Tic Tac Turkey Bacon

Last week, I made this creation for my kids' weekend breakfast.

A friend of mine who has a food blog posted a picture of a woven slab of bacon on Facebook and I decided I could build on that and make it more fun for my boys.

1. Take out 3 pieces of bacon per person and slice them in half. I am making 2 of the final product, so I need 6 pieces. I use turkey bacon. My sons don't really seem to know the difference, yet.

2. I line up 3 of the half-pieces like this on my Pampered Chef Large Bar Pan. I'm sure you can do this on a regular cookie sheet or in a skillet, you would need to really reduce the baking time, though.

3. Then I begin to weave the pieces to form a mat. 

4. Then I put my bar pan in a cold oven and turn it on at 400F. My oven takes 10 minutes to reach that temperature. Once it reaches 400, I bake for an additional 20 minutes. 

5. While it is baking, I prepare the toast Xs. After toasting a piece of wheat bread, I remove the crusts and cut it into 12 squares. I then cut each of these squares into an X shape. My kids will eat the crusts and pieces, but you could easily food process the pieces for breadcrumbs.

Depending on the size of your piece of bread, you need 4-5 Xs per serving. I'm sure you could do this with cheese, if you don't eat bread. 

6. I then cut grape tomatoes into 4 slices. You need 4-5 slices per serving and I don't usually use the end pieces on the final product, but my 4-year old will eat them on the side.

7. I serve it on a slab of toast. 

8. I put the cooked bacon slab on top of the toast.

9. I then add the toast Xs and the tomato Os.

Yes, I know their plates are orange and blue. My Florida Gators have their last regular season basketball game at Kentucky this afternoon. Go Gators!

10. Serve to some very happy children with fruit.

Trapped Under a Former Milk Dud

Last night, I went to bed at 10 with plans to meet a friend for a 6-mile run this morning. My back has been bothering me and I wanted someone to look at my running form to see if I was doing something wrong. I feel like I've been hunching or something. It's worse after days when I run, so as I head into the meat and potatoes of my training for the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler and the Maryland Half Marathon, I don't want to be in pain for days after I'm done.

At 1:45am, my door was slammed open. Milk Dud wanted to sleep in my bed. Sigh. Every time I would move, he would freak out and grab for me. At one point, he had both arms around my head. Finally, at about 4, he settled on my chest. Yeah, great for my back. OUCH! I haven't been physically trapped under him at night in a long time. My alarm was set for 6am. He started crying when I went to the bathroom. He didn't want anything to do with his daddy. He's such a mommy's boy. 

So, no running for me with my friend this morning. I guess I will have to have someone at the gym look at my running form and find some time to make up the missed miles. The joys of being loved ;)

Also, since I'm mentioning the race, please help me raise money for the University of Maryland Medical Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center! My goal is only $100 and I'm almost there!

Attack of the workout wear!

Chafing. Unless you are a size 00, you have probably experienced chafing. Heck, even if you are a 00, you might have some issues with it on your feet.

I've learned to cope with it by putting Body Glide in the areas I usually have problems. I try to avoid cotton because it holds in moisture. I wore a cotton shirt for my first half marathon in December on a foggy, wet day and I totally wished I hadn't come mile 7. The brace I wore for my IT band injury would rub my thigh raw from the Velcro and putting glide on it just made it slip down.

Wednesday, I went for a rare weekday outdoor morning run. It was drizzling when I started and just very wet. To psych myself up for it, I wore my BornFit running shirt I got as a premium for running the Annapolis Half. I love that shirt. It's soft and light. Also, I'm just proud of myself for earning the darn thing ;) Well, the run itself was sucky. It was the beginning of my cold, so I was slow and just didn't feel like running the 6 I was planning, so I did 5.

I got home and I had a lovely inch-long raw spot on my upper chest from the zipper on my top. My favorite shirt attacked me! I've run in this shirt before without incident. I've worn similarly-styled shirts without a problem, either. Heck, I wear necklaces that hit at that location and have never had so much as a dot of rawness.

Was it because my shirt didn't want to go running? Was my shirt upset that I woke it up at 5:30am? Did it not want to be out in the rain? Why would my favorite shirt attack me?!

I guess next time, I need to zip it all of the way up or put some glide on in that location before I run. :(

My love/hate relationship with cross training

I have a love/hate relationship with cross training. I have days when I would rather do ANYTHING but run. I have days when I would rather run and do nothing else. I know that to train properly sometimes you need to throw in another activity. Overtraining certain muscles can cause injuries in others. I neglected my quads after Ragnar and irritated my IT band. I ran my first half marathon wearing a knee brace to try and cut down on the pain.

I've been trying to integrate at least one other type of activity into my workout routine. It's tough when you have a training plan that suggests you run 5 days a week AND have small children and things to do most days of the week. This week, I managed to cross train TWICE. That never happens. I've been loving the trampoline class at my gym. I try to work it into my Monday schedule. I did half of a kickboxing class today. I only made it through half because I had errands to run.

How do you cross train?

Am I Crazy?

So, I know lots of people run races all the time, but I'm relatively new to the running world and have really only raced a handful of times. Right now, I'm scheduled for the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler on April 7th and the Maryland Half Marathon on May 11th. To me, that's 2 very long races very close together. I will probably just have 1 or 2 long runs after the 10-miler and then taper again for the half. This isn't something I've done before, so it will all be new to me.

I'm hoping to do the Marine Corps Marathon this fall. It'll be my first. One of my friends is planning to run it, too. She's mararthoned before. I am going to rely upon this fact ;) That's at the end of October. We had been talking about doing this for months, so it's not the crazy factor. Here's the crazy factor, I am going to hopefully do the DC Ragnar again. It's at the beginning of October... the weekend I am supposed to have a 20-mile training run. My hope is that I can have a high-mileage runner number. I'd really like to be runner 11 or something similar. I honestly think I would be able to handle the high mileage and would work best with my training plan. Not to mention, I'm getting faster than I was :)

I limit my races because I like to actually train for each one individually and can't really afford to race as much as I would like.

What's the craziest race schedule you've planned?

Do you run for a cause?

How do you pick your races? I ran Ragnar because my husband's cousin asked if I wanted to do it and I thought it would be a fun adventure. I did my first half marathon because the timing was right for me with my training plans and it wasn't too far away, but sometimes I run for a good reason.

A little over a year ago when my running adventure began, a friend of mine said to pick a 5K and that she would do it with me. I wanted to do something in the Baltimore area, so that it wasn't far for anyone. I wanted something with a flat course. Most of all, I wanted it to be for a cause I supported. I picked The Red Shoe Shuffle which supports the Ronald McDonald House in Baltimore. I picked this one for a reason, one of my nieces had some strokes in utero and has had access to therapy where they live. Many kids don't have this luxury. Others are in need of more extensive therapies that they can receive at Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland Medical Center, or Kennedy-Krieger. The Ronald McDonald House provides a place for them to stay during these therapies. 

Yesterday, I registered for the Maryland Half Marathon. I knew at the time that it supported the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center and that 100% of the net proceeds go to the cause, which is unusual for a large race. I didn't know until after I registered that I have an acquaintance who's father is one of the researchers there. It is one of top rated cancer centers in the country.

If you would like to support me, you can make a donation here: http://ummsfoundation.org/alyssakendallMDHM2013. My goal is to raise at least $100 for the center. Every little bit helps. Thank you!

Things I love about running

I haven't been able to do as much running as I would like, but would like to share with my readers a few things I love about running on this Valentine's Day.

First of all, I'm a stay-at-home mom 95% of the time. I love being able to get some time alone and either listen to my music or enjoy nature.

Secondly, I like being able to run with a group of friends. I did the DC Ragnar back in September and had a lot of fun with a group of 13 other women. I've continued running with some of them and am running the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in April.

I love the community that running creates. I participate in #runchat on Twitter and it has helped me connect with lots of running friends who share my interests and encourage me to continue running.

I love that you can run almost anywhere. I ran on my vacation last August and when I was visiting my family in December. I only needed my shoes, some exercise clothes, and my water belt.

Lastly, I love that races are often done to support various causes. My first ever race was The Red Shoe Shuffle to benefit the Ronald McDonald House of Baltimore. I had a lot of fun and raised about $200. I'm currently training for the Maryland Half Marathon which benefits the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center. You can sponsor me HERE.