Raw Dough Balls

December 14, 2010 By Laura

This post title makes me smile. 🙂

I haven’t gotten to exercise for 2… 3… 4 days and I am restless. Mom is still having a helluva time trying to recover. This means I refill a lot of water and juice glasses (hydration is key!), I make tons of PB + crackers, and – my favorite outlet – I bake. It also means that this post has taken me 3 days to finish.

Some people go to spas, I can relax with a late-night grocery store trip. No lines and I can wander around inspecting new items without running over screaming kids (sorry if that was your kid’s toe…).

Part 2 of my relaxation method is creating. I love to cook/bake/thrown stuff together in the kitchen. I like trying new things.

Cookie dough balls. Sans egg.

But first, we all know that in order earn dessert, veggies must be eaten. Yes, Mom. It finally stuck.

When life gives you 1/2 a leftover roasted butternut squash, make Butternut Hummus.

It sounds weird, but it is good.

Butternut Hummus

1/2 Roasted butternut squash
2 T EVOO
2 Garlic cloves
Salt & pepper
2 T Tahini

Place ingredients in food processor, blend until smooth. Add crackers, cucumber slices, zucchini sticks, and enjoy!

Notes: You can add anything to this! Try rosemary, cumin, red pepper flakes, lemon, cilantro, cinnamon… butternut tastes good with it all!

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Good job eating your veggies. Now you may have dessert, courtesy of Angela at Oh She Glows.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls

2/3 C Raw, unsalted cashews
1/4 C Oats
3/4 C Spelt flour (can sub other flour)
1 tsp Sea salt
5 Medjool dates, pitted and chopped
1 tsp Vanilla extract
3 T + 2 tsp Pure maple syrup
2- 3 tbsp Dark chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup Dark chocolate, melted, for dipping

Place cashews and oats in food processor until finely crumbled. Add in the flour, kosher salt, and roughly chopped dates. Process until fine.

Add vanilla and maple syrup. Blend until the mixture comes together in a ball. If too crumbly, add more syrup or a tiny bit of water.

Stir in the 3-4 T of chopped dark chocolate. Roll into balls (about 2 tsp in size).

In a double boiler or microwave, melt 1/3 cup of dark chocolate in a small bowl. Now dip each ball into the chocolate and place on baking sheet.

Freeze for 1 hour or overnight to set.

Makes about 20 balls.

***

I am pretty sure there aren’t any of these left in the house.

Now that I have these down, I’m looking forward to making more flavors.

What should be next? Cinnamon Roll? Pumpkin Pie Spice? S’Mores???

Cleanse = Fries

November 9, 2010 By Laura

The Cleanse is going really well. I love that I’m trying so many new things and my energy level is great!

Funny what I don’t crave – the thought of fried food makes me nauseous. Not that I ate a lot of fried foods before, but I did have a penchant for tater tots and really good fried chicken.

And what I do crave – ice cream. I have never eaten a lot of it. Right now I would run over my own mother for a bowl. (Just kidding, Mom!!!)

I ran 3 miles on the treadmill last night to test my new running shoes. The guy at Fleet Feet recommended inserts, so I’m testing those too. The jury is still out.

What I don’t like:

The inserts feel hard (not rocks, but harder than just shoes)
Inserts make me feel like my heel isn’t deep enough in the shoe
The show may be a bit narrow… they do stretch though…

What I like:

With the inserts, my overpronation problem felt much improved
The length is perfect
The laces don’t slip (they are the wavy kind)
They are pretty 🙂

Sooooo… I’m not sure what to do. I will definitely need a couple more treadmill tests before deciding.

Side note: I used to run exclusively on a treadmill and couldn’t imagine running without a TV. Tonight I realized I now much prefer running outside and was bored to tears on the “hamster wheel.”

I had work to do and was up until nearly 1 am, so no Whittle My Middle. However, I got up this morning and did it!

Here’s the latest:

Front plank: 90 secs
Side plank: 60 secs each side
Torso twists: 40 reps
Plank ups: 14 reps
Boat pose: 25 reps
Bicycle: 2 sets of 30 reps, 1 set of 40
Side plank w/ twists: 15 reps each side

Has anyone ever heard of the snack cake diet? I am considering it after my cleanse… 😉

Rutabaga fries. They almost taste like real fries. Seriously.

I like mine extra crispy

These fries are really, really good. I’m pretty sure the San Francisco McDonald’s franchises are going to begin serving them with Happy Meals (sans toy, of course).

Rutabaga Fries

1 rutabaga
1T olive oil
2 rosemary springs
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp sea salt (ground to “flaky” texture)
3-4 shakes of cayenne

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Peel rutabaga and cut into thin fry-like slices. Toss with extra virgin olive oil.

Rough chop rosemary and mince garlic. Sprinkle over rutabaga slices. Add sea salt and cayenne. Toss until each piece is coated.

Spread evenly on non-stick baking sheet. Place in oven ~20 mins, turning twice. Remove, taste, and adjust spices as needed.

Note: Omit the cayenne if you don’t like you nose to run!

How about some vegan cheese sauce with that? We can’t have real cheese on our cleanse, but this isn’t bad. It definitely doesn’t taste like actual cheese, so I hesitate to call it that… but there weren’t any leftovers!

Cheesy Vegan Non-Cheese Sauce

1/4 C Tahini sauce
1/4 C EVOO
1 T Miso Tamari

Place ingredients in mixing bowl and combine until smooth.

***

Whether it be food, running, low-rise jeans, etc… are you ever shocked by how your preferences change?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html?hpt=T2

Healthiest Crackers Ever Made

November 8, 2010 By Laura

Baby Sis and I went for a rockstar run. We braved the cold (and the dark) and conquered 7 MILES!

The best part: when we got home, we both said we could have gone longer. I never thought I’d be saying this… but I didn’t mean to start running more than 2-3 miles at a time. It just happened.

Note to self: File under “Things that I never thought I’d say.”

Stats:

Distance – 7 miles
Time – 60:00 mins
Avg Pace – 8:57 mins

I think we are going to be just fine for our Thanksgiving 10K Gobble Jog. 🙂

Disclaimer: We made a pit stop at Old Navy about half way though for 10 mins for a quick peek. Girls will be girls…

Prior to the run, I did my Whittle My Middle with Mom. She held a very impressive 90 second plank!

Following the run, Baby Sis and I completed the Yoga for Runners DVD, which really helped keep the soreness to a minimum today for both of us.

The narration is a tad cheesy, but its effective!

For some reason I have a hard time making myself take time to stretch after a workout, but I am always glad when I do. I need to get better about doing it!

On to the big cracker win!

Unbelievably, I figured out how to make cleanse-approved crackers. These are probably the healthiest crackers ever created. AND they are packed with flavor!

Mixing the fillings

At first there were 2

Then there was 1

Asian-Spiced Flax Crackers

1 C flax meal (mine were roughly ground)
1/4 C chia seed
1 carrot
1 kale leaf
1/4 C cilantro
1/4 C mint
1/2 jalapeño (seeded)
1/8 large yellow onion
2 T tamari miso
2 T lime juice (freshly squeezed)
1 T cumin
1 T coriander
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp sea salt

Preheat oven to 150 degrees.

Combine flax meal and chia seeds in a medium bowl. Place remaining ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add the puree to the seed mixture and stir until combined evenly.

Line a baking sheet with Silpat (non-stick aluminum foil works too!). Spread mixture about 1/8 in thick onto sheet.

Place in oven and bake for 2 hours, until firm enough to flip. Flip the cracker and bake 2 hours more. Turn off the oven and leave crackers in to dehydrate overnight.

Break into pieces and they are ready to eat!

Notes: You may crack the oven door if crackers are too moist. Ideally you would use a dehydrator for this, so feel free if you have one!

***

The fail part: I tried for a sweet flax cracker but adding coconut butter, cinnamon, and pumpkin spice. The butter made it too moist (ewww…) and we had to turn it into a topping for the grilled pineapple.

Workout Fuel + Almond Cocoa “Laura” Bites

October 6, 2010 By Laura

This may sound bizarre, but I look forward to using hotel gyms.

They provide a good change of pace to a workout routine – the good ones have different machines and the bad ones force creativity. The one I visited this week was one of the good ones.

The Weight Room

I did a 1 mile warm up jog on the treadmill before heading to the weight room for a 50 minute bicep/back workout. All of this was rounded out with a quick core workout:

100 sit-ups on the ball
30 v-ups
60 baby crunches
60 toe touchers
60 second plank
60 second side plank on each side

Thanks to the cardio at the beginning, my heart rate stayed up the entire time and made the workout a bit more intense

Following the advice of the nutritionist I saw, I followed up my workout with a grilled chicken salad. Apparently you need at least 20g of protein within 30mins of completing a workout. Who knew? It is amazing what happens when you add more protein to your diet – in just a couple of weeks of aiming for 80-100g a day I have noticed a change in muscle.

First thing’s last: the fuel. I made my own version of Lara Bars. Lara Bars are date and nut bars that typically include some sort of fruit (creating flavors like “Apple Pie” and “Peanut Butter & Jelly”). They are yummy, but expensive. Half of one works well as a pre-workout pick-me-up. Why not make my own? They give you the ingredients on the package: dates and nuts. I already have basically the same name. Behold, Laura Bites. (Yes, I am that creative corny.)

It is that easy. You can play with the flavors – add some dry fruit, different nut varieties, coconut… anything you have in your pantry. Just be sure not to over-mix the nuts, as it will make the “batter” too greasy. These are approx. 100 calories per serving.

Almond Cocoa Laura Bites

2/3 C Dates
1/4 C Almonds
2 tsp Cocoa
Cinnamon (optional)

Place dates in food processor and blend until chopped.

Add nuts and cocoa and blend until mixed. It will look like a gooey ball – don’t worry.

Using your (clean) hands, form into 4 “bites.” I sprinkled my formed bites with cinnamon.

Cover tightly and store in cool place.

Makes 4 bites.