2012 Baltimore Marathon Relay !

This weekend was amazing! Joined by my friends Keith, Chelle, and Shelly, I  participated in the 2012 Baltimore Running Festival Marathon Relay.

Not only was it the furthest distance I have ever run (5.8 mi), but it was also the biggest race I have gotten to experience. I am so proud of myself and my teammates. Below are some pictures from the day.

My friend Carlyn and me. She ran the Half Marathon portion of the running festival and really rocked it! Shout out to my friend Sarah as well who ran the Half and did an awesome job! I didn't get to get a picture with her, but she deserves kudos big time!

Me post race with my yummy celebration beer in front of the crab! 

                                     

Post race! Team Cocktails and Coaching! Chelle, Shelly, Keith, & Emma. 

                           

Post Race Brunch at Clyde's of Columbia. I had a delicious and much deserved Turkey Burger, with fries, and a mimosa (or two). :)

I had such a great time and will definitely be participating in some part of the Baltimore Running Festival next year. 

Ritz Box Red Onion and Black Pepper Spread

A few weeks ago while while visiting my Dad's house I saw a recipe on the back of a Ritz Cracker Box for Red Onion and Black Pepper Spread. It looked easy and good so I took a picture of the back of the box and last week I finally got around to making it. Besides me making a mess of chopping everything it turned out really good! I was requested to make it again for an Orioles game get together this evening, so I thought I'd share.

Here's my great recipe saving/sharing skills (the iPhone picture).

A few notes:

- You know I used reduced fat cream cheese, no one needs all the fat in the regular kind, and it honestly doesn't taste any different. :) 

- It's a pain in the butt to chop all that onion. My eyes were watering like crazy. However, I actually added a little more onion than the recipe called for, probably a little under 1/2 a cup. 

- What the heck is pan toasted garlic? My friend who is a chef told me its the same thing as roasted garlic. So you could do it in the oven, but since its only 1 clove it was really easy for me just to dump the clove in a non-stick saute pan with a teeny tiny bit of olive oil and heat it for a few minutes on very low heat (I burnt the first one).

- I added a little bit of garlic powder to the mixture. Not much, maybe 1/2 a tsp, but it really had a great taste to it. 

- It never really hardened up in the fridge, its really messy to roll, just expect your hands to be covered in gooey cream cheese when you wrap and unwrap it. (PS. Make sure you add the parsley after you plate it).

Here's everything in the mixing bowl.

And of course I forgot to take a photo of the finished product but it did look exactly like it said it would. I served it with Ritz crackers and of course some veggies. I thought it was really good spread on a cucumber slice or on a piece of celery. 

So this back of the box recipe is definitely recommended by me. Happy snacking! :) 

Low Point Tuesday Dinner for One

I find it hard that I am usually just cooking for me. Most recipes are for a serving size of four and aren't always easy to cut down to one or even two. Plus, I'm not much of a leftover kinda girl. So usually I'm looking for easy items that can be made for one person. It doesn't always turn into the fanciest or the most delicious dinner, but it works for me.

So here is what my low point dinner looked like last night. I made a Perdue Refrigerated Breaded Chicken Breast  and some asparagus. My friend is a chef and had made this awesome red chile sauce and given me some last week. I have been using it on everything and last night I used it on the asparagus. So here is my dinner.

I put a little Sweet Baby Rays Barbecue sauce on my chicken (less than a tbsp) and had a glass of white wine. Dinner rounded out at 4 points for the chicken, 1 for the bbq, 1 for the asparagus (for the oil in the sauce), and 4 for the wine. Pretty good if you ask me! 

Not sure what I'll have tonight...but I'm thinking its time to be a little more creative. I'll see what I can come up with that's a little fancier to show. :) 

Watermelon Feta Salad with a Twist

Today I was having magazine catch-up Sunday. I am not feeling that well today so after Yoga this morning and a nap I went right to the couch and got out the stack of unread magazines. They sure had been stacking up. About halfway through the mountain I came across my Good Housekeeping magazine, which was a pleasant break from the Glamours and Cosmos, and came across an article of 5 Ways to Use Watermelon This Summer.

Immediately I realized I was hungry for a snack and had some watermelon in the fridge. The recipe I liked was the Savory Melon Salad. I didn't have the lime juice, so I improvised a bit with that, and added an ingredient.

I took about 5 big chunks of watermelon and tossed them with about a tbsp of reduced fat feta cheese. I also sprinkled them with a little bit of salt and pepper. I thought maybe some sweet vidalia onion would be good too so I sauteed a few small slices of vidalia onion with about a 2 tsp of olive oil. Once they were slightly warm I added just a pinch of Splenda Sugar Blend to the pan. This crisped and sweetened up the onions and they were delicious. I tossed them in the watermelon and added a squirt of lemon juice to the remaining olive oil in the pan and poured it over. I tossed everything together and added some fresh cilantro on top.

Can we say YUMMY!

And, the thinly sliced sugary vidalia onions were so good I am trying to think of other things I could make them with! 

Well, back to the magazine stack to see what other ideas and creations I can come up with. :) 

Friday Favorites #6

Happy Purple Friday everyone! I am working on blogging more frequently, but life has taken over again! Work is crazy busy and summer is winding down. Now we are into the beginning of fall which is filled with football Sundays, little cousins soccer games, and lots of fun weekend festivals. I'm sad to say goodbye to summer but excited for all the fun fall activities coming up.

Here are my current favorites.

First of all, how about those Baltimore Ravens! I was lucky enough to get to go to the opening game on MNF and the stadium was crazy. I had so much fun with my roommate Brandon and friends LeeAnne (below) and Adam.

My next favorite is my friend Carlyn. She just ran her very first half marathon on Sunday and I was so happy for her! I made sure to show up with my awesome glittery neon sign to root her on across the finish line. She did an amazing job and is an amazing friend. We will be doing a short run (for her) tonight after work and I am really looking forward to getting my weekend started right with a run!

Next, I have cravings all the time for Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. And I am not capable of making it an only having the 1 cup serving that is recommended. So I was really excited when I came across Kraft Mac and Cheese Veggie Pasta! It has a 1/2 serving of veggies in each serving. To me it tastes no different then the normal Kraft Mac and Cheese, and it uses half the butter and has about half the points of the normal version. Happy Emma :)

Finally, sunflowers have been on my mind recently. A beautiful friend passed away last week after a short and very brave fight with cancer. Lindsey's favorite flower was a sunflower and I just keep seeing them everywhere this week. So I wanted to add a sunflower to Friday favorites for her. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! 

The Best Hair Ties Ever!

I just have to share these awesome hair ties I just received as gift from a close family friend Toby. She and my mom always fight over stuff when then find something small they know I would like while shopping around in Chestertown, MD when my mom goes to visit. This time Toby sent my mom home with these adorable hair ties as a small gift for me.

I have to say they are the best hair ties EVER! First of all, they look so darn cute on your wrist when not in use. They are soft and the perfect elasticity. They even match most of my jewelry. 

Second, they hold your hair really nicely. I have pretty slippery hair when it is straightened and these held my pony tail great. Plus they didn't leave any pony tail creases in my hair like the traditional elastics and looked really cute, although the picture below doesn't look so hot (it was a long day and my hair wasn't in the best shape by the time I took the picture). 

So if you happen to be out and about and see some hair ties like the ones I just got pick them up! I think for three they were about $8. Seems a little pricey but they made a really great gift! 

Adventures in Pinterest Cooking #3

A good friend kindly reminded me that I have got to step up my blogging again. So I decided to spend my Saturday cooking some recipes from Pinterest and preparing some blogs so I am not missing from the blog world for weeks at a time anymore. So this Adventures in Pinterest Cooking is dedicated to my friends Michelle C. Thanks Mishl for getting me back on track. :)

I had some fresh green beans in the fridge that my mom brought back from the farmers market last weekend so I went searching for some easy green bean recipes that were healthy options. Of course Pinterest and Skinnytaste did not disappoint. I found this easy recipe for String Beans with Garlic and Oil that is only 1.5 PointsPlus per serving.

First I had to completely empty out all of the cabinets looking for a large saucepan that also had a matching lid. Even though I am not a great cook I do know the basics and I know that if you are steaming veggies you really need the lid of the pot to have a good seal, otherwise you won't get a good steam. So I searched and finally found a matching set.

Next step was to bring 1 inch of water to a boil and drop a steamer basket in with the green beans. While the green beans were steaming, I attempted to thinly slice 3 cloves of garlic. (The recipe calls for 4, but I only had 3/4 lb of green beans so I used a little less on the garlic and oil). My garlic slicing skills need some work, but they came out ok. I also started heating the oil in a saute pan.

 

After that everything started happening at once. The green beans finished in about 4 minutes (I wanted to make sure they were nice and crisp) and I starting browning the garlic in the saute pan. 

Once the garlic was lightly browned I added the green beans to the saute pan and tossed thoroughly. Voila! Easy String Beans with Garlic and Oil. 

I think they came out really good! Of course this was a very simple recipe, but it was easy enough that I could make it as a side dish while cooking a more difficult main entree. The green beans were nice and crisp and I loved the crunch that the thinly sliced garlic gave to the recipe. I added some salt and pepper for seasoning but the garlic really steals the show. 

So on a closing note, I guess I better go clean up the kitchen. As easy as that recipe was, I managed to make it look like a tornado ripped through the kitchen. :) 

Happy Labor Day Weekend!