Starting the week right

Morning blog friends! 

I am super impressed with the thoughtful comments and feedback on the stem cell post from yesterday. My personal facebook wall and the blog comments made my day. I love to see intelligent discussion!

Yesterday's post was loooong, so this will be a quick one. I had a busy weekend with job applications and I'm going to a conference next weekend, so I am trying to get all of my material in order. This is our upcoming  forecast, if you can believe it:

Gross. They were right though, I woke up to snow this morning.

I got a good solid outdoor run done on Saturday, which was a good idea to keep my mileage up, but it was hard on my body. I got this:

From the heavy socks I was wearing. And my back has a twinge now. I had to skip the weightlifting class yesterday, and after some cardio and yoga, it loosened up. Hopefully it doesn't continue to bother me so I am able to keep up with my crazy schedule!

Of course, I tried a new recipe this weekend. This one is from this book.

Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

I have had this book for years, and while it has beautiful photography, the only things I ever wanted to make from it were desserts. Trust me, I have enough desserts around the house....I don't need any more. 

Instead, I picked out 'Giant Crusty and Creamy White Beans with Greens'. It had perks - I usually have beans, greens, oil, and onion/garlic around. Plus, the fiance had insisted on buying some real butter for this awful ridiculous snack he likes to make (it's Healthy Doc Kryptonite. I can't help myself). Once again, I followed the recipe nearly to the letter, so I can't give it to you (go buy the book - or look it up online!), but I can give you the basics. 

First, you start with some fat. I used some butter and some olive oil. 

Then I added some white beans. I cooked these up in my pressure cooker a couple days prior. 

These brown on one side, then you stir them to get both sides nice and crispy. Add some aromatics. 

Develop that nice color! Then you add in some greens. I used a mix of kale and chard, and I tried to let them wilt without getting the beans soggy. This took two tries to figure out. 

Finally, you plate it with some shaved or grated parmesan on top. It's so pretty!

Or, if you're the fiance, you fry some pancetta and crumble it on top. It was local pancetta.....? I am not sure I can say much more to justify the blasphemy!

It makes a good side dish, or main dish if you pair it with a starch. As you can see, the fiance ate it with the leftover Afelia from last week and declared it delicious.

Ok, time to get to work. I've recently discovered some mistakes I made during the crazy busyness I went through this fall, which makes me frustrated. I need to go check to make sure that these incidents are isolated and can be fixed. I am also more convinced than ever that I can't keep up the ridiculous workload that I have been under, so I am even more resolved to keep my New Year's goals and be better to myself.

What do you do when you life feels out of control?