Just as I promised!

A picture of the Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken!

Yummmmm. I made it again last week, and it was good as always! If you haven't tried it yet, you should!

16 weeks of training for 22 minutes and 37 seconds

And I am happy with that. For the most part. I started a 5k training program through www.runnersworld.com 16 weeks ago. This is the second consecutive training program I've done through that website. The first program I started last spring for a 5k I did in July. At that 5k in July, I got my best time that I had ever gotten for a 5k: 23 minutes and 35 seconds. Since I did so well at that 5k, I decided to set up another program. I didn't have a particular 5k in mind to train for, so I set the program for the maximum number of weeks that I could, and that was 16 weeks. I stuck with this program the best I could for the past 16 weeks. I got up early to fit in my run, when I normally would've been able to sleep in. I did miss one week when Josh was in the hospital, but I bounced back quickly from that. I ran sprints I didn't think I could run. I ran up to 11 miles at a time on my long run days. It was hard, but I guess that's what I get for putting the answer "very hard" to the question "how hard do you want to train?" when I set up the program.

And it paid off. I didn't have an actual 5k to run yesterday, so I went to www.mapmyrun.com to map out 3.1 miles around my neighborhood. And then I timed myself. My training program said that with all the training I've done, I should get a time of 22:07, which is a pace of 7:07 per mile. I'm a little sad that I didn't quite meet that goal. I got 22:37, which is a pace of 7:18 per mile. But, I am very happy that I beat my last 5k time of almost a full minute! That's good enough for me.

I will be taking this week off from running, and I have my next 5k training program set up to start next Monday. This new program says that in 16 weeks when I run my next 5k, I should be able to do it in 21:15, which is a pace of 6:50 per mile. Check back in after February 28th to see if I did that.

Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken

It's been a busy week for me! I've tried a few new recipes for dinner and have been waiting to see how they all turned out before I chose one to write about. And it was not hard to choose a winner! This Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken recipe I made last night was sooooooo good. It had so much flavor to it; it could even be my most favorite chicken recipe EVER. You should definitely try it!

But before I give you the recipe, I'll at least tell you about the other 2 recipes I tried out in case you want to give them a try too.

Monday night we had Beer Battered Tilapia
I don't really like fish, but I thought it was pretty good. We ate it with some tarter sauce, brown rice, and a vegetable.

Tuesday night we had Almond Chicken with Rice
This was also a good recipe, but I thought there could've been more flavor. I got this recipe from sparkrecipes.com, so it's healthy at least! Also, I accidentally bought cashews instead of almonds, so that might've changed the taste a little, but I don't think that would've affected it too much.

And lastly, last night we had Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken
This was also from sparkrecipes.com, so it's another healthy one! If you click on the link, it'll take you to the website so you can see the nutrition info.

And this was definitely good! I don't have any pictures because we were so hungry and ate it right away, haha. But I plan on making this again next week, so I'll try to remember to take one then.

Ingredients
Brown sugar, 4 tsp. unpacked
3-4 Chicken breasts, no skin (I made 3)
Garlic, 1 clove (I used minced garlic, like I use for everything that calls for garlic)
Butter, salted, 2 tbsp. (I just used 2 tbsp. of "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" because that's what I had)
Salt, 1 tsp.
Dash of pepper

Directions
1. Melt butter in a frying pan
2. Brown the garlic in the butter
3. Add chicken breasts to garlic and butter and cook thoroughly, adding salt and pepper as you like
4. When chicken is fully cooked, add brown sugar on top of each chicken breast
5. Allow the brown sugar to melt into the chicken (about 5 minutes)

I just can't believe how much flavor was in the chicken! And it was so easy to make. Try it!

Yesss, I kept the appointment

I have now kind-of-successfully completed #78: Go to the eye doctor for a check-up. I say "kind-of" successfully, because let's face it--I'm probably not the most-liked patient there. I get so freaked out by anything that has to do with the eyes. It took the guy 4 tries to do the puff thing in my eye for me to actually keep my eye open while he did it! It really wasn't that bad, but just the thought of it is making my eyes hurt again!

But I made it through. They even put the drops in to dilate (sp?) my eyes. I hate eye drops too. So that wasn't fun. But I'm alive.

And now here's the verdict: I need glasses again, but just for things like reading the board in class, and driving, etc. Stuff like that. Not for every day life, which is good. My left is is perfectly fine, and will need no prescription at all. But my right eye is the one that brings everything down, I guess.

I didn't pick out any glasses yet. I need to bring Josh with me for that. We'll probably go sometime in the next few weeks. I'm in no hurry to go back to that place.

This is what I get for going to the mall!

I had time to kill before work last Friday, so I decided to walk around the mall since it'd been a while since I've been there. I walked past the glasses/eye exam place and saw they were having special for eye exams. Before I knew what I was doing, I was in the store making myself an eye exam appointment! It's not until Wednesday, so I still have two days to cancel. :-) I did ask the guy if anything would be touching my eyes in any way, and he assured me that if I didn't want that, they wouldn't have to do it. So, I'm hoping the actual eye doctor is that nice. We'll seeee I guess! And we'll also see if I keep this appointment! :-)