Just peachy!

Happy Tuesday!  I had an exciting weekend with my daughter, Julia.  We finally got to meet her little brother Austin Michael :)  She is very excited and loves being an older sister.  (Now just for the record for those of you who might not know me, Austin is Julia's Dad's child and not mine....what do we call this?  A blended family?)

To celebrate after we got home from the hospital, we made some peach cobbler!  My mom bought a million peaches through her church so it was a waste not, want not situation. 

Julia has always loved helping in the kitchen.  Peach cobbler was the perfect thing for her to help with too.  It was my job to skin the peaches and cut them in half.  Julia's job was to cut them into slices.  Hold on folks, peaches are pretty soft and she was only using a butter knife.

This was a modified recipe that turned out to be quite delicious :)

Peach Cobbler

Filling:

• 4 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches
• 3/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon chia seed
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seed

Cobbler Crust:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tablespoons coconut sugar
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2/3 cup soy milk
• 1 tablespoon coconut sugar, for topping

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Generously butter a 1 1/2-quart shallow baking dish. Place the sliced peaches in the dish and sprinkle with coconut sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and flour. Mix gently and spread evenly again. Bake for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile combine all dry ingredients for cobbler crust in a bowl. Cut in the coconut oil with a pastry cutter or your fingers, to make the texture like coarse crumbs. Add soy milk and stir to form a soft dough.

Remove fruit from oven and drop rounded spoonfuls of dough on top. Sprinkle with last tablespoon of coconut sugar and return to oven. Bake until fruit is bubbly and crust topping is golden brown, about 20 minutes.

That's the worst picture ever...something must have gone wrong when I was loading it haha....maybe I will fix that later....maybe...

The cobbler was very good.  Of course, it was not the standard super-sweet cobbler but it was ooey, gooey and delicious all the same!  I really liked the topping.  It was very nutty and earthy tasting.  I would definitely make this again.

So in not-so-peachy things, I noticed as I was walking into work this morning that I had a slight twinge in my left calf.  Not legitimate pain but the feeling of some possibly brewing for the future.  As some of you may know, I was training for a half-marathon last summer and got a pain in my right leg.  Some said it was shin splints.  I went to an orthopedic surgeon that wanted to inject radioactive materials into me to determine if I had a stress fracture or not.  The end result would have been the same for shin splints:  stop running and rest.  I chose to go straight to the treatment without the radioactive diagnostics.

So anyway, I stopped training and have only recently started running again.  Is my mind playing tricks on me?  Or could something be happening that I need to address?  I have been warming up and focusing on stretching but maybe this isn't enough?

How do you run injury free?

~Andrea

Long time, No see...whoops....

So it's been a busy few days but I'm back :)  On Friday I took the plunge!  I spoke with my future trainer Patrice and we made our first appointment for this coming Wednesday.  At the first appointment, we will be doing the good ol' calipers along with some strength and flexibility tests.  It's all a part of getting to know me and where I am at physically. 

Patrice is recommending that we meet twice a week, which means the twenty sessions will only last approximately two and a half months.  I definitely have to make the most of every minute!  I already told Patrice that I would like her to come up with workouts for me to do on the days I don't work out with her as well.  My two goals that I want to work towards is getting my BMI into a healthy range and be able to do a pull-up!  Two months isn't enough time to accomplish either of those goals but a definite step in the right direction.

On Saturday, I made another delicious batch of avocado banana bread.  I made two loaves and froze one of them so we shall see how that turns out.  I changed up the recipe a little bit by adding some protein powder and a few chocolate chips.  I also used all whole wheat flour rather than spelt and oat flour.  I'm planning on using this for a grab and go breakfast for a couple days this week.

I also went to a Potomac Nationals game with my honey on Saturday night.  It was a lot of fun.  Thank goodness it didn't rain!

Today was such a good food day!  I made two new recipes, both of which I thought were keepers :)  For dinner I made inside-out pork dumplings.  It was my first time cooking with baby bok choy and wonton wrappers.  They were both yummy!  It's a great idea.  You cut the wonton wrappers into strips and boil them in water like noodles.  So you cook up the ground pork with some ginger, garlic and scallions.  Add baby bok choy, shredded carrots, bean sprouts, wonton noodles and some rooster sauce and you've got a super delicious meal!

And those are the other cooking success for the day :)  These were a bit of an invention since I didn't get all the ingredients that I needed.  These were supposed to be made with amaranth.  I went to Wegmans to see if they had it but they did not.  So then I came up with an idea....the amaranth looked small and seedy in the picture on the recipe so I decided to substitute quinoa instead.  I was pleasantly surprised with my quinoa clusters.  I think they will make an excellent snack at work and even Julia likes them!  These are a much better alternative to cookies.

Quinoa Clusters

1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup quinoa
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup chopped dried cherries
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs (whites only)
1/4 tsp salt

Combine oats, quinoa, almonds, dried fruit and honey in a bowl.  Whisk egg whites with salt until foamy.  Pour over dried fruit and stir to combine.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment.  Scoop 3 tablespoons of mixture and pat into 3-inch rounds on baking sheet.  Bake until golden brown, approximately 15-18 minutes.  Let cool completely and eat within a week.

~Andrea

Baking fun with Julia - Carrot Style!

After going through my fridge and trying to take an inventory of ingredients, I noticed I had a bag of carrots that were on their last leg.  It was a big bag of shredded carrots, more than I could stomach in a salad, so what did I decide to do??  Make Cinnamon Carrot Muffins!  This is a recipe that I found in my Whole Living magazine.

Cinnamon Carrot Muffins

3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp ground flax seed
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 cups finely grated carrots (4-5 carrots)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line muffin tins with paper cups.  Whisk flours, soda and salt in a bowl.  Whisk remaining ingredients in a separate bowl.  Fold dry ingredients into wet and mix until just combined. 

Spoon batter into cups.  Bake until toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, about 22 minutes.  Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.

I only have mini-muffin tins at my house so that's what I used.  These are on the menu for tomorrow's breakfast!  YUM :)

Kid approved!

~Andrea