coffee and cupcake runner

I am absolutely loving my long runs lately.  Today's 18 miler left me with a feeling of great confidence that the Fargo Marathon will be a breeze.

Ha. We'll see if that happens!

Maybe these long runs have felt amazing because I am purposely making sure I do start out too fast and keep my pace at a moderate level instead of trying to run at marathon pace.

Here are the stats from today's run:

mile 1 - 8:50
mile 2 - 9:10
mile 3 - 9:23
mile 4 - 9:24
mile 5 - 9:23
mile 6 - 9:14
mile 7 - 10:36 (ate two dates)
mile 8 - 9:20
mile 9 - 9:10
mile 10 - 9:15
mile 11 - 9:21
mile 12 - 10:50 (ate one Gu)
mile 13 - 9:09 <------quick break at the dog park to say hello to Maia and Nic!
mile 14 - 9:20
mile 15 - 8:55
mile 16 - 10:49 (ate one Gu)
mile 17 - 9:15
mile 18 - 9:08
icing - 8:38 pace

Total distance - 18.35 miles
Total time - 2:53:37
Average pace - 9:28

Highlights from today's run - At mile 14 I was running on a trail behind someone's house and a bunch of people were outside drinking/BBQing. An older guy was running in place on the path waiting for me to pass and ran with me for a few steps.  I told him I had 4 miles left and he waved me off.  He thought he was pretty hilarious.

I circled back by the house at mile 16 and he did it again, this time with a kid at his side. The whole group thought they were pretty entertaining. I let him know I only had two miles left. "Of how many?" he asked. 18. He fell to the ground and yelled out "You go girl!" as I left him in my dust.

Nic and I promptly prepared lunch when I got home and were discussing work. I randomly got a craving for a cupcake and iced coffee and searched for vegan bakeries in Iowa City. Voila. Within 10 minutes we were in the car heading north.

Okay...so we needed to go to Petco to pick up some food for the pets, but it maybe could have waited until tomorrow.

I really wanted a cupcake and iced coffee.

Like really.

18 miles deserves a cupcake + coffee.

Hey - whatever motivates you, right? (Even if it is chicken nuggets...)

Fair Grounds Coffee House did not disappoint.  They had a nice variety of vegan bakery items and a full  vegetarian/vegan menu. I was glued to the bakery case trying to decide what kind of cupcake I was going to get, so did not spend too much time looking through the options for breakfast, lunch and dinner.



I only had one thing on my mind.

Nic and I both picked out a cupcake and shared bites of each.

For him:



A carrot cake cupcake with vegan cream cheese frosting. YUM. This was our favorite of the two.

For her:



Peanut butter chocolate cupcake. Another winner - and it totally scored bonus points for having two layers of frosting!



We also got a hazelnut latte to share.



We already have plans to head up to Fair Grounds again next Sunday to enjoy a feast of cupcakes, coffee and maybe some real food after my 20 miler.

We came home a few hours later and I immediately got to work on dinner. Pizza.  Pretty epic pizza. Alas, we have an early wake up call tomorrow - so I will have to share it with you later.

We are heading up to Minnesota to have Easter lunch with my dad's family. I whipped up dessert to bring along.  Let's hope they are all willing to sample a huge kitchen experiment...

Here's a sneak peak:



Happy Easter!

the ooey gooey single serve brownie

The other day I was craving chocolate. Then, they day after that I was craving chocolate again. On the third day, I was again craving chocolate and created a little piece of heaven.



A single serve oooey gooey chocolate brownie. I have zero self control when it comes to brownies - an entire 8 x 8 inch pan of the fudgiest brownies will disappear one small slice at a time in one day. This brownie is the perfect size to satisfy an intense chocolate craving and make you forget about all of your day's frustrations, but it is not, I repeat, is not large enough to share with even the people you love most. :)

I tweaked the original recipe I posted the other day and while I made some notations in that post, I thought I'd repost with some better photos and my changes.



In the mix::

• 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour*
• 2 T brown sugar
• 2 T cocoa powder
• 1/8 t baking powder
• 3 T almond milk
• 1 t canola oil
• 1/4 t vanilla
• pinch salt

In a small bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Stir in wet ingredients until blended. Pour batter into a small oven safe dish (mine was a 6 oz glass ramekin).

Bake in a pre-heated 325* oven for 15 minutes (for an ultra gooey brownie) to 19 minutes (for a slightly less gooey center). Sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy!

*Alternately you could do a mix of half whole wheat pastry flour and half all-purpose flour. If you use all whole wheat you can tell in the final product. I don't mind this, but I think some people might.





What could be better than a small bowl of basically warmed brownie batter? I mean seriously...!

pantry & freezer week - day 5

Phew! Another day done.  Another day done without a run.  Let's just say I was not pleasant to be around. Sorry Nic!  The knee wasn't as bad today, but still hurt.  I am going to try to get in a run tomorrow to test the waters again - I hate not running!  I turn into a cranky biatch and I don't even like when I am a cranky biatch.

I also worked right up until 4:30 (after leaving the house around 7AM) gathering daffodil orders and getting everything organized and in the system.

After I wrapped that up, I headed to the Y to meet with a high schooler that I will be working with for the next three months as she takes steps to lose weight, gain strength and minimize pain.  I will be working out with her three days a week and really hope we can get some good results!

Today's breakfast was easy peasy - and delicious.  Sometimes you just need to go the simple route.  Toast with PB, orange and a banana.



A coffee was enjoyed on the road, as well as another banana before I made it home for lunch.

Lunch was a mix of leftovers - corn soup with some couscous mixed in and topped with black bean hummus. Served up with a simple salad with hummus dressing - well not exactly dressing, more like the last of the hummus mixed with a little water to thin it out - you can't waste good hummus!





I snacked on a chocolate peanut butter ball from last night and a bowl of Kashi with apple chunks and a blob of peanut butter.



Dinner was another pantry and freezer week winner!  This is what I had in mind when I decided to embark on this challenge.

Lentil Tacos - Kier style

I knew I wanted to use up some of the lentils we've had in our pantry for a while and decided lentil tacos would be a great idea.  I prepared the lentils with a few adaptations from this recipe (I used chipotle chili pepper instead of regular and water instead of stock since we had none).

We did not have any tortillas in the pantry or fridge, so I thought I would mix up some using the corn meal mix we had in the fridge.

In the mix::

• 1 1/3 cups corn meal mix 
• 1/2 t garlic powder
• 2/3 cup water (?? forgot to write it down)

Mix everything together and let sit for a few minutes.  Welp, it was a good thought, but this mixture was not really conducive to tortilla making.  My first attempt resulted in a crumbled mess. Instead, I cranked the oven to 450* and created thick cornmeal discs.  I brushed each side with canola oil and sprinkled with salt.  These were baked on each side for about 5 minutes, until browned.

We topped these crispy little discs with mashed black beans (1 can black beans, red onion, garlic and cumin), spinach, lentils, corn, carrots, and onions.



Seriously delicious!  Way surpassed my expectations.

Dessert was another combination of some leftovers and pantry/fridge staples.

Banana Couscous Pudding



In the mix::

• 3/4 cup cooked couscous
• 1 banana - sliced
• 1/4 cup soy
• 2 eggs
• 2 T maple syrup
• 4 T oatmeal
• 2 T sliced almonds
• sprinkle cinnamon
• 1 t vanilla
• dash salt

In a medium bowl combine couscous and banana. In another bowl, mix the next 8 ingredients and then stir into couscous.  Top with another generous sprinkle of cinnamon.  Bake in a greased baking dish at 350* for about 30 minutes.

My idea for this dish was a bread pudding type dish.  It was not as pudding-y as I would have liked, which makes me think I could have left out the 4 tablespoons of oatmeal. I got worried though as it looked a little too liquidy without it.

Despite that - once this came out of the oven I topped my serving with a drizzle of maple syrup and devoured it.  Amazing.  I am looking forward to eating the rest for breakfast...unless Nic steals it and takes it to work.  NIC - are you eating my breakfast??



Time to enjoy a small pour of wine before I hit the hay - talk about an exciting Friday night!