14 little minutes + peruvian roast chicken

Sad that the weekend is over. Happy that the sunrise was so bright!

It’s always tough to wake up early on Mondays, but Anthony and I team up to make sure nobody falls back asleep! He headed to the gym this morning and I headed out for a run.

So excited that it’s starting to get lighter in the mornings! I was able to venture to Shelby Park for the first time in months. The dark days of winter meant that running in these parts wasn’t really an option.

The other amazing news: my Garmin is back in action! A software update and a long satellite load over the weekend seemed to resurrect it. It even knows what time zone we’re in, after a year of being on Eastern time. Ha.

The workout: two miles easy, two miles hard (7:10, 6:50), and then two miles easy again. The middle bit was tough, but I just kept telling myself that I only had to run fast for 14 little minutes. Not a very long time in the grand scheme of things.

So, what else is new? I cooked up a bunch of meals for the week yesterday — one of which was Cook’s Illustrated’s Peruvian chicken!

So far I’ve tried about ten recipes from Cook’s Illustrated and have had a 100% success rate. This book is the best! Love that it goes in-depth for every recipe and includes useful tips and modifications.

Anyways, back to the chicken. Instead of doing a whole chicken like the recipe suggested, I altered it a bit and used boneless, skinless breasts instead. Still turned out great!

The chicken was marinated in a spicy/smoky paste I made in my Vitamix: salt, pepper, paprika, lime, chile, oregano, and mint (!!). Then roasted in oven for about 20 minutes followed by a five-minute broil.

Cook’s recommended making a cilantro/lime homemade mayonnaise to go with the chicken. I subbed in Greek yogurt for half of the recipe and still thought it tasted great. Definitely tamed the spice of the chicken down a bit!

Since the chicken took quite a bit of time to prep, I kept things super simple on the side. Brown rice and a can of “Cocina Latina” beans. Genius concept by Bush’s beans!

Leftovers tonight! And that’s sadly all I have to look forward to since The Bachelor is over. Tough times.

• Favorite cook book?
• Weekend highlight?
• How do you push yourself through tough runs?