ChickPea Patties!!

So for lunch today I thought I would get creative! Jessalynne was able to help me, which is always fun, we made a chickpea (garbanzo bean) patty on a whole wheat sandwich thin with vegetables! It was actually, surprisingly flavorful and yumm-o! For the whole sandwich it was only around 220 calories too which is amazing since it was filling and good!! It was a good source of protein, potassium (over 200mg), antioxidants (the tomato & avacado), and I'm sure other good stuff too! But I'm new to actually paying attention to this stuff ;)
I put lettuce, tomato, pickle, cucumber, 1 slice of avacado and mustard on mine! It would have been good with some chips on it... because I LOVE chips on my sandwiches but I refrained from it... yay for me lol.

The only thing I will probably do different next time I make them, is I think I will add an egg white to it to help hold it together better. It was really crumbly and fell apart when trying to flip it, and eat it! But as far as the texture and flavor went, they were right on! Jessalynne helped me eat it - she tried to take my whole sandwich from me! lol. Silly girl!

Makes a good lunch or dinner. I think I will eat one of the other patties in a wrap tomorrow for lunch. Chloee is eating part of one now for lunch and she is scarfing it! lol. Turned out to be a pretty good recipe, I'm so excited! If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them :)





Chickpea Patties
1- 15 oz can chickpeas/garbanzo beans, rinsed
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley (or about 2 1/2 tbls dried parsley)
1 clove of garlic (or 2 tbls minced garlic)
1/2 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp each, salt & pepper
2 tbls whole wheat flour
Virgin Olive Oil/Cooking Spray

Blend together all ingredients (except flour & oil) in a food processor (or magic bullet). Form pattys and dust each with flour. Cook in greased skillet/frying pan on medium/high heat about 2-3 minutes on each side until done.

Made 4 pattys at roughly 95 calories each.

Yum yum!

So this is my first blog entry. I'm pretty excited to have blog, somewhere to share my thoughts and not have to worry about whether someone is listening to be nice, or because they actually want to!

So tonight I want to talk about running. This morning I ran 8 1/2 miles (of hills.... ugh) with my mom, I've been gradually increasing my runs since Christmas, preparing for the 10 mile Pear Blossom Run on April 10 (which is only 4 1/2 weeks away -- OMG). Anyway, back to this morning, normally I don't really enjoy running, and at some point during my run I end up "a little bit hating my mom" because she pushes me so hard. It's good for me, and keeps me going, but I dont have to like it :) Anyway, most of the time she doesn't realize she's pushing me, but just by running with me, she pushes me. She is truely amazing. I dont know how I would stick with it without her encouraging me & motivating me to keep going. She doesn't intentionally run too fast for me, she's just amazing and can lol. Some of those busy roads with no sidewalks it's hard for her to tell when I start lagging too far behind! Well today when we ran, I didn't worry about trying to "keep up" with her, or worry about beating my last time. I ran, just to run. And I really enjoyed it. I finished (tired & with aching knees), with a slower time than I would have liked, 76 minutes and some change, but, I did it! It's one of the first runs I have really enjoyed, and not been discouraged or frustrated at some point. Thats a great feeling to start my day with. Now of course my knees are still aching (just a little), and my calves & butt are SO tight from those stinkin' hills, but mentally I feel great knowing that I set out to run 8 miles, and did it!

I can't believe the Pear Blossom is so soon, seems like I just ran the 5k in last years Pear Blossom (of course then, I was 8 1/2 months pregnant, but still!!!). Well, I'm excited that I get to run 2 days a week, although I wish it was more (maybe 1-2 days more, but not every day like some people lol). I'll take what I can get! In just 4 weeks, the race I've been preparing mentally & physically for over the last 3 months will be here... Wow. Then what will I do? I've read a lot about people running races that they have trained for, whether it e a 5K or a marathon, and afterwards getting really depressed afterward, and that this is normal? It seems like it would be the exact opposite, you should be proud of yourself, excited! But what do I do when it's done? I won't have a goal or deadline anymore? Just keep enjoying running? Maybe I will try for a 1/2 marathon? That'll be exhausting to run LOL.


Well anyway, I'm ending my day feeling really good about me. Thats not something I have really ever been able to say until the last year or so. Its a really good feeling :) Watching my girls play together, and my husband is dinking around with his new lazer something printer... Life's just great.