The Runner's Kitchen

My plans for an early morning spin class were nixed when I woke up feeling less than stellar. More sleep and a coffee date with my girl, Frida were what I opted for instead.

I had some leftover pumpkin from the muffins I baked this weekend, so I turned it in to overnight oatmeal. I combined rolled oats, canned pumpkin, greek yogurt, chopped walnuts, and dried cherries the night before and then added a splash of milk and some cinnamon this morning.

Followed up by a piece of flax bread topped with peanut butter and raspberry jam.

Last night whilst doing my laundry, I roasted some beets. I love beets – they’re sweet like candy!

Roasted Beets

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Wash, peel, and cube 4 beets
• Toss the beets with 1 Tbs canola oil and 1 Tbs rice vinegar
• Cover with foil and roast for 20 minutes on a baking sheet
• After 20 minutes, remove foil, and roast for an additional 15 minutes (or until tender)
• Season with salt and pepper and enjoy!

For lunch I tossed together chopped romaine, roasted beets, goat cheese, walnuts, dried cherries, and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

The folks at popchips sent me a box of samples the other day (loved the way it was packaged!) and my stash is nearly gone. These chips aren’t fried or baked, but rather “popped” and I think they have a tremendous amount of flavor and crunch for a relatively healthy product. I saved one of my favorite flavors for last – salt & pepper!

Psst…I’ll tell you a secret – popchips didn’t really need to send me free samples, I buy these all the time because they’re SO good!

My afternoon snack was compliments of Chobani greek yogurt (yay, samples!). Last week I received a Chobani lunch bag packed with some of my favorite flavors. I added some toppings (coconut, granola, and crumbled oreo) to the plain variety.

And thennnnnn the afternoon never seemed to end. As much as I love running, sometimes my motivation disappears. Around 4:30pm I started to feel very blah and the last thing I wanted to do was go to the gym. I thought maybe a little sugar would help, so I went downstairs and bought a Twix bar. Yes, even healthy food bloggers crave candy! Energy bars and candy bars are essentially the same thing, so I wasn’t too worried about having the twix bar before my run.

I wanted to run intervals this evening, but since I don’t have access to an indoor track, I performed the workout on the treadmill. Not ideal, but it got the job done!

1.5 mile warm-up
2 x 400m @ 5k pace (400m recovery after each interval)
2 x 400m @ 3K pace (400m recovery after each interval)
2 x 400m @ mile pace (400m recovery after each interval)
1.5 mile cool-down

No problems with my hips or back (yay!), but dang those 400’s at mile pace felt FAST. I finished up the last one in ~5:33/mile pace and I was just praying I didn’t fly off the back of the treadmill. Can’t wait till my running club starts working out on the outdoor track again….

Once I got home, I whipped up a super fast dinner salad: romaine lettuce, mushroom veggie burger, cheddar cheese, dried cherries, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

For dessert I melted some chocolate chips on a piece of whole wheat toast and topped it with mashed banana. Served alongside herbal tea to warm me up.

Have you heard about Michael Pollen’s new book Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual? What are your personal “rules” for healthy eating? Do you limit red meat? Avoid HFCS? Buy organic?

I planned on waking up at 6:30am, but the clock said 7:25am when I finally opened my eyes Tuesday morning. Rather than being irritated, I was thrilled! I haven’t been sleeping well for the past few weeks, so finally feeling rested was amazing! I had time for a quick cup of coffee and then it was out the door for a 6 1/2 mile run. I started off slow, but my last few miles were under 9:00/mile pace and I felt great! My upper right hamstring was making its presence known when I chugged up hills, but other than that it was a pretty great run. I’m praying that my bizzaro injury is fading farther and farther a way. Fingers crossed! Today’s soundtrack featured a lot of Fergie and Blackeyed Peas. A great way to start the morning, if you ask me.

After the quickest shower ever, I was out the door and on my way to work. By the time I sat down at my desk and at breakfast, I was famished! My morning meal involved a local Gala apple, strawberry Stonyfield yogurt, and a cup or so of Nature’s Path Pumpkin Raisin Crunch.

I worked all morning and broke for lunch around 1pm. The day wasn’t sunny, but it was warm enough to eat outside so I headed to Central Park. I’m going to be eating out a ton this week, so I’m trying to pack my lunch a few times. Buying my daily ginormous salad, drink, and sunchips from the cafeteria is getting to be a little pricey

When I made dinner last night, I prepared extra and packed the leftovers: arugula, clover sprouts, sunshine burger, chipotle hummus, and a drizzle of olive oil and sea salt.

I love sunshine burgers SO much. They taste great, contain 8 grams of protein, and aren’t full of over-processd soy product. The only ingredients are organic sunflower seeds, organic brown rice, organic carrots, organic herbs, and sea salt.

And part II of my lunch: salt and pepper pop chips and a good book (Jane Eyre). I know that chips aren’t the healthiest food choice, but sometimes you just.gotta.have.them. And sometimes you need A LOT of crispy, crunchy chips to satisfy a craving. Popchips are “popped”, not baked or fried. Each 1 oz serving has about 120 calories and NO trans fat, saturated fat, artificial colors/flavors, or preservatives. I love getting the big 3 oz bags and eating most of the bag some with my lunch. And the salt and pepper really give each chip a nice “kick” of flavor.

The rest of the afternoon passed s-l-o-w-l-y (I think Tuesdays are my least favorite day) and I needed a snack around 4pm. I’ve been receiving a lot of bar samples lately, so I decided to try out a cranberry almond Kind Bar. I’d never had one of these before and it was surprisingly good! The puffed rice made it taste like a rice krispy treat. However, the bar was a little small – I needed a glass of milk (unpictured) to satisfy my hunger.

Finally it was time for this lady to hit the road. After work I had a nice long chat with my mom as I walked to the E. Village to meet Katie for dinner.

I’ve been wanting to try this little Vietnamese hole-in-the wall restaurant for a while and it did not disappoint. I ordered the summer rolls (hah, ironic because today is the first day of fall!) on top of a bed of vermicelli noodles. The summer rolls were packed with shredded lettuce, tofu, clear noodles, potato jicama, grounded brown rice, mint, and cucumber.

Yum! This was refreshing and veggie-packed

Dinner is all well and good, but obviously a night with Katie is not complete without vegan ice cream from Lula’s. I went half and half with coffee & cookies and cookies & cream.  Swoon.

I ended up walking for a long time after dinner. I have a lot of things on my mind, a lot of tough things I’m trying to deal with right now.  I felt a little better by the time I made it back to my apartment and topped off my tank with a comforting bedtime snack: small cup of Stonyfield Oikos, Bear Naked cereal, and a spoonful of peanut butter.  

Running news you can use:

Good nutrition is just part of the plan, check out the best Yoga stretches for injury prevention.

Training with a group makes running seem easier AND puts you in a better mood, say researchers from Oxford University. Seems like a win-win situation to me!

Get a good night’s rest and you’ll be able to recover faster from long runs and workouts.

Finally – A recent study out of University of Scranton (hometown love!) concluded that whole grain cereals and snacks pack an antioxidant punch rivaling the amount that fruits and vegetables contain. That’s great news for all of us who prefer Kashi over broccoli. Still…it’s probably a good idea to keep eating your veggies

Question of the day: What’s your favorite whole grain?