I’ve been hearing from many athletes lately about the (hopeful) return of summer and fall races. Mileage ramping up. Adventures to look forward to. Giving special attention to day to day workout recovery.
After going virtually no where for the last 14 months, save a weeklong trip over the cascades last summer to spend a few days running and adventuring and seeing no one else, I signed up for a race (out of state!) earlier this week. And then promptly realized I should have double-checked that William and I were in firm agreement about the trip before committing for the both of us.
Oops. Apologies accepted and forgivenesses offered – the excitement is real!
Spring Green Vegetable Soup
Over on the Run Journal at Territory Run Co., I’ve shared another seasonal recipe series for a day of eating. As per usual, my idea was to keep ingredients seasonal and simple, with balanced flavors, and of course nutritionally sound for a solid day of fueling busy (and likely active) bodies.
Spring Hummus Plate with Roasted Vegetables and Cumin Quinoa
Usually when I test recipes multiple times when working on new ideas, I get burnt out on them and quickly move on after sharing. This hasn’t been the case with this trio. They’ve been on repeat in various renditions for the last couple months. My favorite is definitely the soup. It’s super delicious.
Get the full article and recipes here, and check out some of the other great trail running articles submitted by other content ambassadors while you’re at it — there are so many good ones.
During my senior year of high school, my agricultural science class focused on business and economics principles, and in one unit on our future in the workforce, I did some business planning on starting a cake bakery. I don’t know if we were focusing on entrepreneurship specifically, or if I’ve always had a streak of planning to run my own business, but to my way of thinking, I was owning, managing, baking, selling, etc. The whole dang thing. Never mind that I was in agricultural class, not growing or milling wheat or other grains, or just using an example from the then business I had at the time of raising and selling club lambs. Nope. Instead I did an abrupt turn and planned for baking artistic cakes in my future.
To this day, I often joke that if the pay were better and other things didn’t work out, I’d be baking and handing over the goods to other happy people instead. Oh and starting a porridge and brunch restaurant. Which is where my love for baking muffins comes in. If you go ahead and browse the recipe section, you’ll see I’ve published more than a handful of muffin recipes over the years. Along with cake, muffins are one of my favorite baked foods to experiment with.
When it’s up to me, I often tend to go for the heavily spiced, oat-rich, morning glory-type muffins that are stuffed with ingredients like raisins, shredded zucchini or carrots, mashed pumpkin, or other fruit. But not everyone favors that kind of porridge reincarnation. William, for instance, is a plain vanilla cake / vanilla frosting person, and likewise prefers simple berry muffins without the frills and extra ingredients. Since he’s been stopping by a local bakery before work many mornings for exactly that type of muffin, we settled on me making him some that are a little more wholesome and he can grab and take instead.
That’s where these come in. These are blackberry muffins made from milling oats, buckwheat, and almonds in my spice / coffee grinder. But they can easily become blueberry or raspberry-flavored instead, and if you have more of the flours than I do, start with oat, buckwheat, and almond flours for one less step. Either way, they’re an early morning treat that stands up to the bakery muffins with more whole foods, and especially whole-grains and reduced sugar. A big win and less of the side effects of refined sugars and flours, etc.
Blackberry Muffins, makes 6
65 grams / ¾ cup gf-certified oatmeal 65 grams / a little less than 1/2 cup raw buckwheat groats 60 grams / ½ cup raw almonds 8 grams / 1 Tbs. arrowroot flour 1 ½ tsp. baking powder ¼ tsp. baking soda ¼ tsp. sea salt 70 grams / 6 Tbs. organic cane sugar 25 grams / 2 Tbs. coconut oil 1 large egg or a vegan alternative (1 Tbs. ground flax mixed with 3 Tbs. water) ½ tsp. grated lemon zest, optional 1 tsp. lemon juice or apple cider vinegar ½ tsp. vanilla extract 170 grams / ¾ cup plain non-dairy yogurt (unsweetened coconut yogurt is best) 150 grams / 1 cup fresh or frozen blackberries
Begin by weighing or measuring out the oats, buckwheat and almonds, and then finely grind them to a flour mixture in a spice / coffee grinder. Alternatively, if you already have light buckwheat flour, oat flour and almond meal, you can skip this step.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and prepare a muffin pan by adding the paper liners, or lightly wipe the insides with oil and dust with flour. Set aside.
In a small bowl, mix the flours, baking powder and soda, and salt. Then set it aside.
In a medium bowl, mix the coconut oil and sugar with a spoon until light and fluffy. Then beat in the egg, lemon zest and juice, and vanilla.
Add in about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the sugar and oil and stir. Then add in ¼ cup of yogurt. Stir in another third of flour and another ¼ cup of yogurt, and then add the rest of the flour and the final ¼ cup of yogurt. The batter should be slightly fluffy. Don’t overmix.
Gently stir in the blackberries, and then evenly divide the batter into the six muffins cups.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool them slightly in the pan, before tipping out and eating
A few weeks ago when we were in Boston for the marathon and our post-grad school (me) / post-tax season (William) vacation, we stayed in a cozy third-story Airbnb apartment atop one of those ancient New England houses with narrow stairs and doors that close in every room. It was lovely and reminded me of my parents’ farmhouse before they tore out walls and opened up the space, but kept the narrow stairs.
The apartment had a tiny kitchen filled with old antique cabinets and a cozy eating nook luckily with skylight to let in more of the morning sun. What I loved about it — and every time we stay in a ‘cozy’ Airbnb actually, is that it reminds me of my time living in Ireland, cooking with whatever slim equipment is on hand, and creating simple meals with minimal ingredients. I’m often asked to share just these types of recipes. Admittedly, at home I prefer to plan meals a little more like a chef with a list of five or so meal ideas at the beginning of the week, and then I make one or two ‘parts’ of more complicated meals each day, often rolling over one component such as a sauce into another day and different meal. This isn’t the usual process for most people, I understand, but being in the kitchen is a major therapeutic relief and creativity space for me.
When traveling, I usually switch up my routine to make the simplest of meals, only planning one meal ahead the night before a major race, and leaving it up to whatever we feel like in the following days. Because of my food and digestion sensitivities, I’m a stickler about making my own meal before races, but then am often a bit more lenient afterwards. When we were in Boston, we ate out about half or a third of the time thanks to ending up in a really great section of the city for delicious and allergen-friendly food. The rest of the time, I improvised with a few of the ingredients I’d stuffed in my suitcase, my tiny Ireland-era traveling spice and seasoning case, and a stop at the grocery for some fresh produce. On our last night there, I ended up with a version of this spring quinoa combination and I immediately knew I had to recapture and finesse it for all y’all that prefer some simple weeknight inspirations!
At home, I added a couple fresh additions I didn’t have on the road like fresh mint and miso paste. I’ve kept them in the finished recipe because if you don’t already keep miso on hand to add umami flavor and depth to sauces, you definitely should try it. And fresh mint, though not always available without a garden, is a flavorful and helpful-for-digestion addition that can be added or not.
Lemon + Sunflower Spring Quinoa, makes main-dish servings for 4 to 5 1 cup dry quinoa, cooked ahead
2 cups cooked garbanzo beans or 1 can
1 small bunch broccoli, chopped semi-small
a couple large handfuls of mushrooms, sliced
1 bunch radishes with greens, washed well and sliced thin
1 cup peas
salt and pepper as needed
fresh mint, minced
Lemon + Sunflower Dressing 1/4 cup sunflower butter
zest of one lemon
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. honey or maple syrup (optional)
1 Tbs. light miso (I use chickpea miso)
Cook the quinoa and chickpeas ahead. Or use one can of drained chickpeas.
After all the vegetables are sliced, combine them in a large skillet with a little water to steam-fry. I like to add the broccoli first, cover for a few minutes, and then add the rest in stages with the mushrooms, radishes, and lastly the peas. Once they’re cooked through but not soggy-soft, add in the quinoa and beans, stir and heat just until it’s all warm. Season with salt and pepper to taste at this point.
While the vegetables are cooking, combine the dressing ingredients in a small dish and whisk with a fork or spoon until they come together well. Add a splash or two of water if needed to thin it up. The consistency should be spoon-able but not runny.
Pour the dressing over the quinoa and vegetables, mix it all together, and then sprinkle the mint leaves atop and serve.
GUTSy Performance Nutrition 