Julie and Julia

Watching DH endure 2 bouts of flu/cough in the past month, my body must have decided that some sort of sympathetic reaction was in order. After a crisp 8-mile tempo run last Monday (1 1/2 mile warm-up, 4 mile tempo at 8:10 per mile, 2 1/2 mile cool down) when I felt on top of the world, and a 6 mile recovery run the day after, I caught a severe throat infection that still has me croaking (though at times, I sound closer to a sheep in distress). I bleated to my brother across the globe in India, who, after a rip roaring laugh at my plight, pointed out that this is the sexiest I have ever sounded. Anyway, this bug's got me cowering under a blanket with soup, hot water, cough drops and antibiotics close at hand. I have not attempted to venture out in the cold in the past week. A feeble 1/2 hour on the bike a couple of times was all I could manage.

The past weekend has consequently been a blur of movie watching and mindless reading. The one movie I really enjoyed is Julie and Julia. If you have not watched the movie, I recommend you head over the nearest Blockbuster or order it on pay-per-view or wherever it is you get your movies from. It is a must-see for all you established and/or aspiring food bloggers! I am a little embarrassed to admit I watched it to the accompaniment of take-out from Schezhuan Kitchen (I have nothing against Chinese take-out, but we all know it can't hold a candle to the authentic Chinese fare). The movie inspired me...especially as I have been spending an awful lot of time in the kitchen lately. I cannot imagine living on French cuisine for a year and I am pretty confident DH would suffer tremendously if he is not fed Indian food for more than 3 days in a row. But all the time I watched the movie, I was feeling intensely jealous of the husbands (of Julie & Julia) who got to taste Julia Child's delectable culinary creations on a daily basis.

On a different note (but also in the culinary department), I realize I have been spending a lot of time lately in planning healthy meals. You see, it takes a lot of creativity and deception to get DH to ingest healthy food...he has such an aversion to anything proclaimed to be healthy.

Some of the tricks I've resorted to include:

- passing off scrambled egg beaters (with tons of veggies) as scrambled egg.

- keeping a bowl of baby carrots and another bowl of walnuts and cranberries within easy reach when he returns from the office (that's the time of day he is ravenous and doesn't really care what gets shoveled into his mouth).

- satisfying the sweet tooth by substituting the syrupy Indian sweets he used to knock back daily with these phenomenal Banana Butterscotch blondies that I read about on athlEAT. (I use EVOO instead of butter (Julia Child would not have approved) and honey instead of sugar and molasses; and I bake it at 300 degrees instead of 350 degrees).

- using less oil and boiling veggies instead of frying whenever I can get away with it.

- making atleast one whole wheat pasta dish and 2 salads a week. For DH, salad and pasta can never be a meal...they are appetizers at best...but this way, he gets a couple of extra servings of veggies and fibre every week; and it means that he eats a little less of the carb-rich white rice that we South Indians are so addicted to.

- I also carefully avoid letting DH accompany me on grocery shopping trips, so a lot of fried snacks, desserts and other dangerous items don't make it to the shopping cart. Of course, that doesn't always solve the problem, because I'm not craving-free myself. But better to indulge one craving than 2!

DH calls me manipulative; I think I am creative. You be the judge!

I am a sucker for books, and running books in particular, so let me point you to a super giveaway by The Happy Runner...one that I am hoping to win myself!