Long Time No.. See?

I'm back!!

It's been forever since I've blogged, and I've been told by a few of you that I should keep it up. I just lost all of my motivation to blog for some reason. Oh well, life happens! I'm going to try to check in more often again :)

When we left off, I had just signed up for my first marathon! And well, training was awesome and so was the race.

Let's start with a recap of the trip!

This was Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, MN. We drove there on Thursday, 2 days before the race. We stayed in a hotel that was just about 2 blocks away from the harbor and were on the 11th floor where we had a great view!! .. when it wasn't super foggy!

Duluth was cold and gloomy while we were there. It was dry though on Friday, but they were calling for rain all morning on race day.

On Friday, we explored the town a bit, fed the seagulls, ate a Pizza Luce (my fave!!), and watched the 5k that went on that evening. All while I was trying not to fatigue my legs and while I kept obsessing over the fact that it may rain.. I was pretty nervous/anxious all day, but we still had a good time. Here are some pics..

The lift bridge

I loved the seagulls! They were hungry :)

The fog finally cleared in the afternoon.

It was so pretty by the water.

The start of the 5K.

Cheering them on - the leaders were so fast! 

Then we tried to find somewhere to eat that wasn't packed. We ate pizza around 2 because I wanted to have my large meal before the race earlier in the day so I would have more time to digest it. We ended up just having Subway, which was less-than-stellar, but it worked. I didn't want to fight the crowds anywhere!

That night I took a hot bath while enjoying some Gatorade (orange flavor, of course!) and reading Runner's World. Then I tried to go to bed around 9, but it was too hard. I didn't get there until after 10 probably, and I think I woke up every 2 hours or so. I ended up getting up at 3:45 am to get ready for the race!!

.... And that's where I'm going to leave off for tonight. Next post - Marathon Recap - Hopefully with some of the professional pictures I ordered :-)

I'll be back soon this time - I promise!

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Not your mama's broccoli cheese soup....

More like a broccoli lover's soup! I LOVE the bright green color.

I followed this recipe. It's not vegan, but it's very delicious! I can't remember the last time I bought cheese to cook with, so I think I'm doing well at lessening my impact on the environment, my body, and animals. Sometimes cheese is just delicious.... especially when paired with broccoli!

Served with a slice of Ezekiel bread. It's so good, and eating something this vibrant makes you feel good.

Nutrition facts:

Not bad for a cheesy soup. I got 5 servings out of this recipe.. I can't wait for lunch tomorrow!

And for dessert....

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies! Only one, though..  for now ;) They are very good; I definitely recommend them. Dillon and I had fun baking last night!

On the marathon front I'm doing well - feeling confident and excited! Today was a cross train day, and Dillon and I went on an hour long walk in the snow. It was a nice change; Plus we went out to breakfast at Dunn Brothers, which was awesome. I love coffee and a muffin in the morning!

Dillon and I plan on relaxing for the rest of the evening, which sounds great to me! I hope you enjoyed your weekend!

~Kasey

Here We Go!

No, I'm not talking about Bud Light. Ick.

A year or 2 ago I wouldn't ever imagine I would be doing this...

I think I may be crazy - 26.2 miles is a long way!

But I can do it because I'm a strong, determined woman. Plus, I have a plan.

Thanks, Hal Higdon, for your knowledge about how to get me through this challenge.

I've also been hanging out on No Meat Athlete for some great advice. It's such an awesome site; I can't believe I haven't checked it out more in depth sooner. I even have one of their shirts!

I'm excited to document most of my journey to 26.2 here. Should be fun :)

I'm off to get a foam roller. See you later!

~Kasey

Recently...

I re-discovered my love for oats and coffee (french press, please!).

Cuddled with my cute kitty.

Drank green smoothies.

Had a fun dinner date with friends! 

Walked down by the river, in awe that soon all the land around it would soon be underwater.

Made wonderful granola bars, that are actually pretty nutritious, unlike most packaged bars.

Ingredients: 

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup crushed Quaker Oatmeal Squares

1/2 cup chopped almonds

1/2 cup chopped mission figs

1 tbsp chia seeds

2/3 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup brown rice syrup

1/4 cup honey

Mix together dry ingredients, set aside. Mix together wet ingredients and microwave until it can be stirred smoother. Add wet to dry and mix. Line a square pan with parchment, plastic, or tinfoil, and press mixture into pan. Place in refrigerator to until bars stick together well, and then cut into 12 bars.

Yum! And the nutrition facts - 

Not too shabby! I just used whatever random ingredients I had on hand to make these, so feel free to sub whatever you like. Just make sure to have a good wet to dry ratio to keep the bars together. Much cheaper and healthier than store bought :)

And with that, I'm off! I enjoyed a weekend of rest and fun, and now tomorrow I start my 12-week half-marathon plan! I can't believe it's only 3 months away. I'll share that soon :)

I hope you had a fabulous weekend!

~Kasey

Catch Up!

Hello Friends!

Sorry about my lack of posts the past few days days... I've been busy! With what, you ask? I'm not sure, specifically. Just the usual cooking, working, reading, running, spending time with my lovely family, things like that.

So instead of doing a day by day recap, I'll just show you some of my recent eats.

Breakfast:

Whole wheat pancakes with Nutella and banana - A delicious Valentines breakfast I made on Sunday and served to my hunny in bed.

Valentine's Day breakfast - Nutella Cupcakes (made vegan, of course), blackberries, a clementine, and grapes. I thought a cupcake for breakfast was appropriate for a holiday!

Today's breakfast - a grapefruit and kiwi. Much lighter than the days before, but very delicious!

Lunch:

Veggie sub and cheddar broccoli soup from Erbert and Gerbert's. Dillon and I went to walk around downtown on Sunday since it was nice outside, so we stopped there for lunch.

Log Seitan with hummus and kale on a sandwich thin with carrots and grapes was lunch yesterday.

Pretty much the same today as yesterday - just a wrap, not a sandwich.

Dinner:

More seitan for dinner on Sunday with roasted broccoli and brussel sprouts. I made fish for Dillon because he wasn't approving of my weird hippy food.. haha :)

Yesterday's romaine with italian dressing and more seitan with hummus. Can you tell I'm loving the seitan? It's so tasty and full of protein!

Then tonight was a veggie burger with more roasted veggies and berries. Dillon had a turkey burger.

Other Notable Things: 

A yummy Summit Pumpkin Porter enjoyed on my Sunday out with Dillon.

These delicious No-Bake Chocolate Macaroons. Seriously so good - and I don't even usually like coconut! They are so easy and tasty!

Beautiful flowers Dillon sent to my work on Valentine's Day! I got roses and chocolate at home and lilies at work - What a man! I'm a lucky lady.

As you can see, it has been a busy few days - but a lot of fun and full of delicious food! Weight wise, I'm still doing well. I'm hoping to break 150 by then end of the month, and I only have 1.8 pounds to go before then. I hope it will happen soon!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and Valentine's Day!

~Kasey

From My Hunny

A nice surprise was waiting for me when I got home!

Flowers ♥

What a beautiful, thoughtful gift from my hubby :)

Flowers + Chocolate - I'm such a lucky lady!

We usually celebrate Valentine's Day early to beat the rush - and, well, I'm quite impatient! We had a hot date of getting our taxes done tonight, but tomorrow night we have reservations at the Hotel Donaldson downtown for a fancy, late dinner.

I love Valentine's Day, and I can't wait to get all dressed up for our dinner date tomorrow. I will definitely not be worrying about calories or anything - occasions like this are meant to be savored!

But the calorie counting is going well, and I feel like I'm making progress, slowly, but surely! We'll see how this weekend goes; I'm planning on making Nutella Cupcakes and maybe another baked good. Hopefully I'll be able to use some self control :)

Sorry no pics of food - my eats were pretty boring today. I'll try to do more cooking this week so I'll have some new things to share.

Happy Weekend! 

~Kasey

Clear Your Mind

Today was a great day off! I read, ran, went to yoga, baked and cooked an awesome meal.

I haven't gone to a yoga class in so long! Today I went to the gym and ran for 45 minutes before going to yoga so I could get in some cardio and strength today. I should really go to yoga more because its challenging and relaxing at the same time.

One thing, though - I'm terrible at clearing my mind. I know I need to just be focusing on my breath and body movement, but I can't turn my damn brain off. I have this trouble at night too when I'm trying to go to sleep.

That just means I need to work harder at it, I guess. Try to take more yoga classes and take time each day to try to clear my thoughts. I think that would be something good for me to work on.

Anyway... On to the eats!

I work up really hungry this morning, so I had the usual x2.

I didn't go to the gym until around 11, so I took this as a snack while I ran some errands this morning.

Green monsters are so pretty! This had about 3 cups of spinach, 1 cup of soymilk, 1 tbsp of peanut butter, and 1 small banana.

Then I was still hungry before my workout, so I had 1/2 of a Clif Bar that I picked up at the grocery store.

This is a new flavor, and I liked it a lot! Of course I do love bananas, so I figured I couldn't go wrong with this.

Then after almost 2 hours of working out and 910 calories burned, I didn't feel like cooking lunch - I just wanted to eat!

Chips, salsa, carrot, and pickles. Mmmm - a very random, but tasty lunch.

Then I was on to my baking.

Dillon loves coconut, so I wanted to make him some macaroons. I decided on this recipe for Hippie-roons from the Hungry Hungry Hippie.

They turned out a little flat, but still very good. I even liked them, and I don't even usually like coconut. Dillon was a happy camper.

I also made a fancy dinner today - Mushroom Risotto with Caramelized Onions from Oh She Glows. I've never made risotto before, and it was a process. It was so worth it, though! This is an awesome recipe. The only changes I made was I used brown rice, not barley as I didn't have any, and for liquid I added 1 cup of red wine. Check out Oh She Glows for a great description on how to make it - She takes much better pictures than I do! I just love her blog.

Working on this dish for over an hour was so worth it! The mushrooms were very flavorful and the caramelized onions made the dish.

And one of the best parts was the nutrition facts - 

Click here for additional nutritional information.

This dish made 4 servings, so that's only about 323 calories per serving. It was so rich and filling that you would never think that calories were that low! There's quite a bit of fat, but it's good fats from the olive oil.

I enjoyed this wonderful meal with a glass of Pinot Noir.

And I'm sipping a second glass now :)

I'm sure I'll have a snack later while watching Law and Order SVU with the hubs. Popcorn maybe? We'll see.

It's back to the grind tomorrow for me. Hope you had a fabulous day!

Hazel says Hi!

~Kasey