Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Posted on September 29, 2009 - by Ashley Jackson

A Day of Sundays

If you took a week of Sundays and condensed them into one day, that day would be today.

I woke up at 3:30AM and tried to go back to sleep until 4:45. And then I gave up and decided to eat half of a Pure cherry cashew bar…

…and go for a Couch to 5K Week 4 run. I was chilly walking to the fitness center–it suddenly got cold in NC at night! I made it all the way through the first 3-minute run, but the first 5-minute run was a bust–my legs started cramping up again. I called it quits and will go again tomorrow. I think there are two things I’m doing wrong–one, I’m not doing the full 5-minute warm-up walk at the appropriate pace, because I start the five minutes while I’m still in my apartment and then walk to the fitness center, and two, I’m trying to do all of the runs at 5.5MPH and it’s sapping all my energy in the first half of the run. I poked around on the Couch to 5K Facebook page and apparently this is a common problem coming out of Week 3 because of the big jump between Weeks 3 and 4. So tomorrow: full 5-minute warm-up walk and slowing down to 4.5 MPH for the first two jogs. We’ll see if that works…

After I showered, I started setting up my “alternative workstation” at my dining room table, since I had to work at home today as part of my agency’s pandemic preparedness exercise. I pulled what may be my last cherry muffin out of the freezer to eat while I started working.

These were superb when they were fresh from the oven and while two or three months in the freezer have toyed with the texture, they’re still great.

If only cherries could be in season  year-round!

I started working at 6AM and took a break sometime during the morning to eat the other half of my Pure bar. Lunch was a quick and mostly leftover affair–a grilled chicken thigh with Ozark seasoning, leftover lima beans and broccoli from Sunday night, and leftover potatoes, onions, and carrots from Monday night.

I’m really bad about using leftovers, and here’s one reason why–leftover potatoes taste weird.  They even look kinda funny…

I worked until 3:15PM, at which point I gave up for the day (and yet, I’m already ahead for the week…). It was the longest day ever! While I hope we don’t have any pandemics for obvious reasons, I also hope we don’t have one because working from home as a result would drive me utterly mad. There were barking dogs and people walking up the steps and planes and leafblowers and men climbing on roofs, and nowhere to go to get away from it. There’s no one to get up and talk to when you’ve been staring at your computer screen for too long–a minor point, as I’m a huge introvert, but a point nonetheless–and even worse, there’s not really anyplace to go. I can’t think sitting down and there’s only so much room in an apartment to pace. I will be happy to be back at the office tomorrow…

After I was done working for the day, I took an awesome nap with my dog. I think I fell asleep around 4PM and didn’t get up until 7:30PM. Naps are good…there were lots of naps at the beach last week.

In the half-hour in which I had to cook before The Biggest Loser started, I threw together some taco salad.

Dip made from refried beans, cream cheese, and taco seasoning, covered in cheese, tomatoes, and onions, then run under the broiler, topped with lettuce, and eaten with tortilla chips. Yummy…horrible for you, probably, but yummy. Although this is not a good shot of it, I would also like to point out the lovely blue au gratin dish that my mom found at the thrift store and bought for me. Innit pretty?

The Biggest Loser was crazy tonight…I loved Jillian getting all serious business with the purple team and while an Amber Alert interrupted the love fest at the end right when it was getting good, I thought the team that ended up getting sent home went out in a very admirable and sportsmanlike way. Can’t wait for more crazy purple lady next week…

Posted on September 28, 2009 - by Ashley Jackson

That didn’t work too well…

Check out this delicious sammich I made for a bedtime snack last night…

…yeah, the one with too much Penzey’s Sandwich Sprinkle. I just dusted it off a little and it was good as new. That reminds me, though, I need to order from Penzey’s soon..

Speaking of being reminded of things, I was in such a haste to get out the door this morning with my breakfast, snack, lunch, ID badge, etc., that I forgot my camera! Epic fail. As I recall, I had a homemade cranberry-orange muffin from my freezer for breakfast, and banana for snack (which I ate while taking a walk to the mailbox to drop off my NetFlixes), and then, after my lunchtime walk, I ate a salad of Romaine, blue cheese, bacon, and Greek Feta dressing for lunch, along with a strawberry Chobani 0% Greek Yogurt.

And then, around 2:30PM, I started getting hungry and realized I hadn’t packed an afternoon snack and my cabinet was devoid of snack bars since I took them all home before my trip. Gaaah. In retrospect, I could’ve broken out that Trader Joe’s mac  and cheese, but I wasn’t thinking straight.

After I got home, I noshed on the last of my maple fudge while dinner was cooking.

And I tormented the dog some. If he sees me with the camera, he either runs and hides or he drops to the floor and rolls on his back.

Rawr, so scary…also, I need to vacuum my floor again. Sigh.

Oh, did I say I did this while dinner was cooking? I meant to say I did this while dinner was inadvertently broiling. See, I threw the oven on broil instead of bake, and you’d think at 450 degrees that wouldn’t make so much of a difference……and yet, I’ve never had my steak turn out cup-shaped before. Huh. Well, it was good anyway–little crunchy on the top and underdone on the bottom–and the roasted potatoes, carrots, and onions were magnificent, ’cause really, how could they not be.

The night ended with the simplicity of a Tofutti Cutie, since you can’t mess that up.

The good news is that tomorrow I can’t accidentally leave my camera at home when I go to work, because I’ll be working from home as part of a pandemic preparedness drill. I’m already plotting to make chicken on the George Foreman for lunch…

Posted on September 27, 2009 - by Ashley Jackson

Goodbye, extremely long weekend…

It’s weird to think that I haven’t been at work for nine days…this is the longest I’ve been away from work since I started my job! I needed a break, though, and now I’m eager to go back in the morning. And a little anxious, too–I’m worried that I’ll either have a ton of work waiting for me in my inbox, or none at all. We’ll find out in the morning…

Last night my parents had hamburgers, fried potatoes, and pinto beans. I would’ve settled for just the fried potatoes and pinto beans, but alas, all I have is dry pinto beans, and fried potatoes just aren’t the same without beans. Instead, I had a bunch of grapes…

…that are kind of weird-tasting. Grapes are so hit and miss. I also decided I wanted another salad, so I made the same salad I’d had for lunch–Romaine, Greek Feta dressing, bacon, tomatoes, and the addition of some blue cheese–and topped it with the leftover grilled red peppers, onions, and mushrooms from lunch.

And I had a piece of sourdough bread on the side. I’m determined to eat an entire loaf of fresh-baked bread before it goes bad!

After I ate, I settled down to watch the first disc of Season 2 of The Big Bang Theory. I live under a rock and have no TiVo, so I haven’t been watching this completely awesome show since House got moved to the same time. I’d seen all the episodes on the first disc, but they were all still funny.

I had the rest of my Heath toffee fudge while I was watching.

Later in the evening, I needed a quick snack, so I had some croutons.

After I took the picture, I went back and got some Greek Feta dressing to dip them in.

Today, I’ve been a lazy slug. I could be unpacking or cleaning or something, but instead I spent most of the day lazing in bed with my dog. My pulled muscle still hurts and my face is covered in these mysterious red dots, and really, I just wanted a day to do nothing.

I haven’t really been that hungry today, but I knew if I didn’t eat something I was going to end up sick. So I had a peanut butter cookie LaraBar.

[The doggy on my mousepad there is not puppy Heath--'tis a trick of the eye! It's actually my family's husky, Mysti, when she was a baby (with very sharp teeth).]

I proceeded to do nothing all day, not even eat, until after 6PM. I just wasn’t hungry. But when I finally did get the urge to eat, I knew what I wanted to do–make my entire meal in my food steamer!

I pulled out a piece of frozen salmon, some frozen baby lima beans, and some fresh broccoli, threw it in the steamer, set the timer for 22 minutes, and bing…

…out came deliciousness. I did add some pepper to the salmon, some blue cheese to the broccoli, and some kosher salt all around. Otherwise, all this awesomeness came straight from the steamer. I love steamed salmon–it always stays moist inside, something that’s sometimes difficult to achieve with broiling or grilling (my other two favorite salmon-preparation methods).

After dinner, I settled down to watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s, because I’d had it out from NetFlix for five weeks. No late fees, ha ha…just didn’t feel like watching it until now. Midway through I made myself a little desert.

A Tofutti Cutie broken up into quarters and topped with chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, some mini peanut butter cups, and a broken up chocolate-drizzled lemon cookie.

And I just had my pre-bedtime snack while I was writing this–a piece of sourdough bread topped with Asiago cheese, tomato, lettuce, and a bit more Penzey’s Sandwich Sprinkle than I intended. Oh well, still good…

Off to bed–gotta get up in the morning and go to work!