Best Ten Dollars I've Ever Spent

Mangos!!  I love mangos but they are a pain and a huge mess to cut up and eat.  I've watched Youtube videos of people very neatly cutting a mango but it never works for me and I usually think that the video was edited or something!
The other day, I was reading another blog called, "The Boring Runner", and he had bought a mango in the quest to eat more fruits but had no idea what to do with it.  In the comments to his post, someone posted a link to a handy-dandy mango cutter!  I never knew there was a kitchen tool for mangos.  The link was to Target's website and it also told me that my local store had them in stock!  Guess what I did the very next day!
This is the very best $10.00 that I've ever spent!!  (The mango cutter is actually $14.98 but I had $5.00 left on a gift card but I would have still been just as pleased had I spent $15.00!)

This is what it looks like:

Mango cutter and mango

You stand the mango on end so that the pitt inside will fit into the shape in the middle of the cutter and press down.

 Press it down all the way to the bottom.  It slides right over the pit.  Be careful not to squish the bottom of the mango, I did that once!  Just make sure you're pressing on the mango cutter and not on the mango itself, if that makes any sense.

almost there

 The result is the pitt in the cutter and two halves of mango.

two halves and a pitt

 There are two options for cutting the mango into pieces.  Cut a half into slices and peel the skin off as in the pieces on the right.  The other is to score the mango half in a criss-cross pattern and then turn the mango half inside out and the squares pop out and separate and you can cut them off of the skin.   

Two ways to cut up the mango

There is also some fruit on the ends of the pitt that you can cut off (or just bite off!).
I'm like a kid with a new toy!!  Since buying the mango cutter, I've eaten 4 mangos!  This thing has made cutting and eating a mango a much less messy process for me! 

Tonight is running group!  After running group, I'm heading to my niece's house so that I can be the nanny tomorrow while she is teaching a class.  At running group, I'm halfway to her house and I'd have to be on the road at 6:30 am to be there by 7:30 am so I might as well just go spend the night since I don't enjoy leaving my house at 6:30am!

Last week I had 33 miles!  That was even with 2 rest days, Monday and Friday.  On Tuesday, a friend and I ran 6 miles and then on Wednesday, the group workout was hills in two different places which ended up being 8 miles total.  On Saturday, I ran 10 miles on trails winding through 6 different parks.  I worked at my old job in the morning doing one of my old kid programs at a kids' health fair so I was in the Ann Arbor area.  After work, I drove over to Gallup and changed in the backseat of the car just like I used to all the time!  Gotta love tinted windows!  I started in Gallup Park and passed through the Arboretum, Riverside Park, Argo Park, Bandemer Park, and Furstenberg Park. It was a beautiful, sunny day; 64 degrees when I started and 66 when I finished, so not too hot but yet shorts weather! I even got a little sunburn on my face!!  I know that's not supposed to be a good thing but after a l-o-n-n-n-n-g, freezing winter, it's a welcome event!!  Saturday evening, I added up my miles for the week and ended up with.....29.9!  It was still light out when I discovered that and I almost went outside and ran to the neighbor's driveway, which is .1 mile!  Instead, I ran 3.1 miles on Sunday so I ended up with 33 miles even! 

It's only one month away from 18 weeks out from the Chicago Marathon! (June 9th is 18 weeks out).  I haven't chosen a training plan yet but some of them are 18 weeks and some are 16 weeks.  (June 23 is 16 weeks out)  It's getting close!!  I better choose a plan!

Runner Nerd
has a new toy