A Great Day of Skiing at Crystal

What a perfect day skiing!! Crystal got about 9 feet of new snow since the last time I went and the friends I went with are just plain awesome. We buzzed down the hills like no tomorrow. There was this one long trail called Kelly's gap that was so much fun we just kept going down it. One time I took a wrong turn and ended up on a double diamond run called Exterminator. That one took me some time getting down from because of all the moguls. :)

Chunky Monkey

Ahh, there's nothing like a refreshing meal replacement drink like a chunky monkey.

About 734 Calories, 29g fat (16g from the peanut butter and 12g from the Hershey bar), 9g Fiber & 40g Protein.

Put in Blender:

• 8 oz Milk (I use 2%)
  
• 1 oz Coffee Concentrate (I use Victorian House Concentrated Coffee)


• 2 heaping tablespoons Peanut Butter (I use Costco's Kirkland Brand Creamy Organic Peanut Butter)


• 1/2 to 1 Frozen Banana - depending on size (You can use fresh but I found that when you unpeel and freeze them is much easier and they don't go bad)


• 2 scoops (1 serving) Chocolate Whey Protein (I use Biochem Whey Protein at VitaCost.com)


• 1/2 scoop (1/2 oz) Ghirardelli Premium Baking Cocoa Sweet Ground Chocolate


• 16 oz ice

Now blend that all up to a smoothie consistancy then this is where the chunky comes in:

• 1 serving Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate bar
  

Put the blender on low and put in the chocolate bar and let it chunk it up so you can get the chips into a straw. Then Enjoy :)

Lentil Stew

Lentils are a "super food", they are high in protein and fiber. This was one of the keys to my weight loss. I was eating canned lentil soup before and not losing much weight. This will last me about 2-3 weeks eating it for lunch. Oh, as an extra kick you can put some fresh broccoli on top of the bowl with a paper towel covering it when you reheat it and it will cook the broccoli just right.

3 qts. water
1 lb lentils, washed
2 packages or 4 cups sliced mushrooms
4 medium carrots, sliced
1 bunch green onions, fine chopped
3 stalks celery and tops, fine chopped
1 leek, fine chopped
3 medium potatoes, cut
1 can corn
2 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. garlic
1 tbsp. beef stock
1 tsp. salt (optional)

Use 4 quart pot or slow cooker. Sauté mushrooms, onions, leek, celery and garlic in butter till tender.

Put beef stock in 2 cups of water in microwave to melt beef stock.

Combine all ingredients in pot add water to almost top of pot and simmer at least 3 hours until lentils and carrots have softened. Add salt to taste.

Big Climb 2009

I had an awesome time doing the Big Climb with Team Foot Fire!

We ran up 69 floors in the Columbia Center in downtown Seattle. The Big Climb is held each year to raise funds for blood cancer research.

Even though I would consider myself being in great cardio shape it was the most labored breathing I've ever done. My time was 12:08. I was 74th out of 290 in my age group and 443 out of 2927 racers.

A professional picture was taken by the event organizers and can be seen here.