Just a small town girl...

Today in my second day of training for my new job, I got a necessary reminder that I am a small town girl and that Pittsburgh is not South Bend.

Most of the clients I will be visiting are in lower income communities. I'm used to that from my old job. In SB, I would go into the projects all the time. I'd hang out with the kids there, and I wasn't scared one bit. Granted, I probably wouldn't feel as safe there at night, but in the day time, the most that ever happened to me was some suspicious looks from the neighbors.

Pittsburgh is different.

In the Pittsburgh projects, there are security cameras, stationed police officers that follow you around because they assume you're a yuppy college kid here for drugs, there are gates, and ID check points. You'd think I was visiting jail, not a housing community.

My partner and I were walking around the apartment buildings trying to find a certain number. They were all even and we needed an odd number. Two ladies were walking down the sidewalk and called out to us, "Hey, where are you from?" My partner responded, "We're social workers. Don't worry -- nobody is in trouble. We're just here from the hospital trying to help someone out." Later, my partner explained to me, "I've found that's the key -- to make sure everyone knows you're not here to cause trouble; that you're not a probation officer or anything." When the ladies saw that we were no threat they laughed and said, "Well, welcome to the terror zone!"

The terror zone. Lower income, HUD housing, projects or not... it broke my heart that the ladies described their home as a "terror zone." But one quick sweep of the eyes and I figured they were probably right.

We walked a bit more, went behind a few buildings to see if there were more doors. Nothing but trash. Back on the sidewalk, a big man with a frayed silk scarf tied around his neck smiled at us. "Hey! Are you from HUD?" We responded no. "Oh, well ok! Do you ladies need some help finding a building or something? You look like you could be from HUD." We explained again that we're social workers from the hospital. "Oh good, good!" He introduced himself and said that he was a member of the Democratic Committee. He said that if we'd be roaming behind those buildings a few months ago, there would've been gang bangers back there, but he proudly pointed out the security cameras on all the buildings. "A lot safer now" he said.

He told us about his story as a veteran and how he's come back to the States after fighting a few wars to "help out here." Somehow through his rambling he got on the track of talking about taxes. Oh yes, he touted that he was a community leader and politician for free, as a volunteer, from the Democratic Committee. He talked about how so much of our debt would be resolved if the higher ups and politicians would increase their taxes, not just that of the citizens, or that if they would take a pay cut and "work with the income of the rest of us, then everyone would have a bit more and we'd be out of this mess."

He was a jolly man. If we didn't have an appointment, I could've talked to him for an hour, at least.

We tried to visit another house, but nobody was home. Actually, I don't know if anyone lives there at all anymore. It looked like it was falling apart, and the glass in the door next to the handle was busted out with the winow shades cut away right there as well. The door was also slightly ajar. There was mail scattered around the porch and you could see the return address was from probation officers. We left a letter, but I honestly think it will just become another part of the collection.

My partner said to me, "I'll make a list of all the areas of town for you and give you notes about each one. I've never been scared, but there's a few neighborhoods that I would recommend going to before noon before anyone wakes up. If you go there after noon, you may not feel as safe. And there's one neighborhood outside the city we're not allowed to go to at all. I had to prove to a cop for a half hour that I wasn't looking for drugs, and he didn't believe me even with my badges and paperwork. "

All of this is very new to me. Sure, it's not NYC or LA, but it's not a small town either. Which is where I come from. I'm entering a very big pond with a very big, hopeful, and rapidly beating heart.

I need your ideas!

Good evening! How is everyone doing? Tomorrow is Friday! Yay!

This morning I decided to kick things off with a green smoothie!!! Man, I've missed these babies! Today I used...

1 frozen banana
8 frozen strawberries
1 cup light vanilla soymilk
1 scoop soy chocolate protein powder
2 handfuls spinach

It was so good with a frozen/creamy texture. Yum! I wolfed it down--maybe a bit too fast!


Mid-morning snack was a Cascadian Farms organic chocolate chip granola bar which I thought was very tough -- I'm a fan of chewy!

For lunch I swung by Whole Foods! I've only been in whole foods once or twice before, and this was my first time getting lunch there.

Today I got vegetable sushi with brown rice:


It's a cucumber, avocado, and carrot all-vegetable sushi. It was really delicious, but the rice was kind of falling off because it was a bit to dry. Oh well, I would still get it again.

Speaking of dry... I was looking through the personal sized desserts that my friend told me were so good, so of course I had to try one. I settled on a vegan black and white cupcake.


This cupcake was... absolutely disgusting. No, I'm serious. I've had plenty of cupcakes in my lifetime (both vegan and non-vegan), and I genuinely believe this was the worst one I've ever had. I don't know if it's a fluke or what. I ate it anyway because I paid for it, but I will not get one again.

Something that was perfectly delightful was this:


For my afternoon snack, I had a few bites of mozzarella cheese.

Dinner was a bunch of grapes, some Kashi crackers with hummus, a few slices of cheese, and a chocolate VitaTop. (I didn't take a picture -- sorry!)

___________

Ok, so I need your ideas!!!!!

In my new job I have no office. My car is basically my office. I have no where to put food. Although I have no refrigerator, it's winter so I'm sure my car would be cold enough. But I definitely have no microwave.

Therefore, I need lunch ideas for while I'm working!!!! I need ideas that don't need to be heated up most specifically and things that are ok sitting in a chilly car for a few hours.

Now, I prefer vegetarian and vegan food. But I'm not really a vegetarian, so I wouldn't be oppose to hearing other ideas--but no meat is my preference. So, please if you have any ideas for meals or items to take for lunch, that would be wonderful! And if you know anyone else who might have some good ideas, please direct them this way!

Thanks guys!!!!!

vegetarian goodness

Hey Guys! I'm still not posing every day like I'd like to, but what can you do?!?!

So first of all, for any of the people who have read through my blog or know me personally, you know I've mentioned the "financial sacrifices" and "monetary difficulties" Hubbie and I have had since we moved to Pittsburgh. I think I've also mentioned that when we moved here, I had to take a retail position because that's what was available at the time.

Well... now I have some good news!!!!

I GOT A JOB!!!

Like, a real job -- a full time job; one that requires a degree -- MY degree! I'm a social worker again and it feels so good!

In short, my new job has me working in two of the local hospitals. When someone is admitted to the hospital and they don't have health insurance, I help them fill out all the crazy legal papers and sort through the necessary documentation to help them apply for emergency medical assistance and other forms of government medical aid. I've had one day of training so far, and there's going to be a LOT to learn! But I've VERY excited! So a huge thank you to anyone who has prayed for me or thought of me while in my job search.

Ok, onto the FOOD!

Today was grocery shopping day and I went to Giant Eagle. I'm proud to say I was about 35 dollars under this week's budget! Woo hoo! Here's the loot:


--Bananas
--Milk
--Yogurt
--Soymilk
--Turkey deli meat
--Mozzarella cheese
--Apples
--Broccoli
--Baby carrots
--Grapes
--Whole wheat bread
--Eggs


--TLC garlic and herb crackers
--Lean Cuisines (not the most whole foods option, I know...)
--VitaTops
--Vans frozen waffles
--Morning Star veggie sausage patties
--granola bars
--Frozen corn
--Brownie Mix
--Balance Bars

Dinner tonight was another "first" in my recipe repertoire. I made vegetarian empanadas for dinner with baked bananas and a chocolate rum sauce for dessert.

Look at the goodness!


The dough was SO good. Not a traditional Spanish or Mexican dough from what I remember -- more like a typical pizza dough recipe. But it worked really well! Here's the recipe:

2-3 tbs olive oil
1 1/2 to 2 cups flour
1 egg
dash of salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1/2 c. water

Mix flour, salt, and sugar together in a bowl. In separate bowl, whisk egg, olive oil, and 1/2 c. of water together. Add to dry ingredients.

Here's the ingredients I used in the filling for the empanadas:

veggie sausage patties diced up
egg whites
raisins soaked in hot water
spices: parsley, oregano, garlic powder, cumin


The dough recipe made four nicely sized empanadas which Hubbie and I devoured completely. :)

Dessert!!!!!

I sliced two bananas length-wise and I based them in a butter/sugar/rum mixture (can you tell me what could be better?!) and I baked them at 350 for about 15 minutes. Then I topped them with a chocolate rum sauce that was addicting and the perfect blend of bitter/sweet.


I know the brown sauce on the brown plate doesn't make for the best photo presentation, but those are the plates I have. Oh well! It was very, very good!

And because of all the hard work I did today (har har har! *wink!*) I deserved a holiday brew. Samuel Adam's Cranberry Lambic to be exact!!!!



I really love Samuel Adam's beer. See, I will PROVE to you how much I love Sam Adams:


See! That's me as a college junior at Samuel Adam's grave! Wait... I'd never tasted beer till my senior year. But omg, I still wear that dress and it's from high school!!!

But I definitely grew to appreciate Sam Adam's namesake brew:


(By the way, those are my brand new Emu boots courtesy of my darling husband who gave them to me as an early Christmas present. I was so excited!!!!!!!)


As far as workouts go, this morning I did some Cardio from Power 90 and the HRM said I burned approx. 550 calories. Tonight I'm going to try and do some sculpting and weights! (Ha, we'll see how that goes!)

Hope everyone has a great night!

"One giant step for women"

Here's an article that I'll post in its entirety from Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette about a woman who broke the male record for the number of times a person has climbed up the stairs of the Cathedral of Learning at Pitt. (The cathedral is the second highest educational building in the world.) It's a really awesome story of determination and willpower to not give up!
_____________

Diana Marongiu-Lutz is an ultrarunner and a triathlete. In the spring, she and a friend started climbing the steps inside the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning as crosstraining.

The first time, she went up the 36 flights three times.

Then she learned that the female record for the number of times up -- they don't walk back down, they take an elevator -- was just 24 trips.

So, in June, Ms. Marongiu-Lutz, of Natrona Heights, went up 40 times. And that's when she decided she wanted to break the male record -- 101 times set by cyclist Danny Chew in 2007.

"A friend of mine said, 'Diana, you're crazy. You can't break the male record.'

"That really got me. To hear a woman saying that, it really bothered me. She said 'You have to know your limitations.' "

Ms. Marongiu-Lutz, 44, trained over the summer and fall by biking, running, swimming and lifting weights. On Saturday morning, she set out to climb the steps 102 times.

It took her 23 hours and 34 minutes. Mr. Chew set the record in 17 hours.

"I just kept on going and going," she said. "I felt really good up until 65 times."

But around 80, she said, it started to go downhill. She became sleepy and nauseated.

"The last 10 times, it was really rough."

But, she continued, "I proved that a woman could do it."

While climbing the steps at the second tallest educational building in the world is hard, Ms. Marongiu-Lutz said it does not take more energy than ultrarunning.

"It's more difficult because it's mentally challenging because you're in the same stairwell the whole time," she said.

She took a few bathroom breaks and had snacks every time she reached the top deck. Her sustenance included water with sea salt, fruit, Jell-O, organic peanut butter and jelly and homemade energy bars.

Yesterday, she said she was only "a little bit" sore.

"I used all my back muscles and my glutes," she said.

Ms. Marongiu-Lutz invited Mr. Chew for her challenge, and he joined her for the first 62 times up the steps on Saturday. He stopped at that point but stayed at the Cathedral talking to her friend and her husband to watch her break his record.

"I was pretty impressed," Mr. Chew said. "She kept saying 'I'm just going to do one more, one more, one more.' And slowly, the numbers creeped up."

He was sad to see his record broken, he said, but happy for Ms. Marongiu-Lutz.

Since 1991, Mr. Chew said that he has set a number of records involving the Cathedral of Learning steps.

His fastest time going up all 36 flights is 3 minutes 38 seconds, set in 1993. He also has gone up the steps nine times in just one hour.

"I just can't do these records anymore," said Mr. Chew, 47, whose goal is to ride his bike 1 million miles.

He's now at 665,000.

Mr. Chew does, however, have an 18-year-old nephew who will be visiting over the holidays. Like his uncle, he is a long-distance cyclist.

"He may go for the 102 record."

______________________

So how about you? Do you have any life goals or tall ambitions that you're determined to do? (Whether it's fitness related or not!) What obstacles are in front of you that you feel you have the power to knock over and defeat?

vegan zucchini oatmeal chocolate peanut butter brownies

Wow, so I had this really awesome post with lots of pictures and such almost completely finished and BAM!!!!! out of nowhere, some mysterious Internet fairy took it all away and left the "Undo" button with nothing to correct. I have no idea what happened, but needless to say, I was very upset.

So in short.....

I got an unexpected day off today! Yay!
Slept in.

For breakfast I had a frozen Yoplait Whips yogurt which was so good because it felt like I was having ice cream for breakfast.

The hubbie and I cleaned throughout the morning and now our house looks awesome! Double yay!

For lunch I had some Kashi 7-grain stone ground crackers spread with hummus and topped with some Vermont white cheddar cheese that I nuked for a few seconds in the microwave:


I also had an unpictured small glass of soymilk with some chocolate protein powder and I had half of a ruby red grapefruit:


And then for dessert, I munched on a piece of brittle that my mom sent me in her package:


Mmm!

After cleaning up the kitchen, I decided to dirty it up again from some holiday baking! After searching through recipes on Spark Recipes, I adapted a few of them and came up with a Vegan Zucchini Oatmeal Chocolate Peanut Butter brownie. (Whew! That's a lot to say! But so good!)

Here's what I used:

1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
1 c. brown sugar
2 tsp. pure maple syrup
1 c. oats ground in the food processor
1 c. organic all purpose flour
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. cocoa powder
1 1/2 c. organic shredded zucchini
1/3 c. organic chunky peanut butter

In one bowl, combine applesauce, brown sugar, and maple syrup. In a separate bowl, combine oats, flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder till mixed well. All to the liquid ingredients and stir in the zucchini and peanut butter.

Spread/pat evenly into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan and baking in oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.


They looked so good! They're a bit more on the cakey side as opposed to the dense and fudgey side, but very moist and delicious. However, I decided to ice them! Brownies are just better with some messy icing in my opinion!

For the icing I used:

1/4 c. unsalted butter
1/2 c. smooth peanut butter
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tbs cocoa powder
3 tbs soymilk

Melt butter on low heat till melted. Take off heat and stir in the sugar, cocoa powder, and soymilk. Then stir in peanut butter till spreadable. (I like my icing to be kind of thin and messy though!)

After I iced the brownies, of course I cut them up and dove in!!!!

Hubbie and I each had a piece. (Erm... ok, I had two. But they're small!!!)


*sigh*

They turned out so good.

Now my lovely husband is being a dear and washing the dishes for me since I made him brownies! What a sweetheart, huh?

i realize it's an odd combination

Woah! Blogging! Whew....

So I had every intention of working out last night but a mini "adventure" came over Pittsburgh. We had lots of wind last night that knocked out our power from about 3pm to 9pm.

When I got home I immediately pulled out all the tea lights I had left over from the wedding last year. Once the sun set at about 5pm, this was our light source:


After awhile, we decided to go out to get dinner somewhere with electricity and heat. Then, we went Christmas shopping for some of our family. By the time we got home, we had lights and heat and were even able to watch all but the first seven minutes of Glee!

This morning for lunch, I nomed on a Clif bar. I spent the morning reading some blogs and catching up on the Internet world. :-)

Lunch was an odd combination, I realize that, but it was yummy!


I had a small bowl of edamame with a breakfast burrito of scrambled egg whites, cut up veggie sausage, and some Vermont white cheddar cheese.

I also had a few small pieces of fudge that my mom sent me in a package a few days ago. :-)

While eating lunch, I watched The Biggest Loser. (I know eating in front of the TV is typically a no-no, but hey...) I seriously love the Biggest Loser. It's inspirational to me -- sometimes I even cry! It got me motivated to keep going in my workouts and keep trying to eat right in spite of the holiday seasons.

(That being said, I plan on making snickerdoodles this afternoon! HAHA!)

a personal victory

My morning was full of errands. I hate running errands!

This afternoon I went into work till closing. The holidays are definitely approaching. There were more people, more questions, more coupons, more clothes in the fitting room, etc etc.

I even had one woman explain her whole divorce story as a means of asking me whether or not the 150 dollar sweater dress in her hands was a justified purchase.

When I finally got out of work it was pitch black outside and freezing cold. Mentally and physically, I was drained.

I got into my car and blasted the heat which started out to be shockingly cold air. A text message from my husband: Do you want to work out tonight? I was going to do CardioX, but I can wait for you to get home.

::grumble grumble, complain, internal battle rages::

Guess what?

I did it. It was late and all I wanted was to get into my pajamas, but darn it, you better believe I worked out and did the whole DVD start to finish! I could definitely feel the effects of not working out for so long, but it felt SO GOOD to know I didn't give up.

My reward? (Other than an awesome sense of personal accomplishment, of course!)

Curling up on the couch with my kitty while watching Gossip Girl!

I felt much better doing that post-workout than if I'd just plopped down with a pitty party cookie. I'm happy. :-)