3 Mile Saturday and 8 Mile Sunday

Saturday morning I woke up feeling motivated and empowered.  It was NYCM weekend.  

If over 40,000 runners can run 26.2 miles, surely I can put some miles down.  I figured Saturday was as good of a day as any to put some miles back under my velt.  I fueled my run with two eggs, spinach, avocado and siracha on whole wheat toast with an almond milk/cinnamon roll protein powder smoothie concoction. Filling, satisfying, and a great way to start the day. 

Olive and I geared up and decided to go for a leisurely 3 mile run by the lake.  Long sleeve tech shirt, shorts, and newtons for me, and a Ruffwear harness and leash for Olive

        

It was a beautiful warm morning, with weather in the 60s mid day.  My run surpringly felt great, despite a really bad stitch and cramp towards the end.  Probably due to being dehydrated Friday night and red wine. ----Oops.

Saturday night I got a text from my running friend Jill asking if I wanted to go for a run Sunday.  Two days in a row.... whoa Katie.  I said sure and asked her what time. Some of our conversation must have been lost in the text waves because I thought I was agreeing to 8am, she thought I was agreeing to 8 miles.  Whelp.

I wanted a big classic Sunday breakfast.  I went with two eggs on a piece of wheat toast, 1/4 of an avocado, and a home made sweet potato hash (half a sweet potato, onion, garlic, dab of butter).    Satisfying and filling and no tummy troubles during my run.

Success.

I haven't run over 3 miles in a few weeks so I was a little worried, but decided to lace up my sneakers, put on my big girl panties, and meet Jill for a flat 8 miles around Old Saybrook.  After all, it was New York City Marathon day... what is 8 miles then lots of folks are running 26.   My faithful running buddy Olive came along.  Donned in her Ruffwear harness and her reflective vest

We had a great leisurely run- no music, just sunshine and catching up.  The first 6 miles flew by and while the last two felt a little harder, I was really amazed at how great the run felt overall.  Flat terrain really helps.   

Few weeks off.... 1:19:47  Average pace 9:58 - beautiful waterfront run. Pretty happy with out splits and our time especially considering taking some time off. 

It felt great to be done with 8 miles by 11 on a chilly Sunday.  I went to Old Lyme, rode Bradley, and made some lunch.  Chicken breast with a side of noodles. 

And for dessert... (yes weekends means dessert after lunch)  Ginger yogurt with fresh berries and cinnamon. 

After lunch it was a warm fall gear and a walk around Old Lyme, and a trip to the book barn. 

I had such a wonderful weekend and it felt great to get back into my running sneakers. 

Some people ease back into running, I guess I just jumped in with both feet. 

Maybe that's the best way to start?    Did you log some miles this weekend?

Coconut blondies

Saturday night I decided to do a lot of relaxing and a little bit of baking.

Last time I went grocery shopping I decided to stock up on my baking supplies. 

If you are a faithful reader, you know I have been trying to work on my baking skills.
Or lack there of.

 

Flour, sugar, vanilla, chocolate chips, coconut flakes, nuts, I stocked up on some staples.

 

Looking at the coconut flakes and chocolate chips, I really wanted to use those suckers first.

 

I did some research to find a recipe and I found this piece of heaven. 

Coconut Chocolate Blondies from My Baking Addiction
Another Two Peas and their Pod Recipe!

 

Coconut chocolate chip blondie?!?

 

What a grand idea.

 

 
 
 

 

I was excited to find a recipe that I had all of the ingredients for. 

Well, an easy recipe is nice too. 

 

 

 

 

What you will need:

 

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 stick of unsalted butter- melted and cooled to room temp

1 cup light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sweetened coconut flakes

1 cup of chocolate chips

 

 

Directions:

 

1.  Preheat oven to 350 F

 

2.  Spray an 8 inch baking pan with cooking spray. 

(I used a cake pan)

 

3.  Combine the flour and salt- whisk and set aside

4.  Stir together the melted butter and brown sugar until smooth and creamy;  beat in egg and vanilla extract until well blended.

 

5.  Slowly beat in the flour and salt mixture until just blended.  Next, stir in the coconut and chocolate chips.  Scrape the batter into the pan.  Make sure the batter is spread evenly, smooth with a spatula.  Sprinkle coconut flakes on top.

 

6.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until set int he center but still soft.  Do not overbake the bars.  Let cool slightly before serving and cut the bars into squares.

 

 

 

 

Oh I really hope you go make these RIGHT NOW.

You will not be disappointed.

 

Gooey and warmed....

Cold out of the fridge...

Delicious any way you serve.

 

 

Enjoy!

Portuguese Codfish Casserole - Bacalhau A Gomes De Sa

It is a rainy Friday here in Connecticut.  

I take that back....
it is torrential rain gale force wind Friday here in Connecticut.  

What does that mean ?  

Not a lot of talk about running. 

 Instead- Recipes and Good Eats!

Today I bring to you a traditional Portuguese recipe. 
Let me start by saying I am 100 % Portguese.  Both of my parents were born on a small Island smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic owned my Portugal called Sao Miguel which is a part of the chain of islands known as the Azores.  
Probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

I have been lucky enough to visit the main land Portugal about 10 years ago,
and the island just this past June.  
And I just realized I never shared all of my amazing pictures with you.  
Will have to do that soon!  

Now, back to food.  
Portuguese cuisine has a lot of staples and traditions.  And there is one dish that I never really appreciated until I was an adult. 

I never knew the actual name of this dish, but I grew up eating it.  Salted Cod is a staple in Portuguese cuisine.  I grew up eating this casserole featuring Cod, potatoes, onions, olives, and hard boiled eggs.  After a little research, I found a traditional recipe from Emeril Lagasse and a name - Bacalhau.  I am not entirely sure how you pronounce it but I think it is something like Bach ul yah.  

(This is how it traditionally looks- and how it looked growing up as a kid)

 I should have called my aunt for her recipe, but I was feeling lazy and resorted to google.  I finally found a recipe that resembled the cod dish I knew.  And you know this recipe HAS to be traditional and good because its Emeril, and  he used to cook in the town I grew up in, Little Portugal- aka Fall River, Massachusetts.

You can find his recipe here

I however, liked this recipe.
Sans olive garnish and with the added tomato sauce.
I remembered my families recipe being red and saucy and 
I hate olives so I used a very similar recipe that left them out and included tomato sauce. 
The Recipe I used

(this is how mine looked)
DROOL!

Here is the recipe
You probably already have all of the ingredients (except the fish) 

Ingredients 
 2 lbs salted Cod Fish
5 large potatoes
3 large onions sliced
3/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablesoon fresh parley chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
 1 teaspoon paprika
3 tablespoons of tomato sauce

1.  Soak salted cod in cold water overnight or for a few hours.  Drain water, repeat.  Heat a large pot of water until boiling.  Cook cod for 5 minutes, drain and cool leaving cod in large pieces. Set Aside

Note:  I chose to use frozen unsalted cod.  Ignore the step above completely if you do too.  I thawed my cod, salt and peppered it and threw it right into the dish.  Don't worry about cooking it like that step says it will cook enough in the casserole while you wait for the potatoes to soften.. no one likes overcooked fish anyway.  Portuguese are famous for cooking everything well well WELL done.  You cannot find a rare steak anywhere in the Azores. 

2.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  In an 8x11 casserole dish, layer half of the potato slices, all of the cod, and all of the onions.  Top with remaining potato slices

(I used my mandolin which made sure all of my slices were the same thickness and cooked evenly)

3.  In a small bowl, mix together the olive oil, garlic, parsley, pepper flakes, paprika, and tomato sauce.  Pour evenly over the casserole.  

4.  Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes or until potatoes are tender. 
I chose to cover with foil for half of the baking time to make sure the potatoes cooked faster.  

MODIFICATIONS
I made a few changes to make this recipe a little healthier and easier for me.  

First, I chose not to use salted cod because I just don't have time or patience to unsalt it.  And I don't like my food super salty.  I used fresh cod from the famers market.   Or if I am feeling REALLY frugal... I just use frozen tilapia or swai or what ever white fish is on sale that day. Fresh local unsalted unfrozen cod is best. 

Secondly, I cut the amount of olive oil in half.  It calls for a lot of olive oil and I wanted to cut some of it out for a healthier dinner and less oily fish.  I also used twice as much garlic and parsley because I just LOVE garlic and parsley.  Make sure you use the fresh stuff... no jarred garlic or dried herbs it just isn't the same! 

It also had a little heat to it so if you are not a fan of spice, use less pepper flakes. 
 If you like it hot, then throw in some extra! 

That's it!  
It really is simple with not too many ingredients.  
You can also make this the night before and keep it in your fridge for an easy dinner you just have to re heat the next day.

Everyone I make this for absolutely loves the simple yet unique flavor of this dish.  I like to serve it up with a side salad or a side of green beans to get some veggies in. 

Make this dish and let me know what you think!  

YMCA Run Of The Dead- 5k

I don't understand everyone's obsession with zombies.  
We pretend there are real zombies.... we write books on how to survive a "zombie apocalypse", 
we have zombie movies, zombie tv shows.... 
America loves zombies.

I on the other hand,  
just don't get it. 

Stacie over at Amateur At Large Blog sent me a link one day with a groupon to a "zombie 5k".  At first I was quite skeptical.  Run 3 miles through the woods with people dressed in zombie garb chasing me? 

 Think ill spend that Sunday morning sleeping instead.   

Then she told me the race was half off, being held at the YMCA camp at the lake across the street, benefited the YMCA, and the race didn't start until 11. 
Good cause and I can roll out of bed and walk there after a nice relaxing breakfast and coffee.

Okay, fine. 

And the trailer was pretty cute...

watch it here!

So what exactly is this zombie race I speak of?

The YMCA has a really amazing camp (Camp Hazen)  right on Cedar Lake in Chester, Connecticut.  They set up an obstacle course over three miles of trails in the woods.  You start the race with a flag football style belt that has three flags on it.  The goal is to make it through the race with at least one flag.  Throughout the course there were various obstacles.  I should have kept my map because it was pretty hysterical.

The course started up a steep flight of stairs where you enter the woods.  The obstacles varied from crawling through the mud under ropes, going through tires, climbing over hay bails, to the extreme of hoisting yourself over this 10 foot wall (which I opted to go around-  no one is grabbing my butt and throwing me over a 10 foot wall).

Throughout the course, zombies (donned with rags and make up)  are on the trails waiting for you to grab your flag.  It is really hard to make it past some of them as they are right in the middle of a pretty narrow trail. There were parts of the course where you could earn back a flag/life after some of the obstacles.

It definitely was not your typical 5k-  a lot of run/walking, and a lot of steep trails.  It may not have been a solid run, but it was a great work out none the less! I  signed up with a bunch of my friends and only two in the group made it out alive (made it out with a flag still on their belt).

They were rewarded with a survivor medal and a twinkie.
You bet I wanted that twinkie....


I did not bring my camera or take any pictures.
All in all- it was a silly run that was really fun in a group.  Because it isn't your typical road race, you can run it in a pack with your friends regardless of everyone's physique and abilities.   There is a lot of walking and the obstacles are fairly easy (except that stupid wall but you can go around it).

If you want a non traditional race and have the zombie bug... find a race near you.

I think I am going to stick to 5ks of the living kind.... :)

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with a Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

If you read the blog, you know that I love to cook. 

 I post a few different recipes, but not a whole not of baking.  

Well... that is because I am a terrible baker.  

Precision and accuracy has never been my strong point.  

I forget to read through the directions, 

I don't have the right tools or ingredients, 

or I don't measure accurately enough.  

Lots of room to go wrong, and it usually does.

Well, you know what they say, 

Practice Makes Perfect

So Practice I Shall...

It was a friends birthday over the weekend, a 50th surprise party to be exact.  
I wanted something that screamed fall, and did some fall dessert research.  

I stumbled upon Smitten Kitchen blog and her recipe. 

I went with a Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting. 

Cakes are hard to cut and messy so I decided to go with the cupcake form. 

I wanted to do everything by scratch, shred my own carrots, 

make my own frosting... the whole nine yards. 

I called over my friend Stacie for some baking assistance 

and we produced these beauties.

Baking SUCCESS

See my beautiful little cakes below :)

The cakes came out SO moist.  

I used the walnuts but no raisins (where do they hide raisins in the grocery store?)

I used some Halloween sprinkles (bats and pumpkins) to top off my cakes and made my own caramel candies to top the cupcakes.  

My only complaint was I used light maple syrup instead of the real kind.  Make sure you use the real syrup for your frosting!  

ENJOY!

Smitten Kitchen 

Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes 24 cupcakes 

(or one two-layer cake, instructions at end)

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups canola oil

4 large eggs

3 cups grated peeled carrots

1 cups coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Line 24 cupcake molds with papers, or butter and flour them.

Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in medium

 bowl to blend. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk 

in eggs 1 at a time. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in 

carrots, walnuts and raisins, if using them. Divide batter among cupcake 

molds, filling 3/4 of each.

Bake cupcakes 14 to 18 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center 

of one comes out clean. Let cool in pans for five minutes or so, then transfer 

cakes to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before icing them.

To make a carrot layer cake: 

Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans instead 

of cupcake molds. Line bottom of pans with parchment paper. Butter 

and flour paper; tap out excess flour. Divide the batter between the 

prepared pans, and bake the layers for about 40 minutes each, or until a 

tester inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes.

Turn out onto racks. Peel off paper; cool cakes completely.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Two (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

In a stand mixer beat all the ingredients on medium until fluffy. Chill the

 frosting for 10 to 20 minutes, until it has set up enough to spread 

smoothly.

The spazzy star decorations were created by putting the maple cream 

cheese frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large star tip and dolloping 

away. An extra layer of dollops were piped nearer to the center, to create a

domed effect.

To assemble a carrot layer cake, frost the top of one cake, place the other

 cake on top. Frost the sides and top, swirling decoratively. Refrigerate the 

cake for 30 minutes to set up frosting.

For the layer cake scenario, you will probably have a bit of leftover 

frosting, which you can tint and use for decorating, or save to smear on 

gingersnaps. What, you don’t do that too?

Full Recipe Here





(photos all from Smitten Kitchen)