Alert, Alert, Alert!

Alert, alert, alert! It’s official – Trader Joe’s is coming to my town!!!!!!

I am SO pumped for never-ending supplies of almond butter, peanut butter filled pretzels and so.much.more! Opening day is TBD, but it supposed to happen sometime this year. Whee!!!!

In other great news, I had the best run I’ve had in…years?…after work today! I’ve said before that I don’t consider myself a “natural” runner. I’ve been running regularly for 5 years now, and my miles logged on the trail are still semi-difficult no matter how far or fast I go.

Today though, was different. I think this might have been the closest I’ve ever come to feeling like a “natural” runner, and it was amazing! I felt light on my feet and quick as a whip. I even passed a guy who looked younger than me (this may sound awful, but I secretly love running faster than guys – sorry fellas!)

I attribute my success to three conditions that culminated in a perfect running situation:

If only I could recreate these conditions every time I headed out the door! What are the conditions that set YOU up for a great workout? Do you like to workout alone or with others?

In dinner news, I had a fantastic light supper of Teriyaki Fried Rice!

Ingredients:

1 cup un-cooked brown rice

1/2 teaspoon wok oil (or sesame or vegetable oil)

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

Corn from 3 corn on the cobs

2 green onions

1/2 cup chopped steak (or chicken or pork)

2 whisked eggs

1/4 cup Teriyaki sauce

Red pepper flakes

Directions:

1. Cook rice according to package directions.

My kitchen towel wasn’t long enough to cook my rice homey style, so I jury-rigged one up! Thank you bamboo skewer.

2. Meanwhile, warm the wok oil in a large skillet until hot. Cook garlic until golden brown.

3. Add fresh corn and green onions, and cook until corn is tender, ~3-4 minutes. Add steak and warm through.

4. Push corn mixture to the sides of the pan, and add your whisked eggs into the middle. Stir until soft set.

5. Add Teriyaki sauce and cooked rice into the skillet, and stir until well combined.

6. Top with red pepper flakes and FEAST!

Yum, yum, YUM!!! Just like my run, all these ingredients seemed to just come together and WORK!

Unlike my normal fried rice recipe - this had a bit of a sweet note to it from the Sesame Soy Ginger Vinaigrette I used. It’s very much like a teriyaki sauce, and you get the same taste effect. The corn added some natural sweetness too. TDF!

The red pepper sprinkled on top was perfect to cut through the sweetness, and the juicy, salty flank steak that I used was just divine. We had cooked one up this weekend and happened to have a little bit left over in the fridge to use!

That’s the great thing about fried rice – you can basically throw ANYTHING you want in there! It is the hotter, more Asian version of the kitchen sink salad, if you will

Tonight I have some housekeeping to take care of. There’s checks to write, laundry to fold, dishes to clean – you know…super exciting adult stuff.

Have a good night!

~~~~~

What’s your favorite store?

I’m literally obsessed with Whole Foods. I could walk around there for hours! Otherwise, I think my fave might be World Market or Patina- a super cute boutique in Minneapolis!

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