A Bug's Life on Basil

Jon and I almost got an unintentional increase in protein in tonight's dinner. I was making a simple pesto & linguine for dinner. That meant going out into the backyard to pick some leaves off the basil plant. I was sort of paying attention to the leaves, but mostly I was watching the dog run wild in the yard. I just happened to glance down in time to avoid picking this little creature from our plant and throwing it into the bowl. I'm sure you can see why I didn't notice it.




I wasn't sure what kind of bug this was but Ye Olde Google quickly informed me it's a katydid. All those years I called my sister Katydid as a twist on her given name and I didn't even know what one looked like. Lucky for her (and me), it's a beautiful bug and not the twin of a hissing cockroach or anything.

From what I read, it sounds like katydids are basil hogs. All summer the prettiest basil leaves have had giant holes chewed in them. Now I feel bad for blaming that on the one legged grasshopper who's been hiding in the coleus. Sorry little dude!

Weekly recipe roundup

Frittata with Spinach and Cheese
Last Saturday night we were feeling lazy so we opted for a simple, light dinner. Let me interject here to say Jon was feeling lazy because he'd done a 70 mile bike ride wearing his Crocs since he forgot his cycling shoes, but I was feeling lazy because, well, I'm lazy. Especially when it's 102 degrees outside.

We had a package of baby spinach and an extra dozen eggs in the fridge, so I made the Frittata with Spinach and Cheese out of Batali's Molto Italiano. It's basically the same as his recipe on The Food Network website, except the book calls for two pounds of spinach and eight eggs. I only had a pound and a half of spinach and it was fine. The key to getting this to turn out well is getting as much of the excess water out of the spinach after you blanche it. The book recipe suggests first draining it in a colander, then squeezing it between two plates and then twisting it in a dish towel. It's amazing how much water you can squeeze out of spinach. Anyway, it was deee-lish. And at 220 calories for 1/6 of the recipe, it's hard to argue with.

Yogurt Fruit Dip
I was craving something sweet but I'm trying very hard to steer clear of baked goods and ice cream for a while. To satiate the craving, I made yogurt fruit dip. So good, so easy. There are as many ways to make this dip as there are kinds of fruit to eat with it, but I made a version that includes some of my favorite flavors.

1/3 cup of Greek yogurt (I use Fage 0%)
1 tbsp of ginger syrup (see below)
dash of vanilla extract
pinch of cinnamon

Mix everything in an adorably small bowl and mix it all together. Serve with fresh fruit. I like nectarines, strawberries, and pineapple best, but any kind will do.

Ginger Syrup
Jon loves fancy, obscure ginger ales so we are often trying different ways to make ginger flavored beverages at home. We came across a recipe on Whole Foods' website that was just ginger syrup mixed into a glass of carbonated water. It wasn't bad, but I've found that the ginger syrup has even better uses. I especially like to put it in smoothies, pour it over yogurt, or add it to iced tea.

2 cups raw cane sugar
2 cups water
2 tbsp (or more) of chopped fresh ginger root

Put everything in a sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool and then strain it. Keeps in the fridge for about a week. 45 calories per tbsp.

Succulents

I got a cool new macro lens for my birthday a couple weeks ago. (Thanks again Mom and Dad!) Unfortunately I know very little about my fancy camera, though I really am determined to learn. For now, any pictures that turn out nicely are more luck than skill.

Yesterday I stepped out into the 106 degree heat to practice with the lens in the front yard. Most everything looked pretty tired in the dry, oppressive heat, but my succulents were happier than ever.

Here are some of my favorite (lucky) shots.











The next one's obviously not a plant. For some reason there's a tiny drawing on the side of our house. It makes me happy everytime I see it and when the day comes to paint the house I will be sad to see it go.

iPhone Fitness Apps

As someone who likes to journal and track everything, iPhone apps for fitness and nutrition are totally up my alley. What follows are some of my favorites. I have an iPhone 3GS and all work just fine, if you were wondering.

If you have a health, diet or fitness app that you love, please leave a comment about it. I'm always looking for more tools to use in the pursuit of healthier living.

All screen caps are from the iTunes website, so none of the weights, foods, etc. are actually my entries.

LOSE IT!
Lose It! is the one I use most. It's a versatile, well-made app and it's free (so far). The food log is really similar to Calorie Counter's, but I like the interface of this one even better. You can also add recipes, track your exercise, track your weight, set goals and keep up with friends' progress. The friends feature is one I've been paying more attention to recently. It's starting to motivate me a bit because now I know people will know if I've lost weight or if I've gone over budget on my calorie consumption. Even at 32, peer pressure is effective!




BANG BANG
This app is based on the Steve Ward diet. This approach to weight loss is so simple that it's easily tracked on a single sheet of graph paper. Since I didn't have any graph paper in the house, I found this app for $1.99 and bought it.

The basic idea here is that you plot your starting weight and date, plot a goal weight and date and draw a line between the two points. Each day plot your weight. If the point is above the line, you need to eat as light as possible. If it's on or below, you can relax a bit. While I do track my weight with Lose It!, I like the graph on this one better. And since I vary my calorie intake between 1200 and 1600, this app helps me decide if I want to aim low or high each day. If it says "eat light," I aim for 1200. "Eat normal" means I can edge closer to my max. I find that on the "eat light" days I do a better job of avoiding calories from beverages and add-ons like butter or mayo.




NIKE TRAINING CLUB
This one is targeted at women, which is silly since these exercises are great for anyone. This app is intended to fill the role of a personal trainer. Since this app is free and personal trainers are hundreds of dollars, I'm trying this app first.

I like that you can set up different exercise programs, some of which are targeted to specific sports like running or soccer while others are more general strength training programs. Especially handy is that you can skew each workout to core, strength or cardio depending on your preference. I get plenty of cardio on the elliptical machine and strength on the weight machines, but find I avoid ab work, so I skew these workouts to core.

Once you set up a program, you have 10 or so exercises to complete. You work through them one at a time, first watching a 30 second how-to video and then completing the exercise in the alloted time. The exercises are great. By great I mean they make tears well up in your eyes, sweat bead on your brow and cuss words pour from your mouth.

I really like this app except for two gripes. One is that some require specific equipment like medicine balls but you don't know it until you watch the how-to video. The other is that you can't work out alongside the videos which means, if you have a terrible memory like me, that you'll find yourself halfway through the workout time forgetting what the other move was. Small complaints though since this app is free.




COUCH TO 5K by Felt Tip Inc.
(There are other Couch to 5K apps, but I'm not familiar with them.)
I've never been a runner. And by never, I mean not even when we were supposed to run the mile during fitness testing in school. I could run in short bursts, like during a relay race during field day, or in a game of tag in the neighborhood. But if I had to sustain a run for more than 3 minutes, I was done for. I'd get a stitch in my side and then walk the rest of the way around the field bent over at the waist. I never thought of myself as unfit, though in retrospect that can't be normal.

As an adult I sometimes think I'd like to be able to run more than half a block without hoping a tree falls on me and puts me out of my misery. Enter the Couch to 5K program. This program
is designed to get a predominantly sedentary person (which I am striving NOT to be anymore) and get them to the point that they can run a 5K. It alternated walking and running at intervals, gradually increasing the running and decreasing the walking.

I actually started this program a few of years ago and was doing well until I developed a case of bronchitis that hung on tight for about a month. By then my motivation had moved onto other things, like eating pastries and watching the entire Gilmore Girls series for the eighth time. Did I mention that was a few years ago? Oops. Well with my redeveloping healthy attitude comes a renewed desire to be able to run a little here and there.

This program can easily be accessed and followed for free, but I ponied up $2.99 to purchase the iPhone app. My problem when I was following Couch to 5K off of a form I'd printed out and taped to the fridge was that I found myself staring at my watch as I ran. Nothing is as demotivating to keep one's legs movings as the way a second can stretch out during a workout. Two minutes felt like two hours. This app lets you play music as you run, with a voice interjecting from time to time to tell you to walk or jog. I find my fortitude improves when I don't have a clock to stare at. It's the same principle as throwing your gym towel over the clock on the elliptical machine.

I will admit I haven't used this app yet, but I think this might be the week. I'll probably start on the treadmill at the gym since it's supposed to be over 100 degrees for at least a week. But once temps dip below 80 again in the evenings, I'll probably give this a go outside.




PRANAYAMA
This one isn't about food or exercise, but about breathing. As someone who has both asthma and occasional bouts of anxiety, I've been reading into ways that improving one's breathing technique alleviates some asthma and anxiety symptoms. It turns out that I'm in the bad habit of breathing with my stomach sucked in, puffing my rib cage in and out. That's really bad for your cardiovascular system.

At $4.99, this is the second most expensive app I've ever bought. (The NBA one is my priciest purchase if you're wondering.) Luckily, all four hundred and ninety nine cents have been worth it. I've noticed that my endurance during cardio exercise increases if I practice Pranayama just beforehand. I've also been using it when I feel stressed or freaked out and it totally calms me down. An unintended but welcome side effect has also been improved posture. My increased focus on breathing correctly has led me to sit and stand up straight. It's hard to really use your diaphragm fully when you're slumped over. Standing up straight makes you look thinner - there's another perk!

33 before 33

I've noticed a lot of people have been making lists of things to get done before their next birthday rolls around. Seeing as I lack in the goal-oriented behavior department, and I *just* had a birthday, I thought I should give this a try. Really, I'm not goal-oriented at all. I tend to fantasize about finishing projects, but when it comes to actually taking action or sticking it out when obstacles arise, I bail. Yes, I realize saying I'm not goal-oriented is just a fancy way of saying I'm lazy. I'm okay with that.

Anyway, I made a list. In fact, I got so caught up in making the list, that I actually made a 35 before 33 list. "35 before 33" doesn't have the right ring to it though so I'm going to aim for 33 and just let the other two fall by the wayside. Why go the extra mile (or two)?

I'm not sharing the whole list here for two reasons. One, it would be boring for you to read, unless you like lists about rearranging cabinets and scraping the crud from the floor under the fridge. If you do like reading lists like that, I'm more sad for you than I am for the goo under the refrigerator. The other reason I'm not sharing the entire list is that in the event I don't finish the list (hello, I'm not goal-oriented) I don't want you to know just how lazy I am. I might get around to washing my hairbrush or labeling my magazine bins (all 5 of them!), but there's a good chance I'll never bake a loaf of bread from scratch. I mean, it has to sit there for hours. HOURS! In that time I'll have gotten bored, gone to a movie, spent a small fortune at Target and then arrived home to find that I no longer want bread and am okay with tossing the whole thing in the trash. I told you I was lazy, er, I mean, not goal-oriented.

I promise I will try. And when I do cross something off the list, I will post about it here. Bet you can't wait for me to tackle the kitchen floor, huh?

Backyard Improvements - Part 2

We've made good progress since I first posted about our backyard. As Mister, I, and my mom have all said at various points, we're ready for the fun part. Yep, the landscapers have been sent home with the second largest personal check I've ever written. They leave in their sweaty, muddy wake two decks and a decomposed granite patio.

We still have a lot of work to do in terms of landscaping, but that is the aforementioned fun part. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that my bank account might be a bit of a party pooper. I wonder if our neighbors would notice me digging up their plants in the middle of the night. (Just kidding neighbors. If your plants go missing overnight, it wasn't me.)

We also have to stain the decks (probably a rich, deep brown), but that can't be done until September. The wood has to spend a month drying out in the August heat. This is where living in Dallas comes in handy. This forecast should help that happen quite nicely:



Here's the backyard as it currently looks.

That's new sod under the old hammock. We'll probably put in a flowerbed and a fig tree where that dark brown dirt is next to the patio. The metal chairs are rusted to the point that they're unsafe to sit in, but I don't have the heart to throw them out. Any interesting repurposing ideas are welcome. And no, those rocks aren't going to stay like that. You can also see the progress on the house next door. It's going to be beautiful!




We got these adirondack chairs & ottomans from World Market on sale! They only had two of the green ottomans left so it was meant to be.


Jon made this awesome wooden doormat to help knock the granite off your feet before you go inside. We'll stain it to match the deck.


This is the view from the laundry/mud room window. Eventually we'll put a door here instead so that you don't have to go through the bicycle garage (yes, we have multiple garages) to get to the backyard.

Weekly recipe roundup

In the interest of our health and various other things, Mister and I have been trying to eat better this summer. That means we've had to get our butts in the kitchen to make our own food instead of answering the front door and tipping the delivery person for bringing the Thai food to us. For the most part these meals aren't worth writing about, but there were a couple that stood out this week. Thank you Internet gods for throwing these into our path.

First, we have the Asian Turkey Burger with Sriracha Mayo, or as the author so truthfully and eloquently put it, A Turkey Burger That Doesn't Suck. We made this one with a leaner ground turkey and regular ol' bread crumbs instead of Panko, but it was still totally nom-worthy.

Our other standout of the week was this Broccoli-Bacon Salad. Yeah I know, this has bacon and we're trying to be healthy, but three slices spread over several plates is not that bad. It occurred to me after we made this that we could have used Fage 0% Greek yogurt for additional calorie savings, but we didn't. This was delicious exactly as is, and a serving or two is plenty filling for a meal.