PW's 16-Minute Meals: Chicken Fried Steak

Or Fried Round Steak as P-Dub calls it. :)

I decided to start giving the Pioneer Woman's 16-Minute Meals a try. With our hectic schedule, there are many nights when I'm lucky if I'm even home to have dinner with the family, and even more nights when I leave work at 5, run home quick to change and eat something fast and then out the door again to some place I need to be.

Last night was one of those nights. I volunteered to help at out a program at our school/church and was asked to be there 'around' 6 o'clock. So an hour from the time I left work til I needed to be there with a stop at home to change and eat in between.

I needed something fast and more substantial to eat then PB&J or Leftover Pizza. So I decided to test this recipe out on the family. When I saw it I knew the hubs would love it; he's a big fan of Chicken Fried Steak. If its on the menu anywhere we go, I can safely bet that's what he's going to order. So when I did my grocery shopping last week, round steak was on my list.

Picture below is courtesy of the Pioneer Woman...I'm not talented enough to cook and snap pictures of my food at the same time. :) You can find the recipe here:

I paired it up with Knorr's Fettuccine Alfredo Pasta:

And a side of steamed fresh green beans. The kids even liked it...despite the 'yucky green noodles". :) Probably not the 'healthiest' meal, but it sure was good! Next time I might kick it down a notch with the pepper...the kiddos did complain that it 'burned' their mouths a bit...but nothing a big glass of milk couldn't fix. All in all, the meal was a hit! And I walked out of the house at 5:58 P.M.

The Year of Laziness

One year to the day since my last blog entry on 'See Shannon Run'. :(

That snuck up on me fast.

But what can I say. I haven't had the motivation to start running again. Or the time. Or the desire.

And now my pants are too tight again.

I need to get my running mojo back! Maybe that will be one of my resolutions for the upcoming year.

After I pack on the holiday weight again. :)

Working On My Fitness

Sorry, It's been awhile, but I'm still here.

There hasn't been much to post about until recently, but here's a quick 'catch up' of whats been going on!

After nearly 12 weeks, my knee finally decided to stop giving me a hard time. As of today I'm pretty confident that it is back to 100%, but I haven't really giving it a good run for its money lately, or pushed my luck with it too much. :)

We've really lucked out lately here with the weather being so great. The bad part of that though is that its so dark so early now its pretty much impossible for me to take advantage of it. I'm hoping that if the weather stays nice for just a few more weekends, I should be able to get some daylight hours in those days to try and run!

In the meantime, the family and I are now official members of this 'little' place. I started working PT in the salon/spa there so that has made it possible for us to be members. And so far, we've really enjoyed it! Running on a treadmill isn't exactly the same as running in the great outdoors, but its better then nothing, right?

And aparently there is an indoor running track? (according to the website for our location) I have yet to find it in this huge place, but I'm really hoping that its true! It will be my mission to find it this week!

Between the treadmill and the track, I should be able to stay on track with some type of running program as we settle in for winter here.

I'm not one for running in the snow.

I don't think...

I mean I've never actually done it I guess...snow running.

But it doesn't sound fun.

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure

Well, this was supposed to be my 2nd 5k race, but it just didn't work out that way unfortunatly.

I settled for the 1 Mile Family Fun Walk.

Not exactly the same as running the actual 5k, but what ev.

At least it was still a timed 'race'. I finished in 24:25. :)

There were alot of people there! I couldn't walk any faster then that!

Anyhoo, my mom and I did the walk together. She is a 6 year breast cancer survivor and this was our 3rd year I think doing the walk?

Here's my horrible attempt at taking a picture of the two of us with my camera phone...how did I not remember to bring a real camera!!!

In other news: I can hardly believe its been over 7 weeks since I've ran. :( How can that be? My knee has been feeling ALOT better the last week and I was almost temped to just suck it up and run the 5k yesterday but then realized that that probably wouldn't have been a good idea considering it was been SEVEN weeks since I've run...probably wouldn't have been a pretty site.

But I am planning on making a conscious effort to get back into running this week. My plan is still to start the Couch 2 5k program over again and see how far I get before it snows here...which by the way sounds like it could happen this weekend already!

boo!
Crossing my fingers that if it snows on Saturday it will be 80 degrees on Sunday...because that how we roll here. Heaters on one day, air conditioner the next. :)

Follow Up

So after a month of going back and forth on whether or not my knee is okay or not, I finally broke down and called OrthoWest and scheduled an appt with the Orthopedic Surgeon that did my husbands knee surgery last year....

Then I got an email from them today saying they are doing another free injury evaluation clinic at Scheels next week.

Go figure. :)

So now I'm thinking of cancelling the appt. and going to the free clinic and seeing what the PT have to say about it.

My knee has its good days and its bad days.

Today is a good day...I've laid off the high heels all week. :) I think that helped a bit.

Its been 1 month and 1 day since the MS 5K..which was officially my first big race and my last time running. :(

I miss it!

Stupid knee!

I'm thinking about just giving running another try tomorrow..see how it goes.

Maybe its giving me grief in protest of NOT running??

:) Wishful thinking...

Taking A Short Break

Don't worry people, just because the first 5k is behind me, it doesn't mean I've retired from running. :)

I decided to take a week off and rest up to start this adventure all over again. I really intended on starting back up yesterday with my Sun/Tues/Thurs running schedule but things have just been busy with school starting back up and it seems like something has been going on just about every night, last night included, that prevented me from getting back out there.

That, plus the fact that my right knee has decided to act up on me again...which is strange because it hasn't bothered me in weeks...then the morning of the 5k it decided that it was going to start to give me trouble again. That morning I just figured it was due to the rain and cooler weather and would go away..but it has stayed and I'm starting to feel like an old lady with achy joints. :) It's just not letting up. :( So I'm thinking I need to ease back into running again.

My plan is to start the Couch 2 5k program all over again from the beginning, hopefully with tomorrow being the first day. Since I've been running for the last 12 weeks or so, it shouldn't be too difficult to do and if I happen to have to miss a day or so each week, like this week for example, it shouldn't set me back to far.

My reasons for doing this are:

1:) I seem to run much better, longer, stronger when I have a set plan of running/walking combined together as opposed to just one long run for x amt of time. I never really got to a point after about 10 or 12 minutes where I could just keep going. I was convinced I needed some sort of break and I want to work on getting out of that habit before the next race, which leads me to #2

2:) I'm signing up for another race. The Koman Race for the Cure, which is Oct 4th and I'd like to build back up my stamina before that. I think the best and easiest way to do that would be to do another round of, in some way, shape or form, the C25K.


October 4th is really only about 5 or so weeks way, so I'm obviously not going to be able to complete the whole program, but I also haven't really decided 100% yet if I'm actually going to start at week 1 or maybe jump up a few weeks.

Week 3 or 4 wouldn't be so bad to start with...I don't know..Maybe I could do one day of weeks 1 - 3 in one week and then jump up to 4 the next week? I 'should' be able to do that no problem..but we'll see.

I'm hoping that after a week or so off my body hasn't forgotten how to run!

Fast Forward's Race Against MS aka My First 5k!!

The results are in!!

105 Shannon S. F 31 38:55

Not sure how they were timing this thing, but according to them I finished almost a whole minute sooner then the time on the Garmin read...I had my time at 39:48...but I like theirs better. :)

Mandy informed me that there was a big board at the finish line that popped your time up as soon as you crossed, and she even said the time they posted for her did not match the time that was on the board.

I was oblivious to the board at the time, but now I'm curious as to what it said and if it was closer to what I timed myself at. I think they might have made a mistake in the times, but I think it was for our benefit.

They spelled my last name wrong too on the results page. :)

I finished 105 out of 114. But I finished, and under my goal of 45 minutes, so that's all that matters!

The first place 'kid', and I say kid because he is 19, finished with a time of 16:07...crazy! I thought the guy that came in 3rd place had won...he was the first one I remember seeing pass us by, so obviously the first two guys were a blur as they ran by.

I think I would have done much better without all the hills! The first big hill at the start of the race wasn't too bad at the time and I was able to run up it, but once we turned around and ran back the way we came and I had to run up it again at the end of the race...well, that was a different story!

I didn't walk a whole lot, but a lot more then I wanted to.

But HOLLAR for the little kids handing out water!! ;) SOOOO glad they were there!

My legs hurt more today then they did yesterday and more yesterday then Saturday. No pain, no gain I guess??

Nonetheless, I'm proud of myself for doing this!!! I can't believe I actually ran a race! HA!

Here's a few unflattering pics of me looking like I have huge thunder thighs and that I'm picking my shorts out of my crotch :)