Monthly Archives: September 2012
Pool Circuit Workout
Last night, I pulled out my swim suit and headed to the aquatic center for my first “workout” back at school. The indoor pool’s “Free Swim” hours started at 7pm, and it had been cold, gray, and rainy all day. I was so excited about going swimming all day, until 7pm rolled around when the sun had set, the wind kicked up and it started to drizzle. By then, the idea of shedding my comfy sweatshirt and jumping into the water had lost its glamour.
But I had my mind set on getting in a decent workout, and planned the following circuit:
The cool thing about circuits is you can go at your own pace. And in my case, I took it pretty leisure. But I can report that my arms are indeed feeling a little sore and I LOVE IT! Haven’t felt soreness in weeks, and call me a freak but it feels good : )
Now, I was expecting the pool to be pretty empty, considering it was rainy and cold, and a school night. I was wrong, and I’m pretty sure I made a fool of myself. First of all, swimming is NOT my strong suit. In a triathlon, I’d be at a complete disadvantage from
the start because I don’t like to get water in my eyes and I can hold my breath for approximately 4.2 seconds. But aside from my lack of technique, I was the only one to come in a hot pink bikini. My fellow night-swimmers were clad in Speedo one-pieces with professional-looking swim caps/nose clips/goggles. They looked like they were going to the Olympics, while I looked like I was going to the beach.
Also – is there such thing as lane etiquette? I’m pretty sure I need a lesson… Badly. I started out in my own lane, but as the pool filled up, two guy swimmers asked to share the lane. I had just assumed that pool lanes were treated like driving – always stay on the right side. So when I reached one end of the pool and turned around, I naturally moved to the right side each time. After awkwardly zig-zagging back and forth for several laps, the two guys got out and moved to the next lane. I then noticed that the other swimmers were sticking to one side of their lane. Rookie Mistake!
Swimming was definitely a good way to work the legs and arms without pounding or pressure, and I’m excited to build up some strength in the pool for the next few weeks (while learning my lane etiquette in the process.)
Pin this workout here: 
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Perfecting the Homemade Pizza
Last night I had a failed attempt at making a dorm room dinner-style mini pizza. The cheese didn’t melt, the crust wasn’t right…there was much room for improvement. While I work on perfecting that, I will share an already-exceptional recipe for my family’s homemade pizzas!
If you are a thin-crust person, you will not like this recipe. These are the fluffiest, thickest pizzas I’ve ever had and I just love it! Plus the blend of white and wheat flour makes them so hearty and adds just the right texture.
For the past year, my family has experimented with pizzas, trying every version you can think of: spicy Thai pizza, pesto shrimp pizza, cheeseburger pizza, BBQ chicken pizza. But what we’ve really perfected is the Crust:
It all sort of happened by accident. You see, 1 teaspoon of yeast was mistaken for 1 Tablespoon and while I would normally expect that kind of baking error to result in some sort of catastrophe, that extra 2 teaspoons of yeast created the lightest and fluffiest, best pizza crust we’ve ever had. From then on, we triple the yeast :P
In a bread maker, combine:
10 oz Water
3/4 tsp salt
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 cups white flour
2 cups Whole wheat flour
1 1/2 Tablespoons dry active yeast
Let it work in the bread maker for 90 minutes, then roll out onto a surface sprinkled with cornmeal and top with your favorite toppings. On this pizza, we piled regular pizza sauce with thick-cut black forrest ham, cashews, pineapple chunks, and fresh mozzerella (I LOVE how the mozzerella chunks look). Cook on a pizza stone (or cookie sheet if you do not have a pizza stone) at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, until the crust is golden. And get ready for the softest pizza crust of your life:
In other news… Today, I will be hitting the pool after my classes in my first “workout” since returning to school! So I am one happy camper. It has been 55 days since surgery, nearly two months. While some progress has been made, there’s still a lot of swelling to go down and we are waiting for the fat graft to soften before I can return to normal running. So swimming it is!
If you have a different favorite pizza recipe or topping, please share! I love trying new ingredients. Also, are you a Pinterest addict like me? Follow me on Pinterest and Pin this here: 
Sunday Brunch with a View
Sunday morning seems like the perfect time to whip up a lovely brunch with to enjoy with the view from an outdoor terrace. Luckily my residence hall has a pretty fantasic outdoor balcony with a view of the campus. (It’s amazing how quiet a college campus is at 10am…I think it was just me and the squirrels awake at that hour.)
Last week, I got my very first care package of the year, complete with all sorts of goodies from my mom. Including funky cupcake holders and a cinnamon coffee cake mix! So yesterday, I walked over to Target (pronounced “Tar-jaaaaay ”) and bought myself a cupcake pan. I decided it would be best to make the coffee cake into muffins for A) Portion Control and B) so I could share with some girls in my hall!
Baking anything with cinnamon just smells heavenly, and I waited not-so-patiently for these cute little coffee cake muffins to come out while sipping on some coffee and reading up on Economics for a quiz I get to look forward to tomorrow. ;)
Sliced fruit brought some nutritional balance to the brunch. I sliced up a pretty medley of raspberries, strawberries, and bananas (snacking as I went!)
Bananas, Strawberries, Raspberries, oh my!
With a fresh cup of coffee, this brunch was enjoyed from the second floor terrace in central campus with the peacefulness of a quiet Sunday morning. It was delicious!
Balcony Brunch View – where are all the people!?
And now for an equally serene walk to get my “workout” in before my afternoon plans. Enjoy the day!
