Great Foods For After Long Runs

I ran 11.25 miles this morning at a 9:18 pace. That's a spritely pace for me :)

When I got home, I started eating and haven't stopped.

I thought I'd post about some great post-run foods. Being that I'm a Lifetime member of Weight Watchers, I count all the points, of course!

I started with Poor Man's Pancakes as we always have tons of overripe bananas in this house. I had scrambled eggs with veggies on the side.

Lunch was a variation on this falafel recipe with tahini dressing.

Falafel Muffins

4 cups cooked garbanzo beans (chickpeas) (I soak them overnight and cook them in my slow cooker)

1 onion, chopped

2 T dried parsley

6-8 cloves minced garlic

2 egg

2 t kosher salt

1/4 t black pepper

4 t ground cumin

2 t ground coriander

1/8 t cayenne pepper

2 large slices gluten-free bread

Put it in a food processor and process! Rather than try to fry these as patties (I can't get them to hold together) or make them in the slow cooker (same issue), I scooped about 1/4 cup into greased muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Makes 12 falafel muffins, 3 points plus each.

Tahini Dressing

6 T tahini

Juice of one lemon

2-5 cloves of garlic, to taste

A tiny sprinkle of cayenne pepper

1/2 t - 1 t salt (to taste)

Sprinkle of dried parsley

Water

Put this all in your high-powered blender. Add enough water so it's 15-16 ounces. Blend until it's, well, blended!

This makes 15-16 2 tablespoon servings, 1 points plus each.

Dessert was Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough because I had extra chickpeas!

Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
2 cups warm chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1/8 cup agave with 10 drops vanilla liquid stevia mixed in
1/4 cup natural peanut butter (I prefer salted)
1/4 cup dairy-free semisweet chocolate chips*

Mix the first 3 ingredients in the food processor. Transfer it to a bowl and mix in the chocolate chips*. This comes out to be about 1 3/4 cups. Each 1/4 cup serving is 5 points plus.

Yum! A full day of fulling food and one full mama.

Next week, I'm running my 2nd half marathon, the Half of Quincy. Looking forward to totally rocking it!

*Given that Passover is approaching, it is fairly easy to get regular-sized dairy & soy free chocolate chips at stores that sell Passover-safe foods, as opposed to the mini chips I usually buy from Enjoy Life/Amazon. Amazon is selling the regular sized chips at a fair price, but I found them at Roche Bros (if you're in MA) for $3/10 oz bag.

Top 5 Posts of All Time: Gluten free, Dairy free!

Because everyone else is doing it :)

What are my top 5 posts of all time?

1. Gluten-free Dairy-free Chocolate Zucchini Bread

2. Gluten-free Dairy-free Biscuits: WOW!

3. Lemon Mint Salad Dressing

4. Gluten-free Baking Mix

5. Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Cornbread Casserole

5 posts of gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free goodness!

Gluten-free Lemon Cake with Creamy Coconut Frosting

We had a birthday in our home this week! I was given several cake and muffin mixes and decided to spruce one up for the party. Very simple, but very good! Of course I don't have a picture because we ate it up too fast!

If you don't have a cake mix handy, an easy one to find is the GF Betty Crocker mix found at regular grocery stores. This is actually one of our favorite cake mixes.

Gluten-free Lemon Cake
1 box yellow cake mix
Zest from 2 lemons
2 teaspoons lemon extract (or extra zest)*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Juice of one lemon

Whatever the box calls for, which in my case was:
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil (I used coconut)
1 cup non-dairy milk (minus the lemon juice)

Preheat the oven according to the box of cake mix.

Zest the lemon. You do this by washing them well and then grating them on the smallest setting of your grater.

Juice one of the lemons into a measuring cup. Add milk (I used rice) to bring it to the 1 cup mark (or how ever much liquid your recipe calls for).

Beat the oil, milk, extracts, eggs and zest together. Slowly add cake mix and beat until well-mixed.

Pour into a 8 or 9-inch round cake pan, or a square one. Bake according to the directions on the box.

Creamy Coconut Frosting
I cannot for the life of me find the recipe I used. It was on the internet.

It went something like this :)

1/2 cup coconut oil, cold
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4-1/2 cup canned coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used an alcohol-free one)
3/4 cup shredded coconut

Since it's hot right now, I measured out the coconut oil and put it in the fridge for a while.

Put it in a bowl and beat it until creamy. Add powdered sugar and milk.

If it's cold, you will need to heat the coconut milk just a tiny bit to get it liquid.

Add the vanilla to 1/4 cup cooled coconut milk. Slowly add to mixing bowl. Add more milk if the consistency is too thick.

Fold in shredded coconut.

Frost the cooled cake. Store in the refrigerator until it's time to eat.

*If you have trouble finding lemon extract, it's super-easy to make your own. All you need is 7-8 ounces of vodka or rum, 1 lemon (preferably organic because the alcohol will be extracting all that is on the peel) and an 8 ounce glass jar.

Peel the lemon using a veggie peeler, focusing on getting just the yellow part (the white makes it bitter). Put the peel in the jar, and cover with alcohol. Put it a dark places and let it sit for at least a week (I think I did 2 weeks). Remove the peel and store the extract.

Dehydrating Day

I was inspired by Money Saving Mom's Baking Day. What a great way to save money & to be productive! I gave up refined sugar & almost all flour for Lent, so I decided to do a dehydrating day!

I got an Excalibur Four-Tray Food Dehydrator as a Christmas gift:


I've only used it a few times because, sort of like the crockpot, using it requires forethought, and that is not my strong point! But I have an overflowing amount of produce right now due to deals on spinach, strawberries, and carrots, and my freezer is already full!

So as I type, I am dehydrating carrot slices, strawberry slices & apple rings at 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Yum!

Meal-Planning

I'm doing all my meal-planning for the whole month of November in advance. I have been failing miserably at staying within our grocery budget, and I want to try & fix that. I only need about 15 big dinners as we always eat leftovers 1 or 2 nights after. Also, I eat leftovers, banana & PB sandwiches, and green smoothies for lunch. Breakfast is usually eggs & toast, cereal or raw oats & coconut milk yogurt. This meal plan also relies on us getting a cheap turkey, as we were able to do last November.

My plan is to take a fixed amount of cash out of the bank each week and spend it on groceries. When it's gone, it's gone. We have plenty of flour for making bread, as well as rice and beans if we get desperate.

OK, here are my meals:

All freezer leftovers need to be eaten (the freezer is overfull)
Crockpot Coconut Chickpea Curry
Lentil Lemon Soup
Crockpot Falafel
Burgers & Fries
Whole Chicken with Rice & Veggies
Veggie Soup with Barley
Green Curry
Chicken Parts (whatever is on sale) with Sweet Potatoes & Apples
Mujadara
Red Lentil Soup
Moroccan Stew
Taco Soup
Whole Turkey, Potatoes & Salad w/Raw Vegan "Caesar" Dressing
Rice & Beans
Foul Modammas
Turkey Sandwiches w/"Caesar" Salad
Turkey Curry

Let me know if you want any of these recipes, though I'm sure I'll share some of them as the months go on.

Anyone else want to share their meal plans?

Recent Food Adventures

While Eva was here, we also shared some Hemp Omega Caesar Salad. It took me awhile to gather all the ingredients, but I'm glad I did! Roy even warmed up to it. Next time I make it, I'm going to tweak the recipe a little, and then I'll share my version with you.

I also made several crockpot creations from the Crockpot Lady's blog. I was eyeing a butternut squash at the organic farmer's market a week ago, but shared with the woman working the booth that I was hesitant to try it (I'm not a big fan of traditional squash). She said since I'd been a loyal customer all summer, she'd give me a small one for free to try! So I made this CrockPot Butternut Squash Soup early in the week. It was surprisingly good. I also made some more Crockpot Apple Butter on Friday, minus the sugar & vanilla. Then I made Autumn Sausage Casserole on Saturday. It was quite good, but I wanted there to be more of it. So next time, I will maybe double the recipe except for the sausage; the sausage to rice ratio was too high. I also added celery and celery leaves to make it more like a stuffing, which was a nice touch.

On a totally unrelated note, there is something being filmed this week about 2 blocks from my house, and I cannot figure out what it is. We're guessing that they are using the baseball field, based on where parking is prohibited, but I'm so curious to know! I know sometimes they film the baseball games over there because I've seen them on local TV, but I can't imagine they would need to block off all the streets just for that. Besides, isn't it a little late for baseball games? It's freezing outside! Filming starts tomorrow, so we'll have to go over there and see what's up.

I'm a Winner!

Yes, I know you all knew that, but what I meant was I won a pound of raw chocolate powder over at Kristen's Raw! I'm beyond excited!! Now I'm going to have to buy her dessert ebook to make the best use of my prize :)

Dessert

Last night, I made a peach & plum clafouti and some more strawberry vegan ice cream (it's pictured in the ice cream maker). Yum, yum! Next, I think I'll try to make one entirely from ingredients Bear can eat.

Tonight, I had a banana split made with leftover strawberry ice cream and topped with vegan chocolate sauce and coconut-oil toasted pumpkin seeds. I should have taken a picture of that!

Italian Chili

I made some yummy Italian Chili yesterday & thought I'd share the recipe with you all.

Italian Chili
1 coarsely chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 cup sliced celery
3 cups dry beans, assorted (green whole peas, green whole lentils, small red beans, small white beans, light red kidney beans, pinto beans, red split lentils, black beans, and black eye beans, etc.)
6 cups liquid (some combination of water, broth, tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, etc.)
2-3 Tablespoon veggie bouillon powder
1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning
1.5 teaspoons salt
.5 teaspoon pepper

(I also added spinach)

Directions:
Soak beans overnight. Drain & rinse beans, and then add all ingredients to crockpot. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.

This is thick like chili. The 1st time I made it, I meant it to be sort of more like minestrone, but I liked the way it came out. The split peas help thicken it, so don't be afraid of them :) Very good!

Callaloo Soup!

I never blogged about my callaloo soup. It actually came out quite well! Roy especially enjoyed it. I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to find callaloo leaves in order to make this, though. I've never seen them at the grocery store, and I don't imagine they'd be easy to find (mine arrived in my organic produce box).

So here's my version of Callaloo Soup :)

Callaloo Soup
Ingredients
1 lb. of callaloo leaves
1 stalk of celery with leaves
2 bunches of green onions
2 chopped medium onions
3 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 tsp. of thyme
1/2 chopped sweet pepper
1/2 lb. of sliced okra
1/4 tsp of cloves
4 c. of chicken stock (vegetable stock would work fine as well)
1 1/2 to 2 c. of coconut milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp. of hot pepper sauce

Directions
1. Wash, drain, and coarsely chop greens, celery stalk and leaves.
2. Put all ingredients in a slow cooker, except hot sauce.
3. Cook on low until all vegetables are soft (I cooked it about 8 hours).
4. Puree soup in blender. Add salt and pepper and hot pepper sauce.
5. Put soup back in slow cooker. Serve hot.

Yum!

Vegetable (or Fruit) Confession

I have a confession to make.

I didn't, until tonight, know for sure what okra looks like.

We got some callaloo greens in our organic produce delivery this week. I found a soup recipe on-line that calls for okra, so I headed to the store. I knew they had it in the freezer section, but I saw what I thought was okra in the overripe fruit & veggie rack. So I grabbed a pack and started asking random customers, "Do you know if this is okra?"

I asked 3 people. No one knew.

So, I bought it anyway.

I went to the Arabic produce store, and they had what I thought was okra. So I asked the woman working there if it was okra, and it was.

I think the only time I've had okra, it was battered and deep-fried. Pretty sad!

Clafoutis & Produce Deals

We went back to Haymarket today, and I scored some more deals! We do have an organic fruit delivery on Tuesday, and since we get 2/3 veggies, 1/3 fruit, I mainly stocked up on fruit.

This is what I got for $8.50:
4 or 5 white peaches
4 gala apples
4 purple plums & 5 red plums
1 coconut
2 pounds of sweet potatoes
3 pounds of bananas
4 pears
1 coconut

The clafoutis from the other day was awesome! I've got another baking right now. I couldn't find any more of those Italian plums today, so I made it with 1 white peach, 1 red plum & 1 purple plum. I also used a little less sugar this time because I thought it was a tiny bit too sweet.

Running, Bears, Peas & Prep

I've been missing from blog land as we frantically prepare for our trip next week. OK, it's not really frantic :) But there are a lot of last-minute details that need to be worked out. So I'll probably continue to be slightly missing until we return.

I'm back into running mode. I overdid it a few weeks back, and as a result, I only ran twice for the past 2 weeks. The weather hasn't been cooperating, either, but this week, I've already run twice! I'm exhausted now, so I think I'll wait to run again until Thursday or Friday.

I joined a buying club last month & am really enjoying it! They do both a grocery & organic produce order. This month, I got 6 pounds of all-natural, organic, preservative-free hot dogs made from 100% grass-fed beef. We had some for dinner tonight, and wow, you can really tell the difference!

And last, I'll share a little Bear story. He did the cutest thing over the weekend. He's getting really good at his pincher grasp and was feeding himself peas. He looked as if he was getting a little tired from all the work, so I picked up a pea & feed it to him. Then, he picked up a pea & held it out for me to eat! Aw - my heart melted :)

Green Smoothies

I got a new pair of running shoes yesterday at Bill Rodgers Running Center. It's pretty close to Boston Harbor Community Church, where we are members, so we headed over there after service. This is my 3rd pair of shoes I've purchased there. The first pair of running shoes that I had years ago I bought at City Sports. No offense, but they really have no idea how to fit people for shoes, and this is based on more than one experience. Bill Rodgers Running Center, on the other hand, do know how to fit people. In fact, I've always gotten great service there.

So I left the store yesterday with Saucony Hurricanes:



I celebrated my new shoes by deciding I'm going to up my running to 3 times a week. I succeeded at running twice a week for the last 3 weeks since I started running again. So today, in an attempt to find a less hilly running route, I ran 55 minutes....in new shoes....over a lot more hills than usual. Oops! Generally, I run about 2.8 miles and it takes me 36-40 minutes, depending on whether or not Noodles runs the second lap with us. I don't know how far I ran today, but it was well over 4 miles. Somehow I ended up at a spot that is 2 miles away from home, and I didn't go straight there. But it mostly felt good :)

I succeeded in drinking a green smoothie every weekday last week (M-F), and even had a big spinach, kale & collard greens salad on Saturday. Tonight, I had a green smoothie with a little chicken and a gluten-free banana chocolate chip muffin that I baked yesterday :) Quite an interesting dinner, but I had to throw something together quickly!

Stuff, Stuff & More Stuff

Much has happened since my last post.

We had a great trip down south to see family. It was a looooong drive, and not one I'd like to do again in the near future, especially with a baby & a dog!

A couple of days after we returned, I found out my beloved grandmother had a fall and had not woken up. She was 95. After 11 days on hospice care, with just oxygen, she passed away on Friday, 39 years to the day after her husband died. She was an amazing women! A mom, wife, pianist, organist, composer, and wonderful grand and great grandmother.

It's snowing again. Trees have been knocked down, and people quite close to us have lost power. I'm planning on laying low, doing some cooking, hanging out with Baby Bear. I'm finally cooking a turkey I had in my freezer for a month & a half. This should be interesting as I've never cooked a turkey! I may also attempt an apple crisp.

Winter Wonderland

Talk about a winter wonderland! In addition to all the snow from Thursday, we've had quite a few more inches dumped on top of it. That coupled with zero visibility and the fact that the streets don't appear to have been plowed, we will not make it to church today. I've already started some coffee, threw a loaf of homemade gluten-free squash raisin bread in the oven, and I'm sure they'll be more baking later today.

Maybe later today, I'll post some pictures :)

Yesterday, some friends of ours volunteered to watch the bear so Roy & I could go out & celebrate our anniversary (5 years on Friday!). We had a great time. And Roy just yelled out from the other room that the baby rolled over for the 1st time!