Happiness Hit Her Like a Train on a Track..

What a week, and its only Tuesday!  Two big things to share today, a lovely and simple shrimp pasta dish I made last night and my new favorite songs.  Oh, and the end of Oprah!  Well, she's not dying, but it is the end of an era.  I will miss your makeover shows and the chance to win all your favorite things..

So, pasta first.

I had some frozen shrimpies and peas I wanted to use up, as well as some grape tomatoes in the fridge that looked like they were on their way out..thus Vegetable Shrimp Linguine was born!  I'll tell you what I did, but nothing is very exact, and I imagine mushrooms and asparagus tips going in the next batch I make.

whole grain pasta (throw pasta into boiling water when you add wine, and in 7 minutes, your meal is done!)
olive oil
grape tomatoes
garlic
white wine
fresh shrimp, peeled and clean
peas
fresh spinach
Parmesan cheese

I used a couple tablespoons olive oil in a pan with a lid and thew in the grape tomatoes and let them sizzle and roast for about 5-7 minutes on medium high heat, stirring occasionally.  I added a couple dashes of red pepper flakes here, and will consider adding more next time.  Once the tomatoes looked soft and a little brown, I added a minced glove of garlic and stirred until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Next, I took off the lid and turned down the heat to medium and added two big splashes of white wine (about half cup?), any type should do fine.  This, by the way, smells amazing!  Let the wine bubble for another 3 minutes, then added half a pound of fresh shrimp. 
After 2-3 minutes or so, when shrimp look half done, add about a cup frozen peas and three large hand fulls of spinach, stirring so all the spinach is wilted.  Stir in a quarter cup of grated Parmesan cheese and grind or two of black pepper.  By now, the shrimp should be pink and curled.  Add your cooked pasta to your pot of goodness, stir and plate!  Top with some more cheese if ya want.  Sauce is somewhat thin, will get thicker as it stands, or if you add more cheese!!


Now on to the new tunes..

This is my new motivational-bang the steering wheel-roll down the windows-run a little harder-mantra

Dog Days Are Over-Florance + The Machines
Mr. E's Beautiful Blues-Eels
Heavy Metal Drummer-Wilco
Sing-My Chemical Romance

Hope you're rocking out! Pin It Now!

The Land of Enchantment

It has been a while since my last post, and lots has happened.  Two friends got married, clean eating took a break, but is now back, and the sun made its first appearance in Ohio since last summer.

I also took a work trip out to Socorro, New Mexico.  The details of the trip are rather dull, in sharp contrast to the green chile cheeseburger I enjoyed, as well as wood oven baked pizzas and fajitas.  If you are even passing through Socorro, let me know.  I am intimately familiar with the good places to eat--it only takes a four day stay to eat at all of them..

On my birthday no less, our group stopped at the Buckhorn Tavern in San Antonio, NM for one of the best burgers I've had.  I enjoyed mine with onion rings and a tall glass of water.  Thank you Gil for the pictures.

The weather in New Mexico was amazing, cool around dawn and dusk and pleasantly warm at high noon.  I'm hoping the sun stays around these parts a little longer :)



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All the way home..

I was a little piggy this weekend.  I weee weee weeed for 13.1 miles, my half marathon debut.  My goal was to finish, and that I did, in 2 hours and 45 minutes.  I was worried about my knee, and after a couple miles it stopped bothering me so I was quite pleased.  Hubby finished in 1 hour and 53 minutes, he is a flying piglet.  I used my new GPS watch on the race, you can see the course, my pace and elevation here recorded from my watch.

Overall opinion: I'm glad I did it, it was nice training for the race, gave me something to work towards.  I am fairly confident I will never run a full marathon, no-sir-eee.  I'm excited to get better at my 5K pace now. Pin It Now!