great coffee, fun rides, and awesome family time

This evening I'm writing from the comfort of my bed. You might be asking yourself: “Why aren’t you at Starbucks like usual?” The answer is because I don’t need to be. At this very moment, I'm sipping on an artisan roasted coffee, roasted by none other than the REDSTONE Roasters from my little hometown of Roanoke, IL. I don’t need an expensive extravagant drink when I can be sitting comfortably in my bed indulging on a sweet and very smooth coffee which is grown in Mogiana, Brazil, and roasted in my hometown. I'd like to thank the roaster himself, Dr. Peterson, for sending me this fantastic bag of coffee beans. Visit http://www.redstoneroasters.net/interact.html and you, too, will be able to enjoy this fantastic coffee treat.

  On Monday I rode Mak, a very tricky horse because if you gather up the reins he will run off with you. It takes a lot of trust to gallop him around the track with the reins dangling loosely around his neck. My ride went a little faster than it should have because my transition from a posting trot to the two point position wasn’t smooth enough.

  On Tuesday and Thursday it rained, so we had to jog in the shed row.
Wednesday, I rode my buddy Gus. He got a little strong with me, but since I've been working out almost every day, I was able to hold him back and have a fantastic ride.

  Friday, I rode a filly named, Pemmy. We were supposed to go around the track once at a slow gallop and then pick up the pace the second time around. Well, it was such a beautiful day and the ride was so enjoyable, I lost count of how many times I went around and went 3 laps instead of 2! This was a major infraction, but thankfully it wasn't as big of a deal as it could have been. But I will make sure it will never happen again no matter how nice the horse is going or how nice the day is.

  Over the weekend, my parents came down and it was great fun to show them the barn and my classroom. I even got to take them to Keeneland Race Track and show them around the grandstands and track. It was also a pleasure to eat at some neat places around town with them.

Have a great week and remember to give Redstone Roasters a try :)
Jesse

A ride on Frankie

Sorry,  but I do not have a special or secret Starbucks drink this week :(. It is mainly due to the fact I ate too much food this week-end and gained a few unneeded lbs. lol.  So, I'm currently sipping on a calorie free grande coffee with a few pumps of sugar- free mocha syrup that Starbucks offers :).

All last week I was riding Frankie, a filly who is the biggest pain in the butt ever.  She sticks her head up in the air and never relaxes and drops her head, which makes it  virtually impossible to keep her under a controlled gallop.  It's like pulling against a fence post.  Finally, on Wednesday as we were galloping, I pushed my hands down as hard as I could into her neck. When I did this, she softened and dropped her head. I was able to go around the track so smoothly. I was super excited when I returned to the barn, because I had accomplished the impossible.

However, my joy turned into frustration on Friday. It was barely snowing, but to Kentuckians it was a blizzard. I'm an Illinois boy and used to all kinds of winter weather. I was driving normally, while everyone else was driving cautiously.  As I drove to work, a lady pulled out in front of me and then suddenly slowed down. I couldn't stop in time and rear ended her nice BMW.  Her car barely received any damage, but mine....well it's going to coast a hefty $2370.  I currently don't have the funds, so I'll be driving it around looking like this. :(

Maybe this is what created the urge in me to start on an eating binge lol.

My frustrating weekend quickly turned around by an awesome visit from my uncle, aunt and cousins.  It was great to hang out with them, show them the barn and classroom, and be able to eat some amazing eats. I'm looking forward to my family coming down next weekend :). 

have a great week,
Jesse

For the love of FOOD!

The drink of the week is the Triple C Latte.. It is phenomenal!   But, make sure you have a registered Star Bucks' card when you get it otherwise you'll have to pay an extra $1.50.  This scrumptious, warm delight is a cinnamon dulce latte with caramel and chocolate syrup, hence the name Triple C:). With one sip of this amazing beverage your mouth is bursting with flavors - first, cinnamon and then a slightly bitter but smooth chocolatet taste merged with a sweet spark of caramel. The Triple C Latte is another excellent off the menu item.

I had a great week and it couldn't have been better. Here are some pictures.

This week, rather than focusing on my rides, I decided to focus on food.  Eating the correct foods to staying the correct weight is important for a jockey.  I love to cook and wanted to tell you about some of my cooking adventures.

Recently, I have been experimenting with crepes. I love these light and tasty dishes. For one meal,  I cooked a chicken breast, sauteed broccoli and mushrooms and topped it with a healthy low calorie spread made from light sour cream and Italian seasoning.   I also made an excellent low calorie desert crepe for my sweet tooth. I caramelized Splenda by adding water to it.  I then added honey crisp apple slices  sprinkled with cinnamon. This caramel sauce is amazing for 0 calories.  I then used french apple yogurt as a dipping sauce for a total calorie count of only 290 calories! 

A great breakfast dish for only 300 calories is apple pancakes.  I started with a basic pancake mix and then added a diced apple along with cinnamon and Splenda. I then cut some apple wedges and cooked them in a pan with cinnamon and Splenda. The mix made 2-4" pancakes; so, I put some of the cinnamon apple wedges between the pancakes and added the remainder of the apples to the top
and then drizzled it with light maple syrup. It was a great breakfast.

I also made a great discovery that paninis can be made with a waffle iron makes great paninis :). I stuffed pita bread with humace, spinach and tomato and then place it in the waffle iron. It comes out
tasting great with a very cool waffle imprint on the sandwich.

For my Midwest meat and potato satisfaction I created a recipe jockey style. I chose a venison chop since it is very lean and low in fat and calories. I then took 1 russet potato and cut it into 1/4" slices and sauteed them in pan with some veggies and Lawry's salt. It was only 350 calories.

One night, I felt like eating something a little special with a few more calories.  I was browsing my sister's blog http://tuesdaynightcookingadventures.blogspot.com/ for ideas and  I discoverd  she had made some awesome homemade bread bowels with soup.  Since it was a cold blustery day and I had some extra calories left over I decided this would make the perfect meal.  I used her recipe and added Campbell's Clam Chowder. This meal hit the spot on the cold winter day and it totaled 472 calories. You should check out her blog,  She even posted a blog about a low calorie meal she cooked  just to cater to my light and healthy eating when I was home over break.
A big thanks goes out to one of my good friends from back home that supplied me with not only the recipie but the ingredients for qunioa and black bean salad.  It is a very tasty and refreshing dish that fills you up but without a loaded down fealing.

I also created a very low calorie drink by warming up unsweetened almond milk and then adding Splenda and ground cinnamon. It was only a whopping 35 calories for an 8 oz drink from heaven.

Have a FAB week!
Jesse

Getting better

What a way to end the week!  And to top it all off, I'm trying another excellent secret drink from Starbucks:)  If you like the European spread Nutella, you are bound to love this drink. some baristas might not know of the drink nutella so you should be prepared to tell them how to make this scrumptious treat. It is a cafe misto (1/2 coffee 1/2 steam milk) with hazelnut and chocolate syrup and topped with a drizzle of caramel. It is absolutely amazing! Now, on to the week's events.

The week started off with just jogging on the track because it had rained a lot and the track was too sloppy for us to gallop.  Although I was a little disappointed we couldn't gallop, everything went well.  On Tuesday, I had a decent ride, but it could have ended badly. As we were jogging around the track and approached the open gap where we enter the track, Yankee (the green filly that dropped me), suddenly started bucking and trying to exit the track. But I hung on for the 3 second ride and was able to maintain my cool, get her back under control, and then correct her for the mistake she made. The rest of the ride went quite well. That evening, I came home from work not feeling the greatest. A couple hours later I was a food spewing machine. I continued to spew through the night and into the next morning.  Sadly, I had to take the day off and cancel work at Steak-n-Shake.  I returned to the barn on Thursday raring to go and growing impatient to get back on the track. I was riding Marble that day (one of the horses I'm taking care of). As we trotted around the track and then started our gallop, everything was going smoothly until he started to pick up the pace. I tried to hold him back but I was no match for him.  He took off with me, but fortunately I was able to pull him up where I was supposed to and didn't need the outrider. Friday, I was back on Yankee and had an AWESOME ride.  She didn't try anything stupid such as halting abruptly or jumping the gamp. We had a great gallop and it was a SUPER way to end the week! 

Have a great week and treat yourself to a star bucks coffee; it is well worth it:)

 

Jesse