Foodie Penpals

I don't know if you guys have ever noticed that little stamp on the bottom right corner of my blog that says Foodie Penpals, but if you hadn't I bet you're looking now!

Foodie Penpals is this really cool program that I just kind of stumbled upon while blog surfing a while back. The idea is simple, you have a penpal that you send to and a penpal that you receive from and no, they're not the same person. By the 5th of the month you receive your penpal's info and then you contact them to find out what their dietary restrictions are and things like that. Then you have until the 15th of the month to put together a little box of treats, with a limit of $15, and ship it off to them! Then when the end of the month comes you do a reveal blog, if you're a blogger, about the box that you got! Seriously, is this not the coolest thing?

Of course, there are always snags when you're relying on the honor system. The penpal I'm receiving from apparently lost her job and had to wait until yesterday to ship out my package. I'm skeptical that I'll get it but we'll see I guess.

For my first package, my penpal follows a paleo diet. Let me tell you how hard it is to put together a paleo friendly box when you really don't know what is and isn't alive. I'm not sure how many times I Google searched " is (insert food here) paleo?". My favorite was when I was looking to see if Larabars were allowed and the first response I found was "Is there a Larabar tree?", definitely made me laugh. If you would like to read the reveal blog about the box I put together you can visit Elizabeth here.

If you'd like to learn more about the program you can check out the creator's blog here. I should add that the commitment is only a monthly basis. If you try it one month and decide it's not for you, you simply don't sign up again. I just love the idea of getting a surprise box of food every month and trying things that may not be available here or that I was skeptical of purchasing on my own!

Until next time,
Lauren

2013 Indiana Spartan Sprint

To say I had no idea what I was getting myself into this weekend would be the understatement of the century.  For those of you that don't know, this weekend I ran the 2013 Indiana Spartan Sprint and it was a blast. I have never in my life participated in an event that took so much out of you and was still so fun. Let me tell you a little about it...

What is a Spartan Sprint? Well, it's a slightly less than 5 mile run with an obstacle course smack dab in the middle of it. And by obstacle course, I'm not talking easy little things. Oh no, we're talking jump over fire, army crawl through the mud under barbed wire and scale an 8 foot wall obstacle course. Yes, I paid to do this. 

Granted, we had no idea what the obstacles would be until we got on the course. So we get to the park, get checked in and get our race packets which have the following printed on the outside:

Right, that's not intimidating at all... So, we proceed to take a group picture and look around a little. The route of the race went through a woods and for the first half, basically was an S shape. That enabled us to see some of the obstacles from the "festival" site. The one below was actually one of the easier tasks. You climbed up, over and down the net. We learned, while waiting to go up, that it was the halfway point. I wish that fact had been more comforting. 

 The two pictures below are of the final obstacles. What you can't see is that the other side of that wooden structure is a ramp covered with mud. Oh, and a roughly 3.5 foot deep mud hole to wade through before going up the ramp. To get up it you grab the rope and walk up. I'm pretty proud to say I made it all the way up and over in one attempt. I did get a little help from a guy at the top, who held my shoulders so I could let go of the rope and hurl myself forward to grab one of the wrungs and climb down. Once you got down you ran and jumped over the fire to cross the finish line. Pretty legit.

For the most part I felt like the obstacles were all or nothing. I could either do the obstacle or there was no way in hell that I was getting it done. If you couldn't do an obstacle, you had to do 30 burpees. That was no fun...but I cheated at my counting...shh don't tell. The obstacles I could do were all of the wall scaling, the sandbag carry, the "tractor" pull and all the ones that involved some sort of lifting of a heavy object. My favorite was definitely army crawling through mud, under barbed wire. That was fun. 

Overall, I'm very pleased with my results. I placed 1930/4566 overall, 291/1300 for females and 77/243 for 23 year olds with a total time of 2 hours and 9 minutes. Our team placed 189/312. 

If you're even remotely interested in doing a Spartan Race you should visit their website www.spartanrace.com. I can also give you a discount card, they were handing them out like candy, should you like! 

Keep scrolling for more pictures!

Lauren

Mark and I, before the race!

Mark and I, after the race!

Team photo, post race.

Finisher medal and shirt!

Battle scars!

Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

I love cooking for other people. Seriously, it's one of my favorite things. I love the feeling of preparing something that I actually put my effort and love in to instead of just giving them a card or silly gift. Given the chance, I will always choose to cook for someone over buying them something.

That's why I'm making my grandma dinner for her birthday this year! Well, that and, what do you really give a woman in her 70's that she'll actually use?

I called my grandma the other day to ask what she wanted me to cook for her, it could be anything she wanted. You know what the first words out of her mouth were? Mashed potatoes and gravy. So of course I heckled her asking if that was all she wanted, a big ol' pot of mashed potatoes and gravy? Eventually we decided dinner would consist of a salad, pork chops, mashed potatoes, green beans and a surprise for dessert. That is where the cupcakes come in. I love baking for people because it gives me a reason to try a recipe that I would never make just for myself.

I honestly can't remember why I decided on the cupcakes, I think it was because I knew I could halve the recipe successfully. Regardless, they came out way better than I expected. First of all, the cakes themselves were perfect. They're moist and dense and delicious! Personally, I would've preferred a little more lemon flavor, because I loooove lemon, but the taste is there. The icing was a cinch, butter, sugar and fresh raspberries. It came out a little runnier than I expected so I put it in the refrigerator for a few minutes to set.

I'm not going to write out the recipe because other than just halving all the ingredients, I didn't change it! Shocking, I know. I put a link to the inspiration earlier in the blog, so check it out!

Bon Appetite!

Lauren

Slow-cooked Stuffed Peppers

I kid you not, I turned my crock-pot on at 4 am this morning so that I could make these and not overcook them. Silly night shift...

Mmm, look at those bad boys! I cannot wait to crack in to one! I love stuffed peppers but have never made them in a crock-pot before. So when the grocery store had colored bell peppers on sale this week I knew I had the perfect excuse to try the recipe I had found. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against green bell peppers, I could eat them just like I would an apple. But when you're cooking a dish that focuses on the pepper, you want them to be pretty! You can find my inspiration here or you can keep reading to see how I made them.

What you'll need:

Italian Sausage - I used three links of this ground pork and chicken mixture and froze the other two for later. Casings removed of course.

1 can Rotel - DON'T DRAIN IT

1/4 tsp of the onion powder and oregano

1/2 tsp black pepper

Fresh basil to taste - you could use 1/4 tsp of the dried stuff if you don't have fresh.

1/2 cup basmati rice - DON"T COOK IT FIRST

3 bell peppers - I had some leftover filling so you could probably use 4 if you wanted

1/4 cup shredded cheese per pepper

What you do:

1. Remove sausage from casings if necessary. 

2. Combine all ingredients except peppers and cheese in a bowl.

3. Spoon mixture into peppers.

4. Place in crock-pot, and put a teensy bit of water in the bottom of the crock-pot.

5. Top each pepper with cheese, put on the lid and set the crock-pot to low for 6-7 hours.

6. Devour!

As you can see, these are super simple! 

Enjoy,

Lauren 

One Pot Diet

So, I joked around with a friend the other day that I was on the "One Pot Diet" where you make one pot of food and proceed to eat it all week. Yesterday I realized just how true that really was. I whipped up a hearty batch of Red Beans and Rice with some Andouille Sausage. Andouille, that is such a fun word! Andouille...anyways, I digress.

I really wish I had some pictures for you but my phone is being silly and didn't upload them to my photo stream and I deleted them before realizing that. :( You can see a few of them on Instagram though! My username is ldhart1331. Go look, you know you want to.

I found this recipe here but as you know, I never follow them exactly...

What you'll need:

1 link Andouille sausage (I used Johnsonville)

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 small red onion

1 bell pepper

3 stalks celery

4 garlic cloves

1 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp each of salt, black pepper, onion powder, cayenne, thyme and oregano

2 15 ounce cans of red beans

2.5 cups water

Rice to serve it on, I used basmati. 

What you do:

1. Chop those veggies.

2. Chop the sausage to desired size and heat in your big pot. Remove and set aside.

3. Add oil to still hot pot. Add veggies and cook ~8 minutes. Add garlic and all your seasonings and saute another 4 minutes.

4. Add water and beans and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. 

5. Mash some of the beans on the side of the pot to thicken it a little and add the sausage back in. Simmer another 15 minutes. 

6. Serve over rice and gobble it down.

This is so flavorful and delicious! I hope you enjoy it!

Lauren 

Many the Miles

Can we all just take a moment of silence for those injured at the Boston Marathon today? If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can read this.

Thanks :)

That being done, today I want to blog about something I hate: running. Wait, hate? I can see where you might be confused because I run at least twice a week, but yes I hate running. Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic exercise and there is something to be said for the feelings of accomplishment that come with it. But in all honesty, this water bottle sums up how I feel about running.

What I really don't understand is all the people out there who say they run because it's relaxing and stress-relieving, yada yada yada. Relaxing? I can think of 100 other things I would do to relax. I can see stress-relieving, if you've had a bad day and just need to be alone with your thoughts but not relaxing.

Bearing all that in mind, I hit a pretty big milestone yesterday. I ran my 200th mile since I started turning my life around last June. I can honestly tell you that is something I never expected to say. I'm pretty gosh darn proud of myself.

 So where do I go from here? Onward! I'm running a Spartan Sprint in two weeks and then I plan to sign up for the Big Ten 10K in July. After that my goal is to run a half marathon! Preferably in Disney World, but that is hella expensive. I need to find me a sponsor haha! If you're interested in donating to the Run Lauren Run fund...well, I'll need to start a fund then!


As always, thanks for reading!
Lauren

Working for the Weekend

You know that song by Loverboy that goes "...everybody's workin' for the weekends..."? I think I can finally grasp just how true those lyrics are. Let's be honest here, we all look forward to our days off but this last month especially those lyrics have basically been an anthem in my mind.

It seems like every weekend for the last month, some of my friends have been in town. They can't seem to manage to all be here at the same time but I'm not complaining. Every week I start off dreading my first night of work and then suddenly it's Wednesday and I have two shifts left before I can let loose and pretend I'm a college student again. Then it's gone, just as quickly as it came and I'm left wondering how I going to make it through my Sunday shift. I love it. I can see now why everyone tells you to cherish your twenties. Time just seems to fly by so quickly. We're already half way through April!

All that being said, I'm going to be dragging my butt at work tonight...but at least there are people coming in to town this weekend!

Go enjoy the sunshine!
Lauren

Not Your Mama's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cookies.

That's really all you need to say to get my attention.

They're hands down, my favorite food and they are in no way, shape or form good for you. Which is sad. I try not to keep them around because I know I'll go all Cookie Monster on them but I love to make them for other people. That happens to be why this post is in existence. I made a batch of Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip cookies and that got me thinking... "Can I make a healthier cookie?". Now I had to make them. The idea was in my head and it wasn't going to leave.

So, what is a healthier cookie? Well, I decided to follow the original Nestle recipe and just make swaps for the ingredients. Instead of butter I used coconut oil, eggs I used egg whites and so on and so forth. It was a lot of fun, and quite frankly my new cookies, which I'm calling Not Your Mama's Chocolate Chip Cookies, are DELICIOUS. The coconut oil adds a distinct flavor that I actually really like.

Original Nestle Tollhouse dough

NYM'sCCC dough

Not Your Mama's Chocolate Chip Cookies

2.25 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup coconut oil, softened

1/4 cup & 2 Tbsp Truvia Baking Blend

1/4 cup & 2 Tbsp Splenda Brown Sugar Blend

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup liquid egg whites

1 package Nestle Dark Chocolate Morsels

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F. 2.Combine first three ingredients and set aside. 3. Mix next four ingredients. 4. Add in egg whites 1/4 cup at a time. 5. Add in dry mixture a little at a time. 6. Stir in morsels. 7. Spoon on cookie sheet however much you want per cookie. I did 1 Tbsp and got 36 cookies. 8. Bake for 9 minutes. 

The major difference, aside from taste, was that the original recipe yielded 48 tablespoon size cookies while my recipe yielded 36. That is to be expected though as there was less substance in the ingredients. 

Nutrition Info Per Cookie:

Nestle: 114 cal, 6 grams fat, 3.75 grams sat fat, 10 grams of sugar

Mine: 133 cal, 9 grams fat, 7 grams sat fat, 6 grams of sugar

Had my recipe yielded 48 cookies it would've been 100 cal, 7 grams of fat, 5 grams sat fat and 5 grams of sugar. Frankly, I'm just happy that the sugar is lower as that is my main dietary downfall. 

Which is better? You be the judge!

Lauren 

 

Pumpkin Hummus

Hummus, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

Seriously though, hummus is amazing. If it weren't for hummus I wouldn't eat carrots or celery. It just would not happen. Not to mention hummus is super easy to make at home and therefore incredibly customize-able. I really enjoy coming up with new hummus flavors.

I can't exactly say that the idea for Pumpkin Hummus was a complete original of mine. I originally found this via Pinterest. You may have noticed it's in Danish...yeah, I noticed that a little too late. Yes I could translate it on my laptop, but my iphone didn't offer me that option so I just decided to make it up!

 What you'll need:

1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, rinsed

1 can (8 oz) pumpkin puree

1/4 cup non-fat, plain greek yogurt

Pumpkin Pie Spice (to taste) - I used 2 tsp

What you do:

In a food processor, process your chickpeas for 30 seconds or so. Then add the rest of the ingredients and process until smooth. You'll have to stop occasionally and scrape down the sides.



That's all there is too it! Super easy!! I like to portion mine out so I can calculate the nutrition information but you obviously don't have to! Like I mentioned earlier, I use hummus to make sure I eat my veggies but this would also be good with some cinnamon tortilla chips or maybe on a bagel?

Enjoy!

Lauren 

May the odds be ever in your favor!

Move over Katniss, the odds were definitely in my favor yesterday.

Yesterday was definitely an awesome day. I started off my morning by discovering that one of my Victoria's Secret rewards cards was worth $100! Meaning I got my new swimsuit free and still have $40 on the card. Not to mention my two other cards each worth $10 and the promotion for a free bag when you ordered swimwear online!

Then I went to the grocery store. Exciting right? There I managed to spend exactly what I had budgeted! Not only is that rare for me but I had to buy cat food as well and that is expensive. I was also pretty pumped because I cut my grocery budget by $40 over the next to weeks to pay for an unexpected bill.

Then the West Lafayette Public Library was having a book sale! $3 for as many books as you could fit in the provided bag. I'm a little ashamed to say I only got three books and a cookbook but thats's still less than a dollar a book!

After that I went on a 4.5 mile run with Mark. If anything, that was the worst part of my day. We've been running in the cold for so long that the warm weather really kicked our butts.

Sorry for all the gloating, but when you have such a good day, you just have to! If it's any consolation, I probably used up all my luck for the next two weeks.

Until next time,
Lauren

March 32nd

There is no way it can be April already.

Seriously.

Where the hell did March go? I can't be the only person out there feeling this way right? The worst part is that I'm trying to think back to what I was doing that could have made March pass so quickly and I've got nothing. My vacation was the last week of February, that should make March seem longer, right? I did switch to night shift halfway through the month. I also started working out with my personal trainer twice a week again. I didn't even get 10 blogs written. Hmm...

Oh well...I guess I just need to accept the fact that it's April and move on right? That and I have to go to work soon so I have no time to type haha. Maybe that can be my April Fool's Day joke, me not showing up for work. On second thought, that wouldn't go over well.

Until next time!
Lauren