Ari's Menu

Little changes making a big difference.


Creamy Watermelon Sorbet

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In case my countless hours spent whining about the temperatures (117* on Tuesday in case you forget), it’s, um, hot.

It’s also still watermelon season. Yummmmm.

I’d say that *almost* makes up for it. I usually prefer the super creamy, indulgent frozen yogurt flavors like birthday cake, especially when it tastes like frosting and has peanut butter sauce on top. Mmmmm. However, this sorbet is so light and refreshing–perfect for a hot summer day! It has just a little bit of yogurt to make it slightly creamy, but really tastes more like a sorbet.

I have a story. My dad makes really weird shopping lists. His logic is completely incomprehensible to anyone not living inside his head. One day, he sent me to the store for him with a list left in about 12 messages that got cut off on my voicemail. There were only a handfull of items, but many stipulations about expiration dates, and back up items just in case. Everything has to be exact, and make “the list”. I remember taking my friend Jason with me, walking up and down the aisles (the order of these items was also very specific to the inner workings of his mind), and listening to my 100 voicemails. Yes, I said 12 before. 100 may be a bit of an exaggeration. Maybe. Anyway, we got to watermelon on the list, but it had to be a very specific expiration date, and if I couldn’t find that I was supposed to buy bleu cheese instead. That one was definitely the strangest.

What I’m trying to say is, please don’t use that logic. Please do not make this sorbet with bleu cheese. I will judge you.

BUT, don’t be weirded out by my family. The sorbet is delicious. Sweet and slightly tart, filled with natural watermelon flavor, and not even a hint of cheese. Pinky promise.

Creamy Watermelon Sorbet

yield approx 2 cups

  • 4 cups seedless watermelon, diced
  • 2 tbs turbinado sugar (optional, depending on desired sweetness)
  • 1 cup nonfat lemon Greek yogurt

Directions:

  1. Puree watermelon in a blender or food processor until smooth. Strain juices into a large bowl discard pulp.
  2. Whisk in sugar and yogurt, then freeze according to ice cream maker’s instructions. For a firmer sorbet, freeze for 2-3 hours before serving.

 

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cups

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Sometimes I think that once my fundraising is over, I will never want to make an other cup for the rest of my life.

Then I take one of these out of the freezer, eat it, and head directly to the store to buy more ingredients, so that I can eat 7 more, then make more.

These were probably the most popular. Everyone loves sweet and salty.There’s also a lot of great textures between the pretzel, the chocolate, and the peanut butter. In fact, they’re almost like those chocolate covered peanut butter pretzels from Trader Joe’s. I never buy those, because I know once I opened them, they would last approximately 6 minutes. I know my weakness, ok.

Hungry yet? If you live in the Phoenix area (chocolate doesn’t ship well when it’s 117 out, and yes, that was the temperature an hour ago), you can order them @ $10 a dozen. As always, 100% of that goes directly to Chances for Children, and your purchases are tax deductable.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cups

yield 24 cups

  • 20 oz all natural dark chocolate chips
  • approx 1/2 cup all natural peanut butter
  • 1 scant tbs unrefined virgin coconut oil
  • 24 mini pretzels (gluten-free pretzels work great!), whole or lightly chopped*

Directions:

*Option 1 (for whole pretzels)

  1. Line 24 mini muffin tins with paper liners.
  2. In a medium bowl, melt chocolate and coconut oil in the microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring after each, until melted.
  3. Spoon enough chocolate to cover the bottom of each baking cup. Add 1-2 tsp peanut butter. Top with chocolate until peanut butter is completely covered and top is smooth.
  4. Gently, press the bottom of one pretzel about half way into each cup.
  5. Freeze to set. Keep in freezer or fridge.

*Option 2 (for chopped pretzels)

  1. Line 24 mini muffin tins with paper liners.
  2. In a medium bowl, melt chocolate and coconut oil in the microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring after each, until melted.
  3. Spoon enough chocolate to cover the bottom of each baking cup. Add 1-2 tsp peanut butter. Add one lightly chopped pretzel. Top with chocolate until peanut butter and pretzel are completely covered and top is smooth.
  4. Freeze to set. Keep in freezer or fridge.

*I made the cups both ways, but only photographed them with the pretzel sticking out. I love them both, and continue to make them both ways. I think the pretzel on top looks cool, but with a chopped pretzel, you get more pretzel in each bite. I like to savor my desserts and take many bites 🙂

Refocusing

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I have a confession. Normally, when I have a confession, I would then say something funny like “This summer I had a contest with my 2 awesome co-workers to see who could poop the most every day.” That’s true. Did happen. Was announced to all staff and students. We’re awesome like that. However, this may be slightly less gross for those of you who hate to talk about poop.

By the time I arrived back in Phoenix on Monday morning, I was feeling less than great about how my body looked, and physically I just felt off from not eating well. You see, I started the summer with the best of intentions. I was as careful as possible about what went into my body, tried to choose foods to fuel my training, as well as sustain me dancing for 6-7 hours a day. It was tough. The food was less than stellar, with choices for dinner sometimes being pizza, fried chicken, or the salad bar for the 6th night in a row. I bought lots of snacks to try to tide me over, which quickly transitioned into too much food too often, and way too many times thinking “Well, I ran this morning, and then danced ALL DAY. I can eat 2 desserts.” Also, there was a lot of justifying the mass quantity of vegan desserts I consumed as “healthy”. Two of my friends I spent the most time with are vegan, and we were so close to all sorts of vegan bakeries. The problem is, substituting earth balance or vegetable oil for butter and using refined carbs does not equal healthy. I know that. I get it. Mostly, I just wanted dessert.

All this being said, I was not shocked to get home, step on the scale (yeah….no scale = “I probably weigh the same. I’m dancing ALL THE TIME”), and discover that I had definitely gained weight. Not an obscene amount. Nothing any of you would probably notice. Roughly 5-6 lbs from where I generally maintain. So, no, 5-6 lbs is not a huge deal, but 2 more months of those habits, and an other 5-6 would be more lik 11-12, and you see where that leads. In no time at all, I could easily be right back where I started in 2008.

No.Thank.You.

Again, it’s not the end of the world, but I definitely feel motivated to make a change, and refocus. The truth is, if weight were merely determined by exercise, I would have a SMOKIN’ body by now. I love working out, and being active. I do it to be healthy, yes, but also because I genuinely enjoy all those cool endorphins. It’s like our bodies own cooler version of mood altering drugs. Thanks for that body! Food, on the other hand; food is tricky. I do genuinely enjoy eating good, healthy, nutritious meals that fuel my body. I really like healthy foods, and I don’t often crave things like cheeseburgers and french fries. However, part of the problem is that I do REALLY like food. I have a tough time with portion control (always have), and I also REALLY love dessert. Those of you that want to snack on potato chips: I don’t understand you. I want to snack on fro yo. Always and forever.

I’m trying to break the mentality of “I worked out this much, so I can eat this much”. It doesn’t really work like that. In fact, I feel like the more active I am, the MORE careful I need to be about my food choices. That may seem like an oxymoron, but the truth is when I significantly increase my activity, I am hungrier, and I do need to eat more, but that means more opportunities to choose less than awesome types of food, and overeat.

I’ve read a lot of blogs that said they gained weight training for their first marathon. I assured myself that wouldn’t be me, but when I started focusing more on my training, I made the decision to stop focusing on weight loss, even though the truth is, that is still the eventual goal for me. I let myself gradually slide back into eating habits that I haven’t seen in quite a while. Don’t get me wrong, I still ate moderately healthy, but not to the best I am capable of, and it shows. On the scale. In the way my body feels. It’s not “water weight”.

So, I’m refocusing. I went to TJ’s excited (although when am I not excited about grocery shopping?), and stocked up on tons of produce, and spent entirely too much time stalking ingredient lists. Steve was thrilled to sit there watching me label read for hours after our red eye, let me tell you. He’s a lucky man. It was nice for me though. I used to only look at calories, and I am actually trying to do just the opposite now. Sure, that cookie may have the same amount (or even less) of calories as a banana with almond butter, but it has no nutritional value, and an ingredient list a mile long. I promised myself I would give up the calorie counting, and other than checking it out just to be aware, I have. I check in to see if one thing may have significantly less than the alternative, but that’s it. This time, I looked at the ingredients, and the protein, fiber, and added sugars. I have a whole fridge full of awesomeness, and just yesterday I noticed a big change in the way my body felt, and my energy level.

It’s easy to forget how great healthy eating feels. Does that sound cliche enough? But, seriously, it does. It feels awesome, and I feel better about myself already, and that’s the part of this that really counts. And I have no doubt that I will fairly quickly get back to my normal weight, but until then, here are some pictures of me looking cute this summer to remind myself that I don’t look like I gained 50 lbs, even if, at moments, I kina feel that way.

Oh, nope. That’s definitely a demonstrative Poop Contest picture. Not a cute picture at all, actually. You’re so welcome friends. Now we’re out there for THE WORLD to see. Or my 6 readers. Either way.

Okay, there we are actually looking cute. This is Tali and Camille. They ran with me all summer, and then we did this pose. I love them, and this picture is my fav.

Okay, I feel better now. Something about those two (and the Poop Contest) never fails to lift my spirits. Onward.

NYC Marathon Training Week 7

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AKA

Marathon  Training: Vacation Edition

3/4 runs + 1 hike. Not too shabby for my honeymoon, right? I’m actually pretty proud of myself for getting it done. I didn’t follow my plan completely even on the 3 runs I completed (speed work, what speed work?), but I got my long run in, and that’s what I was the most concerned about. Let me tell you, it was NOT easy. First of all, I went from living with my running buddies, having a schedule, and being responsible to a group for getting up and running each day I said I would to running solo with just myself (and a weekly email to Coach Susan) to answer to. Also, running is way more fun with friends, in 65 degree temps, and in slightly hilly-flat terrain. You know what is less fun? Running alone in 70% humidity, feeling like every direction you go, you are climbing a mountain. What’s up with that, Maui? Huh??

Anyway, I definitely got discouraged my first 2 runs, but by the end, it got better. It always does. I know it will be the same thing coming back to Phoenix, and running in the 95 degree temperatures. It’s not going to be easy, and this week I might hate life a little, and feel discouraged, but it can only get better and easier from there. Here’s a look at how week 7 went down.

Tuesday–12 mile long run, 10:40 avg pace. I don’t remember the last time I wanted to give up on a run so badly. 3 miles in, I was sure I couldn’t finish. There seemed to be hills in every single direction. My body was literally dripping in sweat from every single pore; in fact, my running skirt looked like I had peed my pants because it was soaking wet. You’re welcome for that detail. I had to take a lot of “stretch” breaks. What? You don’t pause your garmin to “stretch” at the top of every hill you do? Oh. In all seriousness, that’s a bad habit I developed when I first started running, because I wanted to keep up to some imaginary “expected pace” of people who blogged about running. I was slow (well, still am), and I didn’t want to be, so I “stretched” a lot to catch my breath. I’ve been really good about breaking that habit ever since I started training for the Seattle half that never happened, but I was not good about it on this run. By the time I got back to our condo, I felt discouraged, frustrated, and totally lame. Then I plugged my garmin into my computer to see that I had climbed 1021 feet of elevation. Then I sat there and continued to drip sweat just sitting. I gave myself a little pep talk, and a mental break, and realized that, all things considered, I did pretty okay.

Friday–5 mile hike. I will write more about this when I get posts up about the trip itself, but I hiked in mud, rolled in mud, swam to a waterfall, and hiked through rainforest, and a bamboo forest to a 400 ft waterfall! It.Was.Awesome. My favorite part of the trip, hands down. I counted it as my 5 mile hilly run. Let’s just pretend it’s the same thing 😉

Saturday–3 mile run, 10:26 avg pace. There’s a reason there were 4 days between my first and second run. I may have given myself a mental break, but I was flat out discouraged by running in Napili Bay. This run, unfortunately, was no different. I felt ridiculously sluggish, tired, and just overall unhappy with it, but I did it because it needed to be done.

Sunday–3.1 mile run, 9:35 avg pace. So….there definitely was no track anywhere near me, and also no flat road for miles (is there ANY flat road on that island?!), so for “speed work”, I decided to run faster than the day before. Brilliant, right? And you know what? I DID! Not that the bar was set super high, but I ran significantly faster, and felt so much better! I don’t know if it’s that I ran the opposite (but equally hilly) direction, and maybe the inclines were less steep, or if it’s just that my body was finally getting used to it, but the run was awesome, and I almost kept going, but after 2 lame runs, I decided to just end it feeling good.

Now, I’m back to the 115 degree temps. This will be…interesting. I got back to Phoenix yesterday morning, and I haven’t run yet, but tomorrow is track day. I’m not gonna lie, I’m nervous to see how much the heat slows me down, and that I won’t be able to keep up with my teammates who’ve been running in these temps all summer, but I know all I can do is do my best to adjust, and wait for the summer to be over.

Mango Lime Yogurt Pops (Guest Post)

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Friends, I am playing on the beach, eating lots of fish and sweet Hawaiian rolls, ignoring all of my work emails, and enjoying the company of the most awesome man alive. I didn’t want to peace out for too long without giving you an awesome recipe from my BBFF (Blog Best Friend Forever. Don’t judge.) Nicole. She is an amazing cook, a creative and unique recipe creator, and all around one of the most amazing people I know. If you haven’t checked out her blog yet, DO IT!!!! Nicole says:

Hi guys! I’m Nicole and I blog over at The Marvelous Misadventures of a Foodie where I share my passion for food, recipes, running, photography and travel. I’m excited to be here guest-posting for Ari while she and Steve are in living it up in Maui this week! I am a huge fan of Ari’s blog and have had the pleasure of trying quite a few of her recipes first hand 🙂

 

Growing up we always had either ice cream or popsicles (or both!) in our freezer. I have lots of memories of playing outside or splashing around in the pool and coming in to enjoy a nice cold popsicle. They never failed me. They were my ultimate summer treat.

Now that I am older I can barely eat one without ending up in a sugar induced coma.  I guess you could say my tastes have matured a bit over the years 😉 Summer wouldn’t be the same without popsicles so I like to make my own at home! Not only are they easy to make, but without even trying you get a healthier end result that is still indulgent!

These yogurt pops make a great afternoon snack or dessert. Better yet, they would make a pretty excellent breakfast – they are made out of yogurt after all 😉 The sweet mangos play really well with the tartness of the yogurt and the lime juice livens it up with that extra bit of freshness. Feel free to add more or less sweetener based on your taste. I used honey, but agave or any other liquid sweetener would work well too.

 

Mango Lime Yogurt Pops

Recipe by: Nicole White

Makes 4-6 popsicles, depending on the size of your mold

Ingredients:

  • ¾ cup plain non fat Greek yogurt
  • 2 mangos, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 tablespoon lime juice
  • 2 tablespoon honey or agave

Directions:

  1. In the bold of a food processor or blender, combine all ingredients and puree until smooth. Carefully pour the mixture into Popsicle molds, leaving space at the top to ensure room for Popsicle sticks.
  2. Freeze for 6 hours (or overnight) before serving.

Starburst Cookies

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That sounds weird, right?

But think about it. Cookies are good. Starburst are good.

You like fruit in your cookies. Starbursts are like fruit, but bad for you. But don’t worry, the cookie part if less than bad for you, so it all evens out. Trust me.

Did you know that now there are packages of Starburst that come with just the red and pink ones??? Amazing. Is there any reason to eat a fruit flavored candy that isn’t red or pink? Like gummy bears…why do they even make the other colors? Why can’t they just stick to the red ones?!

You know what I think is weird? Gummy bears in ice cream! I do not prefer that. The cold ice cream makes them hard, and not gummy at all really. But a warm cookie makes a Starburst warm and gooey, like when you put taffy in the microwave. Yummmm.

Taffy, on the other hand, should only come in yellow. But that’s neither here nor there. As it turns out, Starburst inside a cookie is actually not weird, but delicious.

Especially if the cookie gets just a little crunch on the outside. Then all the textures and flavors work out in harmony and all that crap. Yes, my cookies are freaking harmonious. What are your cookies? Just melodic? Pssshhhh. Okay, I’m sorry. I had a music nerd baker moment. Don’t give up–LOOK AT THE COOKIES!!

 

Starburst Cookies

yield 1 dozen

  • 2/3 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/8 tsp baking powder
  • 3 tbs fat free cream cheese, softened
  • 1 tbs light whipped butter, softened
  • 3 tbs turbinado sugar
  • 3 tbs Splenda
  • 1 tbs egg substitute
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 12 Starburst candies

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
  2. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese, butter, sugar, and Splenda until smooth. Beat in egg substitute and vanilla.  Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.
  4. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, and stuff each dough ball with 1 Starburst. Re-roll dough around Starburst, so that it is completely covered, then place on prepared cookie sheet,
  5. Bake 8 to 10 min, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet for 2 min before serving.
  6. Serve warm, fresh out of the oven for optimal Starburst consistency. If you make them ahead of time, you may wish to rewarm before serving.

NYC Marathon Training Week 6

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My last week at CGST has come and gone, along with week 6 of marathon training, and my first skipped run… Whoops. Too many people I love that I was saying goodbye to, too much excitement with Steve coming up to visit, and maybe a little too much booze. I’ll admit it. Today is Monday, and I haven’t run since Thursday. However, I did accomplish a 5 minute plank, and ride a double surrey (with the fringe on the top) in the meantime, so I’ll say it was still a successful week. The most exciting part is probably my 10 mile time trial. Here’s how it went down.

Monday–10 mile time trial in 1:34:45. My half marathon PR is a 9:32 pace. This run averaged 9:28, and granted that’s not hugely faster, and it is shorter, I wasn’t racing. I had a huge breakthrough on this run, in fact! For the first time, I don’t know, ever, I didn’t stalk my garmin. I would check in every song or so, and look at my pace at the mile beeps, which may still sound like a lot, but my face is usually glued to that thing! This time, instead, I ran by feel, and negative split every single mile. Here, let me show you:

  1. 10:42 (mostly uphill)
  2. 9:53
  3. 9:48
  4. 9:45
  5. 9:39
  6. 9:22
  7. 9:14
  8. 9:12
  9. 8:56
  10. 8:14 (mostly downhill)
Who.Am.I.? GAHHH. I learned so much about myself, and how I often set myself up for failure on this run. Usually I go back and forth between “You can never maintain this pace! Slow down, you’re not good enough!” and “Look how slow you’re going! You suck!” It was so amazing to just run, and think “This feels good.” Now if only they could all be like that. In other good news, I felt great the whole rest of the day, and not sore, and exhausted like I had raced, so I feel at least mildly hopeful that I can average a good 20 seconds quicker than that in San Diego.

Wednesday–Track, 1-1-2-1-3-1-4-4-3-1-2-1-1-1. I think there was supposed to be an other 4 in there. Whoops. Didn’t do that one. I did, however, figure out the lap button! I didn’t have to stop and start after every interval. It was magical. If you press the lap button on your garmin when you start a new interval, it will show you your pace and distance on each lap separately. I was kind of lame and walked my easy intervals, but my hard ones went pretty well.

1min–6:29
2min–7:10
3min–7:53
4min–8:03
3min–7:57
2min–7:48<–grrr
1min–6:19<–eeee!!

I don’t care if it was only 1 minute, 6:19 makes me excited. The end.

Thursday–Recovery run. 3 miles. More crawled than ran. There was coffee at the end. That was my favorite part.

Friday–5 minute plank. That was awesome, other than being beat out by my student who set the female record for the summer at close to 7 minutes. I also had a male student do 10. Rude. I want to be a man. Except I like dressed.

Saturday–work, work, work, work, beer. That’s all.

Sunday–Owning that surrey. Steve, Tali, Camille, Xander, and I tried to set the double surrey record on the Steele/Hawthorn bridge loop. I mean, hills are hard with 5 people. It almost felt like exercise 😉

That’s all for me for now, friends. I am in Maui with Steve beginning our honeymoon (a year and a half later…), so I will be taking a real world haitus. I do have an awesome guest post coming to you soon though from my BBFF, and I will be back next week!

Pumpkin Spice Churro Bites

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One of my favorite things about going places like Disneyland, well, aside from the fact that I am freakishly obsessed with Disneyland, was always the churro stand.

Crispy on the outside, and warm and gooey on the inside. How can anyone not like churros??? Seriously. They are so soft on the inside, I used to be convinced that there was actually a filling. I didn’t quite understand the depths, and amazingness of deep frying. Don’t worry, I get it now. Deep frying = instant texture success. Sad, but true.

However, we all know greasy, oily, deep fried food and I are not besties, and, clearly, I need churros in my life. These things are the real deal. Crispy and cinnamony on the outside, while still gooey on the inside with a hint of pumpkin. Pumpkin + cinnamon = always delicious.

Also, why are all foods in life not served dipped in chocolate? That sounds like the cure for all things bad in the world. War. World hunger. People you don’t like. Just serve them dipped in chocolate.

Okay, don’t dip people in chocolate. That’s weird. I am, at least it’s definitely weird if you plan to eat them. This isn’t Silence of the Lambs or anything. In fact, I don’t even like scary movies. And this has taken a turn for the weird, so um, where was I? Chocolate. Cinnamon. Pumpkin. Churros. Mini. Oh yes, they’re mini. Which means you can eat 10 churros instead of 1. We all know I like to eat in volume, so that is obviously a plus.

Okay, before we get to the recipe, I have to tell you a secret about how I messed these up the first time. I made the bites, all was going well, but then I mixed the butter with the cinnamon sugar instead of dipping and rolling. Needless to say, it was delicious, but not quite what I was going for. Also messy, very messy. However, if you don’t mind mess, and don’t care what they look like, I would say that is an equally delicious way to achieve churro love 🙂

Pumpkin Spice Churro Bites adapted from Erica’s Sweet Tooth yield approx 3 dozen

For the churros bites:
  • 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • dash pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 cup turbinado sugar
  • 1/3 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1/4 egg substitute
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
For the cinnamon sugar topping:
  • 1/4 cup light whipped butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
Directions:
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a pan of mini muffin tins with cooking spray.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.  Set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, beat sugar and pumpkin together. Add egg substitute and vanilla. Beat until well combined.
  4. Slowly alternate adding the flour mixture and milk, starting and ending with the flour.  Mix until just incorporated.
  5. Use an extra small cookie scoop to fill each muffin tin and bake for 10-15 minutes (depending on how small your cookie scoop is), or until just golden brown.
  6. While the churro bites are baking, melt butter in a small bowl and combine cinnamon and sugar in a shallow dish. When churro bites are finished, immediately remove from the pan and dip each bite in the butter and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Enjoy immediately or store in an airtight container for 2-3 days.

NYC Marathon Training Week 5

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Hi friends! Week 5 of training was a tough one, but it was great! Here’s a little about what went down.

Monday–5.21 miles, 10:21 average pace, 314 ft elevation gain. I don’t really know how to measure elevation gain or what that really means in the scheme of things. I do know that Coach Susan prescribed hills, so every time I saw a hill I yelled to my friends “HILL!!! We must run that way!” I also know that it was hard, but that could just be because I’m a wimp. Okay, it probably is because I’m a wimp, but I felt the opposite of wimpy afterwards, and I felt like my pace was decent, all things considered.

Tuesday–2.9 miles including 6 hill repeats. I warmed up at basically a crawl, found a hill closer than anticipated, so decided my .7 mile warm up was sufficient, then ran up the hill a bunch of times walk/jogging down. The hill was shorter than I think it was supposed to be. Only about a tenth of a mile, but it had 33ft of elevation gain–whatever that means–and it felt like a good challenge. I averaged about an 8:30 pace running up, and definitely got slower as I went on rather than faster. Whoops. My first time with a hill workout, so I’ll try to not positive split the next time 🙂

Thursday–11.1 miles, 10:20 average pace. This run was not bad. Really, it was actually mostly good, but after running pretty challenging workouts Sunday, Monday and Tuesday all in a row, and then just the combination of that with dancing all day, and not sleeping enough (I know, that’s a huge change, right?), and I just felt not quite 100%. It felt hard. Not impossible, just hard. Still managed to run the last mile in 8:45, though!

Saturday–4 miles. 10:56 average pace. I have a secret. A surprise of sorts. Are you ready? It’s shocking, and ground breaking. Recovery, actual recovery, is AWESOME!!!!! Running slow is FUN! You get to look around, and not feel like you’re gonna die, and people watch! Plus, it’s a really nice mental break to not let a number that flashes on your watch dictate how you feel about your run. I use my recovery runs to recover more often. You’re welcome for the brilliance. Stay tuned for more ground breaking discoveries.

Sunday–Actual rest. Lovely, as usual. I have never appreciated rest days as much as I have this summer!

 

Spoiler: Week 6 is off to an AMAZING start! Can’t wait to share it with you at the end!

Skinnified Sunday: S’mores Brownies

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My girl Nicole knows her brownies, and when she posted her recipe for her favorite S’mores Brownies, I almost ended my friendship with her because she didn’t share any with me knew I had to make my own version!

Okay, so don’t go look at her blog, because hers are sooooo much prettier. We all know that presentation is not my forte, but they were delicious, so you know…

Honestly, with gooey, browned marshmallows, chocolate and graham cracker, how could that be bad???

These had everything I love about s’mores combined with everything I love about brownies. I had to send them all home with Jason, so I wouldn’t devour them in one sitting!

No, I don’t think it’s weird to add more chocolate to a brownie. I think you’re weird if you don’t always enjoy the idea of more chocolate.

Original Recipe:

via Nicole @ Foodie Misadventures

My swaps:
  • Nonfat vanilla yogurt for butter (-fat, -saturated fat, -calories, -cholesterol)
  • Turbinado/Splenda combo for sugar (-sugar, -calories)
  • Egg substitute for whole eggs (-fat, -calories, -cholesterol)
  • White whole wheat flour for all purpose (+fiber, +protein)
  • Whole wheat graham crackers for regular (+fiber, +protein)
  • Natural dark chocolate for Hershey’s bars (-sugar)

 

Skinnified S’mores Brownies

yield 16 brownies

  • 3/4 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt
  • 1 cup turbinado sugar
  • 1/2 cup Splenda
  • 3/4 cup egg substitute
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • dash salt
  • 6 whole wheat graham cracker squares + crumbs for sprinkling
  • 1/2 cup all natural dark chocolate chips
  • 5 oz marshmallows (regular or mini)
Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F°. Grease an 8 inch square pan.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together yogurt, vanilla, egg substitute, Splenda, and sugar until thoroughly combined. Mix in cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and salt until well blended.
  3. Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan. Layer graham crackers side by side over the top of the brownie batter until completely covered. Next pour chocolate chocolate chips evenly over the graham crackers. Then lay the marshmallows out over the chocolate. Pour remaining batter evenly over the marshmallows, spreading with a spatula if necessary.
  4. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Let cool completely before slicing and serving.

Gluten Free Cannoli Bars

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When I was a little girl, my dad and I would always eat cannolis at the pizzeria near our house. I love cheese. I love dessert. Cheese + dessert? Done.

I remember one time the pizza place ran out of shells, and I didn’t even care, because honestly, I just love the filling. I used to scrape all of the filling out and leave the shell behind, like weird people do with oreo cookies. That I don’t get. The cookie part of the oreo is the best!! I wish they made them with no cream. Just cookie. And cannolis with no shell. Wait, I made that last thing 😉

All of the delicious flavors of this decadent Italian treat, on top of a brown sugar and oats crust that beats any flavorless deep fried shell I’ve ever tasted. Plus, I love things in bar form. Cheesecake, cookies, you name it.

Also, can we just talk about ricotta cheese for a second? Why is it so freaking good? I could seriously eat it out of the tub with a spoon, and I have. Don’t judge me. I’ve eaten a lot of cheese by itself in my day. Chomped on a block of sharp cheddar, ricotta by the spoonful, it may or may not have been kind of a…problem…

These bars however, are the perfect dessert solution to that problem. That’s me, a super awesome problem solver. Figuring out ways to eat lots of cheese, and not feeling guilty about it always and forever. As Terra would say, you’re welcome the world.

 

Gluten Free Cannoli Bars

yield approx 3 dozen bars

  • 2 cups gluten free oats
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1/4 cup + 2 tbs light whipped butter, melted
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 40 oz part skim ricotta cheese
  • 4 oz light whipped cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup mini dark chocolate chips
  • crushed pistachios for topping (about 2 tbs)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9×13 pan with nonstick spray, and set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, melted butter and cinnamon. Press into the bottom of 9×13 pan, and bake for approx 25 minutes until golden. Set on a wire rack to cool
  3. In a large bowl, combine ricotta, cream cheese, and powdered sugar. Fold in chocolate chips. Spread ricotta mixture onto completely cooled crust, and sprinkle with crust pistachios. Let set for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight.

NYC Marathon Training Week 4

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Wait, that was week 4 already? I totally typed week 3, then realized that was wrong. Oy! Last week was really great. I felt really motivated, and I felt like my pace was starting to pick up a bit. I had the fastest long run I’ve had in a long time (ever?), and made a comeback to double digit runs after almost 2 months away. Success. Also, I raced and PRed. Here’s how it went down.

Monday: 4 miles. 9:36 average pace that felt easy, and awesome. One of those “I love life, I want to run forever and ever!!!!” type of runs.

Wednesday: 3.1 miles. 9:43 average pace. My body was tired. My mind was tired. My Legs were tired. My abs here are always tired. Abs 3-4x a day is simultaneously the best and worst part of my job. Anyway, I was doing too much the beginning of last week on too little sleep. Wasn’t taking excellent care of myself, and Wednesday I felt pretty much like crap, but running helped a little, and I forced myself to sleep that night for…

Thursday: 10.25 miles. 10:13 average pace. Negative splits. Last mile (okay, it WAS downhill, but I’m still excited!) in 8:31. Serious runners high. Also, great friends got my through. They’re awesome. Best way to train for a marathon? Make all of your friends run with you at all times. Also, people get all happy and get their own runners high and are super appreciative, and make you feel motivational or something. It’s cool. I like it.

Saturday: Actual rest. Holla.

Sunday: Be The One Run. Here’s my recap 🙂

Week 4 of training = success. Still riding the excited train.

Fundraising: My fundraising page is still sitting at $600. I haven’t been able to do as much work in that department here in Portland, but please don’t hesitate to check out my for sale page, or click over to make a donation. 🙂

 

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