Kitchen sink frittata and Raspberry "cheesecake"

Yesterday morning I received a ton of text messages from family members.  My Mom, Sister and Brother all decided to drive into town to see me!  I don't get to see my brother and sister much, so it totally made my day to hear that they where all coming down!  My sister works nights, so to come out during the day means she gets no sleep, and my brother lives a few hours away and just happened to have days off coinciding with mine!  We went to Pizza Hut, since it's my brother's go-to place when he comes up.  I ordered an appetizer of Pesto Chicken Spinrolls and just ate two, since I had lunch earlier.  Afterwards, mom and I went to Costco for a bit of shopping.  The rest of the day was spent visiting, and it was fun and fantastic!

My moms dog, Daisy.  She likes to lay across your shoulders so she can see out the windows!

My brother decided to spend a few nights here before heading home.  I'm really glad he decided to stay, because the night I got back from Calgary, Dan was called to work out of town for a week in the bush.  He had to pack the night we got home, and get up at 2:30am, so I didn't really get to say goodbye.  But having my brother up certainly helps pass the time!  Also, he can be my guinea pig and help me test out my new recipes!

This morning I woke up early to start on the "Kitchen sink frittata" recipe I found in my new PCOS health and nutrition guide.  

It was made from 6 eggs, 1 cup of low-fat cheese, 1 tomato, 1 sweet potato, 1/2 cup milk, and 2 cups mixed veggies.  The recipe is built so you can toss in whatever left-over veggies you have pre-cooked or raw in the fridge.  I had mushrooms, broccoli, and some yellow peppers.  It turned out being less than 180 calories a serving (6 servings).  If anyone is interested in the recipe just email me and I will pass it on!

We went out and did a bit of shopping and had lunch out.  When we got back we where craving a snack, so I decided to whip together an easy recipe I spotted in the same book. 

It is a raspberry and pistachio "cheesecake".  It is made with cottage cheese, honey, and vanilla extract tossed into a blender and then topped with raspberries and pistachios   I would say that it's really nothing like cheesecake at all.  It was more of a cottage-cheese pudding.  My brother could only eat about two spoonfuls before it was too much for him.  I liked it though and will probably eat it again.  It was again under 180 calories a serving. 

Trying new nuts where on my list of new foods to try in 2013.  I think this was actually a hit.  Not at all "cheesecakey" but still good!

This afternoon I had cautiously scheduled a run.  I've been doing really great for the last two days, and I didn't want to throw anything off by running too soon.  I haven't run since either boxing day, or perhaps the day before Christmas Eve.  It's been a long time and I needed to get one out of me!

I did my normal 5 minute walking warm-up and did stretches before running.  My legs felt really stiff so I was hoping stretching before running would help. (It did!).  I started out slower, about 4.3 mph and that was fast enough to make me feel "not right" for awhile.  I had aches and pains in my lower abdomen and cramping in the lady-bits.  But I decided to give myself 5 minutes to see how it played out.  Thankfully all the aches faded away and I upped my speed to 4.5 mph.  I did 10 minutes, then walked for a minute, then did another 10 minutes before my hips and lower back started to feel tight.  So instead of doing the last 10 minutes I decided to stop the workout there.

Pre-sweaty workout.  My hair ala lazy natural wavy and of course, another awkward face!

Tomorrow I start again with my at home Yoga.  I'm excited work has died down, so now I can focus on running, Yoga, and new recipes!  I'm much more excited than I thought I would be about that!  I must say, I'm rreeaallyy  excited to start Yoga.  I think it'll do really good things for me mentally and physically.

Now I'm off to have a movie night with my brother.  He leaves tomorrow so I want to spend as much time as I can with him before he goes.