Pms Pizza and the Grillmaster

We've decided to cut way back on our sugar intake, so to celebrate our new lifestyle change, I made an insane dessert.  Enter chocolate dessert pizza.

I mixed up a super easy recipe for sugar cookies, rolled it out like I would pizza dough and cooked it.  Then I spread hot fudge on the still warm crust, sprinkle coconut on as the "cheese", then added a few mint chips and crushed peanuts.  Since I used hot fudge instead of nutella for the "sauce", I stuck it in the freezer so it would keep firm.  This was so good.  I think the proper name for it is PMS Pizza.  You can use fudge like I did and eat it cold from the freezer, or if you use nutella, you can eat it warm and melty!

Chocolate dessert pizza:

- 1 crust

- Nutella or chocolate spread for pizza "sauce"

- Add any toppings you'd like

Luke and I teamed up to make supper tonight.  We had philly cheese steak wraps and fresh pineapple, and it was delicious! I made up some tortillas, and Luke cooked up the meat and made a special sauce.

I was wearing an apron and told Luke that he should wear one, too.  

And there he is - the grillmaster himself! Luke blogs over at All Things Manly, and you should probably head over there to check it out.  Right after this picture, I said "Okay, now take one of me for the blog!", but then my camera died.  That's probably a sign of some sort.  

Like chocolate? Ever get cravings for it?

Yes, and yes. 

If you cook, do you like doing it alone, or with other people?

I'm usually a solo cooker\baker, but sometimes it's fun to team up and crank some music!

Oh, and look who's cute as a button!

We've had these sheets ever since I was like 5 - I love them because that means now they're the softest sheets in the world.  

The Hungry Runner Girl is having a great giveaway - go enter, quick!
:)

Three Things Thursday

Workout: 30 Day Shred, level 2




Alrighty, I'm takin' the plunge with the Three Things Thursday.  Hopefully it won't turn into Things-you-wish-you-didn't-waste-your-time-reading Thursday, heh.


1.  I've been wanting a pair of cowgirl boots for quite a a while and saw this pair a long back.  I finally ordered them today so they will be waiting for me when we get to my grandparents house in 5 weeks.  Good thing I just went ahead and ordered them because there was only one pair left in my size!  They'll go great with either jeans or a skirt\dress.  Tell me what you think...

2.  My mom and are I are starting to do some cooking to stock the freezer so the guys will have some ready made food for while we're gone. I made a couple of quiches to stick in there - impressively enough, we managed to actually put them in the freezer instead of having one for supper that night.  

While we're away, we don't want the boys to go by Red Green's (anyone out there know who he is?) motto: "The two main food groups are meat, and salt!"

3.  Random gross story.  We have some strawberry plants in our backyard, and every evening I go out to water them.  Since we try to conserve as much water as possible, I usually water them with the dogs' water.  A bunch of birds also like to use the dogs' water bowl for their birdbath\toilet.  One evening I had finished watering the plants when I noticed a tiny, perfect red strawberry.  I checked to see if it had a bunch of dirt on it - nope - so I ate it.  It was only afterwards that I realized it didn't have dirt on it because I'd just rinsed it with the dog\bird water. Gag.  Now I probably have the bird flu.

Like boots in fall weather? What's your favorite fall accessory?

Yum.

I made this the other day

2 scoops of chocolate ice cream that was getting freezer burnt, instant coffee powder + some leftover coffe, & topped with whipped cream and Nesquick to make it look purdy.

~

Proceed to drink and not spill on your shirt. 

Sock filth, soft pretzels, and trips to different countries

I've been MIA a bit lately, but the past week or so I just haven't had energy to do much on here...for some reason the last week all I've felt like doing in the evenings is hunker down, sitting on my neck, and watch Man vs. Food.  I'm pretty sure it's because insomnia has been worse lately, but thankfully the last couple of nights I've been able to sleep better!

We decided to try to incorporate one trail run a week into our schedule.  It's hard, but so worth it - the scenery is beautiful! It is so dusty, though.  I was super low on socks, so Jake was nice and gave me a pair of his...he even wrote my name on them!  He was so funny when he gave them to me - he said, "Aw, weell....the colors of sharpie looked good together before they were on the socks...".

One 4 mile run and this is what my socks looked like

My feet aren't actually 4 different colors, the flash and dust just makes it look that way.  I understand if you have to de-follow me after seeing this picture, but for reasons I still don't understand it seemed like a good idea to immediately walk in the house and take a picture of my post run feet.  Calm down, veins, the run is over now.

 

 Filthy!

Let's move on...

Soft pretzels, oh yes! These are so easy, and quick to make.

Soft Pretzels:

2 1\2 tsp Yeast          4-5 C Flour

1 1\2 C Water            Pretzel Salt

1 tsp Salt

Dissolve yeast in warm water.  Add salt, sugar and flour to make stiff dough.  Knead 5-8 minutes. Shape into twists, brush with egg whites, sprinkle with coarse pretzel salt.  Bake at 425º for 5 minutes or until golden brown.  When taken out of oven, brush with butter.

We leave for Malawi on the 12th! The plan is to leave at some horribly early hour since it's going to be about a 15 hour drive.  I have my lesson done, though, and am getting final stuff together to teach a children's class one Sunday morning.  We're planning for a minimum of 50 kids. Yeah, 50!  We'll be gone for two weeks, but hopefully I can get a post ready and set it for while I'm gone.  Heh heh, real tech savvy.

Mom has been needing to make a trip to visit her parents, so we made the plans for her and I to go to California to visit them, and then also to visit my sister in Tennessee! I am so excited to make a visit to the States!  We'll leave in the beginning of November, and spend a month before we come back.

Are your feet hideous right after a run?

Mine, obviously yes...I guess I'll have to take a picture of them normally to even things out. 

Soft pretzels - like em?

 

 

Your questions answered!

Today was a really good day, complete with a super run! We went on a new route and did a 4.4 mile trail run. The entire way out is uphill, and it is tough for me.  But the view and scenery is so beautiful, it's worth it! Plus, even though things are hard and we might hate it at the moment, we often find ourselves doing that very thing as soon as possible, right?!

 

Thanks to all of you who had questions! Let's see if I can give y'all some answers...

Vanessa@GourmetRunner asked: "What is your plan for the future? How did you end up in Tanzania, and how long will you plan to stay there? 

We had visited Africa before (although not Tanzania specifically) and wanted to do mission work here.  We met people who had connections here, and everything worked out for us to come, so here we are!  We made a 5 year commitment, which is up in April, so we're planning on moving back to the States sometime next year.  Plans aren't set in stone yet, but the guys will get jobs, go to school, etc., and I'll still be around helping and working at whatever I can.  I definitely want to nanny, though!

Neon Blonde Runner asked:  "How many countries have you lived in"

That would be two - I've only lived in the U.S. and Tanzania.

Julia@PainPrideandPerseverence asked: "Where have you lived and where do you hope to live in the future? What is your favorite activity to do with Panya? What is your favorite hike?

My parents grew up and lived in California, so we lived there when I was small, but then we moved to Iowa where we spent all our time before moving to Africa a few years ago.  We're trying to work things out to move to Tennessee (anyone in Blogland live there?), but we're not sure if that will work out quite yet.

My favorite activity to do with Panya would probably be cuddling.  I mean, everything's better when you have a little pup snuggled up by you.  But she also LOVES to play fetch and tug of war...she could do it all day long!

 

My favorite hike would probably be this one.  The view was so gorgeous, and the hike was fun!

 

Coy@FirstInPhilly asked: "Are you running towards any race?"

Since there aren't any races whatsoever around here, I'm trying to build up a solid mileage base, and then work on speed. I suppose it's a race aganst myself since I'm always trying to beat my best times, though!  But I'm so excited to do a "real" race when we move back to the States!

Rachel@RachelInRealLife asked: "What do you miss most about living in the U.S? What has been your most amazing experience in Africa so far? Scariest?

What I probably miss most about living in the U.S. is seeing friends and family...when you're so far away from everybody you hope they're not forgetting about you! :)  It's hard sometimes not being able to just pick up the phone and give a ring or send a text.

Wow, these two are a bit hard!  The most amazing experiences I've had have been working with my family trying to share the Gospel (which thankfully you can do anywhere!), but also just living in such a different place and society.  When everyday life and culture is so different than what we think of as normal, it's hard to pinpoint just one thing.  But assisting with a home birth is waaay up on the list!

The scariest thing?  That is a really tough one.  It doesn't have necessarily do with being in Africa itself, but Jacob and my Dad were just driving outside of Arusha one day, when they were hit from behind by a Greyhound size bus.  It sent them flying off the road, and flipped the Land Cruiser (which was completely and totally wrecked).  Besides bad bruises and a broken rib, they weren't really hurt, which is amazing, because looking at the Cruiser you wondered how they were even alive.  In the moments when I didn't know if they were okay, or even alive were the scariest moment of my life.

I did get malaria, which was NOT fun.  We were able to get medicine and once it was treated I was totally fine, but when I was in the middle of feeling like I was about to die - the fever and not being able to even stand without vomiting - was a bit scary.

Danielle@DEM asked: "If you could have one...what would your superpower be? On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being chill as a icycle and 10 being sweating like an inferno, how nervous were you delivering that baby?!"

Hmm...I think I'd probably choose super speed, muahaha.  Or invisibility...that would be pretty cool.

I wasn't as nervous since I was only assisting at the birth, but the labor was progressing perfectly without any trouble whatsoever, so I'd probably be a 2 or 3 on the Stressometer!

___________________________________________________________________

Thanks again to everyone who asked questions!  I do have a post all ready that may involve soft pretzels...and if you ask if I like those, the answer is yes.

Have you done a Q&A post yet?

If you haven't, get on it!

If you had to, would you rather live without sweets or bread?

It would be slightly painful to be sweet-less, but I just couldn't leave bread behind...I have a piece of toast for breakfast almost every morning.  
I hope this scenario never happens.

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? 

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!