Today’s Run: 9.1 miles, easy pace, super sweaty

I’m going to have to start running earlier in the morning. I’m such a pansy when it comes to heat. If I ever had to move to the south, I would probably just fall over dead. But it was a good run despite being sweaty. Especially since I got these in the mail yesterday:

Oooh, orange.

I also got these in the mail yesterday:

Summer reading, English-teacher style.

Anyway, my legs were pretty tired this morning and took a looong time to loosen up. I blame Carly at The Body Firm. I go to her Muscle Works class on Monday nights, and it is fantastic. If you live here, hit it up. She has a different workout every week, so it doesn’t get redundant, and she’s super high-energy. Her energy and encouragement definitely make me push harder than I would otherwise. Seriously, go. (No, The Body Firm is not paying me to say this. I just really like that class.)

After Muscle Works, I went to yoga. I do not like yoga. It’s not because of the instructor or anything; I’m just extremely inflexible and feel like this:

 (source)

But it’s good for me, so I go.

Yoga ends at 7:30, and by the time I bike home and shower, it’s close to 8:00, which is pretty late for dinner when you’re an old lady like me who goes to bed at 9. I definitely don’t want to spend extra time cooking, so I decided yesterday afternoon to put something in the crockpot.

I have a recipe for hoisin chicken drumsticks that’s pretty good, and we had drumsticks in the freezer that needed to be used, so I thought that was perfect. I dumped the chicken in the crockpot and got out the hoisin sauce…and realized that there were only about two tablespoons left in the jar. My recipe called for a half cup. I would have just stuck the chicken in the fridge and waited to start it, since I had to go grocery shopping anyway, but the Wal-Mart here doesn’t carry hoisin sauce. I just decided to improvise, and it turned out pretty tasty.

Crock-Pot Asian Chicken

Ingredients (I didn’t actually measure anything; these are estimates. Adjust as necessary):

 –> See what happens when I take my own pictures? Craptastic.

2 lbs frozen chicken drumsticks (skinless is best if you can find them. Breasts would work, too)

2 T hoisin sauce

¼ cup liquid aminos (or soy sauce)

1 T Worcestershire sauce (bonus points for pronouncing it right)

1 T fish sauce

1 T honey

2 T sesame oil

3 t minced garlic

½ t ground ginger

¼ c water (I put it in the hoisin jar and shook it up)

Put the chicken in the crockpot. Mix all the other ingredients. Taste the sauce. If it’s gross, add more of something. If it’s good, dump it over the chicken. Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours or low 7-8 hours. Open the cupboard and realize you had a brand new jar of hoisin this whole time.

Oh, wait, that last step was just mine. It’s hard to be this smart.

J had his chicken on rice; I had mine with a side of broccoli. Yummo.

Almost every time I make chicken, I think of this:

 (source)

I remembered yesterday that all the good bloggers post questions for readers to answer in the comments. So:

Show me what a wimp I am: how hot was your workout today?

What’s your favorite Friends episode?