Friday, December 23, 2011

Mail bag

Good morning, lovelies. It's been an exciting day in the Healthy Strides house today. Miles slept till 6 a.m. (thank the Lord), I went grocery shopping at 7 a.m. and found myself eating a Christmas cookie for breakfast. 

OK. Not that exciting but I did learn that my neighbor's perfect sugar cookies are a surprisingly filling  treat. Exactly what you wanted to know I'm sure.

Other things you wanted to know ...

Beth, a super cool, super harcore triathlete, asked me what a plank jack is.

Well, it's a medieval form of torture where you assume the plank position and then jump your legs out the way you would for an upright jumping jack.


OK. It's really not torture. I think it requires more coordination than anything and for the exerciser to not be wearing Vibrams. (My little toes kept getting "caught" on the floor.) During my boot camp class, the instructor had us do three plank jacks then complete a burpee. Now those are torture.

***

Katie asked me how to carve a whole chicken after reading about my slow cooker chicken.

While I'm no expert in the kitchen, I can haphazardly butcher a chicken. Start with a sharp knife and cut down the breast bone. Flip the chicken over and cut down the back bone, separating the chicken into two parts - each with a breast, wing, thigh and leg. Once you have the two parts, you can see a line to separate the breast from the thigh; cut there.

Of course, you could do it the right way.


If this is all a bit funky, feel free to just pull the meat from the bone and say "Fig it, carving." You can use pulled/shredded chicken in any number of dishes, such as Buffalo Chicken Tacos, Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches, Chicken Caesar Sandwiches or on a simple salad.

***

Kimberly asked me why her nearly 6-month-old has decided to begin napping in the morning now that her teacher husband is on break and available to baby wrangle. Her dreams of casually styling her hair while he held a screaming baby have been dashed.

"Now he'll never believe me when I exclaim that I don't have time to do things in the morning because the baby won't let me put him down!" she lamented.

Oh. Wait. That's me. Dangit!


At least he's cute - it saves him every time.

How is your Friday shaping up?

6 comments:

  1. THanks for the video (and shout-out)! Those look terrible.... So you know I'll be doing them once my abs stop being sore from my last workout.

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  2. Love that picture! Oh, Miles. They always keep us guessing, don't they?

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  3. Thanks for answering my question! Now I can impress my boyfriend by not only working sooo hard to cook a chicken in the crock pot all day, but also by cutting it properly. :)

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  4. Mine is pretty perfect - I even got PRESENTS in the mail! Thank you so much! (and although you couldn't have known, the bic band exactly matches the new pair of arm warmers I got from a friend on Wednesday. FATE I tell you :) )

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  5. I thought of you ALL morning!!! I had to take Pacer to Petsmart by 7:00 a.m. (left home at 6:00 a.m. - OMG - that's early). Then . . .while she was being groomed, I ssslllloooowwwwllllyyyyy shopped at Gordman's until Target opened then went to Kohls and Pier 1 (all by 9:00 a.m. - thought about you in that I did all that before you went to work . . . sigh . . . how tired you must be everyday doing all that fitness and parenting and housework before you even go to work -dude, I generally roll out of bed 20 minutes before work). You're a super hero!

    Loved your post - plank jacks combined with burpees - NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Buffalo Chicken Tacos - we ALL know how I feel about them!!!!!! DE-LISH!!!!!

    Merry Christmas, my friend the celeb!!!

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  6. Just wanted to stop by and wish you and your adorable family a Merry Christmas!!!!

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