Most couples celebrate February 14 as Valentine’s Day and surprise each other with chocolates, flowers, and expensive dinners. While I understand this particular “holiday” is to celebrate love, I tend to call it Happy Heart Day, and do things that feel good for the heart, mind, and soul. 
I’m still in the middle of a no-motivation phase. Not sure what’s exactly my main issue, except circumstances neither me nor Chris can control, but my motivation to workout is nowhere to be found. Well, it’s hinting around, like teasing me to get excited and then drain my energy at the last minute. Today, I planned a special BINGO bootcamp for us to do, but instead, we somehow found ourselves asleep, having given the kitties literally 2/3 of the bed themselves and the two of us sleeping at the top 1/3 of the bed (We really love our cats). We woke up somewhat abruptly, as if we couldn’t remember why or how we fell asleep in the first place just as the sun was going down. I felt my motivation set with the sun and went about my evening.
For dinner, I prepared my favorite recipe- Hawaiian Chicken. This is an older recipe passed down from my mom, and I’ve changed very little about it, except the amount of sugar. Nowadays, I use honey or even agave nectar instead of sugar, and it always tastes amazing.
We ate dinner together, and looked at a few other fitness centers around us to find places to work out for the next couple of weeks while the weather is still a bit crummy for park WODs. And then, around 8:30 pm, I got a bug up my ass and just decided to go to our apartment complex gym for a treadmill workout. And so, being a good Happy Heart Day companion, Chris came with me. We did 30 minutes on the treadmill and got a pretty good sweat on during that time. It wasn’t a huge workout. It wasn’t CrossFit, it wasn’t even EarthFit. I don’t like treadmills normally, but I gotta say, I’m grateful the equipment was there for tonight, in a pinch and desperate action for some cardio.
So, our Happy Heart Day was something of a success. I worked through a low for me and came out on top. It’s not much, but it is something noteworthy.
Here’s my famous Hawaiian Chicken recipe. It IS going to be famous someday, so don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Hawaiian Chicken
- 1 lb. chicken tenderloins
- 1 C pineapple juice (if you don’t have any, I’ve used other tropical fruit juices before and it’s come out beautifully- mango, passion fruit, etc)
- 1/2 C honey or agave, or 3/4 C organic cane cugar
- 1 cube bouillon (chicken or veggie)
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 2 T corn starch
- 1 T apple cider vinegar
- 3 T soy sauce
- 2 C cubed pineapple
- 1 C prepared rice
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and oil a baking dish with coconut or olive oil
- Brown chicken in skillet over medium heat for 5-6 minutes
- In small saucepan, combine the juice, sweetener, bouillon, ginger, starch, vinegar, and soy sauce. Stir well and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir more until it thickens
- Place chicken in greased baking dish. Pour sauce over chicken. Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake in oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove foil and place pineapple chunks on top of chicken and sauce. Keep uncovered and return to oven for 20-30 minutes.
- Serve over rice.
Serves 3-4
Nutritional information: varies depending on sweetener used, but generally, per serving:
Calories: 335
Fat: 10 g
Carbohydrates: 45 g
Protein: 23 g
Thank you for making Valentines day a wonderful day!