Bacon-wrapped fish!

So last night I had bacon-wrapped Mahi Mahi for dinner - yum! Here is the recipe:

• 7-ounce mahi mahi filet
• Rosemary
• Lemon juice
• 2 slices bacon (I used turkey bacon from Trader Joe's - no nitrates)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Pepper

1) Preheat the oven to 400°F.

2) Season the fish fillets with pepper, rosemary, and lemon zest. Wrap two pieces of bacon around each fillet.

3) Warm an iron skillet over medium heat, and pour the olive oil in. When it is hot, set the filets in. Cook for 1 minute.

4) Flip the fish and then transfer the skillet to the oven and cook 10 minutes.

I also had wilted spinach and steamed asparagus. It was delicious!

So this Paleo thing is pretty great.  I have also been doing a weight lifting program online with Jamie Eason (http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jamie-eason-livefit-trainer-phase-1-day-1.html). I have been doing this program for two weeks and feel great!  I also just signed up for a half marathon (my second!) and I am really excited about it.  It's in June! 

Well, I am off to the gym...speak soon!

Yum yum.

I meant to take a picture of my delicious dinner tonight (if I do say so myself), but I accidentally ate it all.  I took it from here: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=388716 but turned it Paleo like this:

Coconut Crusted Mahi Mahi

Minutes to Prepare: 10

Minutes to Cook: 15

Number of Servings: 2

Ingredients

Coconut oil

8 oz Mahi Mahi
1/2 cup finely chopped coconut
1 egg
1/4 cup ground flax seed 
Pepper & Cayenne Pepper (To taste)

Directions

Preheat Oven to 375
In a bowl, Mix Flax Seed, and both peppers until evenly blended
In bowl, lightly mix egg
Place chopped Coconut on a plate
Place fish in flax mixture on both sides to cover
dip Fish in Egg and then the coconut to cover (may need to press down a bit)
Place on Baking Sheet and place a tidbit of coconut oil on top. Bake until fish flakes easily with a fork and coc0nut is golden

Last night I made Paleo granola (http://paleomg.com/paleo-granola/) (minus the maple syrup). I can't stop eating it!!

My mom believed in me...

She told me to buy the organic chicken with the bone in -- she said I could do it.  I was scared I would be too grossed out (having not eaten any meat pre-Thanksgiving 2011 since 1998) and wouldn't be able to prepare it, cook it, or eat it.  But always the frugal thinker, my mom was convincing me I wanted the chicken that was on sale. Which was on the bone.  (Bone in? This is really what people call this phenomenon?)

So I bought it.  And tonight I cooked it!! Granted, I squealed and said, "Gross!!" out loud as I put it in the pan on top of a big piece of tin foil, but once it was in, I topped it with mushrooms, peas and chopped sweet potatoes.  A little olive oil, some rosemary and some garlic and then covered with the big piece of foil -- 45 minutes later on 350 F it was delicious!! (And I was fondly reminded of my days as a girl scout cooking with foil on the camp fire!)

Also, I have been sick with a cold for the last week.  (That's not really me.  That's just how I feel.)  Wednesday at home and feeling rotten, I really wanted some chicken soup.  I found a recipe online (but now I can't find it again) and promptly put all the ingredients into my crock pot - chicken breast, can of diced tomatoes (mine had chili peppers), coconut milk.  Put it on for like 8 hours - the next morning I shredded the chicken and it was done! I was going to bring it with me to work, but I felt so lousy I stayed home again.

Garmin

This is my Garmin Forerunner 110 that my mom and stepdad got me for my birthday. Isn't it lovely? As I was running 3 miles this morning I decided I needed to blog about my love for this item. It has really kinda changed running for me because it tells you the pace you are going during every step and also has a heart rate monitor.  Then it uploads your runs onto your computer for you so you have a place to review your progress. Pretty neat, right? It also works if you are on a treadmill by telling you how many calories you have burned. So there's that.  

Recovering Vegetarian

So...I made this. It's got kohlrabi bulbs with leaves in it.  If you know me, you know that I have never been an adventurous chef. I certainly would never have gone to the store and purchased something I had never even heard of before and then cooked it that night for dinner.

Well, that's what I did tonight! I made sausage, eggplant and kohlrabi bulbs with leaves. So my blog is now going to hopefully include exercise and food information.  

One year ago I got a stress fracture in my femur from over-training. I was on crutches for basically ever (10 weeks) and it was a slow process to heal. I recently decided it was time to increase my protein intake (I had been a vegetarian for 12 years up until this point) and try to build muscle. So now I am eating chicken (but only organic) and tons of fruits and veggies as part of the Paleo diet.  

I guess an important side note is that I went to a personal trainer a few months ago and he told me I needed to lose 7 pounds that I had gained from being incapacitated.  I gave up carbs and basically did some version of the 4 hour body (http://www.fourhourbody.com/) and lost the 7 pounds -- but I felt like it was pretty unnatural.  I did the 4 hour body without eating meat and eating a lot of tuna and tofu and protein shakes, but it made me very conscious of what I was putting in my body. So now I am eating protein in the form of chicken and turkey and egg whites. 

So here is the meal I made tonight: (from http://paleofoodie.blogspot.com/2011/05/eggplant-and-sausage-mash.html)

Eggplant and sausage mash (serves 2)

- 2 kohlrabi bulbs with leaves separated and chopped

- 1 red onion, chopped

- 3 chicken spicy sausages (Trader Joe's), chopped

- 1 eggplant, diced

- 1 tsp ground cayenne 

- 1 tsp coconut oil

1. Boil some water in a steamer, and steam the kohlrabi bulbs for approx. 15 minutes until soft.

2. In the mean time, heat coconut oil in a skillet and fry onion until soft, then add sausages and fry until golden brown and cooked.

3. Add eggplant and leaves and saute for approx. 3-5 minutes until the eggplant is fork tender. Remove from heat.

4. When the kohlrabi is done, puree and stir into the eggplant and sausage mixture. Mix well.

What few photos I have...

I'm on a hammock yo. The roses our host mom left us in our room after our first weekend away, and beautiful Puerto Lopez...

Where's Waldo? My suitcase is brown. Can you see it?

Delicious dinner from my host mom.

My roomie and friend - LISA!

View of the montanas from our room in Quito.

What I see every morning.

"You were like McGyver."

So it seems like the best idea is to start with today and work my way backwards...

Today was my first day back at Remar after a long weekend. We worked in groups with some of the students, but most were at the park, so we walked over there in the hopes of created groups there. There is a new group of volunteers who do not appear to have the children's best interests in mind (which is a judgment on my part, I know) and constantly take them to the park and let them run free without supervision and without group activities of any kind. Last week we walked over to the park for the first time and three of the volunteers were sprawled out on the grass sunbathing as the children (from age 2 to 10) ran around in all different areas of the park. When the volunteers saw us, they stood up and started playing with a few of the students. I don't want to spread negative energy in this blog, but I think that part of the story is necessary for this next part of the story.

So today we walked over to the park, and two of the under 5 year olds were playing on a concrete bench without shirts on...others were sitting by themselves about 20 meters from the volunteers. Others were scattered throughout the large park/field. We walked up and one of my favorites, Melina, was having a bad day again today. Last week I did individual counseling with her by learning how to play soccer without words. Sometimes she just doesn't want to talk - and since my Spanish is not that advanced it kinda strangely works out. So today she was also down and didn't want to talk, so I had her explain to one of the other women from our program who is not usually at Remar how to go on the zipline swing. (I have a photo on someone else's camera of me on it - it is AWESOME and a lawsuit waiting to happen in the States.) So Melina explained to the other adult how to play and seemed in better spirits. Then we heard the shrieking sound of a child.

We rushed over to see one of the 5 year olds being held by the wonderful Becca (on our program). The itty bitty was screaming and Becca asked me if I had a band-aid. A large crowd of Remar kiddos had gathered around the little girl and I ran to my bag where I had band-aids. I ran back to the group to see a ton of blood and the 5 year old in hysterics. Becca was doing a great job saying calming and empathetic things to the little girls who was obviously in a ton of pain. As I assessed the situation I realized a band-aid was absolutely not going to help. The volunteer that I had already had pre-conceived notions about was squatting near the little girl and doing nothing. "I can't touch her. I don't have rubber gloves."

Apparently the itty bitty had been playing with a brick - like ya do - and had dropped it on her big toe. Her big toe looked mighty broken and there was a lot of blood. Well, something had to be done. So I looked around and saw a vendor on the street selling some sort of food product. I ran to him and asked him, "Tiene plastico..." (Do you have plastic?) But in my panic I forgot the word for bag. Again I looked at him with pleading eyes and said, "Plastico?" He opened a drawer in his cart and showed me a plastic bag. I said thank you like I have never said thank you before, grabbed the bag and ran over to the itty bitty and useless volunteer. "Are you going to do this or should I?" She jumped out of the way.

I squatted down, and, repeating, "Lo siento, lo siento," tried my best to clean all of the blood. I looked at my left hand, without the glove, and saw blood on it. "Can you go get me another bag?" I asked the useless volunteer. "Where?" (I wanted to say, "Umm, the Supermaxi or perhaps the corner store..." knowing there was nothing but a remote park within 40 meters in all directions so where could I have gotten a plastic bag besides the vendor that was about 15 meters away?) I pointed with a bloody bag covered hand and she went on her way. When she returned, she handed me the folded up bag. Very helpful. "Can you please open it for me so I can put in on my hand?" Apparently, this was rocket science.

Eventually, we got a wipe on the girl's foot and put my "glove" around her foot and secured it there with her hair band. (I actually believe the hair band was the useless one's idea.) Then the itty bitty was whisked back to Remar by one of the directors of my program, who had come to visit for an hour this afternoon.

I told this story to my roommate, Lisa, and she replied, "You were like McGyver." Hence the title of this post.

Besides that, and trying to tell that story in Spanish to my Spanish teacher (without knowing the word for blood, toe, bag, and brick), my day was pretty uneventful.

This past weekend I had an AMAZING time with more zip lining in MINDO. Mindo loves us. Our little group that traveled there on Saturday morning and returned Sunday and decided that Quito hates us and Mindo loves us. It was beautiful - cloud forest wonderfulness and sunshine like you wouldn't believe. We also saw a butterfly garden and found a batido stand complete with swings as seats. Saturday night we played card games in Spanish at the restaurant and went on this crazy amazing rollercoaster ride in the shape of a caterpillar (photos to follow eventually) and all was right with the world. However, actually getting to this heavenly spot was a bit more complicated than one might have thought.

We headed to the bus station at 8:10 on Saturday morning. We bought tickets for the 9:20am bus to Mindo - the last one that morning. Got on the bus and then a couple said they had our seats. Sarah and Becca, the brilliant Spanish speakers of the group, left the bus to problem solve. Eventually we all got off the bus to learn that they had sold us tickets to a bus that did not actually exist and would not exist. Without getting into too much detail - we were annoyed, betrayed, and just generally angry at the bus company. After much growling, we decided to take cabs the 1.5 hour trek to Mindo. The bus had been $2.50 per person. We paid $10 per person. Brilliant.

On Friday we went to Otovalo, which is a town known for its shopping. AWESOME. Bought a bunch of gifts for my family (including the cutest little sweater for my niece that made my heart ache even more for her. I actually had to hide it from myself so I wouldn't look at it and be sad) and jewelery galore.

On Thursday we went to the futbol game. Oh my gosh it was so great. We all bought shirts for $5 and pretended to know the words to all the songs. And guess who learned how to curse in Spanish?? Our team won!!

Besides that, I was sick on Tuesday - I woke up crazy nauseous with hella cramps in the center of my stomach. I will spare you the beautiful details - but after some oregano tea and my host mom's healing thoughts, I felt better by that evening. I slept until 4pm and my host mom told me she kept opening the door to check on me and her host son told her to stop it and that she needed to leave me alone. They are so cute. I was very scared it was going to last a while, but it sure didn't and I felt great the next day.

I suppose that's it for now...I will post some photos in a moment if I can...

Much love from Ecuador!!