Ch ch ch Chia!

I have no energy.  Ever.  I live on caffeine.  I attribute this ridiculous state of my life to two small but major reasons:

So my lovely friend Emily has been oh-so-gently suggesting I try out Chia seeds.  They're like flax seeds, but better.  The Aztecs/Mayans/all those superpowers from back in the day ate these as one of their staple foods.  According to Ms. Emily, they give her enough energy to run a marathon. Or a couple miles.  Or she can make it through a day of work/crazy-1-yr-old-daughter-nonsense.  Whatever, I'm game.

I've been making green smoothies for a while now, courtesy of one of my favorite blogs, 100 Days of Real Food.  So basically I just added in a couple tablespoons of the handy-dandy chia seeds I ordered off Amazon.  Oh, and let them "gel", i.e. let the chia seeds sit in the yogurt in the fridge for 10ish minutes so they could soften up.  Good call, Em. :)  I couldn't taste the seeds, nor did I crunch on them, and I found I did have a touch more energy that day.  I call that a win!

Oh, and the littlest energy drain, i.e. the Sophsters, thoroughly enjoyed these as well.  Sneaking the greens into the 1 yr old's diet?  Yes, please!

Green Ch Ch Ch Chia! Smoothie Recipe
Adapted from 100 Days of Real Food

• 1.5-ish cups plain organic yogurt
• 1-ish cup berries, fresh or frozen
• 2 bananas (or 1 – 2 tablespoons of honey if you don’t like bananas) (Note: you can use frozen bananas but the texture will turn out closer to ice cream than a smoothie.  Delish, but if you're shooting for a smoothie here I'd use fresh)
• 2-ish tablespoons milk (Sensing a trend here?  I don't measure, I eyeball.  It's a smoothie people, not major surgery!)
• A couple handfuls of fresh dark greens (I've done baby spinach, spring salad mix because it was all I had on hand and most recently kale, which worked out just fine) 
• 2 tablespoons Chia seeds (or flax seeds, but then you can't sing the name of the smoothie)
• Optional: if using fresh berries (instead of frozen) add some ice cubes

Put yogurt and chia seeds in blender, pop in fridge for 10-15 minutes to soften up seeds.  Once they're ready, add your greens and milk and blend.  This ensures your greens get really blended into the yogurt and you won't walk around with green stuff in your teeth all day.  Once that's all blended and happy, add in your fruit (and ice if that's your jam) and blend. 

Drink up!!  Tis quite tasty, if I do say so myself.

Where the heck is my runner's high????

So last fall the Hubbs decided he was taking up running. I was in full support of this venture, provided he did not try to rope me in. I Hate to run. Loathe. What is the point, I've always wondered. I had always been very active in sports in high school; soccer, softball, etc., but track was not my game. Perhaps that is why...it's not a game!! I'm not chasing after a ball trying to score a goal, I'm running in a fracking circle! Oy.

But I digress.

So anywho, Hubbs does a 10K training program, I am his biggest cheerleader, he completes it (in winter, no less, crazy man), tra-la.

Fast-forward to this spring. Now all of a sudden I have decided to try running. I honestly don't know if he has been slowly brainwashing me this past year or if I came up with this hair-brained idea on my own, but by April I had asked for running shoes as my Mother's Day gift. WTF. So obviously and with ill-concealed glee the Hubbs agrees to gift me my shoes. As I have never bought anything but cross-trainers and cleats in my life, I follow his worthy example and buy barefoot-style running shoes. Now, I have never had foot problems in my life. Even after years and years of soccer, softball, basketball, you name it, nary a pain in my pinkie toe. However, three weeks of running barefoot-style and my arches are shooting pains like something's going to rip and my heels feel like nails are being driven up through them. Now, again, I'm no runner but even I know this is wrong. So off I go to Runners Plus with my now-hated Mother's Day gift in hand begging for assistance in buying new shoes.

I've ended up with a neutral-style Brooks shoe that is still supposedly barefoot-style but has waaay more cushion for my sad, sad feet. I'll be taking my first run in them tomorrow evening, so only time will tell. But by God they better not make me feel like an 80yr old who can't walk!!!!

Welcome welcome! I am brand new to blogging so we'll see how this business goes...the plan for this puppy is just to keep family and friends up-to-date on the Cocuzzi clan happenings, but also to provide pics and helpful hints on projects we do around our house. For instance, we're mid-kitchen re-do, so in the coming weeks I'll be posting about the joys of re-painting cabinets! I repeat, joy. .... I'm also in charge of planning my fabulous mom's group (shout out to The Family Network, what what!!) Fall Fling craft show, so hopefully I'll be crafting up a storm in the coming months and sharing all those goodies on here. Stay tuned, there's so much more to come.... :)