Out of Nothing at All....

I've never claimed to be the best blogger in the world, hence the week I apparently took off. Trust me it was completely un-intentional. I have so many ideas rolling around in my crazy little brain to blog about. However, this morning you are getting none of those "good" ideas. Nope, I have decided to give you a re-cap of what I've been up to this week, because I know you are very, very interested. (OK, just go with it...)

First of all, I want to show you guys what I am so proud of....


I made scones!! These are "Vanilla Bean Mini Scones" from Sarah over at Peas and Thank You! They were so easy and so good! My two youngest helped and they ate 2 a piece as soon as they were cool! I have been a little afraid of baking in the past, but recently I have done more and more and have discovered its not as hard as it looks!

All day yesterday I was craving enchiladas big time! (Mexican food seems to be a staple in my diet) My friend Jana makes the best enchiladas and I've made her recipe many times, but didn't have all the ingredients on hand and was in no mood to go to the store! After standing in front of the pantry and fridge for what seemed like forever, I discovered the leftover Black Bean Soup that I froze a couple of days ago. As I thought of the ingredients, I realized they very closely mirrored the ingredients of the filling for Jana's enchiladas! That's when complete and total genius hit. (OK, maybe it was hunger) I thawed the soup, rinsed it in a colander, and threw it into the food processor,

Then I added one tablespoon plus one teaspoon of tomato paste.

Here's a quick little tip on tomato paste. Buy it in the tube form, if you can find it. Many recipes call for just a little and then you are stuck with over half a can and have nothing else to use it for. With the tube, you can measure out just what you need and then stick the rest in the fridge!

After adding the paste, I gave it a little whirl and came out with this:

Perfection!

Next up was the enchilada sauce. I know you can buy a can or jar of enchilada sauce that is very good. However, homemade is delicious, you know what is in it, and it is so very easy!

Easy Enchilada Sauce (makes 2.5 cups)
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 onion, minced fine
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tablespoons chili powder
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons sugar
2 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce
1/2 c. water
pepper

Heat oil, add onion and salt and cook until onion is soft. Stir in next 4 ingredients, and cook for about 30 seconds. Stir in tomato sauce and water, simmer until thickened, around 5 minutes. Season with pepper to taste.

Easy, quick! I didn't have tomato sauce on hand so I subbed a can of diced tomatoes that I pureed in the food processor and omitted the water. A can of crushed tomatoes can be subbed as well, just be sure to leave out the water.

Here is the finished product!

Just so you know, your Hubby and kids may run into the kitchen while this is cooking because the smell will draw them in, neighbors may knock on the door and beg for a sample. It smells that good!

While the sauce was simmering, I took the pureed soup and spread it on tortillas, rolled them up and placed them seam side down in a baking dish I had coated with cooking spray. Then I spread a little sauce on top.

I topped them with shredded cheddar cheese (although you don't have to, but I was thinking I needed some extra protein in my diet, haha), placed them in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes and they came out looking like this:

I can't tell you how good and easy these are and everyone in my family loves them! I only made 3 because Big Sister is at church camp (but will be home today, good thing because I miss her!) and The Golden Boy had a client dinner.
I was hankering for something sweet after I did a full on kung-fu punch on my enchilada.

Enter two cut up peaches, strawberries and Rainier cherries! I love cherry season! My favorite is the Bing, but I like the Rainier as well. Our local farm stand also had peaches and the smell was amazing and drew me in! They were so good and juicy!

This little guy thought so too and requested a bowl just like mine!


Just in case you were wondering (and you are probably not) here is my work-out re-cap for the week:

Saturday: 16 mile long run with Jennifer
Sunday: Off day that was needed ,fo sho!
Monday: 3 mile easy run (9 minute pace)
Tuesday: 30 minutes on the elliptical and lower body strength workout
Wednesday: 9 mile run
Thursday: 1 hour on the spin bike, 2 mi run at 8:24 pace
Today: Upper body workout only (a good friend that runs marathons (hello 3:20!) says that she does absolutely nothing on her lower body the day before a long run, so I'm taking that advice!)

Tomorrow is our long run and I'm doing 18 (yikes)! Hopefully I won't be in the hospital or dead and can come back here and let you know how it went!

Have a wonderful weekend! Remember, Sunday is the Lord's Day, so do yourself a favor and find a place of worship and fellowship with His own!

~Carie

Everybody's Working for the Weekend....

Today started out as a little of a let down. We woke up to this:


This is the view out my back door, and as you see, its raining. Not only did it rain last night, but the wet stuff decided to settle in a stay for a while. Like until 3pm! Jennifer and I had big plans to take the kiddos to the pool today (Friday is her day off work)so that we could layout and have a gab session (and eat ruebens and swedish fish!). I was a little bummed and so were my children at first, but they made the most of a free day at home and did some of this:

"Just Dance 2" Cardio and fun? Yes, please. After dancing with them for a bit (little brother joined the group as well, but he's not into dancing like the girls :), I decided to get productive! I started the laundry and set about prepping some food for the weekend.

I pulled out some veg and prepped them so I could make this:

Jana's Most Delicious Salsa!
Then I made some of this:

Mama Peas White Bean Guacamole! Its a favorite at our house!
Then, it was lunch time, so I made these:

Pineapple Chicken Quesidillas! I found the recipe over at Hungry Mom on the Run and have been drooling over them ever since!

Here's the finished product! They were excellent!
Next, I decided that supper needed to be tended to, so I started this:

This is a picture of the second step. The first was just a bunch of black beans floating in water in a black crockpot. Somehow, the picture turned out a little boring..... haha! After a couple of hours bubbling away, this is the result:
Vegatarian Black Bean Soup! Oh my yall! This was so good! I am so glad we have a crockpot full to eat the rest of the weekend. I even added a dollop of White Bean Guacamole, HIT. THE. SPOT.! I have been searching for a good black bean soup recipe ever since Jennifer and I had a Cuban version at a local sandwich shop. This is the best I have come up with and it definately made the cut!

We also have a guest tonight,

This is Jennifer's youngest with Big Sister and Little Sister. Big Sister and R are Besties, just like their moms!

Workout Re-cap:
Wednesday - 35 minutes total body strength training
Thursday - 6.5mi run
Friday - 45 minute upper body strength training (I try not to workout my lower body at all on Fridays since I do long runs on Saturdays!)

Tomorrow Jennifer and I have our long run! I'm excited, we've not been able to run together in some time! Yay!

Since I've worked hard to prep for the weekend I think I deserve a little of this,


And look, the sun has come to say hello!

Happy Friday! ~Carie

how did i miss it?...

As anyone who is a runner knows, Wednesday was National Running Day. Well, I missed it. I mean I read it on everyone else's blog but never wrote about it. Maybe it was because I enjoyed reading everyone else's blog so much instead.

After coming back from a serious injury (I plan on writing a 3 part series on my journey through that...yes, I said 3 parts...it was serious stuff) I am so blessed to be able to run again. I pray for God to give me endurance before each run and to protect my hip/groin area (that's what was injured) and afterwards, no matter how good or bad my run was, I thank God for blessing me with the ablility to run again.

So, on a delayed post for National Running Day, I want to say "Thank You" to the Lord for blessing me with the ability to run, to Carie for getting me started running in the first place, and to my family for listening to me talk about my pace, how I felt during mile 11, what time I was going to get up in the morning, planning my food around the family's to get my carbs in the night before a long run, and all the other crazy things we runners do.

I am blessed to call myself a runner!

Have a great Saturday! I got my long run in and now I'm headed to the pool with the kids to meet Carie for some serious pool-time ;-)

Jennifer