Women's Half Marathon

Today I ran a race.  It was the 5k that was a part of the Nashville Women's Half Marathon.  Unfortunately, I'm not quite ready to run 13.1 miles at one time.  Hopefully sometime soon.

I've run several races, but none as large and as organized as this one.  There were corrals separated by expected finishing time.  The race started on time.  There were organized water stations and bathrooms along the route.  There was several breakfast items for the finishers, including chips (yum!).  They even had my first name on my bib!

It was so great to be part of such a large, energetic crowd.  Jo Dee Messina, a country singer, who lives in Nashville sang the National Anthem before, and even ran the 5k. 

I felt pretty good about my race, especially since my training runs involve tons of endless hills in my neighborhood, which can be very demotivating at times and I hadn't run nearly as much as I would have wanted to.

My official time was 32:59, which placed me 34/94 in my age group and 139/601 overall.

My average time was 10:37/mile.  My GPS tweaked out a bit at the end, so I'm not sure what my 3rd mile split actually was.

While this, by no means, was a PR, I was proud of how I did and my husband definitely was proud of me, as well.  I even got a cool medal to remember the race!

Enchilada Lasagna

I'd like to share a secret recipe that has been in my family for many years.

10 years to be exact. 

During my first year of University waaaaaaay back in 2001, my friend Fiona (hi Fi!) came home with me for spring break and taught my family how to make enchiladas, the real Mexican way. 

Well since then, after a few adaptations due to ingredient unavailability, and general preference, it has kind of morphed into a different dish all together. 

Don't get me wrong, the flavors are all still there, but it looks...slightly, er, different.  More like lasagna.  For some reason, in a country where portion sizes are constantly getting bigger, I was shocked to find out that the corn tortillas have shrunk to nearly half the size they used to be.  So gone are the days of being able to make proper enchiladas.  Of all the things to shrink, why couldn't they have picked something more useful, like making the buttermilk carton the size of a cup, which is the only measurement you'll ever need for a recipe.

Ok, enough about my rant.  Here's the recipe:

Enchilada Lasagna

2-3 chicken breasts
garlic powder
seasoning salt
cayenne pepper
12 corn tortillas
1 - 28oz  can of green enchilada sauce
9 x 9 inch baking dish
2 cups of shredded mexican cheese, or 1 - 8oz package of queso fresco.  Your choice.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1) Season the chicken breasts with garlic powder, seasoning salt, and cayenne pepper (or any other seasonings you want to use) and microwave them (trust me here) for about 5 minutes (depending on the thickness of the meat) until they are mostly cooked.  Cut into small, bite size pieces.

2) In a small pan, warm a tortilla until its soft, about 30 seconds to a minute on each side.  Tongs are an acceptable tool to use here. 

3) Dip the warm tortilla in some of the enchilada sauce (I use another pan) and put it in the baking dish.  Repeat 3 more times.

4) Put half the chicken, and sprinkle 1/3 of the cheese over the tortillas.  Then pour some of the sauce over so the layer is a bit covered, like below:

Take 4 more tortillas and repeat steps 2-4 above.

Take 4 more tortillas, warm them, dip them and put them over the top.  Then pour the remainder of the sauce and sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top.

Pop it in the oven for about 20-30 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly.

And there you have it.  Enchilada Lasagna.  Enjoy!

Lazy Sunday

Have you ever just had a lazy weekend?  Like, really lazy?  Like, you didn't shower or move from the couch except to make something to eat?  Well that's the weekend the husband and I are having.  And we're loving it!  Well, Eric's about to love it more since we're about to watch football.  Yeah.  I could think of a lot more fun things to do than watch football on a Sunday afternoon.  Like plucking my eyebrows.  Or taking out the trash.  Or weeding.

We plan on venturing out today on an exciting field trip: To Wal-Mart to get a binder for organizing all my recipes that I've been printing out and trying.  It's exciting and you can't take that away from me.  Perhaps I'll even make something tasty to show you later.  But only if you're good.

And now I will leave you with this.

Pizza Night

Today is Friday and you all know (or will know) what that means in the Richardson House...PIZZA NIGHT!!!  This is a tradition we started back when we first moved in together as a way to unwind after the (usually) hectic work week.  We used to order pizza from a place close to our house, but recently we've decided to go the "healthier" route and make homemade pizza.  But is pizza ever actually healthy?  I say yes. 

 So, with a little help from our good friend, Jamie Oliver, we have been churning out our own homemade pizza pies every Friday. 

Fortunately, it makes a ton of dough, so we always have enough for 2 weeks.  That's right, we eat 1/2 ton of pizza dough every week.  I know, I'm shocked I don't weigh 1 million pounds too!

 Our other tradition is to catch up on TV shows from the week while we eat our pizza.  Tonight we finally caught up on the end of last season's Modern Family in preparation for the new season starting next week.  Funniest.Show.Ever.

Usually we watch the Biggest Loser on Fridays while eating pizza.  Don't judge us.  The husband told me that its the only reality show he never wants to be on.  I hope he also never wants to be on the Bachelor, because well, that would be extremely awkward.

In the beginning...

Family, friends, random people from the world wide web, I'd like to welcome you to my blog.  I'm sure most of you have figured out by the title that I have been inspired by my recent move to Clarksville, Tennessee from Vancouver, British Columbia.  I'll probably talk about that a lot.  I'll also probably write about my love of running, music, baking, eating, etc.

I have a lot to say (most of the people in my life already know this!) so I just want to give you all a glimpse into my mind.

Enjoy!