Kirkwood/Webster Turkey Trot 2013

Sam and I got up at 5 this morning to run the Kirkwood/Webster Turkey Trot. This is the 3rd time I have done this race and I wanted to get under 30 mins, even though the fastest I have run before is 30:43 (same race, last year).  It was really cold at the start, around 25 this morning, the coldest I have ever run.  I should have known I had too many clothes on because I wasn't cold at the starting line.  Still, we took our "before" picture in the car because I didn't want to hang on to my phone

I started off really well but ran out of gas around 2 miles.  Then I got too warm so I had to take off my hat and gloves, wish I'd taken a shirt off too!!!!  I ended up walking some of it, but I think that gave me a little extra boost on the last part of the run.  Sam left me behind when I was walking because he was getting cold. I was disappointed that I'd had to walk, but was really happy to see that my time was 30:18, much faster than I thought it was 

I cut 25 seconds off my time last year and really did feel OK the whole time I ran, just ran out of steam for a while.  Not sure if it was because I started out too fast or the hassle of trying to get around all the walkers.  Even so, I just could not feel my legs and felt like I was going to fall over and I had to walk.  I'm still happy with my time and it was better than I thought it would be.  My last 3 runs have been around 33 mins, so a huge improvement

Sweet potatoes in the oven

Ingredients

• 2 sweet potatoes, sliced thin
• 1 yellow onion, sliced thin
• ¼ cup almond meal
• 1 can coconut milk
• 4 tablespoons coconut butter
• 4 tablespoons almond butter
• 2 tablespoons raw honey
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper, to taste
• enough bacon to cover the top OR cook and put inside

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Grease a 9×13 baking dish
3. Thinly slice 2 sweet potatoes and onion
4. Start layering the sweet potatoes in lines so you can’t see the bottom on the dish. Then layer with a little onion and a little almond meal. 
5. Keep on layering until all your sweet potatoes are gone.
6. Pull out a saucepan and put over medium heat.
7. Add your coconut milk, coconut butter, almond butter, agave (or honey), and spices to the saucepan and stir until the coconut butter and almond butter have cooked. Don’t boil. 
8. Once everything is mixed together, pour the mixture over the sweet potato layers. Then top off everything with a little bit more almond meal.
9. Cover the rest of the dish with strips of bacon (unless you chopped and cooked it to add into your gratin).
10. Cover your baking dish with aluminum foil and put in the oven for around 30 minutes.
11. Once the 30 minutes are up, pull out the dish, remove the aluminum foil, and put dish under the broiler for about 3-5 minutes, or until bacon is nice and cripsy (or however you like yours).
12. Let cool for 10 minutes or so then dig in.

Sweet potato soup in the crockpot

Ingredients

• 2 sweet potatoes or yams, diced
• ½ yellow onion, sliced
• 1 (14oz) can of coconut milk
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in the crockpot.
2. Mix around.
3. Cook for 3 hours on high.
4. Use a hand blender, blender, or food processor and puree mixture until smooth. 

Focaccia recipe

•  4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut cream from the top of a can of coconut milk
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped herbs of your choice, such as rosemary, thyme, or oregano
• Olive oil, for brushing
• Coarse sea salt, for topping
• Toppings of your choice, such as chopped olives, halved cherry tomatoes, roasted garlic cloves, or whatever your heart desires

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Beat the eggs with the coconut cream until smooth. In a medium bowl, combine the coconut flour, salt, and baking soda.
3. Add the egg mixture to the flour and stir until well combined.
4. Line a pie plate or small jellyroll pan with parchment and spread the batter in the pan.
5. Drizzle with olive oil and press your fingers lightly in the dough to indent.
6. If topping the bread, add toppings evenly. Bake for 15-20 minutes until top is lightly browned. Remove from the oven and brush with more olive oil. Cool before slicing and serving.

Cuban Shredded Beef Recipe

Ingredients

2 lb. boneless beef chuck.

3 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, thinly sliced;
½ tsp. ground cumin;
2 tbsp. fresh orange juice;
½ tsp. lime zest;
1 tbsp. lime juice;
1 cup beef stock;
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste;
Cooking fat;
Lime wedges, for serving;

Preparation

1. Season the beef all over with sea salt and black pepper to taste.
2. Place the beef in a slow cooker with the stock and cook 6 to 8 hours on low.
3. When the beef is cooked, break it apart gently with a fork and set aside.
4. In a large skillet placed over a medium-high heat, melt the cooking fat. Add the garlic and onion, and cook until the onion is golden and soft (about 5 minutes).
5. Add the beef to the skillet. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 4 minutes.
6. Add the cumin, orange juice, lime juice, lime zest, and season again with salt and pepper to taste. Give everything a good stir.
7. Serve warm with lime wedges.

Banana nut muffin recipe from Leeny

Ingredients

2 cups almond flour
1/3 cup coconut flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup dates (or raisins if you prefer)
3 ripe bananas
1 T. vanilla (I prefer Mexican vanilla)
3 eggs
1/4 cup honey
3 T. coconut oil melted
2 T. almond butter

How to:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  (In a non stick pan, roast pecans on medium heat until fragrant tossing gently as they roast.  This step is not a must but it adds another level of flavor and complexity to the muffin.)  Set aside.
Mash bananas with a whisk or fork, and add honey and almond butter.  Beat eggs and add to banana mixture.  Add oil and vanilla and blend well.  In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients, including pecans.  Mix wet with dry ingredients.  Spoon batter into lined muffin cups or a non stick muffin pan. Bake 15-20 minutes.  Makes 12-15 muffins.

Sunday dinner

Caroline is a member of a CSA so she brings vegetables home that we would not normally eat.  She got some beets this week and I haven't had them in ages.  We baked them in the oven and then I sliced them up and added some cherry vinegar from Vom Fass to them (they were really yummy).  We also roasted red onions, turnips, squash and carrots with some tomatoes in olive oil.  Sam grilled some chicken and cut it up with Richard's BBQ sauce.  It was a great Sunday dinner.  Caroline had a box of Mac and Cheese and I cooked it for Ben and Maggie, it made their day!!!!

Apart from dinner, we made a batch of no-oat oatmeal, sweet potato hummus, chocolate pumpkin sun butter treats and kale chips.  We have enough food to last us for a few days.....

End of Whole Life Challenge

	Me	World
Days Recorded Score	55	32 avg
Inches Lost	7	4 avg
Workout Improvement	27	19 avg
Acts of Kindness	7	34,529 total
Minutes of Mindfulness	70	472,060 total

I have finished the Whole Life Challenge.  In some ways it was hard, in others it was easy.  During the 8 weeks, I managed to stay on track for 3 work dinners, John's wedding, John's birthday and a dinner to celebrate my Citizenship.  Amazingly, I also survived a trip to Dallas, including the airport both ways.  It was very strange to be in the airport and not get a Starbucks at every opportunity.  At the end of the challenge, I was surprised to find my workout had improved because I haven't been doing as much Crossfit as I had at the beginning.  I had also lost inches, hopefully won't put them back on!!!

Rank	Name	Community	Total
1	Jane McHowat	None	605
2	Elizabeth Pogostin	None	591
3	Sydney Saito	None	532
4	Leeny Hoffmann	None	302
5	Amy Nash	None	288
6	Marileana Garcia	None	188
7	Anne Bosch	None	118
8	Samara Campen	None	63
9	Gina Stiffler	None	0

This was our Paleo Crossfit team.  It's interesting that one person paid to enter the challenge and then never entered a score at all.  Watching the scores every day, I figured out that most people are like me and once they lose a few points or forget to record a score on any day, they give up completely.  Only one other person stayed the distance and recorded scores and reflections every day.  I think this is probably the reason why most diets fail.....

Chocolate Pumpkin Sunbutter Treats

These have just got to be phenomenal!!!!

Ingredients

• 2 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips (or dark chocolate brand of choice)
• ⅓ cup coconut milk
• ½ cup sunflower seed butter (or other seed or nut butter)
• ⅓ cup pumpkin puree
• ½ cup raw honey
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
• ⅛ teaspoon powdered ginger
• pinch of salt, to top

Instructions

1. Melt chocolate chips and coconut milk in microwave or in a double boiler until smooth.
2. Line an 8×8 baking dish with parchment paper (for easy clean up and removal). Pour chocolate into the dish and smooth out.
3. In a bowl, mix together sunbutter, pumpkin, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger until smooth.
4. Spoon sunbutter mixture on top of chocolate and use a knife to spread throughout the chocolate mixture. Just keep making pretty designs in it until it is well mixed. Top with a pinch of salt.
5. Place in freezer and let freeze for 4+ hours. Serve immediately. Store in freezer.