Going Farther, Getting Nuttier
I can’t wait until the end of this post to brag recap about today’s run, because I’m just too excited. Check this out:

10.05 miles in 1:20:12
A NEW PR! The farthest I’ve ever ran is 8.5 miles. This morning I planned 6 miles around the neighborhood, which is about 6.7. But on my 4th or 5th lap I felt so good that I started thinking(and me thinking is usually dangerous) “why wait until Saturday to do my long run? If I feel good now I should run what I’m feeling”. So I just kept going and going like the energizer bunny and 9 times around plopped me at double digits, and at 800: min/mile, a pretty great pace for me.
That excitement aside, let’s look at the food that fueled this morning… in a fun way. See? the name of this blog has a point. I was really sore after the run yesterday. I cut myself some slack and said no core for the day; I may not know how to take a rest day from running but I find the little ways to cut myself slack. I figured a walk around da hood would raise some spirits. I came by some awesome neighbors playing outside who lifted my mood, but the rest of me was still pretty shot after I got home so I sat down with a snack and some heavy reading.

Eat This Not That And A Peach
Have you ever held that book? The hard cover makes it heavy(and expensive :-(). Also, notice the keen placement of the peach. I will eat this and not that. I flipped through a few chapters–mostly looking at the pictures like I’m a 2 year old and this was Peter Rabbit. I was pretty stoked when I found this in the Best Drinks section:

Drink This: Best Bottled Juice--Odwalla Carrot Juice
You go, Odwalla carrot juice. Now just don’t be so expensive and maybe I won’t have to give you up when I go off to college. Seriously, if you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it. I’ve used it as a post-run drink all summer since it has more potassium than OJ or a banana and has a naturally sweet flavor with almost 1 pound of carrots in each cup.
I grilled for lunch because I was having a Darius Rutker “It won’t be like this for long” moment.

Salmon Burger On The Grill
Do you think I could befriend the cooks at the Brown dining halls and use all their fancy crap for cooking and bond like we’re in some Disney Channel Original movie? It’s a thought…

Salmon Burger In FlatOut Wrap With Lime FSTG Chips, Salsa, And Avocado
I also thought I’d give the lime flavored Foods Should Taste Good nachos a try since lime is one of my favorite flavors(love that saltiness). Of course no chip taste test would be complete without salsa, which was habanero and lime because I’m that matchy-matchy, and some avocado. My first impression of the chips was that they had a good lime flavor, but were a little underseasoned. I added some salt and that fixed the problem. The texture was very crispy without tasting stale and reminded me of the fresh baked nachos from a Boston tacqueria, Fajitas And Ritas. I was really pleased with them overall and can’t wait to see how they stand up against the other flavors. Once I go through them all I’ll be ready to give a full review.
By the end of lunch time, the Kennedy’s were on all the local stations, so there wasn’t much reason to stick around watching TV. Yes, we all loved Senator Kennedy, but can’t the family get 24 hours of peace? We went to the Framingham farmers’ market, which had a solid attendance.

Framingham Farmers' Market Peppers
I knew I wanted to get some peppers to grill for dinner so I grabbed 3 of those, as well as an eggplant. I don’t know what I’ll do with it yet, but with so many recipes floating around the blogs I’m sure I’ll find something. We also got some sharp cheddar made from raw milk. Intriguing, no? On the way home we stopped by Super Stop And Shop were I was a super shopper. Super.

Kashi Cocoa Beach Granola, Smartfood Peanut Butter And Apple Popcorn, Elan Decaf Cappuccino Frozen Yogurt
I had a coupon for a free Kashi product so I went with their expensive granola which is never included in the sales. It has chocolate, almond, and coconut, so this will go well with… EVERYTHING. We had a coupon for a dollar off Elan’s which expires in 4 days–nice catch there. I love that this is Decaf Cappuccino flavored, as opposed to their coffee. I don’t think coffee ice cream would have enough to really keep me up at night, but better to be safe than hyper. And Smartfood apparently has a new flavor–peanut butter and apple. I couldn’t turn it down while it was still on the sale period.
When I got home I knew just what I wanted to make: Banana Goodness Bread

The Sugar
No sooner did we go through the last loaf that I was ready to make the next. I considered making slight alterations to the recipe to include my peanut flour. But I got some pleads requests to not change a thing, so I pleased my fans. That’s really all the added sugar that goes into the bread, yet it still comes out with a deliciously sweet flavor. This time I used unrefined sugar from the Whole Foods bulk bin.

The Secret Ingredient
I also changed up the yogurt from Vanilla Bean to Banana Vanilla. Sneaky, sneaky.

Oven Ready
The cinnamon sugar topping really adds the finishing touch. All it is is 5 grams of sugar with 1/2 a teaspoon cinnamon mixed in a bowl and sprinkled over.
Once that was in the oven I had a little something to hold myself over.

Elan Decaf Cappuccino Frozen Yogurt With Cinnamon And Midnight Moo
This came out really mocha-y and delicious, but I think next time I might forgo the chocolate sauce and just go with chocolate chips for the bit of texture difference. While I was waiting I got a little impatient and made another one of my favorite recipes while the baking supplies were out.

The Peanut Butter Boy's Scones
These scones are so delicious. I’ve developed an unexpected love of scones over the Summer. They’re just the ultimate food and can be breakfast, dessert, or a portable snack, so what’s not to love. The Peanut Butter Boy’s recipe for scones is definitely tied for my favorite with my own Loaded Scones. I made these vegan by swapping out the egg for flax and some water. Finally everything was baked.

Banana Goodness Bread And Peanut Butter Scones
Hiya, carbs. I’ll see you later tonight 😉 I also made myself a little let’s-eat-this-stuff-to-get-rid-of-it snack before dinner.

Peanut Butter And Apple Popcorn, Raspberries, Cinnamon Raisin Bread
I finished off the pint of raspberries I picked, and ate the butt(lol, butt) of the cinnamon raisin Vermont Bread Co. loaf. The popcorn was ok. It didn’t have a strong peanut flavor but reminded me of cracker jacks. And I loved the dried apple slices which were totally random and tart. My mom really loved it when I made myself a meatball sub for lunch last week and saw this as an easy dinner to cook great meal for the family.

Meatball Sub With Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Grilled Peppers
We also grilled the peppers from the farmers market and sampled the cheese. I’m not a cheddar aficionado, so I can’t say much about it other than it was really tasty. My mom who loves cheddar seemed incredibly impressed. Maybe raw milk is the way to go? The highlight of dinner came when we got a knock on the garage door, which was obviously the UPS man but my dad answered thinking it was someone coming to chat us up.

My Package

Naturally Nutty Nut Butters
If you’ve been reading this for a while, you might remember how I celebrated my first paycheck by buying 3 flavors of Naturally Nutty, which I reviewed here. Well to celebrate my last week of work I bought myself the 2 flavors I was really impressed by–Vanilla Almond Butter and Butter Toffee–as well as 3 new flavors–Honey Roasted Cinnamon, Mocha, and Vanilla Peanut Butter. As a special surprise, Katie from Naturally Nutty sent me a sampler of a new surprise sampler they’ll be releasing soon. Thanks, Katie! I love surprises and I don’t think anything will be more of a surprise than trying to guess what this could be.

Mocha Peanut Butter On A Split Scone
When the king of peanut butter’s recipe meets the queen of peanut butter’s peanut butter, you know it’s going to be good. I’ll save an in depth review for once I’ve tried all the new flavors. All I can say is the mocha definitely delivers the flavor it promises, and you can’t ask for more than that. To follow that off I did some more bread and spread lovin’.

Banana Goodness Bread With Dark Chocolate Almond Butter

Carrot Ginger Muffin Top With Smart Balance, Toast With The Surprise Peanut Butter
Going 18 hours without that bread was a sin. What was I thinking? Of course, I decimated the bananas in this house between that bread and freezing some for soft serve, so I should get on that today. Then I needed to try the surprise flavor, because when someone sends you an unlabeled jar in the mail with your name written on it, you need to taste it, right? 🙂 I had it along side a muffin top(which are 10 times better when they’re from an actual muffin) and some smart balance for a good comparison point. Again, I’m saving any detailed review for a special post, and I’m not sure how much about this flavor I should/am allowed to give away. All I can say is I’m 95% sure I’ve pinned it, it blew my mind, and I’ll DEFINITELY order a 15oz jar when it’s available.
So, ya’ll already know about this morning’s run. I wasn’t feeling any particular flavor for breakfast oddly, so I went with what was handy:

Cinnamon Raisin Bread With Honey Roasted Peanut Butter, Carrot Juice, Chocolate Banana Yogurt With Cocoa Beach Granola, Banana Bread
I also added a peach and threw some wheat germ and ground flax on the yogurt. I really liked my new granola, but it was almost a little too clustery for me. I like clusters and single oats, and this seems to be all clusters. I suppose that’s better than all oats. And the peanut butter is sweet and delicious with the cinnamon raisin bread. Today I plan on sitting on my heiny most of the day and admiring my mileage. That being said, bluefish is on sale and sounds like the plan for dinner so we’ll need to pick up that. And apparently yesterday was my 2nd most viewed day ever, which is awesome and so I thank you all for reading. I’ll try to keep it fresh and funky.
Go here for an exciting coupon giveaway: http://www.fitandfabulouslife.com/2009/08/27/another-coupon-giveaway/
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Yesterday morning I put on my work clothes and did some heavy lifting.

The Spare Bedroom
I can’t believe move in day is in less than 2 weeks? I feel wicked prepared, but also very not prepared. I have most of the big stuff, so today I focused on finding pencils, binders, etc., and moving that huge ass trunk. A hernia, fallen cactus, and 20 minutes later, I was spent. That’s enough for one day, right? I mean, it IS over a week away. I needed sunlight being trapped in that room so I stepped outside with a peach.

Going For A Walk
When I got back, we needed to go next door to let out our neighbors’ new cat. His name’s shadow, and he was a stray that’d been roaming the neighborhood for the past 2 weeks. Finally my parents and neighbors got wicked attached to them and apparently he’s been adopted. I’m pretty sure that breaks about 3 rules my parents taught me but apparently never learned themselves?

Shadow
After that I was pretty cranky, which definitely meant lunchtime. I tried making a salmon and tuna burger with our leftovers–bad idea. I should know not to take on difficult cooking projects when I really just want to eat, but I needed to relearn that. I settled for a pretty sweet reincarnation of pizza and wings.

Trader Joe's Individual Pizza Grilled With Buffalo Bleu Kettle Chips
What a knockout combo. Of course I grilled the pizza which gave the bottom that crusty, burnt flavor. We used to have pizza parlor pizza and wings every Tuesday. Looking back, that was fun, but definitely not healthy and something to eat every week. Plus, fresh basil? I would eat this meal in a heartbeat over that greasy stuff.
After “the soaps” we jumped in the car, swung by my grandmothers condo, and took her to Roche Bros. I needed something for some shopping energy.

Banana Goodness Bread
This loaf is definitely on its last leg. Roche Bros. was a reminder of why I’m not much of a fan of shopping other places than Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Does anybody else find it ridiculous that grocery stores these days have special sections for “natural” products? I mean, it’s a food store, you’d hope most of what’s in there is natural. But that’s just not the case these days. And Whole Foods is lovingly termed Whole Paycheck, but have you ever tried buying Whole Foods quality stuff at regular supermarkets? That’ll be your paycheck and your bonus. Whole Foods can actually be quite affordable; the trick is to shop the sales and use the coupons from companies/The Whole Deal and you can get some real bargains. That all being said, I did get some loot(with a little help from a stop at a natural food store on the way back)

Watermelon, Carrot Cake Ice Cream, Bulk Bin Oats, Cinnamon Sugar Grinder, Banana Vanilla Yogurt
The wallaby yogurt and spice grinder is for my next banana loaf–I am so on top of this planning thing. The oats were from the natural stores’ bulk bin, which are rocksome for getting high quality cheap grains and seeds. And the dairy free ice cream was another find from the natural food store.

Carrot Cake Ice Cream
How could I turn this down? I couldn’t obviously. Carrot cake is my favorite dessert so I needed to give it a try. The base was absolutely delicious, like a frozen form of carrot juice with cinnamon and nutmeg, and absolutely none of that soymilk flavor. In the ice cream was big globs of gingerbread dough, which were surprisingly soft and moist, almost like eating right out of a freshly mixed batch. Overall this was really good, but not quite what I was expecting. I love raisins and pineapple in my carrot cake, as well as a little cream cheese frosting. Still, this was great for what it was. The nutrition threw me off in a non-favorable way. No fiber or protein? That’s one of the reasons I’m not a fan of non-dairy ice creams: Because you miss the nutrients from milk. Still, it was a great treat, just not something to be eaten if you’re looking to get filled up.
I also really wanted to try out my new peanut butter flour today, and one recipe instantly caught my eye. I majorly tweaked it to fit my particularities–aka no butter and low sugar. Even for being tweaked so much, these came out great.
Maple Peanut Butter Muffin Tops
Ingredients:
2oz Mighty Maple Peanut Butter
2oz reduced fat cream cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup peanut flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon baking powder
Cinnamon sugar for dusting
Preheat the oven to 350. In a bowl, blend the cream cheese and peanut butter with a mixer. Crack in the eggs and add the milk and maple syrup. Mix until well incorporated. In a seperate bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Sift the dry into the wet and mix until fully smooth. Using an ice cream scoop, dump the dough onto lined cookie tins. Dust with cinnamon sugar and bake for 10 minutes or until puffed and firm.

Maple Peanut Butter Muffin Tops
I’ve never made muffin tops before, so I was a little dissappointed when these didn’t turn out just like the picture. But then I figured they probably used real muffin top tins, which apparently exist, so boo on them. While these cooled we had dinner:

Halibut, Watermelon, Asparagus, And Corn With Sunflower Butter
Yours truly grilled the watermelon using some fun kabobs. It makes them so juicy and sweet, almost like they were dusted with sugar. The halibut was ok, but when I heard how much wild halibut costs “on sale” my jaw hit the floor. Seriously? That’s a lot of nut butter. Speaking of nut butter…

Naturally Nutty Vanilla Almond Butter And Butter Toffee Peanut Butter
A package came for me at dinner time as well and it was this lovely gift bag from Katie over at Naturallynutty.com I ordered 3 of their flavors last month and wrote a review here. Katie loved my review and clearly figured out how much I LOVED these two flavors and was nice enough to send me 2 8oz jars! This package really threw me off at first, because I also am waiting for another ordered I placed to try 3 new flavors, which is apparently in UPS’s hands in Ohio at the moment. So much peanut butter! It’s a good problem to have, though, like a REALLY good problem. Thanks again, Katie! Now I have some jars to take to college and some to leave home. To anyone who hasn’t gotten a chance to try some of this peanut butter, I highly suggest treating yourself to some from their website. They’ve been my celebration-purchase of choice for my first and last week of work.
For dessert I needed carbs–loads of them for running. Obv, my favorite source is breads and spreads, so I loaded up on those.

Maple Peanut Butter Muffin Tops With Maple Agave Syrup

Frozen Cherries, Toast With Vanilla Almond Butter, Carrot Ginger Muffin Top With Cream Cheese
Hey, what’s that fruit doing there? Ever notice how the same food appears on every blog. Well, it’s quite simple. After reading all of each others blogs, how could we not get cravings for the food we see? Frozen cherries was all over blog world last night and nothing felt like it would hit the spot better. The muffin tops were really delicious–not much of a maple flavor but HUGE on the peanut butter and protein. I did some mental math and found out there’s at least 5 grams of protein per top. My one problem with muffin tops is that they’re ugly which is the only reason I don’t think I’ll be making them again unless I get my hands on a special tin.
Waking up this morning was an odd experience. Usually my alarm radio is playing Daughtry and having some light hearted talk about the Red Sox but today it was all reminiscing about Senator Kennedy. Reminiscing? It took me a while to put the pieces together and realized he passed away. I’m not a very political person in the least, but one thing I do remember is him taking the time to meet and shake the hands of my entire 7th grade class on a trip to DC, so he was definitely a great man by my standards.
Normally my mornings are pretty standard: Run 5-7 miles, shower, make breakfast, blog and eat, do my email/website round-up, all while watching my Regis, Kelly, and Rachael Ray. Not a bad life, right? 🙂 But this morning I had a bagel-hankering. After pleading for arranging a ride I was good to go for a new plan. I ran the first 3/4ths of the run I was planning but then took a turn and ended up at this humdinger of a place:

Panera Bread
It’s definitely been a while. I ran here at the beginning of the Summer but it was always a 2.5 mile walk back, and that just wasn’t a wise use of my time. I went in expecting to get a French Toast bagel but what was this? A new signature bagel? Cherry vanilla?! That’s definitely one of my top flavor combos so I knew I needed to order it. I got one of each, came home, toasted up half of each, and unleashed my armory of spreads.

Cherry Vanilla bagel With White Chocolate Cherry Almond Butter And Cherry Butter, French Toast Bagel With Pumpkin Butter And Mighty Maple, Carrot Juice
Breads and spreads make my life. I had an awful thought last night: What if my roommate is allergic to nuts? He’d be dead if he got within 10 feet of me. I’m sure he would have mentioned this in one of our emails, right? Here’s hoping. Today we’re totally hitting up a Farmer’s Market for some Great Harvest bread. This is a chain, but there are only 2 in all of MA and I’ve never tried them before. I think they’re good though, Kath from KERF seems to really like it.
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