Five Things About Us

July 30, 2012 by · 7 Comments

If you follow us on Instagram you might have seen the picture below on Friday. If you don’t follow us on Instagram and you are in fact on there – go follow us! Right now!

Anyway, Courtney tagged us in a 5 Things About Us post on instagram and we thought we’d share that here with a little more detail.

1. Yes, Teal is married and Beth is engaged, but it’s ok to have a celebrity boyfriend on the side right?? One that we happen to both share?

2. You would really never know it since Teal straightens her hair all the time, but yes, she does in fact have curly hair! It’s not often that it’s in curly form and we actually had to go back to our beach trip in 2007 to find that picture.

3. We shop at the exact same clothing stores. We are not afraid to buy an article of clothing the other one has – clearly based on the above picture! This must mean we both have great taste! And we big time puffy heart Francesca’s!

4. Yep, we are! At any given moment we probably each have a bottle of nail polish on us or in our car. Ok, not actually when we are out on a run, but guarantee we both always have one bottle in our purse!

5. Could anyone be more obsessed with goldfish than the two of us? We don’t think so! Put a bag infront of us and it will NOT last!

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Struggle City, Population: 2

July 27, 2012 by · 24 Comments

The two of us somehow, someway and thankfully so are very in sync with each other a lot.  Have you noticed that throughout our blogging journey so far?

Our passion for running, trying to live healthy lives and being so in tune with each other is probably what makes Life is a Run a team that isn’t likely to be divided!

So that’s all happy and everything is puppies and roses, right?  Well, the truth is we even tend to go through struggling times together.

I’d say right now we are in struggling times.  In all aspects of our lives? Nah. In the running aspect? Yes.

Here is where we could insert excuses, but we won’t do that because then we just think…….

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So we are in a funk.  Both of us are not really getting in the weekly running we thought we would be. And there have been a number of times you could find us texting like this…..

or gchatting like this……

So our running lives right now equal Struggle City, Population: 2.

Reading this you might think, whatever you’ll get over it!  We think and hope we will, but what’s got us reeeeally freaking out is that we are 16 days away from our next half marathon.  Our first half marathon in almost 4 months!  The Hottest Half!  The heat at that race scares us and our lack of running scares us.

But we have each other to run with –  yah, for our team of two!!

What do you do when you are in funks?  Does the hot weather make it harder for you to get out of a funk?

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Wordless Wednesday No. 26

July 25, 2012 by · 5 Comments

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Tasty Tuesday: HG Style Chicken Cordon Bleu

July 24, 2012 by · 6 Comments

How many of you have already heard of Hungry Girl?  Well, we have too and have both been HG followers for six-ish years now!

We both own multiple HG cookbooks and sometimes when you find one of their recipes that’s de-lish you HAVE to spread the word.  The Hungry Girl created their own version of Chicken Cordon Bleu back in April of 2009 and I’ve made it a number of times it had just been awhile since the last time. 🙂   HG makes a lot of their recipes as a single serving in case you are the the solo healthy eater in your house or just cooking for one regularly, but they are normally quite easy to double, triple, etc.

The ingredients are pretty simple:

1. one 5oz. raw boneless skinless lean chicken breast (I just grabbed a whole package of chicken breasts since I was not eating alone this night)

2. one wedge of The Laughing Cow Light Creamy Swiss cheese and let it get to room temperature (loooove this stuff!)

3. one oz. (about 3 slices) of 97-98% fat-free ham slices (in this case since I was making it for more than just me so I bought a slightly fancier ham instead of just your traditional sandwich meat varieties)

4. salt and pepper to taste

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.

Once you’ve trimmed your chicken of any fat you’ll need to place it in a large sealable plastic bag and get as much of the air out as possible because next you gotta pound that meat to get it flat!  Pound it! Good way to get out some aggression if necessary! 🙂

Try and get the chicken to be about 1/4 of an inch thick.  Pretty positive I am a little too impatient for that, so at least give it some flatness! Then take the chicken out of the bag and beginning seasoning it to taste with your salt and pepper!  Grab your cheese wedge and spread that Laughing Cow Cheese over one side of your chicken like so…

This looks so appetizing right now, doesn’t it??

Please note you’ll want to spray your pan with a nonstick cooking spray or line it with foil before placing the chicken in the dish. 🙂

Next you’ll place your slices of ham on top of the side of the chicken you smeared with cheese, like so…

Roll up the chicken breast as tight as you can with the ham and cheese side on the inside of the roll.  It is probably easiest to then keep your chicken rolled up by securing it with a toothpick or two.

Cover your dish with foil and bake the chicken for 20 minutes.  With a hot pad or something else that will keep you from burning yourself remove the foil and let the chicken cook for another 15 minutes.  Then voila!  We decided to have whole grain couscous and broccoli with our chicken cordon bleu this time around!

Tasty looking, right?

Based upon the ingredients typed out above Hungry Girl has given the following nutritional data for their Chicken Cordon Bleu:

Sorry to our meat-less readers as this recipe is not really for you! :-/

Have you tried any Hungry Girl recipes before? What’s your go to HG recipe?

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Beth’s Bachelorette Bash

July 23, 2012 by · 14 Comments

As you might remember in our Throwback Thursday post a couple of weeks ago, we mentioned that Beth’s bachelorette party was that weekend! It has taken Teal this long to recover and recoup so I figured now was the time to let you all in on the excitement of the weekend.

Beth’s sister Kate was pretty much the mastermind of this event. We started the weekend by checking in at the Belmont Hotel in the in the Bishops Arts district. This is an awesome newly renovated 1940’s boutique hotel! We highly recommend checking it out.

That night we decided to keep it low key, as to go all out Saturday. We headed to Tillman’s Roadhouse for dinner and drinks. Even though it was low key we weren’t letting Beth out without her super classy bachelorette garb made by our friend Rebekah!

Dinner was awesome and even included table side smores!

Mmmmmm!!

In case you haven’t met us, we EAT! We headed to brunch at Smoke (which is conveniently located next to the Belmont Hotel!) Saturday morning, it is conveniently attached to the hotel! After Smoke we hit the pool to burn a few hours before heading out to Dry Bar! This pool has an amazing view of the Dallas skyline.

If you have never seen straight haired Beth, prepare to be amazed! All of us had our hair blown out at Dry Bar- if you have never been GO! They are awesome, include an adult beverage or two, and completely do your hair for you! We like!

We hadn’t totally planned this out, but we wanted to try the drinks at the hotel bar a.k.a. Bar Belmont and made a quick stop there before dinner! So many mixings on the beverages! Eeek!!  What to choose?

Every bride needs lingerie so we turned dinner into a lingerie party as well! We won’t mention the creepy waiter who lingered around for that part, oh wait.. we did, yuck!!

After dinner we headed across the street to Prime Bar where we put Beth to work! She too had a “scavenger hunt” and succeeded like a champ! Just to give you a little idea here are a few pics of her efforts!

 

Get 5 guys take a picture with you of their belly buttons. These guys were awesome!

We promise there were actually 5 of them!

Show us your muscles! She even got his first shirt off!

Get the advice of 5 male strangers on marriage!

Definitely some interesting advice out there!

Call the last person on a cell phone!

Pic with a guy named Brent- we at least we think that was his name! 🙂

We made one last stop at Dee Lincoln’s Bubble Bar for her last three tasks and headed to the hotel! Great ending to a perfect night!

Beth is such a trooper and we are now just a few days away from the 3 month mark until the wedding! Where has the time gone?

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Throwback Thursday: Bachelorette Style

July 12, 2012 by · 10 Comments

Since Beth’s bachelorette party is this weekend we thought in today’s post we would take you back to when we had this similar weekend for Teal in 2008! 🙂

Remember Hurricane Ike? Well, we do because as a result of that hurricane the weather was baaaad the majority of Teal’s bachelorette party weekend! It even kept our friend, Rebekah, from flying in to Dallas from New Hampshire. 🙁 But per usual, when one of our friend’s isn’t able to be somewhere with us, we brought along Rebekah-on-a-stick.
But have no fear – we are fun and thus kept the whole weekend fun! The above picture of Teal is from the nice restaurant we ate at on Friday night which actually burned down sooooo we couldn’t even tell you the name of it.
Saturday night we went out to one of both of our favorite restaurants in DFW for dinner, Cuba Libre! Mmmmm, queso and plantain chips! Which ironically is also no longer! But only because the owner decided to try a new concept by remodeling, changing names and switching up the menu….needless, to say new concept didn’t last. A lot of restaurants from this weekend are no more. 🙁

finishing Teal’s mojitos so we can go out to the bars!

In typical bachelorette party fashion Teal had a set of challenges she had to complete throughout the night and let me tell you – Teal is one good sport!

Teal and her challenge cards!

Call the last person a complete stranger called on their cell phone –

Check!

Sing I’m a Little Teapot to complete strangers –

Check!

On a side note Teal ended up singing to a group of guys next to us at dinner who were out for a bachelor party!

Get a sock from a random stranger –

Check!

Get a pair of underwear from a random man –

Check!

I’m not sure Teal was challenged to put on the pair of underwear from a random man, but she did accept that challenge anyway –

Overall, it was a FABULOUS weekend! And here is to this weekend! Now we will leave you with one more awesome dance picture –

Have a great bachelorette party: check!

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Tasty Tuesday: Stuffed Bell Peppers

July 10, 2012 by · 7 Comments

This is something that I make all the time because it is super easy and I can eat it for lunch or dinner throughout the week. It’s a very easy way to get tons of veggies and protein during that day. You can easily add or change the veggies to your liking or even what you have left over in the refrigerator!

Here’s what you do (nothing is really exact because it doesn’t have to be!)

Cut 6 bell peppers in half (any color), take out the guts, and place in a glass baking pan.

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Cover the bottom of the pan with water about a centimeter or so high- this keeps it from burning the bell peppers in the oven

Grill 1 pound ground beef, bison, or turkey in a pan.

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When your meat is about half way browned add your veggies. I did a can of corn, black beans, and diced tomatoes. I also had left over rice with carrots and green beans in it so I added about a cup of that so it wouldn’t go to waste. Mix everything in. If you like spice, add salsa and green chili at the very end.

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Stuff your peppers. Fill them as much you can! I always end up with extra meat and usually just make tacos with it the next day.

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Place in the oven for 30 minutes on 375. If you like, you can add cheese to the tops during the last 5 minutes.

Nutrition facts :This is from entering the ingredients in myfitness pal and calculating for 6 servings- 1 full bell pepper each

Calories: 298

Fat: 5.9 grams

Carbs: 36.5grams

Do you make stuffed bell peppers? What do you different from this recipe?

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Tone It Up Challenge Winner!!

July 9, 2012 by · 2 Comments

It is time for us to announce the BIG winner of our Tone It Up Challenge!

The winner spent 1,165 seconds in the month of June planking and got through 369 push ups as well!  Congrats to…….

Army Amy for winning our challenge!!

Completely left you hanging on what exactly you would win in our challenge, buuut we found what we think is the perfect reward! $50 to spend at Compete Every Day!  We previously mentioned how much we LOVE their workout gear and we love to support our local businesses!

Congrats again to Amy and we will get in touch with you on how to claim your prize!! 🙂  If you missed competing in our challenge – have no fear, we are sure to be back with another one! 🙂

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June Report Card & Our Goals for July

July 6, 2012 by · 4 Comments

Have you noticed a trend in us running behind this summer?? 🙁  Thanks for having patience and sticking around with us those that are!  Maybe it’s just a summer thing and come fall we will be back to our normal routines?? One can hope right? We continue to be freaked out by each and every new month that comes because well – time is flying people!

Teal:

1.  Clean out the garage which involves properly deposing of all old paint, chemicals, and random things you can’t through in the regular trash, donating anything that  should have donated a long time ago, if it belongs to my brother it’s going to his house, and then just generally cleaning. Why I pick June to work outside in the heat is beyond me but whatever!?

A+: this was so much easier than I thought. I just called the city, ordered the bag and left it on the front porch! The garage is cleaned out, despite an attack from 2 cockroaches, don’t worry the Orkin man has been out to fix that little problem too!

2.  So I graduated at the beginning of May!! Yay, but I have very annoying things that I have/need to do

  • Consolidate and move all my student loans to one place and get on a better plan to pay off faster. YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!
  • Register for the LPC exam and not cry when I pay the $300 to take it
  • Organize all the grad work that I did that I want, toss the old stuff, bind what I am keeping ( anyone have one of those spiral binding things?)
  • Organize, bind, toss, or give away my teaching stuff! I will be moving to counselor next year and have a billion teaching things to go through

B: Turns out I can wait until November to consolidate, so I will, can’t register for the LPC until October, paper are organized ( I used binders instead) and my teaching stuff is ready for my friend to have whenever I see her!!

3.  Follow my under 2 hour half marathon runkeeper running plan as close to possible! I will eventually run an under 2 hour half marathon if it kills me! Well not really, I want to live, but you get the point!

B-: I am not sure how to rank this, I have done most of the runs, I usually end up leaving one of the runs per week out because my body doesn’t do well with 3 relatively tough days in a row, by the third one my knee hates me and I would rather keep my body intact and not made at me than to run! However, I do feel stronger and better already so I’ll just keep working through July!

4.  Eliminate random eating. Raise your hand if you stand around trying to figure out something to eat and you find yourself eating crap in the process! ME!! This has to stop!! It’s not like am eating like crazy stuff, but it is mindless and when I finally figure out what to eat, I’m annoyed that I ate weird random things in the meantime!

F: I think I need to make a sign for the pantry and refrigerator. Not sure how to stop this habit. I bought a book – The Power of Habit… maybe just maybe that will help? Re-do in July!!


Beth:

1.  This time around my weight goal is simply: DON’T GAIN ANY!!! Ha, sounds simple right?  Well, this is my birth month and my parents are divorced so this usually means multiple celebrations with good food, good drinks and dessert.  So it’s a dangerous time of year for me. No weight gain in June!!

A++++++: I am still at the same weight! Wahoo! I survived all of the Birthday eating this month!

2. Yoga 2-3 times a week.  Ever since I finished my goal of completing 200 classes in a year I’ve been kind of a slacker, so let’s get back to yoga goals! It’s soooo good for me!

F: Yah, I didn’ t go at all. Fail, Beth, fail!

3.  Finish projects at Brent’s house.  I volunteered his house to host a friend dinner (like this one) towards the end of the month and I haven’t finished some art I started for the walls, since I’ll eventually move in there (you know when we are married) I had already left all of my racing medals, hook to hold them, awesome race bib board my SIL made me over there they just need to be hung up.

A: I finished my “home” picture I was making though I have a feeling the perfectionist in me will make me redo it at some point!

It says home in a bunch of different languages all of which are written on the canvas so I can always know.

I also got my medal hook and medals hung up – now what to do with the OTHER medals that are not on this hook??

I might kind of have a thing for the color blue….

I didn’t get my bib holder hung up because I decided that I wanted to change out the hooks that are currently on it to clips so that all different size bibs can hang for it, so that’s still a project! But I did get a shelf all spray painted and it sits below the medal hook in the office AND we got the guest bedroom cleaned up for now.  My purdy quilt Rebekah made me occupies the bed and I put up some other things around the room. I consider what I did at my future home a success this month!

4. Finish the two wedding projects I have ALL of the supplies for! :)

Looking back at this goal I am not exactly sure which ones I was talking about. HA!  But y’all I got A LOT of wedding schtuff done this month!  Some projects might not be finished but they are well on their way to being completed!  And there is one project for sure still sitting in the packaging, but it requires me sitting in the garage by myself for awhile to work on it which does not fully excite me hence the delay! 🙂  I am kind of afraid to show pictures of projects I am working on as I don’t want to give everything away on the internet and would like certain stuff to be seen for the first time at the wedding. 🙂

My reoccurring goals – Hills, well, I did 3 out of 4 weeks of hills in June and let me tell you that it is getting HOT in Texas!  As far as books go I am still on Target with my goal of reading 24 this year and read my 12th book this month, the recent release, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Could not put this book down!

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And on to July goals!! Here’s also to hoping that our July Report Card is up on the blog in the first few days of August!! Wheee! HA

Teal:

1. Read Power of Habit, work on the stupid ” I am just going to stand here and eat random crap while I look for something to eat” problem.

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2. Get my office ready at my new job. My contract starts July 30th and I would like to be more than set before I start working. I can’t work if stuff is not organized and finished so this is a must. Right now it looks like a war zone and crap is all over the place.
3. Run an avg of 25 miles a week.  This is close to the plan, not every week, but I am trying to still balance what my body decides it will do and my wanting to get faster and have more endurance.
I think 3 is enough for July as we have a late start and I will be out of my house for a little more than a week for training in Ft. Worth and Beth’s bacheorette party (wahoo!!) which makes just the balance of life harder! Here we go July!
Beth:
1. Read This Is Why You’re Fat by Jackie Warner.  I saw Dorothy talk about this book on her blog and immediately wanted to read it.  I’ve been a fan of Jackie Warner’s since she had that show on Bravo called Workout, so Jackie Warner book here I come!
2. Keep up with My Fitness Pal.  I don’t usually record what I eat on the weekends, and so this month I’m going to try hard to keep up with it during the week!  And this is a twofer – keep up with Daily Mile. I totally let that one go in June so keep up with my fitness apps in July!!
3. I have my own monthly challenge I started of doing dips and planks regularly, and have been keeping a record of it on a calendar I printed out.  Here’s to getting in 5 days of those at least each week!  I’ll show you my calendar at the end of the month!
Also, in other news…we LIED and we will reveal the winner of our Tone It Up Challenge Monday!! 🙂  Have a great rest of the month and hope you have some awesome things in store for it!
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Tasty Tuesday: Crockpot Chicken Taco Meat

July 3, 2012 by · 7 Comments

A couple of weekends ago we got together with some of our friends and had a taco dinner much like our wine dinner we had back in January.  We had brisket tacos and chicken tacos, but the chicken taco recipe*** was such a breeze we HAD to share this one with you!  Especially since there are probably a lot of things you could do with the chicken once it’s cooked besides just using it as taco meat.

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons of taco seasoning

1 cup of chicken broth

1 pound of boneless and skinless chicken breasts

Directions:

Clean your chicken and trim off that fat!  Pour your chicken broth into your crockpot then pour in the taco seasoning and let it dissolve in the chicken broth. Then place your chicken breasts in the crockpot.

Not the most exciting picture, but the chicken broth should pretty much cover your chicken breasts and who doesn’t love crockpot liners for an easy clean up??

Put it it on low and cook for 6 hours.  Once it’s finished cooking you’ll have such tender chicken it’s literally falling about trying to get it out of the crockpot.

Then serve it to your guests should you be having a taco dinner party or divide it up to eat throughout your week!

If you use this same recipe and create something other than just the chicken taco meat being sure and SHARE IT with us!! We would love to know!  Hope you enjoy this recipe and how easy it really is!

**source

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