Will Run For Honey Apple Pancakes (& t-rex eyeball rings)

who needs syrup or a fork?

Grateful people are happier people.  At least that's what I've heard.

In an attempt to be more grateful I've been writing the things that I am grateful for on post-it notes and sticking them to the bathroom mirror (luckily 8 year olds for the most part don't care what you look like).

Some things that I'm grateful for this week:

1.  T-Rex eye ball rings.  A student thought that I was special enough to give a gummy rubber ring with a rolling t-rex eyeball in it to.  It was the best present that I got all week. Sure it was warm, grubby and had been on his finger but he was so proud. 

2.  A bed full of bouviers and/or a bathtub full of bouviers.

bouvier in the bath

bouvier in the bed

3.  Outdoor runs.  7 K outdoors is better than 7K on the treadmill even if it is -25, you have to slather your face in shea butter so your skin doesn't crack off and your running partner complains the ENTIRE time.  Maybe I'm exaggerating a little.

4.  Guinea pigs.  We adopted Simone & Soda Marcelle 5 week old guinea pigs from our local SPCA!

Simone

 Marcelle Marcelle or Soda Marcelle depending on who you ask

5.  Snow days.  Thank you. I've appreciated the quiet time but enough is enough.  You can keep your super snow ice storm(s) to yourself.

On snow days when I only have a handful of students we usually find our way to the kitchen and make healthier versions of some of their favourite foods (in the name of procedural writing of course).  This week it was pancakes & oatmeal cups.

Honey Apple Pancakes
(6-8 pancakes)

*1/4 C ground oats

*1/2 C whole wheat flour

*1/2 C unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1 flax egg (1 T ground flax + 3 T warm water) or 1 chicken/duck egg

3/4 C + 2 T unsweetened apple juice

2 tsp honey

1 T olive oil

1 small apple peeled and grated (e.g. royal gala, macintosh)

Step 1: In a large bowl combine dry ingredients.  In a smaller bowl combine wet ingredients including grated apple.  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until lumpy.  

Step 2:  Heat griddle.  Pour 1/4 C of batter on griddle for each pancake.  Cook 2-3 minutes on each side until surface is bubbly.  Turn pancake and cook an additional 2-3 minutes.

Step 3:  Serve with apple sauce, apple butter, syrup or honey. 

* you can substitute whole wheat flour or all purpose flour for the flour combination. 

Will Run For Roasted Cauliflower with Cocoa & Chipotle

cauliflower not macaroons

Imagine you just gave your first needle to a real live patient.  Real.  Live.  You didn't gag or throw up in your shirt (because that's happened) even after some unfortunate events involving adult diapers briefs & a beard.

  As you finally walk through your front door you see a plate full of coconut almond macaroons.  It's a celebration!  Unfortunately, your celebration ends in cocoa & chipotle roasted cauliflower.

Farmer thought that we were celebrating her having survived her first day of nursing placement with macaroons.  Instead we were celebrating with cauliflower.  Typical.

When you aren't expecting macaroons cauliflower + cocoa + chipotle (together at last) is pretty delicious.  Apparently, cauliflower and cocoa is old news.  Who knew. Give it a try.  A girl can only eat so much pureed cauliflower. 

Farmer is pretty excited about this round of placement.  Instead of hanging her head out of the car window while she gags after I ask her about her day she pulls out what seems like hundreds of scraps of paper covered in numbers and abbreviations and starts to tell me all about her day.  I deserve it.  What do I expect after way too much talk about running records, DRA, & sight words.

Really, I'm pretty excited for her.  3/8 of a nurse is way better than 1/4.  

Roasted Cauliflower with Cocoa & Chipotle 

(serves 1 if you eat with your elbows out)

1 head of cauliflower 

1 T coconut oil

1 tsp cocoa

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp chipotle powder

Preheat oven to 400 F.  While your oven & baking stone are warming up separate cauliflower into large  florets.  Melt coconut oil, add cocoa, smoked paprika, and chipotle powder to coconut oil.  Drizzle cocoa mixture over cauliflower and mix until evenly distributed.  

   

Roast for 30 minutes or until the edges are crispy.  Stir cauliflower 15 minutes into roasting.

Serve with macaroons.

Will Run For Apple Chips (& a mandoline)

cinnamon apple chips

When I saw the subject line "4:45 a.m. double crust sandwich" I knew that things weren't good.  My cousin and I use double crust sandwiches as the baseline for a bad day.  Her double crust sandwiches literally involve a double crust sandwich as well as a work week that includes two Mondays (that's cruel), leaving her house at 4:45 a.m. to drive for an hour and working underground as the only girl on her crew.  Now that's a bad day if you ask me.  This particular double crust sandwich involved a dog weigh scale, jeans that didn't fit, and a few other details that I am not at liberty to share (she has stories, and pictures).

The opposite of double crust sandwiches (in my world anyway) are trays of cinnamon apple chips and bowls of thinly sliced beets, carrots, apples, and avocados with white balsamic vinegar.  If you're reminding yourself to tell me to suck a beet chip the next time you see me don't worry it won't be the first time I hear it.  I wonder if Farmer knew that the mandoline she bought me would make me want to thinly slice and eat every vegetable & fruit in sight.

Apple Chips  

3 gala apples

1 tsp cinnamon

lots of patience

mandoline

dehydrator

Wash apples.  Core apples using your apple corer (you could use a knife but the apple corer makes the job painless).  Using your *mandoline (everyone NEEDS one of these) thinly slice apples.  Place apples on dehydrating racks, sprinkle with cinnamon.  Turn dehydrator to 135 F.  Wait 8-10 hours. 

before

It's my birthday!  One little slice won't hurt.

If he gets one I get one too, right?

 Putting your dehydrator on before bed makes the wait less painful and your house smells delicious when you wake up.

8 hours later

While you have the mandoline out you might want to try making some beet & carrot salad.  I used 1 large beet, 2 carrots, 1/4 C parsley roughly chopped, 1/2 an apple, 1/2 avocado thinly sliced with a knife and several tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar.

the reason my hands are pink

Or how about some beet chips?

before

3 hours later (145 F for 45 minutes + 115F for 3 hrs)

Will Run For Parsnip (ity) Fries

Bye, bye waffles. Hello parsnip(ity) fries.

It's time to hop back on the vegetable wagon.  The waffle wagon has been fun but it's time for us to take a break from one another.  It's me, not you.

Rather than resolutions this year I have a list of events that I am planning on participating in.  I've decided that the point of no return is when someone else signs up for the same event or maybe the point of no return is telling anyone who will listen (or read) what my plans are.  Some of these events are just for fun and others are meant to push me outside of my comfort zone (it's a fairly small zone.  It's approximately 21 kilometres, definately does not include lakes or fish or biking and it especially doesn't include biking around corners).  

Here's the list:

Big Training Days: Swim, Bike & Run

Sudbury Rocks: Riverside Cardiac Clinic 1/2 Marathon

Ottawa Marathon

St. Joseph Island Triathlon: Olympic Distance

Miners Mayhem: Adventure Race

Esprit Triathlon: 1/2 Ironman

Parsnip(ity) Fries

(1-2 servings)

Ingredients

2 large peeled parsnips

1 tsp coconut oil

salt or dried herbs

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Peel parsnips and slice into thin strips.   Melt coconut oil.   Toss coconut oil, salt (or dried herbs), and parsnips.  Place on metal rack (cookie cooling rack).  Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until crispy.  No need to flip!

Will Run For Ms. John's Waffles

Pace Bunny & I often run for Ms. John's waffles.  Imagine having a 'fan' who  begrudgingly graciously agrees volunteers to make waffles almost any time you're racing in your home town. 

Sounds nice doesn't it? 

Ms. John I'm onto you!  Making waffles = not having to come to the race.

We usually celebrate the New Year with a resolution run of our own (imagine homemade bibs, partly eaten snacks and variety of regifted items in your race kit).  We basically resolve to stop eating and drinking crap and fight about what races we'll run during the upcoming year (more about that later). 

 The 'race' is usually followed with lots of coffee, waffles and various forms of breakfast meat (I'm not really sure why PB and I are friends).  This year while I went for a run PB was lying on her couch in her penguin pyjamas was walking the dog on the lake.

In keeping with tradition I decided to make Ms. John's waffle recipe for Farmer who likes to remind me how delicious Ms. John's waffles are every time I mention making wholewheat banana  waffles.

It turns out that Ms. John's waffles are much easier to make than I thought.  Don't let the yeast or the rising time scare you.

Ms. John's Waffles

(8-10 waffles)

ingredients

1 8 g package dry yeast (I used 2 1/4 tsp of Fleischmann's quick rise instant yeast)

2 cups lukewarm milk (I used almond milk)

4 eggs (from happy chickens), separated

2 tsp vanilla bean paste

2 1/2 cups unbleached white flour (sifted)

1/2 tsp salt

2T sugar

1/2 C melted butter

In a medium sized bowl dissolve the yeast in warm (not hot) milk.    

In a separate bowl beat egg yolks with mixer (it's worth taking out the mixer).  Next, add vanilla to egg yolks and beat until well combined.  Add milk + yeast mixture.

Sift together flour, salt and sugar.  This was a good excuse to use my fancy sifter.  Add flour mixture to egg mixture and stir.  Fold in melted butter (the original recipe says to stir in the butter carefully but feel free to be wild and crazy as you stir).

Beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks.  Fold egg whites into batter (this will help create light waffles).

Let mixture stand for 20 minutes or until it has doubled its bulk.

Grease your waffle maker.  Pour approximately 3/4 C of batter into waffle maker.  Cook for approximately 5 minutes.

sifting, sifting with my fancy sifter

fold in egg whites

cook for five minutes

enjoy with mixed berries, coconut cream, and amber maple syrup