Friday, July 26, 2013

Lemon Zest Zucchini Muffins & Quick Mileage Update

We took a quick trip to see family at the beach for a couple of days.  Our 4 year old had a ball with her cousins and the wee baby seemed to take to the ocean air and napped like a champ during the day after a walk in the sea breeze....maybe we need to move to the ocean? Ha.  Night time sleeping is still a struggle but all in time I guess.

In preparation for our trip, I put together a batch of muffins for breakfast and snacks.  I had zucchini from our farm share that needed to be used up and I am always game for a recipe that hides vegetables for the kiddies.  These were easy to throw together and quite tasty with a hot cup of coffee...especially while listening to the ocean.

Lemon Zest Zucchini Muffins
Dry Ingredients
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
 
Wet Ingredients
1- 1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
2 eggs
3/4 cups honey
1/4 cup coconut oil
zest of 1 lemon
 
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and grease a muffin pan.  Shred or process zucchini in a food processor until finely shredded.  Mix all wet ingredients together and zest the lemon into the wet ingredients.  Mix again.  Stir together all of the dry ingredients.  Add dry to wet and mix thoroughly. Scoop into the muffin tin (I use an ice cream scooper).  Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a knife comes out of the muffins clean and tops are slightly golden.  Let cool in the muffin tin before removing and enjoy!
 
 
  And on the running front I bumped up my mileage from the whopping 4.1 miles last week to 7 miles this week! We are heading in the right direction! 
Thursday, July 18, 2013

"Running," a Mild Case of Amnesia & Ice Cream!

Time is flying by!  I can't believe we are creeping up on the end of July and my new little girl is already 5 weeks old.  Overall, things are going well.  Baby is growing healthfully.  The big sister is having a great summer and I am getting into the swing of things of being mom to 2.

One of the things I looked forward to for me is my return to running.  While pregnant, I only kept up jogging until about 22 weeks and then kept cardio to the elliptical, walking and spinning.  I know ladies who kept up running right until delivery, which I think is awesome.  It just wasn't comfortable for me between a high heart rate and a lot of pressure from the growing baby.  I also had not been running as regularly as usual when I found out I was pregnant.  As delivery got closer, I was constantly day dreaming about running again.  My vision was that of a mom going out jogging in between feedings. I would be up to 4 or 5 runs per week of 3 miles each by now with strength workouts in between.  I would be glowing with endorphins and relaxed.  This is where my mild case of amnesia comes in....how did I forget so much about a newborn in just four years??

I forgot that the estimate of feedings every 2 hours does not mean that one has 2 hours of free time once a feeding is finished (what was I thinking?).  Newborns feed more often than every 2 hours, especially in the first month.  When I have gone out for a jog, I have jogged for 15-20 minutes, returned home, taken a disgustingly quick shower and the baby is past ready for a feeding right then and there- not 2 hours after the last feeding.  Or there are the times when feedings just blend into each other :) I knew there would be little sleep, but I guess I forgot exactly how that feels after a few weeks.  And I guess my husband still has his regular work schedule to contend with. What do you mean you have to go to work right now?  I just got the baby down, the big sister is happy and fed- I can go for a jog NOW and only NOW.  I laugh.  Ok, I may have cried at least once too, but all of the important things are going well, which is what counts. I may have given out more TV time and nutella sandwiches to the big sister over the last few weeks than any mom would want to admit, but the kiddos are healthy and we got our first smile this week from bundle #2, which makes everything in the world just right...at least for a moment :)

My weekly mileage last week was 4.1! Woo hoo....Not the 12'ish miles I thought it would be and I know 4 miles is many runners' warm up/cool down of one of their weekly workouts, but I get out there when I can and am striving for more mileage each week. Pace? Slow but I am concentrating more on time out there at this point.  As for the strength workouts, I do better squeezing those in as I can just drop to the floor with my weights and calisthenics for 15 minutes at a time without having to worry about timing childcare etc.  And boy do I need a crash course in pushups!  Every little bit helps, right?

Moving onto summer fun, the recent heat waves bring about cravings for one of my biggest weaknesses: ice cream!  I love ice cream but do not love the paragraph of ingredients on the back of most brands of ice cream available.  I have been following sites like 100 Days of Real Food, My Whole Food Life and Food Babe and they all have posts of recipes of their own ice cream.  I finally took the plunge with a recent birthday gift and bought my very own ice cream machine and it was worth it! 
Source
Except mine is in red!
 
This thing is dangerous....a house with no ice cream to be tempted by can have fresh ice cream galore within 15-20 minutes.  Seriously, it's awesome.  Get one if you don't have one.  Oh the recipes to come up with.  So far, I have made a simple vanilla ice cream and my favorite is this recipe over at the Detoxinista.  This was my first use of coconut milk and it made this chocolate ice cream heavenly and rich.  Confession: It did not last as long as it should have in our freezer and I can't blame family.
 
So there you have it.  Any home made ice cream tips for me?  Tips for short workouts that are effective?  Have a great week.