honest, I actually expected to be more ravenous after running 13.1 miles, but every time the hunger hit, it was more of a little annoyance than an OMG I must eat everything in sight this instant kind of feeling.

I did, however, wake up at 6:00 this morning very ready to eat, so I put together an early morning cocktail (on my bedside table window):

Inspired by Michelle‘s parfait yesterday, I needed one of my own! I made another batch of chia pudding last night, using plain yogurt in place of the water this time, and it was fully absorbed and ready to go today! For my parfait, I used 1/2 cup of the chia pudding, 1/4 cup plain yogurt, 1/2 cup mix of All-Bran Strawberry Medley (got this box for free with a coupon a while ago!) and Kashi GoLean Crunch, sprinkles of hemp seeds, 1/2 chopped apple, and 4 chopped strawberries.

Layers:

I couldn’t help throwing a spot of cacao bliss on top with cinnamon:

Mmmmmmmmm, brilliantly blissful. I love breakfast. I should probably be eating this every morning. And at every meal. What makes you feel blissful in the morning?

Who just RAN 13.1 miles???????????

I DID!!!!! I ran the ENTIRE thing … no stopping except for gatorade at every fluid station.

I know, I know. You’re thinking, she ran it all after going on and on about all her drama? But it’s true! Somewhere near the beginning, I started to think about how cool it would be if I ran the whole thing, and then I suddenly couldn’t bear the thought of stopping to walk! Here’s a brief(ish) recap of how it all went down:

Erin Gunn, Kate, and I took ourselves all the way to the back of the looooooooong starting line. I ran into Ashley (who I find EVERYWHERE), but we quickly said our goodbyes so that she could jump into her faster-paced group. My partners-in-crime and I spent nearly 20 minutes waiting for our group to get up to the start line — this race was seriously so packed! — and making snarky comments about how we were certifiable to be doing this. When we finally got up to the front, I suddenly decided that I needed to go to the bathroom and ran for the port-a-potties as the girls took off. They thought I was crazy, but I was not about to be dreaming of potties for the next 13.1 miles! I finally got back to the start line and set out all by myself. To be honest, though, I was glad to be alone because I didn’t want to feel tempted to go faster than I should.

I was shocked when I got to Mile 1 and saw on my HRM that I did it in 11.5 minutes. I’ve been running 15-minute miles (when I’ve allowed myself to run) since the “incident” over two months ago. I decided I needed to slow down to be safe. So I did.

I got really annoyed when I hadn’t quite hit mile marker 2 and all the people running in the lane to my right were on their second lap and already on mile 6. I thought about how they were almost done and I was not. Mile 2 took me 12 minutes, and I was pleased.

Somewhere between Mile 2 and Mile 3, I sensed a lot of commotion immediately to my left. I was so focused on running straight ahead that I barely noticed it, but something made me glance back after I had passed. It was Mike (Erin’s fiancee) and D-Lo cheering wildly for me! And I had completely blown by them without even acknowledging it! I gave a little side wave, but the baffled looks on their faces when I glanced back kept me giggling for another mile.

I finished Mile 3 in 11 minutes and made myself slow down again. Mile 4 was 13 minutes, and I didn’t need to make myself slow down anymore because I was running as fast as I could! In Mile 5, my hamstring, groin, and glutes (and other new muscles!) started to feel really tight and slightly more stressed. I got a little worried, but the pain was pretty consistent and just felt like tiredness rather than worsening injuries — plus, I had already decided I would run the whole thing — so I kept plugging away. There were a few more 13-minute miles after that. There were also a couple passes by the park entrance that is right near my apartment. I kept thinking, I have been running for so long, yet I have gone nowhere!

I finally exited the park just before completing Mile 7, and I was thrilled!

As pretty as the park is, I know it like the back of my hand, so it tends to get monotonous. Once I hit the street pavement, everything was new to me. I was still running 12/13-minute miles consistently. There were other exciting things about hitting mile 7: (1) I knew that this was the longest I had run continuously since getting injured and (2) I was over halfway done!

From there, I was in the zone. The songs that Olivia had put onto the running mix for Kate and me were perfect. I couldn’t even tell you what they were, but they were steady and just fast enough to keep me moving but subtle enough to fade into the background.

I ran into Erin Gunn just after finishing
Mile 10. Her hip flexor troubles were flaring up, so she’d had to stop to walk and stretch a few times. We jogged together for a couple minutes until she needed another break and pulled to the side again. Taylor Swift (my own playlist addition) and Kanye (Olivia’s addition) carried me along through the rest of Mile 11. I was psyched at this point because I knew that every step past 10.5 was a PDR (personal distance record … because I’m down with the racing lingo). Obviously, there was no way I’d start walking at this point!

Erin Gunn and I traded places a couple more times over the next mile, but by the time we hit the marker for Mile 12, she was well ahead of me again and stayed that way for the rest of the race (yayyyyyyy, Erin!!!!).

Also upon completing Mile 12, the breeze from the OCEAN kicked in. Smelling that salty air and knowing that the finish line was all mine after only one more mile was the best motivation ever!

The best part was the last leg of Mile 13 along the boardwalk with the OCEAN right beside me! I was in heaven — the perfect breeze, the perfect smell, the perfect view, and the finish line in sight!

My official personal race time (adjusting for the 20 minute delay at the beginning) was
2:41:39 with a 12:20 minute mile.

HRM also told me that I had burned over 1600 calories — YIKES!!!! Get this girl some food!

Thanks.

I located Erin and Kate … and Mike and D-Lo, our vitamin-water-bearing heroes:

Erin Gunn said she never wanted to stand again, so we took our pictures on the ground:

The boys led us to the car and dropped Kate and me off at my place after many many many minutes of traffic jamming. That’s right! No subway for me on half-marathon day 😀 Thanks, Mike! AND CONGRATULATIONS TO ERIN GUNN AND KATE!!! (and to all my bloggy ladies who ran the half today … especially to Heather who has been such an excellent support throughout the training!)

And now that I have that out of my system, let’s check out some race fuel, shall we?!

I obviously started my morning with the most perfect race fuel ever: an overnight breakfast cookie, a la Fitnessista.

While I was making this cookie last night, I put in every powerful ingredient I could find: 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats, 1 tbsp peanut butter, mashed yam, unsweetened coconut, goji berries, lucuma powder, flax seeds, chia seeds, unsweetened cocoa powder, and a chopped square of Newman’s Own Organics dark chocolate espresso bar.

This morning, I spread the cookie with cacao bliss (what else?!) and enjoyed every bite immensely.

You already saw lunch #1, which came in the form of pretzels and vitamin water after the race (and probably close to a gallon of lemon-lime gatorade over the course of the race). I didn’t get hungry again until about 2:30, so I oven-ed up the rest of of my sardine-feta pizza (don’t hate — it really was soooooooo delicious).

After a bit of pizza digestion, I moved on to bigger and better things: baked yam with a giant pile of cacao bliss and a sprinkle of unsweetened coconut.

(There’s actually a ton of cacao bliss hiding under there, too. The coconut covered it up, and I certainly couldn’t have that so … I added more bliss to the top :-D)

And let’s not forget about the silent partner in this whole process:

And THEN, Paige came over to see about the tent … and she liked it and I liked her, so yayyyyy new roommate!!! (as of July 1) And yay for the blog providing an excellent forum for roommate-hunting! 😀

Ahhhh, the half marathon is DONE and I DID IT!!!! I can’t believe I lived to tell the tale. (And no, I never have to run a half again!)

Do you prefer running for races or running recreationally? (or not running at all?)