City Solve San Antonio- Winners

My friends and I entered a Photo Scavenger Hunt for fun.

Four unassuming young women from the Junior League of San Antonio.

For fun we solved the clues, ran around downtown and Southtown San Antonio in the rain and took multiple pictures with all teammates in them.

I fell behind the group as we ran towards the finish line, but saw the cute couple team, The Tortoise and The Hare, behind me and knew this was no time to walk.

Must keep jogrunning.

We ran into the back porch of The Friendly Spot to check in at the finish line and there was no one else there.

We were the first team to get there and we maxed out the bonuses to further reduce our check-in time.

We couldn't believe it. We just didn't want to be last and we had no clue where we were in the game because teams could go to whatever spot they wanted in whatever order they wanted. All 68 teams.

And we came in first. Can't you tell by the smiles on our faces?

Miami Championships here we come?!

Pinterest Cauliflower Pizza Dough

I have to tell you the truth. 

I'm addicted to Pinterest.

But, and this is something to consider, I've actually made stuff from there. Not as much as some, but more than others. So at least there's that. Which I guess isn't really much. You know what is really something though?

Cauliflower Pizza Dough!!!!!!

I'd seen it and pinned it, twice actually. Here and here.

For this little kitchen experiment, I went with pin numero dos. Which links to a pretty cool site that I haven't spent much time on, but I want to give the Cook Lisa Cook blog the credit it deserves for making this a pretty successful endeavor.  Again, I didn't change the main part of the recipe so please go to her site and give her the hits it deserves. But if I can do it... you know what comes next.

I didn't take pictures of all of the steps, but it looks pretty similar to what you'll see on the Cook Lisa Cook blog when you go for the step by step. 

This was mixing the riced cauliflower with the egg and cheese to bind everything together.

Justin walked in I was mixing the dough. He later told me that when he saw it he was "less than enthused" because he hadn't enjoying the pureed cauliflower experiment that I did not document. Let's just say it has to be really hot to be enjoyable and comparable to mashed potatoes.

The dough all spread out on the countertop convection over tray.

The beef cooking up. I am a meat eater. (Not a "that's what she said joke.")

The dough all crisped up and ready for toppings! I was getting excited at this point.

A bad picture of the finished product, but still tasty looking! Loaded with part skim mozzarella and about 2 ounces of beef on each side of the pizza.

 I do think I would cook it in the big over next time, or use less dough, so it is thinner and crispier throughout.

But even Justin said it was a lot better than he expected, so I'd say it's a win!

Do you think you might give this recipe a spin?

Pinterest Sweet and Spicy Cucumber Salad

More Pinterest recipe success.

Granted, this one didn't call for any real cooking, just the ability to measure and mix. As well as some patience with trying to remove the water from cucumbers.

If you want to repin it from me, then awesome. You can find it right here.

If you want to go straight to the recipe source, because I didn't tinker with it, then that's available here.

I managed to turn these bland cucumbers from this:

Into this beauty that I ate every lunch for almost an entire week:

In addition to looking awesome, it actually kept pretty well the entire week too.

Pinterest Zucchini Chips

So I spend a lot of time Pinning stuff on Pinterest.  Probably part of why I'm not blogging super regularly.

Feel free to follow me over there: http://pinterest.com/arianab

I've actually done some of the stuff I've seen on Pinterest.

The shoe organizer on the back of the door to hold cleaning supplies? Done it.

The binder clip to keep that pesky phone cord off the floor cause bending over every night to pick it up is just simply annoying? Done it.

What I do most often though is cook the recipes I see on there. We use the word "often" loosely here.

So I saw this awesome picture of Zucchini Chips and pinned it for the recipe. I link to the recipe because it seems like the right thing to do. I cooked mine in our "vintage" 1984 oven at the lowest temp possible, because  I do not own the dehydrator that the recipe calls for. But I bought the zucchini for this purpose and I'd be damned if it wasn't getting cooked at some impossibly low temperature for 4 hours.

Maybe read instructions for something throughly before you buy more zucchini than you could normally consume. Learn from me people.

Ok, please go look at the recipe and the picture there, or the one that I pinned. And then, only then, should you look at my pictures below. You need a point of comparison for a reality check.

A side note: I used the slicer attachment on my Cusinart for the first time e-v-e-r. This is the Cusinart my Dad gave me when I graduated school, that was already probably 10-12 years old at that time. This puppy still has juice. And it looks "vintage." So yes, those are the instructions lying on the counter in this first picture of the first thing I ever sliced with the slicing attachment.

Yay, I know how to use the slicer attachment!
They don't lie, that blade is sharp!

Some of you are looking good.
Some of you are looking more chewy than crisp.

Maybe they look burnt, but they tasted crispy.
Again, compare to the original pin for  a little chuckle.

Now, I know that I HAVE to get a dehydrator. Justin's gonna love that request.

Half-Marathon Training- Week 10

The USAFIT website is kindly reminding me that the half-marathon is only 105 days away.

And yesterday, was a 5-mile route along the "scenic" frontage road of 1604.

As my friend Erica was passing me by, we waved and then a crazy driver tried to take us out. Not really, but it felt like that. Obviously, when I told my husband the story he was even more excited about the fact that we'll be on a greenway next week.

I don't know how precise Map My Run always is, but it says I did 5.56 in 1:25:11. So that's an average jogrun of 3.9 mph. I hope it's those hills slowing me down.

Here's the route we did:

The best/worst part about completing the Saturday morning route is coming home, cleaning up and getting the rest of a good night of sleep. It's amazing sleep.

Foolproof baked bacon

So baking bacon is supposed to be the foolproof way to cook it.

Key word is "supposed."

My first batch didn't turn out so well.

Yeah, so bad you can't even tell what it is.

Maybe the bacon was too thin, I left it in the convection oven too long or the temp was too high.

I successfully completed a second attempt and by that time we were ready to eat so I don't have a picture of the perfectly cooked bacon.

It took 24 minutes to get there. I could've been almost done running two miles by then.

The lesson: Keep an eye on your pork. Even if the cooking method is "supposed" to be foolproof.

And I ran so far away

Ok, maybe I didn't run that far. More like a good combination of my patented jogrun and some walking to achieve my 5-mile goal this morning in approximately 1 hour and 14 minutes.

This is part of the road to completing the San Antonio Rock 'N Roll 1/2 Marathon this November.

Yeah, so when I signed up for the training, I eventually signed up for the 1/2 marathon too. And after this morning, I know that if I continue to train and build up my mileage, I am going to get there.

I did the 5 miles this morning because I won't be at the training on Saturday. And it was actually only supposed to be 4 miles, but I got antsy and wanted to see what I could do by myself.

When I thought about posting the Flock of Seagulls song came into my head and now it can be stuck in yours.  Thank me later.