• Feeds

     Subscribe in a reader

chocolate covered raisins

Posted on May 27, 2010 by Jen

This morning I woke up early to get some work done, however, about 5 minutes into my work I realized that I could not concentrate!  I kept looking outside and seeing the trees blow in the cool breeze…I needed to go for a run!

So, I threw on some running clothes, laced up my sneaks, strapped on my Garmin and hit the pavement.  I ran my new favorite running loop around UMASS Boston.  It is exactly 5.6 miles from door to door.  Today it took me 53 minutes.

Once home, I decided I needed to lift some weights.  I kept it light and fairly quick since I haven’t lifted weights in what seems like months!

At Home Weight Session

  • 21’s (3 sets)
  • Squats (3 sets of 12)
  • Overhead Press on One Leg (3 sets of 12)
  • Deadlift with Upright Row (3 sets of 12)
  • Tricep Kickbacks (3 sets of 12)
  • Pushups (3 sets of 12)
  • YTA’s in Static Squat (2 sets of 12)

I could feel the burn!

After my workout, I made up some breakfast because I was famished.  We don’t have many veggies left in the house (except carrots and celery – which I normally keep on hand for juice!), so I knew that I wouldn’t be getting many veggies in at lunch and dinner.  I decided I needed a Green Monster for breakfast to pack in some green nutrients.

Served with 2 small slices of Fruit & Nut Manna bread with homemade Crazy Butter.

YUM!

For lunch, I didn’t feel like more chili or soup when I was packing my lunch last night (probably because it was so hot out!), so I filled up with Yogurt, Granola and a Mango.

Unfortunately, this type of lunch never holds me over and I ate a handful of chocolate almonds and some dried apple a few hours later which was the last of my snacks in my desk.  Why didn’t I pack some carrots and almond butter? Sometimes my brain is asleep as I pack my lunch…

I contemplated hitting up the vending machine, but everything in there is just gross, so I fixed myself some dinner immediately upon arriving home.

Leftover Coconut Red Lentil Soup!

With a small salad of pea shoots, Parmesan cheese and lemon vinaigrette (fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, salt, pepper).  And, some pita.

Mmmmm…

And then I made something wonderful for dessert.

Chocolate Covered Cherries & Raisins!

Angela over at Oh She Glows comes up with some pretty delicious recipes.  This one was no different.  She made these 3 ingredient chocolate covered raisins the other day and I obviously had to try them.

These may be the simplest thing you will ever make:

  • 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (I used a dark chocolate bar)
  • 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1.5 cups raisins (I used a mix of dried cherries and raisins for fun)

Heat the chocolate and coconut butter together until melted and smooth.

Then, stir in your raisins and cherries and mix until evenly coated.

Once coated in the chocolate mixture, spread the mix on a parchment lined cookie sheet (so that they don’t stick to the cookie sheet) and place in the freezer for about 10 minutes until hardened.

Break the pieces apart and enjoy!

They came out more like raisin and cherry clusters, which were wonderful.

Enjoy!

Advertisement

Filed under: Eating Laps, Recipes, Running Laps | Tagged: , , , | 5 Comments »

how to open a coconut

Posted on May 27, 2010 by Jen

We should all know by now that I love coconut.  It is great in stirfry’s, smoothies, oatmeal, trail mix, mixed with chocolate or anything else you can imagine.  I love it!

I buy unsweetened shredded and dried coconut in bulk, along with coconut water, coconut milk and coconut ‘ice cream’.

So, I thought it was about time that I try to open my own coconut.  I decided to go with a regular coconut over a young (baby) coconut that are so widely available nowadays.  Below is a step by step tutorial on how to open a coconut.

How to Open a Coconut

* you will need a coconut, hammer, nail and dish towel!

1.  Find the 3 ‘eyes’ on one end of your coconut.

2.  Take your hammer and nail, and make a hole in each of those ‘eyes’.

3.  Before smashing open the coconut, you’ll want to drain our all of the juice inside.  Tip your coconut over and place onto a cup, bowl, etc in order to drain.  (I ended up needing to shake the coconut a little bit in order to get the juice flowing.)

4.  You will end up with a cup of juice/water and your empty coconut.

**Unfortunately, at this point I realized that my coconut was bad!  I was so bummed considering that I just bought it a few days ago.  This goes to show what happens when produce needs to travel from Mexico!  But, I kept going with the process to show you guys what to do.

5.  Now, take your coconut and wrap it in a dish towel, or another towel you won’t mind washing!  At this point, I moved to my floor because I did not want to end up smashing my counter. 🙂

6.  Take your hammer and SMASH the coconut!  It took me a few good wacks until I ended up with this.

There you have it!  Delicious coconut meat!

See how it is a little brown in there?  Definitely a sign of a rotten coconut. 😦  I’ll try again sometime soon, though!

Do what you wish with the coconut meat – pop it in a smoothie, cut it up and eat it as is, dry it for trail mix – the possibilities are endless!

Enjoy.

Filed under: Recipes | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »