Happy birthday, Panya!

Prepare yourself.  Prepare yourself for an overload of adorable.  The 27th was Panya's (my Jack Russell Terrier) birthday.

 This is her at around 3 days old *weeping*

Her head is starting to turn brown

 

Panya, on the right.  She loves her naps!

 

"Look at how big my eyes are...does this mean we can cuddle all day long?"

 

 She liked to bark at the giraffes...she wanted to take them on!

So you all can see for yourselves what a cutie she is, and pretty much the best dog ever (Sorry Julia! Riley is preeeetty cute, too).  

I think this picture was made about me and Panya

 

 

She squeaks when she yawns, sometimes sleeps on her back with her legs sticking straight in the air, and could play\cuddle\sleep all day long!

Hopefully you've gotten your cute puppy fix for today.

We got in our 4 mile run in today - and I almost didn't go, because our friend\coworker\neigher is due to have her baby at any second.  We'll see if we get woken up in the middle of the night tonight!

Do you have a pet? What kind?

 

Birthdays, and blogger award

We're having a few birthdays around here this week!  First, it's my Mom's birthday today!  Happy birthday!

Notice the wrapping of the presents in the bottom of the picture there...we're really creative. Snort. 

There's not really much to do around here for fun\celebrating, but we do eat!  We made homemade chocolate ice cream, and I made a coconut cake.

Then the 27th is Panya's birthday!

I'm going to do a post for her birthday that'll most likely be completely filled with cute pictures of her.  Pretty much along the lines of JC's post!


Yesterday, Jake and I did our "long" slow run of the week - 5 miles.  I'm so excited to be getting out of the 2.5\3 miler rut that we've been in lately.  I felt really good, and could've easily gone farther!  Week 3 of training = complete!



Today, I also downloaded a Tracy Anderson Buns and Thigh workout, and it burned.  I don't even remember the last time I felt that much fire - you should look it up on youtube.  I do other buns\thigh workouts, and they feel good and make me work, but this was something else!

__

I was given a blogger award by Neon Blonde Runner!

As a recipient, I share seven random facts about myself and then I get to recognize 5 other people with this award.

1.  I think it would be so fun to own a little cafe - I'd serve salads, soups, sandwiches, coffees, and a few desserts, along with a few select dinner choices.

2.  I used to be a chubster.  I used to hate exercise and everything having to do with healthy food - since then, I've lost 30 lbs.

3.  When we lived in Arusha, I volunteered at a clinic that some friends of ours run.  I worked in the pharmacy (don't worry, the prescriptions were double-checked before they were sent out, so it was legal!), as well as checking patients in and taking vital signs. 

4.  I'm hardly ever called by my given name, Lindsey...I always go by Linz. 

5.  I've always wanted to visit Greece, Italy, Ireland and Egypt. 

6.  One of my {not so secret now} dreams is to work up to running a marathon.

7.  I can yodel.  Yes, this is completely nerdy, but still fun!

Whew - that was surprisingly hard to come up with random things about myself!  Now, 5 bloggers I pass the award on to are:

Julia at Pain, Pride, and Perseverance

Holley at Lunges and Lashes 

Have Your Way With Me   (I just realized that I don't know your actual name, help!)

JC at Floundering in Flipflops

DEM at Happy, Healthy and Strong

It's the weekend already, what are you doing?

Tortilla pizza recipe, and giveaway winner!

I know you all are waiting on the edge of your seats, with your nails bitten down to nubs to know the giveaway winner!  Mwahaha, a recipe will come first, so you'll just have to wait.  Or scroll down to the bottom.  Either way. 

Wanna make this?

We can't buy tortillas here, so we always make our own.  For making 5 of these pizzas, I halved the recipe, and rolled them out alot thicker than usual.

Flour Tortillas:

4 C. flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
1\2 C. shortening or oil (I usually use oil since it's easier to work with)
Enough water to make soft dough

Mix dry ingredients and shortening\oil.  Add enough water to make dough pliable.  Knead dough.  Roll out thin and bake on top of stove at medium heat.

You want to add just a little bit of water at a time; it's alot easier to add more than have to quadruple the whole thing! It takes a bit of practice, too, to get them rolled out in a circle.  I'm pretty sure one of mine once ended up in the shape of Texas...

After you have your tortillas cooked, top them with your pizza sauce and whatever toppings you'd like, throw them in the oven for a bit - and enjoy!

You want to add just a little bit of water at a time; it's alot easier to add more than have to quadruple the whole thing! It takes a bit of practice, too, to get them rolled out in a circle.  I'm pretty sure one of mine once ended up in the shape of Texas...


So, on to the giveaway winner!

 

The winner is Kat!

Congratulations! Send me an email at yogibearblog@yahoo.com with your address so I can get it to you!

I love giveaways.  I love entering them, and winning them are always super cool...but it was nice to actually do one!  Hopefully I can give y'all more giveaways as time goes on. 

How's your week gone so far?

A disappointing salad

I've been a little absent from the bloggy world for a bit, and that's mostly because towards the end of the week I got a bit sick.  I must have eaten something bad Wednesday afternoon, because I woke up that night really sick to my stomach.  I spent Thursday pretty much sleeping and laying on the couch with some fever and still a stomachache.  I woke up Friday and felt alot better, still just tired from hardly sleeping the night before.  Slightly weird, but at least it didn't last long!  Hmm, maybe I have some sort of tropical disease...

It did, however, make me miss the rest of my runs, so we're repeating week 3 of training this week.

I had a couple of posts planned for in that time, but I decided not to fry my eyeballs looking at my screen for longer than I absolutely had to, and one of them revolved around making Lemon-Cilantro Hummus...Since I ate that on the day I got sick, I can hardly even bear to say it now, let alone eat\post about it.  Plus, I don't even like cilantro.  

When we were visiting the States last year, a big group of us went out to Chili's for lunch, and I got a salad.  It looked super good.  The Caribbean salad, I think it was.  

The waitress comes and sets the salad in front of me.  

Me: This looks incredible, I'm so excited! {takes bite} "Cough-sputter-sputter-gag"

What I failed to notice that it was full of Cilantro.  Full of cilantro.  It was disgusting, and it was a little sad to finally go to Chili's and get a nasty salad booby-trapped with cilantro. 

Cilantro: Do you hate it or love it?

On to today's run!  I'm not going to lie - it was a bad run.  I rode the bike for approx. 7 miles a couple days ago instead of running since I still wasn't feeling too great, but I hadn't run in a week.  That, plus the fact that my stomach has still been not too happy the past few days (which = not eating my normal 2 lbs of veggies and drinking 3 litres of water a day) meant I wasn't feeling too great on the run today.  It's hard for a raisin to run, and that's how I felt today, I was so dehydrated!  But now that my stomach is good, I eat a bunch of veggies and attempt to drown myself with my water intake!

We didn't do anything really special for Father's Day except eat.  I made a quiche Saturday afternoon, and stuck it in the freezer to eat the next day.  We had a yummy breakfast, went to worship, then came home and had a nice lunch.  So nothing fancy, but a good day!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway!  There's only a couple days left, so you better do it now!

How is your week going so far? 

What plans do you have?

 

 

Weekly recap, and tortilla pizzas

This last week was week 2 of the half training schedule and it went really well!  

Let's take a look:
Tuesday: 2 mile run
Wednesday: 3.65 mile bike ride
Thursday: 3.25 mile run
Friday: 4 mile run
Sunday: 6 mile bike ride

A good week, but I see a real lack of strength training.  I have a 10 Minute Solution pilates dvd that I really like to do, so I'm going to try to incorporate more of that this week.  We'll see how I do on that!  

Friday, our "long" run was a 4 miler, and I loved it.  I felt so good and strong, but ran at a relaxed, easy pace.  When we got back to the house, I was sad it was over, and wished we would've run a few more miles!  I take that as a great sign!  


I'm slowly getting faster, too, which I'm super excited about!  If we would have run two more miles on Friday, I would've beat my previous 10K time by 10 minutes.  Each small victory adds up to make the big ones!

The other day I made tortilla pizzas, and I really liked how they turned out.  I made flour tortillas, rolling them out thicker than I normally would, cooked them in the pan until I got some brown spots on them, added my sauce and toppings, then baked until they were warm, and the cheese was melted!

I used some cheese, but mine mostly consisted of veggies.

I used:
 • A sprinkling of cheese and meat
 • Zucchini
 • Pineapple
 • Tomatoes 
 • Corn
 • Snow peas
 • Green pepper




Here's what the guys' pizzas looked like:

 

 • Cheese

 • Meat

 • Tomatoes

 • Pineapple

These were so good - I'll definitely be making them again soon.  Quick, healthy, and filling!  Would you all be interested in a recipe section?

What are your plans for this week? 

Week 2, and my first GIVEAWAY!

We're almost at the end of week two in our half training.  Here's the one we've been following! 

We waited until about 4:45pm to head out so it would be cooler.  Even if the temperature itself isn't extremely hot, we're so close to the equator the sun feels like it's 3 inches from your face, so it can get pretty intense!

My legs felt a bit tired today, and about halfway through the run I got hit with pre-menstrual cramps.  I stopped to rest for a minute or two, because they were getting very intense.  After a short breather, we continued on and I was able to finish strong!  Time on your feet is the most important thing, I suppose!

Okay, now on to my GIVEAWAY!  I wanted to do something for you as a thank you for reading and commenting.  Unfortunately, I can't give away any super cool gift cards, but I do know that alot of you bloggers use a digital SLR camera, so I'm giving away one of these camera straps!

Yes, I did sew this especially for you!  You can turn a boring black strap into something cute and fun just by slipping on this cover.  

It's approx. 25 inches long, and 2 inches wide, so even if you don't have a SLR camera, you can put it on anything you'd like that fits the measurements.

Here's what ya do:

Mandatory: Follow this blog and let me know in the comments

Bonus entry: Leave a separate comment for each - sharing on facebook, twitter, include in blog entry\sidebar

Giveaway ends on June 23rd!

 

Weekly recap, and roasted galettes

Before I get started into my recap of last week, I wanted to share a pathetic bit of info.  I thought of this the other day after I had said to myself, "I was going to do a blog post last night, but ran out of time".  I did?  Oh yeah...I ran out of time after I sat on the couch listening to the boys watch TV, commented on blogs, and stared at my facebook homepage, refreshing it every 3 minutes.  So, apparently I didn't have time to do a post because I was too busy online, haha!

Weekly recap:
Tuesday: Hiking, and 3.7 mile run
Wednesday: 3.6 mile bike ride
Thursday: 2.5 mile run, ab ripperx
Saturday: 3 mile run
Sunday: 2 mile run, 2 mile bike ride

Not as many running days\miles as I wanted, but it's okay.  My weekly mileage will really start increasing here before too long since we're following the half schedule.  

Today I made Roasted Veggie Galettes for lunch.  Here's how mine turned out:

I really liked them, and I'll definitely be making them again!  Next time, though, I'm not going to use\use less wheat flour - the consistency wasn't my favorite using that, and I'll add a bit more salt into the dough itself, and maybe some spices.  We didn't have some of the veggies they called for, so this what I used:

 - Broccoli

 - Carrots

 - Green pepper

 - Onion

 - Garlic

 - Zuchinni

You all should try these and tell me what you think!  Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

Dough
3/4 cups + 2 Tbsp. AP flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Filling
3/4 cup chopped carrots
1 1/2 cups chopped cauliflower
1 medium red onion, chunks
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
3 cups spinach leaves
1 Tbsp. fresh thyme, chopped
6 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2-3 oz. goat cheese crumbles
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper

Glaze
1 egg mixed with 1 Tbsp. water

 

Directions:

 

1. Add dry ingredients from the dough to a food processor. Pulse for 30 seconds to mix up. Add water and olive oil, mixing until the dough forms a ball. Dough should be slightly tacky. Add more water or flour to get right consistency. Remove, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 400F. Place chopped carrots, cauliflower and onion in a bowl. Toss with some kosher salt and a little olive oil. For a lighter option, spray generously with cooking spray and toss--it works just as well. Spread out in a greased baking sheet.

3. Take your garlic cloves, still in their skin, and place in a piece of tinfoil. Add a tablespoon or two of water and seal. Place on baking sheet with veggies.

4. Bake vegetables and garlic for 25-35 minutes, until browned. Check on them and move them every 10 minutes to prevent burning and sticking.

5. Cook spinach and mushrooms in a saute pan until all liquid has evaporated. This is important since you don't want soggy dough.

6. Place all of your cooked vegetables into a bowl. Mix in thyme and half the goat cheese.

7. Squeeze roasted garlic into a small bowl once it has cooled down a little. It should be soft. Mix in a teaspoon of olive oil to create a paste-like consistency. Add to the vegetable mixture. Salt and pepper your filling to taste.

 

8. Divide dough into four pieces. Roll each one into a rough circle, about 6" wide and 1/4" thick.

 

9. Divide the filling between the four pieces of dough, placing in the middle and leaving at least 1 1/2" around the edge. Press down with the spatula to help flatten the filling. Sprinkle the rest of the goat cheese on top of each galette. Then fold up the sides, pinching each section together.

 

10. Brush with egg wash. Place on baking sheet and cook at 400F for 25-30 minutes until browned, checking every 10 minutes or so. Serve warm.

What are your plans for this week?  

Do you like to try new recipes, or do you usually stick with the same things?

 

 

National Donut Day, Oatmeal, and morning runs

So yesterday was National Donut Day!  I read that Krispy Kreme's give out free donuts on this wonderful holiday. *drool*

But since we're about a billion miles from any KK, we made our own!  Super good, but super sugary so instead of having one of the leftovers for breakfast this morning I made overnight oats.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons chia seeds (don't have them)
• 1/3 cup oatmeal
• 3/4 cup almond milk (regular milk)
• Banana (all ours were brown and attracting gnats)
• Five heavy pinches of sugar (didn't actually use it)
• Salted peanuts (used PB instead)

Directions:

• In a small bowl, combine chia seeds, oatmeal, and milk.  Put in fridge and let stand overnight.
• In the morning, remove chia seed mixture and stir.
• On a hot and greased griddle, place banana chunks and cook on high until it begins to brown.  Flip once and sprinkle with sugar.
• Mash half of the grilled banana and plate. 
• Top with remaining banana and nuts.
• Enjoy!

This looks like a really yummy oatmeal recipe, but as you see in the ingredient section above I ended up having it majorly different.  I tossed the oats and milk in a bowl and let it sit overnight, then pulled it out the next morning, added a teaspoon or two of the ol' PB, and called it good!  


Jake and I got up early this morning to go on our run.  We're attempting to start following the half training schedule again.  Our plan is to be really relaxed about it, repeating a week if we need to.  I just really like having a schedule to build my mileage, and know what days I'm going to do what.


It was a beautiful morning, not hot yet...but even after stretching and warming up my legs felt like they were saying, "Um, we're not awake yet...we're tired...what are you doing?"  Hopefully they'll get used to morning runs once time goes on.


Got back from the run, cleaned up, and then gobbled my oatmeal before we went down the road for our Saturday morning Bible class!

I added just a little too much milk...that weird thing that looks like it's hanging from my nose is actually a drop of milk. I promise.

"Yum, I know what I'm having for breakfast for the next 3 months!!!"

Also, I used part of my itunes GC to buy Despicable Me.

This movie is too funny!  "Piranha gun, ooh yeeah!"

I better just stop before the rest of this turns into a "my favorite quotes from this movie" post. 

Did you eat a donut yesterday? 

Have you ever tried overnight oats?

Please tell me I'm not the only one who loves Despicable Me!

Happy weekend!