Morning gym means breaking out the heavy equipment before coffee.  Lucky for me, we went blueberry picking at the end of the season with my mom and sisters and we still have bags of frozen blubes!  (rhymes with…)  haha.  There really isn’t a recipe for this concoction- but it is blueberry pie inspired.  I start with 1/2 a blender of frozen fruit, some ground flax- maybe a couple tablespoons?  Oatmeal- maybe 3/4 of a cup? a splash of vanilla, a tablespoon of maple syrup (you could use stevia, but I am really trying to lose the manufactured sugars in my life) and last but not least some protein powder- 1 scoop.  I put some good old water in to make it blend, and usually some ice- and this is key- I do the “smoothie” cycle twice.  I both love and am afraid of my blender.  It is VERY powerful.

After I made smoothies, I left for the gym.  Yes, I ran this morning.  No, it was not 2x2x3x1.  I got on the treadmill with trepidation, my calf/side of leg hurt a bit for about a mile, I got totally lost in watching Olympus Has Fallen on Netflix…  finished that then started watching Alpha House on Amazon Prime (gotta love my kindle fire!) and ended up running 7 miles @ 8:20 pace (7.2 mph).  When I started running a little faster things were not feeling as good.  Who knows what the deal is…  It is a little sore now, but I am going to ice and see what happens.

Meanwhile, Mike, AKA the best guy a girl could ask for, was prepping dinner for tonight.

You see, Thursday is a very special day around here (most weeks).  We have a standing date with two other couples and their children to (supposedly) watch Grey’s Anatomy and have dinner.  This favorite day of the week has evolved to a lot of playing princesses, making sure someone is watching the resident almost-walker (who is SOOO fast it is unbelievable), tickling the 5 month old’s neck until she giggles (but not too much since she has to go to bed soon!), eating A LOT…  eating some more….  and usually some wine.  It’s perfect.

Planning the dinners loosely rotates amongst the grown-ups.  It usually starts with an email on Monday or Tuesday between the ladies- ideas are thrown into the mix, tasks assigned- and off we go.  Requirements:  dinner should be able to be on the table ASAP…  there should be something green… and DESSERT.  

This week Mike and I are in charge of the main- so we are braising some beef in the crockpot to get tossed over some rice noodles.  We modified a recipe from Food and Wine Magazine – Asian Beef with Basil .  We’re using the crockpot so that the meat braises while we are all at work.

I’m home now- in the quick in-between- heading out phase- and meat came out delicious!

Now all we do is add some fresh carrots and my addition for the night, some snap peas- and off to the next town we go!

Our partners in Thursday night fun are providing the rice noodles for this amazing-ness to go over, salad, and *sigh* dessert.  My BFFs are amazing.  I’m going to take pictures, and they are going to take pictures- so hopefully between us some OK shots happen and I will share them with all of you tomorrow!