The Striker's Guide to Dinner

After weeks of not cooking, I finally got into the kitchen, chopped a few vegetables and made something happen.

In all honesty, I haven't felt like cooking.

In my old life, I had a lot of go-to recipes but I've been too lazy uninspired to adjust the recipes and, frankly, I find looking through cookbooks exhausting and, if it's a cookbook without pictures, spare me...

Did I tell you all that I was a picky eater as child? Big visual, temperature and texture issues. Big drama. Like, you're not leaving the table until you eat drama. I sat with my legs dangling until I was excused. My 'rents had long caught onto me slipping the dog my undesirables. Did my parents ever once consider that it might have been their cooking? Nooooooooooo.

To this day, if something tastes good but is mushy, I'll taste it but won't hang with the dish for long.

When I do find a recipe that calls my name, it usually involves a lot of chopping. For some reason, the labor intensive recipes beckon me.

I was flipping through the March Prevention when I saw a recipe, More-Vegetable-Than-Egg Frittata that I instantly liked. The recipe was a contribution by the one and only Mark Bittman.



I used a red bell pepper, spinach and squash for my frittata. And my verdict -- not bad at all and quite clean tasting. I wasn't doing that Al Green moaning thing but I liked the frittata and will make it again. The frittata doesn't stand alone and it doesn't make a lot. If you have more than three folks to feed, double up on the ingredients.

What I ate while on strike:












Steamfresh Veggies with Trader Joe's Marinated Chicken Breasts

Ironically, that same Prevention featuring Mark Bittman also had an article, 50 Healthiest Everday Foods, which had a very nice chart for folks, like me, who need visual cues.

For example:

Natural State, 1st Choice: apple
Somewhat Processed, 2nd Choice: strawberry preserves
Highly processed, limit: strawberry gelatin dessert

What is one of your favorite go-to recipes and what food do you resort to when the cooking comes to a halt? If you don't halt, kudos, and may I come over?

P.S. Another promising Bittman recipe in that Prevention was Chicken Not Pie.

Bon appétit, you all...

One Second Flat

I couldn't remember how to release the brake cable on my bike and I could have kicked myself for leaving the store without knowing definitively.

I'm thinking to myself -- I'm relatively smart; I should be able to figure this out. The mechanism is not that complicated but, eventually, I loaded my bike and headed to the store from whence the bike came.

This young man wanted to know if I had been helped and as soon as I said brake cable, he reached down and, in one second flat, had the cable apart. My face got so warm.


I mimicked the young man's action and, of course, it wasn't as easy for me to disengage the brake cable but I did it.

Brake Cable Unplugged
Today, I reenacted the disengagement of the cable and took my front wheel to REI to participate in a Fix A Flat clinic.

I learned a lot including the fact that changing a tire is time intensive. I also learned that triathletes prefer co2 pumps unless you're a wannabe triathlete such as myself with one sprint under her belt.

A dollar bill is effective for temporarily patching the sidewall of your tire

A little baby powder on the inner tube helps it slide back into the tire

A sock is helpful for handling a bike chain

Don't use a lever to put the tire back on

I have directional tires

I bravely took the tire levers and mimicked what the REI instructor had done. I have to say that my tire came off fairly easy. Then, I put some baby powder on my inner tube, put the rim back on etc. etc.

Do I feel completely at ease with my tire changing knowledge? No. But I do feel like I'm capable of gutting it out and getting the deed done.

When I got back home, I had quite a time putting my wheel back on. It was so frustrating until I remembered Paul saying something about hitting the seat. So, I hit the seat and, sure enough, my wheel lined up. I put the doohickey bolt back in, made sure it said closed and prayed that my tire was going in the right direction.

Have you attended any workshops to keep you on the real or metaphoric road? I sometimes think about taking a Total Immersion freestyle workshop but I'm just thinking about it...

Picture This: Along The Trail

Saw these cyclists as I was loading my bike and later on as I was heading to meet Ena at the STL Riverfront Trail. The cyclists were in such a good mood and why not? It was a gorgeous day for a ride. Ena and I had not set out to do 22 miles but the weather was perfect and the sun was showing off and there's just something magical about being on a bike and being by the water.

I Hang Back While Ena Tackles The Hill




Chain of Rocks Bridge

The Arch from the Chain of Rocks Bridge





The Arch from Lenore K. Sullivan Blvd

Detour Takes Me By Busch Stadium -- So Far The Cardinals Are Winning 6-2, Top of the 5th

I sure don't feel like doing anything right now -- not cooking or anything. Bring out the proverbial fork -- not to eat (unless you've cooked) because I am done.

What did you do today? And a curious mind wants to know what's the longest you've ever bicycled or swam or...? Any Ironwomen or Ironmen out there among us?


Postscript: Ena got some great shots of the bridge. I like her photo of me riding for two reasons: she took it while riding her bike (Ena, great coordination) and the picture also allows me to see the progress that I've made.

A Bike And Bonus Anecdote

When I was a shorty, I had a yellow ten speed bike; it took me awhile to get the hang of it but, once I did, it was off to the races.

One day, I encountered what the Jamaicans call a sleeping policeman and went airborne (sans helmet) over my handlebars. See that vague oval shape above my eyebrow? It was quite nasty and oozing lots of pus at one point. I never saw the inside of a hospital which makes me think about Natasha Richardson. She fell on snow. I bounced off concrete. To borrow a Langston Hughes title -- my soul looks back in wonder.

I suffered another head injury when I was even shorter. My mother was trying to get me to put on pajamas and I ran away, hopped on the bed and bounced off onto a radiator. I went to the hospital instead of to bed and I have a small spot on my head that will never grow hair again.

Maybe I thought I was a gymnast -- trying to do a back handspring or something...

Any memorable injuries?

Happy Friday and a good weekend to all...

Jedan Gram

Know that Stevie Wonder song "Love's In Need of Love Today?"

Well, 'Drea's in need of non-scale victories today.

When I saw a post, Screw Plateau, It's A Drought, over at by Body By Pizza, it summed up, precisely, how I've been feeling. I'm not going to dwell on the scale but I can't say that I haven't noticed it has moved north a tad bit and the seesaw variation is the same two or three pounds...


The first non-scale victory begins with lotion which I was putting on when I felt something odd; I thought the oddness was some kind of growth. Who knows? My skin does weird things and is so sensitive at times.

It turns out the growth was one of my bones. I can feel bones, people, without going on some excavational expedition. I can feel the bones when I trace my eye sockets and I can distinguish the shape of my rib cage now.

For a fleeting moment, I felt vulnerable like someone could run into me and break my new-found bones but no one call Dr. Paul Weston; I've got a handle on that feeling...Not that there's anything wrong with therapy -- to paraphrase a Seinfeldism.

A few weeks ago, I was over at my friend Hazira's when her friend, Rabija, came over. Rabija was kind enough to stop by and take a few IKEA orders before heading to Chicago the next day.

I hadn't seen Rabija since we were poolside in '09. Hazira escorted Rabija out the door and, upon returning, informed me that Rabjia said that I didn't need to lose jedan (Bosnian for one) gram. Wow.

What has been one of your biggest *wow* moments during your fitness journey?

No Shoes Required

I once did Pilates for Wimps or Pilates for Dummies but it felt awkward.

Still, I didn't ignore one of the most recent Discovery Health newsletters that arrived in my inbox, a Pilates 101 article. In addition, Diane over at Diane's Training Journal always has my curiosity piqued when she mentions Pilates. Recently, I took a proper look at 10 Minute Solution: Quick Sculpt Pilates.

I love props and I love a challenge. Guess what? I found both in Quick Sculpt which comes with a cute little pink ball.

I really enjoyed the Strength & Flexibility Pilates segment which concentrates on spinal flexibility. Placing the ball under your lower back supposedly mimics spine corrector apparatus. I don't know anything about the apparatus but my lower back was slightly tweaked and when I finished scissoring, helicoptering and frogging, my back was tweak-free.


The Core Conditioning segment wore me out and I don't ever think that I've had my abs worked over so intensely the way they were worked over in Core Conditioning with the exception of Jackie Warner's Personal Training Circuit (the 40 minute stint).

All of the routines took some getting used to. I had to concentrate on precisely flexing my feet and working with holding the ball between my ankles. Also, the breathing pattern took some getting used to but I also have breathing issues with yoga and, for that matter, with the front crawl.

I don't know the Pilates vocabulary either but I got the gist of what Andrea Leigh Rogers, who is so graceful by the way, was talking about when she kept saying articulate your spine.

While I was laying on my side doing the routine for Buns and Thigh Sculptor, I was thinking, Oh My God, I'm going to have to do this on the other side and it's going to hurt burn just as much. I liked doing the bridge with my feet on the ball but it was definitely an accident waiting to happen challenging to extend the bridge by moving your legs outward with your feet on the ball.


In Standing Pilates Sculpt, Prince's song Baby, I'm A Star kept going through my head because, at one point, you were supposed to have your body positioned in a star-like state.

I was so happy to release my arms at the end of this segment because they were on fire.

Here is me at the end of Core Conditioning. It was a TKO, y'all.

Oh yeah, the one thing that I really liked about Pilates is that shoes are not required. Really, I know it seems trivial but sometimes when I'm in the locker room trying to negotiate the gauntlet, I swear, every little thing that I need to do in order to be workout-ready seems tiresome. After I inserted the DVD, I was getting ready to put on my Nike shoes and, when I realized that I didn't need them, it made me happy.

What's something small that puts a smile on your face -- besides exercise? :)

From Sluggish to Restored in Two Steps

I felt like a complete and utter slug this morning but I like to get my exercise in before Saturday's second act.

Luckily, once I ate oatmeal with a banana in the mix, I felt somewhat like myself again. I usually go rock climbing on Saturday but my belay partner is out of town. Plus, I have considerable soreness in my glutes and thighs. So, of course, it made perfect sense to get on my bike and head to Grant's Trail where I usually come to a screeching halt when I see a cardinal. The braking, of course, is probably why I missed about six pictures but this beauty stood still for me.


I also saw two cats, a bunny and numerous Clydesdales. The Clydesdales make me frequently pause as well.




This clock reminded me of Frida Kahlo. Does anyone remember the name of her painting with a clock? It's a commentary, I think, on her marriage to Diego Rivera and the title is The Hands Were Broken or something like that? I tried to Google it but my phrasing must be off.

What do you brake for?

I pause when swimming because there's this father who's been teaching his son how to swim.

It makes me think of that scene in The Pursuit of Happyness when the son reaches up to touch the dad's face and says you're a good papa (1:58).



The pool father asked his son, who is about four, to do some drill and the son said it was hard and the father said:

Just because something is hard doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.

In addition to knowing that the pool father is a good one, he makes me think of my father and how I think about sitting next to him in conversation.

So, yeah, I started off completely sluggish and, don't misunderstand me, I enjoy slowing down and lingering over a cup of coffee while reading but I was once again surprised how you can feel lethargic then be invigorated by exercise and nature.

How's your weekend shaping up?