Bringing it home today thanks to this tunage right herr. Enjoy and Happy Friday!

Welp...research on elliptical marathon has taken a backseat to several far more important things life this week. It has been full of the usual- work, working out, cooking, and spray tans. (duh.) We celebrated my dad's birthday on Sunday by heading out to the ranch, henceforth to be known as Skyview. It was pouring down rain, so mostly my sister and I spent our time at the ranch sliding around in the mud in a four-wheeler and watching my dad spread sodium bentonite in our pond. Welcome to Texas, yall! (We're new to this whole "ranch" thing.) We celebrated again on Wednesday at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Desperado's. I've been a regular at this place since I was about 8 years old and it has only gotten better with age. Go check out their Pollo Santa Rosa- you will not be disappointed.

Speaking of food...and not being disappointed..and...me needing to work on my segues...I made these stuffed bell peppers last night and they were so great! I may be late on this, but I found the Skinnytaste blog this week and so far have six recipes that I am dying to make from her site. Everything is made healthy and wholesome- no subbing "light" this or "fake" that. Recipe is below. I served it with a baby mixed greens/cherry tomato/chopped avocado salad with croutons and a strawberry vinaigrette. You'll also see that I topped each bell pepper with a small amount of sour cream and cilantro to garnish. ::pats self on back::

Turkey Stuffed Peppers
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 6 servings (1/2 pepper) • Time: 55 minutes • Old Points: 4 • Points+: 5
Calories: 184.7 • Fat: 2.3 g • Protein: 20.8 g • Carb: 20.2 g • Fiber: 1.6 g  

• 1 lb lean chopped turkey meat
• 1 garlic, minced
• 1/4 onion, minced
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro or parsley
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• salt to taste
• 3 large sweet red bell peppers, washed
• 1 cup fat free chicken broth
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 cups cooked rice
• Olive oil spray
• 1/4 cup reduced fat shredded cheese
  

Heat oven to 400°. Spray a little olive oil spray in a medium size saute pan and heat on a medium flame. Add onion, garlic and cilantro to the pan. Saute about 2 minutes and add ground turkey. Season with salt and garlic powder, and cumin and brown meat for several minutes until meat is completely cooked through. Add 1/4 cup of tomato sauce and 1/2 cup of chicken broth, mix well and simmer on low for about 5 minutes. Combine cooked rice and meat together.

Cut the bell peppers in half lengthwise, and remove all seeds. Place in a baking dish. Spoon the meat mixture into each pepper half and fill it with as much as you can. Place all stuffed pepper halves on the baking dish and pour the remainder of the chicken broth on the bottom of the pan. Cover tight with aluminum foil and bake for about 35 minutes. Top with shredded cheddar cheese and enjoy.



Time to gear up for a(nother) great weekend in Austin...I'm heading down after work. Can't wait!

when i say i'm starting from the beginning, i'm not kidding. i have no idea what i'm doing at this point. the idea of running an elliptical marathon has been with me for probably about a month now, but this morning i decided it was time to get going. is this a decision that i made following an evening with one too many sake bombs? yes. does it matter? i don't know, and thinking about it too hard only makes my headache worse.

anywhoodle, i did a little preliminary research. the guy that wrote this article has completed an elliptical marathon (EM) and was still alive to write about it, so i'm feeling encouraged. he also listened to classical music and read over 120 pages during the marathon, so he may actually be some kind of superhuman. if i was going to get scientific about it, i'd say i would probably be leaning more towards the "i'm-going-to-watch-the-whole-Titanic-movie" method instead.

he does a great job of pointing out many of the benefits to running an EM. my favorite is that you're less likely to get run over by a car. all too true, sir. point one to EMs. the most major benefit for me is that it is easier on your joints. i have reached the ripe old age of 24 and these old bones aren't what they used to be. not really, but in the interest of honesty the bone structure in my feet has never really supported high-impact sports or running. another point for EMs.

so, one article and some hangover-induced confidence and i'm IN. next up: training schedules.