Monthly Archives: March 2011

It Runs in the Family

Posted on March 31, 2011 by inmytummy| 21 Comments

A few weeks ago, I won a cookbook called Table For Two from Emily.

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Even though I feel like I “know” lots of bloggers, I actually do know Emily! She’s my cousin. It’s fun to have another food blogger in the family. As far as I know, it’s just Emily and I who blog, but who knows, maybe I have another blogger relative that I don’t know about.

I thought this cookbook was perfect since it’s just me and Jason here. I like leftovers as much as the next person, but after I eat something for dinner one night and lunch the next, I get a little bit sick of it. So a cookbook filled with recipes that only serve two people is perfect. No math to do!

The irony here is that I made Crispy Tofu sticks and doubled the recipe!

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The recipe called for half a block of tofu. I decided to cook the entire thing because I know myself and I know that if I have half a block of uncooked tofu in my fridge, it’s just going to go bad. The recipe ended up being pretty good. I served it with Brussels Sprouts which are quickly rising to the top of my favorite vegetable list.

I think the secret to good Brussels Sprouts is to char them a little bit. I used a bag of Brussels, cut the ends off and cut them in half and sprinkled them with sea salt. Then I heated 1 tbsp of olive oil in a pan on medium and threw the Brussels in them. I let them sit, untouched, for about 5 minutes and then stirred them a bit. When all the Brussels had a nice char to them, I turned the heat off and added a little bit of a three cheese blend (asiago, parmesan and something else that I’ve forgotten.)

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And more good news on the Peachtree front – I got an email from a reader named Whitney who said that her husband got a number but he isn’t able to run so Jason could have it! Thanks Whitney and husband.

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Posted in Vegetarian Meal

My Luck Has Changed

Posted on March 30, 2011 by inmytummy| 26 Comments

Two things happened yesterday to change my luck. First of all, I posted something on the Atlanta Track Club’s facebook page basically stating my disappointment for not getting into the lottery as one of only 2,000 people out of 60,000 who did. I got an email later in the day from a race director for another race (on Labor Day) asking if I wanted to run it for free! I’ve never run that particular race before because there are massive hills but hey, I’ll take a free race! (This was after some random dude called me a “sore looser” on the ATC page. At least spell loser right!)

Then, I emailed my friend Dave to see if he got into the race and he said that he did but it turns out that he’s going to be in Spain on the 4th so I can have his number! Yay! Now I just need to find a number for Jason so if any Atlantans hear of anyone giving theirs up, please let me know.

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything food related and that needs to change. I don’t usually post pictures of my breakfast, but I thought I’d share what I eat often. Unlike most food bloggers, I’m not a huge oatmeal fan. I don’t hate it or anything, but it’s not my favorite. I eat oatmeal maybe once every two weeks, if that. What I do like, however are eggs. Specifically egg sandwiches.

Last week, I received a loaf of Nature’s Pride bread for free as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker’s program.

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The ingredients seemed up to my standards – no high fructose corn syrup and made with whole wheat flour.

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Obviously, this bread was going to be part of my daily breakfast.

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Processed sliced cheese, I just can’t quit you.

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Two eggs, scrambled, one slice of cheese and two pieces of bread and there you have it. The perfect egg sandwich.

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Are you an oatmeal fan or do you prefer other things for breakfast, like I do?

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Posted in Breakfast, Races

What Bad Luck

Posted on March 28, 2011 by inmytummy| 24 Comments

The Peachtree Road Race is the US’s biggest 10K with 60,000 people running. It’s on the 4th of July and has become somewhat of a tradition for me and Jason to run. I’ve actually run the past five years. In the past, you had to buy the newspaper on a certain date and clip out the registeration form and mail it in. Then they tried an online registration system for the past two years but that was a mess. Too many people would try to register at the same time and it would crash the system. Not to mention that the registration date was the same as the GA marathon. So this year they had a lottery system.

I figured that it was no big deal. Out of 60,000 people, I was surely going to get chosen. So imagine my surpise this morning when I received this email:

Dear Lee Becknell,
Thank you for your interest in the 2011 AJC Peachtree Road Race. We are sorry to inform you that your entry was not selected in the lottery and you are not registered for the race. Your credit card has not been charged.

Only 2,000 people didn’t get in and Jason and I were two of them! (We signed up as a group so if one of us got in, the other would and vice versa). I am so mad right now. I just can’t believe the bad luck.

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Posted in Atlanta, Races

Sweetwater Brewery

Posted on March 26, 2011 by inmytummy| 13 Comments

A popular Atlanta thing to do on a Friday after work is to go to the Sweetwater Brewery for their brewery tours.

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For just eight dollars, you get six tickets and a pint glass. Each ticket is good for about 2/3 of a glass of beer, although some of the premium beers are two tickets. They do have brewery tours, but I think most people just come to hang out and enjoy the beer and don’t bother with the tour. I went on it the first time that I went to Sweetwater but not again after that.

When it’s a nice Friday in March, a lot of people show up.

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Including Laura, who I ran into!

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For a while, I wasn’t a huge fan of Sweetwater beers but they introduced a new beer last year – sch’wheat which I do like.

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Despite this sign, there were tons of dogs there. We are going to take Murphy the next time we go.

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All in all, I probably had four beers. By 7:30, when the event was over, I definitely needed some food to soak up that beer. We decided to go to Little Bangkok, a Thai and Chinese restaurant.

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It’s a total hole in the wall, but it’s really good. Jason and I shared a spicy shrimp dish and a Buddha’s Delight.

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I’m leaving for the airport now. See ya from Florida!

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Posted in Atlanta, Atlanta Restaurants, Beer

Murphy Says…

Posted on March 25, 2011 by inmytummy| 14 Comments

My human is lame and went to sleep at 9:30 last night. She slacked on her blogger duties, I know. I wanted her to stay up and pet me. She didn’t, so I slept in the bed with her while my other human was at work.

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She is also going somewhere called Florida this weekend and I’ll be alone with my other human, who isn’t going. This blogging thing is fun. I might try my paw at it more often.

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Posted in Murphy

My Love/Hate Relationship with the Garmin

Posted on March 23, 2011 by inmytummy| 23 Comments

I decided that it was time to stop subsisting on Cadbury Mini eggs and trash tv and get my butt outside to run. I know that there is a rule of thumb that says to wait as many days as miles you’ve run but that always seems silly to me. I’m not going to sit on my butt for two weeks! I decided to just do a short run after work.

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9 minute mile? I’ll take it. I actually ran more like 2.5 miles but my Garmin was taking FOREVER to locate satellites. A 9-minute mile is fast for me. I was looking at last year’s race results for the Run the River 5K from last year and I saw that the 3rd place runner in the female 30-34 age group did it in 28:31. Could I do that?! It seems a little odd to me that only two women in that age group ran faster than that, but hey, maybe I’ll luck out and there will be a bunch of slower runners again this year. So, I’m going to work on speed work for the next couple of weeks and see what I can do.

You might have noticed, actually you probably didn’t, that I didn’t wear my Garmin in last Sunday’s half-marathon. I have a love/hate relationship with the Garmin. I like knowing my pace but I wish that it would somehow just tell me at the end. Otherwise, I spend the entire run looking at my wrist trying to make sure I’m running what I deem as fast enough.

I basically spend the majority of any race worrying about my pace. At the GA Half-Marathon, there were big time clocks at each mile marker. I knew that I started roughly 10:30 after the gun so with each passing mile, I’d figure out my pace and either be happy or frustrated with myself. By the time I got to an hour, the math got harder to do and I just stopped worrying about it and my run got much more relaxed and more fun.

Sometimes knowing how fast or slow I’m running takes the fun out of running. I’ll use the Garmin when I do my training runs, but I just don’t like using it in races. I like to enjoy my race. I’ll try my hardest and if I don’t know what my hardest is until I cross the finish line, that’s fine with me.

Do you use a Garmin? If you have one, do you use it every time?

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Posted in Running

What I Do After A Half-Marathon

Posted on March 22, 2011 by inmytummy| 22 Comments

The Day of the Race:

1. Take a nap, preferably with husband and dog.

2. Move from bed to couch, stay there for several more hours.

3. Walk dog around the block in an attempt to loosen up legs.

4. Walk dog around the block again in an attempt to tire out dog.

5. Eat many Cadbury Mini Eggs

6. Go back to bed.

The Day after the Race:

1. Go to work. In a perfect world, this wouldn’t be number one, but I have to conserve my vacation days and besides, I’m going to Florida this weekend.

2. Get pedicure during lunch break.

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3. Realize so-called cold is probably allergies since the pollen count is like 2500 or some ridiculously high number.

4. Meet Jason for sushi.

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5. Drink beer.

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Two Days After the Race:

1. Take allergy medicine.

2. Decide that it’s warm enough to grill out. Grill leftover pizza crust from last week’s two pack.

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3. Admire grilled pizza. This pizza had goat cheese, mozzarella, Morningstar Farms Fake Sausage crumbles, onion, mushrooms and green peppers.

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4. Eat pizza outside.

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5. Sign up for another race (with Tina!) I’m actually planning on doing another 5K the weekend before, but I haven’t signed up for that one yet.

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Posted in Races, Vegetarian Meal

Publix GA Half Marathon

Posted on March 20, 2011 by inmytummy| 36 Comments

Normally, I’m the type of person who falls asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, but not last night. I can never sleep very well before big races and I also felt like I was getting a cold. (Which makes me think that my stomach ache from the other day was a bug and not something I ate. I feel like whenever I have a stomach bug, it turns into a cold after. Does this happen to anyone else? Or am I just a freak?) After tossing and turning until almost 2 am, my 4:45 wake up call was not well received.

Jason got up with me and we drove to Joan’s house in Midtown. It meant so much to me that he was willing to stand around for 2.5 hours, especially since he had to go to work after. We got to her house around 5:45 and walked to the MARTA (subway) and got to Centennial Olympic Park around 6:30. We made a beeline for the port-a-potties and by the time we finally got to use them, the race had already started. However, there were 10,000 people running and we were in Corral J, so our corral hadn’t even moved yet.

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Not sure what’s up with my shiny tooth there.

After about ten minutes, we crossed the start line.

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I have a tendency to go out too fast and get tired so I really tried to stay around a 10:30 pace. The first two miles were fine. A bit crowded, but good. Miles 2-4 were hard, for some reason. Even though I’ve done this race four times in the past, I always forget just how hilly it is. 2-4 had some hills, nothing huge, but definite hills.

I had a GU at Mile 4 and we headed into Little 5 Points, where Joan’s boyfriend was waiting for us. It’s so nice to see a familiar face along the course. At this point, I was feeling good. Joan and I split up around the mile 6 marker.

Mile 6-7 brought one of the bigger hills in the course, but I was still feeling great. There were time clocks at each mile and I thought that I was on track for a 2:15 finish. I got to about mile 9 and then suddenly lost all my energy. It didn’t help that there were more big hills from miles 9.5-10.5. I could feel my pace slowing. Regardless, I told myself that I could slow down, but I needed to keep running and not walk.

When I saw the mile 12 sign, it said something like 2:17 (I’d started 10:30 after the clock), so I still thought a sub 2:20 was possible. However, I just didn’t have it in me today. Mile 12 was a real struggle and I even stopped to walk for a minute which is something that I don’t usually do in the last mile of a race. I don’t know why, but I was just zapped of energy.

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I crossed the finish line with a time of 2:24. Not a PR by any means, but I’m fine with it.

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Posted in Atlanta, Publix Georgia Marathon, Races

Race Expo

Posted on March 19, 2011 by inmytummy| 19 Comments

I picked Joan up this morning around 11 and we headed over to the Georgia Dome where the race expo was being held.

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I had to pick my number up from a special line for streakers (people who have run the race for the past four years in a row).

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After we got our numbers, we walked around the expo for a while, mostly getting free food samples. In the middle of the expo, there was a small grocery store. I mean, I know the race is sponsored by Publix, but I thought this was so weird. They were even selling meat!

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After the expo, we decided to do some shopping and went to Atlantic Station. I had a coupon for $10 off DSW and 30% off Banana Republic, Old Navy and Gap. I ended up with a pair of sandals (for $25!) from DSW and a tank top and pair of nice work pants from the Gap. Score.

After, I got home, I inspected my race swag.

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My shirt and bib are red because I’m a streaker whereas the regular ones are green. Sweet. I like red better. Now, I’m just chilling out and making a playlist for tomorrow. I also need to make sure I have allergy medicine. The pollen is already killer.

See ya 13.1 miles later.

Good luck to Kristy and Lindsay who are also running the GA half and to Emily and Kacy who are running half marathons of their own. And to anyone else who I missed!

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Posted in Publix Georgia Marathon, Races

Random Sh*t in My Backyard

Posted on March 19, 2011 by inmytummy| 12 Comments

We moved into our house in May of last year. The previous owners were a family of four and the parents were kind of eclectic hippies. It seems like every week, we discover something random in the backyard. I didn’t think to take pictures of it until recently so this is only about half the stuff – we’ve thrown out the rest. It’s kind of like a treasure hunt! I knew that some of this was there when I was taking the pictures, but other things I’d never even seen before.

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That last one is a bird feeder with a license plate attached. So random!

Anyway, thanks for the well wishes for my stomach ache. I feel much better now. I guess it was either something I ate or a little bug that was going around.