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Category Archives: dessert

April 11, 2011 · 3:10 pm

Superman Says Eat Local

Congratulations Charlottesville marathoners! You ROCK, Cville doesn’t know flat so it’s a tough course. You inspire me!

My first thought on Saturday morning was “they’ve already been running for nearly an hour!”. My second thought was “I want to join them”.

So I did.

You know, after a leisurely breakfast and coffee. 😉

At first I felt kind of guilty when I met up with the race course and started cruising by people at mile 15, here I was just getting warmed up and they were getting ready to hit the wall. Then I reconfigured my attitude and decided that my fresh energy would hopefully enliven them a little.

My plan was to go out for a quick and easy 3.3 miles but I was having so much fun and was SO INSPIRED by all of the running dedication surrounding me that I went an extra mile. The second half of my run was swimming upcurrent of the runners (don’t worry, it was pretty thin so I didn’t get in anyone’s way) so I got to give every single marathoner I passed a HUGE grin and sometimes a “nice pace!” or “beautiful morning, isn’t it?”. I got a few high five’s in but quickly realized that you have ZERO energy to spare when you are running for hours, not even to raise your hand!

While I didn’t complete 26.2 I did cover a lot of miles this weekend, 16.5 over Saturday and Sunday by walking, running, and HIKING!

I love, love, love hiking and yesterday’s romp around Shendoah National Park with Matt + Kath was a perfect way to spend a Spring Sunday.

Superman say’s “Eat Local” and Matt agrees!

84 foot South River Falls

Naturally, there was lots of real food refueling.

Super seedy and delicious Great Harvest Dekota bread, three kinds of cheese and lots of veg.

Manna bread and almond butter cookies topped us off.

I went a little nuts in the kitchen on Saturday afternoon and whipped up big batches of sprouted wheat biscuits and cookies.

Sprouted wheat, shredding carrots, dates.

I baked this batch of sprouted wheat bread in individual biscuit form because the first loaf was so crumbly and took forever to cook.

These cookies were made without an iota of a plan and sadly they kind of taste like that. I had a little bit of applesauce and some extra shredded carrots (from the manna) so into the food processor they went. An impulse buy of $2 a jar organic almond butter has left me with a plethora of my least favorite kind of nut butter so in went a few big spoonfuls. Honey, a little bit of sugar, lots of cinnimon and a few grates of nutmeg, some eggs, oh wait they need something more…oats to the rescue.

They are o.k. but nothing special, if you try to create something like these cookies (you know, based on this glowing review ;)) I recommend baking them for just long enough to cook the eggs, otherwise they will dry out.

There’s a high of 84* predicted for today. I say BRING IT ON!

My strawberries need the SUN!

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Filed under baking, cooking, dessert, running, workouts

March 17, 2011 · 2:30 pm

Kiss Me…

…I’ve got some Irish in me!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Leave it to the Irish to turn a holy day into a day associated with BEER! Not that I’m complaining, I am planning on enjoying a Guinness float in honor of my Irish Pappy.

If there are any Irish readers out there, how is St. Patrick’s Day celebrated in Ireland? Is it more about the church service and less about the green booze?

March 17th is a special day in my family because it’s my mother-in-laws birthday! Happy birthday Shay!

I made her a birthday cake but since she lives 3 hours away we had to eat it all ourselves. 😉

This flour-less, low-fat chocolate torte was an experiment that turned out really well.

1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 nugget panela dissolved* in 1/4 cup water OR 3 tablespoons brown sugar dissolved in 1/4 cup water
1/2 cup cocoa (non alkalized is much higher in antioxidants)
3 eggs
pinch of salt
~1/4 cup unsweetened baking chocolate

Whisk all ingredients except the baking chocolate together in a bowl. Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler and quickly whisk into the other ingredients. Taste for sweetness. This is meant to be a rich, semi-sweet torte but if you prefer it a little sweeter you can add another tablespoon of brown sugar/panela dissolved in a tablespoon of warm water.

Butter and cocoa your baking dish. I used an 8 inch pan but I would have preferred it a little thicker so next time I will double the recipe or use a smaller dish. Bake at 350 for 22 minutes. Take out of the oven when it still looks a little undercooked. Since this torte is low-fat is will dry out if cooked too long.

I glazed the top with a Cabernet Sauvignon jam that I melted in the microwave. Raspberry would be great too. If you wanted to go full-on decedent a chocolate-coconut icing like the one I made for Halloween would be pretty amazing.

*Panela

These morsels of unrefined cane sugar are my go-to for all of my sugar needs lately (Kefir Spritzer, Kombucha, the occasional sugar-sweetened dessert). They can be found at any Latin American specialty store for a few bucks a bag. Panela dissolves quickly in hot or cold water and tastes similar to brown sugar but unlike brown sugar is unrefined. Most brown sugar is just refined white sugar with processed molasses added back in. The processing of both the sugar and the molasses stripes out the nutrients and you are left with empty, nutritionally-void calories. Panela is minimally processed and the essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals remain.

It’s a gorgeous day and along with a little yoga and a quick kettlebell workout, my exercise will come in the form of yard work and walking dates with girl friends. Love Spring. Enjoy!