August Workouts

Hi there. Remember when I used to keep active, and write lots of posts about my workouts? Me too. While a complete lack of workout posts (seriously - one in June, one in July, one in August) might make it seem like I haven't been doing anything lately, I do have some things to share.

If you have no interest in hearing about the workouts/running I did in August, feel free to ignore the rest of this post. This is mostly for my benefit, to keep track of what I've done.

Friday, August 8th: Run in Cville
This weekend was when Joey and I went to Philly to participate in the bachelorette festivities for the upcoming wedding of a good friend. I wanted to try to get in a run before leaving, since I knew I wouldn't have time for anything that weekend. This was a slow run, but I was proud of myself for running farther than I had gone in months. I did it first thing in the morning, and it was a beautiful day for it.

I was very proud of myself, and put this picture on Instagram

Wednesday August 13th: Run in New Jersey
Joey and I were in New Jersey for a few days, and managed to fit in a run (he did two actually). He was wearing the garmin watch when we went on a run together, but he continued on longer than I did. I think I pulled off around 2.8 miles, and then did another 1/3-1/2 mile on my own (and somehow got lost on the way back. I think I went at about a 10.5 min pace the whole time. Oddly, I started to have some strange back pains at the beginning of the run, that lasted the next few days.

Friday August 15th: Strength workout at Madhouse (Arms/Legs/Abs)
I re-used a workout for this one - it can be found here.

Monday August 18th: Yoga on Nameless Field
I did another pop-up yoga class! Unlike the last one, this was not arranged by the AFC, so yoga mats weren't provided. I had misplaced the carrying strap for my mat (I actually JUST found it, so it was missing for a good month or two), so I just brought a big fluffy beach towel. I figured that would be just fine. Not too surprising, but yoga mats are a lot better for yoga than towels! I was slipping all over the place. It was still a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed doing yoga outside.

Tuesday August 19th: Run at Madhouse
I didn't feel like running outside, so I did a run on the treadmill. I started out by running 2.6 miles, then took a 0.25 mile walk break, ran another 0.5 miles, and then walked the last 0.4 miles. I ended up running a total of 3.1 miles in 32:32, at about a 10:30 pace.

Wednesday August 20th: Sparty with Adri at AFC
I don't know where I put the paper with the list of exercises we did! I remember that we did the following:
Plank
Inbred Cousin
Ab Extenders
One-Legged Scarecrow
And then after that, I have no clue.

Friday August 22rd: Run in Cville
At this point, I had gotten into a good routine with working out. I planned another run prior to going away for the weekend. This time I knew that I could workout while I was away, and planned on being pretty active. I had only a little over a week before the Cville 4 Miler, and needed to get my butt in gear!

Saturday August 23rd: Run at Bethany Beach
While visiting my parents at their beach house in Bethany, Delaware, I planned a 3 mile run. As soon as I got back from that, my mom asked if I wanted to go on a walk/run with her. I knew that it would be more walking than running, so figured why not? I ran 3 miles first (stopped at exactly 3.00), and then walked/jogged 2.32 miles with my mom. Even though the weather shows that it was sunny, I ended up getting rained on about halfway through my run. I was a little afraid that I would have to stop on the boardwalk and take cover, but it stopped as suddenly as it started.

The pace for my run was 10:05 (3 miles in 30:14), and the average pace for our walk/job was 15:56.

Sunday, August 24th: Yoga at Bethany Beach
I planned on doing some yoga with my mom at the beach. I brought my yoga mat (at this point, still without the carrying strap), and told her to bring the matching yoga mat I got her for her birthday. The problem was that I didn't have anything planned, so I had to spend some time looking on youtube for yoga videos. We finally found one, and it went at an EXTREMELY fast pace! I liked the sequence, but I would have liked spending more time in each of the poses. We got pretty sweaty for just 20 minutes of yoga!

Tuesday August 25th: Run at Madhouse
Right after we got back from the beach, I came down with a cold. I REALLY didn't want to do any running, but Joey convinced me to get another run in before the race. I went to the gym, and did a total of 3.5 miles. I ran 2 miles, then took a quick bathroom break. I ran another mile, then needed a walk break. After that, I finished up with another 1/2 mile. I had an average pace of 10:40.

August Running Total:
20 miles

That's right, I ran only 20 miles in the entire month of August. May through July were even more pitiful. Obviously I didn't really train for the Women's 4 Miler (recap post coming soon), so I didn't set my expectations high at all. 

Baked Rigatoni with Brussels Sprouts, Figs and Blue Cheese

I'm not sure how this recipe hasn't made it onto the blog yet, but here it is. This is one of our favorite fall pasta dishes (although you can make it all year round of course). I never would have thought to put these ingredients together, but it works really well! The cheese melts into the pasta water, creating a creamy sauce.

We have made this recipe many times now, and it is pretty adaptable to what you have on hand. We have made it with more brussels sprouts than called for (up to 2 lbs), and we have also made it with less (only 1 lb). This last time, we only had 1 lb brussels sprouts, so we added some cooked swiss chard to increase the greens. In a pinch, we have even used frozen brussels sprouts, but we prefer to use fresh when possible. We have made this with both gorgonzola and blue cheese, sometimes measuring out the exact amount, sometimes just throwing some on and seeing how it tastes. Depending on our mood, sometimes we skip the nuts on top (although it does add a nice crunch). You can also substitute any dried fruit in for the dried figs, although I can't think of anything that would work better. We've never made it with fresh figs, and I don't think I would recommend it. Fresh figs are so delicate, and have such a unique flavor, that I think they are better when eaten fresh (uncooked).

Recipe: Baked Rigatoni with Brussels Sprouts, Figs and Blue Cheese
Slightly Adapted from Mark Bittman
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:
8 oz rigatoni (the large kind)
Salt
1 1/2 lbs brussels sprouts, trimmed and roughly chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
4 oz blue cheese or gorgonzola, crumbled
3/4 cup dried figs, chopped
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped almonds, for garnish (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 F. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and salt it. Add the pasta and cook 4-5 minutes, until about halfway cooked. It should still be quite firm inside. Add the brussels sprouts to the pot and cook 3 minutes, until the vegetables and pasta are both just barely tender. Drain, reserving some of the pasta water (at least 1 cup), and return the pasta and brussels sprouts to the pot.

Stir in the oil, cheese, figs and black pepper. Add a splash of the pasta water, and stir to combine. Add extra salt and pepper to taste. You want the sauce to be on the thin side, since the pasta will continue to absorb water while baking. Add more pasta water if necessary.

Spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick cooking spray, and pour the pasta mixture into the pan. Cover with foil, and bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil, and make sure there is still some liquid at the bottom of the pan (add more cooking water if there is no liquid left. Bake another 5 minutes, or until mixture is bubbling. Let cool 5 minutes, garnish with almonds, and serve.

Mixed up, about to be baked

Post-baking

Close up, in an attempt to show the bubbling sauce!

A new take on stroganoff - a vegetarian alternative

Joey and I like watching most of the shows on The Food Network. One show we've started watching recently is "Beat Bobby Flay." I used to find Bobby Flay to be incredibly obnoxious and arrogant, so obviously the idea of someone showing him up sounded great. I don't find him to be as bad anymore, but it's still fun watching people try to beat him. There was recently an episode where the chef he was battling chose their signature dish Beef Stroganoff. Somehow, not only had Bobby never made the dish, but he also claimed to have never tasted the dish. Even more miraculous was the fact that he still ended up winning...

Anyway, this started a conversation about beef stroganoff, and the vegetarian version that Alton Brown has made. We looked up his recipe, thought it sounded amazing, and cooked it within the next few days. Let me tell you - it is so so good. It was surprisingly simple to make, and didn't include a ton of ingredients. The flavors all worked really well together - I really liked how the tang of the goat cheese cut through some of the richness. Joey bought some stew meat that he cooked separately, and mixed into his portion.

We made a few changes to Alton's recipe. To make the recipe truly vegetarian, we omitted the beef stock. Instead of just using water, or using vegetable stock (which sometimes has a strong flavor that doesn't work with the rest of the dish), we made a mushroom stock from dried mushrooms. This really enhanced the mushroom flavor, and then we used the reconstituted dried mushrooms in the dish. I've seen mushroom stock sold in stores before, but since we couldn't find any at Kroger, we used this. I think I would much prefer doing it this way in the future instead of buying a pre-made stock that's full of sodium. The only other change we made was with the dairy at the end. We used 5 oz of goat cheese instead of 4 oz, mostly because the log we bought was 5 oz. A cup of sour cream sounded like a lot, so we reduced it to 1/3, and we used greek yogurt instead of sour cream. I've seriously been using greek yogurt as a substitute in everything lately (biscuits and pancakes). It's pretty versatile, and we always have it on hand. I think it gave us the perfect creaminess.

Recipe: Vegetarian Mushroom Stroganoff with Goat Cheese
Adapted from Alton Brown
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:
12 oz extra wide egg noodles
3 tbsp unsalted butter
5-6 large portobello mushrooms (1 1/4 - 1 1/2 lbs)
1 tsp kosher salt
1 bunch green onions
1 tbsp all purpose flour
14 oz mushroom stock (see directions below for homemade)
1/3 cup greek yogurt or sour cream
5 oz goat cheese
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Add noodles to 4 quarts of cold water in a 6-quart pot, cover and place over high heat. Cook to al dente, 18-22 minutes (check package for exact cooking time), stirring occasionally.

Note: We added the noodles to almost boiling water and didn't have problems - Alton suggests adding to cold water and bringing them to a boil together. He claims that this helps the sauce coat the noodles better.

Clean the mushrooms well. Remove the stems, and then slice the mushrooms in 1/4-1/2 inch slices. Melt the butter in a 12-inch straight-sided saute pan set over medium-high heat. Increase the heat to high, add the mushrooms, and sprinkle with salt. Saute until they darken in color, soften, and give off their liquid. This can take as much as 10-15 minutes, but keep an eye on it.

Slice the green onions, keeping the white part and the dark green part separate. Add the sliced white part to the pan, and saute another 2-3 minutes.

Sprinkle in the flour and stir to combine. Cook until the flour disappears, and the fond (little crusty parts on the bottom of the pan) turns dark brown, about 1 minute. Deglaze with the mushroom stock. Bring to a simmer and decrease the heat to medium-low. Cook for 10-12 minutes, or until thickened.

Add the greek yogurt (or sour cream), goat cheese, and black pepper. Stir to combine, then partially cover and bring to a simmer to warm through - 2-4 minutes.

Meanwhile, your noodles may have already finished cooking. If they finish before the sauce is ready, drain them and spray with some nonstick spray, so they don't clump together. If they finish after the sauce is ready, then great - add them straight to the sauce after you've added the greek yogurt and goat cheese. Stir everything to combine. Garnish with the green onion tops and additional black pepper.

How to Make Your Own Mushroom Stock:
This is really simple. Put 1/2 oz dried mushrooms (I used porcini) in a large heat-safe bowl. Carefully pour 2 1/2 cups boiling water over the mushrooms. Let the mushrooms reconstitute for 15 minutes. Pour the liquid through a coffee filter before using. The recipe calls for 14 oz - if you don't have enough, add some water. (The mushrooms soak up quite a bit of that water, reducing the total volume.) Chop up the reconstituted mushrooms, and add them to the sauce when you add the sliced white bottoms of the chopped green onions.

1/2 oz porcini mushrooms in boiling water

The water turns golden brown almost immediately

Reconstituted mushrooms

Strained mushroom stock - Joey used some to cook his stew meat, so I added enough water to make the final volume equal 14 oz

6 large portobello caps, all sliced up

The reconstituted mushrooms, chopped up, on the left. The sliced white part (and light green part) of the green onions, on the right. The green part of the onions at the top, waiting to be sliced

Cooked egg noodles - ours were finished way before the sauce was ready

The mushrooms have started to release their liquid

We added the reconstituted mushrooms and white/light green onions

See that dark brown stuff on the bottom of the pan - that's the fond. That's where all the flavor comes from!

The stock has been added, and now everything is going to simmer

Lots of sliced green onion tops!

Everything all mixed together

And again

The finished product, with more green onions on top. Delicious!