The foods of Katie.

I was going through my backpack to unpack the last from our trip to England and Scotland, and found this in the bottom of my backpack!

Yum! That's my drinking fudge packet from "Fudge Kitchen." We found one of these speciality fudge shops both in Windsor and Bath! They make the fudge right in front of you and it's very good. I decided to get a little packet of drinking fudge (to be mixed with hot milk to create a steaming, thick, chocolatey drink) because it was small and is something I can bring back home to the US (or have handy here in case I have a really really bad day that only chocolate can cure). 

I found a lot of pictures of beautiful salads on my computer and decided I had to share some of them with you. I always have at least one salad a day, and love finding new veggies or protein to pack into them. I adore salads and love that you can make them into anything you want. 

Broccoli, cranberry, and mixed greens (apple on bottom for a little extra sweet!).

This is one I made at the Chateau. Mixed greens with an egg, crispy bell peppers, tiny pickles, and corn on the side!

Alex and I have also both been on a granola kick lately. We found a few different brands and flavors that we both like. This is the one I'm currently working on. Delicious clusters with almonds and honey! I have actually been eating this with my almond/hazelnut rice milk but it's great plain too. 

Other than salads and granola, there's a lot of reading going on in my life! I'm taking a class on Hitler and this is one of our 3 books...

It's about 800 pages. I'll be catching up/preparing for the midterm during our long train trip to Zurich this weekend!

Also: No more accidents on my runs this week! Phew! :)

Bananas & socks & March.

Happy Sunday, everyone! I hope you've all had great weekends - can you believe it's MARCH??? February really flew by (but it always does!). 

Being at home the whole weekend has required a lot of grown up things, like cooking. I ended up using this recipe for the pancakes - at least to some extent. I always start off trying to follow recipes here and then end up doing my own thing because I have to make up my own measurements and don't always have the exact ingredients. I did use yogurt to healthify these, and I used a higher egg-white to yolk ratio to make them very fluffy and airy. It worked! They came out with a fluffy, banana-y inside and crispy crunchy outside. I'm not a big pancake person but I really enjoyed these!

Enchiladas! I used a recipe I found here. They were "scrambled" so it just had the tortilla chopped up and stirred in rather than wrapping it up in one.

Alex's plate always comes with ~3 cups of rice :)

Yesterday we went postcard hunting but instead I got a pair of socks

We hit the hills again this morning and did 4.5-5 miles together. We've run together more in the last month than ever in our 4+ years together and I can't complain! We did some running through hilly trails again and it was gorgeous and sunny...I wore SHORTS. I haven't worn shorts to run in since my half-marathon on October 13. My legs forgot what the light of day looked like.

I think my goals for this week are going to be to keep hydrating and STRETCH. Here I run less frequently, but when I do run I run more miles and keep my weekly mileage pretty similar to what it was at home. This means my legs get extra tight and I've gotta stretch 'em out to prevent injury! I also haven't really gotten properly hydrated since I got here 5.5 weeks ago and at this point I've just got to make that a priority. 

My host-mother invited both Alex and me to join her for lunch with her son this afternoon. He's about our age and came in from school in London with his girlfriend. The girlfriend is only French-speaking so we had the entire lunch in French! I kept thinking back to my level of French before coming here, which was still good after 8 years of study, but I think I would've struggled through a meal where we only spoke French. Now my auditory comprehension is great and I really didn't have an issue the whole time! My speaking still needs some work because I'm shy and am afraid of making mistakes so I just don't speak as much. It's still good, and I can get by, but it's not comfortable for me to speak French like it is for me to listen to it. Speaking more will be my goal until the end of the semester - I want to soak up as much as I can as far as the language here!

This afternoon I have to get down to business on some not-fun school-related things and then do some travel planning...but I think that's only fair considering how many fun things I've been doing :)

Spa, Yawns, and Asparagus Spears.

The Amnéville Hot Springs and Spa were great. It was a rainy drizzly day and we got 3 hours of warmth and relaxation. There was a lazy river that was pretty nice, as well as a heated outdoor pool (it was surprisingly pleasant to have cold raindrops on your head while breathing fresh air and having your body nice and warm in the water) and several steam rooms. My favorite steam room was the "mint room." Maybe I like steam rooms because of my hot yoga addiction - sort of the same idea! It also reminded me of the giant pool that we used to visit on the West Side (I loved it so much there I held my 12th or 13th birthday party there...they had a lazy river too!). Being in the spa pools brought me back to my childhood, when I would happily pass a whole day in a pool!

After we got our fill of zen relaxation, we were dropped off back in the city. (The event was entirely school-sponsored, and they even rented a bus for us!) For dinner I had some soup with veggies stirred in, and apple sauce. I made a dinner for Alex too, using this honey butter chicken recipe. I actually did it on the stove top instead of in the oven and used two coatings of flower instead of doing the second coating in breadcrumbs (which are really hard to find in grocery stores here...). The outside coating is made of an egg/parsley dressing, which is why there's green stuff. Alex's review: the garlic chicken recipe I've done a few times still takes the cake!

Somehow  I found this article about how to eat for running.  The author suggested a new idea... dates stuffed peanut butter! That sounded so good that I tried it this morning with my reserve of real American peanut butter. Delicious!

This article about yawning and athletic performance is also pretty interesting. Who knew that yawning inspires competitive advantage?! I can't remember yawning before any regatta or race...

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While at the market yesterday, I saw M&Ms on the shelf. Normally here, you only see the yellow bag of peanut M&Ms (I've never seen the brown bag of plain M&Ms for sale in in a supermarket). I looked a little closer, thinking the blue bag was pretzel M&Ms like in the US. When I saw "crispy" I was thrilled! Just last week at the M&M World, I was telling Alex how I wish they still made these! Turns out here, they do! I bought a pack (though I resisted stocking up on 983459 so I would be set for life). What a special treat!

Foreign M&Ms feature new colors. Can you tell which one we don't have in the US?

I got these yummy asparagus spears at the market too. I plan to use them in an omelette but will have lots of leftovers. Does anyone have favorite asparagus recipes I could try? Please email me with ideas!

I intended to catch up on sleep this morning but didn't sleep very late...I snuggled in my bed while watching Parenthood on Hulu and then got in a workout afterwards!

The rest of the day will feature pancakes and exploring Luxembourg City! Tonight's recipe...enchiladas!