I ate ferns

yum or ick. your call.

So, I’m not quite on vacation yet. I’m not in New York and I’m not where I’m supposed to be right now (Santa Fe). I’m sitting in the Albuquerque airport waiting for a shuttle to take me to Santa Fe. I was supposed to be there several hours ago but am a complete idiot and slept through my flight!!!! I had a 7:30am flight out of New York thinking I would have no problem getting up-I love early flights and am always popping right out of bed when I need to. Not this morning…I woke up at 6:45 and there was no way I was going to make it. After lots of tears and LOTS of swearing and me screaming irrational crap to the Continental rep, I made it, but I’m not quite there. I’m on my way to Santa Fe and Taos for a week with my family celebrating my Dad’s 60th birthday (happy birthday!), and we were all supposed to be on the same connecting flight from Houston to Albuquerque, but I obviously didn’t make it. And while my family is currently enjoying margaritas in Santa Fe, I’m passing time in the Albuquerque airport by blogging (good job Albuquerque airport on having free wireless!). Ugh. What a way to mess up a family trip Betsy!

I have a about 25 minutes till I need to meet my shuttle to I’ll pump out my new crazy market veg post of the week! Fiddlehead ferns. I feel like I was on a tricycle last week with my sunchoke and went to compete in the Tour de France with the fiddleheads. But, I saw a jar of them sitting at a stand last week and just knew I had to try them. They were crazy cheap and only available for a very short time so my window was closing. I bought about $.20 worth (about 8 ferns) and went on my way.

Pre-Cooking

Fiddlehead ferns are very young ferns that haven’t opened yet. When a fern emerges from the ground, it is coiled tightly and slowly uncurls to develop lots of leaves (yeah-I took a lot of botany classes in college). It’s at this early stage that they are edible and quite popular. At least they’re popular in the crazy native food eating circle. Actually, I’ve eaten them before but have never considered buying them so it was still adventurous. I cooked some up once at camp when I was a counselor. I actually think we fried them in about 1/2 inch of oil. Talk about turning something healthy into something unhealthy! But they were darn tasty. So, I was off to try them again.

I did my research all week to find out how best to cook them and just decided to make them plain, kinda like I did with the sunchoke. I did read that they need to be cooked entirely or they can cause stomach pain. Being the slightly paranoid cook, that freaked me out a little so I cooked them twice. I first cleaned them very well and trimmed off the brown bits. I then boiled them for about 4 minutes to kill any possibility of causing my stomach to be angry. I followed that with a quick saute in a tiny bit of olive oil along with salt and pepper. And went on to eat them. Truthfully, I was nervous. After reading about toxins and pain and this and that, I was freaked. But, then I remembered that yeah, I’d eaten them before and had lived to tell about it, so I dug in. I was expecting the flavor to be kinda a generic grassy green flavor. But, it was definitely distinctive. Kinda green beany. Kinda asparagusy. But definitely distinctive. I actually ate them really fast! They were pretty tasty just popping them into my mouth. And no stomach pain. Would I buy them again? Maybe, if they were really cheap again and I found some great recipe to use them in.

Sorry this post is kinda uninteresting. I don’t have time to make it funny or witty. And also I’m pretty physically and emotionally exhausted from this crazy day. Booo early flights and alarm clocks. Yay fiddleheads and Santa Fe!!

Oh, I got tagged by lots of people this week!!! I’m going to get on that soon…although that might not happen till next week.

So, I’m off till next Sunday. I might post a little mid-week “hi” but don’t hold your breath. Cause then you might stop breathing.

Easy Dal for a Busy Gal

I know…it doesn’t really rhyme, but…

Yeah-long time no post. But I have an excuse! I wish it was an exciting excuse though. I’m pretty dull so it’s just general busyness. But crazy busyness. Psycho busyness. Ready to chain myself to my desk busy. You see, I’m away all next week and am preparing for that at work. My job is pretty specific so no one at my office can do my actual work while I’m gone so I have to double-time it all week. That’s like hammertime but without genie pants. I’ve barely even remembered I’m going on a vacation next week. A real, honest to god vacation, and not Cleveland (not to knock Cleveland, but I feel like that’s where I go every time I leave New York.) But that equals too much work to do and not enough time to blog. And not enough time to cook.

I knew this was coming thought so I prepared myself. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be too exhausted every evening to cook after such crazy days. And I was right. Every single night this week I’ve been strolling in fairly late physically and emotionally exhausted (I actually cried one day at work this week) and the last thing I’ve wanted to do is cook. Take out is just not an option for me, so I did some quick cooking on Sunday to take care of this. Quick and yummy. Really yummy. Really really really yummy. Oh-and cheap. So I went with a go-to which, for some reason, I’ve never posted. And if you read my awesome and super-witty title of this post, you’ll know I made dal! But, alas, not (entirely) my own recipe. I stole the recipe from the lovely Lindsay for her crazy delish red lentil dal.

Now, we all already know I love lentils so when I first saw her recipe I knew I had to make it. It was amazing and spicy and flavorful and perfect the first time and the second time and the third time. I knew it would be the perfect comforting and warming dinner waiting for me when I came home exhausted from work. And it was. It was something to look forward to during my hard days at work this week. I got excited for it every night, even after eating it day after day. And that is what good food should do. You should be excited to eat it and look forward to it. It should make you happy and lift your spirits. I truly love food and needed something to achieve all these things this week to help me through a rough one. And this dal did it. I think it’s a great recipe…one that is perfect for rough weeks at work.

Oh-and it’s easy to make! I threw it together on Sunday night in about 15 minutes, let it summer for about 45 more and there you go. Dinner for 4 nights (well-it really makes 2 good sized portions and I’ve been eating small portions along with some veggies each night). Voila. I followed the original recipe basically to a T but changed the spice combo according to what I had. I had no garam masala or tumeric but lots of some generic yellow curry (which is actually a really good combo that I got at an Indian grocer) so I used lots of that as a replacement. I’m assuming Lindsay’s original was a bit sweeter with the garam masala but I liked my dish as is. And the red lentils are so good and different. I had never used red lentils before I tried this recipe. But because they’re so small they don’t really hold their shape well and basically led to a thick spicy stew with lots of body. I’m now a huge fan…a shrine to red lentils and dal coming soon?? Possibly.

By the way…I’m so exhausted that I’m pretty much not quite sure what I just wrote. Congrats if you can make a cohesive thought out of my post.

Red Lentil Dal

1/2 cup red lentils
2 cups veggie broth
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 cup chopped tomatoes and juice (I used a box)
1/2 can tomato paste
1 tablespoon coriander
2 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon spicy red curry
2 teaspoons good yellow curry
salt and pepper
olive oil

Saute the onions and garlic in a little olive oil over fairly low heat in a dutch oven or large pot. You don’t want these to turn but you want them to cook all the way through. Stir pretty regularly to ensure even cooking. Once onions and garlic is cooked through add all the spices except the coriander. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes. If it gets too dry, add a tad bit of water. Once those 2 minutes are up, add all the remaining ingredients, stir to combine, turn heat to low, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes or until lentils are cooked. Make sure you taste it to make sure the spices and heat is to your liking. I almost always add more spices halfway through (I like my food crazy flavorful) so you might want to as well. Once it’s finished cooking, start to construct your shrine to red lentils and dal. You’re welcome.

No Running Update This Week

Cause I didn’t get to run. I’m still planning on running once a week for the near future (2 weeks or so) and just wasn’t able to fit it in yesterday. Not a big deal. I can’t wait, however, till I can run regularly again. And I’m starting yoga back up this week (my laziness back in February kicked yoga off my activity calendar) and am going to talk to the owner, who one of my best friends is super close with, about some poses that will help strengthen my knee. Yay!!

Until a real post, take a look at this awesome veggie smorgas I devoured for part of my dinner tonight. Awesome. Totally awesome.

What the heck is a sunchoke??

This is a sunchoke:

Ugly, ain’t it.

Since I started shopping regularly at the farmers market last year, I tend to buy the same things every time. Carrots, lettuce, zucchini, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, herbs, green beans, fennel. Maybe some fruit if I’m feeling crazy. I’m a creature of habit and I know what I like. Also, I always rush through the market going to the same vendors for the same stuff-I’m there maybe 10 minutes. But, I’m not sure why I rush. On a nice day, I have no reason to rush but I do anyway. I never really look at new and different produce, stuff I’ve never tried or am not sure how to cook. I’m adventurous in a lot of my cooking but never in my market shopping. Crazy at the market for me is buying cilantro instead of basil. Livin’ on the edge! However, because of this there is so much stuff I’m missing! The Green Market is a fantastic farmers market with tons of vendors selling a huge variety of seasonal produce. By sticking to my rushed list I’m missing out on great produce at its peak that is super tasty. And it’s making me sad.

However, after the success that was the ramps these past two weeks (I’d never tried them before), I decided to venture out and be a little crazy! My new goal at the market is to buy something new and different every week. It can be small and a single of one thing just to try it out, but I will buy something new that I’ve never either eaten or cooked with every week. I think it will be a fun to try new stuff and broaden my veggie horizons. It’s a great way to find new ways to cook my healthy food and taste the best that summer has to offer. Wow! Watch out-I’m taking some risks now!! (yeah-not really. but kinda.)

My first venture was buying that ugly sunchoke. I’ve seen them before at the market at a vendor that sells tons of different varieties of potatoes in the winter but had no idea what they were. I asked the seller and he said it was a root veg like a turnip or potato and available in the winter-it’s a good thing I got mine now cause they’re going to be unavailable soon! I’d seen them on menus at fancy schmancy restaurants and on Top Chef so I knew they were classy, like me. (Side note-has anyone else noticed how quinoa keeps popping up in tons of episodes? I feel so trendy considering one of my most commonly eaten foods is THE trendy ingredient on Top Chef. Yeah.) I picked a pretty small one (a bit smaller than my fist) and paid $.20 for it. Ahhh, cheap eats at the market. It took it home and promptly forgot about it. Until last night when I remembered I had bought it and decided to cook it up.

But how?? I googled sunchoke (also called a Jerusalem artichoke, latin name Helianthus tuberosus-so I’m a plant dork…are you gonna make fun of me?) and just decide to dice it and roast it so I could experience it without any other flavors covering it. It wanted to taste the sunchoke as it was so I could know how I could use it in the future and what flavors it would meld well with. So, I cut it up into chunks (it was white-like a potato on the inside) and tossed it in a hot (450) oven for about 45 minutes along with some chunks of sweet potato. When I removed it it looked like this:

I took a bite, having no idea what I was going to taste. I was expecting something bland, like a potato considering the inside looked like a potato. What did I taste? Something totally different! It without a doubt tasted like an artichoke and considering I like artichokes this was a good thing. The flavor was strong but not in an overpowering way. It could definitely be a dominant ingredient in a recipe-in a good way. I liked it. A lot. The flavor was bright and yummy. I could see it being good smashed with a little olive oil and lemon. Maybe mixed with smashed cauliflower to add volume. Mmmm-a simple recipe in the making? Possibly! Although just plain, how I ate it last night, was pretty perfect.

I ate it along with my sweet potatoes which was an excellent combo. The sweetness of the sweet potato combined with the bright and strong flavor of the sunchoke made it more interesting that my regular sweet potato.

Verdict? Sunchokes are yummy and will be purchased again. Success! My first risk-taking adventure into the world of unknown produce was a winner. Next time? who knows. Stay tuned…

A Love Affair With Ramps

I was planning on writing an entirely different post today about stupid tofu. Well, tofu isn’t stupid, but I messed up the recipe, so that’s why it’s stupid. But, that all changed when I made my dinner tonight. I decided to use up the ramps I bought this past Saturday at the farmers market-yup, bought them again. So I cooked up my bunch, and fell in love.

When I did my weekly farmers market shopping I couldn’t not buy ramps again. I enjoyed them so much last time and I was surprised how delicious (and versatile) they were. And they are only in season for such a short time that I can’t skip a week while they’re available! Now, that would just be mean. I asked the ramp lady how long they would be in season, and she said a week and a half longer. A week and a half!?! Well, that’s really only a week for me-what am I supposed to do with half a week? So, I only have one more week left to keep eatin’ my ramps. I only bought one bunch though. And I’m still not sure why…one week left and only one bunch!?! I make bad decisions sometimes. I should have bought their entire stock (that’s about 300 bunches). Yup.

I was planning on doing the exact same thing with them as I did last week-a quick saute with some bok choy. Easy peasy. But then I reached an epiphany-ramps in pasta! Yes! Simple yet delicious. A little different than what I did last week but still simple enough that the perfect flavor of the ramps wouldn’t be covered up or hidden. So I got cooking.

First off, I know this is so similar to how I cooked my ramps last week but I don’t care. Cause “I’m in love! I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it!” (Elf? Anyone? Anyone? Crickets?) And second, this was such a delicious little dinner it deserves it’s own special post. Onto the cooking!

(I guess we can call this the recipe: Pasta with Ramps & Bok Choy) While I cooked a little bit of whole wheat pasta (when I make pasta, I like to put a lot of other stuff in and don’t like to weigh myself down with the pasta itself, so I tend to use only 1/4 cup or so), I cleaned (very well) the ramps, cut off the roots and chopped them up. I did use the greens this time and am gosh darn glad I did. So, I sauteed the ramps in a bit of olive oil and salt until mostly cooked. Then I added my baby bok choy (about 4 pieces, washed and cut in half vertically) to the pan with the ramps and cooked for about 5 more minutes. Yeah, I know, more bok choy. This isn’t a week for variety! But, this is another veg that I probably won’t be seeing much longer at the market, and it’s so good when it’s young…and cheap for such a crazy huge bag! Anyway, when the bok choy was all wilted down (but still bright and green) and the ramps were cooked (white part was mostly transparent and soft), I added quite a bit of pepper and the ultimate secret ingredient: lemon zest. I had a lemon in the fridge for making some more hummus and it just screamed at me when I opened up the fridge. I think it was a stroke of genius. I zested basically the entire lemon into the cooked ramps and bok choy and it was perfect. Truly perfect.

I was planning on putting half of the ramp/bok choy mixture in with the pasta and saving the other half for tomorrow night but I couldn’t resist. I used the entire thing. I mean it’s just veggies, right? My pasta was overflowing with ramps and bok choy-it’s kinda like I was eating veggies with a threw pieces of pasta thrown in. Not pasta with veggies. But, that’s how I like it. I finished it with a drizzle of my best, really high quality Spanish olive oil (my prize possession) and dug in. Mmmmmm. mmmmm. It’s. just. too. delicious. slobber. drool. The ramps are so good. Just as good as they were last week. I still can’t describe the flavor-subtle yet strong and very distinct. I don’t think there is anything like them. And that lemon? Wow-it brought out a freshness in the ramps that wasn’t there last time. And it totally brightened up the flavor. Super fresh. Super yum. Ramps-will you be my valentine?

It was such a simple dinner-when I started cooking it I thought it was going to be a throw together meal that didn’t deserve it’s own blog post. But it was just a perfect little meal highlighted the best of seasonal and simple eating. I mean-I wouldn’t eat this any other time of the year. It is a seasonal meal, made for May. And so perfect. So so perfect. And in a week and a half? Deep depression. Goodbye ramps! I’ll miss you. Next week I’m going to have to find a replacement veggie. Any contenders? Sugar snap peas are coming into season soon…I think I’ll be ok.

Running Update #11: Back On My Feet

Why am I posting such an unflattering shot of me on the internet? Cause I took if after running for the first time since my injury this past Saturday!! I mean, if that the face of a happy runner after a (pretty) good 10 miler or what?!

Finally. Although I only haven’t been running for 3 weeks, it seriously seems like an eternity. I seriously can’t imagine being injured for much longer-I have been feeling so ancy and determined to lace up my running shoes. The elliptical just doesn’t cut it. AT ALL. It’s funny that some people can go forever on the elliptical and get bored after 5 while running, when I am completely the opposite. Anyway, after suffering through three miserable weeks of ellipticalling and pain, I got back out.

I have to say, though, I was so incredibly nervous to run again. I was so scared of re-injuring myself or getting back into running too soon causing more problems. Would my knee basically give out after 5 minutes leaving me even more defeated? Ugh-I couldn’t stop thinking about it. But I just wanted to get out there! And so I did.

How was it? I wish I could say it was the best run I’ve ever had. That I basically hit nirvana when I started running because it felt to great to get back into it. Yeah-no. I mean, it wasn’t a bad run, but I could definitely tell I hadn’t run in three weeks. Ellipticalling and biking does not make up for the workout running gives me-it was hard. I had a really hard time getting into a good rhythm and couldn’t get a good pace. I tend to be really good keeping at my pace when I run my long runs (9 min/mile) but I think I lost my touch this past Saturday (well, hopefully just temporarily) but I started out waaaay too fast and ended up at the end of mile 4 only 30 minutes in. That’s 7 1/2 minute miles! Whoa-too fast. When I run long runs, I need to keep a slow pace in order to maintain enough energy to finish. Duh! So, I messed up this time. I mean, I slowed down significantly but was still exhausted by about 3/4 of the way through because of my initial speediness. And my legs just felt a little awkward. Not really sure what happened there-just out of practice for a bit. I’m sure I’ll feel right at home soon.

Any my knee? It hurt a little-more of a subtle pain, like a nagging injury (which this is), NOTHING like it was before. Not even close to how it was when it started hurting a few weeks back. But, I put so much of my energy towards thinking about and focusing on my knee, determined to stop the second it hurt a little too much, that it exhausted it me a weird way. I couldn’t enjoy myself as much because I was thinking about it too much-I barely paid attention to my surroundings, my music or my enjoyment. However, I think it was necessary: better to have a less than stellar run than end a worse injury because I wasn’t paying attention. It didn’t get worse than how it started while running but I did feel a bit stiff in the end. Nothing to be concerned about and not even close to how it was before. Not even comparable.

I’m focusing too much on the negative here-I’m not a negative person in the slightest and don’t view running like that at all. It still was a good run! I was so excited and happy to be running again that I couldn’t not end my run in a good and uber-excited mood. I did a pretty solid 10 miles on a beautiful day and that’s all I could ask for. It doesn’t matter to me that the run wasn’t great, I’m back on my feet and out the door again. As I’ve mentioned probably millions of times before, running is probably my favorite thing and brings me so much pleasure and accomplishment to my life that no matter how bad a run is, it’s a always a good thing.

And next? I think for the next three or so weeks I’m going to continue running only once a week to prevent injury and promote healing and after that….oh, I’ve got big running plans. Really big running plans. Stay tuned…

Market Bounty

It’s about that time of year again. No-I’m not talking about the finale of America’s Next Top Model (go Anya!). Nor huge summer movies starting to overtake the theaters (I need to see Iron Man ASAP). It’s farmer’s market time!!! Well, technically the Green Market in New York goes on all year round, but I don’t go in the winter.

Farmer’s Markets are a healthy cooking lover’s best friend. So much fresh, healthy food it’s hard to avoid super healthy meals! My parents are big market people so I’ve gone all my life and have been surrounded by yummy market produce. When I was younger, we went to some random market that was indoors and all I remember about it is they had good cookies and tomato plants. Quite a contrast. That market closed and several years later a wonderful farmer’s market opened in Cleveland in Shaker Square. My parents go every weekend and I always go when I’m in town. It’s so fun and I even worked there one summer, hustling lettuce, peppers and flower bouquets. My mom has a horrid picture of me at the market that summer with a bouquet trying to convince people to buy it…it think the picture should be thrown away. Anyway, because I’ve always been surrounded by a love for fresh and local produce, going to the Union Square Green Market in New York is completely natural for me.

I just realized this post is going to get really long cause I have lots to talk about, so I’m not going to linger, like I tend to do. Well, I was able to make it to the market for the first time since December last Saturday, in an attempt to ward off my disappointment from not racing. Although many of the vendors still aren’t there and produce is limited (lots of seedlings-uh-I don’t have a garden.), I was able to get some pretty good stuff. Here is what I came home with:

From left to right: Parsnips, French Breakfast Radishes, a Sweet Potato, behind that a HUGE bag of baby Bok Choy and Ramps at the end.

I’ve been having fun mixing and matching all my bounty all week or dinners. And it’s all been really really REALLY good. Three reallys are definitely necessary. Here is what I did for each veggie I ended up with in my market bag.

Parsnips
Pasnips have a really good fresh flavor-they have a similar texture to carrots but taste quite different. I can’t quite describe it, but if you haven’t had a pasnip, try one! I chopped my 2 parsnips up (that I think I got for $.50!!), tossed the pieces with a tiny bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and tossed it on the oven. I made this one night for a different night to eat so wasn’t thinking about them for dinner. And totally forgot about them roasting away. 2 hours after I stuck my pan of parsnips in the oven, my roommate comes home and says “oo, it’s hot in here and it smells so good!”. Whoops!!! I ran over to the oven and pulled out a pan of burned parsnips. It’s a good think burned veggies don’t really bother me and I hate wasting food, so I just threw it in a tupperware and tossed it in the fridge. And it was still very yummy. Even burned. And so easy!

Radishes
When I saw this bunch at one of the stands at the market, I couldn’t resist! It was so colorful and fresh looking! They had regular radishes and these french breakfast radishes. I decided to go with the latter because I’d never had that variety. And I’m very glad I went with that choice. A typical way to serve raw radishes is with butter and salt. I didn’t want to eat them with butter, so I dipped them in a little bit of kosher salt. WOW. The flavor was amazing and the salt really did enhance them. So refreshing and fresh tasting (yeah-FRESH is the word of the day, I think appropriatley). Each crispy cool but sharp bite was better than the last and might have been my favorite part of my meal when I ate them last night. I think if the price is right, next time I’m going to buy two bunches. Crazy! Living on the edge.
Radish up close!

Sweet Potato
Okay-nothing very exciting here. It was cheap so I grabbed one, and I’m sure much fresher than the ones I buy at Key Food. Considering I eat one almost every week, I did my normal baked sweet potato topped with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and chili powder. It was good. No surprises there. But, if I see them next week, I’ll still buy one cause of the freshness factor. Freshness is better.

Baby Bok Choy
This was the surprise of the bunch. I’d never seen bok choy at the Green Market before and when I saw this bag FULL of super bright green but teeny bok choy, I knew I had to grab it. Because the bag was so big, I ate a few pieces almost every night this week, and never got sick of it. In fact, I just finished it off tonight and was quite sad. For 2 nights I sauteed (over very high heat for fast cooking) some washed bunches (kept intact) with tofu chunks in sesame oil, hoison sauce and ginger. I didn’t overcook the bok choy to keep the freshness in tact. Good. really good. And perfect to eat with my fav chopsticks. Another night I cooked some with my ramps (see below) and 2 nights I barely cooked it in a very small amount of olive oil. All so good and refreshing. This bag was definitely a winner and definitely something I will buy again if given the opportunity. Yay baby bok choy!!

Ramps
This was without a doubt my most adventerous purchase. If you know much about farmer’s markets and seasonal produce found at them, you’ll probably know that ramps are a beloved and hoarded spring item. They are part of the onion family and have a short growing season. See more info here. I’ve seen them and read about them everywhere but was always scared to buy them. So intimidating those little guys! I thought I had missed the season so was pleasantly surprised when I found lots at the market. I decided to take a chance and buy a bunch, and am soooo glad I did. To cook them, I washed them really well (they definitely weren’t the cleanest thing I’ve bought at the market), trimmed off the roots and the greens. However, next time I will use the greens; for some reason I didn’t think you could eat them. I chopped them up into small pieces and sauteed them in a little olive oil, salt and pepper. When they were almost done (which was a total guesstimate considering I’d never seen a cooked ramp before), I added some of my bok choy and ended up with a delicious combo. Really delicious. This might have been my favorite of the week, which is saying a lot considering I’ve loved everything I bought and cooked from the market this week. And the flavor of ramps? Quite hard to describe: definitely onion-y with a bit of garlic flavor as well as leek, but subtler. However, I know why they are so coveted and why people basically bust out of bed at 4am to get their share. I loved them so much that might be me next Saturday. Well, I’ll probably be still sleeping but I’ll probably be dreaming of ramps.

Ramps with Bok Choy

Overall, it was quite a successful week of goodies from the Green Market. I truely enjoyed every item I bought. But, being the beginning of the season, this was a small bounty for me. In the peak of summer, I buy the majority of my food at the market-I never buy produce at the grocery store over the summer. Cause this stuff is fresh. So much fresher than what you’ll get at the grocery store. And fresh is good. Not only tasty good, but good for your body. Tons of nutrients and vitamins and flavors that make your belly smile.

Lesson to take away: if there is one in your area…go to the farmer’s market! Try new veggies and fruits. You never know when you’ll get addicted to a new super healthy veggie. mmmmm ramps.

Unhealthy Cookies Again

Sorry. I couldn’t help myself.

Whenever a friend is in town or I go to someone’s house/apartment out of town, I have a personal obligation to myself that I will bake something. Odds are that thing is cookies. And odds are those cookies are not healthy. I have yet to break into the vegan baking field (which I know is plentiful and delicious) and thus bake unhealthy decadent non-vegan treats. Whoops. My next baking project I REALLY want to try vegan cookies. Really. I swear.

So, my friend Jen was coming into town this weekend and I jumped on the chance to pull out my baker’s hat (is there such thing?) and whip up something delicious. Like I said when I made homemade oreos, I only bake when I have an occasion to do so or someone to pass the yummies off to and whenever Jen comes, it’s the perfect time for it. Her boyfriend, Matt, back in Boston, loves when I pack Jen’s bags full of cookies. I made her (well, really him) a bag full of chocolate yogurt cookies back in January and got raves review from him. Therefore, before she came, I emailed her to see if what I was planning on baking sounded good to her…and got a resounding “yes!!”, so I got crackin’.

The recipe I decided to try was from my fav Smitten Kitchen and was for Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies. I mean…come on! Peanut Butter! Chocolate Chips! Cookies! Three of my favorite foods combined into one. I had been eyeing this recipe for a really long time. Well, actually since the second she posted that recipe and those gorgeous pictures have I been eyeing it. And needed an excuse to make them and finally found it this past weekend. Yes! Thanks, Jen, for giving me an excuse to try out an awesome recipe.

I made them on Sunday afternoon (in a much better mood than I was on Saturday) but spent probably too long baking them. I love to make cookies extra small so you don’t feel guilty eating them and are perfect for a little treat. Also, I only have one baking sheet so I can only bake 12 cookies at a time. The combination of the two led to tons of cookies in a ton of time. The recipe probably made 8 dozen small cookies. That’s a lot of cookies. And it probably took me about 2 hours to bake them all.

But it was worth it. Soooo worth it. The one change I made to the recipe was that I left out the peanut butter chips (ew), added 1 cup of chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of corsely chopped peanuts. This made the cookies super chunky and a little bit crumbly but not so much so that they were falling apart. I think the addition of the peanuts was key and I would highly suggest adding them if you decide to make them, something else I highly suggest. And having them so mini and tiny was extra fun. Little cookies overflowing with big chocolate chips and big peanut chunks.
I mean…look at the close up!

Oh, and Jen loved them. Still waiting for Matt’s verdict as I don’t think Jen is even back in Boston yet. He better like them. Oh, he better…or no more cookies for you!!

Recipe here

Running Update #10: Why I didn’t run the half marathon…

Talk about a last minute decision.

All week I had this weird feeling that I was going to run the race. I’m not religious but I totally believe in signs and I kept getting lots of weird ones that told me I would run. Also, my knee was getting so much better all last week. Working out didn’t hurt, going up and down stairs didn’t hurt, I could bend it all the way without pain. Things were looking up. I was sure I was going to run. But, it still hurt when I run. Ugh.

Throughout the week, every evening after I would work out at the gym (no running of course), I would come home, throw my bag inside and go jogging up and down my block for about 5 minutes. I got some weird stares. The first time, it still hurt a ton. Every step (well, on my left foot) delivered pretty intense pain. The second time, a little less. The third time (Wednesday), much less. And by Thursday, it barely hurt. And I was elated. Seriously on cloud 9. I was 99% positive that I was going to run the half. I went to bed with a huge smile on my face. I was going to run!!

The next day (last Friday), I made a plan. Per my plan, I would see how I was feeling all day, do another little jog at night and make my final decision then. On the way to work, I ran into a colleague/friend from my job on the train and we chatted about it and I told him how close to sure I was that I was going to run. He knew the situation and is a runner so really gets it. But, he expressed concern. He knew how much pain I had been in and was scared that I would reinjure myself fast and worse and thus be out for 2 months instead of 2 weeks. And this put doubt in my mind. But, this was doubt I needed. My feeling earlier that I was definitely going to run was unrealistic and slightly naive. I was looking at the half as something I needed to do and would go through anything to finish no matter how much pain I was in. He basically brought me into reality and opened my eyes to the whole situation. When I left him, he made me promise to “listen to my body” before I made any decision. And, I order to prevent future injury, I knew that’s what I had to do.

On my way home from work I picked up my race packet from New York Road Runners, because I still hadn’t made my decision and was surrounded by runners. Being there made me so excited and hoping so badly that I would be able to race. There is always such a fun energy there that pumps me up for any race (even though it’s just corrals of people getting pushed from room to room by old women with attitudes giving you your bib, safety pins and t-shirt-I still love it). On my subway ride home I was so excited to lace up my Saucony’s and hit the streets to make my final decision.

All day long, I would go back and forth between racing and not racing. Weighing out the pros and cons, going back and forth. But it was a short little jog that screamed out the answer. As I was running up and down 5th street, my knee hurt just enough (seriously, such a small amount) that I knew I couldn’t race. If it was hurting a little at the beginning, I’m sure it would escalate fast and I probably wouldn’t be able to finish. Also, the first 3 miles of the Brooklyn Half are on the boardwalk on Coney Island with is an incredibly uneven surface which would exacerbate my knee and probably lead to a very painful race. And I didn’t want to finish the race and be out of commission for 3 months because I gave myself a much more serious injury. So, I finished my jog and told myself “no way”. No race for me tomorrow. And the funny thing is, I was fine with my decision, because I had listened to my body and my body told me no. I essentially had no choice so I didn’t go back and forth and waver on my decision. And I was fine…at least for a bit.

It wasn’t until I posted on my blog my decision (which was literally 30 minutes after I made up my mind) that it hit me. And I broke down. Bad. Because I hadn’t told anyone besides myself my decision before, I was fine. But, when I announced it to the world, it was real. And it hurt. The disappointment was overwhelming and upsetting. I felt like I had failed and basically wasted all my hard work over the past 4 months. This was such a huge goal that I had worked towards and I wasn’t able to fulfill it. In other words, Friday night sucked.

And Saturday sucked too. Lots more tears and depression and disapointment. At 6:30 I woke up and realized I should be leaving for the race now. At 9 the race should be started. At 11, I should be done. But I was still in bed. All I wanted to do was have the day be over. May 3rd was such a big day for me, marked all over all my calendars with red pen and stars, I just needed it to be May 4th. I just couldn’t get back the fact that I didn’t race. But, even though I knew I had made the right decision, I couldn’t get past that fact.

However, yesterday (Sunday), I woke up, opened my eyes to why I had decided not to run and felt fine. Even happy! I knew just getting over Saturday was going to help. And it did. And now I feel fine. I don’t regret not running because I know I saved my knee-especially because I have lots more running goals coming up in the next 6 or 7 months (more on that later). As I said to my friend who is having relationship problems, it doesn’t help anyone to wallow in the pain. You just have to pick yourself up and move on. And that’s what I did…on to the next goal!

I’m hoping to run on Saturday. I’m thinking I’ll probably be fully healed by then and ready to get moving again. Cause man, do I miss running.

The Final Decision…

it’s a no go. and i’m “okay” with my decision. more or less. maybe more less than more. ok-i’m upset, but i know it’s basically the only decision.

more on sunday.