Skinny girl gone rogue

I'm thinking of renaming my blog to the above title. Why? Let me tell you...

I'm not a big person. I'm short, on the petite side, and I don't weigh a whole lot (but definitely don't have abs of steel - big-time sad face over here - and you're about to read why).  But I have pretty much no self control when it comes to having tempting foods in my house.

I turn into a self that I simply call The Fat Girl.

I eat ALL of the "bad" food. I mean all of it. It's a threat to my sanity waistline (I don't even know which of those is more proper to scratch out); as long as I know it's there, it haunts me. I must eat it so that it's gone and I can get back to being the healthy, compulsive, obsessive crazy person that I am. It's borderline hilarious the precautions I take to try and train myself into better food-related behavior and then what I do to deliberately sabotage these efforts (and yes, I have such deep food issues (that's another story) that I actually get to claim to have a "relationship with food" and "food behaviors" and "food issues").

For example, the other day I ordered pizza (OMG I LOVE pizza!!!). I won't divulge the whole Fatty-McFatterson-pizza-ordering-and-eating-the-moment-it-arrives story just yet but I will tell you that with the leftovers (this is rare!) I had the brilliant, self-control-engaged plan to freeze 2 slices each in freezer bags. The concept being, obviously, that when I wanted pizza I would reheat just the 2 slices (thin crust, light cheese, lotsa veggies...still fatty) and have it with a big salad to make a somewhat balanced meal. Sounds perfect, right?

Well, The Fat Girl is so much smarter than those damn freezer bags. When she got the hankering for pizza tonight after a crap day (totally craptastic run - knee pain, back pain, ankle pain - WTF 33 is NOT that old!?!), she attempted to be reasonable and reheat 2 slices along with a big side of veggies. And then she reheated 2 more. And then she reheated 2 more. And so the story goes until the leftovers were no more. The Fat Girl's sister calls and is all Braggy McShowOffPants about having run 6 miles in 50 minutes. OH yeah! Well I just ate one piece of pizza for each of those miles Biotch (which, hilariously wants to autocorrect to biotech)!

And then I ate the 3 chocolate chip cookies that didn't fit in the gift bag.

Cause that's how The Fat Girl rolls.

Marathon No 5

One week ago today I ran my fifth marathon. I had the most fun of any marathon I've done and I set a PR. I'm not fast compared to a lot of people out there but I try to make my fitness about competing with myself, not others.

It was my third Walt Disney World marathon weekend. Last year I ran the Goofy: half marathon Saturday, marathon Sunday and the year before that just the marathon. What makes this race special is that my family does it every year now. It's the one time of year where we all get together to play and win some medals. What made this year special is that is was the 20th anniversary for the WDW marathon  There are 95 people who've participated in the race since it's inauguration in 1994 - I just think that's so cool! - they got a special start before everyone and probably some other cool things that I don't know about.

Race photos are NEVER very attractive. Especially mine. So I took the approach of trying to make every photo op as ridiculous as possible. This was a brilliant idea! Though some of my photos are still horrific and others look like I'm a determined racer, the ridiculous ones are my favorite. The one posted below takes the cake. I'm not too sorry that I photo-bombed a couple peoples pictures.

For SE: Melon Balls

I didn't know that some people struggled with making melon balls. News flash, they do. So here are some step by step directions, especially for you SE.
1. Start with a melon baller and a melon. Scoop out the seeds with the mellon baller. I have no creative ideas for the seeds and I throw them out.

 2. Put the melon baller onto the surface of the cut edge of melon

 3. Push the melon baller into the flesh of the fruit so that it fills the cup

 4. Twist the melon baller

 5. Twist it some more so that it is now turned around 180 degrees or more from where you started

 6. Lift the melon baller and ball of melon

 7.  Gentle tap the melon baller handle on the side of the container you are using and the melon will dispense into it.

8. Repeat ad infinitum or until you are out of melons

Blue cheese nectarine breakfast sandwich with red wine syrup

This may be my new all time favorite savory breakfast sandwich...EVER! I had been browsing recipes and had several ideas stored in my head, so I got a little creative.

You'll ultimately need:
Red wine
sugar
English muffin
blue cheese
egg
nectarine or peach
lettuce

First make a red wine syrup.
(This was inspired by a recipe that involved red wine and nectarines. I decided the recipe was too complicated and I could simplify with a similar effect. I also happened to have a half bottle of red wine that had been opened several weeks ago (how did this happen??). Since I wasn't going to drink it, I needed to cook with it.)
2 cups red wine
1 cup sugar

Combine in a small pot and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat and simmer until reduced by half. Theoretically this takes 10 minutes, I let mine simmer for 20-30 to make it nice a syrupy. Refrigerate. This could probably be made more exotic by simmering with rosemary stems then removing before storage. Don't worry, you shouldn't get drunk off the syrup since the alcohol cooks off. Just don't use too much because it's not exactly calorie-light.

Toast 1/2 English muffin. I like Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain.
While the muffin is toasting, warm up a skillet (I use cast iron) with a pat of butter in it. I use a medium setting. Meanwhile, beat 1 egg with 1 T blue cheese crumbles (you could reduce calories a bit by using egg whites only). Put an egg ring in the skillet then pour the egg-blue cheese scramble into the ring. Let this cook on one side for a good 3-4 minutes until the egg holds its shape when you start to pull up the ring. Flip the egg and cook for a bout a minute on the other side.

While the egg is cooking your muffin should finish toasting. Put 1 T red wine syrup on the muffin. Slice a peach or nectarine so that it makes round slices. I used 3 slices of nectarine then ate the rest. Put the nectarine rounds on top of the syrup-topped muffin.

Your egg should be done now. Put it on top of the sandwich and then top it all off with a leaf of green leaf lettuce.

Beet and goat cheese salad

Fresh local greens, local mixed beets - roasted in rosemary, goat cheese, local green onions, cherry champagne vinegar, and rosemary olive oil. 

Broccoli fritters and pickles

WOW! I made broccoli fritters from Smitten Kitchen. I made a couple of modifications. I chopped my broccoli small before steaming it in the microwave for 3 minutes. I drained it in a sieve. I used 2 eggs, 1/2 cup flour, garlic, salt/pepper, and parmesan. I don't know exactly how much parmesan, probably a bit more than the 1/3 cup called for because I love parm! The extra is totally worth it because the fritters were nice and cheesy-gooey. I didn't use a potato masher. After stirring the flour, egg, garlic, salt and pepper, I mixed in the chopped broccoli with my fingers. These fritters were TO DIE FOR and I will definitely make it again.

I also sort of followed this recipe to make a go at some pickles. I didn't really measure anything but used mostly the same stuff. No fresh tarragon so I used dried and threw some dried dill in too. We'll see how it turns out.

Update on flavors

Cherry compote marinated chicken:
I dumped the whole thing into a pan for roasting (~40 min at 350). I melted a slice of Brie cheese on top and served with sauteed rainbow swiss chard. SO GOOD! The compote and Brie combination was absolutely awesome...even without the chicken! Definitely worth repeating.

Cinnamon Chocolate Cherry bread:
AWESOME! Definitely make again. I have a hard time keeping myself away.

Potato chip cookies:
Ok. I thought they could be a bit saltier.

Strawberry salsa:
Wow, this is WAY better than I expected. I had it on quesadillas with poached chicken, avocado, sour cream and chipotle cheddar but it would (and will) be awesome with just some tortilla chips.

I found a great new recipe for the broccoli....look for an update later this week.