Run with Perseverance

Monday, February 10, 2014

Quinoa Pizza Bites

Hey everyone! I hope your week is off to a great start. Today was a busy day at work, and I'm already anticipating the day off next Monday for President's Day!

Last week for the Super Bowl, I was looking for something to make that would be healthy and tasty. The Crock Pot Drumsticks from last year were a good choice, but I wanted something a little more portable and bite-sized. Thanks to Pinterest, I found the perfect thing...

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Quinoa Pizza Bites! After reading this post with the recipe, I knew I had to try them! I doubled the recipe on that blog (which I will post below) and served the bites with some seasoned Prego sauce.

When I told Joe what I was making, he kind of teased me about it thanks to this Bud Light commercial that's been airing this football season.

Luckily, these looked (and tasted) a lot better than a loofa!!

Ready for the recipe?

Quinoa Pizza Bites (makes 36 mini-muffin sized pizza bites)

Ingredients

-1 cup uncooked quinoa

-2 large eggs

-1 cup chopped onion

-1 cup fat free shredded mozzarella cheese

-2 teaspoons minced garlic

-2 tablespoons dried basil

-2 teaspoons dried oregano

-a pinch of salt

Directions

-Cook quinoa as directed on the package.

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

-Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl.

-Spray the bottoms of a mini muffin tin with olive oil cooking spray (or other spray of your choice).

-Place about a tablespoon's worth of quinoa mixture in each muffin tin (should almost fill each tin).

-Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown on top.

-Let them cool before popping each bite out of the muffin tins. Serve warm with marinara sauce to dip!

A few comments about this recipe:

-I would have liked them a little more cheesy! I think adding another 1/4 cup or 1/2 cup of shredded cheese to the mix.

-I think a little bit more garlic, basil, and oregano would make these extra good, especially if you choose a plain marinara sauce.

These received a great reception at the Super Bowl party and are the perfect healthy appetizer to bring to a gathering! These could also be served as part of a smaller, appetizer-type dinner.

Enjoy!

Question for you: What'd you bring to your Super Bowl party this year? Do you have a go-to healthy appetizer-type recipe? I'd love to see them!

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Life Lately

Hey, y'all! Long time, no see! I've had a really busy week, and I haven't really made to time to check in here. So sorry!

Let's do a quick catch-up about what I've been to lately:

-I completed my last long run in training for the Daytona Beach Half and the Princess Half last Sunday. I can't believe the DB half is only 7 days away! I did 10 miles, which included running a large bridge twice and running on the beach.

It was quite a foggy day as you can see!

I felt great until the last mile of the run. My knee started hurting much like it did during the Lighthouse Loop Half back in October, so I'm afraid my IT band is still a little unhappy. The next week will be spent with my foam roller and doing a lot of stretching in preparation for the race!

-I had a pretty stressful few days at work between meeting with a group of my teachers with the district math specialist, having my evaluation done, and dealing with some issues that came up. Plus, I was only in at my schools for three days this week! More on that later.

-I got to meet my friend Ashley's baby! I took her and her husband dinner and cookies, and I spent some time catching up with her and holding little Kourtney. Everyone's doing well, and I'm so happy for their family!

Plus, I got to use this sweet casserole carrier I got for Christmas last year. Lots of excitement that day, I tell ya!

-Wednesday's Bible study and discussion helped me realize something that I need to work on. I've been in a little bit of a funk, and I realized that doing things for myself all the time doesn't really satisfy me in the long run. I need to get back to serving others like I did all throughout middle and high school! I feel like that's what God was saying to me, and I've gotten further confirmation of that through this week's Bible study homework.

-Thursday and Friday were spent attending two different trainings. I really enjoy learning, and both of these sessions taught me some things I can use right away with my teachers. I'm really excited about that!

-I tried the new Quest bar on Friday.

If you haven't yet, you need to! Not only do I love all things cookies 'n cream, but this Quest bar doesn't taste like a protein bar AT ALL.

That's my "these are delicious" face

I'm going to need to stock up on these for any sweet tooth flare-ups so that I can "cheat clean"!

-I'm pumped for November because Joe and I just booked a TRIP TO DUBAI!!!! We found a great Groupon deal and knew we couldn't pass it up. I'm so, so excited! Time to finally change my name on my passport :)

-I didn't do so well in the workout realm this week. Here's what my workouts looked like:
Sunday-10 mile run
Monday-nothing
Tuesday-nothing
Wednesday-nothing
Thursday-Bikram yoga
Friday-nothing
Saturday-BodyPUMP class in the morning
Sunday-2 mile walk on the beach with Joe

Couldn't pass up the nice weather today!

Ok, I think that's all that I need to catch y'all up on. I'm most definitely going to post more this week, including the recipe for the quinoa pizza bites I made for the Super Bowl and a post about my thoughts on hot yoga. Hopefully there will be more posts than that, though!

Question for you: What's life been like for you lately? Got any exciting vacations coming up?

Monday, February 3, 2014

Memorizing Scripture

Hey, everyone! Was today a little rough for anyone else? I'm on the Make-the-Monday-after-the-Super-Bowl-a-Holiday bandwagon, because it was a struggle to get out of bed this morning! Joe and I went to some of his classmates' condominium, where they rented out the projector room for our party.

What a SWEET set-up! We all had our own individual recliners with plenty of cup holders. There was also a lot of food and drink, as always. I brought quinoa pizza bites, which I will definitely share the recipe for in the near future!

One of the guys set up betting squares for the game, which added a little bit of excitement.

You start with a 10x10 grid, and people pay a certain amount per square. You pick which squares you want and write in your name. After all the squares are filled, someone randomly assigns a digit 0-9 to each row and column. The rows represent the score of one team, and the columns represent the score of the other team. At the end of each corner, you take the last digit of each team's score, and the person in that square wins some money! It adds a little fun to the game, especially if you aren't really cheering for a particular team. Joe wound up winning the 4th quarter score (43-8, he had the Seattle 3 and Denver 8), which was pretty exciting.

I was very happy with the outcome! I was pulling for Seattle since Kristie and Joe live other there. Also, one of their defensive players went to Virginia Tech (Kam Chancellor...had a great game!) and their quarterback Russell Wilson is from the county where I grew up! Glad they wound up winning.

Ok, enough about our Super Bowl party! We haven't had a faith-related post here in a while, so I think it's time we talk about something I've been doing recently: memorizing Scripture!

In the Bible study I'm doing, James MacDonald chooses a Scripture verse for us to memorize each week. They usually come from the passage for the week or deal with the characteristic of God we are focusing on. I have not done much Scripture memorization before (even though it has been an element of other studies I've done), so I wanted to focus on that particularly during this study.

First off, you might be asking, "Why do I need to memorize Scripture?" Well, here are a few reasons that my Bible study group came up with during our discussion

You never know when you will be without a Bible and need a Word of God. One example: POWs in Vietnam used memorized Scriptures and hymns to help them rediscover and rely on their faith while imprisoned for many, many years.
A memory verse can help you resist temptation or battle an unwanted feeling or emotion. For example, whenever I start to worry, I repeat Matthew 6:34 in my head. It helps ward off that worry and gives me time to refocus my energy on something else.
Good in, good out. We talked about how your mind will reproduce what you put in it. If you've got good stuff in your brain, your words and actions will reflect that.

After realizing all of the benefits, I started thinking about how I could help myself memorize the week's Scriptures AND retain it over time. Well, I start out by reading the verse out loud a few times. Repeating it helps me to being memorizing it, and I also hear the sounds of the verse.

Next, I write it down on an index card. I've made a card for each week's verse and use a pretty color when writing.

It's fun for me to go back and look at the different cards, and I actually remember the colors they are written in, as well!

You can always rewrite the verse a few times on a piece of paper (or type it on the computer), much like you may have done in school if you got in trouble. It really does help ingrain it in your brain!

Another thing that helps memorize a verse is repeating it to yourself a few times throughout the day. This is one of the reasons I made index cards, so that I can reference them if needed.

Some other suggestions from my Bible study group: think about the meaning behind each word, read the context of the verse (before and after), putting it on your mirror to read/reflect on while getting ready in the morning, and saying the verse to yourself first thing when you wake up and last thing before you go to bed.

Question for you: Are you good at memorizing? What's one of your favorite verses you know by heart? Any tips you have for memorizing?

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Stream of Consciousness Saturday 2

Hey y'all! Happy Saturday! It's nice that it's finally the weekend. I've had short weeks thanks to federal holidays and workshops since January started, so it was a little tough to work for five days this week.

When trying to decide what to post today, I couldn't really pick one topic. So, I'm going to repeat my Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Here's what's been on my mind/happening lately.

1. First off, I need to say CONGRATULATIONS to my friend Ashley and her husband Nate! They welcomed their first baby, a beautiful girl named Kourtney, into the world this week. Congrats, you two, and I can't wait to meet the little gal!

At her baby shower in November

2.. I'm not sure why, but I've been in a little bit of a funk the past two weeks. I just haven't felt like myself lately, and all I've wanted to do is just sit around. I think it's finally lifting (at least, I hope so!!).

3. I've been loving hot yoga lately! I'm going to share a full post about it, but over the last week, that's really the only workout I've been consistent with.

4. Speaking of yoga, I won a Core Power Fit Kit from Erica's blog, and it came in this week! The yoga mat has come in handy, as has the AWESOME gym bag. Plenty of room for all my stuff. I tried out the Core Power chocolate protein shake (pretty tasty) and plan on using the exercise ball and water bottle very soon. Pretty awesome giveaway win! Thanks Erica and Core Power!

5. We got another package in the mail this week: Seattle Seahawks t-shirts from Kristie and Joe!

Joe got a Marshaun Lynch shirt, and I got a Russell Wilson shirt. We're looking forward (can you tell??) to cheering on the Seahawks this weekend in the Super Bowl!

6. I've realized how much easier it is to work out when you have a friend going with you! My friend Cacie (one of Joe's classmates) was the one who got me to try hot yoga for the first time, and since then we've been going twice a week! It helps keep both of us accountable, and it's fun to talk about the practice afterward. I need to find me a running buddy to get me motivated in my race training!

7. I wasn't really sure what to make for the Super Bowl this year, but I think I'm going to go with these quinoa pizza bites. They sound tasty, easy to make, and healthy! That's the Super Bowl snack trifecta right there!