Breakfast Sandwich

This morning I made a yummy breakfast sandwich. I modeled it after a sample I tried at a local coffee shop yesterday. There's had motzerella cheese, and all I had in the house was Irish Dubliner. I think the sandwich was really good, but would have been a bit better with a different cheese.

Ingredients to make two:
two mini bagels - toasted
two eggs - fried
two slices of cheese
12 spinach leaves - fresh

7 grape tomatoes or 1/2 Roma tomato
1/4 cup red onion
1 tsp olive oil

pan fry the onion and tomato until soft.

Pile all ingredients on the bagel and enjoy!

Pumpkin Scones

Starbucks Pumpkin Scones have been a favorite treat of mine for
10+ years. A few years ago my daughter tried them and also fell in love. Being the person that I am, I naturally searched online for a recipe I could make at home, so I didn't have to buy the scones at Starbucks (which I rarely did). I found a recipe here: I've been using it for almost three years now, my family loves it, my co-workers love it, so needless to say, it's a keeper. I modify it slightly, which I will comment on in (parenthesis) below. I ended up tripling the recipe so I'd have some to take to work with me, and some to freeze (I just froze the dough.)

Yield: 6 scones

Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour

7 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

6 tablespoons cold butter

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

3 tablespoons half-and-half

1 large egg

Powdered Sugar Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

2 tablespoons whole milk

Spiced Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

2 tablespoons whole milk (I use half and half)

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 pinch ginger

1 pinch ground cloves

Directions:

TO MAKE THE SCONES:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Using a pastry knife, fork, or food processor, cut butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no chunks of butter are obvious. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half, and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Form the dough into a ball.

Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle (about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide). Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal portions. Cut those three slices diagonally so that you have 6 triangular slices of dough. (I NEVER do this, I just use a spoon and plop the dough down on the baking sheet, lined with parchment paper, they end up being roundish, not triangular, but I can live with it.)

Place on prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 14 -16 minutes. Scones should begin to turn light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.

TO MAKE THE PLAIN GLAZE (I don’t make this, I only make the spiced glaze)

Mix the powdered sugar and 2 tbsp. milk together until smooth.

When scones are cool, use a brush to paint plain glaze over the top of each scone.

AS THAT WHITE GLAZE FIRMS UP, MAKE THE SPICED ICING:

Combine the ingredient for the spiced icing together. Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone and allow the icing to dry before serving (at least 1 hour). A squirt bottle works great for this, or you can drizzle with a whisk.

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/starbucks-pumpkin-scones-214051#ixzz1jS9aUsyg

Starting Over, from Scratch

I can't believe it's been two years, almost to the date since I last blogged on here!
Lately I've been trying to cook and bake as much as possible from scratch. This includes making my own marinades and sauces, some breads and snacks. Why, you might ask? The main reason is for health, there are SO many chemicals and preservatives (yes, I know preservatives are chemicals) in most of the food on the grocery store shelf. Budget also plays a role in this equation, it is much more cost effective to bake from scratch.

Time is the third piece to the puzzle, since starting a Masters program in October 2011 I have been busier than ever! I work full time, have a husband and a 9 year old daughter, thus my days an nights are pretty booked. It is so nice to have my meals all planned out for the month, with most of them already prepped and ready to go in the freezer. I'll blog more about that another day. For today I'll share a recipe with you for Sweet and Salty granola bars. My daughter loves the sweet and salty granola bars from Quaker, but they are SO expensive in the 'regular' grocery store and I no longer have a Costco membership. I searched the internet to try and find a comparable recipe but didn't have much luck, so I ended up combining two recipes found here and here.
Mary's Sweet and Salty Granola Bars

• 3/4 cup peanut butter, preferably natural
• 4 tbsp butter
  
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 cups mini pretzels
• 3 1/2 cups *toasted oats
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped nuts (I used half peanuts and half cashews)
• 2/3 cup melted butter
  
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup honey
  
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
  

*To toast the oats, put them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Line a 13" x 9" baking pan with parchment paper.

In a sauce pan melt the 4 tbsp butter, add the 3/4 cup peanut butter, 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, 1/4 cup honey and 1 tsp vanilla extract, stir over medium low heat for about 10 minutes, or until completely mixed. Pour the mixture into the baking pan. Put the mini pretzels on top of the mixture (see picture).

In a large bowl mix oats, brown sugar, chopped nuts, chocolate chips,
egg, honey, melted butter, vanilla extract and salt. Put this mixture
on top of the pretzel mixture.
Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
Let cool before cutting.


They turned out really good! They don't taste anything like
the Quaker ones, but I'm happy with the result. I would maybe add a little less chocolate chips next time, since they are really sweet.

Let me know if you try out the recipe!

A new year, a new goal

It has been ages, months really, since I last updated this blog. My last post was in July, the day after my birthday and 5 days before my Dad had brain surgery to remove a cancerous tumor discovered on July 15. His surgery went well, he currently taking chemo and doing well.
I DID run the marathon, and perhaps one day I'll blog about it, but for now, just know that I did it.
I also bought a house!
A lot has happened since last July, all of it was life changing.

For now, I'm happy to report that I started running again, joined the YMCA and hope to complete at least two marathons this year, the first one may be in April.

Fifteen.15. 10 + 5

Wow. Running 15 miles is hard. Who'd a thought? We started at 6:40am at Zuanich Park, ran to Chuckanut Crest (near the Teddy Bear Cove Parking Lot on Chuckanut Drive) and ran back. I had a lovely running partner; I think I talked her ear off. For some reason I just couldn't shut-up.

The run was good, I felt okay during it and immediatly after. However, now at 2:30 I am pretty sore! Mostly my feet, but also my butt and legs. I more worried about tomorrow though, the soreness tends to wait a day or two to really kick in!

The cuts on my feet didn't bleed, so all is well there.

When we got done we remarked that it was fantastic that we ran that far, but can't imagine tacking 11 more miles on. 2 months to go!

A Year Older, a new group

I did not realize this until a few months ago, but women in their thirties are extremely competitive and fast. Looking at the top times for races for women in their 20's compared to 30's is unreal. If only I had decided to start running a few years ago!

To top it off, I sliced my foot open in three places today. I was trying to hydrate myself for the big 15 mile run tomorrow. I dropped a glass and it shattered sending shards of glass everywhere. Thankfully nothing was cut deep.

Happy Birthday to me!

Run 542

also known as CRAZY GIRL WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?

For some reason I cannot explain, I decided to do the Run 542. It's only 7 miles, yes I can say only 7 with confidence now. However, it's the 3,000 ft elevation gain that's got me worried!.

RUN542 climbs nearly 3000 total feet over 7.2 miles of very rough access roads and technical single track in, around and through the legendary Mt Baker Ski Area and the Mt. Baker/Snoqualmie National Forest. Starting at the White Salmon Base Area (el. 3500ft), under the magnificent glaciers of Mt. Shuksan, the course climbs 5 separate and challenging ascents, laced with 4 descents, and tops out at Artist Point (el. 5140ft.).

Again, what was I thinking?

I did sign up for a class through the YMCA to train for the run, which is great. There are 6 other awesome ladies also in the class.
It should be fun!

Lake Padden Hill Run

A weird thing happened to me on my run up to the Lake. I thought to myself, "I kinda enjoy this". Am I actually starting to like running? I mean really like it? Not just like the challenge and the fitness aspect, not to mention the weight loss and muscle gain.

Crazy again, I know, I'm turning into someone I don't even recognize.

A short run?

Who am I? I don't even recognize myself anymore.

Today I thought, oh cool, we only have to run 10 miles.

ONLY!!!

Ha! That's a lot, but I guess when you're going for 26.2, it does seem small.

My running group started meeting at 7am on Saturdays, which is nice. I was home by about 9:45am, compared to the usual 10:30 or 10:45.

10.4 Miles

10.4 miles is a long way to run. Especially if you live in a small town with a good number of hills. It's hard to plan a route that doesn't involve hills, is primarily on trails or a minor arterial.
My challenge: to plan a 10.4 mile route that ended at my apartment and hopefully started near the YMCA (where Izzie goes before school). I had hoped to include the railroad trail, however, that was a few miles (all on street) from the YMCA.
I finally decided to start at the YMCA, run to Boulevard Park, follow the trail to the Village Green in Fairhaven, hop onto the Interurban Trail for a couple miles, run UP Fairhaven Parkway to 34th, turn right, get on the new trail that goes UP to Lake Padden. Once I arrived at Padden my plan was to eat (consume?) a GU energy packet, fill my water bottle, then run down Samish Road, to Lincoln, right on Fraser and head home. However, I realized at about mile 8 that I was too close to home, so I had to take some roundabout ways to get home and still get my distance in.
It was a warm, sunny day. A hot day, we would say in Bellingham, since it got over 70 degrees!
I had to stop and take a picture of the Lake, this was the view I had running up the trail, after the most brutal part of the run, an elevation gain of about 450 feet, straight up from sea level.Pretty isn't it?

Hurray for parades! Here's a picture of Izzie and I that my coworker took. It was so fun seeing people we knew on the streets. Izzie was saying hi to her friends and they were excited to know someone in the parade. A good time was had by all.
As you can see, there was a truck in the back. What you can't see are the pieces of wood that extended three feet out, to show the minimum 3 foot safe passing distance.

Back into the run of things

After my race I decided to take some time off. The run was on May 3rd, I didn't run again until May 9th, once around Lake Padden, an easy 2.6 miles. I thought I'd try to ease back into things and run a couple times during the proceeding week, but who was I kidding? It was Bike to Work and School Day on May 15th.

There was NO way I could manage being one of the lead organizers for a County wide event (over 8,500 participants!!), bike commute, run, be a wife and mom, and still stay upright and not exhaust myself.

So, for my own health, I didn't run.

Until yesterday, May 23rd.

I guess I took a little longer off then I should have, seeing that I'm still in training, now for the full marathon.

The group was running 9 miles yesterday, which seemed like a bit much to ease myself back into things, so I started off thinking I'd run about 6 or 7. However, I was having so much fun chatting with my very good friend that I just kept running. I did take a little short cut at the end, so my total distance was closer to 8.5, not 9.

So far I'm a little sore, but not too bad. As crazy as it sounds (and I KNOW it's crazy) it actually felt good to be out running again.

I suppose that would be a good end to this story, however, it continues!

After the run I headed home, ate, showered, ate some more, then Izzie and I rode our bikes to the staging area for the Ski to Sea Grand Parade. We, along with about 10 other youth and adults rode our bikes for the "Share the Road...and the Rules" float, sponsored by the City of Bellingham and the Whatcom County Traffic Safety Task Force. I don't have any pictures of the parade, so you'll have to make do with this:

A side affect of running

I started out this whole half marathon and marathon goal as simply that, a goal. I've wanted to run a marathon for a few years now. Don't ask me why, it just sounded like an amazing thing that people do, and I wanted to see if I could do it too. I've never been particularly 'sporty'. Sure I played softball growing up, hockey for a year and ride my bike a lot, but I have never excelled in any sport or really set any sport or fitness goals.

The timing just seemed right to do these races, I had an okay fitness base due to all the bicycling I do, however I knew that if I wanted to run these races and not seriously hurt myself I'd have to kick it up a few dozen notches and run at least 4 times a week. So I did. And guess what happened. I started to develop defined muscles in my legs. Crazy, I've never had that before. I have also lost about 15 pounds since January. Crazy again, because I didn't start this as a weight loose goal, it just happened.

With all that said, I feel great! And I am only 8 pounds heavier than when I got pregnant. Sure it has taken me 6.5 years to get back to that point, but whose counting? For me, it's more about being healthy than a number on the scale.

Mission Accomplished!

I did it! I ran a half marathon!!


I ran the Tacoma City Marathon on May 3rd, 2009 in 2 hours 7 minutes and 51 seconds!! That is 9:46/mile.

I may look like hell here, but what do you expect after 13.1 miles? Cool super hero cape, huh?!

The 100 mile club!

http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/v1/html/milestones/print_certif.html?id=2028043409&region=us&language=en&locale=en_us&dateFormat=MM/DD/YY

Volunteering and being sick

Today was the first time I've ran since March 14th. Shocker!! What's happening to me? Well, I've been a little bit sick and really busy. I can say though, that I rode my bike to work 3/5 days last week, so that should count for something.

Wanna hear something crazy?

I knew you did.

I volunteered at a 50K race yesterday.
That's 31 miles!!
I can hardly believe I'm training for a 13.1 mile race, and these guys ran 31!!

AMAZING!! Perhaps someday in the far and distant future I will be one of them, perhaps.

Runnin' O' the Green

What a fun race! The City of Bellingham puts on a St. Patrick's Day race every year, the Saturday before St. Patty's Day. This year it fell on March 14th. One may choose to either run 2 miles or 5 miles. I was ecstatic that Jeff and Izabelle run the 2 miles while I ran the 5 miles!
Being Bellingham, and being that it was an Irish themed race, it rained.
No it poured.
No it rained cat's and dog's.
We were all soaked by the time the race was over, but in good spirits.
Unfortunatly they didn't serve beer at the aid stations, but they did have cool shirts and lots of fun prizes to give away.
Oh, and don't forget Maggie's Furry, an awesome local Irish band.
I finished in 46:52!! A 9:18 min/mile. MUCH better than I had hoped.
To see a photo click here.

Fun Run, Snow Run, Trail Run

Carl Cozier had a fun run! You could either run 2 miles or walk 1 or 2 miles. Naturally we all ran the 2 miles. It was a fun run, the name being correct. The course was 95% on trails, trails we take every day when walking or biking home from school.
The only thing is....
RIGHT when the race started....
it started to SNOW!!!

Go figure!

I bought some tickets to win a Kayak, donated by the local warehouse of Johnson Outdoors.
Wish me luck!

10K

Today I ran the Skagit Symphony Smelt Run, 10k. It was a pretty flat course, which is nice, however it did wind around on the roads (including the main hwy out of town) and there was a bit of traffic, which isn't too fun.
The highlight was seeing the swans in the soon to be tulip fields and finishing in 1 hr 6 minutes.
The lowlight was running on concrete, thus I now have sore calves, shins.

Day of Rest

Hurray! Today is my day of rest, although I did walk 1.5 miles to work and ride my bike home, but that's nothing compared to what I've been doing.
Hopefully I can actually relax some.....