Monday, Monday..

Mondays are hard, aren't they? Luckily, my husband followed through with my plea to make me get out of bed for my morning workout today by leaving my phone alarm on the dresser and letting it ring and ring and ring while he got in the shower. Needless to say, pretty shortly thereafter, I was up and out of the bed to shut that awful noise off! I find that if I get up and get my Monday started with a workout, the whole week gets off to a better start! I'm happy now, that there isn't another Monday for 6 more days :)

So, I guess you're here to hear THE LATEST, right?

Well, first of all, this is the beginning of week #2 of my friend Jenny's half-marathon training. SO, why is that so significant for me? Well, I've decided that I will train with her by following her same training plan (we live in different cities, so we can't actually run together). I've been in and out of running for the last few years, and one of my goals for 2010 was to get back into it again. I joined a little late, so I only ran 6 of the total 12 miles for week #1, but the good news is, I made it through the entire "long run" of 4 miles on Saturday. I'll let you know how week #2 pans out after Saturday. My ultimate goal is to incorporate more long-distance-ish runs into my workouts. Once I've built up some endurance through this 16-week plan, we'll see where it goes from there.

The other new thing in my life is menu planning. I tried menu planning for an entire month in June 2009, before life got crazy with wedding planning, and it was a total success. I saved money and time and had lots of yummy leftovers for lunch (therefore, saved more money!) If you know anything about me, you know I LOVE to save money, so this is one key to my motivation. Another key is to share more meals at home with my husband where we can spend time one-on-one with each other without the distractions that eating out often brings. I'm trying new recipes left and right, and also, cheating a little bit off my friend Leigh, who is an amazing cook, and is also implementing menu planning more this year. Another related goal is to get my kitchen stocked up with staple items so I can whip up meals/snacks/etc on the fly whenever the planning falls through.....What are some of your go-to items in the kitchen??

Our menu this week:
Sunday - Three Cheese Beef Stuffed Shells (from Leigh's recipe blog... yummy)
Monday - Chili (a perfect dish for this CRAZY cold weather) - I was nervous about using half ground beef & half venison this time, but it turned out great!
Tuesday - Date Night!
Wednesday - Girls' night with Leigh!
Thursday - Pork Chops, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Black-Eyed Peas
Friday - Aloha Chicken & Rice
Saturday - TBA

You'll notice my menus are MAJORLY lacking in vegetables. My main go-to vegetable is a salad, because I have always been VERY picky when it comes to cooked veggies. My husband loves vegetables and is the complete opposite of me on the pickiness-spectrum, so I'm looking for suggestions. Can you help me out???

Lockslie