Living it up

By Megan, on May 3rd, 2010

Hi friends! Hope you’re all enjoying the weekend!

We’ve had tons of fun so far, so time seems to be FLYING by! How the heck is it already SUNDAY?!

I knew we’d be eating many meals out this weekend, so on Friday I tried to STUFF as much raw nutrition into my green smoothie as possible:

I polished off nearly a whole bag of fresh spinach, the juice of a lemon, 1/2 cup blueberries, 2 T. Sun Warrior Protein, 1/2 tsp. spirulina, and 2 bananas (to help with my muscle cramping!). It was glorious.

I may have also snacked on a couple of raw macaroons while packing them up for my sister-in-law:

Holy moly, those suckers are good. Especially fresh from the oven!

Drool…

We slept in a bit on Saturday morning, then went out for brunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Aroma. We enjoyed the lovely weather outside, and I munched on one of my favorite salads:

A large bowl of mixed greens, topped with cucumbers, diced tomatoes, and herbed goat cheese rounds. The balsamic dressing on the side is one of my favorites! I happily devoured the whole bowl, and sipped on an iced green tea.

We spent the afternoon visiting with my niece and our in-laws, then headed to a sports bar in Hollywood to watch the big Mayweather vs. Mosely boxing match! (Kinda weird for me and my husband, since we’re not really boxing fans… but we had watched a documentary last weekend about it, and it sparked our interest!) Since we had to camp-out for a while before the big match, we enjoyed a meal at the bar:

I was pleasantly surprised to find a homemade Quinoa-based Veggie burger on their menu! This burger was UNBELIEVABLY GOOD! They even served it on a dark, whole-grain bun and with an awesome side salad! I was in heaven!!

It was a perfect carb-filled meal to fuel our long run this morning.

Well….

It wasn’t quite a LONG run for me! Remember how I was suffering from that cramped hamstring muscle? Well, I thought I was recovering from it, because when I started running this morning, I was doing okay. We played it safe and opted to use the treadmills for our run– but I was feeling pretty good in the beginning! Once I hit the 6-mile mark, I was pretty confident that I was going to be able to complete the full 13-miles without a problem! Then suddenly…

BAM!!

My muscle cramped and I couldn’t move! I had to jump my feet to the side of the treadmill, because my muscle wasn’t even capable of slowing down from a run to a walk! I tried to stretch my hamstring in every position I could think of, but it just wasn’t cutting it. I felt so defeated. I watched my husband chug along with his run, jealous that I couldn’t keep up with him! I decided to try and keep walking, even if it was at a slow pace. I walked a little over 3 miles, for a total of 10 miles for the day. I didn’t hit my 13-mile goal, but I tried to make the best of a crappy situation. I made my way back to my apartment, and stretched on my foam roller until I couldn’t stand it anymore.

I’m not sure what this means for my marathon plans. It’s still 4 weeks away, but I’m really worried about my muscle not healing! I guess I’ll play it by ear, and see how it goes. I really, really, really want to be able to finish the marathon, even if it means going slower than I want to… but if my muscle is still acting up, I may have to drop down to the half-marathon. I’ll be disappointed, but in the long run, I know it’s more important to take care of my body! There will be other marathons!

After our run, my husband and I were looking forward to PANCAKES! We’ve decided they’re going to be our standard reward after long runs. In fact, I was so excited about them, I forgot to take a picture! But trust me, they were worth it!!

On our way home from brunch, we walked into Borders and I had a chance to browse through Alicia Silverstone’s book, The Kind Diet. While she has many appealing recipes included in her book, I was immediately drawn to her Vegan Peanut Butter Cup recipe. Anything that combines peanut butter + chocolate usually goes over really well in our house! I remembered seeing the recipe featured online a while back, so I figured I’d take it for a test-run.

Alicia Silverstone’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup Earth Balance butter
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter (preferably unsweetened and unsalted)
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs or 10 graham cracker squares
1/4 cup maple sugar or other granulated sweetener
1 cup grain-sweetened, nondairy chocolate or carob chips
1/4 cup soy, rice, or nut milk
1/4 cup chopped pecans, almonds, or peanuts

PREPARATION
1. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. (If You Care makes unbleached liners made from recycled paper.) Set aside.
2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
3. Stir in the peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs, and maple sugar and mix well.
4. Remove the mixture from the heat. Evenly divide the mixture, approximately 2 tablespoons per cup, among the muffin cups.
5. Combine the chocolate and milk in another pan. Stir over medium heat until the chocolate has melted.
6. Spoon the chocolate evenly over the peanut butter mixture.
7. Top with chopped nuts.
8. Place in the refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours before serving.

Excerpted from The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone (2009, Rodale).

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I followed her recipe pretty much to the letter, but omitted the nut topping– I wanted them to be more like traditional Reece’s, with a smooth, chocolate top. I also opted for a mini muffin pan, rather than the larger 12-cup muffin tin, so that I’d have MORE mini-cups!

Since I didn’t have any mini-muffin liners, I got creative with plastic wrap:

It did the trick, but it was pretty messy!

If you’re making these for guests, DEFINITELY invest in some mini-muffin liners! The plastic wrap worked, but the cups weren’t as pretty as they could have been. However, my husband and I both sampled one two of the finished product, and they taste AWESOME! I’m storing our leftovers in the freezer, to keep them firm and solid– I have a feeling them might get a little softer if you leave them at room temperature too long! But either way, they taste great. I really want to get Alicia’s book and try the rest of her recipe’s now!

Man, I can’t believe the weekend is already over! We’ve got the BIG MOVE (to our new condo!) ahead of us next weekend, so I’m glad we lived it up while we could!

Hope you all get a good night’s sleep and have a great Monday!