In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon an nutmeg. In another bowl, mix the egg yolks, milk, almond butter pumpkin and oil; stir mixture into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Beat the egg white in a separate bowl until it forms stiff peaks. Fold into the waffle batter

Cook according to waffle maker instructions.

 I ate mine with vanilla yogurt and walnuts on top. Amazing! Amazing enough to prompt the first blog post in 14 months:) Makes enough for 2, unless you’re really, really hungry.

Photo to come…

Ran a 15k in hilly Cinci this morning it 60:29. Wanted to be under 60 but it didn’t happen. The uphills wrecked my legs and the downhills made them feel like jello.  It was a good effort but I was nowhere near contending for top 5. Ran in no-(wo) man’s land. One gal came up on me during mile 2 but no one else for the rest of the race. The lead pack kept getting further and further away… turns out they all went through 10k faster than my 10k PR! Bah. So not a great race but good effort.

Made these muffins this morning, adapted from Nigella Lawson’s Maple-Pecan Muffins

Mix dry ingredients:
3/4 c pecans
1 c whole wheat flour
1 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c wheat germ
pinch salt
4 tsp baking powder

Mix wet ingredients:
1/2 c maple syrup
1/2 c milk (we had 1%, so I used it)
1 1/2 avocado, super mashed
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 TBSP canola oil

Topping:
1/4 c pecans
1 TBSP brown sugar

Fold wet and dry together. Until just blended. Spoon by 1/4 cup-full into a greased/sprayed muffin tin, unless you like those paper muffin cups or need to be fancy. Top with topping. Bake 17-20 minutes at 400 degrees F.

While they were baking, Joe had the audacity to ask if I used a mix! Why I never!

Very tasty with perfect texture. Only thing I would change would be to add 1/2-1 TBSP cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg.

Photo to come.

Tonight, made chicken BBQ. Best “no recipe” recipe ever! What you need:

Slow cooker/crock pot
15 oz can tomato sauce (pizza sauce works well since it is thicker… or a combo of tomato sauce and paste)
1/4 c brown sugar
2 T Worcestershire
2 T apple cider vinegar
2-3 lbs chicken, pork or beef roast
1/2 onion diced (sometimes I skip this, esp if I am making it for people who are not me and Joe)
1/2 chili powder
pinch (maybe 1/8 tsp) cinnamon

Throw it in the cooker on low for 6-8 hours, Shred meat with 2 forks. Eat on delicious wheat rolls. Dream about leftovers.

As we were cleaning it up, Joe asked, “where did you learn this recipe?” He was surprised it was passed down from my mom! He loves it.

M- 5 x 1k
Th- 13 with last 5 at AT (6:55-7:10)
Su- 15k Heart Mini

Meals ahead
S- Roasted chicken. With a free range chicken from Frijolito Farms. That makes me happy.

M- chicken BBQ… mostly so I can make it for our potluck and because once I said I was making it for the potluck, Joe put on his pouty face and insisted that I make some for us

T- Aloha Chicken from Jessica Seinfeld’s book Deceptively Delicious

W- Curry but with either pork or all veggies since we are already looking at a chicken overload this week.

Th- Leftovers (sorry Joe)

***

So crock pot mac n cheese. Kind of a bummer. It turned out grainy (maybe curdled) and bland. Maybe I didn’t use enough cheese since I shredded it with my microplane which tends to make things look more voluminous than they really are. May try it again with unflavored soy milk which may not curdle (if that is in fact what happened). Or just make it in the oven and keep it warm in the crock. There is no way Abbi would eat something with that texture though. No love lost though, mac n cheese in the oven is almost as easy.

In the pyrex to go into the fridge. Hoping to salvage it somehow!

Thinking of trying this curry later in the week. I’ve never made good curry myself. It always tastes bitter. So this could be big!

Orange Balsamic Chicken (Sunday)

I’m giving this one a 2 out of 5. Very strong vinegar taste. Did work very well sliced on a BLAT (A is for avocado, my newest obsession) sandwich for a few lunches.

Shrimp Penne with pesto and veggies (Wednesday)

Threw this idea together at the grocery store when the shrimp and mushrooms were both on sale. And I already had pesto in the freezer.
3/4-1 cup pesto
3/4 box penne
20 small shrimp
1 carton mushrooms, sliced
1 medium zuccinni, sliced
1 T butter
3-4 T EVOO
3-4 garlic cloves, smashed
Freshly grated Parmesean

Thaw pesto and shrimp in the fridge overnight. Cook and drain pasta according to direction on box. While it is cooking, saute shrimp in 1 T butter and 1-2 T EVOO and 2 smashed garlic cloves, pinch of S &P. Saute veggies in 1-2 T EVOO and 1-2 garlic cloves. Pour cooked pasta from strainer back into warm cooking pot. Add pesto and stir, stir, stir. When shrimp is pink and veggies are tender combine everything in pot (hope you used a big pot!). Serve with grated parm to taste.

Delicious. Joe worked from home the next day and ate it for lunch. He said he wanted to eat the whole bowl of leftovers but saved some for me. Little did he know that  I took some to work for lunch myself:) Probably a 4 out of 5… unless generalized to any dish with pasta, veggies and garlic. Then it’d be a 5 out of 5.

Asian Pepper Steak (Thursday)

Cooked this in the dutch oven for 50 minutes at 300 degrees instead of in the crockpot. Then simmered on the stove top on med-high for 10 minutes. Cooked the rice separately. I didnt see how the rice would cook when the only liquid I added was soy sauce. Pretty good. Kind of soy saucy and I only use 1/2 cup (1/4 c less than recipe calls for).  3 out of 5 from me.

It has been a tough running week too because of many meetings after work. We only had one workout 3/2/3 at MP/HM/MP with for a total of 12 miles with warm up/down. A 16 miler on Saturday and 6 miles on Sunday will give me 65 for the week. Matthew says the next two weeks are going to be tough. Can’t be any tougher (schedule-wise) than this week! Ran some real hills for the first time since early January today for my 12 miler so my butt and hips are going to be sore! Perfect spring morning for a run.

I also discovered a new treat in the Easter aisle. Chocolate covered Peeps! Kind of a disappointment. The marshmallow peep didn’t have the sugary crust on the outside. Or if it did, it was masked by the chocolate. Thus it tasted like a chocolate covered marshmallow. Oh well. Cute nonetheless.

Much willpower needed to save the avocado for the cupcakes and not eat it at this point in the prep.

After reading the reviews of the avocado icing (and wanting Joe to help me eat this cake) I’ve decided to use Jessica Seinfeld’s Cream Cheese Icing recipe instead from her chocolate chip cupcake recipe in Deceptively Delicious. The cupcake recipe itself has butter/margarine in it which is precisely what I want to avoid. I think avocados are fatty enough themselves that I shouldn’t need additional butter. And I despise margarine. (Not quite as much as Velveeta and creamed condensed soups, but enough to refuse to purchase it for my own use. But I digress).

Does not look appetizing. Wait for it...

I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of white flour. And I made cupcakes instead of a layer cake because it is easier to share with friends in cupcake form:) If all goes well, maybe I will try the avocado buttercream icing in another recipe. Maybe a fruity cake. I like baking:)

Yum! That's more like it!

And…….. they are DELICIOUS. Super moist and dense and chocolately. Made a cream cheese frosting using DD’s recipe minus the cauliflower. 8 oz cream cheese (reduced fat), splash of vanilla, 1/2 c powdered sugar. YUM! But I may actually like them more without the frosting. Hmm…

The finished product!

Brought them to the Saturday run and JB and Joe finished a few miles earlier than the rest of us. Then they sat on the deck eating cupcakes. Two skinny guys eating chocolate cupcakes with people all around running/walking… doesn’t seem fair! Wish I had a picture of Joe and JB eating the cupcakes. JB even offered them to us as though it were a water stop in a race. It was tempting. They were perfect after a 16 miler!

I feel drawn to cheese enchiladas when we are out at a mexican restaurant, but that is not the kind of thing I order. It was great to make them and control the ingredients. The recipe makes 16, so I just halved it. (Lots of halfsies lately!) I definitely rank this one a 4.5 out of 5. And it was incredibly easy to make too. Cheesy goodness.

Here are the front-runners. I won’t have time to do the baking until later tonight, so it will give me some time to think it through!

Chocolate PB Brownies

Banana Nut Brownies

Vegan Chocolate Brownies

Dark Chocolate Banana Bread- made into muffins, perhaps?

Fudgy PB Banana Brownies

Clearly, banana brownies are the front runner. What ever shall I bake???

And the winner is… Dark Chocolate Banana Bread!

I ate two before taking the picture. Oops!

Turns out Joe does like banana bread. I made muffins and halved the recipe because I didn’t want 30 muffins. I added 1 TBSP cocoa powder and used chocolate chips and PB chips, because this is what I had. I also just used the egg white since I was halving the recipe and it is hard to half an egg without just separating it.  And I baked them about 20-22 minutes. Love them! Thanks to PB boy!

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