Friday Favorites, 8.10 - I'm baaaack!!!

I’m baaaaaack! 

So much has been going on this week and I have so much to fill you in on!  I do have to say, I MISS my daily blogging therapy and promise to never take such a long break again!  Today is Friday, and I normally do Friday Favorites, but honestly, these are going to be more like tangents since I have so many random things to fill you in on!  Umm, yeah, this is gonna be a bit of a long one! J

Here are my Friday Favorites (a.k.a. tangents).  Let’s start from the beginning!

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 On Tuesday I had a couple of people who deserved TROPHIES in my book: 

1.     Rachel, the bestie!  She received a HUGE promotion at work, and is going to be a big boss at her school now.  Wooohooo!  So proud of her and I know she is going to do a fantastic job!!!  We went to the school board meeting to watch her get officially announced in her new position and then went out to dinner at PF Chang’s afterward to celebrate.

2.     Javier, the hubby.  He receives a huge trophy for being so thoughtful!  He met us at the restaurant because he was coming straight from an appointment that he had been at all day.  And when he walked in, guess what he had in his hand?  Flowers.  For the bestie on her special day.  That’s one of the things that I love about him, his attention to detail.

3.     Who doesn’t get a trophy?  Me!!  I hurt myself during my workout on Tuesday.  I know this may be a silly question, but do women have groin muscles like men do?  Well if we do, I hurt mine!  I went to an earlier class than I normally do on Tuesday’s because I needed to make it to the board meeting on time to see my friend.  The class that I go to on Wednesday’s with the instructor that totally kicks my butt…well, that same instructor gives the same class on Tuesday’s too, and that’s the one I went to.  When I walked in (about ten minutes late) they were already fully into the workout!  So of course, I did the smart thing and instead of taking a couple of minutes to warm-up off to the side, I jumped right into the workout!  This is the instructor that I told you recently got certified in CrossFit and has since changed the structure of his class to make it straight CF.  I definitely ain’t complaining!!!  We were standing on steps with 3 rizers under each side doing lunges, forward and backward, and I had a 10 pound weight plate in each hand.  On one of the lunges backward, off of the step, I felt a pop in my muscle at the top of my leg where the thigh meets the hip.  The pop was weird; it was so shocking and quick!  That’s when I did smart thing #2 and kept going full-force for the rest of the class instead of stopping.  Oh, and then I ran 2 miles on it later too.  Needless to say, that was noooooot the smartest thing I’ve ever done!  It took me back to my high school days when I continued to play basketball after I had torn my ACL and when it popped out I would just pop it back in and kept going like nothing was wrong.  Ouch!!  #craziness 

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A quick Run streak update:

RUNstreak: as of tonight, 70 days and counting…

My “groin” or whatever it is that I hurt is feeling much better after taking it easy during my workouts for a couple of days.  I continued with my runs, though so as not to break my run streak.  I have to admit, though, that Tuesday night’s run and Wednesday morning’s run were ROUGH.  I was hurting sooo bad that I had to stop and walk some.  Way more often than I would have liked!  And while I was able to finish the two miles each time, I did end up having to walk quite a bit, and being that I don’t normally do this, my anal-retentive self is having a hard time calling those real “runs.”  My hubs tells me that I should give myself a break and give myself credit for even trying to run while injured.  I guess I’ll listen to him!  I may have  had to stop and walk some but I still did more running than walking so I’ll still count it!  I felt muuuuuch better during yesterday’s run and am feeling almost back to normal today!

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The “Greatness is ours” Nike commercial.  The Pr and Marketing people at Nike are amazingly good at their jobs!!  They are right on the money. Every. Single. Time.  This latest commercial, in two words?  Inspiring and motivating!  I read a little bit of background about the young man who made the commercial and his story is great!!  You can read about his story here.  What I love most about this campaign is the fact that it lets us believe that there is already greatness within us all.  In a time where we are all inspired yet humbled watching the Olympic greats, Nike tells us that we may not all be Olympic athletes but we all have miracles within us.  It’s beautiful, really!

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Friday favorites – OLYMPIC edition:

-         Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings win gold – love, love, love them and have been following them since High School!!!  I know I mostly talk about Basketball, which was undoubtedly my favorite, but I played (and loved) Volleyball too.  They were my favs then and they continue to be my favs now…and I WISH they would go for Gold in Rio in 2016 too!

-         Alison Felix – 200m gold FINALLY!!

-         Kenya’s David Rashida setting the World Record in the Men’s 200m race – love his story because he is such a nice, simple man from humble roots…and he runs to make his country and fellow tribesmen proud!

-         Women’s Soccer team wins the gold…and gains redemption from losing the World Cup to the same team last year

-         Ashton Eaton winning gold in the Decathlon – although no one really doubted he could do it, it was nice that he actually did do it.  I love that he’s so down-to-Earth, and in an interview I watched with him and the silver medallist, Trey Hardee, whom he considers a friend, Ashton credited him Hardee with helping him train to be more successful.  Talk about humble, which is an unknown concept for some athletes celebrating their Olympic success.  I don’t wish to take anything away from Usain bolt because his athletic accomplishments are impressive to say the least, but it’s nice when an athlete doesn’t’ feel the need to toot his own horn.

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And my last favorite and something you GOTTA TRY – I made this crazy simple crockpot Bar-b-que chicken earlier this week and it was thebomb.com!!!!  I can’t take credit for this recipe; I didn’t make it up myself, I actually saw it somewhere, I just can’t remember where!!   Here’s my version of the recipe:

 

“Crazy good” Crockpot Bar-b-que Chicken

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts

1/2 c diced red onion

1 cup diced pineapple

1 bottle bar-b-que sauce

Preparation:

1.        Place the chicken breasts at the bottom of the crockpot and put the onion, pineapple, and sauce over the top of it.

2.      Put the lid on, turn it to LOW and cook it for 6-8 hours.  Enjoy!

That’s it.  So easy and delicious, my favorite two things!  I made drop biscuits, homemade coleslaw, baked beans, and corn to go along with it.  We had lots of leftovers of the chicken and I froze it for a quick meal sometime next week.  I’m thinking next time we’ll make pulled-chicken bar-b-que sandwiches.  I will definitely be putting this one on the menu rotation!

Five questions for you:

1.     What are some of your favorite things right now?
2.     What was your favorite workout this week?  When you get injured, do you take it easy like you should?
3.     Have you seen the Nike commercial?  What are some of your favorite inspiring commercials being played right now?
4.     What are some of your favorite Olympic moments so far?
5.     What was your favorite meal that you made this week?

Lunch date, Olympic Opening Ceremonies and Late-night Pho

Yesterday was a great day, filled with great food!

I had lunch with two of my favorite people, my best friend Rachel and her mom, Dian who I call “Ma” because she is like a second mother to me.  I love spending time with these two ladies!  Whether it’s a road trip, early morning breakfast meet-up, or lunch or shopping date, they make the hours slip by like seconds!  I feel so comfortable with them and can let my hair down, so to speak, and be my real (crazy/dramatic/silly/random/OCD/sarcastic) self and they don’t even get scared away! 

We ate at Mi Luna, a Spanish Tapas restaurant, in Rice Village. 

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Mi Luna is an old favorite, although I hadn’t eaten there in almost a year.  We ordered several Tapas, including some of my favs like Empanadas and goat cheese with marinara sauce and garlic toast, and beef kabob skewers over Saffron rice.  DELICIOUS!!!  It was Ma’s first time eating there and she really enjoyed the food.  Rach and I considered ordering some Sangrias but since it was only noon on a Friday, we decided to be good.  I regret that decision now, though; we totally should have done it.  I mean, it’s always 5 o’clock somewhere, right?!

After eating, we walked around the many shops in Village Arcade, which is famous for lots of little shops and restaurant.

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I love this area and used to frequent it often when I lived inside the loop with some college roommates back when I first moved to Houston.  We shopped for clothes and makeup.  Rachel is THE person to shop with if you really want to get serious about it – she really knows her stuff!!  Shopping with her is like shopping with Stacy and Clinton from TLC’s “What Not To Wear,” which happens to be one of my favorite shows.  I may or may not follow both of them (and of course, Carmindy too) on Twitter.  #crazyfan

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Shopping kind of turned out to be “window shopping” since neither one of us really bought anything.  I take that back, I did buy some body spray from Victoria’s Secret…but refrained from going crazy on the makeup (another obsession of mine!) even though we went to MAC and Sephora.  Hubs, aren't you proud of me? Man, I’ve come such a long way. #progress

Afterward, I came home and took a nap.  I have a CONFESSION to make: I slept through the Olympics Opening Ceremony even though my daughter kept trying to come and wake me up like I asked her to, and even though I was being a grumpy napper and shooing her away.  I finally woke up around 7:30, got dressed and went out and ran 2.6 miles in 24:39 minutes with a pace of 9:30min/mile.  #proud  #usuallyslowerbutnottodaysucka

After coming home and cleaning up, I was fortunate to catch the repeat of the Opening Ceremonies.  The Parade of Nations literally made me cry; I’m such a baby sometimes!  It’s just unfathomably amazing to me how the Olympics magically brings so many people from different cultures, backgrounds, languages, heritages, all together in one place at one time.  And for that one night, everyone is so united – and EVERYTHING else is put aside: language barriers, wars, civil unrests, and religious differences.  It’s all so absolutely incredible!  Of course, the next day things are different because the competition begins but for one magical night, all the rest falls away and is forgotten. 

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I thought the ceremony was fantastic and loved all the little surprises they included.  Great job, London!!

While watching the ceremonies, my hubs came home from work and it was then that I realized 1. that I had not eaten since noon, and 2. that was almost 12 hours ago, and 2. no wonder I could feel a huge headache coming on.

 

The solution?  Late-night Pho.

 

We went to one of our favorite Vietnamese restaurants, Pho 24, since it stays open reaaaaaly late.  We love the atmosphere of the place, love how the owners always greet us like we’re their long-lost personal friends, and (of course) love the food!  The little one and I ordered our all-time favorite, the Pho Tai.  If you’ve never tried Pho, I encourage you to go out and try it TODAY!!  Pho, in case you are wondering, is a rice noodle soup with the most flavorable broth and meat.  I favor the steak, which is super-thinly sliced and served raw but actually cooks in the steaming hot broth while you stir it around a bit.

Pho, with the meat cooking in the broth.

I am convinced Pho is the cure for everything.  Or at least, it’s cured many of my ailments over the years.  Colds, body aches, tummy aches, hangovers (tried and true from my partying days!), Pho cures anything that aches!! 

Pho Tai once it's been sturred around.

The hubs ordered his favorite pork porridge stew.  We both got some sandwhiches too; I got the Chargrilled Pork and he got a fried egg and pate one.

Chargrilled Pork Bánh mì  (Sandwhich)

Hubby's food. Yum!!

Hubby getting his food ready.

Only this crazy little family does things like go for Pho at midnight on a Friday.  We are so random and I love it! 

Little one enjoying her Pho.  She's becoming a pro on the chopsticks!

I'm doing a happy dance on the inside.

One last thing I have to tell you about!  I downloaded the Instagram Collage app to my Ipod while we were at dinner.  (The restaurant even has free Wifi too, does it get any better?!?)

Late night Pho!

Having lots of fun playing with it!  Expect to see lots more collage pics like that one.  Kind of like all of the # you saw in this post!  J