Born For This

There’s another goal hovering over us that doesn’t quite rate “resolution” status: clean out the goshdarn pantry.

We’re not packrats in the slightest (I’m very anti-”stuff”), but we accumulate bits and pieces and odds and ends in our pantry and in the fridge (especially in the door), usually things that were purchased for a specific dish or gifts we’ve received that didn’t find their way into our regular rotation. I hate the space that it takes up, but I also hate that it keeps new, fun things from coming into the house.  So, in January (and however long it takes after that), we will be putting some strict limits on what we can buy at the grocery store and farmer’s market, and incorporating at least one “get this out of here” item into every meal.

Some of the highlights of the ingredients to be used:

• 8 (?) jars of jam/preserves
• Several kinds of seaweed
• Goji berries (nothing against them, but they’ve been sitting here for too long because I can’t see them in the pantry when it’s so full)
• Three kinds of hot chocolate mix
• More than 100 tea bags
• 6 kinds of cereal/granola

Nothing too gross or unusual, but lots of things that have gone onto the “do not eat” list for various reasons.  That’s the real challenge ahead of me – incorporating these things into healthy meals and snacks that we’ll actually enjoy!

To start off, we made eggs and homemade refried beans on tortilla chips for breakfast (the chips were the “use it up” food):

Mine felt a little bit naked without salsa or hot sauce, but we can’t buy any because there’s no room in the fridge door.

I also put some orange marmalade (use it up!) in my coffee…no photo, because you really couldn’t see anything special about it   She couldn’t see anything special about any of it:

After all that settled, it was off to the gym for strength (legs day) and 2.8 miles on the treadmill:

• Warm up (.05)
• 11:45 page (1)
• 2 x 400m at 10:00 pace with 1.5 min rest breaks in-between (.8)
• 2 x 400m at 11:00 pace with 1.5 min rest breaks in-between (.8)
• Cool down (.15)

I’m trying to use my “off season” running to increase my slowest pace to 11 min/mile..doesn’t seem too far-fetched, but I only have about 6 weeks left if I’m doing the race in May that’s caught my eye.  I also read an article recently that recommended resting (or cooling down) until your heart rate was about 120, so I’m using that a guide to my rest breaks and cool down.

New Year’s Day

We mostly lounged around and played Wii games.  We ate the obligatory lucky black-eyed peas and cabbage:

(Maple-seasoned peas, cabbage braised in tomato juice, curried pumpkin soup…surprisingly, all vegan)

We also went for a “short walk”, which ended up being 5 miles.  We found one of these guys wandering in our neighborhood without a collar:

He definitely didn’t seem like the outdoorsy type, so we followed him around, instructing him to go home, until it was dark and getting cold.  He was worn out, so I had to take the lace out of my shoe and make a leash for him.  Luckily, one of his neighbors saw us walking him and showed us where he lives…at least, it was his best guess   The doggie went right up to the door to sniff the food dish and lie down, so we figured if he was that comfortable it was a familiar house.  (We even waited another 15 minutes for his owners to get home, but no luck.)  I know I would want someone else to do the same if my cat-baby ever got loose, so I didn’t mind the extra 1.5 miles it took us to follow the dog and make our way home from his house.

Lunchtime…anyone have any healthy recipes that use a jar or two of jelly?

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Food, Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.