A Quad Burning, Gasp Inducing Morning

Have you ever had one of those weeks that’s physically a day behind where you are mentally? I’m stuck in one of those right now. Ie yesterday felt like it was Wednesday, today felt like it was Thursday, etc. Hmph! I am taking solace in the fact that Ben and are going on vacation this weekend and Christmas is right around the corner – wheee!

We have exactly 3 more gifts to get for our families, and then we’ll be completely done Christmas shopping. I think we’ll pick them up while we’re traveling this weekend. More on that later though.

So – I HAVE to tell you about my workout this morning. After I wrote about the sprint interval treadmill routine on Monday, Naomi sent me another one to try. I am not kidding you – it was the most challenging treadmill routine I have EVER done! From the Oxygen Magazine website, here it is:

Yes, it’s only 25 minutes long but I promise you – it least for me – that it is the most leg burning, gasp inducing 25 minutes you will ever experience! Ok that made it sound awful, but seriously this was so challenging and kicked.my.butt. In a word – it was awesome! Try it out and let me know what you think!

In other news, you’ll be happy to see that tonight’s dinner does not involve, a.) soup b.) something made in the crock pot, or c.) both. It’s Roasted Broccoli Balsamic Pasta!

I drizzled olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder over one bag of pre-cut and washed broccoli.

Roasted in a 425 degree oven for 10 minutes, it turned out darn near perfect.

Next, I cooked up some Ronzoni Smart Taste penne rigate.

You know the kind!

After reserving about 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water, I drained it in the sink. While it was draining, I combined some corn, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, a splash of balsamic vinegar, drizzle of olive oil and the reserved pasta water in the hot pot.

When everything was hot and bubbly, I added the pasta back in and tossed in the broccoli. Mix and serve topped with feta. Because it makes it beta.

So delish you guys! Salty from the feta, spicy from the red pepper flakes and sooo much flavor from the roasted broccoli. You could use any combination of vegetables that you wanted, too. A must try!

Big news: due to a pact made with zee lovely Holly – Glamour Shot photos will be posted tomorrow morning. Get ready for this!!!!!

Bigger news: Head over to the aforementioned Holly’s website and make the good Samaritan, Holiday spirit move to donate even a wee bit of money to help build a much needed well for some Cambodians who do not have access to clean drinking water. Have you ever given a second thought to turning on the kitchen faucet and leisurely taking a drink? These people don’t have that option, so let’s help Holly – and them – out! ‘Tis the season!!

Top Chef Reunion on tonight! I think both the brother’s are extremely talented, but Kevin was consistently excellent throughout the entire competition and I’ll just say…it would have been great if he won.

Don’t forget to enter to win massive quantities of Food Should Taste Good chips! Ugh, I really want some right now actually…

Good night!

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Fess up, do you have all your holiday shopping done?!

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