6 miles + Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken and Rice + Loopholes

Y'all, I am horrible with keeping up with my exercise schedule/blog from Wednesday evening on.  I just let the stress of the school week get to me, and I put everything else on hold for some rest and relaxation time.  My goal for next week is to actually go work out right after school on Tuesday and see how I like it!

On to today's post...

While today has been pretty low-key, I've had a great Saturday!  After a fun night at our favorite country line-dancing bar, Joe and I woke up with lots of energy and laughs from last night.  I got to watch the Virginia Tech game with another Hokie, and we pulled out the win!  Now, I'm just hanging out at home watching the other college football games (and blogging, of course).  I am a happy gal :)

Today's Training
Today was a 6-mile run in my half-marathon training schedule.  I was REALLY excited to go running today because my Garmin Forerunner 110 with heart monitor arrived in the mail yesterday!  I couldn't wait to try it out.

I got kind of nervous before running, as this is the longest distance I've done at one time.  My goal was to finish the 6 miles in 70 minutes (I knew I could for sure do that!), and I decided that I'd run 0.5 miles then walk for a minute.  Here's how I did:

That's an average pace of 10:45!  I loved running with the Garmin--it's very easy to use and much easier to read than my iPod timer on my arm.  I felt GREAT during these 6 miles, which really comforts me for the future long runs I'm going to have to complete.  Now it's time to throw some ice on my shins and get ready for next week!

Diet Tip of the Day
On Thursday, I tried a new slow cooker recipe I found via Pinterest.  Can you tell that I love that site?  The original recipe is from this site, but here's what I did, along with the review.

Crock Pot Cheesy Chicken and Rice

Ingredients:

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 can of Whole Kernel Corn
• 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 box of Zataran's yellow rice (will need butter to prepare using the directions on the box)

1. Put the chicken breasts and onion in the slow cooker.  Spoon the cream of chicken onto the chicken breasts/onion.  Cook for 3-4 hours on high, 7-8 hours on low.

It looks like this after 8 hours on low

2. About 45 minutes before you are ready to serve the meal, prepare yellow rice as directed on the box (takes about 20-25 minutes).
3. Once rice is prepared, shred the chicken breasts in the slow cooker.
4. Drain corn, then add corn, prepared rice, and cheddar cheese to the slow cooker.  Mix everything together, then heat on low for about 3-5 minutes.

That's it!  This meal was yummy and filling, but for some reason it was lacking the flavor of the yellow rice and cheese.  I think it's because I didn't drain the slow cooker before adding the corn, rice, and cheese.  Next time, I'll probably drain about half of the liquid to bring out the flavors I was missing.  Also, this recipe makes enough for 3 generous helpings, which could easily feed a family of 4 with another vegetable as a side dish!

Oh, and this recipe is husband-approved :)  Tasty, easy warm meal that will definitely be added to our dinner rotation.

Faith Find
On my 6 mile run, I was able to finish the two sermons I had left in Andy Stanley's Christian series.  While the last one was a summary of the previous sermons and a challenge to live them out, the 7th sermon of the series really hit me.

Source

It was called "Loopholes" and discussed the fact that we can find a Bible verse to support/refute just about anything that we agree or disagree with.  Christians find loopholes in the rules spelled out in the Bible, but Andy Stanley said that followers of Jesus do not look for loopholes in the command "Love one another."

One thing that Andy said really hit me: "What if God looked for a loophole to get out of loving you?"  WHOA.  Who would want that?  So why, then, do we look for loopholes loving others when the One who loves us does so despite all the loopholes that He could find!  This really hit me as a great reminder that our love for others is a response of God's love for us.

Question of the Day (to ponder--this is very personal, so don't feel like you need to comment to answer this): What rule(s) do you try to find loopholes for?
To be honest, I look for loopholes on the whole gossiping thing.  I rationalize it as stress release, but I don't know that there's a Bible verse encouraging judging/talking about others to relieve your stress.  It's  something I constantly try to get better about.

That's it for today.  Time to pick up my book again (I'm reading The Pact by Jodi Picoult and I'm at a point where I really want to know what happens)!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I'll be back tomorrow for the usual stuff!