Monthly Archives: November 2010
Don’t Cry Over Stale Bread
| November 29, 2010 | Posted by Lauren under Breakfast, Desserts, HOTR Eats |
Sometimes the most delicious dishes come from the dumbest mistakes. Mistakes like breaking the cardinal rule of bread storage – forgetting to take it out of the useless, porous plastic bag it comes in…unless you want to end up with bread that’s as hard as a rock.
Stale bread isn’t something you often see in my house. I’m a girl who loves her bread, especially when it’s freshly baked with a crispy crust and a soft, fluffy middle. Whenever there’s fresh bread around, I go through it lightening fast.
That is, until Thursday night. I came home from a long delicious Thanksgiving meal with extra rolls in hand. These were the one bit of leftovers I got my hands on, and I was excited to enjoy them over the course of the week. But I was so tired that I went straight to bed, forgetting all about the dangers I was about to subject my bread to.
I woke up the next morning to bread that was as hard as a rock. The fluffy white clouds of perfection had turned into concrete. After a brief moment of despair, I started scheming. Stale or not, I was determined not to let that bread go to waste.
Pumpkin French Toast
I remembered reading somewhere that stale bread makes really good French toast, so I decided to test it out. I’ll admit I had my doubts as I sawed cut through my rock of a roll, but the result was better than I ever expected. The bread soaked up the egg while cooking, leaving me with soft pumpkin-y slices without getting soggy. I will definitely be making this one again.
The recipe is so easy that it’s really more of a method. It comes together in only a few minutes.
Ingredients
- 2 small rolls, stale (I used 1 French roll and 1 sourdough)
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
- 1 heaping spoonful of canned pumpkin puree
- Dash of cinnamon
- Dash of pumpkin pie spice
Directions
- Slice bread into thirds, set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, vanilla, pumpkin, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice.
- Dunk slices in batter, making sure to soak both sides in egg mixture.
- Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until the bottom has browned.
- Flip and repeat.
- Serve with warm syrup and another sprinkle of cinnamon.
This may be my new favorite method for making French toast. The texture was perfect, and the pumpkin flavor the perfect compliment to the taste of the bread.
Pumpkin Bread Pudding
After my French toast success, I was left with almost an entire can of pumpkin and extra stale rolls. I decided to try something slightly more challenging; something stale bread is known for — bread pudding.
Bread pudding is one of my favorite desserts in the world, but up until now I had never actually made it myself. I spent the evening researching recipes, trying to figure out the basic ingredients. I was surprised by how easy it seemed! All you really needed was stale bread, creamer (or milk), sugar, eggs, and spices. I didn’t have creamer, but had everything else, so I rolled up my sleeves and gave it a try – all the while crossing my fingers that almond milk would be a suitable replacement.
Ingredients
- 4 stale rolls, cut into small pieces (around 4 cups)
- 1 1/2 cups milk (I used almond)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup pure cane sugar
- 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (this is almost the entire can; you could probably just add it all)
- 3 TBS melted butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/3 cup raisins (optional)
Directions
- Cut the bread into bite-sized pieces.
- Combine bread and milk. Mix well and let soak for about 30 minutes. At the same time, put your raisins (if using) in a half cup of warm water to plump.
- After 20 minutes or so, preheat oven to 350 degrees; grease a 13×9 in pan.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients (eggs, sugars, pumpkin, butter, vanilla, and spices).
- Add the raisins and the milk and bread mixture. Stir until evenly coated.
- Spread into prepared pan and bake for 40 – 50 minutes, until set (mine was done after about 45).
- Enjoy with iced cream, whipped cream, or straight out of the pan.
Pre-bake; letting the bread soak. I put it in a pie plate and stirred once to make sure all pieces were covered
Post-bake
I was super happy with how my first bread pudding came out. Soft, sweet, and perfectly pumpkin-y. Good enough to make me want to let my bread get stale all the time! …if I can manage to keep myself from eating it all first, that is.
A Thankful, Turkey-less Thanksgiving
| November 27, 2010 | Posted by Lauren under LifeontheRun |
14 years ago, my mom gathered up her daughters, sat us down, and made a very important announcement: she and my dad had decided to become vegetarians. After explaining her reasoning and telling us why she thought we might want to give up meat too, one question burst from my lips:
“But what about Thanksgiving??! Could we still eat the turkey??”
(Source)
When she explained that no, being a vegetarian meant that you didn’t eat turkey on Thanksgiving or ham on Easter, or any meat any time, I was shocked. How the heck could you have Thanksgiving without the turkey?? And more importantly, why would you want to? That was seriously going to make me think twice before committing to this vegetarian thing.
That was 1996, and vegetarianism wasn’t nearly as popular as it is now. However, to this day, the number one question I get around the holidays when I tell people I’m a vegetarian is the same as the one I had all those years ago: “But what about Thanksgiving? What do you eat?” And year after year, I explain to people what I quickly found out that first meat-less Thanksgiving – I eat the side dishes. And I never go hungry!
But the fact remains that turkey is the center-piece of America’s Thanksgiving feast. When people first hear of a Thanksgiving without the main attraction, their gut reaction is the same: question how one could possibly survive the biggest eating day of the year without it. I’m sure once they take a moment to think about it, they realize how silly the question is (though they still may have their doubts about why you would want to experience Thanksgiving without turkey…but that’s another story!).
Don’t get me wrong, I love the smell of turkey. Walking in the door of a home where someone has been cooking all day and smelling the freshly baked foods is heaven. But you tell me, does the meat really taste as good as it smells?? I would bet not (that smell sets the bar pretty high). 
Most of my meat-less Thanksgivings have taken place with extended family, where I am not in charge of the food. I don’t bring my own specially prepared meal. When it comes time for dinner, I simply help myself to the side dishes and happily dig in. The plates of everyone around the table are made up of little (or not so little) piles of all the wonderful dishes. No turkey just means I get to help myself to an extra scoop of sweet potatoes, or a larger pile of butternut squash casserole. And it means I’ve always got room for a slice of pie…or two.
I know many out there never want to imagine a Thanksgiving without turkey. But if you’re considering it, I promise you it’s really not all that hard. There’s usually so much other great food to eat that after the first time, you won’t even think twice. I’ve survived 14 Thanksgivings without turkey. This year was my first without my family, and I can guarantee you that I missed them more than I ever missed that turkey.
Finally, I know I’m late in saying this, but I have so much to be thankful for this year. Even though I missed being at home surrounded by 3 great sisters, 2 awesome parents, 2 crazy cats, and a sweet little pup, my day certainly was not lacking in love. The past year has been filled with a lot of change and growth. I’m thankful for all the wonderful experiences I’ve had and the friends (both old and new) that I’ve shared them with. And of course, I’m thankful for all of you who read this blog of mine. Whether you read every day, or simply like to stop in from time to time – thank you. Thank you for taking interest in my ramblings, and for all the support you’ve given me these past months. It means more than you could ever know.
Before I end this post, here are just a few of the things I am thankful for:
I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend filled with love, laughter, and of course, amazing food. As we enter into this holiday season, don’t forget to take a minute to give thanks for the blessings in your life.
The Pricing Paradox
| November 22, 2010 | Posted by Lauren under Health News |
I eat a lot of vegetables. Not just because I’m a vegetarian and know they’re good for me, but also because I genuinely like them. When grocery shopping, I try to buy mostly fresh produce, whole grains, and individual ingredients, while avoiding (most) packaged foods.
But eating this way isn’t always easy, and it sure isn’t cheap. I know I’m not the only one that feels this way. People are short on time, short on money and short on resources. To make matters worse, the environment we live in isn’t very supportive of our health.
In general, many people know that fruits and vegetables are healthier choices than fast food. But that doesn’t change the fact that fresh produce is usually more expensive than packaged, processed foods or take-out from a fast food restaurant. How can we honestly expect people to buy more of the healthy items when they cost so much more?
One strategy that tries to fix this problem is to lower the prices of healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables. If we could make it cost less to eat healthy, people would eat more of the good stuff, right?
(Source)
Unfortunately it isn’t that simple. A few days ago, a friend sent me an article that reminded me of a presentation about food pricing that I heard while at my UNC course last summer. The article talked about a study done at the University of Buffalo where researchers made healthy foods cheaper while keeping the prices of junk food the same. They wanted to see how that would effect food choices made by moms in a grocery store. Not surprisingly, when the prices were cheaper, moms did buy more healthy foods. But here’s the catch: the overall nutrition in their carts didn’t change. Instead of using the extra money to buy more healthy foods (or saving it), the moms actually used to it buy more junk. Not quite the result one would hope for.
So then what about doing the opposite? Will the overall effects be better if instead of lowering the cost of healthy foods, we raised the prices of the unhealthy ones? Taxing foods and beverages that have low nutritional value (like soda or fast foods) can encourage people to buy less. But, as you may have guessed, there can also be negative consequences to this. Such as the fact that it has a larger negative effect for families with lower income, and can unfortunately leave them without options if there aren’t cheaper healthy options to replace the foods they now can’t afford. Not to mention the fact that it can be difficult to know where to draw the line. How do we actually define “not nutritious?” And how do you prevent people from buying other unhealthy (not taxed) foods instead?
Well then, if neither option is perfect alone, what would happen if you raised prices of unhealthy foods while also lowering prices of the healthy ones? Sounds like a perfect solution, right? Sadly, researchers have found that this isn’t a great solution either. The subsidy isn’t enough to overcome the negative impacts of the tax.
At this point, I’m sure it must sound like it’s time to just throw up our hands in defeat. Either that, or I suddenly have no faith in my profession and everything we are trying to do.
It may not sound like it, but my goal here is not to sound defeatist. I realize that I have raised a lot of problems without actually proposing a good solution. But my point is that there really is no simple answer. We know that as a country, our health needs work. We don’t eat healthy foods, we don’t exercise enough, and rates of obesity and chronic disease continue to grow. Something needs to be done to fix the health of our nation, but the solution isn’t going to be a simple one. Just like we can’t simply tell people to eat healthier and expect them to change, we can’t just change prices and expect our problems to be solved. Behavior change is a tough thing, especially when it involves behaviors that have become deep-rooted habits. It’s going to take a lot of time and many different strategies to reverse the bad habits of our country.
But that doesn’t mean we should stop trying! And I’m interested to hear your thoughts about all this. Do you find that buying healthy foods is tough because of the price? And how do you think we can help encourage people to eat more fresh, whole foods, while also making sure these foods are affordable and easy to access?
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Sources:
Allison Aubrey. Why Making Healthful Foods Cheaper Isn’t Enough
Shu Wen Ng. Driving a Response: Considerations for Point of Purchase, Pricing and Promotion (presentation at 2010 Obesity Prevention in Public Health Course at UNC; August 2010).
My Exercise Blunder (i.e. how not to start lifting)
| November 20, 2010 | Posted by Lauren under Fitness, Strength Training |
If you’ve been following my blog for a little while, you may remember how I suddenly got super excited about lifting over the summer. I even hosted a widely successful crazy challenge to try to get others excited about it too.
For 2.5 months, I did The Core twice a week without fail. And then…marathon training picked up. I slowly started getting a little less regimented with my lifting routine. Some weeks I still managed to do it twice; other weeks, only once. Finally I dropped lifting altogether. The Core was making me too tired to get in the miles I needed, so instead of adjusting and trying another strength training workout (which had been the original plan), I simply stopped doing it. At the time, I can’t say I was sad to see lifting go.
The honest truth is that I love strength training — in theory. The Core especially is an awesome workout that really helps me feel stronger all over. When I was doing it regularly, I was fit and toned — so much so that I felt like I was in great shape, despite the fact that I was running much less. But while I love what regular lifting can do for my body…I just don’t love doing it. So in late summer when my mileage started increasing, I was all too happy to focus solely on running.
But regular strength training is really good for you. Now that the marathon is over, I’m determined to get back on the wagon. One of my short-term goals is to start doing this regularly, and then hopefully keep up some sort of core work even after I start running more. Sounds like a reasonable goal, right?
Where I Went Wrong
For better or for worse, I’m an all-or-nothing kind of girl. When I put my mind to something, I’m going to be all in. This is why even when I say that I’m just going to relax and have fun running a marathon, in reality I can’t help but race it.
I applied that same mentality on Tuesday night to strength training. After 2 full weeks of relative inactivity, I was itching to move, and excited about getting in a hard workout. I got to the gym, laced up my shoes, and marched straight over to the free weights. For the next 30 minutes, I proceeded to go through the entire core workout, with weights that were very similar to the ones I was using a few months ago. You know, back in the days when I actually did things besides run.
This is pretty much what I looked like
(Source)
And the thing is, the workout didn’t really feel all that bad. Yes, it was hard. I had to really push to get through the entire thing. But besides leaving me exhausted and with legs that felt like jelly, I didn’t feel any negative effects from this (if I had been in pain at all, I would have stopped).
To loosen up my legs, I followed it up with a relatively hard 4 mile run, and went home feeling tired and happy.
The next morning I woke up and was shocked to discover that I could not move my legs without a significant amount of pain. This wasn’t your normal post-lifting soreness — this was post-marathon ‘my legs feel torn up’ bad. I winced and slowly got out of bed, feeling the effects of about 5 million squats. From there it just got worse. The second day, I could barely walk without pain, and stairs became my worst enemy.
Now a little bit of soreness/pain after a new type of exercise is normal. This is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (or DOMS) and can peak 24 – 72 hours after the exercise. Why does it happen? Research suggests that the pain is caused from microscopic tears in your muscle fibers that occur after eccentric contractions — or movements where your muscles forcefully contract while they lengthen…such as lifting. These tears can also lead to swelling in the muscle, which results in soreness (source).
While some pain is normal, I could tell that I over-did it. I’m not lifting to win a strength training competition. I’m lifting to enhance my running. But if my lifting workout is so tough that I’m not able to run at all, we’ve got a problem. It took two full days of just easy walking before I could get back to doing some sort of cardio. And even then, my legs were still too sore to run, so I cross-trained instead.
How You Can Prevent It
As I try to get back into lifting shape, I can’t expect to avoid DOMS altogether. I simply don’t have the strength that I used to. It’s going to take some work to build back up, and I expect some soreness. But there are some things that I should have done (and that you can do) to at least lessen the pain:
- Warm up first. Research has found that a short warm-up right before doing the new exercise can help reduce soreness (interestingly, a cool-down does not). Not surprisingly, I did not do this.
- Start gradually. When you’re doing a new type of training for the first time (or after a long break), don’t just jump right in. Whether it’s hill running or strength training, you’ve got to build up slowly. So instead of doing the full core workout with high weights, I could have reduced the amount of weight I was using and done more reps; or simply done fewer sets.
- If you’re feeling up to it, repeat the same type of movements that made you sore in the first place. Although it’s the last thing you’ll probably feel like doing, research (and personal experience) does show that repeating the movement within 1 to 6 weeks can actually help make it hurt less (though if you do it a few days later, it’ll hurt when you first start!).
- Try active recovery. If you aren’t able to do the intense routine that got you in trouble in the first place, try lightly cross training instead. Going for walks or using a cross-trainer at the gym both can help get the blood flowing and ease the pain.
- Just rest. When you do dumb things like jump back into an intense full-body lifting workout 2 weeks after a marathon, sometimes the only option is to just rest and let your legs recover. The pain does go away…eventually.
So here I am on Day 4. My legs are still sore, but at least that “I can’t walk” feeling has subsided. I plan on testing them out in a few minutes by going for a run.
As far as strength training goes, I’m still determined to get back into it. I know that it can really help my running, if I do it correctly. But I won’t try again until next week. And this time, I’ll be smart about it. I think I’ve learned my lesson.
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Sources:
- Syzmanski DJ. Recommendations for the Avoidance of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness
- Law RW, Herbert RD. Warm-up reduces delayed onset muscle soreness but cool-down does not: a randomised controlled trial.
- Cheung K, Hume P, Maxwell L. Delayed onset muscle soreness: treatment strategies and performance factors.
After the Race
| November 17, 2010 | Posted by Lauren under Running |
Post-marathon Blues — that feeling of loss, complete lack of motivation, and even mild depression after a big race (such as a marathon). A crazy condition that seems to make no sense, because instead of celebrating your awesome accomplishment, you actually feel somewhat let-down, and find yourself with a huge empty void where your excitement used to be.
(Source)
This feeling is actually very common among runners after a marathon. You spend months preparing for the race — you eat, sleep, and breath marathon training. You obsess over every detail; visualize yourself running the race countless times. And then, after one climactic day, it’s over. Regardless of how you did on race day, the fact remains: that goal you’ve been working toward for so long has been accomplished. As an article on Active.com so aptly puts it:
We have been taught that the attainment of the goal is the reward. Now the goal is attained and you are puzzled by your unanticipated unhappiness. The goal has turned out to be an illusion. The joy was in the dream and the process of moving towards your goal, in mobilizing your physical and mental potentials to their fullest. Once the goal was accomplished, the dream died. The joy ended. And now it’s time to regroup and start over again. (Jack Lesyk, PhD — emphasis added)
Sounds depressing, right? If you’re not a runner, you may now be questioning even more why people put themselves through these things. Between the taper craziness, the pain of the actual race, and now this post-race mini-depression, it doesn’t seem like much fun, does it?
I don’t mean to be painting such an awful picture of marathons. While there are also indescribable feelings of joy and accomplishment that go along with them, that’s a topic for another post. My point in all this is to show that these post-race blues are quite real. And after the Cape Cod Marathon, I was hit with them, hard.
At first I thought I was just being too hard on myself about the way that I raced. And then I thought that these blues were coming from the fact that I felt sick on and off for a long time after the race. My appetite was weird, and I was nauseous and tired most of the time. While I still don’t completely understand all the reasons why I was sick (though I have my suspicions), last week I finally realized that I was deep down in the post-marathon blues. Even though I knew I should be happy with the fact that I ran a Boston Qualifying time, the truth was that I just felt disappointed.
Now before you go assuming I’m a crazy person who doesn’t appreciate her own accomplishments, let me clearly state that I was proud of what I did. But, believe it or not, being proud of something doesn’t necessarily lead to feelings of happiness.
So what’s a person suffering from a little post-marathon sadness to do?
Beating the Post-Race Blues
Acceptance
First of all, I think it’s important to realize that this feeling is normal. You’re not a crazy person for feeling a sense of loss. And the situation isn’t made better if you beat yourself up over the fact that you’re sad when you’re supposed to be happy (like I did!). Surprisingly, being annoyed with yourself because you don’t feel as joyful as you think you should be dosen’t suddenly make you happy!
Once you’ve accepted the fact that you’re in a slump, you can start thinking about getting out of it. After all, the first step in moving on from anything is acceptance, right?
Rest
Secondly, it is important to actually rest. Your body just went through a huge beating – it needs to recover! I think sometimes endurance athletes are too eager to jump right back into training for fear that they’ll lose their fitness. But unless you’re an elite athlete, I don’t think this is something most of us should worry about. When I ran in high school and college, our coaches would make us take a week of complete rest between each season before easing back into training. During that week, we weren’t allowed to do anything strenuous. Easy walks were allowed, but no cross training — and certainly no running.
I really enjoy this period of complete rest. Although I get a little antsy sometimes, I know it’s important for me to have at least one week that’s free of running and scheduled workouts. This gives me a much needed physical and mental break. And let’s face it — I want to be a runner for life, not just for a few good years. My dream is to be 85 years old and still going out for regular runs. In order to avoid burnout and serious injury, I have to take a little break from time to time. Running and I never completely break-up, but we do go through regular trial periods of separation.
Mix it Up
After my week of nothing, I’m usually anxious to start moving again. But I don’t want to push myself into running two quickly. Instead, I focus more on cross training. Whether it be longer walks with the pup or some quality time on the elliptical machine, I try to enjoy exercising just for the sake of moving. In between training cycles, I always try to focus more on other types of exercise that tend to fall to the wayside when marathon training. Like lifting (which I am now trying to add back in).
Have fun!
(Source)
For the first couple of weeks, I really don’t care too much about following a set plan. That means if I don’t feel like working out, I don’t. True confession: in the two weeks following my marathon, I ran a total of ONE time. That’s it. The girl who loves to run and can’t even go one day without talking about running simply didn’t feel like it. But seriously, when I plan to be in training for the course of an entire year, I think a couple of weeks of having a more relaxed approach to exercise won’t kill me…and actually makes me a stronger runner in the end.
Plan New Events to Look Forward to
Part of the let-down after a race comes from the fact that you no longer have this huge event to look forward to. To combat this, I try to plan other non-running related things to be excited about in the weeks after the race. For instance, last weekend I took a much-needed mini vacation to surprise my dad for his birthday. Not only did the anticipation and excitement of the surprise help me get through the weeks following CCM, but the change of scenery was hugely beneficial! Not to mention the fact that spending some quality time with my family is always restorative.
Set New Goals
After giving yourself a mini break, it’s important to start thinking about new goals. A post-race slump is okay for a few weeks, but you don’t want to be stuck there forever!
The time away with my family was just what I needed to break through my feelings of apathy. I came back feeling newly excited about training, and yesterday I pushed myself through a hard workout for the first time since my marathon. It felt wonderful. I’m still not ready to get back into full-blown training mode, but I am ready to set new short-term and long-term training goals.
Short-term: My plan for the next several weeks is to concentrate on running for fun and fitting in more cross-training, particularly strength training. I did The Core yesterday for the first time in months, and realized just how out of lifting-shape I am. I plan on doing this workout twice a week.
Long-term: But I can’t be content with cross-training forever. I already have big plans for races this spring, including a half marathon, a full, and another relay. I won’t start actually training for these until December, so have a few more weeks to finalize my new training schedule. Stay tuned for more race announcements in the coming weeks!
As with anything, there’s no magic answer for beating feelings of post-race blues. But if you prepare for them and remind yourself that it’s only temporary, you can help make the slump a little easier on yourself.
If you’re a runner who has gone through this, what are your tricks for keeping the negative feelings at bay and getting yourself out of the funk?
And if you’re a super star who has never felt any sort of post-race sadness, please let me know your secrets!
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For a good article about recovery, see this one from the December issue of Runner’s World: The Kick-Back Plan
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