Happiness . . .

Happiness is . . . when a new recipe turns out to be as delicious as you had imagined it would be . . . #OrganicHolidayHappiness

Cold weather runs crank my appetite into full gear. As if my metabolism weren’t fast enough when I run in the cold weather I become extra hungry. The kind of hungry where if I wait to long to eat I become silent, stone-faced, “hangry” . . .

Definition: HANGRY (according to the Urban Dictionary:

In order to combat this feeling post winter run I always crave hearty, comfort foods such as lentil soup. Recently I decided it was time to try making my first lentil soup. I was craving the rich taste of the lentils and dreaming of smoky bacon flavor with parmesan cheese on top. I didn’t have a good recipe for lentil soup so I went to Pinterest and searched for lentil soup to find the perfect recipe.  I ended up choosing about four different recipes and mixed and matched the ingredients to come up with the flavor that I was craving. The recipe that I used as my jumping off point was Lentil Barley-Soup from myrecipes.com.

Here is the ingredient list with my changes:

• 2 teaspoons canola oil  Olive Oil
• 1 cup sliced leek
• 3 cups organic vegetable broth
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup beer (I used Long Trail Harvest Ale)
• 1 cup chopped organic carrot
• 1 cup chopped organic celery
• 1/2 cup chopped organic parsnip
• 1/4 cup chopped organic celery leaves
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
• 1/4 cup uncooked Bob’s Red Mill pearl barley
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mill Petitie Green lentils
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 Can Muir Glen Organic Whole Peeled Tomatoes (to add some acid to tie the flavors together)
• 5 Slices of VT Smoke and Cure Natural Thick Sliced Bacon (because who doesn’t love bacon!)

Leeks

carrots and celery

parsnips and bacon

Lentil Barley Soup to Warm Your Soul

Have you tried a new recipe lately? What is your favorite comfort food to make to refuel after a winter run?

Today for my “Fresh Friday” post I am beginning an experiment with the creation of my own energy/granola bars. Today I am making what I will call “Energy Jumble” because that’s essentially what it is. A whole jumble of delicious mostly organic ingredients all thrown together.

Here is my list of ENERGIZING ingredients:

• 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Organic Extra Thick Rolled Oats
• 1/2 cup King Arthur All-Purpose Flour
• 2 Pete and Gerry’s Heirloom Eggs (From our beautiful Heritage Breed Ameraucana Hens)
• 1/4 cup Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Dark Brown Sugar
• 1/3 cup peanut butter (Woodstock Farms)
• 1 Tbs Spectrum Organic canola oil
• dash of salt
• a handful of Eden Organic Dry Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
• 1 bar of Liberty Chocolate-Raw chocolate, Almond Coconut (My adventure racing friend Jenny got me hooked on this chocolate)
• 1 handful of crushed Trader Joe’s Freeze Dried Bananas (Carefully imported to NH by my mom from her Trader Joe’s in Pennsylvania . . . oh Trader Joe’s how I love thee!)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×9 Baking Dish. Jumble all of the ingredients together while grooving to your favorite song using your spatula as a microphone and your toddler as your dancing partner. This is an especially important ingredient to help inject as much energy as possible into your energy bars.

[wpvideo r8ona3Ug]

Press your mixture into the pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and gooey.

Maximize your energy with organic, heirloom, and local ingredients

Amearaucana blues

Jumbled Energy

Give me Liberty and give me Chocolate!

Wow!!!!

. . . And EAT, ENERGIZE, ENJOY, and RUUUUUUUUUN!!!!

Related articles

• Fresh Friday-Power Pancakes (organicrunnermom.com)
• Breakfast Cookie (jaimesjourneys.wordpress.com)

I am geared up to try something new once a week. I am sure that I will have successes and flops during these trials especially when it comes to trying new things in the kitchen. I figure being a parent we are constantly asking our children to try new things and sometimes as an adult it can be easy to forget the different emotions that come along with trying new things. When trying something new you can feel excited, worried, nervous, happy, scared, energized . . . the list of emotions is endless.

How do you feel when you try something new?

Starting this blog is my first new big challenge in a while (other than the new and continuing challenge of parenting). I felt scared and even a bit embarrassed to put my writing into public view but now that I am doing it I feel energized because i am sharing my passions and it is also a source of release for me.

So now I will share my first FRESH Friday post. This week I am focusing on fueling my body during my marathon training and also to get ready for the VT City Marathon. Getting enough calories for my body has been a challenge throughout my life. My mom always laughs when we remember how I would come home from school and snack on entire can of baked beans. When I was pregnant with my son Brock my blood-sugar level constantly crashed, I would see stars and immediately feel like I was going to pass out. As the runs get longer during my training I am trying very hard to avoid that feeling and to have the energy to power through.

My big goal is to work on pre-fueling leading up to the longer miles and tough workouts to give me the energy stores that I need. Through the guidance of some other inspirational athletes such as Sarah Stanley I have learned about some new ingredients to add to my diet. This week I made what I’ll call “Power Pancakes.”
The “power” ingredient is Bob’s Red Mill Hemp Protein Powder. I added one tablespoon in with my pancake mixture which includes other favorite ingredients StonyfieldOrganic Milk and our Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs of course. Plus some fair trade bananas for some extra calories.

Power Ingredient

I must say that I was a little unsure of the hemp protein powder because I did not like the smell but when I tasted the pancakes they were delicious (maybe a little dense). Hemp seeds and hemp protein powder is plant based protein that comes from a whole food source. Hemp protein powder also contains Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids which are essential to a balanced diet. This type of protein is also easily digested. The Hemp protein powder definitely packed a punch and I felt great on my tempo run after loading up.

The only drawback was that I ended up having to eat the pancakes right before heading out the door due to kid meltdown during the process of pancake creation. Thankfully my beautiful pancakes with strawberry and basil salad as an accompaniment and fresh maple syrup waited for me while I raced to get my kids in bed.

I will definitely be adding Hemp protein powder to my repertoire for cooking and also to add to smoothies when training hard.

Ingredients for Power Pancakes

Power Pancakes and Strawberry Basil Salad

Related Articles:

Chocolate Protein Oatmeal with Mixed Berries (tastespace.wordpress.com)

“Benefits of Hemp Protein”

http://www.sarahstanleyinspired.com/2012/02/09/eat-for-health-featuring-hemp-hearts/

http://www.shrinkingkitchen.com/strawberry-basil-salad-with-balsamic-vinaigrette/