the treadmill diaries

This past Saturday and Sunday were quite rainy and dreary.  So to keep myself busy, I decided to take part in several indoor activities like:

• loving up my new Mac Book Pro.  As a lifelong PC user, I have to admit this thing is so easy to use and SUPER FAST.  Once you go MAC, you never go back (or so I hear).  We’ll see.
• getting into the 31 Days of Halloween on Syfy.  Who really cares if I’ve seen Resident Evil about 40 times since it came out in 2001?  You better believe I caught the double-header on Sunday night again.
• watching cooking shows on the Food Network Channel.  I especially dig the new recipe episodes.  In fact, after seeing Rachel Ray’s 3o Minute Meal of Bourbon BBQ Pulled Chicken , I decided to try it.

I’ve never made my own BBQ sauce from scratch before.  I’m more of a squirt it out of the Baby Ray’s bottle kind of girl.  But since I had extra time on my hands, I figured why not?

I followed Rachel’s recipe to the letter with one exception.  I absolutely LOATHE mustards of all kind so I left out the Dijon.  Instead, I substituted in a dash of mustard seed figuring it was in the same family but it wouldn’t set off my ‘I hate mustard’ alert.

Poaching the chicken in water with oranges, onions, carrots and bay leaves did wonders for the flavor. Plus, it was very easy to work off of the bone once done cooking.

The BBQ sauce itself was a lovely reddish-orange color and the perfect consistency after it was reduced down.  However, I found it much sweeter than the bottled brands that I’m used to.  Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad just different.

Dollop a pile of the pulled chicken on a bun, top it with some pickle, and you’ve got yourself a hearty sandwich to enjoy.

Though I didn’t make the slaw as the sidekick to my sammy on this day, I did pick up all the ingredients to whip it up later in the week.  I’ll keep you posted on what I think.

Tell me…is there a food that completely grosses you out like my aversion to mustard?  I’ve disliked it as long as I can remember.

I’m the type of person who once she gets a food stuck in her head ..can’t let it go until I’ve had my fill of it.

Obviously, there’s a potential for dangerous behavior here. But, I do what I can to satisfy my cravings while keeping my eating in check. My latest obsession was Polenta.

What’s really funny about this is that I’ve probably eaten the stuff a total of 4 or 5 times in my life. But, I just HAD to HAVE it.

And, so I did. Not once, but in TWO ways.

First, I decided to take my Pulled Pork recipe, swap out the pork with chicken breast, cook it the same exact way, and serve it up on top of grilled polenta cakes. Del-ic-ious-ly simple.

Then, I transformed my usual egg whites and spinach omelet breakfast into a pan-fried polenta cake topped with sautéed spinach and a sunny side egg. It was rich, creamy, and just plain wonderful.

Now that I’ve taken care of this fix, I can move beyond the Polenta to the next craving on the list. J

Do you ever get obsessive about your eats?

I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

I have my DVR set to record every episode of David Rocco’s Dolce Vita on the Cooking Channel. We all know that I love to cook and eat yummy foods. No big surprise there. And, sure I watch Dolce Vita to get access to new ingredients and recipes.

But, what I’m really doing is staying in touch with the Italian heritage I love so much.

I get to practice my Italian. I overhear the banter & jokes in the background that never get translated. And, I’m fondly reminded of the sights, smells, and tastes of Italy that I hold so dear. It’s a great relationship that I have with the show. I highly recommend it.

The last episode that I caught featured a super simple pizza disguised as a sammy that I just had to try.

I followed David Rocco’s recipe for a Grilled Foccacia Sandwich pretty much to a T but just cut down the extra virgin olive oil to 2 tsp from 3 Tbsp. I can assure you that it didn’t taste like it was missing a thing.

This baby can be served up open-faced like a pizza. Or you can have a little fun with it and fold it in half as David Rocco intended. Either way, it’s going to taste heavenly. The prosciutto (I used prosciutto di Parma) will melt like butter over your warm dough and it’s nicely contrasted by the tangy taste of the arugula cut in lemon and olive oil.

Absolutely delicious. Great eye appeal. Another reason to use your grill. And a good recipe to break the monotony in your dinner routine.

Tip: since most of us will be using a gas grill, consider cutting down the dough’s cooking time to 2 minutes per side. If it overcooks, it’ll get hard and snap when you try to fold it into your sandwich.

Thank you David Rocco – for sharing this sandwich genius with us and for lovingly highlighting Italy and its culinary wonders. Simplicity never tasted so good.

Do you have favorite cooking shows?

I’m happy to report that things settled down after my Unwanted Saturday Drama and that the rest of the day turned out to be quite pleasant.

First, my doggies came back from their salon appointment looking cuter than cute. See for yourself.

From Right Before….

             From immediately after…

Then, I turned my attention to cooking us some grub – beer marinated beef tips, mashed potatoes, bruschetta on toasted focaccia bread, grilled corn on the cob, and a huge salad (which isn’t pictured). It was all absolutely fabulous if I do say so myself (and so did my husband).

We ended the night with a short bonfire and some TV watching. Very relaxing.   End Saturday.

Enter Sunday.

When I first got up, I wasn’t feeling my usual run so I first ate some breakfast (cinnamon raisin French toast) and then got my grocery shopping done. With those things behind me, I decided I could trek out to get some miles.

Now, I’m not really sure what came over me but my interest in a short outing turned into MUCH MUCH more. It may have been that it dawned on me that today’s routine marks 50 DAYS of daily workouts. Not too shabby, right?

And, I surprised myself by feeling that in honor of these 50 days I could run 5 miles today even after yesterday’s 7.  But, that’s not the weirdest part.

I got the big bright idea to shoot a VLOG / video while running.  So, I did.

Video Disclaimer:

• No one was harmed in the making of this video including me (to Jon – aka my husband)
• I’m not the most eloquent of speakers while in motion and forced to improve. Yes, words get used more than once. Wrong words are used in places. But you’ll get the drift of what I’m trying to say (hopefully).
• Since I am exercising while filming, please forgive the sweating, the lack of make-up (again) and my stylin outfit.

And now thetreadmilldiaries presents…what Di said on her 5 miler. LOL J

5Miler VLOG

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Here are my stats for the run:

Who out there actually thinks they look or sound good in videos??

For this edition of What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW), I’d like to pay tribute to some of the most memorable goodies from July that I caught on camera:

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Now tell me about some of your favorite July eats.