Working with leftovers

Thank goodness for having cooking demos this week because I was able to eat the leftovers for dinner and just had to add in a salad. By time the end of the week came I needed to figure out what I wanted to do with the two eggplants I hadn't cooked. I decided to roast all of my leftover vegetables from the week, and create a pasta for Paul for this week. I roasted: eggplant, peppers, artichokes, and tomatoes in 1T olive oil and herbs. Not only was the house incredibly fragrant during the roasting process, but vegetables turned out wonderful. (Yes, JT, Paul isn't afraid of eating vegetables...give it a try sometime :) )

As has been the pattern over the past few weeks, it will be another incredibly busy week ahead. But, I am happy to have healthy food prepped and ready to go.

An addition to my last post: as much as I have been enjoying my banana bran muffins I LOVED the fresh muffins Liza made for our Saturday post run snack! Hers had other fruits from mine and were sweetened with unsweetened applesauce vs. mine with greek yogurt. Yum, yum!!

Next step will be coming up with something great to take with us to Colorado for vacation in two weeks...gifts for Jamie and I am thinking some fast food for JT, hmmm??

Simple Ingredients

Liza and I have been enjoying wonderful food conversations during our runs. The more we talk and discover the love of simplicity of ingredients the more I desire to keep my foods clean, clean, clean.

As part of this I made some fantastic fat free banana bran muffins and to give them an extra kick of protein I added some fat free greek yogurt. The moisture comes from fat free milk, egg whites, and mashed up ripe bananas. I used whole wheat flour and added wheat bran. No sugar at all, but the sweetness of the bananas and the addition of the greek yogurt was more than enough! They turned out YUM, and for 117 calories a pop, even better :)

Bon Appetit!

mer

Catching Up: Funtimes with Good Food

As we relax on the eve of the marathon, it is a great to catch up as I am WAY overdo.

For starters, two weeks ago one of my amazing clients, Kristen, brought me a wealth of food from her parent's house/hunting shares. What an amazing gift. Here is a picture of the beautiful food.

It is great timing to truly appreciate that gift now because I made Paul's pre-marathon meat sauce with the ground venison, and I am so looking forward to our Valentine's dinner of Venison Filets post-marathon. I am thinking roasted sweet potatoes and asparagus with peas and onions, and a salad with warm poached pears. But, I will still think about the sides for a little longer. No matter, the Venison will be the star and still truly appreciated!

One of the other parts of the gift I received were fresh farm eggs from their chickens and ducks. Well, this brings me to gift number 2: an egg and muffin toaster. It is just awesome, as you can put an egg in toaster with your toast or english muffin and go about your business and return to a poached egg (or egg white) and toast perfectly prepared. What a great gift!!

Thank you so much for such generosity and thoughtfulness!!

Now, let's back up to last weekend for a moment. Part of my journey to Western States is exploring fun food finds as I travel to different races. My most recent was Rocky Raccoon last Saturday.

As the race approached, well actually way before, Jamie and I kept saying that after she finished we would have a bit of a post-race party. Part of this party would require some pre-prep of food as when the race finished for her not much is open in Huntsville, unless you are interested in fast food. Well, I felt I could do better. I thought I would either bring food in from Austin or I would find something in Huntsville. And find I did! I remembered reading about a barbeque place in Saveur magazine. I was very intrigued by this place, and fortunately everyone was on board with giving it a post-race try! Here is the article: Mt. Zion BBQ Picking up the BBQ was as much of a treat as eating it. The cooks were so nice in helping package up the food, and it was so awesome to see the article come to life. That and the food was INCREDIBLE! It was so great that I sent Liza's friend and crew there, and Melanie and her family tried to go post-race, but didn't go far enough down the street. Next time you find yourself in Huntsville Texas on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday...head over to the church!

Ok, time to shutdown for pacing duties in the morning! Paul and I can't think of a better way to start our Valentine's Day! I will send a pic of our Valentine's Dinner now that I am all caught up!

Quick side note, I had allowed myself sweets while racing. Well, I didn't have any during the race last Saturday. Maybe I should carry a cookie with me tomorrow :)

Bon Appetit and Happy Heart Day!!

mer