If you can believe it, I’m coming at you with my last weekly workout recap of the month of April! This month felt like it was going by slower than the first few of the year while it was happening. Then spring finally settled in for good late enough that it feels like we’re heading straight into summer and I don’t know where the time went. Which is what I always say.
The shortest month of this Leap Year has come and gone. Even with the extra day it felt like it flew by faster than January, but also like it went on forever because of everything I fit into 29 days. Maybe also because the wacky weather gave us multiple seasons in mere days. No blizzards, but we went from polar vortex to teasingly springlike and back to somewhere in the middle just in the last week. So what did I do while this was going on? Read on in this February recap to find out!
We’ve reached the last day of the first month of 2016. I feel like I was just getting ready for the new year and reflecting on 2015, this month flew by so fast. That’s why I want to focus on making the most of the present instead of worrying about the future this year – it goes by in the blink of an eye, and I don’t want to miss a moment! Since this blog serves as a sort of adventure log for me as well as being a place to collecting running and recipe tips, I’ll be recapping each month like I did for several months of last year (April, May, June, and July) and then lost track of doing with all my traveling. I’m settled into the swing of my new routine now, I’ve learned a lot from blogging having reached the one-year mark, and today is all about my January highlights!
Happy New Year to one and all! It’s the first Monday of 2016, and I’m kicking off the year on the blog with my usual weekly workouts and updates. I’m making these posts a priority because I’m running the New York City Marathon in November and plan to document my training journey here. I won’t start officially training until late March or early April, but I’ve got three half marathons on the calendar between now and then. Starting with the Walt Disney World Half Marathon on January 9th (and the 10K the prior day), just a few days away.
I hosted my first dinner party back in February, and for the main course I served two gluten free quiches. One was a Savory Goat Cheese & Vegetable suitable for vegetarian guests, and the other was a Smoked Salmon & Quinoa Quiche suitable for the dairy free among them. All of my friends loved them, and I whipped up lots of different frittata and quiche recipes as make-ahead meals for the week throughout the spring, but I put all that on hold throughout the summer while studying for the bar five feet away from the kitchen and not cooking so much as constantly snacking 🙂 Now that it’s autumn and I’m getting ready to start my new job, I’m back to experimenting with recipes for meals I can make ahead and eat during the workweek. This gluten free Broccoli Cheddar Quiche definitely fits the bill. It’s perfect to bring to the office for breakfast or lunch, or to re-heat at home for dinner and enjoy along with a side salad.
Hello and happy Wednesday! I returned yesterday from my fortnight-long excursion across the pond, and I hope you all enjoyed following along with me as much as I loved being there. In case you missed anything so far…
Part 2: Hiking and Eating in the Lake District
Part 3: More Lakes Adventures and Fun
Part 4: Workouts and Running Hyde Park
Tomorrow I’ll be sharing my further thoughts on the trip as a whole, but since this is the day of the week when lots of us like to showcase our eats, I figured I’d take the opportunity to talk about what it was like to eat gluten free in England, both in London and in the countryside.
Hello, friends! As you read this, I am probably on a train en route from the English Lake District back to London to start the second week of my trip across the pond. When I was thinking about recipes to share while I was away, I realized I had never shared one of my most common go-to egg dishes aside from regular omelets and my gluten free waffle sandwich. My easy cheesy Omelet Quesadilla is so easy to make and delicious to eat, I knew it was perfect to pop in.
Fun fact – when I was a little kid, I was a voracious reader (I decided to read Ivanhoe at age 8 for some unfathomable reason and was so confused by it). However, I started adopting words in my vocabulary that other kids my age weren’t using, and I didn’t know how they sounded out loud, so I would end up saying them phonetically in front of my parents when I used them in conversation. QUES-A-DILL-A was one of those words. Whenever I make this at home, my dad pointedly asks if that’s what I’m whipping up. But anyway…
Welcome to another WIAW. I thought to mix it up, I’d showcase a weekend day of eats instead of a weekday – and then I realized, since I’m still studying for the bar, and it’s two weeks away, my weekdays and weekend days are pretty much the same. I run, I eat, I study, I walk Sasha, I eat more, I study more, I procrastinate, I watch Netflix. Super exciting, huh? Anyway, I realized there was one thing that made this Monday, actually, a little snazzier, and that was my unintentional dining on breakfast foods all day long. I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again, but without further ado – I give you breakfast, brunch, and brinner. A day of eats approved by the one and only Leslie Knope, obvs.
For a pre-run breakfast, I had a Peanut Butter Puff-in-a-Mug with some iced coffee and strawberries. It was actually regular coffee and not decaf, for once. My mom made an early trek to Dunkin’ and brought this back. To beat the heat and get a long-ish run in early, I woke up and ate at 7am so I could digest and be out the door before 8, which meant I could drink caffeine.
I woke up to a beautiful spring sun shining through my window yesterday morning, but it wasn’t until I stepped outside that a huge smile spread across my face. The past couple of days, New York has been thrown back into cooler temps and gusty winds, making spring feel like a bit of a tease. Now, as April nears its end, it seems as if it’s here to stay, and it might even be acceptable to dare to dream of summer!
I threw on a long-sleeved tech tee, shorts, and shoes, and jogged over to Central Park to meet some fellow November Project runners for a pre-race photo at the Bandshell. There were more than a dozen of us running the Run As One 4M this morning, a race to support lung cancer awareness and research. I love these NYRR charity runs, since they make it simple to kick off a lovely Sunday of running and brunching. I was doing the same thing this time last month, albeit in gloves and long leggings!
This time around, the sheer number of runners – over 8,000 strong – meant ten corrals and a somewhat crowded race. I was hoping to PR, and thought I might just be able to do it, but crowds rounding the corners of the park loop and creating a slower wall near the finish meant a near miss. Oh well, next time! I finished in 36:18 with 9:05/mile splits, and I got to enjoy the pretty scenic route of a park in full flower while running.
I can’t believe it, but today is my four-month blog anniversary! The past few months have been a whirlwind with family and friends, running and recipes, and of course law school and everything leading up to graduation. But I’ve really been loving every moment I’ve spent on the blog. I had forgotten how much I missed writing for fun, about whatever is on my mind, since I started law school. After all, it doesn’t leave a lot of time for it! But I’m so happy I made the time, because writing, and reading other blogs, and beginning to feel like a part of something in the healthy living community, have all been fantastic little pieces of the journey so far. That said, on to today’s post – a new muffin recipe combining two of my favorite things.
Honeydew makes these muffins another snack that smiles back!
I’m constantly experimenting with new flavor combinations for my muffins because I whip up a batch weekly for breakfast, brunch, an on-the-go snack or a running pick-me-up. Honestly, they’re practically a food group for me (just look at what I eat on a typical day!) These little dollops of deliciousness are what would happen if my Caramel Apple Cinnamuffins and Peanut Butter Cuppins had a muffin baby. Apples + Peanut Butter = Yum. Every time. Plus, I had an excuse to try out my new silicone muffin pan – I usually stick to a regular stainless steel pan, but lately mine has been getting tough to clean and the muffins have been sticking even when the pan is greased well, so I decided to give this cute red one a try. It’s a little trickier to remove from the oven without bending, but I’m happy to announce it was a successful test run! If you slide a knife carefully around the edges of each muffin before removing, they’re easy to pop right out of the pan.
Muffins in their new baking home
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups gluten-free rolled oats
1/4 cup gluten-free sorghum or all-purpose flour
6 oz vanilla Greek yogurt (I used Oikos Traditional Greek Yogurt)
2 Tbsp milk of choice (I used So Delicious Vanilla Coconut Milk)
2 large eggs
2 tbsp peanut butter, melted (My favorite Peanut Butter & Co)
2 tbsp powdered peanut butter (I used PB2 Original)
1/2 cup apple, peeled and chopped (I like using Braeburn apples to bake, they’re the perfect twist of sweet and snappy)
1/3 cup applesauce
1 Tbsp butter (you can sub extra applesauce if you prefer)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Extra tbsp olive oil, butter, or cooking spray (to grease the pan)
renaissancerunnergirl 