pasta salad with butter (not fava) beans

yum...butter beans

Confession: I have not run in a very long time. I have not been to the gym in a very long time. I have not gone on an outdoor jog in a very long time. I need to fix this. I'm signed up to run a Falmouth 7 miler in August which is apparently very hilly...and long. Ugh. I've got to somehow motivate myself to get on some sort of training plan.

Well, moving on to something I have been doing...eating...a lot. I adapted this pasta salad recipe from Saveur. If I had to make this again (which I probably will!), I would substitute an extra can of butter beans instead of the fava beans that the recipe calls for. 

Also, apparently you are supposed to peel fava beans? I am super confused. In the photo on the internet they look green; however, in the can from the store, they were brown. What??? Confusion.

Pasta Salad with Butter Beans

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

3 ripe medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped

2 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced

3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 can fava beans

1 can butter beans

1 pound pasta (I used colored bowties!)

Feta cheese to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Put tomatoes, garlic, mint, oil, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Toss and let sauce rest at room temperature for 1 hour.

Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water.  Meanwhile, drain and rinse fava and butter beans. Toss pasta, beans, sauce, and feta cheese.

Eat :-)

In other news, I am behind on blog posts. Stay tuned for:
- Attleboro 10k race recap (This happened over a month and a half ago. Sometimes I stink at blogging)
- Harpoon 5 miler race recap
- Photos of me eating my way through San Diego (Spoilers: pork belly, carne asada burritos, and a caprese salad were all involved in this)
- A delicious blueberry pie

terrible run

I went on a terrible run. I was supposed to go on a 4 mile loop around the Charles, but I probably walked more than I actually ran. Oh well. You have your good days and your bad days right?

The good news is:
1. I actually went on a run (I haven't exercised since the race during Memorial Day weekend...ack).
2. I got some pictures along the Charles. They don't look half bad and I even took them with my crappy old iPhone camera.

The first 2 are from the Harvard Bridge (aka the mass ave bridge) looking out at the Boston side. Actually, it makes no sense that this bridge is actually called the Harvard Bridge, seeing as it is in front of MIT and there are tons of actual bridges near Harvard that aren't called the Harvard Bridge.

The last photo is of the Cambridge side. You can see rowers!

Now the bad news is that I've registered for the Philly half marathon on November 18th, which means I need to actually start training so I can somehow run 13.1 miles. Crap.

If anyone knows of any 10k's in the Boston/New Hampshire/Maine area this summer, let me know. I need to start running them!

summertime and the livin's easy + run to remember

Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning of summer. Wooo! It started on Saturday (5/26) with some beach going.

And then there was some boat riding.

Courtesy of Sir Captain Alex.

We went from Hingham (where the boat is docked) all the way to Boston and back to Hingham.

On Sunday (5/27), I ran Boston's Run to Remember. There is a 5 miler and a half marathon on the same day. Obviously, I ran the 5 miler. This was my second 5 miler (I ran the Harpoon 5 miler the week before) and I'm proud to say I ran the whole thing! I finished in 51:16 (10:16 pace).

My friend, Irene, ran the half. She's pretty awesome. We got medals! (my favorite kind of race...where you get bling at the end)

So far, this is my most favoritist race. We got to run through some amazing parts of Boston, including: past the old courthouse I used to work at, Beacon Hill, around the Public Garden, through Downtown Crossing, the Financial District, and finishing up in the Seaport. My favorite part of the race was running past St. Francis House with all the homeless guys cheering us on.

Notice the big black thing on my wrist? I recently got a Timex Marathon GPS watch. I love it because it keeps me running at a more consistent pace and I am therefore, able to run farther! It does look huge, manly, and black, but apparently they don't really get any smaller than that.

Here are my race splits:
Mile 1: 10:25
Mile 2: 9:41
Mile 3: 10:35
Mile 4: 10:11
Mile 5: 8:52
(it doesn't exactly add up to 51:16 because I had some trouble with the watch at the beginning of the race. aka I tried to start it before I crossed the start line)

After the race, I went to my friend Drew's house for my first BBQ of the summer! Orlando made ribs stuffed with bacon and Drew marinated some chicken.

Thank goodness summer is finally here. Here's to more BBQing, tomato and pepper planting, herb growing, porch sitting, and canned beer drinking!