Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Love/Hate Relationship

Last Saturday was THE day. THE day that I have been training for since January. The KD Shamrock 5K was here and ready to be completed. My sweet trainer was gracious enough to stay with me the entire race. I was determined to try my best whether I walked some during the race. I had only ran the full 3.2 miles one time beforehand and I walked some of it. So I was SUPER nervous. My goal was 45 minutes. Here are some pics.....

Before:

Ladies ready to run!


Ready to run our 1st 5k!

After:

My AMAZING trainer/friend that stayed with me the entire time! We did it! :)

And my time was..........

38.55 minutes! Hooray!

When I was finished I said....."I never want to run again. " Now I am re-thinking the whole thing. This helped change my mind....

http://espnwwos.disney.go.com/events/rundisney/princess-half-marathon/

I mean what girl wouldn't want to run a princess half-marathon! PS you even can get minnie ears! How stinking awesome is that. Oh and I would totally run it in a tutu....well maybe! :)

Monday, March 14, 2011

A few of my favorite things in Spring

A few of my favorite things in Spring:

1. Sandals -just arrived....some precious gold ones!
http://g.nordstromimage.com/imagegallery/store/product/Gigantic/18/_6263838.jpg

2. Girl Scout cookies- Samaos are my fav.
http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2010-02-24-2009_04_02Samoa.jpg

3. running outside- training for a 5k this weekend (wish me luck)

4. flowers blooming everywhere -especially the tulips on Tech's campus

5. spring colors- orange is my new fav

6. homemade smoothies- mango/pineapple is currently my fav

Have a great week! :)

Monday, March 7, 2011

Shrimp Fried Rice and Peanut Buter Cup Cookies

Shrimp Fried Rice Recipe

Make sure to use leftover, day old rice when making fried rice. Freshly made rice will make a fried rice that's mushy.

INGREDIENTS
8 ounces small raw shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons cooking oil, divided
3 eggs, beaten
2 stalks green onion, minced
4 cups leftover rice, grains separated well
3/4 cup frozen peas and carrots, defrosted
1 tablespoon soy sauce (use gluten-free soy sauce if you are making a gluten-free version)
1 teaspoon sesame oil

METHOD
1 In a bowl, toss the shrimp with the salt, pepper and cornstarch. Let marinate for 10 minutes at room temperature. Heat a wok or large sauté pan on high heat. When the pan is hot enough for a bead of water to instantly sizzle and evaporate, add just 1 tablespoon of the cooking oil and swirl to coat pan.

2 Add the shrimp, quickly spreading out around the cooking surface area so that they are not overlapping. Let fry, untouched for 30 seconds. Flip over and let the other side fry for 30 seconds, or until about 80% cooked through. Remove the shrimp from the pan onto a plate, leaving as much oil in the pan as possible.

3 Turn the heat to medium, let the pan heat up again. Add the eggs, stirring in a quick motion to break up and scramble the eggs. When the eggs are almost cooked through (they should still be slightly runny in the middle), dish out of the pan into the same plate as the cooked shrimp.

4 Use paper towels to wipe the same wok or sauté pan clean and return to high heat with the remaining 1 tablespoon of cooking oil, swirling to coat. When the oil is very hot, add the green onions and fry until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add in the rice and stir well to mix in the green onions throughout. Spread the rice all around the wok surface area and let the rice heat up, untouched until you hear the bottoms of the grains sizzle, about 1-2 minutes. Use the spatula to toss the rice, again spreading the rice out over the surface of wok.

5 Drizzle the soy sauce all around the rice and toss. Add the peas and carrots, the cooked eggs, shrimp and sesame oil, tossing to mix the rice evenly with all of the ingredients. Let everything heat back up again, until the rice grains are so hot they practically dance! Taste and add an additional 1 teaspoon of soy sauce if needed.

Serves 4. Recipe from simplyrecipes.com

I have never made fried rice before and it turned out pretty great. I added more soy sauce and didn't use sesame oil.



Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Prep Time: 25 Minutes
Cook Time: 10 Minutes

Servings: 40 (1 cookie each)

INGREDIENTS:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
40 miniature chocolate covered
peanut butter cups, unwrapped

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
2. Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk. Add the flour mixture; mix well. Shape into 40 balls and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
3. Bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball. Cool and carefully remove from pan.

I ended up using a cookie sheet instead of a mini muffin pan. They still turned out great. They are pretty rich too so be careful how big you make them.

Recipe from allrecipes.com