Lebanese Chicken Pita Salad (and First Run of '09)

I actually did some cardio type exercising today- woo hoo! After yesterday's intense boot camp, and today's 8 a.m. run, I'm feeling tired, but proudish. lol.

Boot camp was really good last night, much better than last week, with more variety and more cardio. The only part I didn't like (using the word "like" loosely, for all this sweaty suffering ;)) was the first circuit which had a number of stations that involved wailing the ball against the studio's brick wall and catching it again. Exercises like this, imho, separate the sporty girls from the wusses like me. I always fear hurting myself. NOT to say, to be fair to the instructor, that I don't get an ok arm workout (well on some of them anyway), BUT I wouldn't ask it to the exercise prom, if it was the last dateless exercise out there. kwim? I prefer a more regulated, calm method of exercise.

Today, I met my main running partner for an actual run outside in the actual snow. We did a pretty brief run down to the water (from this running store we used to run at), along the board- walk (slipppery with snow in some spots) and then up many stairs, just to come back down and retrace our steps. I was pretty happy with what we accomplished, though we did not do complete 10s and 1s. We ran in shorter chunks of time. ( Neither of us had a watch, so we couldn't keep an exact track, though we do know the route well. ) We ran into two other runners going in the same direction who kept challenging us to run to a certain signpost or streetlight with them (since they were lagging a bit, too). Group fitness= motivation for me. :)

The salad pictured above I made last night from the new WW cookbook I found at Costco. It was called Lebanese Chicken Pita Salad and the cookbook is the "in 20 Minutes" one. I couldn't find the recipe online- boo hoo!- so in a nutshell, here it is. I really liked it.

Lebanese Chicken Pita Salad

1 pound thin sliced cooked chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces

3 (6 inch) whole-wheat pita breads, toasted

12 cherry tomatoes, halved (I used regular)

1 cucumber, peeled, halved, seeded, and chopped

2 scallions, sliced

1/4 cup fresh mint

1/4 cup cilantro

3 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Tear pitas into 1 inch pieces and add everything to a salad bowl. Toss to mix well.