Sunday, March 29, 2009

Sunday long run Plus a 2-fer recipe!



Oh, the last few weeks have been filled with food-laden temptations. Friday night it was pizza, wine, beer, and 4 kinds of desserts at my grandma's house. Luckily the pizza was vegetarian (because everyone is Catholic and therefore not eating meat). Round Table's veggie pizzas are surprisingly not that terrible for you. I only had 2 pieces. That is impressive for me.

Saturday I mostly hung around the house after a half day of work. After a stimulating 40-minute bike ride in GORGEOUS weather, I cooked a healthy dinner of chicken stir-fry with two kinds of mushrooms, lots of ginger and garlic, and some crushed red pepper. Yum! But then I was sitting around a house that still has Christmas, Valentine, and now Easter candy hanging around (plus leftover desserts from Grandma's house).

Today, Sunday, is my day to go for a "long" run. This can mean anything from 4 miles to whatever. Today I decided to try for around 14. I ended up doing 13.93. Who would have thought that a piece of cake, half a banana, and a glass of milk would make a good pre-run breakfast? Well, it did! That particular cake was NOT leftover from Grandma's house. I made it myself for my son's birthday and there were leftovers. It was reduced sugar, reduced fat, no cholesterol. (only 3 WW points)

Anyway, it was very warm and sunny today on my run, but it was also WINDY. I capitalized that for a reason. At one point I was running hard and it seemed like I wasn't moving forward! I got my resistance training and my cardio in at the same time, I guess!

Usually on long runs, I run in intervals of 5 minutes of jogging to 1 minute of walking. Today I upped it to 6:1. It went well! I was so glad! Every 4 miles or so I stopped by my house to eat a Clif Shot Blok and drink a little electrolyte drink (also by Clif). I have a bunch of that sort of junk left over from marathon training. I'm all out of my favorites and just trying to use up the dregs now.

I made my 7-year-old come with me for the last 2.25 miles. He didn't really want to, but I talked him into it. It was such a beautiful day and he was just sitting indoors since his brothers were all gone for the weekend. He balked at the idea of doing 3:1 intervals (none of my boys can keep up with me when we run so I have to slow down, WOOT), so I lied and told him we would do 3:2. LOL, I fessed up the last half mile, though. He wasn't mad.

All together, my run today took me 2 hours and 29 minutes. Not bad! I averaged a 10-minute mile until I slowed down for my son. Afterwards I downed about a half gallon of water and a glass of milk for some carbs and protein. After my shower, I was craving salty food (lost a lot today in sweat). Since I am totally obsessed with Trader Joe's pizza sauce the past few days, and had some mushrooms that needed using, I whipped up some turkey-stuffed mushrooms. I had a lot of meat filling left over after I stuffed the caps, and I had already counted all the points for everything, so I just cooked it up into a "turkey pizza burger" and ate it with a fork and knife. Both turned out delicious, and it was actually a pretty filling lunch. You could serve the pizza burger on light bread or a bun if you like!

--Turkey Stuffed Mushroom Caps (with a bonus)--

-3 ounces extra lean ground turkey breast
-7 large white button mushrooms, stems removed and chopped
-1/4 cup fat-free pizza sauce, divided
-1 ounce lite shredded mozzarella
-1/4 ounce shredded parmesan
-1 tsp. garlic olive oil
-1 clove garlic, chopped
-2 Tbsp. diced onion
-Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400F. Sautee the onion, garlic, and mushroom stems over medium heat just until softened. Mix with ground turkey, about half of the pizza sauce, salt and pepper to taste, and mozzarella. Use a small spoon or your fingers to pack the mushroom caps tightly with meat mixture. Mound it up so the top is rounded; place a few shreds of parmesan on top of each one. Bake in a dish sprayed with cooking spray for about 15 minutes or until meat is cooked through and cheese is bubbly and starting to brown. If desired, top mushrooms with additional pizza sauce after cooking.

You can cook any leftover meat mixture in a nonstick skillet until cooked through - about 7 minutes per side. Serve with any remaining pizza sauce and parmesan cheese not used for mushrooms.

Nutritionals: Sorry, I was too lazy to calculate them. But the WW points are 4.5

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