*With the re-development of my not-at-all-fun sciatica, I’ve re-taken up lane swimming since I can’t run more than two nights in a row without excruciating pain. Last week I was only able to swim about 50 laps in 40 minutes. Last night I put on flippers (yes, cheating) and easily did a mile (64 laps) with time to spare. Since I had time left over at the end I decided to butterfly a couple of laps. Holy crap! I had forgotten how difficult the butterfly is. Two laps of fly was harder than a full mile of regular swimming. (I do 2 front, 2 breast, 2 front, 2 back…that makes it easy for me to track my laps….8 laps in a round and 8 rounds in a mile. I need easy or I can’t keep track, and I try really hard to make them all hard laps and not slack on the non-crawl ones. Breast and back strokes can be a great lat & back workout!) I haven’t done lane swim regularly since I was lifeguarding. That was a REALLY long time ago. My goal is to be able to get through a mile in 40 minutes with no flippers. I give myself until Christmas. Who knows if I’ll be able to do it, but it’s good to have goals, right?

*Again with the sciatica…I decided to wear my indoor shoes out running on Tuesday night. They haven’t had much wear because they’re intended to use on our elliptical trainer and I never use it. Working out inside is just not my thing. What a difference! I ran faster and longer than I have in a month. Apparently I need new shoes. (Did you know that if you work out regularly you should have new shoes every 6 months because the interior deteriorates before the outer shell looks worn?)

*Primo and I made some delicious brownies this week for our playgroup friends and for our company that’s here right now. Want the recipe? Okay!

(We made it up by editing some others including Jessica Seinfeld’s and also flubbing it a little.)

Much More Delicious Healthy-ish Brownies

Ingredients
Olive oil spray or butter to grease pan
One 100g bar organic fair trade dark chocolate (or light if that’s what you prefer…or mint…or whatever!)
1/2 cup beet puree (bake & peel or use canned and mush in food processor)
1/2 cup spinach puree (steam for 30 to seconds or use thawed frozen and mush in food processor)
1/2 cup organic sugar (or…I used 1/3 cup organic Agave nectar…it’s my new thang…could have used less because it’s super sweet)
1/4 cup unsweetened organic dark cocoa powder (If you use sweetened, reduce the sugar or agave a little unless you need a sugar high)
2 tablespoons salted butter (you can use trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread but I think real food is always better)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (I used Mexican…it’s lovely)
2 large egg whites
3/4 cup whole wheat or oat flour
1 T ground flax
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat an 8×8-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Melt the chocolate in microwave.
3. In a large bowl, combine the melted chocolate, vegetable purees, sugar, cocoa powder, butter or margarine, and vanilla and whisk until smooth and creamy. This doesn’t take long…maybe 2 minutes.
4. Whisk in egg whites. Stir in the flour, flax, baking powder, and salt with a wooden spoon.
5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake 35 to 40 minutes.
6. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into bars. (Trust me on this one. Mine fell apart because we were in a rush to taste them.)

The beets make these super moist and both veggies add tons of great stuff. They’re also super high in fiber. If you serve them cool you can’t taste the spinach at all. You can taste it a little when they’re warm, but that didn’t bother anyone around here. You could use carrots instead of spinach if you like.

I actually tripled this and made a huge pan so we’d have enough for all of our company over the next week. Sadly, I don’t think they’ll last past today.

*Why.In.The.Hell? Why do my dogs keep peeing on my carpet? They get walked every day and spend half their time outside. They’re just being crap heads, I think. I can’t wait until we have enough savings to get all the damn carpet out of this house. You know, after I’ve returned to work and paid off the debt we accrue while I’m off with the kids and all that. I am so incredibly sick of cleaning up pee. Good thing Primo was so easy to teach the potty thing.

*Speaking of the potty thing, when does “Peeing like Daddy” stop being “Making the bathroom smell consistently like pee?”

Happy weekend! May yours not be filled with cleaning up dog pee.