Iron Strength

I wanted to write in more detail about the Iron Strength work out I've been doing as part of my New Year's resolution to incorporate strength training into my running/exercise routine. Carla sent it to me just after New Year's and I've been doing it 1-2 times per week since then. Like I said before, I can only really do less than half of it.

The routine alternates between upper body and lower body exercises, with squats, push ups, lunges, arm curls and the like. You can watch a very even-tempered young woman named Meghan perform the whole thing on Runner's World while the doctor who designed it explains each move. Her contented facial expression made me think the whole thing might not be as torturous as it sounded, but I was wrong. It's much harder than that woman's face lets on.





I think this is called "Rows from plank."














I'll list the cons first.

• It made me so sore the first time I did it that I could barely walk the next day. In fact, the act of sitting down was extremely painful, and it took a few days to recover. Ultimately this is probably a pro, though, because I think it's effective.
  
• It's long and doesn't emphasize stretching much. I know it's a strength routine, not a yoga class, but I can only devote so much time to it on the off days from running and I prefer to stretch a little more. So I usually add my own.
  
• The biggest con is that, because of my wacky motion sickness issues, I can only really do some of it anyway. Single-leg plyometric squats are definitely out, as are the Mountain Climber, lunges, sit-ups, and "Legs Down. " That still leaves 4 of the seven sections for me to do.

Trying to look happier about it. I LOVE rows from plank LOL!!!!!!
















And the pros:

• It's hard (also a con, I know). I feel really challenged by it every time, but it's not so hard that I dread it or give up completely.
  
• I can do it at home with a yoga mat and my weights.
• The online videos are pretty helpful and I feel like I know exactly what to do for each section.
  
• Since I can do it at home while listening to NPR on the interwebs, I can customize it and omit things that make me sick, or do fewer reps of things that I'm not ready for. And even though I can't do about 3 of the 7 exercises, the other 4 are hard enough to make up for it, in my opinion.
• Certain parts, like the "rows from plank" (good God), have already gotten easier, and that progress encourages me to do it again.
• Someone posted a pdf of the whole work out in the RW comments, so I just open that when I want to do it rather than writing it all down myself or watching the videos. If you'd like a copy, I can email it to you.
  

After a couple of the work outs I've made this tasty fruit smoothie:







The giant bag of frozen strawberries from Costco: it makes winter bearable.













Combine in a blender and serve:
1 frozen banana, cut into chunks
5 frozen strawberries (or more if they're small)
1 cup almond milk, or non-dairy milk of choice
2 tbs peanut butter
2 tbs ground flax seeds

Broiled Grapefruit

Is it just me, or does it seem like winter will be here forever and we'll never get to go outside again?

I didn't think it was just me!

To combat the winter blahs, I've been eating a lot of citrus, especially grapefruit.

Here is it with a side of toast, slathered in dijon and goat cheese.

















This preparation is really great because it only needs to be under the broiler for 3 minutes tops, and the cinnamon adds a lot of flavor. I've used tried brown sugar and agave, and I think I like the agave better because it's easier to get out of my pantry (this is about convenience for me anyways).


Here it is again with scrambled eggs and goat cheese on the side:



Don't you feel sunnier just looking at this?















I used this recipe (click here!) the first time, but since then I've just sprinkled it with cinnamon and some agave before broiling it. It also takes me forever to eat this, which is kind of good, since it prevents me from eating too fast.

As for the winter blahs, I think it just helps to alter my routine a little. The grapefruit have helped with that, and they help stave off scurvy (bonus!).

Poached Pear and Goat Cheese Tart

John and I bought some frozen puff pastry dough this week, thinking we would try to do a dry run of Christmas dinner. But then we kind of lost our umph, and I saw a recipe for this tart one of my favorite blogs. Like a lot of things I try, this didn't seem to go as planned at first. I don't have a tart pan, and I wasn't planning on using the walnut crust that he suggested (though it sounds really good). I was a little nervous that this tart would just be a complete, doughy mess and that we would eat it out of bowls, but it was great!


















Poaching the pears in sugar, water, and wine was sort of fun. It reminded me of poaching pears for a salad at the Viking Cooking School class we took with John's mom a couple years ago.























With a little forethought, I probably would have had a side salad with this, with roasted walnuts or something. But this was kind of a "hey, we could make THIS tonight!" decision. The recipe calls for two cups of wine, and that left us each with a glass.























Instead of running all over the pan in a mess, the sauce sat nicely on top the pears. I raised the edges of the puff pastry slightly, and made a little wall out of pairs around the perimeter. It would present nicer in a circular tart pan but I feel like it looked alright, considering.

Good Lord, this was delicious. John commented that you could really taste each individual food - the pears, the buttery pastry, the white wine and goat cheese.
Still, it was actually way too rich for dinner, but you know, we suffered through. I'd recommend cutting the puff pastry and making little individual servings as an appetizer. I feel like it there would be a few different options, depending on your preference. We may try something similar with a mixture of sauteed mushrooms, olives, and more goat cheese as a filling for the other puff pastry sheet (but we may wait until we're with family for the holidays to try that, so that we have people to share it with). As a main course, it was pretty heavy. But it would be great as an hors d'oeuvre or a side.


Poached Pear and Goat Cheese Tart
adapted from Closet Cooking

Ingredients:
2 pears (peeled and cut in half and cored)
2 cups sugar
2 cups white wine
1 cup water
4 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
4 ounces goat cheese (room temperature)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon thyme (chopped) (I used dried)
1 large egg yolk
1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed and unrolled into a rectangle

Directions:
1. Place the pears in a large sauce pan with cut side down followed by the sugar, wine, water, peppercorns, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer covered until the pears are fork-tender, about 10-30 minutes (the simmer time varies depending on how ripe the pears are).
2. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature in the liquid (of course I got impatient and let them finish cooling on the cutting board).
3. Slice the pears thinly.
4. Mix the goat cheese, sour cream, honey, thyme and egg yolk inf a food processor until smooth.
5. Spread the filling out over the puff pastry and top with the sliced pears, in any arrangement that pleases you.*
6. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until the filling is set, about 20 minutes.**

*This is where I built a little wall of pears around the perimeter of the dough. You could get by without doing this, but it did seem to help keep things in place. **I initially tried 15 minutes, and then added at least 5-6 more minutes to let the crust finish cooking. This time will vary a lot depending on your oven.