conference 2012

Well, that was exciting.

I went into the race feeling awesome.

About three minutes later, I wasn't feeling quite so awesome. I finished the race about a minute slower than my usual 6k time, feeling like my legs had been run over with a dump truck. Repeatedly. 

Just about to die at the finish line. 

Thankfully, we had an awesome crew of parents grilling their hearts out after the race. Nothing makes up for a bad race like a lukewarm hamburger. Seriously, though. The food was incredible and now I've got enough leftovers to last me a week. 

I'm going to blame my performance on bad weather and not eating enough muffins. So I made a batch last night to counterbalance the Frankenstorm.

These smiling ghosts make me so happy. Recipe here. Ghosts optional. 

GF adventures - brownies

Did you know that you can make brownies using black beans? That's right. The kind from a can.

Sound revolting? Let me show you the light.

(yes, that's an instagram photo. Feel free to judge.)

I'm always looking for new gluten-free recipes. That is, the kind that actually taste good. And this year my roommate is writing a cookbook, so she's always in the kitchen whipping up some kind of fragrant baked goods. Lately it's been sourdough bread, pumpkin spice cookies, honey nut granola, chocolate pumpkin bread, cranberry chocolate muffins... Our house smells delicious all the time.

To me, it smells forbidden.

Every now and then I'll sneak a pinch of a melted chocolate chip or a tiny corner crumb. I feel guilty immediately after, not to mention afraid of the possible impending digestive - ahem - distress.

So last week I went on a hunt for a way to get my baking fix without using heaps of processed flour or pounds of sugar. I found a really good one on a blog called Eat Good 4 Life. While I don't usually trust things with numbers in their titles, Eat Good had a pretty promising recipe. And a pretty border decoration.

These turned out really well. Although relatively low in sugar, they still taste sweet and quite chocolatey. Don't worry, they taste nothing like black beans. The consistency is actually more cake-y than fudge-y. They're also full of protein and fiber, so be careful not to eat them before a business meeting.

Montana and I killed these on our camping trip last weekend. I had a lot of fun watching his reaction when I told him they were made of beans. I did this every time he ate one.

Here's the recipe, adapted a for my kitchen and love of dark chocolate (I doubled the amount of cocoa powder and chocolate chips in the original recipe).



Surprisingly Edible Black Bean Brownies

Yields 10-12 servings 

1 15.5 oz. can black beans, thoroughly rinsed and drained
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup brown rice flour 
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon unrefined sugar
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
1/4 cup chia seeds
3 eggs
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped 
2/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper.
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Place all the ingredients except chocolate chips and walnuts in a food processor or blender and pulse thoroughly until smooth and well combined.
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Pour batter in the baking dish. Top with nuts and chocolate chips. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top is dry and edges begin to pull away from the baking dish. Cool completely before cutting. 

apologies to Amazon and early hominids

Ok, it's time for a confession. I'm not a mean person. But I am prone to making harsh, swift judgements. When presented with something new, I either love it or hate it passionately. Ninety-five percent of the time, I hate it. A lot.

For instance, my first reaction to Chaco sandals was instant hatred and contempt. Minimalist running shoes? Stupid and too thin. iPads? Awful, pointless, and terrible compared to laptops. Greek yogurt? Disgusting.

But ninety-eight percent of my judgements are wrong. Now I'm a yogurt-eating, Chaco-wearing, minimalist running enthusiast who loves playing with her mom's iPad.

Recently, I realized that I was wrong about a couple more things. For instance, both things in this photo:

1) the Amazon kindle. Since my grandmother got one last year, I've classified kindles in my brain as "Grandma iPads". As stupid as iPads, but slower-moving and easier on the eye. When I saw one of my friends using one last year, I scoffed loudly and rolled my eyes.

I feel bad about that now, since I haven't put mine down for the past 48 hours. The web-browser is slow and sometimes freezes, and typing on the screen is a bit challenging. But it's almost a nostalgic activity - back to the days when we had rotary phones and had to block off twenty minutes of the day to check our email.  Plus it's about half the size of a book and weighs the same no matter how many books you stuff into it. I think it'll really come in handy for traveling. Five thumbs up.

2) the Paleo diet - lots of meat, vegetables, fruits, and no refined anything. I heard about the Paleo Diet from a friend. Stop eating grains? Even rice? I was already gluten-free and couldn't see any sense in nixing more food from my diet. I'd rolled my eyes obnoxiously and called my friend a stupid hipster.

In hindsight, it's amazing I still have friends.

Then I came across this article on Outside magazine's website. It's an experiential review of Loren Cordain and Joe Friel's The Paleo Diet for Athletes, an adjusted Paleo diet that suggests eating "modern" carbs (bagels, rice, corn, granola bars) before and after you exercise. That sounded a lot more reasonable.

When I got my kindle, I saw that Cordain's book was only ten dollars to download. Why not? I read it yesterday at "work."

This book was great. Although it's occasionally riddled with athletic elitisms (for instance, the constant degradation of "the couch potato" and phrases like "[the athlete's] day might look ordinary to the rest of the world, but it really isn't"), Cordain gives solid, simple nutritional advice for endurance athletes.

The bottom line? Humans are animals who were built to hunt and gather, not sit around shoving grains into their faces - that's what deer are for. So keep it simple and fresh - the fewer processed foods the better. Get your nutrients from food, not vitamin capsules. Replace carbs after you exercise (or during, depending on the amount of time you're active). Don't restrict calories, and cheating on your diet is encouraged to keep you sane.

I think I might give this Paleo thing a try. I can even browse for new recipes on my kindle.

gluten freedom

I promised myself that I wouldn't do too much food-blogging, since I'm officially an athletic blog and everything. But I couldn't help myself this time.

The other day I overheard my dad complaining that a bowl of Cheerios made his stomach hurt. My allergy-sensitive ears perked. A twisted smile lit up my face.

"Maybe you're allergic to gluten!" I gleefully shouted across the room.

His face fell. I sneered. Glory be! Another victim of processed grains to join my celiac friends and me in our barren, breadless world.

"Oh no," he said. "That means I'll have to give up cookies." His voice was hollow. The man was purely devastated. I had torn apart of my father's primary reasons to live. My shriveled gluten-free heart grew about three sizes. I couldn't take it anymore.

I quickly rescinded my comment. We decided that it was probably just the high oat content. Then he walked away, munching on a chocolate cookie.

But if you're like me, don't fall into a deep despair. Sure, there are lots of things you can't eat - like whole-wheat pasta or everything on the Panera Bread menu.

But you CAN eat this:

That's right. It's a whole pan of cookie. Covered in chocolate. Covered in nuts. Covered in more chocolate.

Thought your dessert options were limited to tiny low-fat brownies that look like dried poo? Think again. Even though this recipe is gluten-free, there is literally nothing healthy about it. The main ingredients are butter and sugar. How could you ever possibly go wrong?

So go ahead, eat yourself a cookie. Or devour a whole pan. And then maybe go running or something.

I don't blog enough anymore...

because I'm too busy catching Allegheny Alligators.

He was secreting mucus. What a cutie.

Want to read about running? Maybe I'll talk about my fastest new kicks sometime this week.

Want to read about baking? Sorry, but it's been about ninety degrees too hot to move for the past few days. Opening the oven is literally the last thing I've wanted (or had enough time) to do to. A couple days ago, it was probably hot enough to bake bread on the pavement. Or at least a few quality pancakes.

In the meantime, I'm on the radio with Stephen Colbert!  ...in a roundabout sort of way.

bananappreciation

Bananas are by far one of my favorite fruits. Not to be biased to all the other ones, but they're just so convenient and functional. You can use them for anything from ice cream to curry to soup. Even Elvis liked them...with a bit of bacon added in, of course. And they're super healthy- high in fiber, potassium, natural sugar, and vitamin C. Low in anything bad for you.

Plus they make great boyfriends.

As an advocate of bananas across the globe, I'd like to bring to to your attention to a banana-related cause:

The Pisgah Mountain Bike Stage Race Bloggers Grant Competition. This is a five-day, 185-mile stage race in the Pisgah Mountains of North Carolina. A few bloggers are competing for a free entry to the race--the top two with the most votes win. The dashing young man in yellow up there really wants to get out there and ride his bike up and down some North Carolina hills (and his girlfriend would really like a chance to visit her favorite mountain state. Just saying.)

Here's the banana's nifty blog if you want to check it out!

You can cast your vote for him here.

Oh, and another thing bananas are great for? Muffins.

mmm. Here's the recipe:

Gluten-Free Banana Muffins:
(yield: about a dozen muffins)

2 1/2 c Pamela’s Baking Mix
2 eggs
3/4 c water
1/4 c honey
1 c mashed (very ripe) banana
1/4 c gluten-free certified oats
1/4 c ground flaxseed
1/4 c raisins
1/4 c chopped walnuts
1 tsp vanilla
pumpkin pie seasoning
dash of nutmeg
cinnamon for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine ingredients, stirring gently. Pour batter into lined muffin tin by 1/4 cupfuls. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

I had to make my own paper tin liners by cutting bits of parchment paper, but they turned out pretty well in the end.

These are pretty tasty on their own, but they get even better (and a bit more fattening) with a dollop of cream cheese icing and some cinnamon sprinkled on top.

I took some camping with us last weekend, and Montana devoured about eight of them. I hope that's not considered cannibalism. Probably not, since he wasn't wearing the banana suit at the time.