Author: Jill McCauslin (Page 10 of 23)

Cabbage, Potato, and Sausage Soup in the Instant Pot

October 8, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

It’s fall once again and my heart turns to soups, including my recipe for a Cabbage, Potato, and Sausage Soup and I’m using the Instant Pot for this.

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can make this just as easily on the stove. I wanted to see how the cabbage and potato would work in the Instant Pot and it turned out great.

In all of the recipes in Becoming Elli, you can count on there being a lot of recipes that include cabbage. I’m not sure why that is. I posted my basic cabbage soup recipe a while ago.

Ingredients

1/2 Tbsp. avocado oil
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
About 1 lb of baby red potatoes, cut in half or quarters depending on the size
1/2 of large onion, diced
1 or 2 cloves of minced garlic
About 1/2 head of cabbage, chopped into small pieces
1 package of turkey kielbasa (13 Oz), sliced
2 cups of baby spinach
4 cups of chicken broth
2 cups of water
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper, optional

Instructions

Turn the Instant Pot on to Sauté. Add the oil and let it heat.

Add the carrots, celery, and onion to the pot and stir frequently for about 5 or 6 minutes.

Stir in the sliced kielbasa and sauté for a few more minutes.

Add the minced garlic and sauté for a minute or two longer.

Turn sauté off.

Add broth, cabbage, and potatoes to the Instant Pot.

Stir in salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper.

Set your Instant Pot to Soup, make sure the steam vent is set to pressurized and cook for about 30 minutes.

I usually let the steam release naturally but that’s not necessary if you’re in a hurry. When you’re ready, remove the lid.

Add the spinach and stir until it’s wilted.

Notes:

I used turkey kielbasa because that’s what I had on hand. I think chicken sausage would be great in this, as would traditional pork kielbasa. Really, any sausage will do. Use a vegan sausage if you are avoiding meat. I think you’ll want something in the sausage family for this soup. Otherwise, it’s just not cabbage, potato, and sausage soup.

You can add other vegetables to this. I think green beans would be a good addition.

I added the spinach at the end because it adds a lovely bright green color to the soup but you wouldn’t need to. If you want to add kale or a different green, remember that most cook longer than spinach so you would probably want to add the greens into the pot to cook with the other vegetables.

I used baby red potatoes but you can use any potato you want. Also, I always leave the skin on when I add potatoes to soup but that’s optional. I think even sweet potatoes would be good though it would change the flavor a bit.

The Motivation of a Race

October 1, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

There’s a lot of motivation in signing up for a race, at least for me. I’m much more likely to really follow a training plan if I have something on the calendar.

This year has not been a good one for racing. I think 2020 will be known as the year of no races, among other things.

Buckeye Half Marathon and 10K

I noticed the Buckeye Half Marathon and 10K is still scheduled. It hasn’t been cancelled yet. Of course, it’s quite possible that it will be cancelled but as of right now, it’s still a possibility.

I have a several year history with this race. The first year, I registered for a half marathon and then ended up getting my sciatic injury that took me out for quite a while. I did not run that race. Last year I ran the 10K and enjoyed it. I’m never a fast runner but I still like to race and I managed to complete it successfully.

I made a commitment to run the 10K in this year’s race. So now I must train for running a 10K. I’ve only been running about a 5K distance this summer. Time to increase the distance!

Instead of just going out for a run, I now am thinking about how many times a week I run and what distance I need to be running. See how a race can motivate you? At least for me, I become much more organized about my training.

The Motivation of Race Goals

You know how we’re always advised to have multiple goals? Here are my goals for this race:

Run it faster than I ran it in 2019
Run it at the same speed as 2019
Complete the training and race injury free.

I had to go look up my results for the 2019 race. I ran it in 1:17:29.0 which wasn’t incredibly fast. Hopefully my A goal is achievable. I went back and read my race recap from last year and I was looking forward to racing in 2020. Well, that sure didn’t happen but I’m hoping that this race will happen and that I can run it.

Do you have anything on the calendar that’s motivating you? Let me know.

How Many Steps Do I Take in a Year?

September 24, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 3 Comments

Someone recently asked me how many steps do I take in a year. Apparently I don’t think big enough because I’ve never set an annual goal for myself. I have tinkered with a daily goal of steps and I have had weekly goals but I’ve never set an annual goal. My daily goal is set currently at 10,000 . I’ve changed that number in the past but I just leave it as is now.

The question about an annual goal made me curious about what I’ve done in the past so I logged into the Fitbit dashboard and got some numbers. This was a lot easier to do on my laptop. Using the Fitbit app on my phone was more difficult to get the totals. If you want to check this out, I suggest you use the web version of Fitbit.

I remember Chris sharing her Fitbit data a few years ago. It’s always interesting to look at those totals.

How Many Steps in a Year

Here’s a breakdown of my totals per year for as long as I’ve been wearing a Fitbit.

Year	Steps	Floors	Miles	Calories
2020 (Jan – Aug)	2,753,992	4030	1,227.36	561,806
2019	3,688,570	4274	1,649.06	812,909
2018	4,341,364	6801	1,913.71	896,669
2017	4,662,734	5635	2,118.93	910,336
2016	4,824,029	6836	2,182.38	868,856
2015	4,253,875	7124	1,971.57	810,115
2014	3,071,844	5713	1,365.49	778,890
2013 (Mar – Dec)	2,505,079	4481	1,101.9	731,658
Totals	30,101,487	44894	13,530.4	6,371,242

This is interesting. I had a drop in steps in 2019. Basically that was the year that I moved out of my much larger house that also had stairs in it. That might be enough to account for the drop in steps.

My highest number of steps occurred in 2016. I was running a lot then and it’s also the year that my weight was the lowest.

I have four months left in 2020 to get over 900,000 steps to beat last year’s steps. Although I never set a yearly goal, this has now become one. I just want to beat last year’s total.

My complete total for the past seven years is over 30 million steps. Doesn’t that seem like a lot? I can’t quite comprehend that many steps! I guess you just break it down until you get back to 10,000 steps per day. Actually, I did some very rough calculations to figure out averages and it comes out to approximately 11,000 per day since 2013. I feel great about that!

If you have Fitbit data, feel free to share it with me. I’d love to hear what you have done.

First Time Swimming Since the Pandemic Shutdown

September 17, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 2 Comments

Yesterday was my first time swimming since we all went into seclusion due to the Covid-19 pandemic. My gym reopened about two months ago and I rejoined a few weeks later.

A pleasant feature for me is that not many people have returned to the gym so it’s always quiet. The pool area was no exception. This time there were two people in the therapy pool and one other person in the lap pool. I had no problem snagging a lane.

The five-lane pool was reduced to three lanes. Every other lane was closed to enable social distancing. The only thing that felt strange was wearing a mask from the locker room to the pool. (Right now, due to state regulations in Ohio, we have to wear a mask everywhere in the gym except in the pool.) When I went to return to the locker room, my mask was wet so I was glad I was jumping right into the shower to rinse off. Fortunately, I had a dry mask tucked away in my purse so I was able to leave wearing a dry mask.

First Time Swimming

For the first time swimming in several months, I think I did well. I swam for about 30 minutes and took a few breaks. I’ve never been a strong swimmer and I didn’t want to overdo it on my first time back. I just concentrated on my stroke and breathing.

It felt good to swim. I enjoyed it. Swimming is definitely a full-body workout. I could feel my muscles working in ways they haven’t worked in a while.

I think swimming might be a good way to do some active meditation. There’s no social interaction while swimming. Just time to think, count my strokes, and concentrate on my breath.

Have you been swimming lately? Is your pool open?

Tuna and Sardine Salad

September 10, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 6 Comments

I never really thought I’d be writing a post about tuna and sardine salad.

The mind is a funny thing. I wanted to make lunch the other day and I thought I’d make my standard salad for lunch. I like to add protein to my salad. Usually I have some cooked chicken in the refrigerator just ready to be chopped up and added to my salad. This day, however, I was out of chicken because I used all of it in my Easy Coconut Red Curry Chicken. I was back to rummaging around in my pantry where I found a can of tuna and thought, no, that’s not what I want. A can of sardines was lurking behind the tuna. I remembered that I should definitely try to eat more sardines but didn’t really feel like making my standard sardine salad.

I wondered, “what if I mix a can of tuna with a can of sardines?” What could I do with that? I thought of adding some mayonnaise and some mustard. Wait a minute, I basically just thought of making regular old tuna salad and adding a can of sardines to it. What a radical thought! Later, I googled tuna and sardines and it turns out I’m not the first person to think of it but I guess that just proves it was a good idea.

Here’s the basic recipe that I came up with. Of course you could add whatever else you think would be good. Probably some onion would be a nice addition. I didn’t have any. How does that happen? I always have onion in the house but my trips to the grocery store don’t happen as often as they could, I guess.

Tuna and Sardine Salad

This was really good. Combining the two fish worked out really well. The two flavors definitely complemented each other.

Ingredients for Tuna Sardine Salad

1 can each of tuna and sardines

1 stalk of celery diced finely

1/2 cup of mayonnaise (start with less and add until it’s the level of creaminess you prefer.)

Juice of half a lemon

1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard or whatever mustard you have on hand.

Directions for Tuna Sardine Salad

Drain the cans of fish and then mixed them in a mixing bowl. Break the tuna apart and mash the sardines.

Stir in the celery.

Add the mayonnaise, lemon juice, and mustard. Mix well.

Serve immediately or refrigerate.

Notes:

I ate the tuna and sardine salad on top of a bed of greens. It would also be good as a sandwich or as a dip for crackers. I bet you could make an awesome tuna (and sardine!) melt too.

I used regular mayonnaise but if you follow a particular way of eating, any kind of mayo will do. Vegan mayo or mayo made with avocado oil would be fine.

Add in other crunchy vegetables if you have them.

This was a delicious way to eat both tuna and sardines.

Ode to My Vintage Cannondale Hybrid Bike

September 3, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

I’m not too keen on the title Vintage Cannondale Hybrid Bike. It’s hard to believe that something I own should be called vintage. I guess being part of the Becoming Elli community means that I may well own something that is considered to be vintage.

Recently, I rode my old, original bike and fell in love with it again. I rode on a lovely bicycle trail, the Kokosing Gap Trail, that was paved and flat and very scenic. It was a great ride. I noticed how comfortable my bike was.

It has straight handle bars, the brakes are easy to use and reach, and the gear shifter was also easy to use and reach. I never felt like I had to move my hands or position to brake or change gears.

Also, I have a gel seat on that bike and it’s very comfortable.

My Life with the Vintage Cannondale Hybrid Bike

My husband bought me this bike in 1993. I suspect it must have been a Christmas present because I didn’t ride it much before I found out that I was pregnant. My son was born in 1994, which is how I’m pretty sure what year it was.

It was an expensive bike for someone who really wasn’t a bike rider. At that time, Cannondales were made in Pennsylvania by hand. That was their big claim for quality. My husband was big believer in buying the best that you could afford though he also loved finding deals.

I rode that bike a lot while my son was growing up because we’d go on bike rides together. I remember one year for Mother’s Day we rode our bikes across town to go to the library. My son was young enough then that it was a big adventure to ride that far. When we got to the library, we discovered they were closed for the holiday. Wow. We were disappointed, for sure. We rode back into town and found an ice cream shop and had ice cream. A good bike memory for sure.

My husband passed away in 2011 when my son was 16. He was driving by then and wasn’t really interested in riding bikes with his mother. The bike sat in the garage for a long time. Finally, I took the bike to a shop and had it cleaned up and new tires put on and made sure it was safe to ride but I still didn’t ride it much. However, I couldn’t get rid of it because I had a lot of emotional history with it.

Getting More Bikes

In 2018, I began to think about maybe doing a triathlon. Everyone said my bike was too heavy for a race so when my brother said he was going to get rid of his Raleigh road bike, I asked for it. I had that bike cleaned and serviced and have ridden it much more often. I know this is silly but I struggle to remember how to shift the gears and the brakes feel harder to use.

Now I also have a tri-bike. I have it set up in my home gym and have never ridden it outside.

Reconnecting with My Bike

When I got on my Cannondale bike recently and rode on the bike trail, I felt so happy. It was such a pleasure to ride and I had all of that history in my mind as I rode. So, while my vintage Cannondale bike might be too heavy for road riding and might be really old technology bike-wise, I’m keeping it. I think it will be the bike I use on my local bike and hike trail because I like it. That’s all that matters, right?

Easy Coconut Red Curry Chicken

September 1, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 1 Comment

Here’s how I made an easy coconut red curry chicken. I used the ingredients I had on hand and came up with a tasty dinner that didn’t take long to assemble. Fast, easy, and good. It really doesn’t get much better than that.

I cleaned out my freezer recently and realized that I had a large bag of frozen stir fry vegetables that I needed to use sooner than later. Also, I had some cooked chicken breast that I wanted to use for my dinner. Not only did I have a can of coconut milk but I also had some red curry paste in the pantry.

Probably my dish is not very authentic Thai food but it was tasty and quick so it counts as a win for me.

I also used cauliflower rice instead of rice. It’s an easy way to add some additional veggies to your meal. If you’re wondering how to cook cauliflower rice, check out our fried riced cauliflower recipe.

Easy Coconut Red Curry Chicken

This is a one-pot meal that you can make quickly. It’s great for using up leftovers and for a weeknight dinner.

Ingredients

One can of coconut milk unsweetened

1/2 cup chicken bone broth or stock

One teaspoon tamari sauce (soy sauce would work as well)

Juice of half a lemon

2 tablespoons red curry paste

About three cups of Frozen stir-fry vegetables

One or two cooked chicken breasts diced

Cauliflower rice

Directions

In a large frying pan, add the full can of coconut milk, the tamari sauce, lemon juice, and red curry paste. Stir and heat until everything is blended and smooth.

Add the frozen vegetables and cook for about 7 to 9 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

Add the chicken and stir.

Cook a few more minutes to heat the chicken.

While the vegetables are cooking, heat your cauliflower rice.

Serve immediately over the cauliflower rice.

Notes:

This is obviously a pretty versatile recipe. If you don’t have stir fry vegetables, just use whatever vegetables you have on hand. This would be a good way to use up those partially used frozen bags of veggies in the freezer.

You could also use chicken thighs instead of the breasts. Whatever you have on hand will be fine.

I chose to use cauliflower rice but you could use jasmine rice or brown rice. Whatever you have on hand is fine. I think this would be great over some rice noodles.

Let me know if you make this and how it turned out.

Riding My Bike Outside is Amazing

August 27, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 3 Comments

Yes, riding my bike outside is amazing. I went on a short vacation recently to Catawba Island on Lake Erie. It was a perfect trip: gorgeous weather and lots of outdoor activities.

We went for a bike ride at East Harbor State Park. It was my first ride outdoors in over a year. Yes, I know. Very strange.

Differences between Indoor and Outside Riding

I’ve been riding my bike indoors using Zwift and my smart trainer. I really like my virtual rides because I’ve ridden my bike through London (I never realized how many hills there are in London!), Richmond, VA, New York, and a variety of other places. I also don’t have to worry about traffic or other people. I’ve shared my inside riding adventures before.

Getting on my bike and riding through the state park was fantastic. I did have to remember how to use the brakes on my bike and how to change gears. My indoor rides don’t require any of that.

I also had to wear my helmet instead of using a virtual one.

The Glories of Nature

It was glorious riding outside along Lake Erie. The view was inspiring and it was just a lot of fun. I’d forgotten that bike riding can be fun. I’ve been thinking of it as just another kind of exercise but forgot that there’s something wonderful about riding your bike in nature.

Seeing the lake along side the trail and spotting herons nearby was soothing to me. I could have done without the flock of Canada geese on the road but I did enjoy seeing the wild flowers and trees.

I was riding in a state park and even though I was on a road for part of the ride, there wasn’t a lot of traffic and everyone in the park is aware that there are people out enjoying the park. They know to be on the lookout for runners, bikers, fishermen, and walkers.

I do live by a bike and hike trail. I’ve been using it for running and walking but this is a good reminder that I should be using it for biking too.

Even though I like riding my bike indoors, jumping on my bike and riding it as it was meant to be ridden, outside, that is, was so much better.

Truly, riding my bike outside is amazing.

Working Out in a Mask

August 20, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

What’s it like working out in a mask? Someone asked me that when I mentioned that I had returned to my gym. Here in Ohio, we now have a state-wide requirement to wear a mask and my gym, at least, says that means we must wear a mask everywhere in the facility.

When I work out at home, I don’t wear a mask. When I go outside to run, I usually don’t wear a mask. I often take one so that when I walk home and am more likely to encounter people, I can slip it on.

Working Out in a Mask

It really wasn’t too bad to wear a mask in the gym. I don’t think it affected my workout so much as my nose got itchy and I wondered how I was supposed to drink out of the water bottle I’d brought. I went to an isolated corner, moved my mask, and drank. Not really any more disruptive than walking to the water fountain, which of course is not working right now.

I think that if I was trying to take a HIIT class, a mask would be a challenge. That elevated effort while wearing a mask could make breathing more difficult.

Since I was doing more straight-forward strength work, I didn’t really notice the mask. At first, it feels a bit awkward but like everything else, it becomes normal and isn’t something I think about.

The Becoming Elli Mask

Now that masks are becoming more accepted, I’ve noticed that people are choosing masks that match their outfit or match their mood. I think that helps offset the feeling that you have a mask stuck to your face.

Chris bought me a Becoming Elli mask. I love wearing it to the gym because it says Fit and Strong on it. Isn’t that the best motto to have on a mask while working out?

If you’d like to order a Becoming Elli mask, check out this link. You’ll see that there are two options for the mask. I have the double pleated mask which allows you to slip in an extra filter for additional protection.

Be sure to post a photo of yourself wearing the Becoming Elli mask!

Personal Training at Home

August 13, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

Is it possible to have personal training at home? Yes, indeed, it is. If you’re flexible on what equipment you have available to use, working with a trainer away from a gym is certain possible.

Several personal trainers around me are offering at-home services. One of the trainers said he is only meeting with clients outside, whether in your yard or at a park. I think with many gyms having been closed and then opening with limited services, there’s a great opportunity for trainers to expand where they conduct training sessions.

Personal Training at Home

I had an at-home personal training session recently. The trainer brought some dumbbells and resistance bands. That, coupled with some body weight exercises, made for a great workout. I worked up a sweat, that’s for sure. I think I may have to add a fan to my workout room.

My workout focused on the whole body. Getting back into working out means I’m not back to the point of having multiple sessions targeting different parts of the body.

I did some squats, lunges, mountain climbers, biceps curls, shoulder presses, and we slipped a few push ups in there. It’s been ages since I’ve done push ups. I’m glad I only had to do a few.

A solid half hour of working out was a treat. It felt good to be getting back into the routine.

Moving Forward

Who knows how long we’ll be dealing with a pandemic? I sure don’t. I can’t keep waiting around for things to return to “normal” because that may never happen. Or, if it does, it could take a while. I need to keep working out and I know that I prefer to use a trainer. I’m not sure what it says about my personality but I do a lot more when I have a trainer to tell me what to do.

I’ll probably end up using a trainer at the gym again now that I’ve returned there for now. I’m sort of working between both worlds right now, trying to make the best of everything right now.

What are you doing to keep becoming fit and strong? Please share your thoughts with me.