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?

My work week began with my usual coffee and a few bites of Farmer’s Market blueberry cake (umm, thanks Nate).

When I got to the office, it was time for my real breakfast – a container of Fage 2% Greek yogurt, dried cranberries, and 3/4 cup of Heritage Grain flakes. So good! I love the combo of creamy, crunchy, sweet, and tart.

After sitting on my bum all morning, I needed to get some blood pumping at noon. I made a quick visit to the gym for 30 minutes of elliptical intervals (2 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy). I returned to my desk refreshed and h-u-n-g-r-y! On Sunday night I decided to roast the beets that I had picked up at the farmer’s market. I loosely followed this NY Times recipe. After washing the beets, I peeled and cubed them. I tossed with a Tb of EVOO and a Tb of Nakano seasoned rice vingar and popped in a 375 degree oven for 40 minutes. I covered the beets with foil for the first 20 minutes and then removed the foil after that.

I mixed chopped raw beet greens (umm…probably should have steamed these first) with the cooked beets, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, and 2 Tbs of hummus. It was a yummy combo of flavors, but the raw beet greens were pretty tough and bitter. Note to self: Just because it’s green, doesn’t mean it will taste like lettuce. And eventhough it’s summer can still roast veggies! Roasting brings out the sweetness in veggies like carrots, onions, and beets. Check out the latest Skinny Kitchen post about roasting vegetables!

Alma was nice enough to bring me a mini-balsamic vinegar packet from Spain. I used it on my salad today!

With my salad I enjoyed quite a few yummy salt and pepper pretzels. They had the perfect amount of kick!

I stayed in the office kind of late and my tummy starting growling around 6pm – a coconut lara bar was the perfect solution. Mmm, nuts and fruit!

I also had 2 squares of Newman’s Own Organics dark chocolate…

After work Katie and I met up for a class at Yoga to the People and although it was super-crowded, I felt 10x better after going. Yoga is such a great de-stressor after a long work day! Plus it forces encourages me to strength train and stretch. Afterwards, we headed to a vegan ice cream spot in the E. Village. The  design and layout of Stogo reminded me a lot of a gelato shop. I tried the Almond Joy flavor and while it was good, we all know I’m helpless when it comes to peanut butter. I chose a cup of the  peanut butter fudge and it was ahhhhmazing! There was the slightest hint of soy flavor, but other than that it was just as sweet, creamy,and delicious as regular ice cream. Stogo flavors are 100% vegan and sweetened with agave nectar. They have 1/2 the fat and only 2/3 the calories of regular ice cream.  The peanut butter flavor really shone through in this dessert and I ate every last bite!

Of course the problem with eating dessert first is that it leaves you still very hungry! On the subway ride home, I snacked on a few prunes. And then re-heated some leftover high fiber mac ‘n cheese (with broc and beets), and had a few Wasa crackers with almond butter and homemade peach jam on the side. Yum!

My eating was a little untraditional today (a bit of cake before breakfast, dessert before dinner…), but it was all yummy and I think I covered most of my nutritional bases.

Question: Do you ever eat “untraditionally”? For example, eating dessert first? Or pancakes for dinner? Leftovers for breakfast?