Runner's High

And I'm back! How am I doing on that updating this more often thing? I know, I know, not so good. Well I'm going to try harder. I already have a post about Bran muffins almost finished. Hold off judgement until you read it :-), I swear it's better than it sounds.

As you know, I've jumped back into running full force. After gaining back all the progress I had made due to inactivity and poor eating habits, I decided to jump back into the 1/2 marathon training I'd done before, more for the structure and time requirement than anything. I like the fact that it's a set schedule I follow rather than just going willy-nilly. My type A, freakishly planning personality likes that. I decided to start at the very beginning of the training to make sure I didn't hurt myself again. I've been working on the length of my runs so that I can increase my speed. Well, it hadn't been going very well. I would be dead before, during and after my 30 run/walk.

And then, it happened. Last Thursday, I felt pretty good when I hopped on the treadmill. I did my usual 5 min warm up then started my jogging segments. I jumped the speed up past my normal jogging pace accidentally but found myself keeping up. And more surprising, I was enjoying it and I wanted to keep going, so I did! Instead of my 30 minute segment, I went 43 minutes. What surprised me the most was that I felt great and I wanted to keep going. FINALLY! I had finally experienced the fabled runner's high. I have been running on and off for two years and never felt the runner's high before. Not even after (barely) finishing the half marathon. Yes, I had a rush of uncontrollable emotion but it certainly was a high. It was more relief that the torture was finally over.

I'm very excited at this development, especially since I felt the same way after my run last night! It puts a spring in my step and makes me excited to keep going! Who knows, maybe running will actually become my thing! :) In other news, I'm starting to track my food intact better, working on cutting out excessive sugar and trying to find a green tea that doesn't taste like crap. My goal is to get to the point where I"m comfortable wearing shorts in public. (For reference, I haven't worn shorts in probably 10 years) Oh and fit comfortably into my bridesmaid dress of course ;)

Send along any tips or tricks you would like to share, we can do this!

Back in the Saddle

I want to tell you a story. A story about a young woman. This woman was in a new relationship with an amazing man and she was going to meet his family for the first time. Needless to say she was REALLY nervous. When she and her new boyfriend got to his parents house, things went really well. She and his father hit it off and were soon talking, laughing and having a great time. Being that it was summer, and his parents had a pool, her boyfriend's father invite them down to swim. The young woman agreed and made her way down the deck. As she descended the stairs, excited to get in the pool, she stumbled a bit..... and reached out to grab the non existent railing to steady herself. She fell down the 4 wooden stairs, leaving her balance and any remaining shred of dignity behind her. Feeling absolutely mortified, she jumped up declaring "I'm OK!" only to feel blood drip down her knee and ankle.........

I'm going to let you in on a little secret, that girl was me. That boy is my husband. That dad is my father-in-law and yes, the first time I met him I fell down their deck stairs. I cut myself so bad, he had to drive into town to buy me band aids. To be fair, said incident has cemented our daughter-in-law/father-in-law relationship. He still calls me "Grace" and laughs about our first meeting.  So why, you are asking, would I put one of the most embarrassing incidents of my life on the internet? To help you understand that I am not at all a graceful person. I do not have good balance and I fall a lot. My most recent falls/injuries have derailed my progress. As in stopped it completely. RIGHT after finishing physical therapy, I tripped and fell on the stairs in our garage. I sprained my left ankle and scraped up both legs. The next weekend my bad knee popped out of joint and I had to force it back in. If that's never happened to you before, it hurts. Like a lot. Both injuries are still the healing process and still causing me pain. Nursing those wounds gave me even more excuses to slack off and not do anything. And boy, did I take full advantage of that. I have pretty much undone any and all progress I had made toward my ultimate healthy weight goal.

Well I'm cheap so there's no way I'm buying bigger pants and I have a bridesmaid dress to fit in to in less than 6 months so I'm back at it full force! The hubs and I are already signed up for the Color Run which I'm really excited for, I think it will be a lot of fun. I'm also in a Facebook weight loss group* that I've been apart of before that helps with motivation so I'm optimistic that things will start moving in the right direction again! I've also dug out some of my old workout DVD's to help eliminate any and all excuses I can come up with to not work out. We are also looking for a bike and bike trailer so MB and the hubby can come with my on rides. I'm back in the saddle and excited to start seeing results. I've charged up my fitbit and ordered a new band for it and I'm ready to go! I'll be checking in more often to keep myself on track!

Feel free to pass on any tips you may have or join me in finally getting to the healthy place you've always wanted to be at. We can do this!!

*Let me know if you are interested. It's a private group on Facebook, 10$ to join, you post your weight weekly and the top 3 losers split the money. 1st place 50%, 2nd place 30%, 3rd place 20%. It's a great group of supportive people and it really helps with motivation!

Freezer Stockpile

Another guest blog from our favorite running buddy! I LOVE freezer cooking! Here's some great tips from Cindy on how to get the most out of great supermarket deals! :)

The day after Easter, I found a fresh organic turkey in the meat manager's special bin, marked down 50%.  The bird made it into my cart long before I remembered that 13 lbs of bird is a lot for one person to eat.  Oops.

Since the turkey was already approaching it's sell-by date, I decided to roast it that evening after I finished preparing dinner.  If they're not stuffed, turkeys really don't take that long to cook.  I don't really care about presentation, so my cooking method of choice is to sprinkle the turkey generously with dried herbs, salt, and pepper, then dump the thing breast-side down into a roasting bag.  With this method, you get super juicy breast-meat and a tender-throughout turkey in 2-3 hrs.  When the timer went off, I literally cut open the bag and disassembled the turkey by hand, 10 minutes before I went off to bed.

I knew I was going to have to freeze part of the turkey since there's no way I should be eating 13 lbs of turkey before it went bad :-) I also wanted to replenish my freezer with some quick go-to meals since I had recently eaten down my stock of those.  Here's what I ended up making.

1) Plain cooked turkey breast (freezer)- this will be great for sandwiches or quick dinners down the road.

2) Two quarts of turkey stock + shredded dark meat (freezer) .  You know it's a good stock when you cool it overnight in the fridge and it turns solid on you.  I put all of the bones and pan drippings into a pot with a few quarts of water, and a few bay leaves, then simmered for 4 hrs or so.  I tend to leave out salt and other spices until I decide what to use the stock for.  I've found you can also do this overnight in the crockpot!

3) Turkey bean burritos (1 dinner + 3 freezer lunches).  I mixed up shredded dark meat turkey, a can of re fried beans, diced onion, green chiles, vegan cheese, cumin, cayenne, salt, pepper, and some chipotle Tabasco sauce and used that to stuff a bunch of tortillas.  I rolled them up, then put them seam side down in a baking dish, and baked at 375 for 20-30 min.  The baking step seems to reinforce the tortilla a little bit so that they thaw from frozen a little better.

4) Turkey + farro deliciousness (2 dinner + 1 lunch).  I've had a bag of farro hiding in my pantry for the past few months, and this time I actually remembered to measure some out and put it in a bowl of water to soak before I went to work.  When I came home, I started googling recipes, and ended up falling for this smitten kitchen recipe (http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2013/07/one-pan-farro-with-tomatoes/) because 1) it looked easy, and 2) I had all of the ingredients on hand.  I topped it with shredded turkey and it was FANTASTIC.  Highly recommended.

5) Turkey salad (1 dinner + 3 lunches).  I am not a big fan of white meat for most applications, but when slathered in mayo, it does pretty well.  This version ended up having finely diced sweet onion, dried cranberries, quartered red grapes, tarragon, honey dijon mustard, and mayo.  Wrapped up in some remaining tortillas with some crisp romaine, it was delicious.

Needless to say, my kitchen was a disaster zone the first half of the week (at one point I had zero clean bowls of any shape or size).  In the end it wasn't actually that much work, considering how many delicious meals I got out of the bird and how well-stocked my freezer is again.  I will totally not hesitate to pick up another discount turkey next time I run across one (which I assume will be long after I eat up my frozen leftovers!).

Guest Blog!: Spice Rack

Another guest blog from our favorite fellow foodie and running buddy! Enjoy!!

Spice Rack

Some people are planners when it comes to home-cooked foods.  They like to sit down with cookbooks, decide what meals to prepare for each day of the week, then make up meticulous lists of ingredients to purchase at the store.

I am whatever is the complete opposite of being a food planner.  Most of the time, when I walk into a grocery store I have no idea what I will be buying.  I wander through the produce section picking out whatever looks tasty, is on sale, or I haven't bought in a while.  Then I'll wander through the meat and dairy section, grabbing enough quantity and variety to get me through the week.  If I have time, I'll then wander up and down the dry goods aisles looking for interesting new sauces, snacks, and treats. 

Usually during this process I come up with a couple general meal ideas, at least sufficient to round out one complete dish for the week.  I fortunately have a near perfect memory of my pantry and fridge contents, so I rarely forget essential items or buy too many duplicates (what can I say, I think about food a lot).

One of the big things that enables me to cook this way is having an arsenal of go-to flavor combinations.  I know that I can turn any piece of chicken into an Asian dish with some soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, and sriracha.  Likewise, I can go Italian (tomato, basil, oregano, balsamic or white wine vinegar), Mexican (cumin, chili powder, cayenne, oregano), Moroccan (see recipe below), Indian (berbere, curry powder, and coconut milk), or BBQ with spices and a small handful of other staple ingredients.

  

Spices and dried herbs make up a huge part of my cooking.  I am a huge fan of Penzey's spices because they are so much more flavorful (and sometimes more cost effective!) than the grocery store varieties.  My birthday present may have been a mini shopping spree at Penzey's... where I may have walked away with more than 10 different spices.  If you go there, buy the bags, not the glass jars for maximum cost effectiveness!  My favorites are the chipotle powder, Penzey's cinnamon blend, and the Galena Street bbq rub.  Yum.

Moroccan spice rub

This is the only spice blend I mix up ahead of time to keep on hand - it's fantastic on both meat and vegetables. 

3 TBSP Sugar

1 TBSP Salt

1 TBSP paprika

1 TBSP cumin

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cayenne pepper (spice wimps like Briana may want to cut this to 1/2 tsp)

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp coriander

dash of peri-peri / berbere (optional - very spicy!)

For maximum tastiness, use on meat that is naturally juicy (boneless skinless chicken thighs are excellent).  It's best when the rub has a bit of a chance to caramelize, but use caution because it burns easily!  I tend to saute the chicken on the stove top until mostly cooked, then add liberal amounts of spice rub for the last few minutes of cooking. 

Also great on baked chicken wings, grilled lamb chops, mixed into turkey burgers, and sprinkled on diced or mashed sweet potatoes!

- Cindy

Marshmallows! (And a little Running)

Well Friends, I have happy news! First I'm going to show you how to make amazing, homemade marshmallows today and second, I can run again! On an unhappy note, Blogger was stupid and didn't save my work so this is the second time I'm writing this and the pictures were being a jerk too so sorry for the odd formatting.


Let's start with the boring.... I can RUN!! I got the OK to try some some running from my physical therapist and honestly, it's feeling kind of great! Not something I ever thought I would say again.... But I'm pretty excited. I have just been doing some short running segments in a 30 minute treadmill session and was able to bump up the speed last night with minimal pain afterwards. I'll write more on my upcoming running plans but for now ColorRun in August here I come!!!!

NOW on to the fun part! I had every intention of writing this post over the holidays, took the pictures and everything and then promptly forgot about it, which is an offense of the highest magnitude. We're talking about homemade marshmallows, people. HOMEMADE MARSHMALLOWS. No one and I mean No One should have to go through life without making and tasting homemade marshmallows at least one time in their life. It is a Peterman/Smith holiday tradition. I make at least 2 batches of these, if not 3-4. They are the perfect gift for teachers, friends, daycare providers, that family member that is impossible to by for. Pretty much everyone will adore these. My favorite way to gift these is with a jar of homemade hot chocolate mix. Whomever receives it will be your BFF for life, so long as you continue to provide said marshmallows.

These delectable pillows of deliciousness are unlike any marshmallow you have tasted as of yet. You will never be able to eat a bland, oddly textured, store bought marshmallow again. Consider yourself warned my friends. Another warning, these do require time and a bit of "special equipment". Do not attempt to make these without a candy thermometer, a sturdy electric mixer (A hand mixer will not work) and a mesh sieve. The recipe is from Ina Garten, my other foodie crush and can be customized in so many ways. My favorite flavor is just good, old fashion good quality vanilla extract. Peppermint is also a great flavor but please learn from my mistake. Do not use the same amount of peppermint extract as you would vanilla extract. That resulted in some seriously overpoweringly peppermint marshmallows. A teaspoon of a stronger flavored extract would probably suffice. I have also seen Ina make a coconut version of these which sound scrumptious. You get the point, there's a lot of options to make these your own. Also don't be surprised when you get confectioners' sugar all over your kitchen. It will happen, embrace it.

So go home,stop at the store if you don't stock powdered gelatin in your cupboard like I do, and make these. I promise you won't be disappointed! I'm working on a couple fun posts that should be up soon and looking forward to being able to increase my running mileage and start getting into pre-injury condition! Let me know in the comments or on Facebook if you have any recipe questions. I'm telling you, MAKE THESE!!

Homemade Marshmallows
Ina Garten- From Barefoot Contessa: Family Style

Ingredients:
3 packages (Not boxes) of unflavored, powered gelatin (I prefer Knox brand)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract *
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting


Put the gelatin and 1/2 cup of cold water in the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment. Allow gelatin to bloom in bowl while you make the syrup.

Combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt and 1/2 cup of water in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Raise the heat to high and cook until syrup reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. Stir occasionally to stop the syrup from bubbling over. Remove from heat.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour the syrup into the gelatin. BE VERY CAREFUL, it is very hot. Put the mixer on high speed and whip until the mixture is very thick, about 15 minutes. Add vanilla (Or other flavoring) and mix thoroughly.

Using a mesh sieve, Very generously dust a nonmetal 8x12 or 9x13 baking dish with confectioners' sugar. Pour mixture into pan, smooth top and dust with more confectioners' sugar. Let stand 24 hours or until they dry out. Run a butter knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the marshmallows. Turn out onto a board and cut into squares. I find my biggest chef knife works well.  Dust cut edges in leftover confectioners' sugar. Store in airtight container.

Happy Day!

The sun is shining my friends! After a soul punching accumulating snow last Monday, I can not tell you how happy the sun and above freezing temperatures make me! Also making me happy is the OK from the physical therapist to start amping up the physical activity. Up until now I was ordered to only do non impact so lots of yoga, Pilates and elliptical-ling. I like doing all those but I was itching to do more. After two months of hard work we're at that point! Last night was my first time on the treadmill since before the race. I did 1.5 miles of fast walking and it wasn't bad! Definitely sore, definitely not healed all the way but the progress is encouraging!

Also making me happy right now is this.

I'm really trying to right the wrong that is so few chocolate recipes on here, especially since the hubby considers chocolate to be the other food group. Here, in all it's Dutch- processed cocoa powder glory, is Double Chocolate banana bread! I saw it on my favorite food blog, you know the one and couldn't help myself. I mean come on. It's CHOCOLATE! So the first free moment I had, which happened to be a friday I was staying home with MB, I made it! I had just bought some more dutch process which gives this "bread" it's dark, dark color and rich, intense chocolate flavor but didn't have any chocolate chunks. All I had was mini chocolate chips, figuring it would be the same dumped them in.

                            

I popped it in the oven and it smelled amazing the entire 55 minutes it cooked. I pulled it out when the tester came out clean, let it cook for 10 minutes and took it out of the the pan. Not being one to have any patience, shocking I know, I cut a slice while it was still quite hot. The flavor was good but the texture was off, It seemed under done somehow even though I knew it wasn't. Undeterred I thought "Oh, it's just to hot. I'm sure it will be great when it's cooled!". Well, it did not get better.... In fact it got worse as it cooled. It became a cold mass of mushy almost bread product.  I was crushed! It had smelled so great and I had such high hopes. I have never had a smitten kitchen recipe not turn out, never! I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I read and re-read and re-read the recipe trying to find the point that I screwed up but I couldn't. Finally the hubs came up with a theory I hadn't, maybe it was the chocolate chips. Hmm.... her recipe calls for chunks while I had used mini's. Of course! Our theory is the mini's had melted to much into the batter during the baking process and changed the consistency of the final product.

Reinvigorated, I left bananas to over ripen on the counter and tried this baby again. Just to be safe I didn't add any extra chocolate. Blasphemy I know, I wanted to make sure the cake part wasn't the issue. After smelling wonderful for another 55 minutes, I ripped that baby out of the oven, let it cool just until I could handle it without searing my fingers off and tried it again. YUM! First, let's not fool anyone here. This is a cake in a loaf form. There's no two ways about it. That given it is delicious! It's dense enough not to fall apart but not so dense that you feel like you've eaten a brick. The cocoa powder gives it a rich chocolaty taste that isn't to sweet. Honestly I would buy bananas just to make this....... and have. Twice. It's great. Make it, you won't regret it!

You'll find the recipe below. Check back soon because I finally completed a project that I found on Pintrest and it actually turned out pretty good! I'll also be talking about my future running plans! Any races I should consider?

Double Chocolate Banana Bread
(Originally from smittenkitchen.com)

3 medium- to- large very ripe bananas
1/2 cup butter- melted
3/4 cup brown sugar (dark or light will work)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chunks or chips (Optional, but then it's not double chocolate)

Preheat Oven to 350F and butter a loaf pan.

Mash bananas well in the bottom of a large bowl. (You should have a little more than a cup) Whisk melted butter into the bananas. Add sugar, egg and vanilla, mix well. Add flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder to a sifter or fine mesh strainer and sift over the dry ingredients. Stir wet and dry together until just combined and then stir in chocolate chunks.

Poor into prepared pan and bake for 55-65 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10-15 minutes then remove from pan and cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or room temperature.

Banana bread will keep 4 days at room temperature.... not that it every does in my house.
Enjoy!!

To infinity and beyond!

Now that I've had time to reflect on the race, I thought I'd add my story and a bit of my perspective :-)

Getting up at 3:15 to head to the race was not really my idea of fun (especially since the time change from CA to FL was not working in my favor).  We managed to sleepwalk to the monorail, through bag checking, a portapotty stop, and make it to our starting corral.  That process easily tacked a mile or two of walking onto the race distance!  Since they were predicting hot weather, we all were drinking water to make sure that we were adequately hydrated.  Turns out that decision was a bit of a mistake: 1) We had to wait an hour after the race started to cross the starting line, 2) the lines for the portapotties were looooong, 3) there were plenty of hydration stations along the race, and 4) it was humid enough to drink the air.

Everyone was excited to cross the starting line and get moving!  We settled into our chosen walk/run ratio right from the start, and the first few miles went by pretty quickly.  Briana's janky joints started causing problems sometime in mile 3, and so we all slowed down to accommodate them.  The fog and humidity was pretty intense, but the loop through Magic Kingdom was just awesome to me - definitely one of the highlights of the race to run through Cinderella's castle and down main street!

Briana's ankle was obviously not doing well at that point, and she told me that she wanted me to finish the race no matter what.  My heart broke when she and Kyle fell behind the pacers, this was something she had trained so long and hard for, and it was so uncertain of whether she'd achieve that goal.  That was when I took off on my own to finish the race, trying to hold back tears of frustration and sadness.

I quickly settled into the walk/run ratio that I had done most of my training at, and found that I had to weave in and out of the crowd, which seemed to have given up on running entirely by that point.  The return to Epcot had a couple of long hills.  I am a bit of a strange person... when I see a hill, I see something that needs to be summitted, preferably as quickly as possible.  While the rest of the crowd groaned and muttered at the Toy Story drill sergeant, I kicked myself into high gear and practically flew out of earshot.

Heading into Epcot was bittersweet - I was so happy to be almost done, but I was also sad for Briana and the fact that her race wasn't going as planned.  Coming up to the giant Epcot ball was like coming home though.  Let's face it, for a nerdy engineer like me, Epcot is the coolest place in DisneyWorld.  The last 1.1 miles of the race seemed to stretch on forever, but the finish line eventually emerged.  I crossed it, smiling because I had accomplished my goal of finishing the race, but with tears streaming down my face because I was alone instead of by Briana's side.

I've always told myself that I can do anything once, and so far I've turned out to be right.  This race was my first half marathon, and I'm pretty certain that it was also my last.  I'm really glad that I joined Briana - I personally got a lot out of the training process.  In the midst of all my unpredictable life changes in the past year and a half, it was awesome to have this event to look forward to, and to force myself to stay physically active.  Unfortunately, my body really doesn't seem to appreciate running or endurance events; although I (surprisingly) didn't acquire any running related injuries, the process did affect some chronic conditions that I have in undesirable ways.

Although I'm hanging up my running shoes for the time being, I'll likely still contribute some food and fitness related posts as long as Briana will let me :-)  I'm so excited to see what goals she tackles next!

Cindy