Summer time, fun time

It seemed to take too long for my Colophony allergy from surgery to go away. Someone told me "you had wrist surgery, not foot surgery". Alas, I need the wrist and hand to move for sports bra, for tying the shoes, for pulling on the exercise clothing. I was going for some walks with my slide in shoes, but it isn't the same as being laced up and going OUT!

Beautiful view of the Corn Gold fields of Iowa. 
(drat, you can see the dashboard reflection in the window ;) )
The fields where I live aren't looking like this yet, thanks to a wet spring that delayed planting. 

My Salsa Fargo got out this year! I haven't ridden much (at all) the last years since I had my wrist injury in the car collision. Putting weight on the wrist was painful and difficult.  I am happy to say that while I still have the scar tissue inside that needs to break up, that riding the bike for an hour is something I can do again (happy dance) and I could probably have gone longer, but without actual bike shorts on it wasn't that comfortable!  I know I need to get back to yoga, but hand planting at home has been painful with the scar tissue, so I keep delaying it. 

Then I had to face facts and that I had a double race coming up in August (the end of August) and I needed to get miles in on my feet which meant I needed new shoes. I bumped up to these Saucony in the hopes that I would not need the separate Plantar Fasciitis insert. So far, so good!  The local store also started carrying Injinji toe socks, which is probably not good for feeding my habit of toe socks.  I so far am sticking with the same color for the duration. I finally tossed my first blue ones, and now have dusty rose/lavender ones in my stash, and these new orange and navy blue--I love that color combo!  Maybe I'm not a true exercising person if I don't stick to black socks :P  

Aren't they beautiful?  Purple too!  

They'll go great with my purple race attire for #pancreaticcancer awareness

At a race in June I got a bottle of this BodyArmor. I had been putting off trying it, since sometimes things don't agree with my body.  One hot and exercise sweaty day, I finally pulled it out of the refrigerator one day and had it. The last time I had coconut water was not a good experience for me; although it was plain coconut water.  This Fruit Punch flavor is really good!  I tracked down more at the store, and am happy to that during the back to back race in August, I can have this at the finish line in the car (thankfully I can drive rather than fly)

I worked up the courage to go tackle the Hill Repeat hill, and managed to bungle my audio cord on my Maui Jim sunglasses. The sunglasses fell from my tank top to the ground. I've dropped them (ahem, many) times before with no issue except for the freaking out that I was dropping them.  This time, probably because it was an asphalt road versus other materials, one of the lenses broke top frame to bottom frame. I didn't realize it at first, and a couple miles later when I went to put them on for a sunny area, I realized what had happened. Thankful for Maui Jim's replacement policy, I was able to get new lenses, rather than have to buy a new frame! 

Sometimes the light isn't just right, or the graffiti has been erased and it isn't as colorful, or the ground is just ground underneath the bridge.  This day the light showed the layout of the road a bit further, and the giant washout /whirlpool area that had occurred during the flooding earlier this year. So much water came down river, at different times, that a couple of the trails in my area were eroded to the point that they are closed.  Still, this is better than the Missouri River flood plain in western Iowa, which has left fields unplantable, and roads destroyed.

After a great day out and about with The Mike, we stopped at a different HyVee grocer and found Marie Antoinette's Gluten-Free Baking Co goodies in the freezer section. Since it was my birthday, I picked cherry pie over some of the other delicious looking treats!

So flavorful, and great to have without having to have baked it myself!  :D 

 

Upon the recommendation of a local trail runner who has completed the race(s) I will be doing, I bought some trail shoes for the race. In talking with the running store guy, I decided it was probably a good thing to have. I can have these for the longer first day, and if I feel the traction is too much, I can wear my regular shoes the next day. These saucony have deeper traction that may help on sandy areas. I am so nervous for this race!  I have only done one trail race, and it was a beautiful area in California made among the evergreens of a forest.
Did you notice they're purple as well? I hope I don't grab one of each type of shoe to go out for a run!

To new events, and a beautiful summer that is just half started. 

Treasure each day, regardless of season. Each day has more to offer. 

Breakfast tacos

This morning we were in a conundrum.  No milk for baking some GF donuts (of which the mix has been in the pantry for a few months, but the donut pan was just purchased). Yesterday after leaving work my focus was on getting home in the 32 degree weather with spitting rain (read: icy roads). I now know why so many people make a run on the grocery store...they can't remember what they have at home!

Last night I used the last of the milk for the Bisquick GF pancake mix.  This morning there is some ice on the car, driveway and roads and having milk doesn't seem that necessary!  I do have hemp milk for my smoothies, but I'm not adventurous to use that in breads for a first time recipe. 

Instead, this morning we had breakfast tacos with our new taco holders.

Scrambled eggs, Jimmy Dean sausage (the beige package which is MSG and preservative free) and then built upon heated corn shells which was accomplished using the nonstick skillet with a quick swipe of olive oil.

Order of the build:

Corn shells with a bit of cheese to make the sausage stick.
Cooked sausage
Scrambled eggs
Cheese
Diced scallions/green onions
Chopped cilantro
Sliced cherry tomatoes

Then the hubby put mustard top of his and I thought that sounded good, so I did the same.

Wow. So great. Nice to eat soft shell tacos in the house at the table and not the kitchen counter! The tacos stayed warm and didn't get cold, which was a worry of mine on the metal taco holders.
The mustard was a flavorful compliment.

Definitely a meal to repeat.

Dinner will be something other than eggs.  I'm looking at a beef stew in the crockpot!

Chicken, avocado/corn salad

A few months ago I had come across a recipe for Grilled Corn and Avocado Salad via Pinterest.   It sounded like a great side dish for the winter (it was) and I hoped to recreate it come warmer weather (I did). The original recipe is in the link above. However, I never make things exactly the same, often because I am missing an ingredient!   

The finished dish with my recipe, below.

From Sunday's lunch of roasted chicken, which was also used for mediterranean pizza Sunday evening  (Chebe brand pizza crust mixed per the box instructions, then topped with pizza sauce, then artichoke hearts, mushrooms, kalamata olives, chicken and sun dried tomato pieces, as well as mozzarella cheese and baked on a pizza stone brought to oven temperature).  With those two meals, I still had chicken left over!  

Yesterday I found Paleo Cupboard on Pinterest (I feel I'm rarely on that board, but when I am, I find great stuff!). I had first found a recipe for some beef meals, and then saw a photo of a fabulous looking salad. Interestingly, the photo of the salad was for the recipe of the dressing! However, I was inspired for our evening meal.  A salad with mixed greens, chicken, hard boiled egg (whites, I dislike the yolks on salads), the above Corn/Avocado salad and then topped with just a smidge of cheddar cheese. 

For the Avocado/Corn salad, I used: 
1 can of corn, drained, with 1T of cumin and 1/2 T of chili powder, sauteed in a skillet with a teaspoon of olive oil til warmed through and the spices are aromatically filling the kitchen. 

Then in a bowl, I mixed a T of apple cider vinegar, 1 T of olive oil, a pinch of kosher salt and about 1tsp of black pepper and whisked that in one a mixing bowl, which I could use to add the other ingredients to as well---I'm all for less cleanup on a work night!

I sliced the cherry tomatoes I had on hand, diced up the greens of some scallions sitting in the refrigerator, and two avocados I had purchased at lunch, before I even knew what dinner would be. [I figured we'd need them for the left over carrot/sweet potato chili from last week. Now I have to go buy more avocados!] I also diced up a small red onion I had on hand.

I added all the ingredients (except for the corn, it needed to cool some) and folded them together, being sure to get the Olive oil/vinegar dressing on all of the ingredients. 

I managed to snag a photo before I completely mixed the corn into the dish!

I chopped the rest of the chicken and heated it in a skillet with a smidge of oil on the bottom. I didn't add any spices to this, but I suppose I could have added cumin and chili powder to it as well, maybe some garlic or onion powder too.  

Nothing fancy, just some basic chicken on a board cut randomly . . . no perfection required. 

Then I washed and diced up spinach, romaine and leafy green lettuces, put that in the base of the bowls. I added the corn to the salsa mixture and put some of it on next in the bowls, then placed some chicken in the bowl, as well as the hard boiled egg whites.   

Completed meal

I was thinking that one could add more dressing (lubricant) to the dish if desired.  I think, equal parts olive oil, cider vinegar with a teaspoon of cumin and half a teaspoon of chili powder and salt would be just the thing.