Orange-Ginger French Toast

A few weeks back, my brother and I met up with our resident-significant others for a getaway weekend in Gettysburg PA. It was lovely! Despite spending 23 years of my life in Pennsylvania, I had never visited Gettysburg and it turns out that fall is an amazing time to do that. History and foliage aside, one of the highlights of our trip was (not too surprisingly) brunch at Lincoln Diner. When we inquired, our waitress recommended the french toast without hesitation. She said that it was award winning, and the secret was that the cook skipped the eggs and used pancake batter made with orange juice to dip the bread! Of course, I decided to try this, adapting my favorite pancake recipe, and the results were delicious. This is by far the easiest and most delicious vegan french toast I've ever made!

Orange-Ginger French Toast

1c flour
2T baking powder
3/4c orange juice
1/2c vanilla almond milk
generous amounts ginger and cinnamon
8 slices whole wheat bread

Preheat skillet. Mix flour, baking powder, orange juice, and spices to make batter. Dip bread into the batter, evenly coating both sides. Cook, flipping as usual halfway though. Top with warm maple syrup (or cranberry sauce if you still have any left over from Thanksgiving). Enjoy!

The view from Little Round Top

Chocolate Banana Walnut Muffins

Bananas... the original super food of endurance athletes. Renowned for their potassium and easily digestible sugars, bananas are also packed with C and B vitamins and micronutrients. Unfortunately for me, even after repeated attempts to make myself like them, I've never been a huge fan of bananas. With my quest for recipes with that minimize added sugar, I decided that I should give bananas one more go. Last week, bananas were on sale for $0.29/ lb at our local grocery store so I committed to experimentation by purchasing two pounds. I've become pretty good at using applesauce in my recipes (like my chocolate peanut butter muffins last week) so I decided that I'd take it slow and try for a chocolate banana muffin, substituting banana puree for applesauce. The result was these muffins, which are like a new and improved banana bread. Adding cocoa powder, which is rich in flavanols, can improve circulatory function and enhance recovery. I did add sugar to these, but I think if you are really against it, you can substitute the banana for apple sauce in last week's make a really portable and balanced breakfast treat. Alternatively, these are decadent enough that you can go the other direction, whip up some icing, and make these into full-fledged cupcakes. Enjoy!

Chocolate Banana Walnut Muffins

2c flour
3/4c sugar
1/2c unsweetened cocoa powder
1t baking soda
2t baking powder
1c crushed walnuts
1 flax egg (1T ground flax seed plus 2T water)
2 ripe bananas
1c almond milk
3/4c water
1T apple cider vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Mix flax egg and set aside.
3. Mix dry ingredients, then add crushed walnuts.
4. Add bananas and almond milk to a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth. (I hate the texture of bananas, so this helps eliminate banana chunks in the muffins.)
5. Add flax egg, banana & almond milk, and water.
6. Stir in apple cider vinegar.
7. Add ~1/3c batter of greased muffin tins.
8. Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Yield: 18 muffins

Chocolate Cranberry Walnut option:
Substitute 1/2c applesauce for the banana and add 1c dried cranberries when you add the walnuts. My husband loves these!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins

Happy Galentine's Day! Well, technically, I think that the day before Valentine's day is Galentine's day but I'm late, as I am with every holiday these days. Today, I'm going to share a quick, easy, and surprisingly delicious recipe with you. Chocolate peanut butter muffins! I don't know what's wrong with me, but for the past few months I've been really, really wanting chocolate in the afternoon. And it's killing me because chocolate is for after dinner! Also, anyone who knows me knows my deep love of peanut butter. Seriously! When I had to drop weight for crew in college, I would just stop eating peanut butter for a few weeks. These days, I subject myself to no such torture. I will confess that I have 8 different types of nut butters open and in circulation in my kitchen right now. My new favorite these days is PB Trimmed Powdered Peanut Butter. Powdered peanut butters are great! They have creamy peanut taste, but all the oil removed, so that you can eat 4x as much peanut butter. (See how I suggested that you can just eat more rather than cut calories with it? Ha! This is the way I do nut butter...) Plus, while TSA confiscates peanut butter, you can take the powdered stuff on airplanes with you. This is a real bonus for a traveling vegetarian who wants to ensure quality protein is accessible... airport food is questionable, and even more so when you don't eat meat!

Anyways, these breakfast cupcakes are a real treat. I used a sweetened chocolate protein powder, so besides the apple sauce, no additional sugar is needed! I chose to top these with honey flavored PB Trimmed, but any nut butter that tickles your fancy will be awesome. With PB Trimmed, each muffin delivers 135 calories, 3g fat, and 12g protein. Yum!

Mmm... chocolate peanut butter muffins! And what's that in the background? Oh, just my Super Simple Peanut Butter Cookies

Chocolate Protein Muffins

1/2c whole wheat flour
1/2c chocolate protein powder (sweetened)
1/4c cocoa powder
1t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1T flax egg (1T flax seed meal soaked in 2T water)
1/4c apple sauce
1c almond milk
For Topping: 1/2c peanut butter or PB Trimmed

1. Preaheat oven to 375F.
2. Mix flax egg and set aside.
3. Mix dry ingredients, then add wet.
4. Add batter to greased muffin tins. Top each with 1T peanut butter.
5. Bake 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy!

Yield: 6 muffins (Yes, there are only 5 in the picture. I had to taste test to be sure they were worth writing about!)

Cranberry Scones

With all the stress and the snow, I've been back in the kitchen and while I haven't had much time to write a post or care about food photography, I've been back at it developing recipes. If you were in a Whole Foods in January, you may have noticed the Engine 2 Challenge posters that were everywhere, and these got me thinking. The Engine 2 diet promotes the usual whole food, plant based diet that I embrace, but also preaches the evils of fats/ oils and processed sugars. Naturally, I saw these posters advertising a challenge as a personal challenge to develop some new recipes! After several failed batches of "cupcakes" that attempted to use apple juice as a sweetener (pro tip: it doesn't work and messes up the consistency) I thought my oil-free, sugar-free recipes were doomed.

Then these scones surprised me! I planned for them only to be an edible, palatable accompaniment to my afternoon coffee, but when my fiancé tried one he begged for more. Success! With 5g of protein, 6g of fiber, and only 1g of fat, these scones make a great side to your afternoon cup of joe.

Cranberry Scones

2 1/2c whole wheat flour
1 1/2T baking powder
1/3c dried cranberries
1c unsweetened applesauce
1/2c unsweetened vanilla almond milk
Cinnamon to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Mix four & baking powder. Add cranberries and stir to coat. (If you don't coat your fruit in flour before adding in the wet ingredients the inside of the scone gets all gummy.)
3. Add in apple sauce and almond milk. The mixture will seem quite dry, but this is all part of the plan for scones. Once the dough starts to stick together kneed it a few times.
4. Form dough into an oval on a baking sheet and cut into 8 pieces, separating each a bit to make sure that each of the scones has plenty of room to bake evenly.
5. Dust the top with cinnamon and bake for 30 minutes, until edges just start to turn brown. Let cool (these actually aren't better when warm) and enjoy!

Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal

Surprise! Hello and welcome back... Energy Neutral is not dead. I've just been about as strapped as one person can be between simultaneously working as a professor at CMU and postdoc at MIT, all while planning my wedding and stubbornly putting in the groundwork training miles for my 2015 cycling season (in which I will ride for Breakaway Bikes p/b Felt and I aspire to earn my Cat 1 upgrade). If I find a free moment, I make something besides kale salad for dinner, but haven't found the time to write about it. In fact, I just realized that I never shared the recipe for the kale superfood salad that has been my dinner go-to for the last six months! (Although I did start a draft post about it back in July... hopefully I'll find some time to put it up at some point.)

Things have been a whirlwind since I started making visits to CMU in September. However, I've been dreaming about writing a blog post and getting back to doing more cooking for a while. Finally, over Thanksgiving I found some time to throw some ingredients in a bowl and try something new. While visiting the farmers market with my Dad to pick up the last fresh essentials for Thanksgiving dinner, we noticed one of the stands was selling baked oatmeal, and boy did it look good! This inspired me to go home and learn how to make baked oatmeal. I first tried carrot cake oatmeal, which was good, but my real winner was my pumpkin pie baked oatmeal. In this, I have found my perfect breakfast! Throwing a piece of this tasty bar in my backpack to accompany a smoothie (in which I add extra protein powder. Oats are a complete protein, but the carb to protein ratio is a bit high) keeps me going through lunch and beyond. This is gluten free and packed with all the goodies that pumpkin and oats offer. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal

3c oatmeal (I used 1.5c quick cook and 1.5c old fashioned, just because that was what I had!)
1T baking powder
cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger to taste
1 can purred pumpkin (15oz)
1c vanilla almond milk
1t vanilla
1/4c maple syrup
1/4c walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. Mix the oatmeal, baking powder, and spices in a mixing bowl.
3. Add the pumpkin, almond milk, vanilla, and maple syrup. Stir until all ingredients are wet.
4. Spray or grease a cassarole dish. Add the oat mixture and top with the walnut.
5. Bake for 30 minutes or until firm.
6. Cut, serve, and enjoy! Leftovers keep well for days, although it is unlikely that it will last that long...

Carrot Cake Cookies

Hmm... I'm sensing a theme for July here... first, naturally, carrot cake! The second, that I only have time to post once/ week. I'm sorry about that! Things have been very chaotic on the MIT front with two undergraduate researchers to supervise, as well as a paper to write and on the life front, since the moving process has started! Thus far, moving has been a combination of exhausting, stressful, and empowering. The biggest beast has yet to move (my queen sized box spring. Ugh! What was I thinking?! Actually, I know exactly what I was thinking: I bought it early in the courtship of my fiancé and I was trying to woo him with a super comfortable and spacious bed.) but we are getting there. Thus far I've moved a sofa and dresser from a 3rd floor walk up to a 3rd floor walk up with only the help of my roommates, and actually, I even got the dresser up all by myself! My atrophied cyclist's upper body has been very sore, but I am shocked and pleased to say that my shoulders and back aren't complaining at all. What a difference from 4 years ago when we moved into this place, when I had to recruit everyone I could to help me. In 2010, I couldn't even lift heavy boxes by myself since I had busted my right shoulder rowing, and my left in a cycling crash. They say time heals all wounds and I am happy to report that while it is a slow process, I am still on the mend and improving every day from the mental and physical wounds that I incurred in 2010. (For those who don't know me personally, a few weeks after the series of injuries including the shoulder injuries above, my best friend passed away.)

Anyways, back to the carrot cake! I made these gluten free, processed sugar free carrot cake cookies for my roommate to power her through a really tough week, and as a tide-me-over for her overdue birthday present. Sweetened by the carrots and applesauce, these cookies are a keeper! The would make really good ride snacks, especially if you replaced 1/2c of the oat flour with 1/2c protein powder. Give them a try! I hope you enjoy them.

Carrot Cake Cookies

1c oat flour (rolled oats, food processed)

1c shredded carrots

1c rolled oats

1T cornstarch

1/2t baking soda

2T cinnamon

1t ginger

1T flax seed + 3T water

1/2c unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or whatever milk you like!)

1/4c apple sauce

1/2c raisins

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Soak 1T flax seed in 3T water.
3. Food process 1c rolled oats to a fine powder. Transfer to mixing bowl.
4. Food process 1c shredded carrots. Add to mixing bowl.
5. Add additional oats, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger to the bowl. Stir to combine.
6. Add flax seed "egg", almond milk, and apple sauce. Finally, stir in the raisins.
7. Shape into balls and press onto a greased cookie sheet (unfortunately, they dough doesn't "drop" very well so you have to play with is).
8. Bake for 12 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

Carrot Cake Summer Oats

Lately, I've been pretty infatuated with the idea of carrot cake. Naturally, I love the idea of a cake that's centered around a vegetable and it's been done so well that everyone accepts it as delicious! I've been trying hard to come up with a carrot cake recipe for a few months now, starting with some gluten-free carrot cake muffins that I sweetened with raisins waaay back during lent. Nothing has come out particularly well. Last week, after a good run of about a month of smoothies for breakfast, I started craving oatmeal. However, I've been down this road before during the summer. It sounds good, but in reality, the last thing I want when I get back from my morning ride, dripping in sweat, is a hot breakfast! However, the desire for oats continued and I spent some time thinking about how I was going to use them. I found a recipe that put oats in a smoothie, but that seemed like a waste. It wasn't so hot this weekend, so I made some oatmeal on the stove with cocoa powder, nuts, and dried fruit. Delicious! However, I am not going to use a stove on a weekday morning so repeating that experience was out. I also tried making carrot cake oatmeal in the crockpot. The taste was there and the spices were right, but rolled oats definitely get too mushy in the crock pot overnight. Finally, I stumbled across a recipe on Finding Vegan that suggested mixing up the ingredients for your oatmeal the night before and just letting it sit in the fridge overnight. This sounded about my speed! I'd get my oats, they would be refreshingly cool and not too mushy, and there was minimal prep time. This carrot cake recipe finally turned out to be a success. Just a reminder to be open-minded when trying it: the carrots are still a bit crunchy, so if you don't like that it might be worth cooking them first. I decided that I loved the crunch that they added though. Vegetables for breakfast!

Carrot Cake Summer Oats

1/2c rolled oats
1/2c water
1/3c vanilla almond milk
1c shredded or baby carrots, food processed
1T flax seed
1t cinnamon
1/4t ginger

Food process carrots to a fine shred. It only takes a few pulses in a high speed blender. Add all ingredients to a tupperware container and let sit in the fridge overnight. The next morning, grab your breakfast and go! If you like your cereals a little sweeter, add some raisins and/ or maple syrup.

Hashbrowns and Lentil "Sausage"

Despite the lack of formal adventures last weekend, it was a delightful one. I took the weekend off from racing to rest up for Killington stage race next weekend, which is one of my "A" races for the season. Saturday started out very wet as I headed out for the local weekly hammer ride. The rain stopped by the time I got to the meet-up, but attendance was extremely low, presumably due to the combination of foreboding skies and the overlap of the popular Sunapee RR. My instructions for the morning were to do a hammer ride and "hit the hills hard." I was worried with this group that no one would want to push the pace, but after a few miles, it became obvious that at least a couple of the guys were feeling chipper, and well, no one shows up to this ride unless they expect to hammer so I worked up the courage to stretch my legs and try to push these guys a little bit. Now, contrary to what one may or may not believe about me, I feel no need to crush a guy's manhood unless he's done something to deserve it. (Basically, you deserve it if you've insulted me or someone else and I witnessed it.) If not, I understand that man-egos are delicate and for some reason it's devastating when a woman beats up on it. I don't understand why this is devastating because I am not a man, but I try to respect it. Well, I started taking pulls and punching up the hills as I was instructed. And before long... I had someone dropped all of the guys. Oops. After the hills, I was sitting up and waiting because I didn't want to be an a-hole and one guy kept chasing back on. Finally, after about 30 miles (the ride was supposed to be 42) he announced that he was cutting the ride short. Oops again. Respecting that he probably never wanted to see me again, I turned off and did a 20 minute interval with sprints every minute to finish off the hard work that I was supposed to do for the morning before heading home. Hopefully I can put in attacks that effective on the hills of Killington next weekend!

It's been a hard month of training, so Saturday I opted for a sandwich and to take a nap rather than making brunch for my fiancé and myself after the ride. (He was studying rather than making me brunch!) Sunday though, the sun was shining and I had a beautiful "OFF" written in my training plan so we slept in and then had brunch on the porch. My fiancé was in the mood for hashbrowns rather than waffles, so I made us hash browns, lentil sausage, and strawberry-mango smoothies. Perfect for brunch on the patio on a warm late spring morning!

Hashbrowns

3 potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/2 onion, diced
salt, pepper, smoked paprika to taste
3T olive oil

Place the potato chunks in the food processor and pulse a few times. I found that the size of the pieces are best if you put one potato at a time in the food processor. Add all ingredients to a large pan. Spread potatoes evenly across the bottom and turn the heat to medium high. Do not touch the potatoes for 5 minutes! (Set the timer.) This will ensure that you have a good crispy surface on the potatoes. Use a spatula to flip and continue to cook until potatoes are crispy and tender.

Lentil "Sausage"

1.5c dried red lentils
1/4c Dukkah spice
1T Vegemite
1/2 onion, diced
8oz baby bella mushrooms, diced
garlic, salt, pepper to taste

Cook the lentils by boiling in a large pot with ample water for ~10 minutes. When tender drain and rinse. Add lentils back to the pot along with other ingredients. Sauté for 10 minutes or so to infuse the flavors. Red lentils are great for this as some will start to mush together, to give a texture like sausage crumbles!

Go Anywhere Bars (GF!)

This weekend, I was craving granola bars. Not store bought granola bars, but the dense, textured homemade granola bars that are packed full of the good stuff: the kind you buy by the ski slopes that are custom made by a local baker and you buy for waaay too much money. So I looked in my cupboard, studied up on some recipes, and took a crack at it. For once, I was going for a specific taste more than a nutritional profile, but these bars hit home nutritionally too. There's no refined sugars, and plenty of protein and omega-3 fatty acids from the peanuts and the flax seed. So give this recipe a try and bring a batch on your next hike or bike ride and go anywhere!

Go Anywhere Bars

1/2c peanut butter
12 whole dates, pitted
1c vanilla almond milk
1/4c ground flax seed
1T cornstarch
1/2t baking soda
1T cinnamon
2c rolled oats
2c crisp rice cereal
1/2c dried cranberries
1/2c raisins
1/2c semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. In the food processor, combine peanut butter, dates and almond milk. Process until a smooth paste forms.
3. Add in flax seed, cornstarch, baking soda, and cinnamon. Process again for a short time.
4. Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl. Stir in oats, cereal, cranberries, raisins, and chocolate chips.
5. Press mixture into a 9x13 baking pan. (My batter didn't cover the whole thing, so I just kept it to one side.)
6. Bake for 30 minutes. Cut into bars and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
7. Let cool and enjoy!

Purple Sunrise Smoothie

I am a big fan of breakfast. It's the one meal I won't ever forget to eat and most days, I actually have two or three breakfasts. I know you other endurance athletes hear me on that one! Usually, I grab a Lara bar before I ride, have recovery drink after my ride (Vega Recovery Accelerator), and then have a real breakfast when I sit down at my desk and start to do work with coffee. Lately though, I've gotten tired of taking the time to pack, and then lugging around the breakfast, lunch, snacks, and sometimes even dinner that I take with me into MIT to get me through my day. I almost never buy food on campus so with the amount of food one has to eat if you're doing a lot of training, this gets old really fast! So that I can get away with packing less, I've started making smoothies in the morning, even if I haven't gone riding since it's something I can "eat" while getting ready. i.e. One less thing that I need to take with me! It's a throw-back to high school, when during swim season, my Mom would have my brother and I drink Carnation Instant Breakfast along with our "real" breakfasts just so that we wouldn't get too hungry before it was time for lunch. This smoothie recipe has been my favorite lately. It's only 4 ingredients (blueberries, spinach, protein powder, and almond milk) and with those packs in a serving of fruit, a serving of vegetables, and some good quality protein. With my vegetable smoothies, I've been using a sweetened protein powder, specifically Vega One Nutritional Shake. This protein powder is fortified with extra nutrients including omega-3 fatty acids, chlorella, antioxidants, and probiotics, which helps me forgive the addition of stevia. Also, adding spinach or another non-sweet ingredient helps cut what I consider to be the excessive sweetness offered by the stevia. I hope you enjoy it!

Purple Sunrise Smoothie

3/4c frozen blueberries
3/4c frozen spinach (or fresh spinach if you don't have a high speed blender)
3/4 scoop sweetened vanilla protein powder (For this, I've been using Vanilla Vega One Nutritional Shake)
1/2- 1c vanilla almond milk and/ or water (I usually do half and half)

Blend or food process all ingredients until smooth. This will take a bit longer than usual because of the spinach. If you don't have a high speed blender, use fresh spinach, as the result will be too stringy with the frozen spinach. Check the viscosity and add additional water if necessary. Enjoy the sunrise with a nutritious start to your day!

Fastnachts & Ash Wednesday

Well, lent has officially started. And for me this is a great thing, because I definitely need a chance to reset! The craziness of grant applications and job interviews crowded out a place for prioritizing my New Year's Resolutions in January and February. Fortunately for Christians (and really anyone who wants 40 days of reflection), lent rolls around just after the holiday buzz slows down so it's an excellent time for a second chance.

This year for lent, I'm planning to go to church every week (check for getting ashes on my head on Wednesday!) and I'm also giving up a lent classic: sweets. Specifically, I'm giving up sugar & chocolate. So be prepared for a dearth of recipes based on those ingredients for the next 40 days! Don't worry, I already have some date-sweetened cookies in mind. I decided that fruit sugars (and molasses with it's high iron content) don't count; basically I am just looking for a chance to tone down my sugar addiction. My coffee addiction, however, will remain in full swing until the hours on the bike start to come down! I am also planning to keep the recipes strictly plant-based for lent.

Anyways, the day before lent is the day we call Fastnacht's Tag in the Pennsylvania dutch part of the country I come from. This roughly translates to "donut day" or "fast night's day" and aligns with my family's Polish Catholic celebrations. Fastnachts are a bit different than normal donuts, in that they are made with a potato dough on the night before the lenten fast. The idea with these confections is the same as that behind the Polish paczki: traditionally you were trying to use up all of the delicious butter, eggs, and lard in the house before the austere season of lent. While most days of the year, donuts are not my thing there is an old Polish proverb that roughly translates to "If you don't eat at least one doughnut on Shrove Tuesday, you will no longer be successful in life." Since I want to keep up my luck, my friends and I have made homemade fastnachts on Shrove Tuesday for the past several years. This year I was lazy and only made up a gluten free version, (and used baking powder and soda instead of yeast) but the verdict was that these are a success! I hope you enjoy them.

Gluten Free Fastnachts

cooked flesh of 3 medium potatoes
2.5c oats, processed into a fine powder
2T cornstarch
1T baking powder
1t baking soda
1T cinnamon
1/2c brown sugar
2/3c vanilla almond milk
1/2 bottle canola oil, for frying pot
powdered sugar for coating (optional)

1. Potatoes can be cooked in the microwave by poking some holes in the skin with a fork and microwaving for 5-10 minutes (based on the strength of your microwave), until soft. Then, the flesh can be scooped out with a fork. Alternatively, you could peel, cube, and boil the potatoes.
2.. Pour a good volume oil into a pot (depth of at least ~3 inches). Heat on medium heat. If you have a thermometer, the temperature should be 350F, but I always just wing it.
3. Food process oats into fine powder. Set aside in a bowl. Add cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. Mix.
4. Food process potatoes and add to the bowl. Mix thoroughly to get a thick, sticky dough.
5. By now, your oil should be ready to go. Shape a handful of dough into a flat patty and carefully place it in the hot oil. Flip when it starts to look brown, ~2 minutes. Cook an additional ~1 minute on the other side.
6. Wrap in paper towel to blot off excess oil. Then roll in powdered sugar, if you desire. Enjoy warm with a cup of coffee.

Chocolate Chip Buckwheat Scones (GF)

Buckwheat, hemp seed, coffee, and chocolate. This odd combination has been my culinary obsession in the past week or so (in addition to cinnamon, of course!) while I've been scurrying to write a grant application last minute. And then trying to get caught up on everything that I had planned to do instead of writing that grant. And then starting to get the ball rolling with officially accepting my professor job! I still haven't signed the paperwork, so I'm just going to continue insinuating. Once the paperwork is signed, I'll officially confess...

Anyways, back to the buckwheat. Before the last week, I had never experienced buckwheat, except once fondly in childhood, as part of buckwheat pancakes. However, I recently found buckwheat in the bulk food section, which has been allowing me to experiment with this great grain. Buckwheat (ironically) is a gluten free grain. For every 100 calories, you get 3g complete protein and 3g fiber. Buckwheat is also rich in magnesium, manganese, B vitamins, and potassium. Give buckwheat a try in this gluten free scone recipe!

Chocolate Chip Buckwheat Scones

1/2c buckwheat grouts
2c water
1T cornstarch
2T brown sugar
1c rolled oats, food processed + 1/2c oats
2/3c chocolate chips

1. Place 2/3c buckwheat in a pan with 2c water. Bring to a boil until all water is absorbed. (Let cool if you don't want to chocolate chips to melt into the batter)
2. Preheat oven to 425F.
3. Place 1c oats, cornstarch, brown sugar, and baking powder into a food processor. Food process until smooth.
4. In a bowl, combine all other ingredients, saving the chocolate chips for last.
5. Shape dough into 3 balls, flatten onto a greased baking sheet. Cut into quarters for the scone shape.
6. Bake for 20- 25 minutes, until the edges just start to brown. Let cook & enjoy!

(GF) Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Life still hasn't settled down quite the way I hoped that it would... this week I'm working on writing an intense grant application for over a million dollars with a couple of my postdoc labmates. This was sprung on us last minute, but we seem to have a good plan in place to get it done. Procrastination is my nemesis and since most people work well last minute, I always worry when working in a new group that the others may want to take away my bike-time or weekend fiancé-seeing time. I work very hard during the week playing schedule-tetris to make sure that I get my work done and still have enough time for sleep, cycling, and the people in my life. Although I will confess that on weekdays when a deadline is near, my friends can get ignored. (Sorry guys! You know who you are.)

While I work hard to schedule every moment and stick to the plan, more often than I'd like, procrastination creeps in when my ADD-brain gets overwhelmed with things. Sometimes it's easier to just go with the flow of thought, which is why I am giving in and jotting off a quick blog post to blow off some mental steam. Here's a recipe for some cinnamony gluten free muffins. You might be able to tell that cinnamon is my flavor of the season, my new spice obsession which seems to help me stay warm and cozy in a winter that just won't end! (Seriously. Every day it's either precipitating or frost-bitingly cold. I've only been able to ride outside once since returning from California. The excessive trainer time is killing me!)

Gluten Free Apple Cinnamon Muffins

For the Muffins

2c finely ground oat flour (ie food process quick cook rolled oats until powdery)

1T cornstarch

1T baking powder

1/2 T cinnamon

dash salt

1/4c brown sugar

2T ground flax seeds

1t vanilla

2c apple sauce

1c almond milk

1T apple cider vinegar

For the Topping

1/2c oat flour

1/2c quick cook rolled oats

3/4c brown sugar

cinnamon to taste

~1/2c Oil or buttery substance (Enough to make sure the topping clumps and sticks together)

Preheat the oven to 425F. Mix the muffin dry ingredients thoroughly, then add the wet, saving the 1T apple cider vinegar for last. Add batter to greased muffin tins and let them bake for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix the topping ingredients, adding just enough oil to wet the dry ingredients, making them clump together. Remove muffins from oven and add topping (you could also try to add the topping before pre-cooking, but this is the way I did it!) Reduce heat to 350F and let it cook for an additional 20- 25 minutes, until a fork comes out clean. Let the muffins cool and enjoy!

Apple Cinnamon Granola

Today's a big day! In addition to being Friday, it's also Valentine's Day, and my hamster, Bijou's, 2 year adoptaversary! I feel so lucky to have found my forever-Valentine and also to have this furry little girl in my life. Apologies to my fiancé, but Bijou may be cuter... Many small pets like Bijou are left at shelters for a long time, simply because no one knows that they are there for adoption! So if you are thinking of adding a pocket pet to your life, I urge you to see if there are any you get along with at your local shelter. Adoptable pets currently at the Boston MSPCA (where I found Bijou!) can be found here.

I love Valentine's Day. I am not at all a romantic, but I think a day to celebrate love is just a fantastic idea. For most of my life, I was single on Valentine's Day and as such, I use it to celebrate the awesomeness of my other female friends. Because let's be honest: Valentine's Day is a girls' holiday! My celebration often ends up looking like Leslie Knope's Galentine's Day, except I save the festivities for the 14th. These days I also have my fiancé to celebrate, and this weekend we are going on our second annual Valentine's Day snowshoeing B&B getaway. But I'd still like to use today to give a shout out to all of my lady friends. Thanks for being there for me, you're awesome!

Anyways, this year has gotten of to a really hectic start. While I did have time to gather up some heart-themed goodies for a few key people, I did not have time to make a special Valentine's themed treat. Instead, I thought I'd use today to share a recipe for apple cinnamon granola. I've been sitting on this recipe for some time but just the other morning I ate a bowl of my granola right after tasting a handful of some of the store bought stuff and was reminded how much better homemade granola can be. The second ingredient in most store bought granola is almost always sugar. This results in a cereal that can be tasty, but somewhat less satisfying an hour later when your blood sugar crashes. Like my pumpkin granola, I use vanilla protein powder and omit oil to make a granola that's high in protein and low in fat. It's also filling and deliciously cinnamony! If you have the time and oven space, I recommend making up a double batch.

Apple Cinnamon Granola

1c quick cook oats
1 1/2c rolled oats
1/4c sunflower seeds
1/4c chopped almonds (this can be done in the food processor)
1/4c vanilla protein powder (I like this unsweetened vanilla from Life's Basics)
1/2c apple sauce
2T cinnamon
1/4c maple syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a large bowl, combine apple sauce, cinnamon, protein powder, and maple syrup to make a slurry. Add oats and stir to coat. Add additional maple syrup if you like a sweeter granola.
3. Press granola mixture into a greased pan. (Pressing it in is key to getting the big chunks that are so tasty!)
4. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring at 20.
5. Remove from oven, let cool and enjoy.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Gingerbread Waffles

I'll admit it... it's my second day back at work and I'm already missing the freedom of vacation. This feeling is of course deepened by the anxiety surrounding the impending interview for my dream job at the end of the month.  And with that, I'll reveal my secret... I'm interviewing for a tenure track Assistant Professor position in the Chemistry Department at Carnegie Mellon. I was not intending to apply this year, rather this was supposed to be my dreamy year of new beginnings (you know, like getting married, learning about biological research, bike racing, blogging, ect) Instead my future jumped up and demanded to be attended to immediately. Such is life! I'm very excited for this opportunity and hope that you will keep your fingers crossed for me!

Beyond that though, the vacation time was amazing. I attended my 10 year high school reunion, spent time with my family and new extended family, got many hilly rural miles in on the bike, and spent two uninterrupted weeks with the love of my life. My only regret? No one got me a cookbook for Christmas!!! Don't get my wrong, I got many beautiful gifts including a ninja blender (!!!), a springform cake pan, and an expensive black suit for the upcoming interview. But cookbooks are kinda the go to gift for me, you know, like candles or soap for most people. I guess because I've been making up so many recipes, my loved ones assumed that I no longer needed inspiration from a book. So upon my return, I dug up my cookbooks from the last couple of years and spent a lovely time going through them in the soft glow of my Christmas tree lights drinking a cup of hot ginger tea.

This recipe however, was not inspired by a cookbook. Instead, I've just been rather obsessed with gingerbread lately. Molasses and ginger are a truly winning combination and I just can't get enough! Molasses is a nutritional powerhouse, disguised as a sweetener.  To remind you, one tablespoon of good molasses has 20% of your daily value of iron, more potassium than a banana, and is a good source of vitamin B6, calcium, manganese and magnesium. Meanwhile, ginger has been valued for its anti-inflammatory properties for centuries. This recipe pairs the flavors with oats, which makes the recipe quite the keeper! If you do not have a waffle iron, you should buy this one or you can thin the batter with an additional ~1/2c water and cook them as pancakes. I served the waffles warm with walnuts, maple syrup, and a dusting of powdered sugar. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

Gingerbread Waffles

3c oats, measure then food process to a fine powder
2T cornstarch
1.5t baking powder
2T brown sugar
3 pieces candied ginger, ground in a coffee grinder or 1T powdered ginger
1T cinnamon
0.25c molasses
0.75c water
1c almond milk
1T oil (optional, recommended if your waffle iron is prone to sticking but unnecessary if you have a good non-stick coating)

Mix dry ingredients, then add the wet. Add batter to waffle maker and cook according to your appliance's direction. Serve warm with maple syrup. Alternatively, you can thin the batter with an additional ~1/2c water and cook them as pancakes!

Pumpkin Oat Waffles

Happy Friday! It's almost the weekend, which means it's almost time for brunch! I've shared my favorite recipe for a basic Belgian Waffle, and most times that I make brunch, we just make the basic recipe and branch out with our toppings. Well, this weekend, I was mourning the beginning of the end of pumpkin season so I decided that I had to make a pumpkin themed brunch. I was going to try a vegan pumpkin french toast recipe, but I've never had good luck with french toast that doesn't have eggs (well, actually the very next day I came up with a delicious vegan french toast). But anyways, I decided that I would make pumpkin waffles. Oat flour does a great job with pumpkin (the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are fantastic with oat flour!), so I decided that I would make gluten free pumpkin waffles. The oat flour adds a nice rustic flavor to these and I even managed to slip in some protein powder. I'm currently using a complete rice, pea, and hemp protein from Life's Basics (vanilla, unsweetened) and it's doing pretty well. Hope you enjoy these pumpkin waffles!

Pumpkin Oat Waffles

1 2/3c oat flour (finely food processed quick cook oats)
1/3c vanilla unsweetened protein powder
2T cornstarch
2t baking powder
2T brown sugar
generous amounts cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice
2T vegetable oil
1c pumpkin puree
1c vanilla almond milk (or soy)

Mix the dry ingredients, and then the wet. Add batter (~1/2c for a belgian sized waffle) to your greased waffle iron and cook according to your iron's directions. Top with maple syrup and enjoy!

Apple Cinnamon French Toast

I did it! I finally did it! I made vegan french toast on Sunday and it was so good, I can't stop thinking about it. Previous attempts have been disastrous or at best, pretty much regular toast-textured. I've been trying hard though because french toast is one of my all time favorite foods, and it was one of the first breakfast food recipes I perfected back in college. My french toast was made with egg whites, so it was high in protein and low in fat. I found it easy to digest too, so I would often eat it before crew practice in the mornings. The crispy outside and soft inside, paired with the flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, and maple are hard to resist... These days, I have a waffle maker, an awesome pancake recipe, and we don't keep eggs around. Fiancé says the cholesterol is bad (though this logic fails since there's no cholesterol in the whites) but until the eggs come from happy chickens that live in my back yard, I've become skeptical. So I've been challenging myself to try to create vegan french toast so that this old favorite can again become a regular part of my life.

Sunday morning, we woke up to a cold, wet, dreary day. The type of day that's best for sitting inside with a warm breakfast and cup of coffee watching the rain fall (you know, before you go out and ride your bike for a few hours in it.) We had made pumpkin waffles on Saturday (coming soon!) and I wasn't in the mood for pancakes. So I did a little research and decided to give vegan french toast one more shot. I decided to make my batter with apple sauce, protein powder, and flax seed, since the blogs I trusted most seemed to be using banana and I personally really like flax as an egg replacer. Banana unfortunately makes me gag, but I had an opened container of apple sauce in the fridge that I thought might be close enough. I added Life Basic's vanilla unsweetened protein powder, since I always need a protein boost in the mornings. This particular protein powder is pretty palatable and it's a complete source of all of the essential amino acids! The vanilla adds to the cozy flavor nicely. The flax seeds were also a good choice for their omega-3 fatty acids and nutritional profile, as well as the hearty, nutty taste they bring to the table. The final, critical tip for cooking these... make sure you use a generous amount of vegetable or canola oil to grease your pan! Otherwise they will stick and become a soggy mess.

Apple Cinnamon French Toast

3/4c vanilla almond milk
1/2c unsweetened apple sauce
1/3c vanilla unsweetened protein powder (I used this one)
1T ground flax seeds
1T cinnamon
3T maple syrup
6 slices bread (whole wheat, multi grain or Udi's gluten free)
canola or vegetable oil to grease the pan

1. Preheat skillet to medium heat. Add a generous amount of vegetable oil and swirl to spread it. Skillet is ready when water droplets sizzle when added.
2. Mix all of the ingredients except the bread together in a large bowl.
3. Dip bread in batter. This is a bit thicker than regular french toast batter, so you may have to spread it a little with a finger or a knife to make sure it's fully coated.
4. Cook french toast on skillet. The first side will take 2-3 minutes and the second will take 1-2 minutes. Don't try to flip it early or it will stick! Cooking times will vary, but it'll be easier to recover from a slightly black piece than a soggy-all-over-your-pan piece (which will require you to cool & clean your skillet to start over)
5. Remove from skillet and let cool. Regrease your pan for every piece you make, it's crucial for it to come out right! Serve with additional maple syrup, nuts, and/ or chocolate chips. Enjoy!

Ithaca & Pancakes

Things have been super busy, both in real life and here on the blog! So today I decided to keep it low key with a fun post about my weekend adventures and a reshare of an amazing and surprising basic pancake recipe. Recounting these fun things is my attempt to relax myself on a stressful Monday. Several grant deadlines, the fall MRS meeting and poster presentation, a final large cell study (crucial to my first postdoc publication), and a surprise faculty position application are all looming in my future before the holidays hit, so I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. This is of course par for the course in academia!

Last weekend, I traveled to visit one of my closest friends in Ithaca, where she just started a PhD program at Cornell. This particular friend really impresses me... after having a front row seat to all of my ups, downs, and straight up frantic freak-out moments during my PhD, she decided that it would be fun to go to grad school to pursue her own PhD. After witnessing my suffering, she knows that PhDs are not for the faint of heart! It was great to catch up with her and enjoy some of the scenery that late fall in Ithaca offers. We went for a lovely hike around Buttermilk Falls and enjoyed some ice cream afterwards before I headed east.

Our Subarus reunited!

The highlight of the weekend though, was these pancakes. She didn't have the ingredients I usually use in her cupboard, so I had to find something else. I was skeptical at first, because they do contain a massive amount of baking powder, but the result was just perfect! Pancakes that cooked quickly to a lovely golden brown, and were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside! I modified the recipe slightly, but you can use the recipe as is: it will result in a thicker pancake, which is just as delicious.

Easy Pancakes

2c flour (you can also use 1 2/3c flour and 1/3c vanilla protein powder, also delicious!)
1T cornstarch
2T white sugar
4T baking powder
2 1/4c vanilla soy milk
2T vegetable oil
generous amounts of ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg (~1T each)

Grease and preheat skillet. It's ready when water droplets sizzle when added. Mix the dry ingredients, then fold in the wet. Drop 1/2c batter onto the skillet for a test pancake. Flip when the top is covered in bubbles. Cook the other side ~2 minutes or until it's also golden brown. If you find that the pancake isn't cooked through, add more soy milk to thin the batter. If you find that the first side got to crispy before you flipped it, turn the heat on the burner down just a touch. Enjoy topped with nuts and maple syrup!

A Tale of Two Rides, Pumpkin Syrup, and Pie-Style Apples

It was a low key, but busy as ever weekend! We started off our weekend right, with the same brunch as last weekend: waffles, with pie-style apples and pumpkin syrup (recipe included!). Other than that, I spent my weekend riding, while my fiancé relaxed and erged. My two rides were about as different as different can be! Saturday, I went on a short, two hour trail ride on my cross bike. I wanted to go for longer, but my tolerance for being bounced around on the trails is still quite low, so it seemed like I was riding for a long time. In addition to being in the woods, the weather was stunning. It was 70F and sunny, I was riding in a short-sleeved jersey and shorts!

Can't believe I was able to ride my bike through this!

Sunday, the temperature dropped and I woke up to a cold, light rain. The plan for today's ride was to ride out to Sterling MA, to check out an amazing crit course that I'm hoping will become part of the XPot 2014 ECCC Road Race weekend! I anticipated to be a 90 mile round trip on the road and convinced one of my friends (who is a great triathlete!) to come with me. Temperatures were in the 40s and as we got further away from the city, the rain turned to a light snow. Nothing was sticking, so we bravely fought on. After a few wrong turns, it became clear that we'd be doing a century ride! I haven't done a century ride in a while, but each 100 mile ride I've done has been very special and fun. By the afternoon, the skies had cleared and I believe that we found the greatest crit course in the northeast. And by greatest, I mean it's a climber's crit! So pleased that we found it.

By the end the end it was sunny, but this is what it felt like the whole time...

Anyways, I wanted to share how we made the toppings for our waffles. I am really a fan of this pumpkin syrup.

Pie-Style Apples

2 apples of any kind,
1T brown sugar
1T cinnamon

Cut apples into cubes. Transfer to a greased skillet, then add cinnamon and brown sugar. Stir to coat the apples. Sauté over high heat, stirring constantly to prevent burning, until apples are soft like in an apple pie.

Pumpkin Syrup

1/4c brown sugar
1/4c pumpkin puree
1/2c water (more or less depending on how think you like your syrup)
pumpkin pie spices to taste (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice)

In a food processor, blend the ingredients until smooth. Microwave and serve warm over pancakes, waffles, or whatever else you desire!

Bonus awesome reflections!

Chocolate Crock-Pot Oatmeal, Orchard Cross, and the Vegetarian Food Festival

Today’s a big post! Things have been crazy. Saturday I went for a ride, had a nice brunch (Belgian waffles with pie-style apples and pumpkin syrup), did some work in lab, and went to the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. Sunday, we woke up early and headed to Applecrest Farm in southern NH for my first cross race and some general fall fun! After racing, picking and flinging apples, and heckling some of our other friends who were racing, we headed back south, where I went back into lab to pack some things up so that we could head out to visit at collaborator at UConn medical, which just happens to be in my fiance’s home town. So Monday, he got to spend the day relaxing with his family while my collaborator and I collected some (interesting) data.  Right now, I’m on a train on my way back up to Boston, cells in tow.

Back to the beginning... the Vegetarian Food Festival. I loved the idea of this food festival and was very excited for it. Well, the number of vendors and free samples did not disappoint, but I really like talking to people and exchanging ideas and felt that the festival had outgrown its venue. The gym was too crowded to really allow stimulating discussion, which was very disappointing. Perhaps if we paid the $5 to come early, I would have been able to talk to the vendors more, which would have been nice. Our favorite booth was one that was selling these delicious flavored pumpkin seeds: they even had pickle-flavored pumpkin seeds! Unfortunately, they weren’t giving anything away to help us remember their brand, so I have no idea where I can find the delicious pickle flavored seeds.

Orchard Cross at Applecrest Farm.... my first cross race. It was wild! I made my roommate and fiancé wake up early to come with me for moral support. My borrowed steel cross bike may weigh twice as much as the feather-light carbon bike I use on the road and since my arms are not nearly as strong as when I was rowing, I decided that I would only carry it over barriers if I had to. Through the other barriers, I pushed the bike while I ran which apparently seemed to help my speed. I was passing people while running for the first time in my life (I am a very slow runner).  Apparently, I should use a walker for speed the next time I run a half marathon! Among all of this rolling in the dirt, braking when I should be accelerating, and using my bike as a walker, I did something right... I was shocked to learn that I had finished 12^th out of a large field! After the race, we picked apples (I’m going to try to think of something amazing besides crisp to make.) Applecrest still had a huge variety, which was great for this time of the year! Perhaps the best part of the day was cheering for the Men’s 3/4 race, in which one of our friends who made the US rowing national team this year, was racing. We chose to only cheer in rowing terms, making a very confusing experience for all of his competitors, I’m sure.

The final fun of the weekend came in a trip out to Farmington. We had been busy all day at the apple orchard (followed by lab and cell transporting, which was boring), so had not had time for a real meal. I always look forward to my fiance’s mom’s cooking. She is a truly fantastic cook! Upon arrival at my future parents-in-law’s house, we were not disappointed. For dinner we had a wonderful hearty white bean soup. Perhaps my favorite thing that she makes though are chocolate steel cut oats in the crock pot. I tried these on my first visit and I hate to say that I think she keeps making them (perhaps only) when I come because she knows I like them so much! The best thing about this oatmeal is that it is so hearty, it can be reheated in the microwave. So without further adieu, here’s the recipe. No picture today, you’ll just have to trust me that they are amazing.

Chocolate Crock-Pot Oatmeal

(This one’s not my recipe! It’s borrowed from my fiance’s mother)

1c steel cut oats

3c water

1.5c vanilla almond milk

1/4c cocoa powder

3T maple syrup

Grease the sides of your crock pot. Add all ingredients and mix thoroughly. Let cook on low overnight. Wake up to an amazing warm breakfast and serve with dried cherries, dried cranberries and walnut. Any leftovers can be refrigerated and reheated for another day.