Relaxing Dinner, Exercise & Old Music

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. I’m sad that it’s almost over and that I’ll be on call next week. And my ankle is still slightly swollen and in pain. I hate to say it, but I think I need to take at least a week’s break from running which is very frustrating for half-marathon training. I plan to continue other forms of cardio and strength training, I tried the 7 minute quick workout plan in last month’s issue of Runner’s World yesterday.

Am I’m paying for it today with sore upper leg muscles … so it’s a great workout that I’ll be adding to my regular strength training routine while training. It has some good ankle strengthening exercises as well as hamstring stretches which is an area I really need to improve in.

I also spent some time yesterday ripping my collection of old CDs to my iPod.

Had a great workout this morning listening to classics from Snow, Radiohead, Sheryl Crow, Funkdoobiest, P.M. Dawn and Salt N’ Pepa. Most of it from my high school and college years and taking me back to some interesting times. I was into a lot of movie soundtracks then like Cool World, 10 Things I hate About You, Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, So I Married and Ax Murderer and Pretty Women. Kind of nice of being reminded of simpler times, though the “then me” would disagree with that. Also a nice reminder of how much I’ve grown since then. Since I let iTunes completely wipe and reload my iPod after importing it all, I should be in for some interesting listens at work tomorrow.

After a quiet day at home for me and a stressful day of work for hubby, we stepped out for dinner last night at a swank trendy place. It’s August and like 90 degrees outside, yet we get seated next to this:

It wasn’t that hot after we moved to the farthest end of our table from it and watching the flames was actually relaxing as we killed this.

A fantastic Zinfandel is you’re into them, slightly sweet and not too heavy. And I’ve added Frank Family Vineyards to our must visit vineyard list for an upcoming Napa weekend getaway. For a vegan dinner, I ended up going with a hummus flat bread appetizer with roasted garlic and tabbouleh that was wonderful.

And the house salad that included pears, dried cherries, pecans and topped with a wild banana chutney.

Very yum and the two dishes together were cheaper than most of the main entrees. It was a much needed relaxing dinner.

I had lunch with my mom today utilizing leftovers in her fridge.

A squash quinoa dish, sauteed eggplant and salad loaded with home-grown sprouts which I’m really becoming addicted to.

And for dinner I got experimental with dried chickpeas I soaked in the fridge overnight and it was only partially successful.

I put the chickpeas in the Vita-Mix with carrots, curry powder and water for a very thick chickpea curry sauce. I poured the mixture over sauteed onions, yellow squash and eggplants and simmered the mixture together for about 10 minutes on medium heat. Well pureed chickpeas burn really easy when there’s not enough moisture and that’s what started happening at the bottom of the pan.I salvaged what I could and the flavor as really good, but the texture a bit off with the chickpea mixture being too thick and a little dry. I probably should have added more moisture and made a thick strew out of it. Oh well, next time.