Hello my friends! Matt and I made two really easy and fast dinners recently that I thought you guys would like, so I wanted to share!
First up was a lemony mustard dill salmon. It was too hot to eat outside, so please excuse the indoor lighting. 🙂
Making this is really easy. Mix the juice from a whole lemon and a splash of olive oil with a whole bunch of chopped dill in a bowl, then place two salmon filets in the mixture to let them marinate. You can do this in the morning before leaving for work and let them marinate in the fridge all day, or simply do this 30 minutes to 1 hour before dinnertime.
When you’re ready to eat, bake the salmon at 400 for 10 to 15 minutes, depending how big they are and how cooked you like your salmon. 🙂 We went for 12 minutes!
Serve with a side of 90 second plain brown rice, the veggie of your choice (we had steam-in-a-bag fresh green beans – so much more delicious than frozen), and an optional sauce if you like! Our sauce was 1/4 cup full fat plain Greek yogurt + 3 tablespoons dijon mustard + the juice from half a lemon + a splash of olive oil and a ton more dill. Yum!
Our second easy dinner recently was one of my favorite ways to make grilled chicken more interesting – adding baked beans as a side!
It’s so good together – try it! Especially if the chicken was coated in BBQ sauce before being grilled (or baked, or pan seared).
As for fitness this week, Chelsea and I decided to hit up Urban Athletic Club (via ClassPass <—affiliate link for $20 off) yesterday morning. It had been awhile since we’d been there – felt good to be back! As always, it was a tough but energizing boot camp, made more fun by having a buddy to chat with during it. 🙂
As for this morning, I was THISCLOSE to turning off my alarm and going back to bed when it went off at 5:55 for my track workout, but when I looked at the weather and saw it was in the low 70’s without a ton of humidity, I changed my mind. And of course I was really glad I did. 🙂
Our coach had us do a ladder workout today – starting high and ending low. We did 6 laps, then 5 laps, then 4 laps, and then an 800. We had 1 to 2 minutes rest in between each set, and the pacing was supposed to be around mid-threshold and steady. I felt pretty good out there today – gorgeous morning! I did a warm up jog and a cool down walk (not included on the watch) so I ended up covering just over 5 miles for the day. Solid workout!
The big difference between my training for the Marine Corps Marathon and my training back in 2013 and 2014 for the Richmond Marathon and LA Marathon is that I’m continuing to do speedwork this time. For those first two marathons I got in the miles I was supposed to but most of my runs were the same pace, or at easier/steady paces, and I wasn’t great about doing targeted speedwork or tempo runs. As a result, my speed had really tanked when I tried to get back into shorter runs after the marathons. I’m determined to not do that this time. 🙂
My right leg is still bothering me a little bit but it felt slightly better today. I talked to my coach about it and he thinks given my answers to the questions he asked me that rather than a volume/overuse injury, it’s actually more of a pull or something – he thinks I might have not realized it but almost twisted my ankle at some point on a run and pulled that muscle in my outer right calf area while compensating. (In case you’re curious, questions he asked were whether it hurts more or less as runs go on – it hurts less/seems to warm up as runs go on – and whether when I came up on my toes it bothered me – no, it doesn’t.) So, he wants me to ice it, use the stick on it (easier than a foam roller since it’s in a weird place), and start wearing my compression sleeves for long runs again even though it’s hot. Fingers crossed!
We’re out of town again this weekend, leaving really early Friday morning, so I need to do my long run either tomorrow (Wednesday) morning or Thursday night (I have some early meetings on Thursday so I wouldn’t have time to do it in the morning). Still deciding what makes more sense – we’ll see! Any advice? 🙂 My coach told me to aim for 12 to 16 miles, but to play it by ear depending how I/my leg feel.
Have a great day, my friends!
What’s a recent delicious but really fast and easy dinner you’ve made lately?
