Big 100!

This is my 100th post! I had hoped that I would have something really fun planned for the big 100, but basically all you are going to get is a recap of my weekend so far. Sorry! To make it more celebratory, I'll just put in more exclamation points than usual. :)

CSA Photo Shoot!
As I mentioned before, we got our CSA box on Friday. You can tell it's fall - the box seemed more full than usual! Check out the haul:

Cantaloupe, romaine lettuce, beets, swiss chard, fingerling potatoes, one giant heirloom tomato, red peppers, apples, and pears. I can't believe we get all of this for only $25!

And in case you can't tell how gigantic that tomato is:

B thought it was a grapefruit when we opened the box!

And yes, I am wearing a Silly Band on my wrist. If you don't know what Silly Bandz are, you probably don't work with kids! They are a BIG DEAL!

[Source]

My particular Silly Band was a gift from a student who gave it to me because it is in the shape of a penguin and I have penguin things all over my classroom. If I've learned anything in three years of teaching, it's that when a student gives you a gift, you need to use it! Otherwise, they get their feelings hurt. :(

Cookies!
Yesterday afternoon, while B was at a Physics teacher training, I whipped up a batch of Apricot Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies. They are exquisite.

I made just a few modifications:

• 1 cup all purpose flour + 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 3/4 cups oats instead of 2
• reduced butter to 1 1/2 cups
• accidentally used baking powder instead of soda (no ill effects though)

I  had a few after dinner yesterday, then one with my coffee this morning, and maybe another one today after lunch. B originally turned his nose up at the dried apricot, but has definitely changed his tune. I really recommend waiting until they are cool to taste-test though. The dried apricot doesn't have the best flavor when it is hot out of the oven.

The recipe makes a lot of cookies (but I like to make them small-ish), so after baking up two dozen, I still had quite a bit of dough left. So, I made balls of dough, put them on parchment, and froze them...

...then tossed the frozen dough into a ziplock bag and put it back in the freezer. Now it's super easy to have cookies during the week without making a huge batch!

One of my favorite kitchen shortcuts!

Running!
B and I did what felt like a super slow four mile run this morning. In truth, I kept a 8:40min/mi pace throughout, but my legs felt like lead. My knee is still giving me some grief and it is incredibly frustrating. Right around the time my breathing settles down and my body feels ready to really tackle the miles, my knee gives up. I'm currently dealing with some health insurance issues (I signed up for insurance with my school district, but then realized that I would have better coverage if I used B's insurance, so now we are trying to make the swap but of course there is a ton of paperwork involved), but as soon as we get it figured out, I'm heading to the doctor.

Leftovers!
After our run this morning, I parked myself on the couch with leftovers for lunch:

Mexican Veggie Soup (no longer very soupy though!), and Veggie Chickpea Curry (and maybe a cookie or two). Now I'm icing my knee, watching Buffy reruns, and grading papers.

It looks like it might rain today!!

Guilty Pleasures

Did you know today (Tuesday) was National S'mores Day? I couldn't figure out why so many of the food blogs I follow had s'mores posts until I looked it up!

To celebrate, I made a yummy batch of S'mores FroYo to share with my husband while we watched Bachelor Pad!

Yum, definitely a keeper!

Meg's S'mores FroYo
Ingredients

• 3 cups plain whole milk yogurt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup mini marshmallows
• 1 sleeve graham crackers

Method

1. Mix together the yogurt, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl until sugar begins to dissolve. Let rest in refrigerator for about an hour.
2. Add yogurt mixture, chocolate chips, and marshmallows to ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.
3. Crumble the graham crackers into the yogurt near the end of the freezing cycle (so they incorporate, but don't get too mushy)

Fess up, what is your guilty TV pleasure?We don't even have a TV, so you know how much I love me some Bachelor drama if I have to wait until the day after it airs to catch it online!

Big Reveal

Happy Tuesday! I woke up early for a 6-mile run and then decided to drink coffee and read instead. Does it sound like I'm getting tired of training? Because I am. Only 19 days until the big race!

The mystery ingredients yesterday were used to whip up a batch of Chocolate Chip "Sarahbars" from Mama Pea. I love me some Larabars, but I don't love paying $1.50/bar for, essentially, ground up trail mix. I'm a snob, I know.

These bars are legit folks. And so easy. And cheap! The most difficult part of this recipe was forming them into one big sheet to refrigerate. I kept pressing them out too thin and thinking, "Well, that's way too thin for a snack bar!" I finally got smart and used a bread pan as a mold.

They are still a little thin (definitely thinner than Sarah's), but totally still munch-able. I cut them into 8 squares for optimal munching.

I think it might work to press the dough into a mini muffin tin for "Larabar shots." I'll try that next time. I just get way too overzealous when pressing out dough. It's that thin crust pizza maker in me, I guess!

SPOILER ALERT: We're grilling pizza again this week! Stay tuned!

In other exciting news, I signed up for a very cool project yesterday - ItStartsWith.Us.

The premise behind ItStartsWith.Us is simple, you join the team (you only have to give your name and email address) and every week you'll get an email with an "assignment" that takes 15 minutes or less to complete but that will make life better for someone else.

The goal of ItStartsWith.Us is to build a global community of individuals focused on making a positive impact in the lives of the people around them.

Each and every one of us has the ability to change the world by touching lives in this way. And when we hear stories about the positive things others are doing, we become more aware of the opportunities we have to make a difference for the people around us. [source]

This is a really exciting movement that is expanding quickly. If you're a fan of Operation Beautiful (who isn't?!), you will really love their Love Bomb team. Once a week, they come together to drop hundreds of love bombs (in the form of blog comments) for those who need it most.

I'm looking forward to getting involved and blogging about the experience. Perhaps you'll join me? Click here to sign up (and if you're a blogger, grab a button and add it to your site to spread the word)!

Sidewalk Surfing

I took yesterday off (from blogging, that is) to spend the day at the beach with my mom. We shopped in Capitola, had lunch at Palapas, and then frolicked near the ocean at Seascape (where Brian proposed!). It was a wonderful, relaxing, beautiful day. I even picked up these cute shoes:

Aren't they adorable?! They are the new Sidewalk Surfers from Sanuk and they are so comfy. They have a rubber, flip-flop sole with a canvas upper and are super lightweight. I am looking forward to wearing them all summer long (and probably buying more...).

The hubs came home yesterday afternoon and we celebrated with iced lattes and leftovers. My sister-in-law and I watched a little Losing it with Jillian (have I mentioned that my SIL is living with us these days? She's actually been here for 6 weeks but is moving out this weekend) and then had a baking party in the kitchen. Carrie whipped up a batch of Camper's Chocolate Chip Cookies and I made some decadent double chocolate brownies (recipe below). I think I am going to try grilling pizza tonight!

I am scheduled for a 4-mile run today, but I've had a little nerve pain in my lower back lately that got pretty intense last night, so I'm going to rest up today and see how I feel this evening. I have 8 miles scheduled tomorrow (my longest run yet!) and I want to be able to do it pain free. Brian thought it might be my sciatic, but the pain is a little too high and centralized (it's just to the left of my coccyx) and doesn't run down the back of my leg. Any ideas?

This morning I made Brian an oatmeal pancake (because I forgot to buy his cereal while he was away - oops!). These were so easy and yummy! Last night I mixed together 1/2 cup of oats, 1 egg white, 1/4 cup of applesauce, 1/2T vanilla, and 1t baking powder. This morning I mixed in 1/2 a mashed banana and poured the mixture out on a hot grill. B ate it with warm maple syrup and said it was better than regular pancakes. Yum!

As promised, here is my brownie recipe. I originally intended to use 1/4c sugar and 1/4c agave nectar, but realized I was running low on agave, so (to celebrate my sweet-tooth husband being home), I just used all sugar. Ashley used sucanat and brown rice syrup in her version of these, which would be great, but would have required an extra trip to the store for me. Using sugar does not bother me as much as using oils and fats (I eat so little sugar to begin with), so I was perfectly happy sugaring these up!

Double Chocolate Brownies
[adapted from Mama Pea & The Edible Perspective]

Ingredients

• 3/4c WW flour
• 1/3c unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2t baking powder
• 1/2t baking soda
• 1c unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2c sugar
• 2t vanilla
• 1/2c chocolate chips
• 1/2 salt

Directions

1.    Preheat oven to 350*

2.    Mix flour, cocoa, baking powder + soda, coffee, and salt together in a large bowl.

3.    In a medium sized bowl combine applesauce, sugar, and vanilla until combined.

4.    Pour the wet into the dry and mix by hand until combined. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl but do not over mix. The batter will be somewhat lumpy.

5.    Let rest for a few minutes and then mix in chocolate chips.

6.    Pour + spread evenly into an 8×8 greased pan.

7.    Bake ~20min until edges pull away from the pan or toothpick test.

8.    Let cool for at least 30min before cutting out of pan.

  

These were just as delicious as I imagined they would be. Sweet and chocolaty and dense... Yum. I might take Ashley's suggestion and add instant coffee to them next time. These might be some of the best brownies I have ever made - you need to make them right now!

Enjoy!