Month: May 2011

Thank you, anonymous! You’ve made me smile today : )

Smile Friday challenge: Make someone else smile! Tell your spouse he/she is looking extra-fine, tell a co-worker you enjoyed his/her presentation, tell your kid you’re proud of him/her, make an extra effort to compliment someone’s workout on Tumblr – whatever!

Be generous with your kindness. Even a little something can give someone a huge boost for the entire day.

It felt great to run to Body Pump! Because I took the most direct route from my house, I went up a huuuge hill. Crazy steep. I’ll take a picture of it sometime, since it’s right in my neighborhood. I had to walk stagger up much of it, and as a result, my first mile took nearly 12 minutes. The second mile was 9:22 though!

Body Pump is very interesting. I was expecting more of a step-aerobics-type cardio class with hand weights, but it was more of a lifting class with less emphasis on cardio. We used barbells with weights and did sets of exercises that worked different muscles — squats, dead lifts, bicep curls, bench presses, crunches, etc. The toughest were the squats, but probably because I had just run.

Side note: The instructor was a ripped eastern European woman named Ola. She had an awesome accent.

The 45-minute class flew by because of the fun music and how interested I was in learning all the moves. I’ll definitely be sore tomorrow. Can’t wait to go back next Thursday now that I know what to expect!

This post is all about carrots. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This is my favorite way to eat carrots! Roasting carrots brings out their natural sweetness in a way you maybe haven’t tasted before. I don’t really know how to explain it. You just have to make them to believe!

First, preheat your oven to 400 degrees at exactly 8:11 p.m.

Grab yo’self some carrots. You can peel them, but I bought organic on a whim, so I just rinsed them and called it good.

Violently chop off the tops and bottoms.

Carefully slice each carrot in half lengthwise. Doing this violently will possibly result in losing a finger and definitely losing your pride.

Spread the carrot halves on a baking sheet. Drizzle them with olive oil, then toss the carrots to coat. Sprinkle with salt and peppa to taste. I went with just sea salt. Throw some thyme on there — fresh if you have it, dried if you like the easier/cheaper route.

I go heavy on the thyme. Thyme is on my side.

Roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until the carrots are shriveled and tender and amazing. I like to go on the longer side because I think it’s super yummy when the bottoms get a bit burned. Very flavorful! But go for less time if you’d like them to be more firm.

I love carrots because they’re pretty inexpensive and nice ‘n’ healthy. Try eating them like this if you’re sick of chomping on raw carrot sticks!

And check out the original recipe for roasted carrots by Pastor Ryan via The Pioneer Woman.

EXTRA CREDIT: Check out this recipe for roasted carrot hummus. Ohhh yum!