Apple Pie

I've been a busy baker the last two days, yesterday I made Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies for Tony's class and tonight I made a homemade apple pie for Thanksgiving. We are leaving tomorrow sometime around mid day to make the 8 hour drive to Asheville, North Carolina to meet my BFF Jessica and her hubby to share the holiday, so I decided tonight was the time to make the pie so I can squeeze in a date with the treadmill tomorrow morning. I've never made a pie before, ever. So this was a new challenge for me. I cheated and used the pre-made refrigerated Pillsbury pie crust, so I guess it's more semi-homemade.  I used the recipe on the side of the box, it's as follows:

6 cups peeled and thinly sliced apples (it said 6 medium apples, I used 4 large Granny Smith and it made a ton of filling)
2 Tbsp flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg (I cheated and used more like 1/4 tsp)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2-3 Tbsp butter (this was my own addition)

Gently mix all ingredients except butter in a large mixing bowl, roll out first thawed pie crust into pie plate, then spoon in filling from the bowl, throw in the butter cut into a few pieces. Cover with second thawed pie crust and then seal and flute the edges and vent the top by cutting a few slits in the top. Pop it in a 425 degree preheated oven for 40-45 minutes. The directions suggested wrapping the edges of the crust with aluminum foil about 15 minutes into the baking process, however I just got this nifty silicone pie crust shield which I just popped on top before I put the pie in the oven. Remove from oven when the crust is golden brown and apples are tender. Allow to cool for 2 hours before serving.

Enjoy! I know we will! And Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tony has to bring something into his grad class tomorrow, so of course I told him that I would provide some kind of sweet treat for him to take. Enter chocolate white chocolate chip cookies. I bought a ton of white chocolate chips last week in order to make peppermint bark this holiday season, so I decided to use some of my supply to make the recipe on the back of the bag. I wasn't paying attention when I was measuring out my ingredients and think I put in an extra 1/3 cup of cocoa, but they still ended up yummy!

Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies (From Nestle)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
 
Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop by well-rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
 
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until centers are set. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

 

Week 9 Complete and A New Goal

I finished a modified version of Week 9 of C25K today. I counted the 5K on Thursday as Day 1, since essentially the whole gist of Week 9 is to warm up for 5 mins, run a 5K in 30 mins, and then cool down for 5 minutes, so since I ran Thursday's 5K in 30:03 I am saying that is sufficient for W9D1. The other 2 days I actually ran above the allotted 30 minutes, I ended up running for 35 minutes straight! I am so super pumped! I spent Friday and today making best friends with the treadmill and seeing the distance ticker on it and my Nike+ turn passed 4 miles!

So now my new goal is to train for a 10K. I set up my Nike+ account to "coach" me for it for 12 weeks. I want to start next week after we come home from North Carolina where we are going to visit my BFF Jessica for Thanksgiving, but we leave for Vegas five days after we get back, and I don't know how much running I am going to get done there, especially since Paris apparently charges an astronomical daily fee to use their gym. I may have to just stick with walking on the strip amongst the throngs of people and resume running when we get back. Hopefully I can stay on track and see about getting some running in. On the weight loss front, I am down 1 lb this last week, not bad if I do say so myself, considering my eating isn't always great. Here are the stats for this final week:

Week 9, Day 1: 3.1 miles, 30:03
Week 9, Day 2: 4.25 miles, 45:30
Week 9, Day 3: 4.25 miles, 45:28

I am so happy to be a C25K graduate! Bring on the 10K and eventually half marathon! 

Turkey Trot 5K

I ran my first 5K this morning, it was a fun run Turkey Trot on base. It was so much fun! I have been looking forward to this race for about a month now. Originally Tony signed up to run the race with me and I was happy that I would have him there to keep me motivated and keep me company. However, he had to back out due to an important conference call he couldn't miss. So I was all set to run the race on my own. I got to the location, Tony still agreed that he would be able to meet me there before the race and at least see me take off before he needed to be back in the office for his call. Well little did we know four of his coworkers also signed up for the race! So Lisa, Cmdr. Haupt, Steve, and Dave were there with me. I was so happy. Dave ended up being my running partner and kept pace with me the entire time. He was so awesome!

The weather was beautiful! I was worried about what to wear considering it hasn't gotten above 45 degrees in the last two days and has been cloudy/rainy. Today it was forecast to be 64 degrees and sunny, and it held true. I stressed last night about what to wear since I haven't run outside in the last month and a half, I don't have any technical shirts (this is at the top of my xmas list) and barely any long sleeve t-shirts, but I have always heard dress as if it's 20 degrees warmer, so I settled on yoga capris, a good wicking sports bra, and a racer back tank. I went with a jacket on, but I quickly knew I wouldn't be needing it. I also stashed some gloves in my bag too, but I definitely wouldn't be needing them either.

But I digress, so we all lined up and "Ready, set, GO!!!!!" and we were off. I had my Nike+ and ipod set to 5K to keep track and make sure we were good with our agreed 10 minute per mile pace. The first half was pretty good, Dave and I were spot on at 6 min/km ~ 10 min/mi. I had my tunes to keep me going and was doing pretty well. At the halfway point there was a water stop. I drank and ran, spilling half the water on me, but no worries. Then it was looping back around for the second half. The second half kicked my butt! At about 2.25 miles I was feeling it, I wanted to slow down, but Dave wouldn't let me. Finally at about 2.85 miles maybe, I just couldn't keep running, I had to slow down and walk for a few seconds. It was probably about 30 seconds or so that I walked and as I rounded the corner the finish line was in sight! So I sprinted to the end...and I finished in 30:03!!! My goal going into the race was to finish in 30 minutes, and I did it!!! My Nike+ was underestimating again though, it registered the race as 4.85 km, so I will have to recalibrate again. But I definitely maintained my 10 min/mi pace! I am so proud of myself and feel so good!

 

After all our team crossed the finish line we all filed into the dining room at the rec center to enjoy a delicious turkey dinner. The food was pretty good. It was a perfect end to an awesome race! Oh and I won a 13.2 lb turkey! After the lunch there was a raffle and the prizes were a 30 minute massage (I wish I had one that!), a $15 Subway gift card, a $30 Starbucks gift card (I wish I would have gotten that one too!), and 4 turkeys. Cmdr. Haupt and I each won one of the turkeys!! So now I have a frozen turkey in our freezer waiting for our early Christmas/Tony's grad school graduation celebration with the in laws. All in all it was an amazing first race and I can't wait to run another one!! I leave you with the image on the back of my new shirt:

So true!!

Peppermint Bark

The holidays are fast approaching, so what better time to start some candy making? I saw this recipe on one of the blogs I follow and have been dying to make it since I saw it. See I am obsessed with peppermint bark. Tony and I bought a bag of Dove Peppermint Bark squares at the commissary a few weeks ago. There are about 6 chocolates left in the candy dish on the coffee table right now. This is actually pretty surprising, I guess we both have been trying to restrain ourselves and not eat every single one of them. So after seeing the recipe I decided now was the right time to make my own. Yesterday I went to Sam's Club and low and behold they sell a 72 oz. bag of semi sweet chocolate chips! Woo hoo!! Let the baking commence! So here it goes:

Peppermint Bark (adapted from Peabody)

14 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips (the original recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate, it doesn't specify chips or not)
14 oz. white chocolate chips
1/2 crushed candy canes

I measured out 14 oz. of the chocolate chips using my kitchen scale, poured them into a bowl and zapped them in the microwave for about 1.5 mins. Stirred until they were all melted and the right consistency. Then spread the melted chocolate about 1/4 inch thick onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. I used an angled spatula to spread it easily.

Once that was done I put it in the fridge to harden and worked on the candy canes and white chocolate and eventually left it to sit in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Next, I zapped the 14 oz. of white chocolate chips in the microwave for about 1.5 minutes on 70% power. Stirred until the right consistency and then poured and spread it over the hardened semi sweet chocolate layer. Then I dumped the 1/2 cup crushed candy canes on top and tried to spread them as well, however this was a bit difficult as the white chocolate seems to begin to harden pretty quick. Also I crushed my candy canes in my Magic Bullet and it made them very fine, more like a powder. I think it would have worked better if I had just put the candy canes in a Ziploc and rolled over them with a rolling pin. It helps to try to push the crushed candy canes into the white chocolate, but like I said, you have to be quick about it!   So here's the almost finished product:

After it is all assembled, I put the tray back in the fridge to let it set for about 20 minutes. Then the fun began! It was all about breaking. Just take the hardened chocolate and break it into as many pieces as you want. They will be irregular and some will be larger than others, but that's ok. Some of mine ended up coming all apart, the white chocolate with the candy canes separating from the chocolate layer, which annoyed me a little, but in the end it is still delicious! Enjoy, I know we will!

Week 8 Complete

I am feeling super accomplished and back on track, I finished Week 8 of C25K today! I am still behind thanks to my never ending illness, I have the Turkey Trot 5K on Thursday, which will be one day after I start Week 9, in fact I may make the race Day 1 of Week 9. But anyway, Week 8 was pretty good, I have gone by longest distances this week and some pretty steady paces. Week 8 was definitely challenging, it was straight running for 28 minutes, the first two days I had to stop at different points, whether it was slowing down to a power walk for 30 seconds, or pausing the treadmill and stretching, or on Saturday I was in pain with a blister on my arch and had to stop for a minute to examine what the hell was hurting in my shoe so bad.

I also had some issues with my Nike+ first overestimating and then underestimating my distances, I am happy to say after calibrating it for a third time, it now is spot on with the treadmill in both the distances and the pace now. Weigh in this week was the same as last week, but I'm not really surprised considering my eating hasn't been so great lately, I definitely need to work on that this week. I am so excited though to run the race on Thursday, I will definitely be back with a full race report! Until then, here are the stats for this week:

Week 8, Day 1: 3.24 miles, 39:12 (my Nike+ was off this day, the treadmill said 3.35 miles when I was done, plus I also decided to calibrate the Nike+ following the workout due to this error, I did an additional .50 miles of running and .25 miles of walking, so total mileage for today was 4.1 miles and time was 48:15).
Week 8, Day 2: 3.62 miles, 40:00
Week 8, Day 3: 3.63 miles, 39:59

Week 7 Complete...Sorta...

So I have been super sick for the last few weeks, I managed to run the first day of W7 of C25K on Tuesday Oct 27th, then I just couldn't do it anymore, I was tired, in pain and just feeling plain old icky. Then it got worse, I managed to also pick up a cold flu that weekend which brought more fever, drippy/runny nose, and the worst of all chest congestion and cough. I missed running, but I seriously did not feel like doing it and all articles I read said if any symptoms were below the neck or you had a fever over 99.0 degrees to not run. So I heeded the advice and sat the week out.

I finally feel better and most of my symptoms have disappeared, so Saturday I finally got back to the treadmill. I picked up on W7 again, thinking the 11 day hiatus would not have affected me that badly, but sadly I think I was wrong. It was very difficult for me to get through the 25 minute run, in fact I slowed down to a brisk walk for about 45 seconds when I was about 15 minutes into the run. But alas I trudged on and finished. Today I ran what would be W7D3 technically. Again, it was super difficult. I paused to stretch about 15 minutes into the run, and then I felt like I was doing well, but I wanted to change my playlist on my ipod, I couldn't do it still running, so with 6 minutes left to go I again paused for a couple seconds to fiddle with the click wheel. I ended up running for a full 25 minutes after all, but I don't know if I am ready to move on to Week 8 yet. I think Wednesday I will begin Week 8, but if it proves very difficult for me, I will stop at the 25 minute run mark and not run the extra 3 minutes that W8 entails, thus repeating one additional day of W7.

Fingers crossed I do well. I feel so behind now on my training and my 5K is in 10 days, yet I won't be done with C25K by then now like I would have been if I hadn't gotten sick. I am really disappointed and I just hope that I finish the 5K in the 30 minutes that is my goal. Anyway, stats for Week 7:

Week 7, Day 1: 3.25 miles, 34:48 (my farthest distance and fastest pace ever)
Week 7, Day 2: 3.19 miles, 34:59
Week 7, Day 3: 3.19 miles, 35:12

The plus side is, even though I was sick and ended up losing another 2 lbs, I thought for sure when I finally felt better and started eating again I would gain some back, especially since I haven't been eating healthily, but nope, still down 2 lbs!! Yay! I am hoping that now that I am back to running and finally getting back to eating right that I will drop even more.