Day 301: 1 new Peanut Butter, 1 new Recipe, Book Review and Walking in Wet Shorts

I was behind this car the other morning... I hope it was just a prank.. like if you were really mourning Michael surely you'd make something more official than a pen-written message on notebook paper, right?

Tuesday ended up being fairly productive! Shock! I got in the other 3 miles so I rounded out the day at 6.5 miles again (yes – got my 19.5 in 3 days to get in 100 for June – woo!). I headed straight home after and settled plans for Thursday – staying at Mon and Andy’s in midtown to drink it up. Those lovelies even include Reuben to stay over – sweet! Then I got home and quickly whipped up my usual fried rice recipe, but this time I added in some leftover shrimp, 2 tsp of olive oil and mushrooms. To die for. SUPER flavorful and fabulous. We ate our yummy fried rice while catching up on Weeds (OMG Nancy is a NUT – love it) and True Blood (seriously loving the infusion of more comedic relief; Eric is becoming my favorite, Sookie is starting to annoy me and Jason cracks me UP!). After the show our old asses headed to bed at 9 for a couple of How I Met Your Mother’s, then Austin went off for a video game session at 9 and I read some more of Karin Slaughter’s Indelible and realized I never posted my review of her last book, A Faint Cold Fear.

Dinner - yum!

So here’s the thing – these books are a series. A Faint Cold Fear is #3. I figured (i.e. hoped and prayed) it was one of those series where it’s the same characters but it doesn’t really carry stories over from book to book. You know, like Law & Order is for the most part. I was wrong…. So the whole book I’m kicking myself knowing I’m ruining the 2 books that came before it . Oh well. Then I found myself extremely annoyed at one character (like really, make MORE stupid decisions). But then I was totally blown away by the result – who did it –and by the big result at the very end – OMG. So… all in all I’d recommend it, but I hope that you, unlike me, read #1 and #2 first. I’m still going to read them, but worry they’ll be tainted for me.

Now I’m on Indelible and it’s AWESOME! I’m about 200 pages in and plan to finish it tomorrow. LOVE IT. Great treadmill read (unlike Holly’s Inbox that is SUPER cute but very hard to read on a treadmill – paperback AND easy read/too much page turning). Anyway, enough book chat! I finished up the day at 1,819 calories, 232 carbs, 54 fat grams and 90 grams of protein – here’s what I ate.

Wednesday is going great so far! Had a 4-hour morning meeting, walked 3.5 at lunch, had WAY too many snacks in the afternoon then headed home for a yummy new recipe I threw together based on ingredients I had on hand – super simple pasta – Penne with Chicken in Tomato Sauce. Here’s the recipe for 2!

8 oz. chicken, raw, diced

4 oz. penne, cooked for 11 minutes.

1 cup Trader Joe’s organic mushroom sauce

1 oz. Trader Joe’s fat-free feta cheese

2 tsp reduced fat parmesan

4 leaves basil, chopped

½ cup mushrooms, diced

1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered

2 tsp olive oil, divided

1 tsp minced garlic

Set pot of water to boil and set a large pan over medium heat sprayed with fat-free cooking spray. Once water is boiling cook pasta for 11 minutes; once pan is hot, add 1 tsp olive oil, then garlic and mushrooms. Cook for 2 minutes stirring, then add tomatoes, sprinkle with salt and cook for 2 more minutes. Then add chicken, 1 tsp olive oil and ½ cup sauce. Stir for 4 minutes and once the chicken is done, add parmesan. Stir for 2 minutes, then add cooked pasta, other ½ cup sauce and basil. Stir for a couple of minutes. Divide into two servings and top each serving with 15 oz. feta cheese. Serve hot. It was fab!

A couple of other things: I tried a new product – Better n’ Peanut Butter – um – YUM! I didn’t have a breakfast ready so I just got a piece of bread and measure 1 tbsp on it and folded it in half, then grabbed a fruit cup – FAB! Have you tried this peanut butter? Are there any other low-calorie peanut butters I should know about? Also – when I got to the gym my clothes were wet…. My water bottle from my last workout had been left in my bag, full, and soaked my clothes. Grrrr. The gym had blowdryers so I got them dry enough but it kinda sucks. K - Now I’m logging off to watch SYTYCD! My mom and sister are on their way over – woo!!! Watching it in different places just isn’t the same at ALL!