I used to make my mac and cheese like this, until I found this recipe, and now I’m making sort of a combination of the two.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound of Elbow macaroni or small shells (I use whole wheat elbows and prefer it this way. You can try any type of macaroni you like, but the smaller shapes will be easier to work with.)
• A cup of shredded cheddar cheese (This is approximate. I just pour some in until it looks like enough. When I make this at home I use reduced fat sharp cheddar.)
• Pepperoni slices (I usually use Turkey Pepperoni, and again I just stir the in until it seems like enough. You can use as many or as few as you like.)
• A sprinkle of grated cheese (Kraft reduced fat parmesan.)
• 1/2 cup of flavored Italian bread crumbs
• 2 or 3 tablespoons of melted margarine 

Cook macaroni and drain. Pour into a large bowl and stir in cheddar. Sprinkle in a little grated cheese and stir. Throw in slices of pepperoni and stir together. Spoon into greased cupcake/muffin pans. Melt butter, and stir in breadcrumbs. Sprinkle on top of filled cupcakes. Bake for 12 minutes at 350. Typically makes 12-15 cupcakes depending on how much pasta, cheese and pepperoni you throw in the bowl. I don’t usually measure any of it out, I just pour in what looks right, so it can vary.

You can “flour” the pans after greasing them with some italian bread crumbs. It may help them to stick together better. The longer you let it cool, the easier it is to get them out in cupcake shape. I prefer to eat it hot so they fall apart when I take them out of the pan.

To make a large pan like I brought to the service, I used about a pound and a half of elbows, 2.5 cups chedder and 2/3 of a bag of pepperoni. Then I baked at 350 for about 20 minutes. If you want it to taste exactly how it did for this, use normal elbows, regular pepperoni and full fat sharp cheddar. It turned out well, but I honestly prefer the way the healthier version tastes.

I’m running more lately. I find that I no longer need music for the mile I run with my husband in the early mornings. His company is what keeps me going. Plus I can hear the park foxes and other crazy sounds more clearly without headphones blocking one ear.

But later, when I go back and run alone? It’s all about the music. Without it I would not be able to keep going the way I have been, and I want to go longer and further over the coming weeks and months. So here is my current running playlist that has been keeping me going.

1. Your Love Is My Drug – Ke$ha
2. Blow – Ke$ha
3. Teenage Dream – Katy Perry
4. We Found Love – Rihanna
5. We R Who We R – Ke$ha
6. Last Friday Night – Katy Perry
7. Blah Blah Blah – Ke$ha
8. Firework – Katy Perry
9. Crazy Beautiful Life – Ke$ha
10. DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love – Usher featuring Pitbull
11. Party At A Rich Dude’s House – Ke$ha
12. Backstabber – Ke$ha
13. E.T. – Katy Perry
14. The One That Got Away – Katy Perry
15. c u next tuesday – Ke$ha
16. Blind – Ke$ha
17. Dancing With Tears In My Eyes – Ke$ha
18. TiK ToK – Ke$ha

At this point, there are more songs on my playlist than I need. 3 miles gets me through about the first 10 tracks right now. I’ll add new songs in when I need a change, especially when my 11 year old daughter buys new music and shares with me. She buys better music for running to than I typically do. Most of these tracks were hers first.

What kind of music keeps you going during a run or other workout? What have you got on your playlist that I should consider adding to mine?

For Christmas I got a Brooks run happy long sleeve tee (Thanks Mommy!) This is seriously one of my favorite new shirts. It may be one of my favorite shirts ever. Flattering, great fit, great material for running. So I wore it around New Year’s and at the end of the night, my husband noticed the giant gaping hole in the back of the sleeve! I was really, REALLY upset about it. I’d not only already taken the tag off, but I had worn it all day! I knew my mom had ordered it from Brooks, so I couldn’t try to exchange it at a local store that carries it. So after some poking around on brooksrunning.com, I decided to give their live chat a try.

Within minutes I’d had a great conversation with a customer service rep, uploaded a picture live so she could see the damage, and she had an order in to get a new shirt out to me. I was really super impressed at how helpful and fast it was to get a replacement. My new shirt came today! Only a week after my chat with them. It’s perfect and I couldn’t be a happier customer right now.

Thanks Brooks for making my runs happier and my life easier.

No, this is absolutely not a New Year’s Plan, or some kind of useless New Year’s Resolution.

But my game plan is changing a bit and I think embracing that is the best way to go right now. So for the moment, I’m running more.. 3 to 5 miles a few days a week, but at least one mile daily (except on Sunday, and usually Saturday because I’m all kinds of full of excuses to not get up that early on a Saturday). And to run that much and more I am going to have to start eating to support it. I’ve been playing with and tweaking the HCG diet to allow for things like more food and more variety while still rapidly losing weight since last summer. And it’s been great and I have lost a lot. But I don’t have the stamina to keep running when I’m on it, and I want to just keep running and running right now…

So it’s back to keeping track of calories, making sure I eat enough to support my workouts without overdoing it either. I’m going to go high on protein, moderate to low fat and carbs. And I’m going to pay attention to what kind of carbs I consume, making as many of them as possible fruits and veggies and as few as possible processed foods. This isn’t really too different than the way I was eating on HCG, except I get more calories and don’t have to feel guilty if I eat a few more carbs than I meant to.

This morning while formulating these plans, I went to one of my favorite nearby parks to run. Added 4 more miles to the one I’d started my day with. Since then I’ve been eating on my new plan and I feel so good. Lots of energy. I’m usually starting to lag by now. But today I feel fine.

I’ll be working with this plan for a couple of weeks before I reassess. I’d really like to up my mileage while still losing weight. Hopefully this will be the right combination for me.

What new things have you added into your plan lately? Or is the same plan still working for you?

Last spring my husband linked me to kellymoorebag.com, where I fell head over heels for the orange sherbet posey bag. I had to have it… it’s a camera bag, but it’s like a purse too, and it could double as a book bag for school. So last April I ordered it as an early birthday gift to myself. I’m totally smitten with this purse. Lately though, the strap kept unhooking itself regularly. And then last week in the middle of a store, it broke. The connector fell apart, I found most but not all of the pieces… it was a disaster. I was so disappointed. This is the only expensive purse I’ve ever bought. I was starting to think maybe it wasn’t worth it…

Then I checked out the website and it turns out her bags come with a year warranty. Awesome! You just have to send them a picture of the damage so they can assess it. Within minutes I had emails going back and forth about the damage and my warranty. They offered to send me a new strap. It was in the mail in a couple of days, and arrived at my home two days after that. Very fast, and now my awesome purse is restored to its former glory.

I’m SO impressed with how helpful and fast and prompt the Kelly Moore customer service team is. This is a fantastic company. I will definitely buy from them again in the future.

* They didn’t pay me or ask me to say these things.

Image credit: kellymoorebag.com

Today I feel like I could just keep going forever.

This morning I had my last class of the semester. My A in Personality Theories is so high that if there was a letter grade above A, I’d have it. I left school in the light, misty rain, with an urge to go run more. Running in the rain has really never been my thing, but I’ve been making myself get up and do it the past couple of mornings. And it was so light, what’s a few sprinkles?

Naturally, I got home and the rain picked up. Out of curiosity, I snagged my rain jacket that I’d given to my daughter to wear and tried it on. It shouldn’t fit me yet, but somehow it does. And the rain lightened up again. So off I went to the park. I kept a slow, comfortable pace and just kept going. I felt like I could keep going like that forever. I’m hoping this is the beginning of a return to more miles. I’ve been wanting this for awhile, but not found the time or the will to make it happen.

Everything just felt right. My breathing was natural instead of being something I needed to think about. The music was making me happy. I wasn’t tired at all until a little into the 3rd mile. After that, I felt the blister coming. And then the rain picked up. I made it home, 3.1 miles in 37 minutes.

I’d like to work on my 5k time and improve it by spring. But I have no complaints about a steady, comfortable run that I enjoyed. If the rain held back and the blister didn’t happen, I’m not sure I’d have stopped running anytime soon. I like that.

How do you feel about running in the rain? 

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about holiday food. I’m on a serious diet, so thinking about it isn’t necessarily a good thing (it makes me hungry), but it’s almost time to get ready for it.

Most years I make my mom’s lasagna. Homemade sauce with meatballs and sausage, assembled with lots of ricotta and mozzarella… you get the idea. It’s wonderful. If you’ve ever actually made a lasagna, you also know what an unbelievable pain it can be. So this year, I think I’m going to spend a day making my sauce, but serve it up as manicotti instead. Much smaller production, and if you stuff them like a lasagna, it tastes just like lasagna. And there’s less leftovers, so you can get back on track with eating healthy faster. I’m also considering that maybe, if I’m going to be eating badly for a couple days, it might be worth it to throw in some homemade pizza. Because I won’t be eating that for awhile either.

As far as holiday baking goes, my husband is making cinnamon rolls (and they are AMAZING) to bring to Christmas brunch. I have no other yummy baked goods planned. I loved doing the cake balls last year, and would love to try something new and yummy, too. But I’m on a diet. And I sample when I bake things. And my hand mixer was murdered by bread dough. And I hate to shell out another 10 bucks for a cheap piece o crap hand mixer that will die an untimely death due to bread dough, cookie dough, or some other baked good that’s tougher than a crappy appliance. I need to get a decent one. But I’d rather spend my money on the kids.

So, I’m not sure what I’ll be baking this Christmas, if anything.

Any suggestions? What are you making? What traditional foods can you not live without during the holidays?

My father passed away 2 weeks ago, and I spent this past long weekend with airplanes and funerals.

I’m so happy to be home. And nothing is ever going to be the same again.

I’m a firm believer in the people who have told me it doesn’t ever get any easier. Time doesn’t heal this, you just keep living.

So I guess I’ll just keep living.