Friday Five: Real Food Homemade Indulgence

I try to eat mostly "real food" that follow these guidelines: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/real-food-defined-a-k-a-the-rules/ This means we cook most of our meals so we know what ingredients go into them. Where we often struggle is with sweets. I still eat plenty of candy and other sweets that do not follow those rules, but we're trying to make our own version of many of them so we can keep those to a minimum. Below are 5 of my favorite recipes for homemade sweets that (mostly) meet the "real food" rules.

#1 Carrot Cake

Without the frosting, this is actually very wholesome. I cut the recipe in half and baked it in a loaf pan instead of a sheet or layer cake. The times I tried it, I used a whole apple finely chopped instead of canned crushed pineapple, but I think I want to try it with fresh pineapple sometime for comparison. Since this was my first time baking a cake from scratch, I used store-bought frosting but plan to make my own in the future.

 
#2 Chocolate Bars

We just found this recipe, and it is amazingly delicious and ridiculously easy. Jason made the version with agave nectar, which comes out a bit soft and fudge-like, but that's fine by me. We just ordered stevia drops and can't wait try that verstion because that's supposed to make them firmer/crisp. I don't think we'll ever buy chocolate bars or chips at the store again! :) 

• Bonus - Chocolate Syrup: combine 1 part cocoa power with 2 parts maple syrup, mix vigorously until it combines. Keep it in the refrigerator and give it a quick stir before pouring over ice cream or other treat. 

#3 Granola Bars

This is the same recipe for homemade granola that I have shared in the past, but usually we make the cereal-like type. When made with steel cut outs, these hold together really well and you can cut them into bars. I usually only add the coconut to these and we've been using a bit less butter too. I added peppermint extract to the last batch, and I'm in love! Next I'm going to try spreading a thin layer of the homemade chocolate on top to recreate luna bars.

#4 Ice Cream

Ever since we got our ice cream maker, we never went back to store-bought. We will occasionally eat frozen yogurt by the ounce, but it's a rare treat and we still prefer our own. Our favorite recipe is absurdly easy and delicious: 

• Ingredients: 2 cups half and half, 1/3c honey, 1/4c tsp peppermint extract (sub with your favorite flavor). You can also flavor with cinnamon, cocoa powder or other spices. Get creative! 
• Directions: Mix all ingredients well, until honey dissolves into half and half. Put the mixture in the freezer for 15-20 minutes to chill, then put in ice cream machine for 20-25 min. It will be soft-serve consistency when it first comes out. We usually scoop it into a container and put it in the freezer to enjoy when its a little firmer, but sometime we dig right in! The honey helps keep it at a spreadable consistency after frozen. This makes about 4-6 small servings. We use our homemade granola and chocolate for toppings. 

#5 Smoothies

This is the best and most flexible smoothie recipe I've found because it's really a formula where you can mix and match your favorite ingredients. I don't even measure most of the ingredients anymore.

• My favorite version: apple slices or apple sauce, frozen berries, spinach, oats, coconut oil, honey, lime juice, pinch of salt

Friday 5: Why Run Ocala

I know that I haven't run it yet, but here are the top 5 reasons why I chose to run the Ocala Marathon on Sunday.

1. Cost/Distance - Yes, this is technically 2 reasons, but I'm combining them because they really go together. I paid $65, but early registration was $50. Since it's within driving distance from home, less than 1.5 hours, I don't have the added cost of a hotel room. I'll have to be up early to drive over there, but considering how early I was up for some of our long runs, this is practically sleeping in. If I was running Disney I'd have to be up much earlier to drive 1/3 the distance for 3 times the cost. I love being able wake up in my own bed on race morning. It decreases my anxiety because there is no chance I forgot to pack a key piece of gear. 
2. Small Race - I really love the small, low key races way more than big races. The logistics are simpler, and it feels more intimate. There are currently 196 registered for the full marathon and 325 for the half, so a total field of just 521. Sure, I worry about being out there all alone, but it really doesn't bother me. It will just make it easier for Jason to find me :) 
3. Great support - I've heard great things about the on course support for this race, and here's what it says in our race packet: "Aid Stations approximately every mile staffed with friendly volunteers offering you encouragement and refreshments. Stations will have Water, Gatorade, LaraBars, Clif Shot Bloks, fruit and e-Gel." There is even a diagram showing how the tables will be arranged at each station. 
4. Course - From the race packet: "The race travels through residential and rural areas of Marion County. The course is well shaded and has a combination of gently rolling hills with a few climbs to keep it interesting. The course has some great scenery and will go by faster than you can believe." This sounds wonderful. Not looking forward to the "few climbs" but I know how to run hills, and I welcome the challenge! :) The course is 2 loops, which doesn't sound great at first, but I kind of like it because it means I'll know what to expect for the 2nd half and it will be easy for me to see Jason a lot during the race ... and hand him all my extra clothes =P This also helps them have better aid stations because they don't have to man as many since we'll post most twice. 
5. Marathon Maniacs - I've been wanting to do this race since hearing such good things about it, but it didn't fit my schedule before. The timing is perfect this year to serve as my last long run before BCM and to qualify for Marathon Maniac by running 3 marathons in 90 days (77 to be exact, but who's counting ;)

Friday Five

1. Virtual 12athon Challenge - I found another challenge that I really wish I had seen sooner. It's a year-long challenge to run 12 miles on the 12th of each month, with a slew of hilarious bonus challenges. The next one falls on the day of my 4th marathon, so I'll be participating then. By the way, I added links to all these challenges to the sidebar for easy reference :)
2. Sleep - I finally caught up on sleep last night. I went to bed before 9 pm and slept in until 6 am for a glorious 9+ hours of sleep. I woke up briefly at 4 or 5 and almost considered getting up to do yoga, but I knew my body would appreciate the extra sleep more.
3. Breakfast - Since we had a groupon for breakfast at 5 and Diner, and we drove to work this morning, we skipped breakfast at home and went there before work. I had an egg and half a grilled cheese and fries for breakfast lol I had to resist the urge to add a milkshake to my order.
4. Aches - My back has been achy all day, so I repeated my hourly stretch break today. It felt fine whenever I was not seating, so I had to take a few walk breaks throughout the day too. I think I need to get a new desk chair for work. My hand/wrist is also still bothering and I really cannot figure out what I did to it. Could this be carpel tunnel? The bone at the base feels bruised and looks like the area around it is slightly swollen.
5. Saturday Run - Tomorrow is my last long run before the Ocala Marathon, but since we're running less than 10 miles I get to sleep in! We're starting at 7 am, and I'm so glad because it will barely be above 40º before we finish our run. So glad I got that Tough Girl Skirt :)

PS - I really want to find a title for these that keeps the alliteration. Anyone know a word that starts with the letter F that means something similar to ramblings or musings, etc?

Friday Five: Top Running Gear

These are my top 5 pieces of running gear that I have with me on every run.

iPhone with Runmeter

After my Garmin stopped working, I spent a few dollars on an iPhone app before investing $80 to fix it, and it has worked out well this season. My dad lent me his for the marathon and I've used it on some training runs recently, but I prefer Runmeter because I can post my workout to Dailymile as soon as I'm done with 1 step. I also like carrying my phone on long runs for safety in case I need to call someone (like if I loose my car keys) or look at the map when I take a wrong turn :) 

Skirt Sports Gym Girl Ultra
Ever since I started running in these skirts,
I do not want to run in anything else.
They are so comfortable and stylish. 

Bondi Band
I love these headbands for keeping my hair and sweat off my face,
and I love the witty sayings. I wear different ones depending
 on the outfit I'm wearing and how I feel that day. 

Road ID
I finally bought a road ID when I started
biking to work regularly, but I never run without it. 

Moving Comfort Fiona Sports Bra
This is just a necessity when you are a girl :)
I wear Target C9 bras for most of my mid-week runs,
but wear this one for long runs and races.

Friday Five: Vegetarian Recipes II

Here's another 5 vegetarian dishes that are on our regular rotation. 

1. Aloo Matar - This is an indian dish made with potatoes and peas in a tomato sauce seasoned with garlic, ginger and indian spices. We've been eating it pretty regularly for a while now, so I'm going to experiment making it with cauliflower instead of potatoes for an even bigger nutritional kick.  
2. Vegetarian Korma - We had this at a friend's house and this week finally made our own. It was absolutely amazing! You can use the recipe as a guide and add other veggies you like. We skipped the pepper and added cauliflower and chickpeas. We served it over brown rice with some warm naan. 
3. Chickpea Vegetable Bake - This is a super easy and tasty dish that you can make with any vegetables you have on hand. We've tried it with various potatoes, asparagus, and butternut squash. The only hard part of this dish is all the chopping, which isn't really hard just time consuming. I love the subtle flavors and usually add spices like thyme or rosemary and just a touch salt and pepper. 
4. Sweet Potato, Corn & Black Bean Hash - This is another super easy recipe that only requires a little chopping of the sweet potato. 
5. Orzo and Black Beans - I love the subtle flavors in this pasta dish and how quick it is to prepare. I usually use a frozen vegetable mix of corn, peas, carrots, and green beans. I reduce the amount of butter to just enough to add some flavor (usually 1 Tbsp) and substitute chick peas instead of black beans for a smoother flavor. It makes the other veggies shine even mo

BONUS: Perfect Brown Rice - I've always had trouble making brown rice: it either came out mushy or cooked unevenly. This method works amazingly well and I'm now in love with brown rice. I use the leftovers to make some healthier fried rice loaded with veggies.

Friday Five: Recipes - Homemade Treats

Since starting to focus on eating "real food" and making at home from scratch the processed stuff I used to buy, treats have been the hardest. But I even found substitutions for most of those. Here are my favorites.

1. ice cream - I tried making it by hand, which worked but took forever. Then I got an ice cream machine for my birthday and have not bought ice cream since. We make ice cream at least twice a week, usually  honey/cinnamon or peppermint, and it's so much tastier. It goes great with homemade chocolate sauce (cocoa and maple syrup). We still occasionally go out for frozen yogurt  by the ounce, but we do it a lot less now. I usually use organic half and half, mixed with honey or maple syrup and flavored extracts. Yum!
2. granola - this has replaced cereal for Jason every morning, and it also makes a great snack at work or when we get home starving before diner is ready. It's also a great topping for the honey/cinnamon ice cream.
3. apple sauce - In trying to make baked goods healthier, I started using apple sauce to replace butter or eggs or oil. It works really well, but I didn't want to replace it with processed apple sauce so I started making my own. It is ridiculously easy, specially if you have a slow cooker; it just requires a lot of chopping. If you don't have a slow cooker, check out this stovetop apple sauce recipe.
4. whole wheat chocolate chip cookies - the hardest thing was finding a cookie that truly used 100% whole wheat flour. This one works well, but I've made tons of adjustments to make them healthier, like using honey or maple syrup instead of the white and brown sugars. Apple sauce instead of butter  works well too. 
5. whole wheat cut out cookies - This is a great base recipe to make gingerbread cookies or any other flavor hard cookie. Definitely play with the spices to add more flavor as they tend to be a tad bland at first, but the recipe makes a LOT of cookies so I always make less. 

Friday Five: Whole Wheat Recipes

I've been trying to follow the real food rules in everything I eat, which means eating 100% whole wheat and grains, no refined grains or sweeteners, and limiting processed food to things that contain 5 ingredients or less that I can actually pronounce. This means that most store-bought breads, crackers and doughs are out of the question, so I've started making my own. This is not nearly as hard as I thought it would be, and actually quite fun.

Below are my top 5 favorite recipes to replace often bought items. They are all 100% whole wheat.  The great thing about making your own "real food" is that they require very few ingredients so they are super easy to prepare. 

1. whole wheat biscuits - I've never made biscuits of any kind, and these are both healthier (they still have a lot of butter) and delicious. I make mini ones and freeze them so they reheat really nicely.
2. pizza dough - I use my bread machine to knead the dough for me, and after letting it rest I roll it out onto a baking stone. I recently bought a pizza roller to make it even easier, but it's not required.
3. pie crust - I made this to make my own quiche and it's so quick and tasty.
4. pasta - this recipe is for ravioli, but the same dough can be used to make any pasta shape you want, just roll it out thinner. I don't have a pasta machine, so I use a rolling pin. These also freeze well and cook super quick.
5. crackers - I love crackers and thought I would have to do without or only eat triscuits for the rest of my life because finding 100% whole wheat crackers at Publix is no easy feat. I gave these a try and was shocked at the results. I used all 100% flour, spices to taste (e.g. rosemary and salt), and rolled it out as thin as possible. They are amazing!

Also see - Friday Five: Vegetarian Recipes

Friday Five: Cross Training

We all know that cross training is important to being a better runner, and it comes it many forms. Some of us hate doing anything that takes time away from running, and others welcome to variety. I LOVE running, but I also enjoy other forms of exercise. Below are my top 5 ways to cross train.

1. Yoga - I've liked yoga even before I liked running, and I find that when I take the time to do yoga, I get injured less. 
2. Kickboxing - I find kickboxing exhilarating. Even 10 minutes is enough to work up a sweat and leave me feeling energized. Sadly, I do not make enough time for this but I really need to because I just love it. 
3. Cycling - I started biking mainly for transportation, and love the added bonus of exercising while I commute (I love multitasking). Eventually I channeled all those miles into training for a duathlon and eventually triathlons, but they are not my cup of tea. I don't have the strength or speed to race on the bike, and I don't enjoy it as much. I much prefer biking at a slower pace with a destination in mind, but that's still a great workout.
4. Walking - I don't enjoy walking for miles just for exercise, but it's a good way to sneak in some extra exercise while I commute or when I am too sore to do anything else. 
5. Swimming - This is my least method of cross training, and it only made the list because I could not think of anything else =P The fact is that I find swimming relaxing and it's a great workout, but I became increasingly frustrated with my lack of progress and gave up. I'll try to pick it up again next summer. 

How about you? Do you enjoy cross training or maybe running is your cross training from another sport? What are your top 5 ways to cross train? 

Friday Five: Life without a Car

It's been 3 1/2 weeks living without a car -- commuting everywhere by foot, bike, bus, or train -- and so far it's going well. There have been a few challenges, but overall we're adjusting well. Below is a combined list of my top 5 pros and cons. Can you think of others? Any questions about how we've handled specific situations?

1. [pro] save money on gas, tolls, car insurance, and car maintenance
2. [pro] guaranteed daily exercise -- even when I don't bike to work, I at least walk 2 miles to/from the bus stop
3. [pro] time to be productive/rest while I commute to work by bus; I don't always take advantage of this, but I'm trying to use the time to read. I need to get some audio books
4. [con] takes longer to bike or ride the bus to work than to drive
5. [con] rainy days can be challenging, especially if I biked to work that day

Friday Five: Incidental Exercise

Today's theme is incidental exercise. Here are 5 things I do anyway for other reasons that have the added bonus of sneaking in a bit of unscheduled exercise.

1. bike/walk to the gym, store, work etc - my main reason for biking/walking to the gym or Publix is because I don't want to waste gas driving a 1 mile, but it's an easy way to get in some extra exercise. 
2. take the stairs - I've been doing this for a long time and don't even remember when I didn't. I only use the elevator at work when I ride my bike to bring it to my office because it is a bit too heavy and awkward to carry up the store with my bag. However, when I walk to the shower to the 4th floor, I use the stairs.
3. house work - All that squatting, bending, scrubbing, running around the house adds up. I don't know about you, but I'm usually exhausted after doing a thorough cleaning of my apartment.
4. carrying groceries - This is great strength training! Instead of using the cart to get your groceries out to your car, and letting the staff do it for you, carry the bags on your shoulders (I use reusable tote bags that are very easy to sling over your shoulder). I have the added bonus that I live about a mile from Publix, so I get to carry them further than just a few feet.
5. sit on exercise ball at my desk - I started doing this a little while ago, but have not been doing it with any consistency lately. It is surprisingly comfortable and a great abs workout. I think I'll sit on it today. You have to ease into it because your body is not used to it, so I usually do it for 30-60 minutes at a time, then alternate with my desk chair.

bonus: park further away - This is moot now that I'm living without a car, but I'd still do it if we ever get one again (or borrow/rent one for a day). I started doing this when I embarked in my weigh loss journey as a way to get in at least a bit of extra walking everyday. I still do it unless it's raining, crazy cold, or I have a lot to carry. It has the added bonus of not wasting time hunting for a parking stop and always knowing where I parked since the ones in the back are always free.

What are your ideas for making exercise a part of your daily routine?

Friday Five: Bay to Breakers

I picked up my race packet today and was underwhelmed by the expo, but I'm still excited about the race. I plan to have a blast running with friends and taking lots of photo breaks :) So here's my short and sweet post for today, my top 5 reasons to run Bay to Breakers (subject to change on Sunday after I actually run the race =P):

1. It's a great excuse to visit San Francisco -- as if I really need one ;)
2. Running in a costume is fun
3. It's exciting being part of such a huge race (60K+ runners/walkers)
4. New distance = automatic PR
5. Hills build character

Here is another 99 Reasons to Register for Bay to Breakers.

Friday Five: Vegetarian Recipes

Today is the last day of our 30 days of eating only vegetarian food. It has gone extremely well, and I do not see us eating meat again anytime soon. We have even contemplated going vegan, but we are not willing to make that leap yet because I love eggs, and Jason loves milk. Our alternative is to make better choices about where we buy these products. This week we bought cage-free eggs, and produce, from the Homegrown Local Food Cooperative Farmer’s Market. We know the owners of the co-op, so we feel confident their growers are truly organic and local, and we can go visit the farms anytime we want -- and we will soon.

Below are 5 of our favorite vegetarian recipes from allrecipes.com

1. Vegetarian Shepherds Pie II - our absolutely favorite that we've made a few times
2. Chickpea Falafel Burgers - they're like eating humus in patty form
3. Addictive Sweet Potato Burritos - this is basically chili with sweet potatoes. yum!
4. Amazing Greek Pasta - this is really a sauce recipe, and it is delicious
5. Chickpea and Green Bean Stir-fry - this recipe is from a vegetarian cookbook we have, so I don't have anywhere to link it, but it's basically red onions, garlic, green beans, chickpeas and spices stir-fried and topped with drizzle of lemon juice at the end.

Friday Five: Run for the Trees 5k Goals

Tomorrow I'll be running the Run for the Trees 5K for the 3rd time. I set my current 5K PR at this race last year, and I'm going back for a rematch tomorrow :) I stupidly did a new circuit workout on Monday and have been sore since; fearing I may have pulled something on my right inner thigh, I skipped yesterday's run. The soreness (and bruise like pain on my thigh) seems to be mostly gone now with resting the last 2 days, so I still have high hopes that I'll do well tomorrow.

Below are my lofty goals for this race.

1. Bike to start -- the race start is about 6 miles away near Cady Way Park, so we plan to bike there as a warm up. I am not looking forward to biking back after pushing hard on the run, but it should be a good cool down if I take it easy and allow myself plenty of time to recover before heading home.
2. PR -- This is my main goal, to finish under 33:12, which was my time at this race last year.
3. Finish in 32:30 -- This would be an average pace of 10:30 min/mile and I think its doable since it's only 42 seconds faster than last year. I may be able to pull that off on my improved endurance alone.
4. Finish in 31 minutes -- This is my pie in the sky goal, which would mean an average pace of the coveted 10 min/mile. I would be ecstatic if I finished anywhere near this, but I am not going to beat myself up if I don't. I do think this is doable if I push really hard and leave it all out there, so I'm going to do my best.
5. Run using 3:1 intervals - Even though I can cover the distance without walking, I am at least 2 minutes slower. So I plan to run using 3:1 intervals (last year I used 5:1 intervals). I may extend the run intervals during the last mile, but will likely just run faster. Using 2:1 intervals worked great for a PR at my last 10k a few weeks ago, so it's worth a shot for this 5k.

Well, there you have it.  I'll be sure to post a race report tomorrow night and let you know how I did. Wish me luck!

Friday Five: Corporate 5K Quickie Race Report

I need to write a proper race report for last night's Corporate 5K, but I have 100+ photos to go through and videos, and a busy day ahead, so I'll do it this weekend. In the meantime, you get a mini race report Friday Five style :)

1. According to Track Shack, the race had 617 teams and 12,633 runners/walkers!
2. Team Stats:
• 34 registered participants; 31 completed the race (we had 9 last year + 1 cheerleader)
• 12 completed their first 5K!
• 7 returned from last year, and our cheerleader Sammy did the race this year
3. One of our runners, Bob Reed sang the national anthem at the race with his quartet Makeshift. View the video on YouTube.
4. Per my garmin, I ran 3.13 in 34:37 (11:03 min/mile pace). My clock time was 43:20 as it took almost 9 minutes to cross the start line. Read my mini race report on dailymile.
5. Below is a group photo of most of the team before the race. You can see more photos on Flickr, and I'll be adding more to that album soon.

not pictured: Alison, Beth, Bob, Danny, Don, Manny, Matt, Patricia, Regina, Shannon

Friday Five: Why Go Green

There are many benefits to going green. Planet Green has an excellent article, Why Go Green?,  talking about the big picture, including Top 10 Tips and By the Numbers for those of you who like statistics. Below is my top five list of the benefits of going green. I find that at least one, and usually all, of these are true of every green thing I do.

1. reduce impact on the environment - this is the main benefit of going green. Everything we do affects our planet and we're slowly using up all our natural resources. The Story of Stuff is a great look at this.
2. incidental exercise - biking to work or walking to the store not only saves you money on gas and helps reduce pollution caused from car emissions (such as carbon dioxide) they are a great workout!
3. reduce waste - recycling, or better yet reusing, keeps excess waste out of landfills. Sadly, not everything we recycle stays out of landfills so being mindful of the packaging and reusability of the things we purchase goes a long way. 
4. eat healthier - eating green is healthier for us because they are natural and unprocessed, keeping more of their nutrients, which also means they require less resources and money to produce and transport them. e.g. most processed foods have extra sodium to help preserve the food longer; restaurants also use a lot of added sodium and fat (e.g. butter) to make things taste better even if they are not of the best quality from the start.
5. save money - most things that we do to conserve the earth's resources also help us save money, e.g. tap water vs bottled water; biking vs driving; opening windows vs light bulbs or A/C; cooking vs eating at a restaurant.

How about you? Why do you go green?

Friday Five: Weekly Blog Features

Today I am taking a page from Running is Funny (and many other blogs out there), and hopefully this will become my 3rd weekly feature. I'm still wrestling with how I want this to go, but I will either pick a theme every Friday and post 5 things that match that theme, or I'll just post 5 random things that happened that week or come to mind that day =P I guess random is a theme ;)

Today's theme is weekly blog features. In an attempt to blog more regularly, I am implementing some recurring blog features. I'm trying these out for now and we'll see if I stick with them. I could use your help for more ideas since I may run out of material for some, or grow tire of it, and need to replace it eventually.

1. Monday Brain Exchange -- I plan to play along every week with the topic/question posted at Finishing is Winning.
2. Wednesday One Green Thing -- This is my newest feature and one that will not likely last because I'll run out of things to post about. I guess I'll just need to find new was to save our environment :) I may just start going through green guides on the web (e.g. Green Guide or Planet Green)  and post about which I'm doing and try those that I'm not.
3. Friday Five -- You are here! =)
4. Sunday Week Recap (needs a clever name) -- I've tried this before and it ever only lasted for a week or two, but I am going to give it another try now that I will be doing 3 sports regularly. This will also help make writing the monthly recaps easier.
5. Random - I'll also regularly post about the following as they occur: race reports, monthly recaps (including progress on yearly goals), 101 things progress, yearly recaps, gear reviews, and much more! 

So reading this, you'd think I'll be posting 5 days a week. Ha! I'll try, but it's entirely possible I'll skip one or more of these features on any given week due to lack of time or creativity :) But if I shoot for 5, I should be able to get in at least 3.