A Pop Quiz, the Unknown, and Tuscan Pot Pie

Hi there!

I am filled to the brim with girlish glee this morning! (I will bake cookies and send them to the first person who can tell me what that’s from WITHOUT using Google. Seriously, no cheating.)

I decided to go to the 5am crossfit class this morning instead of hitting the 5pm class per my normal schedule.

One – it’s HAWT and I wasn’t sure I wanted to be in a hot box at 5pm

and

Two – I just didn’t feel like dealing with a ton of people today.

It will probably end up being a small class now that I’ve done that but that’s okay. I’d rather give up an hour of sleep than deal with a potential crowd. Besides,

🙂

Plus, it’s a great boost for the rest of the day!

Anyway, Joe usually puts the WOD up on their Facebook page super early in the morning. I swear, the man does not sleep. So, I like to look and see what the WOD is. I don’t get intimidated by it – it helps me to get in the right mindset and decide if I should wear knee socks or not. Hey, deadlifts can be torture on my shins if the bar scrapes me up!

So this morning, Joe was vague about the WOD.

“Come enjoy the fun that Thursday has in store for you!”

Uh oh.

Skeered.

And then I got there and saw what we were doing.

And, I knew it was going to be a GREAT Thursday!

No, I didn’t run the sprints for the warm-up. I rowed those because I know I’m not ready for the explosive start and stop that’s required when sprinting. But, I was sure as H-E-double hockeysticks going to run that mile! WITH THE WEIGHT, EVEN!

I scaled it down to a 10 pound weighted ball instead of the 15 pound plate and I planned on taking it slow and easy

and

I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF THAT MILE!

So exhilarating! I didn’t feel any pain – it was more an awareness of my hip but no real discomfort. I stayed slow and steady and it was awesome! Came back in and finished up my last 25 wall ball shots (unbroken, thankyouverymuch!) and knocked out the WOD in 13:43.

YES!

Comfort Food – Day 4!

And, it’s not southwestern!

Not that there’s anything wrong with southwestern food.

It was just time for a change.

So, over to the Mediterranean we go!

Italian sausage, cannellini beans, tomato/pasta sauce, and crescent rolls for a delicious meal in less than 30 minutes? WIN!

Tuscan Pot Pie
serves 4-6

3/4 pound sweet or hot italian sausage
1 jar (26 to 28 ounces) prepared chunky vegetable or mushroom spaghetti sauce (or, just use your favorite)
1 can (19 ounces) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (I’ve never seen a 19 ounce can of beans so I used 15 ounce)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 package (8 ounces) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Remove sausage from casings. Brown sausage in medium ovenproof skillet, stirring to separate meat. Drain drippings.

2. Add spaghetti sace, beans and thyme to skillet. Simmer, uncovered, over medium heat 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in cheese.

3. Unroll crescent dough; divide into triangles. Arrange spiral-fashion with points of dough towards center, covering sausage mixture completely or as much as you can. Bake 12 minutes or until crust is golden brown and meat mixture is bubbly.

4. Om nom nom!

– jennifer

Easy Calzones

Just over a week until the Salt Lake City marathon and I can tell I’m in taper mode (if you don’t count tough CrossFit workouts) because getting up super early to go run is difficult. I’d much rather hit snooze and stay in bed. But, I know that even though my mileage is decreasing, I’m not at the “don’t run” stage yet. So, I rolled out of bed, nearly tripped over a dog, and got my gear on. *yawn* We’re supposed to get rain and thunderstorms today and I’m glad they held off but boy, was it MUGGY! I was sweating before I hit the door. Blech.

Discovered that I forgot to charge my Garmin up – oops! – so I ran watch-free this morning. Best thing for me, I think. Do you run watch-free sometimes or do you always have it on? Watch-free running can be very liberating. You’re not focused on holding a specific pace and you don’t have the constant mileage reminders which can sometimes make you think of how far you have to go rather than how far you’ve actually gone. Isn’t that odd how the watch can do that? So, I ran by feel this morning. I knew roughly how much time I had and I knew which routes I normally run would bring me back home in time to get ready for work. I needed it and I enjoyed it. Well, except for when 2 neighborhood cats decided to dart right in front of me, barreling out of the darkness through some bushes and trees in some random game of tag. Yeah. I screeched.

The next time you head out the door for a run, consider leaving your watch at home. Enjoy the freedom. Watch out for maniacal cats.

Speaking of cats, I was prepping tonight’s dinner in the crockpot – I just threw some stuff in there; we’ll see how it turns out! – and I realized I was being watched. My little supervisor. She loves watching me cook. And clean, actually. She’s odd. Think she’d wear a little chef hat?

Warning! This following meal is amazingly delicious! You may be tempted to make this again….and again….and again. 🙂

Easy Calzones
Serves 4

3/4 pound ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups pizza sauce, divided
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 (11-ounce) can refrigerated French bread loaf
4 (1-ounce) mozzarella cheese slices (I used shredded mozzarella)
Non-stick cooking spray
Grated parmesan cheese

1. Cook ground beef, onion, and garlic in a large skillet over medium heat until beef is no longer pink.  Drain and return to skillet. Stir in 1 cup of the pizza sauce and the Italian seasoning.

2.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

3. Unroll the French bread loaf onto a lightly floured surface. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll dough into a 16-inch square. (Please note that this dough needs to be cold to do this.)

4.  Cut into 4 squares. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased baking sheet.

5.  Spoon ground beef mixture evenly into center of each square. Top each square with mozzarella cheese.  Fold dough over mixture to form a triangle, pressing edges to seal.  Coat triangles with cooking spray and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

6. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until browned.  Serve with remaining warmed pizza sauce as topping or for dipping and a tossed salad.

Recipe from MomsWhoThink.com

Note: I don’t normally use the Pillsbury products because of the trans fats. Next time, I will make my own dough. Also, the dough must be cold to unroll and roll into a square. Don’t think you’re going to get away with stopping at the store on the way home on an 85 degree day and have that stupid French loaf unroll like a champ as soon as you get home and start making dinner. Oh no. That’s not going to happen. If that’s your plan, I advise you to go with pizza dough. THAT stuff is actually meant to be unrolled. Consider yourself warned.