I’m sharing another Pinterest recipe that we tried tonight and it might be my favorite yet! It’s amazing and better than most Italian restaurants I’ve been too. I’m picky about ravioli, but this was so good!

Ingredients:

20-oz frozen ravioli (four cheese if you can find it)

1 jar sundried tomato Alfredo sauce

2 tablespoons white wine

Handful cherry tomatoes – chopped

1/2 c. chopped fresh basil

Grated parmesan cheese

Prepare pasta according to package. 

Pour Alfredo sauce into saucepan. Pour 2 tbsp white wine into sauce jar and mix around, then pour into saucepan. Add basil and tomatoes. Let simmer for 5 or so minutes, until it’s heated through. 

Either toss with pasta or pour over. Top with parmesan cheese and grated basil (if desired).

I used a frozen brand of ravioli called Celetano (I think?) and the Classico sun-dried Alfredo sauce. I would NOT recommend the Buitoni brand, not good. 

These are 110 calories, with 9 grams of sugar. Honestly, they taste exactly like a Kit-Kat bar. I love anything that is a wafer. These are delicious. 

Now I’m not saying these are necessarily ‘healthy’. But I feel much better about eating the above two items over the 7 oreos. My sweet tooth thanks you Skinny Cow! 

Saturday after my long run, we loaded up and took Sophie exploring up North. We heard about a great apple pie shop in Julian and decided we needed to check it out. On our drive up there, we passed through Cuyamaca State Park and we are already planning a trip back there to hike Stonewall Peak. 

It was a fun day, we ate some yummy BBQ, bought TWO pies, saw a little bit of snow and the desert. 

In case you missed them on Facebook…

Here are my spiffy barefoot shoes. They have the Vibram sole and weigh a mere 4 ounces. They have a 0mm drop, truly minimalist. I fell in love. 

On a side note, I would recommend buying a more neutral colored shoe. Yes, I know this sounds vain, but these shoes just don’t go with any of my running gear. I look a little bit ridiculous. That is beside the point though, they are great shoes!

My first minimalist run was back in the beginning of December. I ran 1.5 miles and was instantly sore when I got back to my car. I had been warned, but I thought, I’m in decent shape, 1.5 miles is nothing. Well, I was wrong. I couldn’t walk straight for 3 full days, but I didn’t care. The minimalist shoe changed everything about running for me. I’m not trying to recommend barefoot running to everybody, it’s definitely a choice you have to make for yourself. At the end of the day, you have to wear whatever shoe helps YOU run your personal best. But if you are the least bit interested in running minimal, I would definitely encourage you to give it a try. Once the soreness was gone and I was able to build up my endurance in them, I really noticed how much time they took off my 5 and 8k pace. The farthest I’ve run is only 6 miles, but not one time have my feet hurt and the best part – no shin splints! 

The biggest reason I wanted to try minimalist running is because of shin splints. I had been to the Dr. about 3 different times over shin splints. For whatever reason, my shins always bruise and I’m in a lot of pain. My Dr., who just happened to be a marathoner as well, couldn’t figure out why I was having so much trouble. I went to a running speciality store in D.C. where they filmed me running and broke down my running style and assessed my gait/strike. But nothing that they suggested was helping. I didn’t run much after my 1/2 marathon last year because of the shin splints. 

After 2 months, I’ve yet to have a shin splint or bruised shins. I did end up twisting my ankle. But I honestly believed that was from a beach run, not really related to the shoes. So in my opinion, the barefoots are serving their purpose! I’m going to look in to buying a more true minimal ‘road/racing’ shoe, but I’ve been VERY happy with my Merrell Gloves. 

This is just my personal opinion and experience. Like I said before, minimalist running is not for everybody. With that said, I’m not sure I can ever put back on a regular running shoe. If for no other reason, they are so heavy now!

I will be running my second 1/2 marathon in just a few short weeks, excited to see how I feel about minimal running after adding some distance. Until then, happy running!

I started out with this 10lb Danskin kettlebell from Wal-Mart. It was around $16. Very reasonable price for a good product.

After a few weeks of using the 10lb bell, I had ‘outgrown’ it. So I looked into buying a kettlebell that was adjustable, because that just made more sense to me. So of course, I went with Jillian Michael’s kettlebell.

It’s adjustable up to 20lbs. Which trust me, is about all you will need. You will get an awesome workout using 15-20lbs. JM’s bell is a little clunky and noisy, but I’ve gotten used to it. It’s a little bit harder to do snatches with because it’s heavy duty. Where as the Danskin one is rubber on the outside. But my arms have adjusted to the JM one.

Now, I started out doing Jillian Michael’s Shred it With Weights. I still alternate between the two workouts.

Pros:

1. They are both awesome workouts.

2. She mixes intervals in with the kettlebell that keeps your HR up.

3. She drives home good form and practices it.

4. 30 minutes!! What???

5. She has modifications if you are new to kettlebells or fitness in general.

I don’t have many cons except, it does get a bit boring. Boring maybe, but the intensity never really dies. If I find myself getting bored, I add a weight plate. Or I’ll do both workouts back-to-back. Overall a great kettlebell DVD and it really helped me build a strong core which is essential to running.

Now, to help with the ‘boring’ factor I decided to try Bob Harpers Kettlebell Cardio Shred dvd.

 I main reason I’m doing this review is I didn’t read any before purchasing it and now wish I had. Don’t get me wrong, it can still be a killer workout and in fact is. I had to remove a weight plate while doing it this morning. My gripe is his form along with the other trainer. There were a few times I thought she was going to hurt herself slinging the kettlebell around. There were a few moves that were just hard to keep correct form because of the sequence of moves. The windmill comes to mind. I really liked how he would build on moves. Like starting out with a basic squat, to adding the bell to make it front loaded, then adding the upright row at the end. Really gets your HR up there. But when there are so many moves that your form starts slacking, I have a problem with that. So I would say, unless you really know good form, stay away from this DVD. 

So there is my review, take it for what’s it worth. 🙂 Don’t let kettlebells scare you, they are amazing and torch calories. I absolutely love them!

I’ve yet to figure out why it foams so much at first, but it does go away. 

What you need:

1 Lemon

1/2 Lime – optional.

Crystal Light ‘Pure’ lemonade drink packets. – I use the ‘Pure’ because it’s sweetened with Stevia and not aspartame. 

1 scoop vanilla whey protein

8-10 ounces of water

10-12 ice cubes.

(Depending on how big your blender is.)

Blend, but leave ice a little chunky.

This makes about 2 cups for me. So I just refrigerate the rest for later.