Monthly Archives: July 2011

Hello friends! How’s your weekend going? We are having a great time visiting our friends the Gardner’s up in St. Paul Minnesota. Last night we headed up for our annual viewing of the Miesville Mudhen’s final game of the season. As always, they won! Before the game we hung out in the parking lot, tailgating and such. It was good time!

Before coming up to St. Paul I told Gardner there were three things I MUST do while I was here…not surprisingly they all involved food!

A fresh Spring Roll from the farmer’s market, a trip to Trader Joe’s and REALLY good ice cream! While the boys were out fishing Shannon helped me accomplish all my “goals.”

After our traditional jaunt around lake Phalen
(in order to burn some calories before eating!) we ate breakfast showered and headed down to the Farmer’s Market. The fresh Spring Rolls they sell are the best I’ve ever had! I’ve been dreaming about them since I had one last year!

Next we headed over to Trader Joe’s. I just had to get some of their sunflower seed butter! I bought some the time I found Trader’ Joe’s in Rochester and loved it! Sadly the only place that sells it where I live is the Co-Op and it’s pretty expensive. I also picked up some snacks for Gardner’s party tonight.

On the way to ice cream I looked down a side street and saw this:

There was an impromptu art fair going on. We stopped and I found some cute earrings for only $5!

For our ice cream adventure we went to a new to place called Izzy’s!

How could I not eat ice cream at place named after my dog?

They had some pretty unique flavors! I rolled with a single scoop of salted caramel and for my “Izzy” (the small scoop on top) I had Blue Mountain Spice which kind of tasted like a creamy chi tea. It was so good! I will definitely have to return and try some of their other flavors!

Now we are back at the Gardner’s house and everyone is going to take a nap before the big cookout tonight! I sure am enjoying my mini-vacation. Hope you’re having a good weekend too!

Hey there! How’s your week going? Half way there right? I am definitely looking forward to the weekend. We are headed up to the Twin Cities for adventures with our friends the Gardner’s! Always a good time!

Since I haven’t been training for any racing events I haven’t really been posting about my workouts. I guess I thought they seemed kind of tame compared to a few of my looooooooong runs! But this past week I have two really great workouts that I just had to share!

Yesterday I hit up the pool at the YMCA, something I haven’t done in awhile. It was pretty much the perfect swim. The water temperature was nice and cool, sometimes they keep it a little warm and once you get moving it gets kind of uncomfortable but yesterday was perfect for me! It was also really quiet unlike other times I’ve swam laps. I peaked in the pool today and it looked super crowed so I felt pretty lucky to have a lane to myself yesterday.

I did 2,000m (or 40 Laps) Here’s how I broke it down

Warm Up

• 50m freestyle (front crawl)
• 50m kick only (with kickboard)
• 50m arms only (with pull buoy)
• 50m freestyle

Segment 1

• 200m freestyle
• 50m backstroke
• Repeat!

Segment 2

• 25m freestyle easy
• 25m freestyle sprint
• Repeat 3 more times
• 50m backstroke

Segment 3

• 25m with kick board
• 50m freestyle sprint
• 25m with kick board
• 50m freestyle sprint
• 25m with pull buoy
• 50m freestyle sprint
• 25m with pull buoy

Segment 4

• Repeat segment 2

Segment 5

• Repeat segment 3’

Cool Down

• Repeat of warm-up
• 100m breast stroke

Today I did Gina’s Schweaty July Elliptical Workout AND her Schweaty Circuit Workout. I completed the whole thing in an hour including stretching. I only did the circuits twice, I probably could have done 3 sets but I wasn’t sure how long it would take so I stuck with two. It was short, sweet, and sweaty and I felt like I got a totally body workout!

Finally tonight we had quite the lovely appetizer for dinner!

Those are fresh tomatoes straight from my father-in-law’s garden! And fresh basil from our CSA share. We topped them with a little olive oil and mozzarella cheese. Yum! So delicious! A summer classic!

Hope your hump day was a good one!

Good Sunday evening friends! I hope you had a lovely weekend. Mine was filled with all things wedding! It was a great time but I was pretty exhausted today and even took a two hour nap!  Here are some highlights from my brother and Raina’s big day! I’m pretty disappointed in myself with my pictures. I took our little point and shoot camera so I wouldn’t have to haul the big one around and noticed half way through the day that the picture quality was set really low! I hope you can get an idea of how beautiful everything was! I’m sure the professional photographers captured the day much better than I!

Jon and Raina’s wedding wasn’t until 6pm so Brian and I had a nice leisurely morning eating breakfast, taking the dog for a walk, and lounging around the house. A little before noon I headed to the salon to meet up with the bride and other bridesmaids to get our hair done!

Some fun hair photos!

A 360 degree view of my do!

The bride and some of the bridesmaids made the peacock fasteners!

That was A LOT of hair! With 67 bobby pins and a TON of hair spray it wasn’t going anywhere!

The bride finishing up some last minute wedding projects at the salon!

After all our hair was pinned and shellacked we headed over to Four Sisters for a little lunch!

Don’t we all look lovely!

I had a very fun drink!

A Jones blueberry lemonade! It was delicious and such a pretty color!

After our leisurely lunch we headed over to a hotel room to get dressed.

The bride applying her make up!

The flowers were AMAZING! I know this shot is blurry but I hope you can get and idea of how colorful they were!

At this point I turned the photo taking over to the professionals and went into full on bridesmaid mode. I had to get myself ready and also help the bride get into her dress. I can’t believe I didn’t get a full shot of the bride or myself all dressed and ready to go! Oh well! Perhaps I’ll be able to share some of the professional photos with you later!

We took a few pictures and then it was time to head to the ceremony site. It was pretty hot but the ceremony was short and painless. Brian tried to get a few pictures but didn’t feel he got the “perfect” shot.

The bride and groom (with the professional in the background)!

I also didn’t take any pictures at the reception! I was too busy socializing! We had a lot of fun eating, drinking, dancing and catching up with family and friends.

It was truly a wonderful day. I can’t believe my little brother is married! I felt so honored and blessed to be a part of their special day!

Congratulations Jon and Raina!

Good morning! It’s a very important day! My little brother is getting married to his beautiful fiancé Raina! It seems like only yesterday they got engaged!

Last night we all headed to The International Gardens in Riverside Park, where the wedding will take place, for the rehearsal. This is a beautiful place with TONS of gorgeous flowers.

Brian is pretty happy that he has no major role to play in the wedding. He just gets to sit back, relax, and enjoy!

The bride and groom discussing some important details!

I did put Brian on camera duty as I will be a bridesmaid today! He got some great pictures of us “rehearsing.”

I get to be escorted by my brother’s best friend Ben, which is AWESOME! I’ve known Ben since he was a baby, he’s such a great guy!

Here comes the bride!

Raina’s brother is the “man of honor” and since I am the female that is standing closest to her during the ceremony I have the very important job of arranging her train! I hope I don’t mess up!

I also hope I don’t cry…..I probably will! I kind of look like I’m going to in this picture!

After the rehearsal we headed over to River Jack’s for dinner. I really should have taken a picture of the GIANT piece of lasagna I had. It was seriously the size of a small bread pan. I was too busy socializing with my aunt and uncle.

This morning I’ve just been relaxing before I need to head to the salon for my hair appointment! It should be a fun day! Come back later for more wedding fun!

Hey friends! I have been such a slacker with this blog lately! I guess I’ve just been feeling like I have nothing interesting to write about. I’m not in training for anything so I’ve just been doing my regular workouts and teaching classes. I really haven’t been cooking much lately so I have no new recipes to share and we haven’t been dining out anywhere unique. I don’t really think you would find what I watched on television a very interesting topic to read about!

Today is just the beginning of wedding weekend adventures so I promise I’ll have more interesting things to share AND pictures! Today started with a great yoga class at the Y with my mom, then we met for breakfast at The Flipside before we headed to the salon for manicures and pedicures!

Yes those are my REAL nails, they are growing particularly long and strong these days! I haven’t had my nails done professionally in a long time. It was so nice to be pampered! The bridesmaid dresses are black but the color theme of the wedding are peacock colors: teals, purples, and blues. I decided to go with a purple since it’s my favorite color! I took a little nap this afternoon and am now hanging out watching Say Yes to the Dress before getting ready for the rehearsal.

I do have one quick and easy recipe to share with you. As I mentioned before this week the weather here was particularly hot and humid. The one night I did volunteer to cook I used my beloved crockpot. I kind of came up with this recipe myself. Here it is!

Easy Mexican Chicken

Ingredients:

• Boneless skinless chicken breasts (however many you need to feed your family, I only used two)
• Chicken broth
• Salsa
• Cheese

Directions:

• Place chicken breasts in crockpot and cover with chicken broth. Cover and turn on high
• After about 4 hours on high the chicken should be cooked (check to make sure) drain the broth and shred the chicken using two forks (it should shred pretty easily)
• Add salsa. I didn’t really measure how much I added just until it looked right
• Add cheese. Again no real measurement
• Let cook on low for an additional 3-4 hours. Check occasionally to make sure it isn’t burning. If it is drying out add water.
• This would be perfect served in tortilla shells. We had it over brown rice.

The chicken breast all ready for their broth bath!

Easily shredded!

I got creative and added some the cilantro cubes I created a few weeks ago. They smelled VERY fragrant but I didn’t really taste this in the final product. Brian said he did though!

All mixed up and ready to simmer!

Sorry there is not picture of the final product. I got home at almost 8pm after teaching Zumba so I was STARVING and pretty much inhaled this delightful dish!

Man! It feels good to blog again! I definitely need to get back into the grove! Hope you have some fun plans for the weekend and that if it is hot where you are you are finding a way to stay cool!

Hey friends! Did you miss me while I was gone? Hope so! Words can’t even describe what an amazing time I had taking 15 teenagers from my church on a mission trip last week. We went to Cass Lake Minnesota which is very far north, almost to Canada! It was the kind of experience that was life changing for my young people as well as me. It truly will be the highlight of my youth ministry programming year and will hold a special place in my heart for years to come. The kids and I are already talking about plans for next year. However, it was  VERY exhausting! I spent most of yesterday laying around doing nothing! Last night we did attend Brian’s 20th high school reunion but he didn’t want me to bring the camera . We had a good time though. It was nice for me to put faces with the names from so many stories.

Today has been much of the same. I lounged around this morning and then managed to get dressed and head to church. I also practiced some Zumba dances and wrote up a new strength workout for my class tomorrow. I have a super busy week ahead as far as fitness classes go. I’m teaching 5 classes including a triple threat Thursday! It is also suppose to be unbearably hot this week with heat indexes over 100 degrees! It should be interesting!

The one light at the end of the tunnel is that next weekend is my little brother’s wedding! I took Friday off from the church and have plans for a mani/pedi with my mom! I am really looking forward to this, my feet are in rough shape! I hope I can take lots of pictures of all the wedding events. Should be fun!

I’ll leave you with some pictures from my trip! Hope you had a good weekend and if it’s hot where you are you are staying cool!

Hey blog world! Hope you are having a fantastic Saturday! Mine has been pretty busy.

Brian and I got up early for a 4 mile run. Then I had time for a quick breakfast and shower before I had to head over to the car rental place to pick up a vehicle for our church’s mission trip (more on that later). Then it was off to take my bridesmaid’s dress for a fitting. I came home and cooked some of the veggies from our CSA. I boiled the beets and roasted the kohlrabi. Then I did my weekly cleaning which I usually do on Monday but since I’ll be gone thought I better get it done now. I am finally sitting down to relax!

Last night we got really creative with some of our CSA vegetables. Brian had thawed out some venison steak and I asked if we could make a stir fry. We washed up and chopped some of the garlic scapes, some peas, and the zucchini from the CSA. We also added carrots and mushrooms we had in the fridge. It turned our really well for just winging it!

Brian used teriyaki marinade on the meat and soy sauce, Worcestershire, sesame seed oil, and hot sauce on the veggies. Served over brown rice! We dominated it! There were no leftovers!

This will be my my last post for at least a week! Tomorrow I am taking 15 young people from our church on a mission trip. We are headed WAY up north to Cass Lake Minnesota to serve on a Native American reservation. I’ve been looking forward to this trip all year! I am so excited that it is finally here. Of course I am nervous about being responsible for so many kids but I have two other chaperones coming along to help and the kids who are going are really great! I’ll be back with a recap and of course more adventures as always!

Hey friends! Yay for short weeks, can’t believe it is almost Friday! So, as promised I am here to share with you two salads I made for a gathering I’m going to tonight.

The first comes from our weekly CSA newsletter. It is a simple radish and fennel salad. I’ll admit I didn’t use the fennel we received in our last box because I had no idea what to do with it! I was glad they gave us a recipe this week. This was such a simple recipe. Simply slice the cleaned radishes and fennel. Let them soak in cold water while preparing the easy dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper. I didn’t use quite as much olive oil as it seemed a little much. Drain the veggies and toss with the dressing.

I didn’t taste test this because I really don’t like radishes. I’ll have to have Brian try it out when he gets home. I can tell you that the fennel smelled like black licorice!

The next recipe is a Kristin original! I had a craving/idea to create some type of Greek salad. I read a few recipes and came up with this.

Greek Pasta Salad

Ingredients

• 1 16oz bag of bowtie pasta
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 can of artichoke hearts in water, chopped
• 1 small jar of kalamata olives
• 1 pint of cherry tomatoes quartered
• 1 tub of feta cheese

Directions

• Prepare pasta as directed.
• While the pasta is boiling wash and chop the veggies placing them in a large bow. I left the olives whole.
• Add the feta.
• You can also prepare the dressing

Dressing

• 2T of olive oil
• 2T of white wine vinegar
• Basil and oregano to taste (I used a lot!)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Once the pasta is cooked drain and rinse with cold water to stop from  cooking. Toss all ingredients together with the dressing. That’s it!

After letting this chill in the fridge for awhile I taste tested it and it was just what I was craving! Next time though I think I would use a large jar of olives.

Both of these salads took a total of 30 minutes! Now I have some time to relax before we head out for one last gathering with Brian’s friends before they all head home!

Hey there! Here I am for a mid week pop in! Sorry for the lack of posting once again. Life hasn’t necessarily been too boring but when I’m home I tend to vegge out and forget to post.

So, to catch you up on the rest of the 4th of July. A lot of it was spent visiting with friends and just chilling out at home.

On Saturday night we went to the 9th annual Petefest. Our friend Pete has been holding a Karaoke party every year around the 4th of July. It is quite the party. It use to be held in his garage but this year he set up the Karaoke equipment on his deck and the “audience” filled up the hill to watch the entertainment.

Brian and his buddies entertaining the crowd.

The night ended with fireworks and a visit from the local police telling us to stop shooting off the “big ones” (Opps!)

Later in the weekend we got to spend some time with our friends Marianne and John and also got to hang out with Joe and his daughters at their campsite.

On Monday we took a ride with Joe and his girls on our friend Eric’s boat, The Mississippi Explorer. It was a beautiful day for ride on the river!

I think Faith was a little tired! She perked up when she got to drive the boat (with Captain Eric’s help!).

We even got to see some impressive wildlife. Check out that Eagle!

Of course Tuesday and today it was back to work. Brian took today off so he could hang out and golf with all his friends. They needed a little guy time!

Today I picked up our 2nd CSA box! Check out all the veggies!

This week we got garlic scapes, chard, two types of beets, radishes, kohlrabi, two different kinds of peas, zucchini, garlic and fresh herbs. There was also a small stalk of broccoli but I threw that into Nicole’s half of the share.

Not going to lie, I was feel pretty lazy tonight and since Brian was still out golfing I really just wanted to pour myself a bowl of cereal for dinner but figured I should use some of my veggies. I made a recipe based on this recipe from Real Simple. Instead of kale I used the chard. I made the quinoa using chicken broth instead of water and also used chicken broth instead of wine. It turned out pretty well, and much healthier than that cereal!

That’s about it from me! Tomorrow night we plan to get together with Brian’s friends again. I am hoping to make some recipes for bring so hopefully I’ll be sharing those on here soon!

Have a great week!

Hey there everyone! Happy 4th of July weekend to you! Hope it’s a beautiful day wherever you are! As I mentioned yesterday I was not planning on running the Chileda Classic today but I was there supporting my wonderful husband Brian and his buddy Joe.

We had some pretty big storms here last night which seemed to help move the humidity out of the area. It was still hot out but not nearly as bad as yesterday. Here are Brian and Joe all ready to go before the race!

I tried to get them as they took off from the start. As you can see there were A LOT of people racing this morning! You can’t see them but they are in that crowd somewhere!

While they were out running the course I found a few people I knew and chatted with them for awhile. The two leaders of the 10K came into the finish line in 25 minutes! They were so fast! Before I knew it almost an hour had past and I knew that Brian and Joe would be coming in soon. I got ready with my camera at the finish line. Here they are, looking strong!

I also got a shot of my friend Polly! She rocked it! (she came in way before Brian and Joe).

After the race we headed down for a pancake breakfast. I just had to take an after shot of the guys, they looked like they were doing pretty good!

Brian is relaxing on the couch now and since I didn’t get any exercise this morning but did enjoy the pancakes, I’m going to head over to the local outdoor pool and swim some laps outside! Should be fun! Later we have a fun party to go to. I might also need to take a nap!

Hope you’re enjoying your day!