Spices is one of my favorite restaurants in DC, not necessarily because there is anything especially fancy or spectacular about it (although it is always a solidly good meal), but because they have a fantastic comfort food dish that I crave whenever I am sick... vegetable hot pot. Rather than trek all the way up to Cleveland Park just for this dish, I decided to try to recreate it at home tonight. I have to say, I did a pretty good job.

Vegetable Hot Pot
Ingredients:
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth (I used No Chicken Broth from Whole Foods)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp. (or more to taste) red pepper flakes
2 carrots, thinly slices into disks
1/2 medium green cabbage, shredded
1.5 cups bean sprouts (I used a can, which wasn't that bad, although I'd prefer to have had fresh)
1 can water chestnuts (I think I might leave these out next time... I didn't really notice them)
1 block extra-firm tofu, diced into approximately one inch pieces
4 scallions, sliced
1 tsp. sesame oil
2 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. rice vinegar

Directions:
1. Pour broth into a pot and add garlic and red pepper flakes, bring to a boil, then reduce to a fast simmer.
2. Add carrots and cabbage and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add bean sprouts and water chestnuts and cook for a few more minutes.
4. Add tofu and cook for a few more minutes.
5. Add scallions, sesame oil, soy sauce and rice vinegar and cook for a few more minutes. (I know, "few more minutes" is not very helpful, but I didn't check my watch or anything.)
6. Serve (with Sriracha sauce if you like it extra spicy, like I do.)

This was the perfect thing to eat with my cold... I could actually taste it even through my dulled taste buds! It was so easy, I may not have to go out to Spices anymore. (Just kidding... they make yummy spring onion cakes and I haven't figured those out yet!)

Adam and I had the most romantic Valentine's Day ever! We just ran a bunch of errands because we had been snowed in for the past, oh, forever days and desperately needed to do a Target run and some grocery shopping. Then we cleaned the house, I went to the gym and he helped a friend move.

You know, your average Sunday.

We're not really Valentine's Day people. We don't do gifts. We don't make reservations at a fancy restaurant. No chocolates or roses. But we did decide we were going to make a "fancy dinner," which basically means it's not a one-pot meal of some sort and we were even going to have dessert!

We decided to make Rachael Ray's "You Won't Be Single For Long" Vodka Pasta. We left out the chicken stock (obviously, but we didn't substitute anything for it and I think it would have been too watery a sauce if we had), used whole canned tomatoes (all Trader Joe's had) that we crushed ourselves, and added some crushed red pepper flakes and freshly grated parmesan cheese at the end.

It was really good! We don't eat a whole lot of pasta, but vodka cream sauce is one of my favorites. I would probably add the crushed red pepper flakes into the sauce while it's cooking next time for the flavor to be more incorporated throughout the sauce.

On the side, we had another Rachael Ray dish... Arugula Salad with Pear, Blue Cheese and Apricot Vinaigrette. We used apricot preserves we already had on hand instead of the "all fruit" spread, and used all arugula (one bag) for the salad greens. It was so yummy. It made a huge bowl of salad, but we ate almost all of it! (Two helpings for me, and three for Adam.) The only mistake was that I dumped the whole amount of dressing on the salad and it definitely didn't need that much.

Dinner was served with some champagne we received from the jeweler from whom we got my engagement ring. So sweet!

Finally, for dessert, we made a modified version of Martha Stewart's Meyer Lemon Mousse Cups. (Our version is after the jump.) Main modification: serving it in bowls, rather than hollowed-out lemons.

It may not have been as pretty as Martha's, but it was delicious.

I got up early and went to the gym today and it felt FANTASTIC. Makes me more than a little annoyed with myself for coming up with so many excuses/just lying on the couch for the past week. I actually wished I had even more time at the gym this morning, but alas, I had to go get ready for work.

And the winner of the peppermint bark giveaway is...

#5 -- Kate! I will be sending you an email to get the address to which you'd like me to send the peppermint bark.

**Winner chosen using Random.org. I make Adam do the random number generation for me, because even though I know it's random, I feel weird being the actual person putting the numbers in because I know who is what number. He pays no attention to my blog, so I know it's totally and completely impartial. Why yes, I have a serious complex about fairness... suppose that's why I'm in the legal profession. (No, seriously.)

The past few years, I've given homemade peppermint bark to some relatives, who (each year) ask my mom where I bought it from! Peppermint bark is SO easy to make and WAY cheaper than buying it at Crate and Barrel ($15.95) or William-Sonoma ($26.50) or any of those places.

Because I don't think anyone should have to pay those crazy prices for something that is so easy and inexpensive to make, my peppermint bark recipe is after the jump.

But wait! Because I love Christmas, miss being an elf (that's another story), and am making a bunch of peppermint bark this weekend anyway, I am going to give away a tin of peppermint bark to a lucky commenter! (Um, as long as you live somewhere that I can send USPS priority mail.) Just leave me a comment telling me your favorite holiday treat by Thursday, December 17. I will randomly choose and contact the winner (by the email you leave with your comment) for a shipping address. I will send the bark out by Monday, so with priority shipping it should arrive at your destination by Wednesday or Thursday. Anyone can enter, but please only enter once!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As a vegetarian, I have been asked many times, what do I eat for Thanksgiving? Really, the better question is, what don't I eat? The answer: Turkey.

This year is the first year I've been with Adam's family for the actual holiday. It's interesting to eat Thanksgiving at someone else's home, because everyone has different traditions. For dinner tonight, I ate butternut squash soup, vegetarian cornbread stuffing (which Adam's dad was kind enough to throw together this afternoon when he realized I wouldn't be eating any of the other three stuffings they had), mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, broccoli pie, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, corn, and challah bread. My family doesn't have soup or bread at our Thanksgivings, so that was new to me, although Adam has made that butternut squash soup recipe for me several times. We still haven't even had dessert, for which I've counted three pies, a pumpkin roll, four breads, and some candy and cookies.

So yeah... I find food to eat at Thanksgiving. :-)

I'm looking forward to our second Thanksgiving at my parents' house on Saturday. My dad will make vegetarian stuffing and gravy. (His vegetarian gravy is SO good, and it's kind of funny, because their turkey gravy usually comes out of a jar so it's one less thing for them to worry about.) There will be cranberry jelly and cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans (not casserole, though), corn, brussels sprouts and creamed onions. Creamed onions may seem sort of odd to most people, but for some reason we have them every Thanksgiving, so I'd miss it if they weren't there. (Also, I never see creamed onions in the grocery store down where I live now... is it just a northeast thing?) The only food I won't eat is the turkey (and the turkey stuffing and gravy that accompany it). And of course, we will have at least four desserts... for 12 people.

I'd have to say my favorite Thanksgiving food is my dad's stuffing. It's really hard to choose though... those creamed onions are SO good... and I love cranberries... and now I can add butternut squash to the contenders. Luckily, gorging yourself on food is totally acceptable this one day of the year. :-)

What did you do for Thanksgiving? And what's your favorite food?

I didn't eat the candy.

This afternoon, I told myself I was going to run 3 miles in 30 minutes. This may not seem fast to most people, but I haven't run that fast since before the stress fracture. I told myself:

My legs are strong enough to run 10 miles.
My legs are strong enough to have run three 11-minute miles, and then finished 7 more.
My legs are strong enough to have run a single 10-minute mile last week.
My leg does not have a stress fracture.

Just because my legs get tired, doesn't mean I can't run 3 miles in 30 minutes.
Just because my legs burn, doesn't mean I can't run 3 miles in 30 minutes.
Just because I'm breathing hard, doesn't mean I can't run 3 miles in 30 minutes.

If I don't push myself, I won't improve.

I can do it.

I will do it.

. . .

I did it.

29:58.

(Tomorrow, I'll post my take on Thanksgiving dinner... as a vegetarian!)

There is a big box full of candy sitting in the office kitchen.
The office kitchen, which is where I fill up my water bottle several times a day.
The office kitchen, which is where the copiers are located.
The office kitchen, which is where the printers from my computer are located.
The office kitchen, which is directly across the hall from my office.

I will not eat any candy today.
I will not eat any candy today.
I will not eat any candy today.

(Luckily, most of the good stuff is already gone... unfortunately, with my help yesterday. Doesn't mean the sub-par candy isn't sitting there, tempting me, every time I have to go in there, which is probably 3-4 times an hour.)

(If you haven't already done so and want to add your question(s) to the mix, you can do so here.)

Nick asked: Why did you put so little soy sauce in your fried rice recipe? I ended up having to use a lot more as seasoning after the fact.

Honestly, I don't use measuring spoons when I add soy sauce to the fried rice, so it's a total guestimate that I add a teaspoon at a time. But, three teaspoons (which is what I listed in the recipe) equals a tablespoon of soy sauce, which seems like a lot of shakes from the bottle, so I think it's actually pretty accurate.

If I was making it just for myself, I'd probably add more soy sauce during the cooking process, because I think it does taste better when it has the time to be cooked into the veggies and rice. But, Adam does not like things as salty as I do, so I go easier on it during the cooking process and add more after it's done. (He usually does not add any more soy sauce.) It's all about your personal preference, but I go easy on it in the recipe because I didn't want it to be too salty for some people -- you can always add more, but can't take out.

Oh, and I use low sodium soy sauce, in case anyone is wondering.

Kowala1000 asked: (1) May I have that recipe for the giant crusty and creamy white beans with greens? (2) Does that cookbook have anything to do with demons or the Winchester brothers? (3) Nick can cook fried rice?

(1) Yes, but I don't feel right posting it here, so I will email you a copy of the recipe. If you like it, I suggest you check out 101 Cookbooks, which is Heidi Swanson's website. There are a lot of recipes that we also make from there, some of which are in the cookbook. (The white bean recipe I referenced is not on her website, though.) One favorite, which I've mentioned before and is also in the cookbook, are the chickpea patties, but there are many, many recipes on there I've loved and others in my queue to try.

(2) The cookbook does not have to do with demons or the Winchester brothers, but I do think of that show pretty much every time I say the name of the cookbook... even though I haven't watched since the first season.

(3) So he claims.

(Man, this NaBloPoMo thing sure is starting to get difficult... and we're not even halfway through the month!)

Adam and I both really like to cook and, as a result, make most of our own meals. But, we don't usually have tons of time at night to make elaborate recipes because we go to the gym after work. (Perhaps more on that in a later post.) Most of our meals can be put together and on the table in a half hour or so. One of our easy, totally yummy meals is fried rice. It's so easy, I call it "Cheater's Fried Rice."

Cheater's Fried Rice
Makes 2 (HUGE) portions as a main dish. (But very healthy and not a lot of calories for a dinner, so we tend to eat it all up over the course of the evening... yum!)

Ingredients:
onion, finely diced
bag of frozen mixed vegetables (We use Trader Joe's Organic Foursome -- green beans, carrots, corn, peas.)
2 cups already cooked rice (We use Trader Joe's brown basmati rice.)
soy sauce
sesame oil
2 eggs
Sriracha (rooster sauce) (optional)

Directions
In a very large skillet, brown up the diced onion with a bit of olive oil over medium-high heat. Once the onions brown, add in the bag of frozen vegetables. Sprinkle about a teaspoon soy sauce over the vegetables and cook until the vegetables are just warmed through about 3-5 minutes, depending on size of the veggies), stirring occasionally. Add in the cooked rice and stir. Sprinkle on another teaspoon of soy sauce and a teaspoon of sesame oil. Let the rice and veggie mixture sit for a few minutes, then push the mixture to the side of the pan.

Beat the two eggs in a mug or small bowl, then pour into the cleared portion of the pan. Turn the heat down to medium. Let the egg start to firm up a minute, and once it starts to become opaque, scramble it up a little and then mix it in with the veggie and rice mixture. Add another teaspoon of soy sauce and of sesame oil. Let it cook for another minute or two until the egg is cooked.

Serve heaping platefuls, with soy sauce, sesame oil and sriracha on the side.

One half of this entire recipe (using the ingredients I stated) is 426 calories, with 17 grams of protein and 10 grams of fat. And, we think it tastes better than veggie fried rice you'd order from your local Chinese place.

I almost missed posting for today, until I sat bolt upright at 11:15pm and remembered I had to post today. Considering I'm down and out with the flu (what, you haven't heard?), this is some serious dedication to NaBloPoMo. (Or just fever-induced insanity.)

So, a quick and dirty recipe for you. Our building had a bake-off today and we came in second place with our peppermint cheesecake with chocolate peppermint ganache.

Ingredients:

Okay, so I definitely did NOT run those germs right out of my body. I felt pretty good for a couple of hours, then all of the sudden I was exhausted yesterday. I took a couple (yes, a couple) brief naps in the afternoon and then eventually TS and I went to Chinatown to grab some dinner and meet some friends for a drink. (I had a yummy, non-alcoholic mango limeade. Delicious!)

Tonight, we're having some friends over to watch the Giants-Cowboys game. I'm making some of my world-famous chili, TS is making some wings, and I made some beer bread to have with the chili and some yummy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for dessert. I've spent most of the afternoon watching football and baking, a pretty perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon if you ask me. Usually, we go out to a bar so we can watch all of the football games on at once, but since we have people coming over tonight we stayed in to watch and clean up the apartment a bit. Plus, I still feel kinda icky and figured that lounging around the house would be better than hanging out in a smoky bar. (Yes, you can still some in bars in Virginia... it is so disgusting. Smoking ban goes into effect December 1... I cannot wait!)

Go GIANTS! :-)

Dinner tonight was grilled tofu, grilled asparagus, grilled peaches (OH MY YUM!), and leftover green onion slaw. It was colorful, summery, and super delicious. The grilled peaches were like juicy pieces of heaven they were so good.

Work has been really stressful lately. I've had a lot of deadlines over the past couple of weeks in this one REALLY BIG case, plus a few other smaller fires to put out here and there. I realize it still doesn't compare to the hours lawyers who work for Big Firms have to put in, but it has been a lot of intense hours, meetings, and work for me. My stress level has been really high and I've cracked and lost it a few times over the past few weeks (not at work, thankfully, just the confines of my own home). It definitely goes to show that I am not someone who could be happy in Big Firm life. Hopefully things are dying down a little bit and I won't have to work this weekend. I could really use a three-day weekend to recharge.

We're currently 4.5 weeks away from the Army Ten-Miler. We've been following a slightly modified version of Hal Higdon's novice half marathon training, because the 10M/15K training only had us do 8 miles before going into the race. There was no way I would be able to make the jump from 8 to 10 miles on race day, so I'm doing the half marathon training up through week 10 (a 9 mile long run), then doing week 12 on race week (so skipping week 11). This Sunday I will be running SEVEN MILES, which will be the furthest I've ever run. Since I'm breaking into new territory here, I figured I'd try to document my workouts for the next four weeks so that I have this to look back on.

Today's workout was a 4.5 mile run. I ran on the treadmill today and finished in 53:00, which if I did my math right is approximately 11:47 mile pace. I walked the first 5 minutes and then took two other walking breaks during the run. My calves have been getting super tight lately and take forever to loosen up while running. I stopped after 2.5 miles to stretch them out a bit and then was able to pick up the pace a bit for the last 2 miles. I wish I could figure out exactly what was going on with my calves... I stretch them well after I run, but it still doesn't seem to help much. I'll have to look into some additional stretches.

Well, TS and I have started a new daily cleaning schedule so hopefully we can break it up during the week and not spend 2 hours of our weekends cleaning. Time for me to go clean up the kitchen from making lunch and do the remaining dishes!

Anyone who's been reading here for a while knows that I am more than a little obsessed with food. I read a lot of cooking and baking websites, watch all kinds of cooking shows, and I like trying new recipes. I'm also busier than ever these days with work and training runs for the Army 10 Miler, so I need to find quick, healthy, vegetarian meals for dinner. Here are a few recipes that TS and I have made lately that we really enjoyed... some new, some old favorites.

Edamame Soup from 101 Cookbooks -- We just ate this tonight. The fried shallots really take this soup to another level.

Ten Minute Couscous Soup from 101 Cookbooks -- This is going to be my new go-to soup for when I'm under the weather.

Spinach Quiche from Smitten Kitchen -- I made this for a book club brunch and now I get requests to bring it all the time. It is so, so good. TS and I made a crustless version of this quiche a couple weeks ago to have for breakfasts all week.

Zucchini Carpaccio Salad from Smitten Kitchen -- A delicious summer salad.

Black Bean and Corn Salsa from Ordering Disorder -- It's delicious as a salsa/dip for tortilla chips, a side dish for a barbecue, or on top of some lettuce with some shredded cheese for a Mexican salad. I added some diced jalapenos or chilis to this for a little heat.

Chilled Avocado-Cucumber Soup -- I've really gotten on a soup kick this summer. This is the first chilled soup I've ever made other than gazpacho. Speaking of gazpacho...

Gazpacho -- Makes a HUGE batch... enough for lunches for a week, plus some leftover to freeze. (Or eventually dump down the drain, if you are wasteful like me, but seriously it makes SO MUCH.) I usually top it with some crumbled feta cheese.

Ultimate Veggie Burger from 101 Cookbooks (also called "Sprouted Garbanzo Burgers" in my new favorite cookbook, Super Natural Cooking, which I recommend to everyone these days) -- TS is totally in love with these veggie burgers and I must agree that they are pretty gosh darn tasty.

Sushi Bowl from 101 Cookbooks and Super Natural Cooking -- Totally the lazy (wo)man's sushi.

Chickpea Salad with Lemon and Parmesan by Orangette -- I've mentioned this recipe on here before (as well as the previous chickpea burger recipe). Was in heavy rotation for my lunches for a while, but I think I overdid it on the chickpeas... it's so good, I know I'll be making it again though.

Farfalle with Zucchini from The Pioneer Woman -- Okay, not so healthy, but super delicious and an excellent way to use up all that summer zucchini.

And lest you forget that I love to bake, let me add two more of my favorite recipes...

Banana Bread with Chocolate and Cinnamon Sugar from Orangette -- My favorite banana bread recipe. (Sadly, I overbaked this last week.)

Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake from Smitten Kitchen -- I love the combination of orange and chocolate. This cake got RAVE reviews when I made it. I don't usually make too many cakes from scratch (I have, and use without apology, The Cake Mix Doctor for many cake recipes), but this one was well worth the extra effort.

Whew, okay... I'm getting a little hungry just thinking about all this yummy food. Let me know if you try one (or several) of these recipes, or if you have any other recipe/food website you would recommend.

Twix: eat the cookie part from the bottom first, then eat the remaining caramel whole (like a giant Rolo)
M&Ms: eat by color until I have the same number of each color; then eat one color at a time in twos
Oreos (now): dunked half in milk until barely above disintegration, eat that half, repeat with other half
Oreos (as a kid): take tops off two Oreos and eat them, then mash the remaining two cream-topped halves together and make my own double-stuff Oreo (sometimes I did this two or three times, creating a triple- or quadruple-stuffed Oreo)
Kit-Kats: each wafer, layer-by-layer
Pringles: lick off the powdery flavor-coating first, then eat the chip
Chocolate Cherry Cordials: (it is kind of embarrassing how involved this is; it was one of my favorite candies as a kid, so I found a way to realllllllly prolong the eating process) bite small hole from the edge, suck out the cordial filling (leaving the cherry), bite off and eat the flat chocolate bottom, eat the cherry, eat the rest of the chocolate
Corn: going left to right, eat around (not across) the corn in a series of circumferences (there's probably a better word than circumferences, but I can't think of one) (also, how people eat there corn is a frequent topic at family barbecues... are you a typewriter, or around the corn, or a mix of both?)

(Wow, the above list makes it look like I eat a TON of junk food. I really don't; maybe it's because I eat it so rarely that I have these strange rituals.)

Other strange food habits/preferences:

What about you? Do you have any strange food habits/preferences?

(Bonus points to anyone who can identify the source of this title.)

No, really, this is a post about chickpeas. The garbanzo. The ceci bean. Sounds boring, but trust me, you'll want to keep reading... and then get into the kitchen and begin eating.

I was always sort of ambivalent about chickpeas. I mean, sure, I love hummus and falafel, but plain? They were just a bland, mushy item I'd skip over on the salad bar. I never really bothered cooking with them either. (My one attempt at falafel was less than impressive.)

But oh, how that's changed. Now, I am obsessed with the chickpea. There are two recipes that have changed my view of them entirely: Orangette's Chickpea Salad with Lemon and Parmesan and 101 Cookbook's Ultimate Veggie Burger (it has a different name in her Super Natural Cooking cookbook, which is where we first found the recipe, but this one appears to be exactly the same). There are so many other recipes based on the chickpea on 101 Cookbooks... I can't wait to try them!

The chickpea salad with lemon and parmesan has become a lunchtime staple. It is so easy (5 ingredients!), requires no cooking, and is SO fresh and flavorful. I have to be careful not to steal too many forkfuls when I make a batch or I won't have enough left for lunch. I use Trader Joe's organic chickpeas, which is one of the ones Molly suggests in her recipe, and they are perfect. Not at all mealy and mushy... I can eat them straight from the can (after a quick drain and rinse, of course). Perhaps it is actually finally finding a good brand of canned chickpea that has made all the difference in my opinion.

The veggie burgers are just as delicious as the salad, if not more so. It's a bit more work than the salad, of course, but well worth it. The first time we made them, we ate them as suggested -- cut in half with the fillings stuck inside. We ended up freezing and reheating the leftovers, which left them less firm than when they were freshly cooked, so we just topped those patties with the fillings instead and it worked just fine. Our toppings of choice were pea shoots, avocado, havarti and sriracha, but I can imagine a variety of toppings would go well with this burger. I think they'd also be delicious tucked into a pita with some cucumber yogurt sauce and sliced tomatoes, like falafel.

By the way, I would highly, HIGHLY recommend buying Super Natural Cooking, or at least checking it out of your local library. It is currently my favorite cookbook. It makes healthy, whole-food cooking very accessible.

Let me know if you try out either of these recipes or check out the cookbook!

I've been trying a lot of new recipes lately, so expect to see some of them on here. My goal is to try at least one new recipe a week. We've been getting kind of repetitive in our meals and seeing as I have a zillion cookbooks, I really need to start trying more recipes out. Of course, most of the ones I make I find online, not in my cookbooks, anyway. :-) This is actually a recipe that I've made several different times, but I tried to make it as healthy as I could this time. Well, I guess not as healthy as I could... I did include chocolate chips. And I have yet to find a suitable substitute for the stick of butter. Still, they aren't nearly as bad for you as muffins you get out at your local Fourbucks. And they received rave reviews at the brunch I went to on Sunday.

Ahh, nothing like a good meme when you're stumped for ideas. (Stolen from Monkey.) (This one required a fair amount of googling on my part.)

The rules are pretty standard:
A. List of 100 items
B. Bold items you've eaten
C. Cross out items you'd never consider eating (hmmm... as a vegetarian, I am guessing there will be many strikeouts.)

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos Rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (which leaves me wondering, who eats cigars?)
37. Clotted cream tea (I've had it in Devon, no less.)
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (not on purpose, but who hasn't accidentally swallowed a gnat? blech)
43. Phaal
44. Goat's milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini (Now, if that said vodka martini... )
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (Maybe I have? Wiki tells me it's a food additive and sometimes found in toothpaste.)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs' legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I've mentioned before my smiley-face-sticker-strategy ("SFSS") for motivating my lazy ass to get to the gym. Basically, every time I go to the gym and burn a set amount of calories, I get a smiley face. If I burn double that set amount, I get a star. (There aren't too many stars on there.) If I get there twice in one day and meet my goal both times, I get two stickers. I put them on my monthly calendar I have hanging above my desk in my apartment, and when I see more than two or three days go by without a sticker, I start to feel guilty. So far, the plan has been working pretty well... I go to the gym more frequently now than I did before implementing the SFSS.

However, I'm still not seeing the results I'd like to see. I'm sure that has something to do with (a) the fact that I don't plan my meals in advance so I end up just snacking (although mostly healthy stuff) all night long, rather than eating a balanced dinner, and (b) I really have just been meeting my minimum calories-burned requirement for the gym.

So, in order to drop those ten extra pounds I managed to pack on since this time last year (we'll work on the remaining ten extra pounds I put on the year before that later... baby steps), I have to make some changes. First, I am upping my minimum requirement of calories burned in order to get a sticker. And, if I can manage to get 20 smiley stickers for the month, I'm going to treat myself to something fun. (Not sure what yet, but something.) Second, I am adding a new sticker for doing weight training at the gym. (It'll have to be a heart sticker, since the smileys and the stars that came in my pack are already claimed.) Third, I signed up for this to plan three or four dinners a week, which I am super excited about. I already bought the groceries to make four of this week's dinners. Hopefully eating regular dinners will mean that I won't snack so much at night, but I am also going to try to be very mindful of the extra calories I absent-mindedly consume after 9PM. (I even bought super strong mint gum to help out with that.)

Aside from my weight-loss goal, I have also decided to motivate myself by signing up for some races. I am going to sign up for the Race for the Cure 5K here in DC in June, and then hopefully for the Marine Corps Marathon 10K (like I could do a full marathon anytime soon... yeah, right) in October. I know I could go out and run a 5K right now if I was so inclined, but a 10K? I've never run that far without stopping ever in my life. So that'll actually be a bit of a challenge for me. I know I can do it, it's just going to take some real motivation for me to get there. And it's not even physical fitness... I could probably do it tomorrow (albeit, painfully) if I had to. It's really about the mental stamina more than anything else. But if I am ever going to run a real marathon, I've got to get over the boredom factor.

Plus, runners can eat anything and look great. Who wouldn't love to be able to do that?