Where will I be in 2 weeks?

Guys, I am so proud of myself! After writing this post on what a procrastinator I was, I have actually turned in to a working machine!! I only have 2 papers left to hand in, and I’ve done 25/28 pages for one, and 25/40 for the other! By the end of today, the last one should be 30/40 ;)

What would be a good way to reward myself for ALMOST being done with this semester’s work?

A hot bubble bath?

Check. A nice run?

Check.

How about going to Paris?

CHECK!

As some of you may already know, I’m going to be heading to Geneva, Switzerland to go see my parents as soon as I’m done with my papers. I’ll be leaving on December 11th which is only 1.5 weeks away!

Erika, one of my best friends just HAPPENS to be living in Paris this year, so I’m going to go see her for 4 days!! It’s a Christmas gift from my parents and I couldn’t be more thankful and excited for this :) Erika and I don’t get to see each other much but we have still managed to squeeze in a few visits since I left Washington D.C.

In Boston, 2007!

This summer!

So obviously I’m super excited to see Paris in the winter (I just love Christmas in Europe. It’s magical!), but I’m also stoked to get to hang out with her for a few days :) I will keep you all up to date with the fun stuff we’ll be doing and the good food we’ll be eating (Erika, will I have to cook for you? :P)

Last Christmas was spent in Starsbourg, France…
See what I mean by magical??

Workouts

I don’t know if any of you check out what workouts I’ve been doing on the sidebar ----->
but if you have, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve pretty much only been running! There’s a few reasons for that:

• First, I told you all that I wanted to lose 13 lbs by Christmas. Um, yeah, it’s not going to happen. I’ve been plateauing like crazy, so I’ve decided to up my workouts in order to have at least 50 minutes of intense cardio 4 times a week. It’s actually working, my weight has started to budge!!
• Also, since I’ve been so busy… I don’t have time to go to yoga, or spinning (which I’ll start in the winter). So it has to be running.

All in all I’ve been very happy with my runs lately. Because I’m running so much, my knees have started to hurt a bit but it’s not too bad yet, and I’m hoping they can last me another week of *intense* running :)

Blog Lovin’

The lovely Jocelyn over at Everyday Foodie was kind enough to give me the Beautiful Blogger Award!

I have to pass this award on to 7 bloggers, and answer 7 things about myself!

• Amber @ Girl With The Red Hair
• Lisa @ Lisa’s Yarns
• Erin @ Lucid World
• Shoshanah @ From L.A. to LA
• Lizzie @ Run, Woman, Run
• Kelly @ She Wears a Red Sox Cap
• Jillian Marie @ Peace, Love & Munchies

7 things about yours truly:

• I sleep with a sleep mask, and there’s no way I could go back to sleeping without one… It wouldn’t be dark enough!
• I used to despise red wine (just smelling it would make me feel sick). But then, I watched Brothers & Sisters where they’re always drinking red wine, and went to Italy last summer, and now I love it!!
• Putting me in a Whole Foods-type grocery store is a bad thing. I just want to buy everything in sight!!
• Eventually, one of these days… I’d like to write a book. I feel like I have one in me, but I hate any of the ideas that I come up with.
• I actually did write a book when I was younger (like 14). I had about 200 pages, and then I made the mistake of rereading it… and threw it away.
• I’m desperately trying to be a knitter. I’ve been working on the same scarf since last winter!!! Hopefully, this winter will be the one where I finish the darn thing :P
• I will be running in the 2010 Ottawa Half-Marathon!!! How sneaky of me to put it at the bottom of a post like that, but no worries, I will do a post on that eventually :)
  

How to Make a Pizza in 4 Days

(I hope this made someone think of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days??)

When I first started making pizza from scratch, I was dreaming of being able to make a pizza that tasted like the one I had had in Naples (I was so tired that a picture was not taken, and I will always regret it). I also wanted it to be healthy though, so I was hoping to make a whole wheat crust. It didn’t work out so well. Yes, it was good, but was it I-just-went-to-pizza-heaven good? No.

So I set out to find the best pizza recipe out there. I searched and searched, until finally I stumbled on Jeff Varasano’s recipe. I immediately knew he was the guy for the job because he explained at length why he chose this ingredient over that one, and went over each step and decision carefully. I soaked up all the knowledge he shared, and the following is what stuck with me. I have modified the recipe a little bit, and I should mention that I will be giving the instructions for manual dough kneading (you can do it with a KitchenAid mixer but then you might as well follow his directions).

A few of my friends have tried it and have loved it, and I’m fairly sure they’re not lying :P Carolyn and I now make pizza dough weekly and love comparing results, although at this point they pretty much always turn out awesome!

First, note that this is not a recipe that you decide you want to make for dinner the day of. The dough rises in the fridge over a few days (3-6) so you have to make it in advance. So say you do a Friday pizza night, you should probably make the dough on a Tuesday for the best results. Because I don’t want to handle dough every single week, I’ll usually make enough for it to be used for 2 meals over 2 weeks (see, I love leftovers!), within the 6 day period that the dough is good for.

Ingredients for individual pizzas

	1 Pizza	2 Pizzas	3 Pizzas
Water	110g	220g	330g
Flour	168g	330g	510g
Yeast*	1 packet	1 packet	1 packet
Salt	1/3 tsp	2/3 tsp	1 tsp
Buffalo Mozarella in its milk/water (to have on the day you want to make the pizza	1/2 a ball	1 ball	1.5 balls
Pizza sauce, fresh basil, and a nice bottle of red wine

*For the yeast, use the normal one, not the quick rise one! I get the Fleischman (I think) brand, and it comes in 3 packets.

If you want to make more than 3 pizzas, then just do the math from the measurements I provided. The only thing that will change though are the packets of yeast, use 2 packets from 4-6 pizzas.

Steps

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl.

Then knead the dough for 1-2 minutes, until all ingredients are combined.

Cover with cloth and let sit for 20 minutes.

Knead dough for 8-10 minutes.

I usually grab the dough and squoosh it repeatedly, but not in the bowl (over it usually), so I just hold it in the air the whole time. Great work-out for the forearms!

After about 6 minutes, you will notice that the texture of the dough becomes a lot smoother.

By the time the 8-10 minutes are done it will be very smooth. Put it back in the bowl, cover, and let sit for 20 minutes.

Yes, it’s a little gross. And sticky. But it will be worth it!

Take some tupperwares (1 per individual pizza, make sure it can hold 4-5 cups at the very least), put some olive oil on a napkin and wipe the inside of the tupperwares with the cloth. You really don’t need too much olive oil, it’s just so that it doesn’t completely stick.

Separate the dough into however many individual pizzas you’re making, and put them in a tupperware, trying to get them all to be around the same size/weight. If you have a food scale, definitely use it! Mine are usually about 250g each (depending on how much dough sticks to my fingers, lol).

Close the tupperwares and put them in the fridge. Leave them there for 3-5 days so that the dough will rise (I think even 2 days is ok, I’ve done it anyways).

Pizza day!

Now that the dough has risen (doesn’t it look great??), you want to make your pizza.

Mmmm Bubbles!

Preheat your oven to however high it can go. For me, it’s 550F. Make sure you have some pizza pans (I use the ones that have 2 layers, 1 with holes).

Take out your buffalo mozzarella from the package. [You don’t have to use this cheese, but if you want it to be authentic, it’s a must! At least give it a try for the first time ;)]. Wrap it in paper towels until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Then, cut it in slices as shown below.

While the oven is preheating, clean out a work surface, and sprinkle some flour. Take the dough out of the container onto the floured surface, then turn it over.

Gently stretch out the dough until it forms somewhat of a circle. Don’t overwork the dough or else it will destroy those lovely bubbles! If it doesn’t seem to want to stretch anymore, let it rest for a few minutes, and it will be workable again. When done, gently shake off excess flour and lay out onto the pizza pans.

When the oven is heated, open the pizza sauce can and spread it as thickly as you like. Make sure you do this right before putting it into the oven so that it doesn’t soak the dough which will keep it from rising!

Then layer your mozzarella slices and put in the oven.

Mine usually stays in for about 13 minutes, but really, you want it to look like this before taking it out:

Slide onto your plate, sprinkle with some fresh basil (buying a plant is so worth it), and voila! The best homemade pizza on earth!

Please let me know if you try it and, more importantly, if you liked it!!

Ode to Leftovers

I don’t think I’ve had an ode to anything for quite sometime (check out my Ode to Grey’s Anatomy, Ode to Eggs, and Ode to Coffee). But I have been feeling such a surge of love for leftovers lately, as well as hearing from a lot of people who don’t like them, that I felt the need to express my love for leftovers!

Cook once, eat often!

We’re all busy, and cooking is one of those things that a lot of people find daunting and disappears from our routine to make place for frozen food or takeout as soon as life gets hectic.

So why wouldn’t you want to cook once, and have servings left for a few other meals? I have to say that it works really well for myself. I cook and sometimes share with my sister if she feels like having what I made (we have very different tastebuds), so I pretty much always have leftovers since most recipes make a bit more than 2 servings.

I love knowing that after a somewhat tedious hour or 2 of cooking, I will have food for not only one meal, but multiple ones! I love coming home at night after a long day at school and knowing that I don’t have to cook, because last night’s amazing dinner is in the fridge and just needs to be heated up!

Plus, when you cook well, what’s the problem with eating something you loved the night before? I just hope that leftovers stop having a bad rep because to me, they can be lifesavers :) Definitely dietsavers ;)

Pumpkin soup

Speaking of leftovers, I had some pumpkin puree left in my fridge from the last time I had pumpkin oats. It was from one of those huge cans and no matter how much oatmeal I had it would never be done. At first I thought about making pumpkin muffins or bread, but in the end I settled for Pumpkin soup! I got the idea from Oh She Glows, but adapted because of my general laziness and lack of ingredients.

(that white glob in the middle is goat cheese. I wanted it to float, but it didn’t)

To make this I used 1.5 cups of pumpkin puree, a drizzle of EVOO, Chopped sage. I heated it on med-high until boiling, then let it simmer for about 8 minutes.

To serve, I drizzled with some more EVOO and sprinkled some goat cheese on top. Yum! Had i had walnuts I would’ve probably sprinkled some of that too ;)

99% Vegetarian?

I guess this is probably something that may deserve more than the bottom of a post, but until further notice, I have become vegetarian. I don’t eat much meat to begin with (maybe once every 2 weeks), but after seeing Food Inc. I don’t have much taste for it. It is in part due to animal cruelty, but also because knowing (or not) where your food comes from is important. I think I would still be open to eating meat if it was from a local and ethical farmer, and I will still be eating seafood (although I’m very careful about where that comes from as well, I did a paper on Cod fisheries and well, that definitely opened my eyes as well!).

All in all I don’t think the switch will be too hard because, as I’ve said, I was mostly vegetarian, but also because my parents are also eating a mostly vegetarian diet. One of my friends actually was sure that I was vegetarian because I’m always ordering the vegetarian options at restaurants, so she wasn’t surprised about my official change of mind :P

So that’s that for now! I know blog posting has been sporadic as of late but I promise that there are some interesting posts coming ahead!

ps: Are you a leftover-lover or hater?

Two wrongs make a right, right?

Before I forget, two things I should mentions:

• Thank you for all your lovely comments. Not only on the last post, but on the ones before that as well! Your tips, advice, and life experiences help me out more than you know!!
• For those who are interested (and reside in Canada), check out this documentary called 65_RedRoses on a girl with Cystic Fibrosis waiting for a lung transplant. It’s only 45 minutes long but so informative and moving. For those who live in the States you may be able to find it elsewhere but I’m pretty sure that if you use the link I provide it’s only available in Canada.

Buzzing Around

Boy have I been busy lately! I am ploughing through the research/writing that I have to do, and 3 out of the 6 things that were looming over my head are now over and done with! I gave my presentation (which I think went well), handed in some assignments, met with my supervisor, and now all I have left are 1 assignment, and 2 papers. I can do this!

Thankfully I’ve still been able to make some pretty decent food lately, like this peppermint chocolate oatmeal:

(made with some chocolate peppermint soy milk)

And my masterpiece: butternut squash gnocchi with brown butter and sage, with kale on the side:

It was Kath’s blog post on pretty much the same recipe that made me want to tackle those babies!! Doesn’t it look delicious?? It was, too!  The first night I was a bit disappointed because, let’s face it, they’re not the most photogenic buggers. And, it took me hours to make them – seriously, by the time I sat down for dinner, it was 11:30pm!!

I have to say though that they were at their best as leftovers tonight! Seriously, they were so good! Fluffy yet crispy, and the sage adds so much depth to the dish. On the kale I just put some white wine vinegar, and some got on the gnocchi… and THAT was amazing! So if you follow the recipe, I recommend drizzling some white wine vinegar on the whole thing :P

Weight loss Confusion

I love reading about health and fitness. I just soak it all up and store the information for later use. Some information is so useful but some of it… isn’t. Or at least not for me.

We’re told 2 things when it comes to eating and watching TV:

• don’t snack in front of the TV,
• and when you’re eating a meal, focus on what you’re eating, so in other words, don’t watch TV

I don’t follow either of those advice. I have combined them and somehow it has helped me tremendously. I love snacking in front of the TV, and since I don’t have much time to relax, I multitask by eating dinner in front of the TV. Knowing that, I just make sure to time my meals around TV times, which has eliminated snacking mindlessly in front of the TV  (since I’m eating a planned meal). I think that as long as you’re eating a set portion (and not eating mindlessly) there’s no problem with watching TV at the same time!

What do you guys think? Are there any health tips that you follow to the T, or others, like me, that you just totally disregard?

Kabocha & Realization

Who else out there is a Biggest Loser fan? I sure am. Back when I was at the very beginning of my weight loss journey, it helped me get back on track on hard days and pushed me to work-out even when I just wanted to be lazy. It was also a constant reminder to never give up, even if the going gets tough.

Since January, I’ve gotten my eating back on track, I’m more active than I have ever been, and I’m happy. One thing that they always talk about over and over again on The Biggest Loser and that I hadn’t experienced yet is that Eureka moment when you figure out WHY you gained the weight. I always ended up thinking: Me? Everything’s fine here, I just like food and don’t enjoy working out! And up until not long ago, I still thought that was the reason that had gotten me to where I was back in January.

Lately though, I have been rethinking that. I think it definitely is partly true (I sure love good food!), but I think there is more to it, and I think I’ve figured it out.

When I get close the finish line, when I can see it and almost taste it… I give up.

That would explain why I had tried before to lose weight, and why right when I was finally starting to be happy with my body, I would sabotage myself, all my hard work would disappear and I was back to the way I was before.

I think I must’ve known about this subconsciously because right when I got to the 140s in August, I sort of hit a wall. Mentally, it’s like I wanted to put my journey in cruise control, thinking I was done. And it’s not the first time it’s happened! Whenever I’ve attempted to lose weight, as soon as I STARTED to feel comfortable it was as if I had decided to just give up. This is why there have been no weight updates since I got back to Italy – it’s stayed the same. I guess it’s better than having gained it back, but it’s really frustrating.

I’ve tightened the reigns on myself by upping my work-outs and watching portion sizes more closely, and it finally looks like the weight is moving in the right direction again :)

Unfortunately, I think this trend tends to happen in other areas of my life as well, except I seem to be able to manage it better, thanks to deadlines and expectations.

Kabocha

Yesterday, after a tedious run (seriously, I felt like I was running through hardening cement!) I had a DELICIOUS dinner! I pretty much made Jenna’s meal except I used navy beans and a teensy bit of cheddar.

I’ve been seeing Kabocha everywhere lately, like at the grocery store and on Sophia’s blog. I finally bought one because I figured it would last me a few meals (and it totally will).

Cutting the kabocha squash open and slicing it was SO difficult. I don’t know if it’s because my knives aren’t sharp enough but it took me about 15 minutes and I almost cut my fingers a few times. The kabocha smelled really strange… Like watermelon? I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into…

After 45 minutes on 375 degrees, it was finally ready! I gave it a taste, and the first thing I thought of was roasted chestnuts! It totally tastes like that and I loved it!

It will give me probably about 3 other meals which is perfect since I am going to be getting ready for my presentation tomorrow, so I won’t have to worry about cooking!

I’m off to study, but I have a question for you: have you noticed a pattern in your life, whether it be in your work-outs, eating, relationships or work? If so, what do you do about it?

Stressed, stressed, stressed!

Here’s what’s been on my mind lately:

• My sister (although she’s home today so that was already a good start!)
• The bar exam: I’m taking it on Thursday, and I’m pretty confident that I’ll pass. BUT (and here’s where the stress came in) I have spent a LOT of days studying, when other classes also needed time to be put into. So I’m behind. WAY behind.
• Which brings me to the five things that need to be done by Dec. 9th, in that order: presentation, 2 mini assignments that are not worth all that much but take a lot of time to do, and two 40-page papers. Very stress-inducing.

What’s making me even MORE stressed? This little affliction that I have called procrastination!!!! And it’s happening in a few ways, and for a few reasons:

• As the due date for my paper comes closer and closer, I get too nervous to even START the research. Does that happen to anyone?? I’m finally going to tackle the research for one of my papers tomorrow and I’m hoping that once I get started with it and actually start learning more on the subject, my confidence and paper-writing skills will kick in :)
• Reading about wills and business law for 8 hours straight? Yeah, I can’t do it. So every 30 minutes I have to get up, but then I stumble upon my computer, and next thing I know, an hour has gone by. An hour when I could have done something USEFUL!!

What I’m doing about it:

• Tea. Tea is helping out so very much. I get a nice mug of chai (or soon, some holiday tea which a friend will be bringing back from the States!) or jasmine green tea, and already I feel more calm and ready to tackle my tasks.
• Exercise [I’m tired: I had to use spell check to spell “exercise”]. More specifically, yoga and running. A year ago those would have been the very first things to go! But not this time. I guess it helps that at the same time as I run I get to catch up on my shows, so it’s definitely an added bonus (and it’s making me run for longer, too!). Check out my exercise sidebar (on the right), and you’ll see that I’m not doing too bad!!
• Cooking. What? I have time for cooking? Yeah, I’ve been making time for it. Because then I get LEFTOVERS, and these are totally great :)
• Some day-dreaming: after Dec. 9th, some fun things will be coming up that I can’t wait to share with you all!

I’m off to bed now, but I really wanted to get this post up because if not now, I don’t know when I’d do it!

But before I go:

Say hello to my new study buddies! I so couldn’t resist! I am absolutely loving the one on the right, but the one on the left is really big and hard to manoeuvre with my non-bear-sized hands lol :) And…

My Christmas cactus is finally in bloom!! After like… 2 years! I absolutely love this picture, it came out quite nicely I have to say :)

Have a good week everyone! Who’s stressed out?? Also, is anyone else experiencing surprisingly warm weather? Don’t hate me, but I want snow :(

Inspiration

Kelly kindly reminded me that my last post had been written quite some time ago and that it was time for an update!

It would seem that my sister is slowly starting to get better, so fingers crossed she could be home as early as this Friday! I have to say, I miss her silly questions and having her around!

You all seem to have had a great Halloween! I was supposed to go spend it with my sister but alas, caught a hold and had to stay home. I've been fighting it since Friday and it's still not completely gone! Some of my family came down (or up?) from Montreal so that was a nice break from my studies :)

My grand-father reading Shape! Too funny :)

I ran on both Friday and Sunday and I am just so thankful that I went out running when I did and did not wait until later on in the day because on both of those days I woke up feeling not too bad and got sicker as the day went on! In both cases it seems that my work-out finished just in time and if I had waited any longer I wouldn't have been able to breathe through my nose!

Slightly broken camera

I actually had something "fun" planned for this week! On Kelly's blog, she mentioned that one of her goals for the year was to blog all her food for one week, and I thought it was such a great idea! On the one hand, it would be a fun way for me to try out more recipes, and to watch what I eat!

Everything had started off well yesterday, but then I realized that the clicker button on my camera broke! Randomly! My camera didn't fall or anything, and since I was the only one home I can't really blame it on anyone else... I can still take pictures but there's no way that I can bring my camera with me anywhere...

Inspiration

Mel at Mel Tries to Run has had her article published in Australia's Runner's World magazine! How cool is that? If you check out her post, you will see the amazing picture that was taken of her. Seriously, just looking at it makes me want to go out and run!

People always hire photographers for weddings, parties, or to mark an event. I think it would be great to have pictures taken when we're working out, and use these as inspiration on days when we just don't feel like moving our butts!

What inspires you to get moving when you just want to stay in bed?

Who are you?

What a week this has been, and it's not over just yet! Of course, the time that my sister has to be in the hospital is the time when I am just overflowing with busy-ness! Thankfully, I always seem to find a way to get it all done. I'm crossing my fingers anyways!

Relaxing Dinner

Both my mom and I have been super stressed out lately and last night we just needed to unwind, big time! I was done with my work for the day, so after a 4 mile run, I made us some delicious homemade pizza! We had that along with a nice glass of local red wine (or two), followed by an old episode of Glee. My mom LOVED the meal! All in all it was a great night :)

New Yoga Class

So this morning I went back to my regular yoga studio, but this time it was to try a new yoga class! This may seem weird to some but I have ONLY ever done Bikram Yoga. I love it (obviously) but I've always been afraid to try something different. This class was an intermediate Ashtanga class. I was a little nervous about not being able to follow with the rest of the students but that wasn't a problem because...

...My friend and I were the only ones!!! We pretty much got a personal yoga session and it was awesome. At first I got all nervous because then the instructor would see how LITTLE I knew, but he was extremely helpful and I left the class feeling amazing. I've always found yoga to be so graceful when done right (mostly when you flow seamlessly from one pose to another) and I could never really achieve that, until today. By the end of class I was quite proud of myself!

Questions for YOU!

So, it has come to my attention that there are some new readers out there! I would love to know more about you. Don't be shy!

So, to readers old and new, here are some questions:

• Tell me something about you!
• What's your favorite season?
• What's your favorite movie?
• What recipe/meal are you "known" for?
• If you could travel anywhere right now, where would you go?

Looking forward to know more about you!

The Irony

The week-end started off wonderfully. I had gotten some studying done and went over to a friend's house on Friday night to play Cranium. We had a blast and I headed home. I was about to fall asleep when my sister let me know she wasn't feeling well. We had had a feeling that she would need to be hospitalized soon so it wasn't too much of a surprise. So at 2 in the morning, I rushed her to the ER where she was admitted. She has pneumonia again, and has been in the hospital since. (for those of you who have just started reading the blog, my sister has cystic fibrosis, you can learn more about it here). Thankfully, my mom is arriving today from Geneva so it will help to have her be at the hospital with my sister. I try to go see her as much as I can but school is extremely busy right now. Knowing that she's not at the hospital alone will definitely relieve some stress.

Nike Human Race

So after going to bed at 2:30 am, I woke up Saturday at 10:30, because I had a lot of things to do. It was finally time for me to do the 10k for the Nike Human Race! I didn't really have a set training plan for this race, I just wanted to gradually increase my mileage to around 10k. I felt fairly confident that I had.

Unfortunately, Saturday was a RAINY day. I could've done the race inside but how boring is that? It would've felt like just another work-out. So for the first time ever, I ran outside in the rain! I have to say, I felt pretty bad-ass :P I felt great too! At first I was a bit afraid of slipping on the sea of leaves on the ground, but I soon found my stride and stopped worrying about it.

I did the first 2.5 k without stopping, no problem. At that point though I was at a big downhill and because I still worry about my ankle, I decided to walk it (since it was all slippery). I also realized that running in the rain with glasses isn't the best idea. I was totally blind and there was no wiping in the world that could have kept them clean for more than a few seconds. So I just took them off and enjoyed the blurriness! It was actually kind of nice like that. Everything was so green because of the rain and then there were splatches of yellow, orange and red everywhere.

When I got to about the halfway mark, my knee started to bother me a little bit, so I decided to run 0.8 km, then walk 0.2. I did that until I was at 9.5 km and almost home. At that point my knee started hurting so badly that I couldn't walk. It felt like it was twisted or something. I couldn't believe it, I was SO close to being done! So I took some deep breaths, told myself I was strong, that I could do this, that pain was temporary (ha, yeah right!) and somehow it seemed to work. I jogged home at a slow pace, and managed to finish the race in 66'10"! Iced my knee and took some Motrin.

The whole time I was obviously thinking about my sister who was in the hospital having trouble breathing, and there I was running outdoors. Part of me felt guilty, and part of me was just proud to be able to run for the both of us.

What about you: Why do you run?

Transforming Into Martha Stewart?

So after 3 intense days of working on a little insignificant project for school, I am back to having a little bit of free time!

Comfort Cooking

Because I needed some nourishment during my intense researching, I decided to make some nice homemade chili! I mean, the weather is just calling for it! Rainy, chilly... what else could you want?

So I made this chili recipe which I had discovered on Eat Like Me. I've been told by everyone who's tried it that it is the BEST chili they've ever tasted (I just have to toot my own horn :P). I have made a few changes:

• Broth: I double the amount so that I have more chili (so 6 cups instead of 3). It still doesn't get watery so it's great!
• Beans: I use 3 cans of 3 different types of beans (I like to get 3 different colors, brown, black and white).
• Chicken: I just use one breast (the size of my hand I'd say?)
• Tomato: I use a 28 fl oz-sized can (so double what the recipe says) of whole tomatoes.

I think that's about all the changes I've made? Anyways, it's delicious! See for yourself:

Hmm... So it doesn't LOOK yummy, but it is. Trust me!

I also decided to make... Pumpkin Butter! I've been seeing bloggers everywhere raving about pumpkin butter (more specifically, from Trader Joe's), so when Sarah over at Vitamin G posted a recipe to make it, I couldn't pass up on the offer!


I made enough to for myself, but also for a few friends. Aren't they cute? I love baking/cooking for friends, it makes me happy to see them happy!

Here's where I become Martha Stewart

Ever since my cooking incident where I really really burnt myself, I have known that I need an apron when I'm cooking. You guys have no idea the amount of food that appears on what I'm wearing when I'm cooking! So here is the appearance of new cooking attire, which I got from Anthropologie:

First apron - please pardon the frizzy hair, it's still wet!

Second apron!

Aren't they adorable?? I couldn't choose between the both of them. I love the pattern on the first one, and love the cut on the 2nd one. Oh, and those legging-type things that I'm wearing in the picture (that you can barely see actually) are from Lululemon and they are SO comfortable and extremely flattering of my behind I have to say! Plus they're just warm enough! I love them!

My treat: Running

I had scheduled to do a 4 mile run today, and because of the hard work I put into those last few days, I decided to take it slow today. I slept in, caught up on Gossip Girl, and decided to treat myself to an outdoor run. How is that a treat? Well, lately, because I'm so busy, I mix my two loves together: running and watching my shows. So when I've been running lately, it's always been in front of the tv so I could multitask! Today though, I had the time so I headed out.

It was supposed to be 11 degrees C, but it felt MUCH colder. No sun, only a grey sky. I would've loved some nice weather but the nice fall crisp air was enough. I ran for 1.5 miles straight, then walked for 0.5 miles, then ran 8 minutes, walked 2, and repeated. This took me to the top of my street where I usually walk home to cool down, but I looked at my Nike Sportband, and it said that I was at 1.8 miles and it had only been 40 minutes! I saw this as an opportunity to beat my previous times and ran the rest of the way home (at an 8:16 mile, thank you very much!), and managed to do 4 miles in 41'47", which is possibly the fastest I've ever run!

Unfortunately, now that I'm sitting down to write this, my knee is in EXTREME pain. I popped a Motrin so hopefully it'll be better soon! It's time to start studying, even though it's almost 4!

I leave you with one question: how are you like Martha Stewart? :P Did you do some time in prison or do you like to bake? ;)