Hot Meal

I think one of the best things in the world after a long hard run or workout is to come home and find waiting for you a nice tall pint of your favorite beer. Say it with me, now, Mmmmm, beer. . . Now wipe the drool off your lip.

The second best thing in the world is a shower.

And the third? A prepared meal.

I sometimes get number one if my workout is on Saturday afternoon or in the evenings (rarely) and most of the time I get number two. Sometimes though I have to decide between lunch or shower and depending on just how gross I am and where I have to go after getting kids from school I will choose shower over food. But most times I pick the food.

At any rate number 3, a hot meal waiting, never happens for me. Some of you are lucky in that you have wives or girlfriends that do all the cooking and cleaning so the only thing you have to worry about after a hard workout is exactly which pillow on the couch you are going to prop your foot up on.

Okay, maybe that sounded a tad bitter and I know it isn't true for all men as Wes often blogs about all the delicious meals he makes and Steph is always rubbing in on our Saturday rides some tasty meal Doug has waiting for her at home. And believe me, I am working on getting my invite to Casa de Doug. I mean really, I have-- technically but never carnally-- known him longer than Steph. That should count for something, right?

I know Wes and Doug do the cooking because they have the working wife package. Ryan has the housewife package. That means he works and does the yard and I do everything on the inside of the house. But you know, even way back when I use to work--before we had kids --I still did all the cooking. And that is because he can't cook. Well, technically he can but it involves a lot of hand holding and directing on my part so I might as well do it myself. Honestly though, what it really boils down to is that I am a pretty good cook--Carmella even calls me a "chef". So it just makes more sense that I prepare the tasty meals rather than Ryan do it and we have to eat something barely edible just because I am too tired to cook. Of course that might prove a really good way to lose weight . . .

I do try to simulate the hot meal waiting thing by doing some preplanning. On days I do long runs I try to make life simple. My energy level after a my late morning 3 hr run tends to wane throughout the day and by dinner I am of the mindset "let's just order pizza."

Nothing wrong with pizza but I like to save pizza night for the weekends when I really don't want to cook. So usually after a long run I make my specialty and I thought I would share it with y'all.

But first, let me give you my after long run lunch. Let's say I just finished running 22 miles. I come and pour a big giant glass of OJ and run an ice bath. While the tub fills up I throw a bag of Success Boil-in-Bag Brown rice, cup of frozen peas, cup of chopped carrots, cup of frozen baby lima beans, and teaspoon of crushed garlic in a pot. Fill it with water and set it on the stove to boil. Then I go and muster the ice bath for as long as I can and then take a quick hot shower. Dress and come down stairs and viola!; lunch is ready. I drain and divide it in half--saving the other half for next day's lunch. I add some fresh chopped tomatoes, sea salt, cracked pepper, tsp of olive oil and 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese. Then I inhale it.

Okay so that is my favorite after run hot meal. I know it probably sounds yucky but it is really good.

But my specialty is a Pot Roast. Anyone who has had it will tell you it is very very yummy.

Here are your ingredients:

A Roast (the mooing kind) (2-3lbs, any cut will do-- go for cheap. Do not spend the big bucks. Get what is on sale. Generally it is around $2-4 a lb.)
flour
salt
pepper
Olive oil
2 tsp garlic (crushed/fresh is ideal)
Can of beef broth (14 oz)
3 bay leaves
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 med sweet onion- coarsely chopped
baby carrots
8-12 red potatoes halved or quartered--depending how big they are
*Dutch oven. You can use a crock pot but then you will have to clean 2 dishes.

First step. Get rid of your assistant:

Next salt and pepper meat. Rub a little garlic in there too. Roll in flour.

In dutch oven, on stove, heat a tbsp of olive oil. Brown meat on all sides. Add garlic, onions--let saute/soften. Add the can of beef broth, Italian seasonings, and bay leaves.

Arrange carrots and potatoes around roast.

Cover roast, carrots and potatoes with water.

Bring to a boil on the stove.

Now you can either transfer it to a crock pot at this point or pop it in the oven. I usually put it on 300 degrees and leave it in there for 5 hours. You can cook it longer; you will just need to check to make sure there is still some liquid in the pot--you want to have some of those juices--there should be about a 1/4 of what you put in left. If not, add a little more water and turn the heat way down.

Do not even bother to make this if you can't give it 5 hours. It won't be good.

Your end result will be the most delicious melt in your mouth meat. I serve it with steamed green beans or broccoli and some of that tasty Boil-in-Bag brown rice. I put a little bit of butter, salt and garlic in the rice.

You will have left overs. Left over are great for tacos the next day or BBQ sandwiches. You can also "re fry" the potatoes in olive oil if you have a lot left over.


And yep, still a streaker. Nope Wes, not the naked kind. Maybe in the summer. Too cold right now.

16/0

Today's workout was a 10 miler. One of my Team Tough Chicks compatriots alerted me to the possibility of compartment syndrome in regards to my calf muscle issues. My right calf seems to have taken to the muscle the come to Jesus conversation we had with some ice, massage and stretching last night. Lefty, of course it is the sinister one!--seems to be holding out again. The pain is gone but on the uphills today I was feeling it get tight again. So I took it easy, cut the run by 4 miles and walked the steeper parts of the uphills. I sprinted the flats though. Lefty seems to be coming around.