What's the deal, yo?

Dear Editors of Cooking Light Magazine,
I have been a a long-time admirer of your delicious, expeditious and coherent recipes. Ever since I joined Maghound, an online distributor of hundreds of fine periodicals, Cooking Light has consistently been a personal favorite. Your culinary creations have been invariably wonderful, and I have praised your work and spread the good word to my peers at every opportunity. I cherish the glossy, luxurious photographs of your glistening pork roasts, blushing fruits, and immaculately arranged salads and casseroles that your staff has so painstakinlgy concocted in your enchanted culinary castle. Oh, what exquisite edible alchemy!
But, my friends at Cooking Light, I fear that a shadow has fallen across the formerly blessed fields of your Kingdom of Cuisine. I fear the worst.
I methodically perused your latest publication and found only one recipe that caught my discerning eye. One. Upon making said recipe (Stir Fried Rice Noodles), I could not deign myself to swallow it. It was utterly abhorrent! I forced myself to pluck out and consume the over-seasoned spinach, and the remaining dross faced its fate in the trash bin.
Yes, I concede that one bad issue is nothing to be concerned about. That is, unless it hadn't happened last month too! Your BBQ pulled chicken was equally inedible. How does one blunder something so fundamentally simple as BBQ chicken?! Your culinary castle is rapidly degenerating into a foodie fortress of doooooooooooom!
All of this leads to me ask one question, a question which I hope you take to heart as you construct future issues of Cooking Light. And that question is...YOUR FOOD SUCKS, SO WHAT'S THE DEAL, YO?!

Most Sincerely,
K Lizzle Strizzle

Pizza! Pizza!

After today's Cardio X, I decided to play a game of Pull-Stuff-Outta-the-Fridge-and-Make-Something. There were slow roasted tomatoes I'd made a few days before, and lots of deli cheeses. As for greens, I had a big tub of arugula as well as a cute wittle basil plant. Let's make some magic!

These slow roasted tomatoes absolutely burst with flavor. I thought they'd taste great with some creamy goat cheese and provolone, and the peppery taste of arugula. I had chicken on hand, but some capicola, salami, or other deli meat of your choosing would taste even better. Spinach could be subbed for arugula if you have it on hand. The resulting pizza was very flavorful, with none of the grease or watery tomato sauce. Don't be intimidated by the long grocery list - you could easily leave some things out or make substitutions. Best of all, this is a 15 minute dish if you have the tomatoes ready ahead of time. Enjoy!

SLOW ROASTED TOMATOES
-2Tb + 4Tb extra virgin olive oil
-4 medium garlic cloves, sliced thin
-2 lb ripe tomatoes (about 4-5 medium), cored and cut crosswise into 1/2" thick slices
-salt and black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust oven rack to middle position.
2. Grease the bottom of a 13x9" baking dish or jelly roll pan with 2 Tb olive oil. Sprinkle half of the garlic slices across the bottom of the dish. Arrange the tomato slices in the pan, overlapping if necessary. Pour 4 Tb olive oil over the tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and the remaining garlic slivers.
3. Roast the tomatoes until they are slightly shriveled and most of their juices have been replaced with oil, 1 to 1.5 hours. Let cool. Can be stored in the fridge in oil for up to 3 days.

SLOW ROASTED TOMATO & OTHER STUFF PIZZA
-1 can Pillsbury thin crust pizza dough
-2 Tb oil
-1 garlic clove, minced
-1 handful fresh basil leaves, torn into 1/2" pieces
-1 recipe slow roasted tomatoes (above), drained of oil
-6 thin slices Provolone cheese
-1/3 C crumbled goat cheese
-1/3 C grated Parmesan cheese
-1 C cooked chicken, cut into bite-size chunks (or your favorite deli meat)
-1 C baby arugula leaves

1. Preheat oven to 400. Spread out pizza dough on a cookie sheet. Bake 5 minutes. Remove from oven.
2. Meanwhile, mix together garlic, basil, and olive oil in a small bowl. Brush this mixture over the partly cooked pizza dough.
3. Arrange slow-roasted tomatoes over pizza dough. Arrange provolone slices over pizza dough. Sprinkle with goat cheese and Parmesan. Scatter with chicken or deli meat. Scatter with arugula.
4. Return pizza to oven. Bake an additional 6-10 minutes, until crust is golden brown and cheese is melty and yummy.

Week 5, Day 1 - Core Synergistics with a Buddy

Today began Week 5, Part Duex. This time I had a workout buddy, the beautiful, brilliant, badass ANDREA! And it was so great having some on to exercise with, because it motivates me to do my best (or risk looking like a sissy). Andrea is a long time fitness friend, and I've practiced many of my spin or boot camp classes on her before teaching them. She might be joining me for a lot of my future p90x workouts. Hooray!
On the plus side, I could almost do the isometric plank-chaturangas all the way through. I have to take a break at 40 seconds, but I think I can do the full minute in the coming weeks. Hooray! When I started, I couldn't even do the chaturanga pose at all.

Hangovers, Night Terrors, and Other Excuses

So Week 5 was a fail. I will be repeating week 5 starting tomorrow. Let me explain myself. I will provide photographic evidence.

I took Thursday off because my left knee has been hurting, and I didn't want to subject it to the rigors of Yoga X. That doesn't mean I actually took it easy on Thursday. Oh, no. First I went out to Chastain and taught a little girl named Olivia. Olivia is such a sweetie, has a really natural seat in the saddle and is a fantastic learner. However, I had to run around the ring, leading her pony - it's a moderately physical activity, this teaching thing. Then I raced home and cleaned myself up for my "Cinco de Mayo de Casa de Kelly" party. We started out with some margaritas. Little known fact: Matt is a black belt lime juicer...








Then we went to East Andrews, like we live OTP and wear Ed Hardy...







And then we went to Lava Lounge, where there was, well, no one. So we decided to make our own party...






























You're welcome. Needless to say, Seis de Mayo was a little rough. Between the hangover, my torn up feet, and the enormous bruise on my hip - oh yeah, I had a nightmare that morning, bolted out of bed to run for the door, and faceplanted - I was in no shape to exercise.
I still felt bad on Saturday afternoon, although really just sore from my face plant. That night I went to trivia with the wine club girls (won Braves tix, yay!), and today I went home for Mother's Day.

Long story short, I haven't worked out since Wednesday. EPIC FAIL. Time to stop partying and start bringing it!

Week 5, Day 3 - How to Make Your Pectorals Quiver

Ok, this is probably too much information, but if I lay down on my back and raise my hands into the air...my pectorals start shaking uncontrollably. Lol, that was how intense today's "Chest, Shoulders & Triceps" workout was. So many push-ups! I couldn't even come close to the number of push-ups the people in the video were doing, and the pike push-ups were terrifying - I was sure that my arms were going to give out and I was going to smash my forehead into the floor! See that girl? She's gunna break her nose!
Even so, I'm happy the video was as intense as it was. I really enjoyed the "Arms & Shoulders" workout, but didn't think it was too hard. This one is very hard. And I have four weeks of it. Oh yay!

On a sad note, I think I have to skip tomorrow's Yoga X. As much as I love Yoga X (sense the sarcasm?), I've been having trouble with my left knee. It's been hurting ever since I went on a run last week. I'm going to give it a break, because Yoga X is pretty hard on your knees, what with all those long, painful warrior poses.

On the happy note, tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo! I'm having a few buddies over for margs and fajitas. Maybe we'll go out dancing. Maybe I'll make some bad decisions. We can only hope.

Xtina gets her meal report card

So part of joining the gym and getting a personal trainer is that I am given access to a meal planning and nutrition tracking system. I go online and can create mealplans for the days ahead and get rated on their nutritional value. They offer suggestions for meals or snacks to meet my goals as well.

So far I haven't been doing this in advance and printing a shopping list the way they intend, but I have been logging what I eat each day just to get a visual on everything and help keep me accountable and motivated.

This is Monday's report card. Monday was a bad day. I REALLY wanted to get chinese food at lunch and so I did that but it does reflect in the report card and that afternoon I had no energy. Might have been better if I had not also had a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel for breakfast but I decided to stop having those from now on after that meal too. I now do a plain bagel and a strawberry banana smoothie and its way more satisfying!

This is Tuesday's report card. Tuesday was a good day. Still need to improve in a couple of areas, especially sodium since I am supposed to be cutting that anyways.

Xtina finds her OM

First off, apologies on the lack of posts these past two weeks. Working with my trainer and cardio at the gym got sidetracked by work demands exploding and me needing to go do testing at a super secret underground facility LOL

But by the end of last week I got back on track. Monday I worked with my trainer on arms, abs, and thighs. Today I hit the gym on my own to do 40 min of cardio (bike and treadmill). My gym offers free group fitness classes and I saw that Kundalini Yoga was starting at 6:30 so I thought I would give it a go.

I knew this class would be just a little different when I met the instructor who was wearing a head turban. She was very excited to have a new student in the class and handed me a piece of paper with our opening mantra on it:

ONG NAMO

GURU DEV NAMO

I bow to the creator

I bow to that infinite wisdom

that brings me from darkness to light

How inspiring is that! The class incorporated yoga poses but was really focused on breathing and chanting and mostly sitting down and moving arms and torso which was perfect for me. I admit that this class is not for everyone and you have to go in with an open mind and a penchant for drum music, but I had a good time and liked learning how to chant the mantra so that my whole body vibrates to the core!