Not So Stress-Relieving

Isn’t running supposed to be stress-relieving?!!?

There was no relieving of any stress on my run this morning; I don’t even know why I went out!! I was pretty miserable the whole time, and it was more stressful than it should have been!!

Last night we got about 4+ inches of snow, and the streets were covered with fluffy powder. I will admit that the first snowfall of the season is the prettiest to look at (after that, it just gets dirty and gross), but it was not pretty to run through. I was plodding through the snow and it took twice as much energy to run through!! Not enjoyable! 🙁

Somehow I managed to run 7 miles.

Moving on. . . .

I’ve been so caught up in using old-fashioned oats, I had nearly forgotten about steel cut oatmeal. Such a shame because steel cut oatmeal is awesome!

Many people don’t make steel-cut oatmeal because it takes quite a bit of time (30+ minutes), but it is easy to make a large batch on the weekend and reheat throughout the week. Trust me, it still tastes good!

Ingredients needed:

Steel-cut oatmeal has gone through less processing than old-fashioned oats. The oats are merely chopped into small pieces rather than crushed and pressed. I start by melting 1/2 tablespoon butter in a large saucepan, then added 1 cup steel cut oatmeal, and toasted for 5-6 minutes.

While the oats were toasting, I brought 3 cups of water to a boil. I then added the boiling water to the saucepan and reduced to a simmer.

The mixture started to become very creamy after about 20 minutes.

After the water had cooked up, I added 1/2 cup half-and-half and 1/2 cup milk and cooked for another 10 minutes. Towards the end, I added 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

After all the liquid had cooked off, I let the oats cool and refrigerated the leftovers.

Steel Cut Oatmeal

(Based off this recipe.)

Ingredients

1/2 tablespoon butter

1 cup steel cut oats

3 cups boiling water

1/2 cup half-and-half

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, melt the butter and then add the oats. Stir occasionally for 5-6 minutes while the oats toast. Add the boiling water and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for about 25 minutes or until water has cooked up.

2. Add half-and-half and milk. Stir to combine and simmer for another 10 minutes. Stir in vanilla.

3. Cool and refrigerate leftovers.

4. Reheat and add toppings as desired: milk, brown sugar, cinnamon, etc.

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Now backing up to Sunday night when we celebrated Craig’s birthday with his parents.

We were going to go to our favorite sushi restaurant: Dish, but they were closed for a private party! Boo!

Instead we ended up at Ichiban.

We were quickly seated and started perusing the menu.

I never know what the rolls look like, so it was nice to have pictures in the menu.

After ordering, we were served miso soup and a salad.

As a group, we ordered a number of entrees and shared the platters as they came out.

Calamari tempura.

Shrimp and vegetable tempura.

A half-eaten boat of sushi.

Rainbow roll.

I don’t remember what this was called, but it was a quail egg on top of fish eggs. I was a little creeped out by how it looked, plus I was pretty full by this time, so I didn’t try it. Craig said it tasted like a runny egg yolk. Overall, it was a good experience. The service was quick and the food was delicious.

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Tonight’s dinner was quick and easy because this soup needed to be used up.

In addition to the soup, I had a grilled cheese sandwich (sandwich thin + provolone cheese), and half of a sweet potato with pumpkin butter.

The soup has a great taste, but I could only stomach so much of it because of the high amount of sodium. The sweet potato was awesome with the pumpkin butter on top!

Question

What (if any) weather conditions prevent your from exercising outside?