Food and Running

I've been running a lot lately - training for my first half marathon on Sunday, November 7th.  Now one of the reasons I started running was to improve my health. For the most part this is working.  One problem running presents is food.  First off I am hungry ALL THE TIME!!!  Even after I eat a meal I feel like I need a snack.  This is fine on my long run days when I am burning close to 1,000 calories but that is usually only one day a week.  Lately I've been reading and learning about fueling before the run, during the run and after the run.  Most of these recommended foods are full of sugar and white flour (after all you don't want a lot of "fiber" before you go out for a run).  So what did I buy the other day - Pop Tarts, Gummy Bears, Fig Newtons and white bread.  These things haven't been in my house in years (okay maybe Gummy Bears for the kids).  It just seems so counter intuitive to the idea of being healthy but I'll try anything once.  On Sunday I ran 12 miles and fueled every 30 minutes on " Cliff Shot Bloks" which are basically little gel cubes full of carbs and electrolytes.  Not bad tasting but I'm not really sure what is in them. A couple of days before a race I try to eat low fiber - white flour bagels, PB&J with white bread, white flour pasta etc.  and no nuts.  For breakfast before a race I will have either a banana smoothie or a bagel with peanut butter.  About 30 minutes before I will eat Fig Newtons or a Pop Tart then fuel with the Shot Bloks during the run. After the race I always crave pizza and beer!!! So in the end I guess I really don't run to be healthy - I run to justify eating junk food!!!

This and That

Haven't "blogged" in a while.  Sorry about that.  Can't say I've done much cooking lately.  Well not anything spectacular anyway.  Seems like most of my dishes are what I call "What's in the fridge?" dishes.  That means I open the fridge, pull out whatever ingredients are in there that look good and cook with them.  For example tonight I found half of a roasted eggplant (roasted that on Saturday to put on homemade pizza), fresh baby spinach, goat cheese, kalamata olives (never be without these in your fridge) and leftover homemade pasta sauce (again used in the Saturday pizza).  So I threw some water on to boil for pasta (De Cecco whole wheat penne pasta), heated up some olive oil in a pan and added the chopped eggplant, a couple of handfuls of spinach, a clove of minced garlic, the sauce, goat cheese and olives.  When these were heated through I added the cooked pasta and presto - a delicious pasta dish ready in just minutes with very little clean up.

As I mentioned I made homemade pizza on Saturday.  I make this a lot (my niece Lindsey LOVES it) but this one turned out the best so far.  I start with Rosario's (a Maine company) whole wheat pizza dough (I can make my own but why bother when Rosario does it so well) and add the following:

homemade tomato sauce
sauteed onions and mushrooms
raw baby spinach
chopped roasted eggplant
basil (you can use either whole leaves or use a chiffonade cut)
goat cheese or feta
kalamata olives
salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil over the top

Bake for 15-20 minutes in a 450 degree oven.  If you have a pizza stone great - if not a cookie sheet drizzled with olive oil works just as well.

Am inviting some friends over on Sunday to watch football (I actually hate football but am being a good friend here) and am thinking up some good veggie snacks to serve during the game.  This could be tough because football seems like such a "meat" lovers sport.  I'll let you know how I do.

Ciao for now!
Maura