Running Army Wife

My hubby and I both love Star Wars. For my birthday this year, my in-laws got me these sweet cookie cutters. Sadly, I got them *just* after I sent James his Star Wars themed Valentine's Day box. I found Star Wars valentines. My favorite is the one with C-3PO that says "Be my counterpart!" Boxes take at least 6 days to get there if the weather is good.. so I haven't sent cookies because I figured they would be kind of old by the time they got there. I might make an exception for these star wars ones though. This is our second Valentine's Day in a row apart. Last year, he was away at IBOLC. Oh well. I've decided to not be bitter about it. We normally weren't much into celebrating it anyway but we decided today online that next year (assuming that we are together!) we will. Happy Valentine's Day and may the force be with you! -Amy

Oh man. It was a good weekend. We celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, and our Anniversary all in a few days. We visited Bainbridge Island, ran a Turkey Trot, made Thanksgiving Dinner, exchanged presents, and then ran the Seattle Half Marathon. Whew! I didn't take any pictures at the Oly Trot because it was rainy and we were both racing, but we did get these fun arm warmers instead of a shirt. I have plenty of race shirts, so it's kinda fun to have something different.  We then made Thanksgiving dinner together. The hubby made soft pretzels instead of dinner rolls. They were amazing.  I also made roasted green beans with cranberries. And a little sweet potato casserole, made with two potatoes.  And here's our complete little dinner for two!  We then exchanged presents. We then finished up the weekend with the Seattle Half Marathon. Hubby was my photographer and sherpa. :) So thankful to have a hubby that loves me so much....

James and I decided that we would start a new tradition .. making limoncello for the holidays. If you haven't heard of it, check out  limoncello quest . Basically it's a really sweet Italian liquor that you make with lemon zest and everclear. You let the zest sit in the everclear for a while (like weeks) and it will take on the taste of the lemon. Then you add simple syrup, let it sit a while longer, and then filter it. It's amazing. And you need a lot of lemons for it.. last time I made the mistake of zesting all the lemons at once. Seriously, that's a lot of lemons. Anyway, after you zest them, there is nothing to hold the moisture in and they go bad really fast. So.. since the zest is supposed to sit in the everclear for a while anyway, I decided to just zest them as I used them. And they do make a pretty centerpiece until I use them all. So far, I've made strawberry lemonade. Don't be jealous of how good this looks.  Okay.. you can be a little je...

I found this Carrot Muffin with Cream Cheese recipe a little while ago online. It's probably the most amazing recipe that I've discovered to date. I'll never be able to appreciate carrot cake from a box again. So I started thinking.. why not try this with a pumpkin muffin? Pumpkin and cream cheese? Yes, one of the best combinations ever. A visual of what you need: This recipe has three acts. Act 1: The Muffin (courtesy of Will Run for Food ) 1 package (18.25 oz.) spice cake mix 1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin 3 large eggs 1/3 cup vegetable oil 1/3 cup water 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Paper-line or grease 24 muffin cups. Blend cake mix, pumpkin, eggs, oil, water, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. I decided NOT to beat with a beater because I wanted them to be a little denser and moister, a little more like a muffin and little less like a cake. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups, about 3/4 full. Act 2: The Cream Cheese Filling (courtes...

(my adaption of Rachel Ray's Citrus-Caramel Poached Pears ) I decided I had to try this. But I couldn't resist adding Chai. This might be my new favorite way to eat Pears. Ingredients 2 Pears, pealed 1 tbsp Cinnamon 1 tsp Nutmeg 1 to 2 cups of Orange Juice 1/4 cup Sugar 1 shot of Triple-sec 1 scoop of Chai Latte mix Combine all ingredients in saucepan. Cook on low heat, covered, for 30 minutes or until Pears are tender. Carefully remove the pears (they are going to be really soft). Continue to boil liquid for another half hour, or until syrupy. Drizzle pears with syrup. Sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg, and chai mix. Seriously. Try it.

It's definitely Fall. I'm so excited. I'm making pumpkin cheesecake cupcakes tomorrow night. Tonight, I'm trying out these caramel poached pears. OMG. I can't wait. I gotta say one of my favorite things about living in Washington is the fresh and cheap produce. We're also in wine country, so you can get a decent bottle of wine for like 2 or 3 dollars. Because you know.. we're not stuck-up about our wine, so we don't mind the cheap stuff. So guess what we had last night for dessert? Mhmm. Sweet red wine and red raspberries. I also decided I needed to make some caramel apples. I had been craving one since we saw some amazing-looking ones at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory downtown Seattle. But alas, they were all over $7 and I just couldn't spend that much on one apple, no matter how beautiful they looked. I ate the rainbow sprinkled one first. And then I ate the chocolate sprinkled one. I have no regrets. The chocolate one was James's. He's a...

At Ranger Graduation, they had a whole tent set up with souvenirs. With everything you could have possibly wanted with the word "Ranger" on it. They even had a "Proud Ranger Wife" shirt. But here's my problem with it.. it had Rhinestones. Ew. Not my thing. In fact, I think a lot of Army wife apparel in general ends up looking pretty tacky. But I won't go into that right now. I already knew what I wanted before I even drove down to Georgia. A Ranger charm for my necklace and a pair of "Ranger panties" (and no, it's actually not what you think). Okay.. the charm is pretty straightfoward, you say. But Ranger Panties? These are Ranger Panties: Not what you were expecting, eh? Btw I apologize for the extremely dorky picture. "Ranger Panties" are what the army calls the Ranger PT short shorts. Because guys tend to have a hard time wearing short shorts unless they are cross country runners these days. Yes, these are actual PT uniform...

I've been addicted to strawberries lately. This summer, it's been rare to not find them in my fridge. I made this strawberry-mango salsa (absolutely delish) and I got to thinking.. hm.. sometimes you can substitute strawberry for tomato and get away with it. Why not in caprese salad? Then I did some googling and discovered that my idea was actually not unqiue at all. But this is my own version of strawberry caprese. :) Strawberry Caprese Salad Sliced Strawberries Sliced fresh, moist mozzarella cheese Fresh basil leaves drizzle with Raspberry Balsamic Vinaigrette (I found mine at the grocery store, but there are plenty of recipes out there to make it on your own) That's it. I didn't add olive oil or salt and pepper, but that would certainly give you a more traditional caprese taste. I wanted it to be more about the strawberries. Because really.. anything tomatoes can do, strawberries can do better. :) Enjoy!

I just ran about 4 miles.. which doesn't seem like much but it was a hill workout and about 100 degrees outside. I just sweated a lot. And ate a pretty salty dinner. I thought I'd share my post-workout shake that I've been having lately with my obsession of strawberries. I know what you're thinking. It doesn't look like there is any chocolate in there. Trust me, there is. But the trick is that it's very subtle. That's why it's a "Strawberry Chocolate" shake and not a "Chocolate Strawberry" shake. Just sayin'. If you need more chocolate, go ahead and add it. This is my version though. Strawberry Chocolate Post-Workout Milkshake 1 1/2 fresh strawberries 1/2 cup of milk (this doesn't seem like a lot, but the strawberries make a lot of juice) 2 or 3 ice cubes 1 scoop of chocolate protein powder (I use whey protein* from Kroger, one of the main ingredients is cocoa powder) Blend. Garnish with mint leaf and strawberry. Serves 1. And...

Yesterday I got to talk to my hubby for the first time in 3 weeks- with the exception of a couple letters. We got to talk on video chat for a while and it was great to see him and hear his voice. He just passed Phase 1 of Ranger School* and is on to Phase 2 today. Another 3 weeks til I will hear his voice. Whew. Here we go. I also randomly got this luna bar in the mail, apparently from doing the Naperville SheROX Triahlon a month ago. Kind of a nice surprise. :) There are perks to doing cool races like that. I decided to celebrate my hubby passing Phase 1, and made myself this 1-minute Peanut Butter Cake and a pretty drink. It was pretty good, but if I made it again, I think it would have to have more chocolate. I enjoyed this while watching an old Harrison Ford film. This morning, I'm off to the bike store to start looking at some cycling shoes! *If you don't know much about Ranger School, check out this awesome documentary on the Discovery Channel.