Run Like Hell 5k: Oakland Cemetery

Saturday was the first 5k running by myself.  I ran the Peachtree in 2011 by myself, but that's a 10k.  I probably should have started the other way around...

The Run Like Hell 5k starts and ends in Oakland Cemetery.  The race route takes you out of the cemetery, into Grant Park and then back to the cemetery for the home stretch.  Stephen and I love the cemetery and it's such an important part of Atlanta history and our neighborhood history, it was an easy choice when I saw that all benefits support the cemetery itself.

When I run with Stephen, we run through our neighborhood, makes sense.  And because I'm familiar with the neighborhood, I knew this route would have a lot of hills.  However, I was NOT prepared for the intensity of the last half of this race.  It was all uphill.  I'm not joking.  There may have been 50 yards here or there that went downhill, but then it would go right back up with more of an incline.

Here is the official route for 2012.  At the bottom of that map you can click "view elevation profile" to see the ups and downs of the course.  It was my slowest 5k time yet.  Now, part of that is because of how sllloooowww the race started.  There wasn't an announcement that the race was starting, people just started running.  While the race started, it was like rush hour traffic if you were more than 10 people back from the starting line.  It took about a minute for me to get from where I was lined up to the actual start point and THEN it was a walk until we were out of the cemetery.  So technically, I could give myself two minutes back - seems fair.  My official time was 38:40 so let's say if I had started at a run, I would have finished at 36:40.  While the start was a mess, the finish line was even worse.  I finished in the middle of the pack, so I'm sure it's when most of the women were finishing and it caused another traffic jam.  All women had to funnel down one teeny, tiny little section of the already small road.  I couldn't even cross the finish line because of the backup of ladies backed up as they were waiting to get a time card.  I'm not even sure why we needed a time card.  After the hardest course I've ever run, having to wait in a tiny line like cattle was pretty lame.  I was rather frustrated by the time I was done and could call Stephen to come meet me.

Now, I've made it sound like I didn't have fun - that's not true.  The best part of the race is that costumes are encouraged.  That's right, costumes.  Of course I dressed up.  The morning of the race it was about 50 degrees, so I wanted to wear pants and I remembered we had some zebra print leggings and that was the beginning of my 80s costume.  I had the zebra pants, a bright pink t-shirt that I cut to hang off my shoulder, pink and black scunchie socks, jelly bracelets, a side ponytail with a big scrunchie, a fishnet glove and pink sunglasses.  It was pretty awesome.  I was proud of myself.  I'll never again wear zebra print leggings.  So not only was I dressed like a crazy person I was running alone.  But I loved it.

Watch the video above if you want to see me run past Stephen.  I look like #1 a Giant and #2 super slow.  Happy Halloween!  

Music App: Songza

Before I get started talking about Songza, let me just say that I still love Pandora.  It's great for road trips and when I'm looking for something pretty specific.  The only problem is if I listen for more than 2 hours at a time sometimes I hear the same thing over and over again.  But it doesn't stop me, I love it.

My super tech savvy husband, Stephen, first told me about Songza.  He told me to download it and he let me discover it's awesomeness on my own.  It's available on Android and Apple products.  According to Stephen, "Songza is to Pandora as Pandora was to Radio."  I think if it catches on it will change the way we listen to streaming music, again.  (Isn't that the beauty of Internet radio - it's always changing and someone is always coming up with something new and better?)

For the past three days I've been listening to Songza at work and I'm loving it.  It's new and therefore there aren't any ads to break up the music... yet.  There are ads on the screen while the music is playing, but I'm looking at my computer, not my phone screen.  Working in advertising, I have a feeling that's changing at some point - let's just hope it's a little bit further down the road.  I've been crazy busy, so sometimes it's just background noise so I can't hear the people around me, sometimes I'm answering emails and I can really pay attention to the music playing in my headphones.

Here is how it works.  The App knows what day it is and the time so it guesses, intelligently, where you are at that moment and what you're doing.  Based on where you are and what it thinks you're doing it will give you options to start down a path to get to a playlist.

The two screen shots above are the first two screens you'll see.  The first screen is where you can pick your general genre of music.  The screen shots are from Stephen (on an Android) and when I opened the App one of the options was different - I also had Working (without lyrics) instead of the Office Crowd Pleasers.  Little bit jealous, but moving on.  Once you pick from those six options, we picked Weekday Dance Party (of course), you're brought to the next screen you see above.  What kind of dance party do I want?  Such great options.  I chose '90s Party Hits.  

Did you think that was going to be the last option?  NO!  You still get more choices so you get to exactly what you're looking for.  Once I selected '90s Party Hits I had three more choices, the first screen shot above.  I went with At a '90s School Dance.  All of the school dances I went to growing up were in the 90s so I wanted to relive some of those moments.  Once that's selected you're taken to the last screen, the black one, where you hit play to begin listening to music.  You can also see a few other playlists that are similar to the one I chose on my path.  Tell me you couldn't listen to all three of those, too!  100 Worst Songs Ever, '90s Workout!  Come on, those are so great!

At my '90s Dance I've heard some Boyz II Men, Backstreet Boys, Fresh Prince of Bel Air and UB40 just to name a few.  It's everything I could have wanted.  Part of me wants to go back to see what my options would have been if I chose Epic Walking from the very beginning, but let's be honest, I'm enjoying reliving Prom too much to leave this playlist.

Crock Pot Challenge Meal #14: Lasagna

I did it!  14 days of Crock Pot meals!  I'm pretty sure we could have fed about 10 more people over the course of the two weeks, but we haven't had to worry about lunch in a long time.  The last meal was the one I wanted to work the most.  Everyone loves lasagna.  I imagine having kids and they will love "mom's lasagna" and they'll invite their friends to come over for lasagna night.  I'm crazy.  I know.

To be honest, it was my first time making lasagna.  Ever.  I wanted it to work so bad.  I found a recipe on the blog Crockpot365 where the author used her Crock Pot every day of the year.  She's WAY more dedicated to the Crock Pot challenge than I am.  I applaud her.   Lasagna was Day 27 for her.  Click here to check out the original recipe.

Well, the lasagna wasn't horrible, but it was definitely overcooked.  I think I'm partly to blame, and I think the recipe is partly to blame.  The recipe says it needs to cook for 8 hours.  Well, when I came home at lunch after only 4 hours of cooking, on the right level, the noodles were already soft.  I turned it to warm for the rest of the afternoon, but I probably should have turned it off and put it in the fridge to heat up for dinner.  

The flavors were all there, but just a little bit took cooked.  It tasted like how I think the re-heated leftovers would taste.  Not bad, but not as good as it could be.  The spinach and mushrooms were delicious in the mix and the next time I make the dish, I'm definitely keeping them in the layers.

Lasagna in the Crock Pot is definitely a keeper, and maybe this recipe is for a weekend when I can watch the progress, but I'm not giving up.  We didn't take a serving to our friend's  house this evening, I'm not quite sure it's ready to share with friends.  I only make the person who loves me the most try my cooking.

So there you have it.  I finished the challenge.  Stephen can get back in the kitchen and cook again.  We can grill again.  My mornings won't be full of scrambling to chop veggies or layer lasagna noodles.  I will write blog posts on more exciting things than our dinners.

While Stephen and I were cleaning the kitchen over the weekend we found two more Crock Pot cookbooks!  Stephen forgot he even had them.  I'm not sure I'll ever do 14 days in a row again, but I have no problem using the Crock Pot once a week from here on out.  Maybe I'll try to cook everything in one of the books, or I'll try a different ethnicity each week.  What do you think I should try next?  The only way I'm going to try new things is to challenge myself and hold myself responsible to you, my readers.  (All 15 of you.)

Oh, and please take note of the Slow Cooker liner in the picture above.  Why did I wait until the last two meals to get these?  WHY?  I will never cook in the Crock Pot without them.  I'm in love with them. Get them and use them fellow slow cookers.

Crock Pot Challenge Meal #13: Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup

Our refrigerator is starting to fill up with leftovers and I was struggling to find a large storage container yesterday when I was done with this meal.  I love how much food the past two weeks has given us.

Yesterday was Meal #13 of my personal Challenge, Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup.  I found the recipe on the blog Random Thoughts and Thrills.  The blog author, Debbie, posted the soup earlier this year, thank goodness she did!  This soup is one of my favorite meals I've made, maybe top 10 ever.

The first step is to put most of the ingredients in the Crock Pot and then cook it for 5-7 hours.  I used a small food processor to chop up the carrots (I used 4), celery (I used 4 stalks) and onion (I used half an onion) and it made everything go so quick.  Using the processor's blade to chop everything for me got the veggies into tiny diced bits which were great in the soup.  Before you're ready to serve you need to thicken it up with a roux and then add a few other ingredients and then allow it to cook for another 30 minutes.  Nothing complicated, everything delicious.

With the veggies, parmesan cheese and diced tomatoes the soup wasn't smooth, but just slightly chunky.  I'm sure you could use an immersion blender to smooth it all out, but I loved that there was texture to the soup.  We didn't have any bread or croutons with dinner, but I'll be sure to have those next time.

Stephen and a friend we had over for dinner loved the soup and we can't wait to make it again.  Of course the guys suggested adding some cooked, small bacon bits.  But can't that be said for almost anything?

Lunches this week are going to be great with so many great leftovers and I can't wait to fill the kitchen in the office with smells of this soup.

Crock Pot Challenge Meal #12: Mac n Cheese

Mac n Cheese is one of my favorite meals.  I can eat it out of the blue box like I did when I was a kid and I'm even happier trying to find the best Mac n Cheese in Atlanta.  There are a lot of restaurants who server amazing Mac n Cheese, but I'm leaning towards Fox Bros. BBQ right now.

When I was doing research for my recipes to try during the Crock Pot Challenge I knew I had to have a Mac n Cheese in the mix.  I found a fantastic recipe on the blog Whisk and A Prayer written in 2010, check it out here.  I love that about blogs and the Internet - something someone wrote two years ago is still relevant and searchable.

Not your typical slow cooker recipe, this one only cooks for a total of three hours.  (I think we cooked ours about 30 min longer than that, we were running errands and just kept it going.)  A three hour slow cooker recipe is perfect for a weekend lunch or dinner.  The ingredients are mixed in the Crock Pot and then basically forgotten about until it's time to eat.

The recipe says to par cook the pasta before adding it to the crock pot.  I skipped this step, because I didn't read it.  While I was worried it would make the pasta too hard, it was actually perfect.  I think if I had cooked them they would have been too soggy.

Mac n Cheese still in the Crock Pot.  Not a creamy cheese and still delicious!

The recipe is absolutely a Keeper and it's an easy dish to bring to a pot luck party or to server to a large group of people.  I think we'll get 4 to 6 servings out of the dish.  If the Mac n Cheese was served as part of a larger pot luck style dinner, it could easily server 10+.

We will add some sauteed onions and probably some bacon next time around to add a little bit of flavor.  I think we'll try at some point with only one egg and we'll bump up the butter, too.  Besides that, the dish was just perfect.

After the Overnight Oats failure in Meal #11, I'm glad I redeemed myself with the Mac n Cheese.

Crock Pot Challenge Meal #11: Overnight Oats

Ladies and gentlemen, there is a difference between Steel Cut Oats and Old Fashioned Oats - read about it here.  Knowing that ahead of time would have probably given me a different outcome for my Overnight Oats.  I was using a recipe from Alton Brown, who we trust in this household.  I don't believe he could lead us astray.  So when my oats turned out to be AWFUL, I knew it was my fault.

Take my word for it - follow this recipe and make sure you have steel cut oats.  I  have nothing more to say about the Oats.  Moving on.

Super healthy breakfast of avocado, Greek yogurt and hard boiled eggs

Since I ruined breakfast, Stephen took over and decided to try something I found while scrolling through Pinterest.  From the blog (never)homemaker I found a recipe for an avocado and hard boiled egg wrap.  We didn't want to use mayo in our recipe so we substituted with Greek Yogurt and my sexy, smart husband also added some garlic powder and smoked paprika to the mix.

Feel free to play around with the mix and add what you think will be best.

The recipe made two, large wraps for breakfast.  It's delicious.  While we were eating he was already thinking of ways to make it better - feta cheese.  Feta is the answer.  It would take these wraps to a whole new level.  To make it thicker, cottage cheese could also be substituted for the Greek Yogurt.  Still healthy, a little bit heavier.  I love when Stephen can fix my mistakes.  Glad I married him.

Apparently I'm a child and I can't eat a wrap without spilling the contents all over the place.  I'm glad we took a picture before I took a bite

If you're keeping track - Saturdays aren't working out so well in the Crock Pot Challenge.

War Brides: Book Review

Stephen and I are huge fans of Amazon and we have the Prime membership.  Not only do we get free, 2-day shipping, but we also get to watch TV shows and movies streaming and I get to rent books directly to my Kindle.  WHAT?  Did you just read that - yes you did.  Amazon has a "library".

Before we start talking about the book let's talk about this book renting on Amazon.  This was my first time renting a book and I love it.  You can only rent one book at a time, and only once a month, but it's so much better than going to the library and you get books immediately on your Kindle.  Don't get me wrong, I love the library and I love book stores, but sometimes instant gratification is nice.  My boss, a big reader, has been using Amazon Prime to check out books for a while now and he is a huge supporter.  Check it out.

Okay, why you're really here, let's chat about the book.  War Brides by Helen Bryan begins just before the start of WWII in England.  I've read and watched a lot of movies about WWII and this was a point of view that I've never dove into before.  The book follows five women starting just before the war and how they all come to live in a small, countryside town outside of London.  While at war, each of the 5 ladies becomes a war bride, each under different circumstances.  They don't all like each other but they work together to keep some sense of normalcy during the dark time of the war.  They have to ration food, hunt, make clothes out of old fabric and always be ready to move down to bomb shelters during the raids.  When their families are spread all across the country, they turned to each other for support.

I enjoyed getting to know each of the women and their families.  Not all of them were 100% good people, but they did what they had to do to stay alive and happy.  I wanted the book to go on for much longer than it did.  I felt the end came far to quickly, and that's where I get upset with the book.  It was moving at such a great pace and then all of a sudden it jumps 50 years.  I wasn't ready to say goodbye to the the 1940s ladies.  As a reader we didn't even get to be with them when they heard the war had ended.  I felt like the author was just trying to end the book too quickly.  There is a twist at the end of the book that felt so out of place and like it's only purpose was to tie up some loose ends.  It became so unreal that it ruined it for me.

I recommend the book to people like me who were renting the book for something to read on a short business trip or long weekend.  It definitely made my flights go by faster.  While I probably won't pick up the book again, it has sparked an interest in me and I'm excited to learn more about what WWII did to women in England and throughout the rest of Europe.  I think so much attention is focused on the men who fought in the front lines, and it should be, they are true heroes, but the women they left behind in their cities and villages also had to sacrifice while also seeing and doing things they never thought possible.