Baby... It's Hot Outside

I am really enjoying this Indie summer movie series at the classy Orpheum theater downtown. The theater is just a short walk down the street from my apartment, so it is super easy to catch these great flicks!

Pulp Fiction was on the screen on Thursday. I had never seen this one before, but had heard a lot of good things about it. Lots of gang action with some hilarious quotes thrown in by Samuel L. Jackson. Definitely entertaining. Friday, we went back again with our friends Josh and Amanda for Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. I forgot how exciting that movie was - exploding heads, dangerous snakes, and booby traps and all!

Excited for Pulp Fiction!

This morning I was up super early to go run the hills at Shelby Forest with running group. At 6:30 AM it was still 80ish degrees with 100% humidity. Insane hills + heat + humidity = recipe for an arduous run! Let's just say, I think that was the most I have ever sweat. So gross. Will just loves this super warm weather after growing up in New Mexico, but I am having trouble not feeling like I'm melting... (my hair is also a hot mess with this humidity!)
Recently, I have been really stuck on William Fitzsimmons. I think he kind of looks like a heavily bearded Ryan Gosling... what do you think?

Ryan Gosling... (source)

William Fitzsimmons... (source)

Crazy right?! I just can't get enough of "Good Morning" and "I Don't Feel it Anymore". Speaking of music, I stumbled across this really cool blog that talks about pairing food and music. A concept that I had totally never even considered before. Check it out -->  http://www.turntablekitchen.com/.

Hope you are all surviving the heat! I'm going to go get yet another glass of ice water to try to keep cool. Check in again soon! 

Kale - The New Food Superhero

If you do any blog reading around the internet, I'm sure you will have run into recipes for the dark green veggie that everyone seems to be raving about - kale! After a few disappointing attempts to make kale chips, I decided to try a different approach for eating up a humongous bunch of kale greens I bought last week. One morning I decided I really needed to get started on those greens, so I threw a few leaves of kale in my smoothie for breakfast. I had seen this done before and I had some success doing it with spinach. Let's just say... a little kale goes a long way! My breakfast that morning was a bit too umm, grassy for me. With a little more tweaking, it just might work though!

From this...

to salad in a glass!

After this, I was a little nervous about trying to come up with a different recipe for the rest of my kale. So, I turned to Mark Bittman for help. I decided on his super simple sauteed kale with tomatoes and feta recipe. This one was a winner! Will was in charge of making the delicious tuna salad on top of greens to go with. :-)

For the kale, first cut the stems away from the leaves. Then, chop the stems into 1-inch long strips and saute these in oil until they begin to soften. In the meantime, cut the leaf part of the kale into strips. Toss the leaves into the pan with the stems. Cook until wilted and softened. Stir in 1-2 chopped tomatoes. Once the tomatoes have cooked a minute or two with the greens turn off the heat. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and 1/3 cup red wine vinegar. Stir. To serve, sprinkle with feta cheese - yum!
Speaking of reading blogs... I came across this one last night called http://spoonforkbacon.com/ and have been drooling over the recipes! Despite the fact that it has bacon in the blog name - ha! 
Want to know something else that I discovered the other week? This super-dark chocolate from Nashville! I keep savoring little squares of it every night for a bit of sweetness after dinner. :-)

World Spins Madly On...

    The last few weeks feel like they have just been flying by! I can hardly keep up with this little blog. :-) Although busy, life has been pretty uneventful for me lately. Just a lot of the usual: eat, sleep, work, run, read, repeat. I'm feeling a bit better about work of late now that I was given the psych wards (these guys are highly entertaining!).  The patient load has also picked up a bit in radiation oncology clinic in the last week or so. I feel much more fulfilled with my job when I have a lot more going on - there were many days times in the last few months where I was feeling, well... bored.

    Friday, Will and I kicked off the weekend with a visit Central BBQ for dinner. Afterwards, we watched Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. I always love anything with Steve Carell in it! I have been missing my fill after he left The Office. Keira Knightely was a bit of a strange pick to cast alongside of Carell as the love interest in this movie... but perhaps it was meant to feel a little awkward? Since it was the end of the world and all. This movie had me thinking the rest of the evening about the sorts of things I would do if I knew the world would be ending in just a few weeks.
    Saturday morning I joined my running group friends for an 8-mile run downtown. This was the first run where I tried out the run-walk method! From now, until the marathon in December, I'll be incorporating walk intervals into my long runs. I was surprised how much faster my recovery was with these little walk breaks! I was a little skeptical at first because when I signed up for the marathon I was thinking I wanted to run it. Well, that was before I really started thinking about how taxing it will be to run 26.1 miles!  Our coach said the other day, we'll run over 600 miles before the marathon. Yikes! I'm hoping this run/walk method will be a little easier on my body. Definitely a good thing!
    Last Sunday, we went for a long bike ride on the Greenline bike trail for a bit of cross-training. It felt good to be using a few different muscles in my legs than just the ones for running. I took my bike back out to the trail again on Wednesday. I'm really working on making the most of cross-training days this training cycle. I want to be injury free before St. Jude this year! Tonight I'm headed to Fleet Feet running store for another free yoga sessions. I'm loving these bi-weekly classes!

Market goodies!

    This week at the farmer's market I made sure to pick up some blueberries! Omg. They are so delicious! We had dinner with our friends Josh and Amanda last night and Will cooked up a custard for our market berries. So simple, but so tasty! The custard recipe was actually inspired by the guest chef do a demo at work for National Nutrition Month. Will got it spot-on!
     In other news, my friend Charis had her little baby this past week! So adorable. Now I have yet another reason to get my butt overseas and visit! :-)

Happy Weekend!

       Hope you've been enjoying the beginning of some real summery weather! Things are definitely starting to get hot and humid here in Memphis. One thing I noticed when I moved South is that girls really love sun-dresses! I'm beginning to realize why - they are so much cooler! I've started to collect a couple, but if Memphis is going to be "home" for a while, I totally need to invest in a few more. I did invest in a new scarf... I've been eyeing them up at Target for weeks... Ha!

Cheesy-ist smile ever!

       Between marathon training and one hectic week at work, my little blog didn't get much love this week.  :-( Just recently I've been given the opportunity to start on a few new social media/blogging adventures! My coworker, Mary Catherine is the new Memphis District Dietetic Association president and needed to fill the newsletter/social media position on the board. She knew I did a little blogging - so she picked me! The board hasn't done a whole lot with their Twitter and Facebook pages in the past, so this will be exciting to get started up! I think I'll learn a lot in the process as well. I'm pretty new to Twitter, but I'm finding that it's pretty fun to use. :-) In addition, I hope to keep writing some sports nutrition posts for Star. Let's just say, there's quite a few things in the works to keep me busy!
   So, Thursday was the kick-off of the Orpheum's Summer Movie Series! Will and I went to watch Donnie Darko. Umm, I'm seriously hoping that creepy rabbit doesn't appear in my dreams anytime soon. (I'm always having crazy dreams!) We're seriously considering buying a 10 pack since it was so much fun. They have a lot of classics in the line-up like The Princess' Bride, Almost Famous, Blazing Saddles, and Pulp Fiction.Many of which, I've always wanted to see but haven't yet. Indie Memphis, who brings the Indie Movie Fest to town each November, helped coordinate the whole series. It's things like this that make me feel like maybe Memphis isn't so bad after-all. :-)

   Friday night I headed to Donna's house for a girls' night/memorial for her and Sherry's cats who both sadly passed away recently. I baked up a peach crumble using on of Joy the Baker's recipes that was super(!) delicious. (So good it was gone before I could take a picture... ha!)  Saturday I was up bright and early for running group - 7 miles with a 5K's worth of speed work! I felt I earned my afternoon nap after that one! The farmer's market was fun - blueberries made an appearance this week! I'm afraid I went a little overboard on the veggies -oops! I did snag a huge bunch of kale that I'm excited to experiment with this week. :-) Later last evening, we hit up the Trolley Stop Market for dinner. Their pizza never disappoints! Afterwards we met up with a few friends at Memphis Sounds for some live music and a little dancing. :-)

Thankful for... DAD!

He's the one that reminds you to change your oil...
He's the one you call when something needs fixing...
He's the one who taught you to ride a bike...
He's the one that will be more proud of you than anyone else...
He'll encourage you to "figure it out" and not give up...
He's the one that will make sacrifices to make sure you can go to a great school...
He's the one who was patient enough to teach you to drive...
He's the one to let you know that you shouldn't settle for anything than the best in a boyfriend...

Today, I'm thankful for my Dad! It's not easy raising two kids as a single parent these days. Take the time to tell your Dad that you are thinking of him today. :-)

10 Things for Monday

Howdy Friends!
  So, I was totally not ready for Monday... were you? Work was pretty hoppin' since a few other RDs were out. That also means that the day just flew by, so it wasn't necessarily all bad! I almost feel like I could count all the stair climbing and walking I did around the hospital as my cross-training for the day. Haha! Will and I had a bit of a quiet weekend again so there isn't anything real exciting to report. Instead, I thought I would share a few things I've been thinking about/enjoying of late...
1. Just finished the Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest which is the last book in this 3 book series. I sat down on my couch with this novel on Saturday and was bound and determined to finish it. Good thing it's hard to put down anyways! If you're looking for an exciting read full of crime-solving these are definitely a series you should check out.
2. I had serious craving for some Muddy's cupcakes, so I dragged Will there on Saturday. There's just nothing that can beat these beauties. :-)

3. The farmer's market was overrun with peaches on Saturday. They are sooo delicious! It still surprises me how much earlier the growing season for things are down here. Back home in PA - I always had to wait until August!
4. Will and I celebrated Friday with dinner at Molly's. Of course, Mexican food just doesn't taste as good without margaritas! Everyone needs a little margarita sometime. :-)

5. I wrote a guest post for my running coach's blog. It's just a brief intro to nutrition and healthy eating. I could have written a post that was pages and pages long. It was so hard to decide what to write about! See the post here. Hopefully, there will be opportunity for more fun posts on a variety of sports nutrition things in the future.
6.  Saturday, Will and I cooked up this absolutely delicious curry. Yum! It made a huge pot of it - we both tend to go a little overboard when chopping veggies to throw in. This one also included a bit of tofu for some protein!

7. I got a haircut after the market on Saturday. Not that I didn't desperately need it or anything... ha! This is one thing that I am always terrible about procrastinating. Luckily, through Will, I was able to find a great stylist here in Memphis!
8. I went to a free yoga class at the local Fleet Feet running store. The instructor that teaches these classes is one of my absolute faves. She is a runner herself so she knows what moves to really stretch out muscles that tight from the repetitive motion of running. I only wish her studio wasn't so far away in the suburbs!
9. I've been thinking about and playing around with switching my blog over to a wordpress host rather than blogger. I started transferring some posts yesterday. Not totally convinced yet if I want to commit to the switch quite yet!
10. This Color Run looks like a blast! I just might sign up for this race today!

Chard It Up!

One of the things I love about shopping at the farmers' market is that I can't really predict exactly what produce will be tucked into my reusable shopping bag when I walk out. For example this week, I was struck by how pretty this bunch of swiss chard looked. Love the pink, green, and yellow stems!

These guys have been hiding out in my veggie drawer since Saturday. Ever since, I've been pondering how I should prepare them. This afternoon, Will emailed me about going to the Asian Food-mart after work and I knew exactly how I would be cooking up this lovely chard! On a side note, if you have never been to a little Asian market, you need to go! There are so many unique foods! It's fun to just wander around the aisles and check out all the different foods. We found quite a few fruits and veggies we had never seen before! Plus, this market even had live tilapia, catfish and crabs in tanks in the back! You won't see that at Kroger anytime soon... Haha.
Anyways, back to the chard! I picked up some soy sauce at the market and was super excited to try it on my greens. I love cooking up vegetables in soy sauce - if you haven't tried it, you should! Here's the finished product served up with a cheese-topped black bean and sweet potato saute and green beans. :-)

Asian-Inspired Swiss Chard
Ingredients:
- 1 large bunch swiss chard
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 tbsp. dark sesame oil
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
Directions:
1. Rinse chard well. Cut stems away from leaves. Chop leaves and stems separately. Heat oils in stock pot on stove. Add garlic and stems and cook until stems start to soften. Add chopped leaves and cover.
2. Simmer until leaves have wilted. Remove lid and add soy sauce. Simmer until excess water/soy sauce is cooked off. Top with a sprinkle of black pepper.

Yum!! As you enjoy your chard ponder this - a one cup serving of cooked chard contains...
- 716% of the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) for Vit. K - ie. 7x the recommended daily intake for Vit. K
- 214% of the DRI for Vit. A - ie. 2x the recommended intake
- 52.5% of the DRI for Vit. C
- 22% of the DRI for Iron - this is quite a bit of iron for a non-protein food! (Unfortunately it isn't absorbed as well as from meat...)
- Only ~35 calories a serving!

Now that's something to chew on! :-)

Nutrition data for chard from: NutritionData

Taking a Day Off

     Sometimes you just reach a point where life has been so chaotic and busy you just have to take a day off. So I did. Will's Mom was here visiting from Albuquerque, NM this weekend, so I used it as a fun excuse to take the day off of work to spend more time with them. Over the course of the weekend, we made sure to try to show her some of the highlights of Memphis like: Beale Street (of course!), the Downtown Farmer's Market, Elegant Farmer Restaurant, and the Botanical Gardens. Needless to say, it was a bit of a busy weekend! (Hence the delayed post...)
    Sunday, I had a fantastic time running the Navy Nautical 10-Miler in Millington with Emily! (Never even knew there was a Navy base here in Memphis-town!). We paced each other the entire way and did better than either of us expected! The race had kind of snuck up on us and we were feeling a little unprepared to be racing 11.5 miles. Eek! Despite that, I think this is probably one of the most enjoyable races I have ever run. The weather was perfect. I had a running buddy to push me the whole race. Part of the course was even flanked on either side by fields of gorgeous galloping horses. Plus, we kept pace with this brawny guy in a wheelchair almost the entire time - he definitely inspired me to just. keep. running and be thankful that I can! The greatest part was the end when I got to see Will's smiling face cheering me on at the finish! It was so sweet of him to drive out and support me. I'm a lucky girl. ;-)
     This is definitely a race I'd consider doing in the future. The only down-side was having to get up at 4:30AM in order to drive to course to race at 6:00! I admit, I was down-for-the-count on the couch later that afternoon. Ha!

We owned those 10-Nautical Miles!!

The time I did get to spend relaxing, I enjoyed sipping coffee and reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. All the books in this series have been so absorbing. It's really hard to put them down at night when I need to go to bed!!

Oh! I also did #2 on my 25 by 25 list and finally signed up for Twitter! It's kind of fun. :-) Come follow me - @DebbietheRD!!
And speaking of days off... I totally took today off from running group! (Shh... Don't tell my coach!) I figured I needed at least one training day to rest before I start back up on the long 6-month journey to the marathon! :-)