Seven Glorious Miles

Hi friends, I hope you had a good weekend. Mine was tiring, but good for sure! The manfriend and I didn't really celebrate much in the way of Valentine's, but we did get each other a card and some chocolate (for him) and flowers (for me).

We celebrated by visiting college friends Laura and Josh who had their sweet baby Amelia three weeks ago. Our other friends Audrey and Andrew were visiting to see the baby, so we had dinner together on Friday night and Josh and Laura's.

I made a spinach, mushroom, cranberry salad with warm dressing (Audrey's amazing recipe that we used to make all the time in college). Audrey made roasted sweet potato/chard dish and some delicious chicken. But who are we kidding, the night was all about the baby and reconnecting with friends.

Saturday morning I woke up excited to head to yoga where Lindsey subbed for Kira's power yoga class. It was her first studio class (she had been teaching some of us on Sunday morning's from her house) and she did an awesome job! Teaching is definitely a different beast than taking a class.

After a little coffee and chat with Lindsey, the manfriend and I headed up to my parents to help haul and clean up a bunch of down limbs and branches on their property as they have over an acre of land with many huge fir trees. After the snow storm we had two weeks ago, their yard was quite a mess.

Then we cleaned up and headed to my grandparents to see family and play a card game with everyone called 'hand and foot.' It is a really fun game and a good one to play with big groups.

Today, after a solid nine hours of sleep I got up and did my usual weekend things > tea, ipad reading of feedly, dog walking and then headed out to run group, which I haven't been to in at least a few months.

Last week was pretty study/homework heavy so I didn't do much running (only 12 miles!) and my legs were itching to run. Well, they were actually pretty sore from yoga and squatting a hundred times or so picking up loads of yard debris, but still I wanted to run. By some sheer luck, it was sort of sunny today and I spent seven glorious miles running in a little sun.

My Garmin battery died around mile two, but I didn't really care. I know the loop and pace didn't really matter today as I was simply out there for my sanity and health. It was also nice to run with a friend for the first few miles before she turned around as these days I'm often running solo.

Good Eats

I thought I'd share with you my favorite way to cook chicken these days as I haven't shared much in the food realm in a while. Most days we don't have much prep time for dinner so things need to be easy and tasty. 

A few weeks ago, I randomly tried this combo and loved the result: flavorful, moist chicken!

Prep: Turn your oven on to 375 degrees. Spray a little olive oil in your baking dish, put one or two organic chicken breasts in the dish, spread ~ 1 Tbsp or a thin layer of olive oil mayo over each chicken breast, sprinkle ~ 1 tsp of Homestead seasoning (paprika, garlic salt, pepper, onion, sugar) on top. Bake for about 25 minutes or until you can't see pink inside the chicken breast. 

I occasionally throw some chopped onions or mushrooms on top because 

it makes me feel like a chef. ;)

Caveat: I am typically a mayonnaise hater, so I understand if you don't like using it, but it really does help the chicken stay moist. I used Best Foods mayo w/ olive oil in it. 

This is the seasoning I have been using. I found it at a little spice shop in Bend, OR when we were there in December. It is so good!

Tonight, I sliced up the chicken and put it on a bed of mixed greens with a few other toppings for dinner. I paired it with a little appetizer plate of nachos for crunchin'.

Okay, I've got do a little more studying and maybe some foam rolling. I spent a few hours studying this weekend, but definitely could have used to do more. And the foam rolling, well, I've just been avoiding it and my hamstrings are begging for mercy.

What's your go to meal these days? And tell me about your favorite workout from the last few weeks.  Other than this chicken, I've been making a done of rice and bean bowls to take with me for lunches and dinners on busy days.