Treadmill Pace, Green Smoothies & Dessert

Our treadmill was delivered shortly after my last post.  Hooray!  We have had it for about 2 weeks and I feel like I can't imagine life without it now.  The convenience of a treadmill being in the basement combined with Netflix and Hulu at my finger tips have been making it much easier to stick to my training plan.  I still have to plan for the runs in the early morning or late evening as our basement isn't finished and I can't set the kids up with entertainment down there yet, but it has made running 5 days a week much easier to fit in and has especially opened up some time for me on these winter weekends before the husband heads off to work.

As for the specific model of treadmill, I went for the Sole F80.  There are so many treadmills out there, which made it hard to decide.  I used the treadmill doctor website and read the posted reviews, best buy recommendations in each price range and used their treadmill buyers guide.  I found this website incredibly helpful.  So far so good.  This treadmill had good reviews for durability but I played it safe and bought the extended maintenance plan to ensure it is maintained properly.  Mechanical maintenance is not exactly a strength of mine!

My first post-baby half-marathon is coming up at the end of next month.  Although I decided to approach this race without a time goal and focus on building mileage and getting used to running distance again, I have been surprised at my paces thus far.  Surprised, as in, they have been slower than I thought they would.  Pre-pregnancy, 10 minutes per mile was my comfy, stroller-less running pace.  Thus far, I have been struggling keeping a pace of 11 minutes per mile on the treadmill.  My long runs, which is up to 8 miles as of this week, have been in the 11:40 per mile or slightly slower pace range and I can't say those runs have felt easy.  I am not upset about it- just surprised.  I thought I would be faster, especially on the treadmill where I am not using the incline or contending with the elements. 

With these paces in mind, I had an opportunity yesterday to run outside in the afternoon.  It has been weeks since I ran outside and I guestimated my iphone would be telling me a pace of 11-12 minutes per mile based on how my workouts are going.  To my surprise, I finished my snowy, icy and a little bit hilly run in exactly 10 minutes per mile feeling good. Huh???  Does anyone else find significant differences in their treadmill versus outside pace?  I always thought treadmill pacing tends to be slightly faster.  Perhaps this was a fluke run or just a really good one for me lately.  I guess we will see when this half marathon rolls around!  Paces aside, I am feeling good getting regular mileage in.  I am up to about 22 miles per week and aiming to head for 30'ish as training progresses.

On the food front, I have been keeping up pretty well with the 30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge.  I did miss 1 or 2 days, but most of my mornings are starting with a breakfast like this:

 

 

For those that may be on the fence about green smoothies, give it a try!  They do not taste like spinach or kale or avocado.  The fruit dominates the taste of the drink and I am loving them.  It's great heading out for the day with 5'ish produce servings already consumed!  For those busy mornings, I have been making the smoothies in batches of 2 and storing the second smoothie in a mason jar in the fridge so it is ready to go for the next day.  Just add a straw and DONE!  Any old blender will work to try them out!

 

Oh- and on the dessert front (as you know, I can not forget dessert!), I had a chance to meet up with some girlfriends at a new favorite place of mine, which is a bakery/pastry shop/cocktail bar that makes homemade hot chocolate, desserts etc. etc.  Check out this beautiful apple tart:

 

 

So pretty and so delicious and fresh.  I want to go back!

 

Any treadmill pacing thoughts?  Favorite green smoothies?

 

Have a great week!

 



Loving Fall

 

This is my favorite time of year hands down and we are just a few short days away from my favorite month.  Don't get me wrong- I love a summer beach day, but October's sweater and rosy cheek weather is ah-mazing.  I love the fall fashion.  I love the fall running weather.  I love the fall food.  I love the fall brews. I love the fall coffee. It's all good. 

Like most fall enthusiasts, we headed out for some apple picking a couple weekends ago and of course that brings on some baking and some "oh I need to do something with all of these apples quick" moments.   Once again, thank you to my Vitamix.  I am not a fan of peeling apples.  I was looking at my bag of apples standing in the kitchen one day this week and just decided to wash them, chop them, throw them in and see what happens.  Apple puree in moments!  So, I call this my Lazy Lady's Apple Sauce.

Lazy Lady's Apple Sauce

8-10 apples

1 Cinnamon Stick

1/2 cup brown sugar (optional- or substitute maple syrup)

 

Wash and chop apples into small chunks.  Place in Vitamix or other high powered blender (I had to process my apples in 2-3 batches).  Turn onto low, use the tamper to press the apples into the blender and blend until desired consistency.  Pour apple puree into a crock pot.  Add sugar or other sweetener(optional) and cinnamon stick.  Set on high for one hour and stir occasionally.  Reduce heat to low for an additional hour and stir occasionally.  Let cool and store in a jar or container in the fridge.  As a bonus, this recipe also makes your house smell incredible- no candle required!

 

After I made this, I then searched the internet and my Vitamix books for other recommendations (I should have done that first!).  Vitamix calls for a recipe of adding some lemon juice to the apples while blending and skips the crock pot/sweetener step, which could make for an even quicker version, especially for those who do not want added sweetener.

 

My next fall favorite with my applesauce on hand is overnight oats!  Have you guys heard of these recipes?  A friend of mine told me about overnight oats and then I also came across a bunch of great recipes for them over at My Whole Food Life.  You have to check them out because they are super easy, make a great breakfast on busy mornings or a mid-morning snack at work, taste great and pack some nutrition while keeping you full. 

 

As usual, I never have all of the exact ingredients on hand so I substitute.  There are a ton of varieties you can make once you get going.  Here is a quick base recipe for you to create any of your own flavors or be inspired by the amazing varieties from bloggers such as My Whole Food Life.

 

Overnight Oats Base

1/2 cup oatmeal of your choice

1/2 cup milk of your choice

1-2 Tbs Flavoring

1-2 Tbs Nutritional boost

Fruit

 

I generally use unsweetened vanilla almond milk for my milk choice.  For flavoring, I have used unsweetened cocoa, peanut butter and unsweetened coconut for a decadent version that rivals a dessert and I imagine is similar to these Almond Butter Overnight Oats.  I also used my apple sauce as flavoring for this week's breakfasts and my oatmeal tasted like apple crisp.  For a nutritional boost, you can add things such as flax meal, chia seeds, whey protein powder or wheat germ.  Mix the oats, milk, flavoring and nutritional boost into a jar or container and store in the fridge overnight.  Then you can eat the recipe cold or heat it up the next morning, top with your fresh fruit and enjoy!  I highly recommend sliced banana on the version with unsweetened cocoa, peanut butter and unsweetened coconut- dee-licious.

 

Now that I have rambled on about food, I have a quick running update.  This week was great-  I am on track for a 12-14 mile week with a couple strength workouts in between.  Baby girl had her first spin in the jogging stroller this week too!  I have a couple of 5Ks in mind to get back out there- more on those another time.

 

How was your week?

What to do with all of those vegetables and running update!

 

This is our second year with a summer share from a local farm.  I love committing to a share, but I have not been as crafty as I thought I would be about preserving and/or using everything this year as it has been a little busy with the newborn.  Our farm sends out a weekly electronic newsletter with tips and ideas to get the most of your share and the most recent one referenced ideas for those that might be feeling overwhelmed with how much is coming in the recent weekly baskets.  Phew- I'm not the only one! So, although it is still a work in progress, here are some of the tips that have worked for us:

Greens: In the beginning of the season, there were so many greens! Spinach, kale, lettuce, bok choy etc.  I think my husband would have thrown a salad at me if I made one more.  I used as many as possible in green smoothies with frozen and/or fresh fruit.  I found that spinach is perfect in green smoothies- I don't even taste it.  I can only taste the fruit.  Kale & lettuce flavors stood out more in my breakfast drink but it used the stuff up once the house was on a salad strike.

Beets: I am not a huge fan of beets.  I have tried pickling them in the past, which works to preserve them if you like beets.  In my case I just ended up with jars of beets sitting around the house for too long.  This year, I followed a simple recipe from the farm to make beet chips.  Thinly slice the beets, toss them in olive oil and salt and put them on a parchment lined baking sheet and in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.  I learned a lesson the hard way to watch them carefully, especially if sliced by hand and not evenly sliced.  Some of mine burned really bad in one batch and were not tasty for eating!

Herbs: Pesto freezes really well.  I used up my basil by making up a batch of pesto and scooping it into ice cube trays, top each cube with some olive oil, freeze and then store in a freezer bag.  Other fresh herbs such as cilantro and parsley came with instructions from the farm that we could cut them up, wrap in foil and then place the foil packets in a freezer bag or container for use later on.  Done and Done!

Cucumbers: Holy cucumbers!  Those things must grow like weeds because we have a lot of them.  I do not have a pressure canner but I found a recipe that gave processing time for the pickle jars to be submerged in boiling water.  We had fresh dill and garlic from the farm, stuffed some into the bottom of the jar, sliced cucumbers on top and then poured a mixture of boiled water, pickling salt and vinegar on top before sealing.  We just opened our first jar this week and I have to admit that they taste pretty good. 

Zucchini and Squash:  These vegetables also come in an abundance.  We use as many as possible in stir fry dinners and they are also a perfect vegetable for roasting.  I also love zucchini and squash for baking.  It is easy to find zucchini bread recipes out there or you can try these Lemon Zest Zucchini Muffins and make an extra batch for the freezer.  Baking and freezing is great because the day will come when I don't want to bake something or don't have time and it's awesome to have something ready to go.  If you don't feel like baking right now, that's ok too.  I used a mini-chopper (a food processor would work great- I have not invested in one of those yet) to shred and my Vitamix to puree squash and zucchini for future baking.  I just put the puree or shredded vegetables into freezer bags and into the freezer.

Tomatoes: I found this recipe for quick marinara sauce using the Vitamix and it inspired me to make a quick tomato sauce with what I had on hand to go into the freezer.  The Vitamix seriously pulverized quartered tomatoes in seconds.  I modified the recipe by adding a bunch of basil leaves that I needed to use, red wine vinegar and probably way too much garlic, but it tastes great- I think!  I would recommend adding some tomato paste to the mixture to thicken the sauce once it is out of the blender and simmering on the stove.  I haven't found the perfect ratio of it just yet though.  One batch was too runny for my taste and another just tasted of too much tomato paste.  I am still working on it, but I now have sauce in freezer bags and in the freezer for later use.

Green Onions: I saw something on the internet about being able to keep your green onions growing in a sunny window sill for use in cooking....I was skeptical, but it works!  Mine are sitting in mason jar on the kitchen window sill and they keep growing.  I just keep a small amount of water in the bottom of the jar.  Need onions? Just grab the kitchen shears and snip some off to throw into anything!

Share: Last but not least, sharing is always fun! Bring some of those good veggies to family and friends.  Who doesn't love that?

Next year I hope to make even more out of the share!

On the running front, I am still hovering around 11 miles per week, which is ok.  I edged out my "long" run from 3 miles to 3.5 miles this week.  This week also included my first post partum run where I felt strong at the end! Woohoo.  I was a bit disappointed when I looked at my pace once I finished as it had felt faster, but that's ok.  Hills that were bringing me to a walk a few weeks ago are being conquered so there must be progress!

Any tips for using up the summer produce?  Do you ever have a run that feels awesome and then you learn it was slower than you thought?

Have a great week!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's my favorite holiday of the year! Although I will not be enjoying a festive ale or lager this year, we started our day with St. Paddy's Day Green Pancakes over here.  They don't quite fill my heart like a full Irish breakfast, but they are a delicious, festive and a healthy start to the day.  This recipe is a modification of our Sweet Pea Pancakes recipe that quickly became a staple over here.

St. Patrick's Day Green Pancakes

~1 cup milk

~generous handful of kale or spinach

~1 mashed banana

~1/2 cup whole wheat flour

~1/2 cup oats

~1 egg

~1 tsp vanilla extract

~cinnamon to preference

~chocolate chips to preference

In a blender, puree the kale or spinach and milk (you can add greens until you get the color you want).  Mix the dry ingredients (except chocolate chips).  Add the egg, mashed banana and vanilla.  Mix in 3/4 of the milk/greens puree thoroughly.  I did not need to use the last 1/4 of the puree, but you can add if you prefer a less thick pancake.  Fold in the chocolate chips.  Heat a skillet with your choice of oil.  Cook on each side and serve with pure maple syrup.  That's it!  This recipe made enough to feed me and two 3 year olds hungry after a sleep over!

The green would be so much prettier in natural light, but my little one gets up too early!

Doughnuts and Random Things

I have to give an internet shout out to two recipes that I have fallen in love with.  The first is Chocolate Covered Katie's Homemade Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.  I have actually never been a die hard doughnut fan.  I usually gravitate towards muffins, which can be even worse, despite the unexplained "healthier" connotation the word "muffin" brings. That said, it is quite relaxing on a weekend morning to sit with a fresh baked good and a cup of coffee.  The problem is that I am not so sure that most doughnuts or other "baked goods" that can be purchased would qualify as a "fresh baked good."  I stumbled across one of Food Babe's older posts "Sabotaged at Starbucks" this week.  I could not get the quote "The reduced fat cinnamon swirl coffee cake has over 75 ingredients..." out of my head.  75?  What possible 75 things could be in that cake?  Silly me, I thought the recipe would have such things as eggs, milk, butter, flour, sugar and cinnamon.   I have caved to such things on the run or given in to the doughnut at work for that quick energy pick me up....only to come crashing down and not feel so great afterwards.  Well, this recipe is bliss to satisfy that craving for a sweet, fresh baked something and not feel gross afterwards. 

The first time I made it, I did not have spelt flour or any healthy sweetener substitute so I went forward with the all purpose flour and sugar.  I don't yet have a donut pan so I threw the batter into mini bundt pans and they still came out great.


Delicious!

I made them again this weekend.  This time I used spelt flour and substituted maple syrup for the sugar.  I baked them as "donut muffins" and then topped them with the amazing second new recipe that I found.  This one is from My Whole Food Life and I used the chocolate glaze from her pumpkin donuts recipe.  It is so simple- a small amount of chocolate chips of your choice melted with milk of your choice (I only used approx. 1/4-1/3 cup for my small batch of doughnuts).  Fantastic...simple....no nasty ingredients.  Note: I am also going to need to try that pumpkin donut recipe at some point. 

The only mistake I made was not being patient to let them cool in the pan before removing because I was hungry :)  One of them fell apart so lesson learned!  Wait...they are worth waiting for.  Once I got the glaze on them, I popped them into the freezer for a few minutes to set and done.  The recipe made 6.


Definitely worth a few minutes baking...

Other random things I am loving this week include the avocado, my Vitamix blender and the elliptical trainer.  I used to stay away from avocados because of the reported fat content.  I'm learning differently now and loving them.  More on that another time.  My Vitamix blender is Ah-mazing.  I am starting each day with a handful of fruit and veggie servings thanks to this easy green smoothie recipe that I have gravitated towards:

Green Smoothie

~1 cup water

~2 generous handfuls organic spinach

~1 scoop organic wheat grass powder

~A generous heap of frozen berries

~1/2-1 banana or orange or apple

 

Throw into the Vitamix, turn on low and use the tamper to make sure the produce gets to the blades.  Blend until desired consistency (takes less than 30 seconds every time).  Enjoy!

 

I am sure there are tons of other healthy things that can go into a green smoothie and would love to hear any recipes you want to share!

 

Lastly, the elliptical trainer.  It's my favorite pregnant workout.  I have a spinning bike at home, which is my most used equipment just because of its convenience.  Although a good workout and it keeps the body moving, I psychologically like to see some miles add up and the spinning bike I have does not measure distance.  I'm sure there is something I could buy to set the bike up with mileage measurement, but I've always done my spinning workouts just based on time and I think that works fine and do not want to invest more money in it.  In contrast, the elliptical gives me that quasi-running feel without the bouncing belly and elevated heart rate so I am loving it and comfortably complete 3-4.5 miles per workout.  3rd trimester starts this weekend :)  Where does time go?

 

This weekend some friends of mine are participating in a local St. Paddy's Day 5 mile road race.  Good luck to everyone!  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hello QVC!

Honestly, I have never shopped on QVC or any other home shopping network....until about 2 weeks ago.  As you may be aware, I have been working to incorporate more green smoothies into my daily diet.  I'm trying to squeeze in as much healthy produce as possible for myself and this little bundle that is still growing, kicking and tumbling inside of me right now.  I'm in love with the promises of increased energy and glowing skin that I read others credit to their commitment to veggie intake.  That said, I have had my eyes on a Vitamix blender for a while.  Health blogs galore rave about them.  A good friend of mine has one and swears by it.  It is pricy and an investment, but I figured I would get to it after some planning and buy one....eventually.  Until then, I was committed to using the blender that was a welcomed hand me down from my parents when I was living away in college well over a decade ago.  Who cares that it barely shreds spinach and it feels like ingesting flakes with a fish-food like texture as you gulp the veggie goodness down, right?

So that was my plan....until my good friend the Vitamix owner sent me a text one Sunday morning noting that Vitamix was the "Deal of the Day" on QVC.  She said that she had never seen a deal this good and this girl did her research when she bought her magical blender.  I check the link out and there was considerable savings....and they were throwing in the dry container with it...free shipping....and I had a $50 credit from my bank card (I guess I am still rationalizing)....and then they throw these words in of "3 or 5 easy payments."  QVC people are smart.  After a few quick questions by text to my friend to confirm my commitment to the product, the deal was done and processed within less than minutes.  QVC made it way too easy.

Several days later, this beauty arrived on my door step:

Except mine is in red!

I have only had the blender for less than a week.  I am not yet organized enough to share recipes, but I can say that this thing pulverizes fruits and vegetables.  Green smoothies are fast and delicious.  I have also made my first batch of "soft serve ice cream" using frozen bananas instead of milk or cream...more on that another time for sure as I practice these recipes!

On the fitness front, this week was pretty slow due to some extra work commitments. I only squeezed in a few short spinning sessions. I also seem to be having these random blood pressure drops that go away once I sit down, but they leave me feeling uneasy so I have tried to rest up a little extra this weekend.  Anyone else experience such pregnancy weirdness? 

Anyway, I wish you a good week.  I'm going to avoid QVC in case there are any other "Deals of the Day" that catch my eye....they just make it too easy!