Today I decided to kick myself in the butt and get to it. I did the Beginner Body Weight Circuit Workout from NerdFitness (after warming up for five minutes by jumping rope and running in circles around my couch—classy).
My first run-through of the circuit, I was thinking, "this is nothing." My second run-through I started to change my mind, and toward the end I began telling myself not to do a third run-through. Well, I did the third one. Then I stretched for five minutes and logged my workout on Fitocracy.com, gaining mondo points. That's when I realized that I was 10 jump-squats away from completing a quest, and I hopped up and did 15. Way to overachieve.
Perhaps the most entertaining bit of this whole thing was my boy cat's reaction. He was watching me all concerned throughout my workout endeavors. He started rolling around into funny positions, apparently giving me his impression of my behavior. When I was struggling on my last rep of the plank, he said in his feline way, "Mommy, what's wrong? Here, I'll help you up," and leaned against me. Then he proceeded to follow me around the house in case of sudden death, probably with the hope of an eventual zombiecat snack. (It's really hard for him to reach my brains when I'm upright.) He nearly got one, too, because I fell over sideways at least twice when trying to do normal walking-type things.
Now I'm wondering what it's like to have energy. I'll definitely do the circuit again Monday or Tuesday, but I'll have to make sure I do it at night... So I can pass out after some protein intake and call it a day.
Speaking of protein, I made up a black bean meatloaf recipe the other day. I had ground beef in the fridge that needed to be used probably a few days sooner (oops) and wasn't in the mood for Hamburger Helper.
Easy Black Bean Meatloaf
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Barbecue sauce (I like Stubb's)
1.25-1.5 lbs ground beef
15 oz can black beans, drained
1 cup bread crumbs (I used Italian-seasoned bread crumbs)
1 large egg
1 cup milk
Prepare:
1. Preheat oven to 350 °F.
2. Spread some barbecue sauce on the bottom of a greased 5x9" loaf pan.
3. Mix the beef, beans, bread crumbs, egg and milk together in a large bowl. You might as well use your hands because they're going to get messy soon, anyway.
4. Press the mixture into the loaf pan. The barbecue sauce will creep up the sides of the loaf pan. If you really like barbecue sauce, you can spread some more on top. Be careful, though—it will bubble in the oven, so if you use a lot of sauce make sure you put your loaf pan on top of a cookie sheet to catch any drips.
5. Put meatloaf in pre-heated oven and cook for one hour. It may still be a little pink in the center at one hour, so cut your first piece from the center to make sure the color is to your liking. Or, better yet, stick an instant-read food thermometer in the center and make sure it's at least the USDA recommended 160 °F.
You can add chopped bell peppers, jalepeño peppers, sautéed onions, corn... Whatever veggies you like. I was feeling pretty lazy. This meatloaf is fairly healthy as far as meatloaves go, not having cheese and all.
And just so you guys don't think I'm straying from the cupcake arena, I made an oversized cupcake the other day. I used a dense vegan chocolate cake for the cake itself, then filled it with a not-so-vegan Oreo and cream cheese mixture, slapped some canned vanilla frosting on the top and covered that with crushed Oreos. Fancy.
