Kale Chips + Surgery Update

So I've been wanting to try kale for some time, but I could never figure out what to do with it. I knew it was lettuce's more nutritional but slightly less appetizing cousin; it has a reputation of being bitter and chewy. I've heard of it being used in salad, but that didn't really excite me. And then, thanks to Pinterest, I discovered kale chips!

I actually pinned a couple different recipes on my {food love} board, but the one I went with is from the Lululemon blog. Lululemon is a Canadian company that sells super cute workout clothes (I got one of their energy bras for my birthday and I'm so excited to wear it!). Their blog is also pretty cool, and this particular post contained some helpful tips on how to prepare kale and bring out more of its flavor.

Here is the link to the recipe. The only thing I did differently was add some sesame seeds (an ingredient in the other recipe I looked at). Other than that, just beware of oversalting! Here are some pics of my finished kale chips:

In other news, Mr. G is in surgery right now for his back and hopefully will be finished soon. He is having a spinal decompression for a herniated disc in his lower back. It's a minimally invasive surgery with moderately low risk, so we're hoping to go home today - pain free. :) Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, please. Especially Mr. G - he has handled all of this very well, but he is so active that I know it's been hard on him to feel so immobile. He can't wait to start running with me, and I can't wait to have him back!

<3 Mrs. G

Happy Valentines Day!

Life Update

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the gap between posts; we've had a LOT going on in life as of late, which is part of what I'll be discussing in this post.

Picked up my bib on Saturday :)

To start with me, I've been continuing my training runs and officially signed up for both the half marathon and a St. Patrick's Day 7K, so there's no turning back now! I'm still determined, but unfortunately my legs aren't keeping up quite as well... I have shin splints that refuse to go away, and they are beginning to hinder my progress. It's very frustrating, especially since I've been following all the right steps. You can read more about my training here.

In other news, Mr. G's back pain progressed to the point that he finally went in to find out what's wrong. Turns out he has a herniated disc in his back that is quite large and will take a really long time to heal unless he gets it surgically removed. After prayer and careful thought, Mr. G decided to go through with surgery instead of waiting up to a year for a full recovery, and I fully support his decision. His surgery is on next Tuesday, the 21st. He should be in and out within the same day and starting to feel better immediately, which is wonderful. Still, he'll be facing several weeks of recovery (during which I will be doing pretty much everything), so all prayers are much appreciated.

In the meantime, we have a nice Valentines Day dinner planned for Tuesday and fun birthday plans for me next weekend. :) I promise I'll post my kale recipe soon - as well as my Super Bowl creations!

What are your V-Day plans?

<3 Mrs. G