Gas Powered Marthoner

In a few minutes I'll be heading to bed. Gotta get some beauty sleep before I run a half marathon plus three miles tomorrow morning. But first I thought I would share what I'm eating the night before a long run.

I've really been trying to eat cleaner this week since I discovered on Tuesday that I would be participating in a race this Saturday. Emphasis on "trying". I'm not perfect in what I eat, but I've done a little better in squeezing in more veggies and healthier carbs.

While I'm not "carb-loading" tonight in the sense that most people think of, I am eating a delicious, healthy soup full of protein and carbs. Satisfying and filling and certain to power me through 16 miles. Even if it ends up being gas power from all these beans. ;)



My little helper for the evening...Elle

Chicken Taco Soup (adapted from a friend's vegetarian taco soup)

Olive oil
1 or 2 cans chopped green chilies
1 medium onion, chopped
3 TBSPs homemade GF taco seasoning (or 1 pkg taco seasoning)
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 can Great Northern white beans, drained and rinsed
2 (14 ounce) cans of peeled, cut tomatoes (or 1 qt canned stewed tomatoes)
1 can yellow hominy (or corn)
1 can white hominy (or corn)
1 pound chicken, shredded (My canned chicken breast works perfectly for this!)
2 TBSP salsa (optional)
2 to 3 cups of water
1 to 2 tsps chicken bouillon, to taste
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, sauté onion and chilies in oil for about 3 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve with tortilla chips, grated cheddar cheese, and sour cream.

A few notes...This can very easily be a vegetarian meal; just leave out the chicken and bouillon!

If you are using chicken, a rotisserie chicken, such as the ones they sell at Costco, works very well for this recipe. Or you can just prepare some chicken breasts and shred them.

The beans are flexible, in that, you could put in whatever beans you have on hand. Black beans, kidney beans, navy beans, etc.

This recipe was my first encounter with hominy. If you've never had it, you've got to give it a try! Hominy is a form of corn, but it's just not the same. It has a fantastic, almost chewy texture which I love. It can be found near the canned beans in your grocery store or in the ethnic food aisle.

I love this recipe because it is a "dump it all in and simmer for a bit" kind of recipe. It's gluten- and dairy-free too. And I'm a sucker for a good hearty soup too, especially on a snowy day such as this one.

Yep. Snow. In March. The day before a half marathon race. I keep getting antsy about it, but then I remember...Oh yeah. I've been training all winter. This ain't nothing. Wish me luck!

Homemade Whole Wheat Bread with Quinoa Recipe

Is there anything better in this life than homemade bread?

Yes! It's homemade whole wheat bread with quinoa! Delicious AND healthy AND whole wheat AND quinoa!

No!

YES! It can be done.

A running friend shared her whole wheat bread recipe with me earlier this year. I tried it and my family really liked it. Up to this point, the whole wheat bread I've made is better suited to holding heavy doors open rather than being ingested. Not good. My family refused to eat it, especially after the first day when it was at least warm out of the oven and half way edible.

This new recipe passed with flying colors. It's fluffy and light and tasty! Fresh out of the oven or sliced for sandwiches a few days later. It makes awesome toast!

My friend had mentioned that she likes to make it with quinoa and although she never shared how to do that in her recipe, I was intrigued. I have a couple of bags of quinoa sitting around my house, but beyond making it for breakfast or the occasional random recipe, I have no idea what to do with it. I was determined to figure out how to get that healthy, protein-packed quinoa into my bread and I was pleasantly surprised to have it work on the very first try. The bread was actually even more moist.

I will share this recipe with the way I added in the quinoa. If you don't have any quinoa or just don't want to add it, then replace it with a little more bread flour. (What's a "little more"? Ehh...Less than half a cup, but "feel" it out.) Recipe makes one loaf of bread, but can be easily doubled or more to make more loaves at once.

Homemade Whole Wheat Bread WITH Quinoa

Ingredients:
1 TBSP yeast
1/2 tsp sugar

3 TBSP water

2 TBSP brown sugar
2 TBSP butter, melted
1 cup water

2 cups wheat flour
1/2 cup prepared quinoa (rinse and prepare quinoa with water according to package directions)
1.5 cups bread flour


Directions:
Mix yeast and sugar and 3 TBSP water in a large cup. Let it sit for about 10 minutes, or until it rises.

In the meantime, mix one cup of water with the brown sugar and the butter. Add in the wheat flour and mix well. Add the yeast mixture and the prepared quinoa.

Add in the bread flour 1/2 cup at a time until you form a nice dough. The dough should feel a little sticky and soft.

Knead for about 10 minutes or until the dough is nice and elastic. Remember that you can't over knead the bread. The more you knead, the better.

Let rise, covered in a bowl for one hour or so until the dough is doubled in size.

Punch down the dough and form into a loaf. Place in a greased loaf pan and cover. Let rise until the dough starts coming up over the top of the loaf pan.

Cook in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Also if you want a more grainy bread, you can substitute 1/2 cup of 7 or 9 grain cereal for 1/2 cup of the bread flour.

This recipe can be doubled, tripled, quadrupled. Maybe more. I've only ever made four loaves at once and it worked really well. Use one loaf. Let the others cool, bag them, and stick in the freezer until you are ready to use them.

P.S. While eating whole wheat bread is nourishing to the body, I have to say making bread is nourishing to the soul. I like making bread when I'm in a "mood". I set up the iPad on my kitchen counter, turn Pandora on to my Priscilla Ahn station, and knead away my melancholies. After ten minutes of kneading, I feel like a new woman.

Breakfast: My Favorite Meal of the Day!

Ahhh breakfast! I could eat it three times a day. Breakfast is that first test of the day. How are you going to start your day? With a Diet Coke and a donut or with an egg white omelet and some prune juice? I must admit, I have never started my day either way. I'm just giving you the extremes. I did want to share some of my favorite options for breakfast, whether "breakfast" comes at 7:00 am or 7:00 pm.

Probably like most people, I don't tend to have a lot of time in the mornings. I'm rushing kids off to school and starting on my housework so I can move on to working out and the rest of my day. I need something quick and easy AND healthy.

My most recent "quick and easy AND healthy" favorites are steel-cut oats and quinoa. Steel-cut oats are a little heartier than rolled oats. Supposedly they are less processed and therefore retain more of their natural nutritional value. All that aside, I just love the chewy texture! Plus, you can buy them "gluten-free"! (While oats do not contain gluten, they are often contaminated in the reaping and manufacturing process. "Gluten-free oats" just mean the fields and equipment have been dedicated to oats. No wheat allowed!)

At the beginning of the week I make a big pot of oats or quinoa, which takes anywhere from 20 to 35 minutes to cook. I take one serving for breakfast that day and then place the rest in a Tupperware container and stick it in the fridge. Now I have breakfast for the whole week. Each morning I just scoop out my single serving, warm it up in the microwave, add my own "toppings", and enjoy, usually with some almond milk. My latest favorite steel-cut oats add-in is a tablespoon of peanut butter and a teaspoon of honey. It almost tastes like a dessert! Lots of protein, fiber, and stick-to-your-ribs goodness!

Other "topping" options: brown sugar, jam, nuts, dried fruit, applesauce, molasses, berries, etc.

Quinoa is more of an acquired taste, but with a bit of brown sugar and some almond milk, it is delicious and satisfying! Plus it's gluten-free and packed full of protein!

Some days, I toast up a slice of homemade wheat bread (I need to share my new favorite recipe!) and slather peanut butter and honey on it. Add some milk and homemade canned applesauce (no added sugar) on the side.

I know a lot of people love their green smoothies. I've been known to drink these in the morning too. Berries, spinach, soy milk, flax seed, a bit of ice, some lemon zest and fresh squeezed lemon, the kitchen sink... I haven't quite mastered the art of smoothies. I used to add Greek yogurt to mine, which tends to coagulate once in a smoothie. Shudder! It kind of ruined me. Some day I'll reapproach smoothies and work on our tattered relationship.

When I have a bit more time I really enjoy scrambled eggs. Eggs are a great source of protein. I'm not very good at throwing out the yolks; it just feels so wasteful, even if it they are high in calories or cholesterol or whatever the latest study is saying.

Eggs with wheat toast are good, but what I really enjoy is an egg burrito. I confess, I cannot convince myself that wheat tortillas are edible. They taste like cardboard. Flimsy, damp cardboard. Ugh. This (and the egg white thing) just shows you that I'm not perfect in healthy eating. And that's okay! Trust me. I don't lose sleep over an occasional egg yolk or white tortilla.

That being said...I also don't worry too much when I have chocolate chip pancakes and bacon for dinner every once in a while either. Moderation in all things.

Just make sure that for the most part you are eating a nutritious and well-rounded breakfast. Food from all the food groups (yes, even carbs; at least healthy carbs), lots of protein, minimal sugar. This is the meal that will fuel you for a big part of your day. I read in a book once that "you should eat like a queen for breakfast, a princess for lunch, and a pauper at dinner". This makes a lot of sense to me.

Breakfast can be the first choice that will set you on a course of other choices for the rest of the day.

Example: "I already had cold pizza and a DP for breakfast. I screwed up. Might as well have a candy bar for lunch, skip my workout, and eat a burger and fries AND a milkshake for dinner." OR... "I had a healthy breakfast! I feel pretty good! Let's workout! Then I'll have turkey on whole wheat for lunch and maybe a salad for dinner!"

It's all about making better choices, every day--every hour! my friends. And breakfast is one of my favorite choices to make. What are your favorite breakfast foods?

Healthy Recipes: Rainbow Pasta

With Forks Over Knives still heavy on my mind I prepared dinner last night. My husband is out of town so there would be no grumbling if I went meatless. But meatless...meatless...How can I do this? While I'm all about the fruits and veggies and making sure they are present nightly at the dinner table, I'm not really sure I know how to cook a balanced meal without meat.

I can cook. I can follow a recipe. But I'm not all that smooth when it comes to thinking outside the box. At least the recipe box. I decided I would give it my best shot and just look what I came up with! Isn't it pretty? So colorful! That's why I decided to call it "Rainbow Pasta".

I'm sure this isn't all that creative in the minds of "real" cooks, but I was impressed. The kids complained a bit about the new dish as they often do with new things, but most of them ate it. No one asked for seconds, but at least they tried it. Me? I loved it! Delicious and less than 300 calories a serving!

Rainbow Pasta (Serves 4)

whole wheat linguine (1/2 package), prepared according to package directions
olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1 small zucchini, diced
1 small yellow squash, diced
1 bunch asparagus, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
dried basil, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste
light Alfredo sauce (1/2 jar)
Italian blend grated cheese

Prepare pasta in boiling water. While pasta is cooking heat olive oil in saute pan. Add garlic and onion. Saute for a few minutes. Add red pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, and asparagus. Sprinkle in basil, salt, and pepper to taste. Saute until tender-crisp.

Drain pasta. Add to vegetables. Gently stir in Alfredo sauce. Serve with grated cheese on top.

You really could adapt this anyway you wanted. Change up the veggies or the spices. Use a different kind of pasta. Add meat if you want meat. So simple!

P.S. My son has a dairy allergy and my daughter has Celiac disease. Instead of making three different meals each night I make adaptions to what I'm already preparing. In this case I boiled up some GF pasta in a separate pan. I set aside sauteed vegetables for Elle's pasta and then added Alfredo sauce to hers separately. For Dee, I took out a serving of combined pasta and veggies before I added the cheese sauce. A little bit of a juggling act, but absolutely doable.

Week Workouts and Thoughts about "Forks Over Knives"

I went on a bike ride today with my littlest in tow in the trailer. Her and her baby and stuffed dog. There really is something to be said for having three kids in school and one 25 pounder at home. It makes getting exercise done a tad easier. We biked around the nearby neighborhoods, up and down hills, for 9 miles. I chilled out mentally to my Priscilla Ahn Pandora station while my thighs and bum buuuuuurrrrned. And if I was being honest--which I generally am, almost to a fault--those areas could use all the burn they can get.

(Workouts so far this week: Monday was an hour of Zumba and a half hour walk after the kids were in bed. Tuesday I got my tired bum out of bed and went for an 4 mile run/1 mile walk before the sun was up. Then P90X Ab Ripper and a few reps of push ups and squats.)

Today my brain is full of thoughts on a movie I watched on Netflix yesterday. "Forks Over Knives", a film promoting a plant-based diet. It really is something for everyone to see whether you are a vegetarian or not. The evidence that eating meat and dairy is directly related to cancer is astounding.

While I don't plan on becoming a full blown vegetarian any time soon--Hey! I like a good juicy steak sometimes too!--I do believe that having a diet full of fruits and vegetables and whole grains can NOT be a bad thing. I have never really struggled to eat my fruits and veggies (Thank you, Mom and Dad!), I've never been all that big on meat, and over the last year I gradually cut most dairy out of my diet on my own. So...I'm already kind of leaning that way.

My seven year old son has been allergic to milk since birth. My husband and I have always fretted that he is not and will not develop properly due to lack of all that "healthy" milk fat. "Milk does a body good", right? According to "Forks Over Knives", Dee may be better off than all of us! If nothing else, I'm grateful to let go of the guilt I've felt since we discovered his dairy allergy. Turns out there is evidence that you can live, and live well, without milk. (yea!)

My husband is not as impressed as I am. The man loves his meat. I think he might be more accepting of one of our children telling us they are homosexual than they want to be a vegetarian. (I HOPE I am joking about that.) He is pretty suspicious about this whole vegan thing and thinks it's just another thing I've concocted up to make him suffer. As if serving fruits and vegetables consistently at the dinner table wasn't enough.

I have no idea what the future will bring for our family, especially with the antagonism I feel from my spouse. Honestly, his opinion needs to be taken into account too. But I do feel we would only be doing good to eat even more fresh fruits and vegetables, more whole grains, less processed food, and less meat. (This is something the scriptures have told us anyway!) As the mother and key influencer in my family's life I need to learn how to prepare more vegetarian meals and in such a way that they are appealing to my kids and even my manly meat-eater.

Have you seen "Forks Over Knives"? What are your thoughts?

Donuts and Pizza and Ice Cream! Oh My!

We have been off on a little mini vacation this last week. I figured we needed to get in one last hurrah before school started today. We took off to Hometown, Idaho and spent a few days with family and friends.

Any time I write "family and friends" here just feel free to insert "food and food".

Just bypass all the love and laughter and go straight to the food.

Ugh.

I feel like an alcoholic in a bar every time we get together for a reunion or a family get together. Sometimes I can hardly focus on the conversation because I can't stop thinking about the food or how to not eat all the food or what I need to do to avoid the unhealthy food or how many miles I need to run to work off the food I just ate.

It's such a mental "game" and I play it every single time we are gathered together in a familial unit.

Bother.

Since my running routine has been getting longer and longer the closer I get to my 10K and half marathon races, I have justified indulging a little more often. Carb loading, right?

Wrong. My body does not work that way. As my sister so lovingly put it, "Remember that you have fat stored up as a source of running energy. You don't need the extra."

She wasn't being unkind. She was being frank. And frank is what I need. Not frank furters.

My mom has been meaning to show me how to make homemade donuts for months now. That took place this last weekend. I must have absorbed some of the grease as we were frying them up. It couldn't have been the few I ate.

The family reunion we attended had one full table of desserts. I figured the 10K run I had done that morning needed to be rewarded...with rice krispie treats and chocolate cake.

The date night Phad Thai.
The family night pizza.
The late night root beer float.
The cheesy enchiladas at the in laws.

They all came calling and I'm never one to turn someone away.

It's no surprise this morning that the scale said I had gained...Yes, you read that right...GAINED 1.2 pounds back.

Last week I lost 0 pounds. This week I gained 1.2 pounds. This is not going the way I need it to.