Foam Rollers and Colorful Food

Happy Monday! Again, it is raining here. I'm really glad I managed to get in a 9 mile run on Sunday right before the rain (which will continue until Wednesday) started. On that note, today I ordered a foam roller. I had noticed a tiny twinge in my knee, and I think it might be a tight IT band. I have heard some bad stories about IT band trouble, so to nip this in the bud I ordered the foam roller. It works like a massage for your muscles and tendons, loosening tight spots and relaxing them. From what I hear, foam rolling hurts a bit, but in a good way, and the feeling in your muscles when you're done is supposed to be great. I also did a little research and found some stretches and strengthening exercises to do. So, here's to hoping nothing problematic is at hand. I have a 5k this Saturday and the half marathon in just over a month!

Onto the food. Tonight I made the recipe I posted in my first real post in this blog; Roasted Tomato Soup. I also toasted up a whole wheat dinner roll, sliced, with garlic and oregano on top. Of course, I made a salad to go alongside dinner with romaine, cucumber, carrot, dried cranberries, and pine nuts, with a walnut vinaigrette. For dessert I recreated one of my favorite smoothies from the local health food store. I blended up apple juice, ripe banana, maca, spirulina, and frozen blueberries. Great deep color on this one thanks to the berries and spirulina! I also treated myself to one of the cookies I made yesterday. I'm still making my way through Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, and have yet to make a bad recipe. Last night I made the almond pignoli nut cookies. These are divine. I am a HUGE almond fan; regular almonds, almond extract, almond paste. Needless to say, I love this recipe. It's a challenge to not eat more than one of two of these at a time!
I'm happy to say I actually planned a bunch of meals and snacks before I grocery shopped yesterday. Expect some new recipes this week!

Treadmills and Chocolate Peanut Butter Pillows

Sorry for the hiatus, all! The past week and weekend has been pretty busy. On Friday after I got out of work, Mark and I headed over to Retro Fitness. We've been thinking about getting gym memberships for a while now; we used to use the gym all the time when we were in college, and it was a great thing for both of us. I've been missing it a lot lately, especially in terms of the treadmill, but also in terms of strength training. So, we checked out the website, and when we saw there was no enrollment fee through January we decided to get over there and see the place. We were pleasantly surprised. It's big, new, clean, bright, and friendly. It has every machine and free weight we could want. And a major perk is the ability to go to any Retro Fitness location; we live 5 miles away from two different facilities, so we can go to either one. Needless to say, we signed up on the spot. It's a really good deal at only $20 a month, and I'm looking forward to my complimentary fitness evaluation on Thursday. Mark had his today and he had a really good experience. I'm hoping to use the gym in order to get my strength up, as well as build a really solid mileage base to go into the spring with. If all goes well, I'd really like to run the NJ Half Marathon in May.

To offset all the gym talk, let's talk about cookies. As you all know, my new favorite cookbook is Vegan Cookies Take Over Your Cookie Jar. With the recipe I tried out on Sunday night, I am now three for three. I made the Chocolate Peanut Butter Pillows. The doughs are really easy to put together, but boy, is it time consuming to assemble these cookies. Luckily, I had a lot of time, and in the end, the time was well spent. These cookies are the best I've made yet. I love how it looks like you have a plain chocolate cookie, but then you bite in and find a peanut butter surprise. These cookies remind me of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. I reiterate, if you don't own this cookbook, get it! Three for three doesn't lie! I'm going to try to be good and give it a couple weeks until I try another cookie recipe, but don't worry, I will be sure to fill you in when I do make it.

Wheatberries and More Cookies

One of my favorite things to get from the salad bar at Whole Foods is wheatberry salad. I love the texture of wheatberries; chewy but still firm. Their flavor is earthy, and a bit nutty. This past weekend, instead of buying some premade salad, I picked up wheatberries from the bulk bin and decided to make my own. So what exactly is a wheatberry? It's the actual wheat kernel, without the hull. They are an awesome source of dietary fiber, and they are also a good source of protein and iron. To make wheatberry salad, you can combine the wheatberries with pretty much any veggies, seeds, nuts, and dressing. Here is my first cut at wheatberry salad.

Wheatberry Salad
-1 1/2 cups hard wheatberries
-4 stalks celery, chopped
-3/4 cup walnuts, chopped
-2 scallions, chopped
-1/3 cup parsley, chopped
-1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
-4 tbsp olive oil
-2 tbsp lemon juice
-2 tbsp red wine vinegar
-salt and pepper

-In a pot, cover wheatberries with 3 inches of water, and bring to a boil. Cook uncovered for about an hour, stirring occasionally, until the wheatberries are tender. You may need to add more water as it cooks. When done, drain and let cool for 5-10 minutes.
-Toss the cooked wheatberries, celery, walnuts, scallions, parsley, and cherries in a bowl.
-Whisk the olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, and pepper together. Pour over the wheatberry mixture and stir to combine. Serve, or store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Since this was a pretty easy thing to throw together tonight, I decided to make cookies when I was done eating. I used my awesome new cookbook, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, to make Chocolate Fudgy Oatmeal Cookies. I keep telling myself they're healthy since they have 2 cups of oats in them. I love the chocolate and cherry combination in these. Mark gobbled a few of these and reported that they were indeed tasty, and I went ahead and confirmed it myself. Yum!

Running, does it cancel out cookies?

I really hope so.

I finally got back out on the road for a run this past weekend. Mark was nice enough to go with me and help get my lazy butt out the door. It was COLD. I think it was around 28 degrees or so, but it was sunny and not really windy. I just layered up and got moving quick. I wanted to not wear my watch, because I've been known to get neurotic about that sort of thing, but I wore it anyway. I didn't peek until we were done, though. We ran a little two mile loop in 20 minutes, which felt very slow, but it was good to ease back into it and not push it. The next day the inside of my quads hurt, and my obliques were a little sore, but other than that I was fine. My plan is to run this Friday when I get out of work a little early and then again at some point over the weekend. Then the Sunday after that is the NJAHPERD 2 Mile Winter Warm Up Fun Run. I'm hoping I have a respectable showing; not a PR performance I'm sure, but hopefully something to make me feel like I'm on my way back.

To switch gears just a bit, I received an awesome birthday present from my sister-in-law: Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar!After a quick flip-through, it appears that virtually every recipe is awesome. Needless to say, I made some cookies tonight. I made a batch of Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles. If you've ever had Aztec hot chocolate, you'll understand the flavor profile of these cookies. I can't believe how spicy these came out! The initial flavor is chocolate and cinnamon, but then you get this cayenne kick at the end. YUM. And the best compliment came from Mark: "You wouldn't know these are vegan." Always a good thing to hear when it comes to baked goods! Nothing like a big glass of vanilla hemp milk and a cookie for dessert.

Christmas Treats

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! I know I did. As I mentioned a couple weeks earlier, I have been very busy with lots of Christmas treat making. This year I decided to do homemade gifts for my extended family. After many hours in the kitchen, I put together some tasty gift bags with a mix of goodies, and I even had enough extras to bring to Christmas festivities for sharing.
I started out with a delicious sugar cookie recipe from You Won't Believe It's Vegan. These were simple to make, and tasted surprisingly similar to a classic sugar cookie. I rolled them out, used some festive cookie cutters, and decorated them with assorted colored sugars.I also made 3 big batches of my granola. I used raisins and dried cranberries for a Christmas-y touch, and I packaged it up in mason jars for gifting.Finally, I made hand-dipped chocolate pretzels. For some reason, there is just no better combination that salty pretzels and sweet chocolate. I melted a bag of vegan chocolate chips using a double boiler, dipped the pretzels, and then topped them with sprinkles and peppermint pieces. I put a handful of pretzels in little bags and included them in the gift bag with tins of my sugar cookies and the jars of granola.Much to my very happy surprise, I got a wonderful chocolate treat in my Christmas stocking from my husband. He got me three Sweetriot treats. They are cacao nibs dipped in three different kinds of dark chocolate. I broke into these today, and they are HEAVENLY. I'm kind of concerned they might become an obsession.A sweet and delicious Christmas indeed! I hope you all had a wonderful day, and have a happy and healthy new year. I'm off to Vermont on new year's eve, but hopefully I'll be back here before then. If not, get ready for some reviews and pictures of my favorite places to eat in Vermont!

Hearty Soup and a Christmas Cookie Preview

I know what you're thinking - another soup? Does she eat anything else? Well yes, of course I do, but in the wintertime by favorite dinner food is a big bowl of hot soup. Luckily for me, the options for tasty soup recipes are pretty much endless. Tonight I made a recipe out of The Candle Cafe Cookbook, Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup.
I had half a package of wild rice leftover from Thanksgiving that I'd been meaning to use, and the rest of the ingredients are pretty standard items on my grocery list. And who doesn't love a dish where mushroom and thyme are the main flavor profile? A match made in heaven, in my opinion. This soup was just what I wanted this evening, and it was complemented by some toasted bread and a salad of romaine, arugula, carrot, and green apple with some basil vinaigrette.

Another wonderful thing about this season is the prospect of delicious holiday treats. I will preface this with the fact that I am a far more confident cook than I am baker. That said, I don't shy away from baking, and I really want to get better at it. Tonight I tried out a cookie recipe to see if it was up to snuff for holiday sharing. Sure enough, these cookies turned out to be just divine. I'll save the recipe and pictures for closer to when I make a bigger batch for gifting and sharing, but I'll leave you with the main flavors: banana, oat, nut, chocolate. All in one place!