A New Toy (Swim #1)

I bought a new toy that I had to try out. Well, actually, I found a recipe that required a food processor, and it's a practical kitchen appliance, so it has become part of my kitchen collection.

The newest addition to my kitchen

This recipe, for Coco Caribbean Cookies, is my kind of recipe. Four ingredients...

• 2 cups dates (no pits)
• 1 cup shredded coconut (no sugar added)
• 1 cup walnuts
• 1/2 lime, just the juice

...and three instructions...

• Process all the ingredients until the dough begins to clump
• Roll the dough into balls
• Bake at 350* for 7 minutes

...and the cookies turned out great. The recipe makes 18 cookies, which is a good amount to share a few with friends and not have too many leftovers.


The approximate nutritional value is as follows. I took the ingredients and divided by 18, because that's how many cookies one batch made for me, and then had 2 cookies as the serving size.

Nutrition Facts Amount Per Serving Calories 230.9 Calories from Fat 107.0 Fat 11.9 g 18 % Saturated Fat 3.6 g 18 % Polyunsaturated Fat 6.3 g Monounsaturated Fat 1.3 g Cholesterol 1.3 mg 0 % Sodium 3.3 mg 0 % Potassium 352.4 mg 10 % Carbohydrate 33.1 g 11 % Dietary Fiber 4.9 g 20 % Protein 3.4 g 7 % Alcohol 0.0 g Vitamin A 0 % Calcium 3 % Vitamin D 0 % Thiamin 5 % Niacin 4 % Vitamin B6 8 % Phosphorus 8 % Selenium 4 % Vitamin C 1 % Iron 6 % Vitamin E 1 % Riboflavin 3 % Vitamin B12 0 % Manganese 31 % Copper 17 % Magnesium 10 % Zinc 4 %

Oh, yeah, I did swim 1 today, too, and finished the 10×30-second workout. Usually the 7-minute workouts take me 2–3 days to finish, but this was the 3rd day of the 10×30-seconds because things kept coming up. But I finished (pushup on knees and crate crunch).

This swim was at MFY, which has a 25-meter pool, compared to Brentwood's 25-yard pool. I didn't know they were different until I got into the pool and it took me one more stroke to finish every length). Therefore, these times are higher than the previous weeks, but I felt super consistent. Plus, I was swimming in the lane with a guy, and I swam 100 plus two 20-second rest intervals for his 50m. That felt pretty good (I tried to draft but every time I got close enough I had to pass, so that didn't work at all).

1. 3-27-09. Times for the 12×100@20 seconds: 1:43, 1:43, 1:44, 1:46, 1:48, 1:49, 1:48, 1:49, 1:49, 1:49, 1:49, 1:45 (really worked for this one!). Total time (including eleven 20-second rest intervals: 25:14. Total variance: 6 seconds. Avg 100: 1:46. Fastest 100: 1:43 (#1, 2). Slowest 100: 1:49 (#6, 8, 9, 10, 11)
2. 3-10-09. Times for the 12×100@20 seconds: 1:28, 1:30, 1:32, 1:33, 1:34, 1:33, 1:35, 1:35, 1:32, 1:36, 1:35, 1:32. Total time (including eleven 20-second rest intervals: 22:53. Total variance: 8 seconds. Avg 100: 1:32 (3-second decrease from last time). Fastest 100: 1:28 (#1). Slowest 100: 1:36 (#10).
3. 2-19-09. Times for the 12×100@20 seconds: 1:34, 1:35, 1:33, 1:34, 1:37, 1:36, 1:35, 1:37, 1:35, 1:38, 1:37, 1:37. Total time (including eleven 20-second rest intervals): 23:14. Total variance: 4 seconds. Avg 100: 1:35 (8-second decrease from last time). Fastest 100: 1:33 (#3). Slowest 100: 1:38 (#10).
4. 2-03-09. Times for the 12×100@20 seconds: 1:35, 1:41, 1:44, 1:45, 1:43, 1:45, 1:47, 1:44, 1:45, 1:44, 1:44, 1:42. Total time (including eleven 20-second rest intervals): 24:50. Total variance: 12 seconds. Avg 100: 1:43. Fastest 100: 1:35 (#1). Slowest 100: 1:47 (#7).

I ended with a little 30-minute jog on the elliptical and then headed out to dinner with Allison, who is visiting for the weekend! Fun times :-)