Surprise Revealed!

Hello friends….Happy Friday!

I’m going to make this a brief post because I have to get up early in the morning for a run before the heat + humidity strikes.

So….remember the “exciting news” that I mentioned yesterday? Well, I can officially give you all the details!

Way back in the beginning of July, I saw a tweet on my twitter feed calling for first-time marathoners to check out this post at Melinda Hinson Neely’s blog. In a nutshell, the post described how Melinda is in the process of writing a book about running marathons and would like to chronicle the journeys (i.e. the ups and the downs, the struggles, the triumphs, time constraints, injuries, nutrition choices, etc.) of several first-time marathoners in her book and on her blog. In addition to being featured in the book, the runners chosen for the book project would receive coaching and advice from Melinda during their training. Seemed like a pretty good deal to me! Oh a whim, I sent in my story and motivations for running the marathon, but didn’t think I’d actually get chosen.

Well, yesterday Melinda notified me that I was selected to be featured in the book and on her blog! In addition to my story, there will be four or five others runners whose journeys will also be detailed in the book n’ blog. I can’t even tell you guys how excited I am about this! What a cool way to be able to remember my first marathon!

I’ll give you more details as they arise, but just know that I’m seriously pumped!

The eats today weren’t particularly exciting, but I’ll show you them anyway.

For lunch, I had some oatmeal dolled up savory-style.

The key to good savory oats is a heaping tbsp of nutritional yeast. It gives them the best cheesy flavor for a fraction of the calories (plus lots of protein + vitamin B complex).

My lovely oats contained:

• 1/3 cup Coach’s Oats
• 1/2 cup soy milk, 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp chili powder

I cooked the oats for about 10 minutes on the stovetop and then topped them with a crumbled black bean burger and the last of my guacamole/tomatillo concoction. ‘Twas delicious.

For dindin, I tried out kale chips again in the hopes that I might somehow develop a taste for kale. I lovingly sprayed them with cooking spray, seasoned with salt + pepper, and baked in the oven for about 20 minutes at 350. They emerged looking crisp and promising.

But I stil don’t like them. I don’t care what other bloggers might say, potato chips these ain’t.

To accompany the vegetable action, I had some sweet potato fries (which didn’t crisp up like I hoped they would…sigh….) and an organic andouille chicken sausage. I had a healthy helping of ketchup on the side for dipping purposes. Lord knows you can’t go wrong with ketchup (right, Kathleen?)!

Mmmm….ketchup. I think I enjoyed the ketchup more than the kale chips.

In fact next time, I think I’ll just skip the kale chips altogether and just have ketchup. Might as well be honest with myself and roll with my condiment cravings.

Night folks!