First things first, it’s Pizza Friday! This was last week’s pizza, but it was a good one. Roasted eggplant, roasted red peppers, feta and mozzarella over pizza sauce.

I’m trying a new combination tonight, and if it’s good it will be on the blog in the next couple days.

It’s been a pretty domestic week around here.  I did some laundry, cleaned some counters, and got re-acquainted with my pastry blender.

I also ate way too many Girl Scout cookies, but I don’t wish to discuss that at this time.

I spent lots of time in the kitchen with my little helper.

She was of great assistance while making these scones, which, by the way, are actually kind of a scone-biscuit hybrid. They’re a little softer and less crumbly than scones, and they’re awesome.

My preferred scone-shaping method is the one I learned while working at a bakery. You pat the dough into a circle and cut it into 8 wedges. These were HUGE, though, so you might want to make two circles. Or, you could use a biscuit cutter (that’s what Joy did.) Either way, they’ll come out of the oven delicious.

(adapted from Joy the Baker)

After setting it on the table I got pretty much the best compliment ever. Mike said “this is so good! Is it from Heidi?” It wasn’t, but it seems like something totally her style, and come to think of it, I think she has made something very similar. But anyway, he liked it. And it was one of those meals that just makes you feel healthier. Considering the amount of cupcakes I’ve been making lately, we are in desperate need for meals like that.

It’s been housewife week at our house (school is closed for Presidents week) and I am discovering once again how horrible I am at being a stay-at-home person. I am, of course, grateful the extra time I get to spend with Ellie, but these days she’s more into Sophie than me.
It probably makes me the worst mom ever, but I actually dropped her off at daycare for a couple hours so I could run 8 miles, work on a proposal for a summer job interview tomorrow, and do the dishes. I figured it would be better to just get everything done so that I could give her 100% of my attention once my to-do list was complete. You can blast me in the comments, I can take it!

I kicked off Big Sur Marathon training with a 15.27 mile run on Sunday. I spent a lot of the run in Golden Gate Park, thinking with every step how grateful I am to have this amazing place to run just a few miles from my house.

I kept it nice and easy, finishing in 2:18 (9:03 min/mile).

I know Easter’s not for awhile, but it’s not too early to start thinking about dessert! Oh! Nuts offered to send me some Jordan almonds to use in a baked good or craft, and I immediately envisioned cupcakes with Jordan almonds for decoration.

These have chocolate, almond meal, and coconut inside, with fluffy white frosting, toasted coconut, and Jordan almonds on top. Hard to go wrong with that combination!

(from Epicurious)

Before I got pregnant, a little part of me wondered if having kids would ruin my body and my ability to run. Despite reassurances from many people, I was still very skeptical. I really shouldn’t have doubted, because I’ve been running better in the past 3 months than I ever did before.
Since having Ellie, I dropped about 25 seconds off my 5K time, 39 seconds off my 10K time, and almost 3 minutes off my half marathon time.

Here are some things that have helped me:

1. Increased red blood cells. When you’re pregnant, your blood volume really increases, and apparently you still have more blood cells for about a year after the kid is born. I hope these faster times don’t just stop after Ellie turns one!

2. I want it more.  There have been times in my past when I took running for granted, and I’ve had more than one episode of burn-out.  But when I stopped running at about 5 months pregnant, I missed it dearly. Now I’m extra committed to running because it’s so amazing to be able to do it again!

3. I make workouts count.  If the only thing standing between me and picking Ellie up from daycare is a tempo run, you better believe I’m going to run that thing FAST!

I also think working full time has been really beneficial. I have to schedule in my workouts, and since the days of a leisurely two hour gym session are long gone, I am really efficient at squeezing in exercise.  15 minutes of pilates core work between putting Ellie down and eating dinner, 45 minutes of intervals on the treadmill, 30 Day Shred at 5 AM before work… I don’t waste time on junk miles  or long rests between sets lifting anymore.

4. Breastfeeding has been good to me.  Weight is kind of a tricky issue.  With my eating-disordered past, I try not to fixate on numbers too much, but now that I’m a couple pounds below pre-pregnancy weight, I’m running better than I ever have before.  I don’t necessarily think dropping weight is a magic bullet for making you faster, but carrying a few pounds around may have been slowing me down before.

5.I didn’t put too much pressure on myself. I have completely psyched myself out during races SO MANY TIMES. The absolute worst was during the district cross country meet my senior year of high school. I started out okay, but mentally I completely fell apart within the first mile. The same thing happened at the district track meet. I put way too much pressure on myself and it messed with my head.

Coming back after having Ellie was pretty much the opposite of that. I put absolutely NO pressure on myself because I’d just had a baby. When my times started improving, I was pleasantly surprised, but didn’t set any crazy goals right away because I genuinely had no idea what my body was capable of.

It’s kind of like how running without your Garmin can make you go so much faster, because you don’t see your pace and freak out about being either too fast or too slow. Because I was still getting back into shape, I didn’t worry too much about my times. (Maybe that analogy doesn’t work at all, but it kind of made sense in my brain…)

6. Pushing the stroller is HARD. The first month I was back to running, pretty much every run was completed while pushing a stroller. It wasn’t easy, but I think it made those runs without the stroller seem much faster!

7. Extra muscle? I weight trained a LOT during pregnancy…and I think that and carrying around the extra weight may have made my legs stronger.

8. I’ve been racing a lot. I have raced almost every weekend since my comeback race 5 weeks after Ellie was born. Racing too often can be a bad idea, but as I was getting back into shape it was extremely motivating. Knowing I had a race to do meant I wouldn’t slack on my mid-week runs, and it was also a great family activity! Seeing my times start to come down only motivated me more.

There is one downside to this whole running-while-nursing business. I’m still not completely comfortable nursing in public, and pumping in public just feels weird. Mike was so kind as to document me hiding behind a tent before the North Face Trail Half. It’s not pretty, but I do what I have to do!

I’m now just beginning to start training for marathon #7 – Big Sur on April 29th. I’m not going for a PR, but I’m excited for my first post-baby marathon!

Courtney is a Facebook and blogging friend that I’ve never met in real life, but I’m SO excited to be a part of a virtual baby shower in honor of the little girl she’s expecting next month! (Thanks for hosting, Josie!)

It took me forever to decide what to make for this. At first I was thinking something savory, and then I decided I wanted to make cupcakes (sort of fitting since Courtney worked at a cupcake bakery!) Pink lemonade cupcakes seemed like a pretty good baby shower dessert, and Mike and I both loved these.

The recipe I found online called for cake mix and pudding mix, which definitely was not going to happen, so I turned to Joy of Cooking and cut their white cake recipe in half, with a little lemon extract instead of vanilla. Then I just mixed some pink lemonade concentrate into the frosting.

Courtney, I’m so excited for you and your husband to welcome your sweet baby girl, and she’s one lucky kid to get you as parents!

(adapted from Joy of Cooking and inspired by The White Library)

Mike, Ellie and I went for an awesome 5ish mile run after work (which went surprisingly well considering the sugar overload from the preceding several hours). Ellie kind of started to freak out in the stroller, which meant the last mile was a LOT faster than we planned on!

Back at home, I gave Mike a homemade card, which has kind of become a tradition. I have the card-making skills of a 9-year-old boy, but he appreciates the thought.

In case you didn’t completely overdose on chocolate yesterday, here’s a chance to sneak some more into your dinner! I haven’t made mole sauce in years because I thought it was too labor intensive. It turns out it’s really not that bad, especially if you make it the day or two before you plan on using it (it keeps really well in the fridge, and then you just need to thin it with a little broth).

If you get all your ingredients ready to go before you start cooking, it goes pretty fast, and then you have a whole bunch of absolutely delicious sauce to make enchiladas with, or drizzle over roasted squash, or dip chips in… there are so many options!

(adapted from Veganomicon)

Yesterday our not-so-little baby turned 5 months old.

<Insert every known cliche about how they grow up too fast>

We celebrated with a four and a half mile family run, which was the first time Ellie rode in the BOB without the infant insert.  It was SO much easier without it (I think because it was much lighter and had a lower center of gravity).  She obviously found it quite exhilirating.

Other highlights included a birthday celebration in Sacramento, a shopping trip at one of my favorite grocery stores (Berkeley Bowl!), and Chinese food and soft serve with some friends.  Ellie was awesome through it all.

Mike and I have become off the deep end obsessed with bulk bins, and one of my current favorites is polenta.

Polenta with tempeh on it is not a new thing around here (see mustard-glazed tempeh), and it’s definitely going to be making an appearance again.  I guess technically there is a difference between grits and polenta, but I’m going to refer to these as grits.

I always feel kind of guilty when I un-veganize recipes, but all we had in the house was whole milk, which I’ve been pretty fond of lately.  It makes the grits amazingly creamy.  The sauteed leeks with garlic add a nice pop of flavor and color.

(adapted from Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry

We quit swaddling her cold turkey and so far things are going great. We also got the OK from her pediatrician to introduce solid food, and we decided to start with bananas.

After a little bit of assistance with the spoon, she was ready to try it herself.

Success! (Kind of…)

I think this weekend we may move on to sweet potatoes!

I’ve been baking a lot lately, and as always I’m thankful for Mike’s office and my work both being so willing to take baked goods off our hands. In case you’re here because I occasionally make healthy things, I do have to recommend this salad, or more specifically, the dressing, which I now want to put on everything

Proceed directly to Shutterbean for the recipe!

I wanted oatmeal raisin cookies the other day, but I decided to branch out a little bit. These aren’t as cakey as normal whoopie pies (the ground up oats make them a little denser) and they have cream cheese frosting inside. Maybe it makes more sense to call them oatmeal raisin sandwich cookies. But whatever you call them, they’re good! I mean, can you really go wrong when cream cheese frosting is involved?

Eggs and cheese

Trail running and M&Ms

Fritos and chocolate pudding (trust me on this)

Knitting with friends and chocolate chip cookies

Rainy days and good books.

I could go on…

But really, I’m going to focus on eggs and cheese right now. This is yet another brilliant recipe from Plenty. I added some portobello mushrooms and subbed yogurt for creme fraiche, plus I scaled back on the mustard a little bit. But the basic idea, eggs and cheddar and smoked mozzarella is comfort food at its best.

I rounded out the meal with my new favorite raw kale salad: massage red wine vinegar, a little salt, and olive oil into curly kale, then add chopped roasted red peppers and pine nuts.

Salad + frittata + a big chunk of bread = a pretty delicious dinner.

OK, now I’m completely convinced these compression socks really are magic.  My third time wearing them and getting a PR!

After my 10K PR a couple weeks ago, I entered that time into the McMillan Pace Calculator to see what time I should be shooting for in the half marathon. It said I could do a 1:39:01. Since my PR at that point was 1:42:30, I really hoped it was right.

Even though I’m faster now than I was before Ellie was born, I wasn’t sure about my endurance. I’ve only done a few double digit runs, and they were all pretty slow.

Although I did end up with a time I’m super happy with, I definitely need to work on my pacing strategy for my next half (March 25 in Oakland). Here’s a little run-down mile by mile

Mile 1 – 7:21 – Uhh, how should I pace myself here? I don’t know how fast I should be going. Is this okay or should I speed up?

Mile 2 – 7:06 – Yeahhh, that was definitely too fast

Mile 3 – 7:40 – OK running around the panhandle is borrrring. Can we go back to the park, please?

Mile 4 – 7:23 – I think this is a good pace. Now can I hold on to it?

Mile 5 – 7:30 – Nope, obviously I can’t

Mile 6 – 7:10 – I really appreciate this downhill mile. And I really appreciate this vanilla Gu (which I almost didn’t bring, but definitely would have crashed had I not taken it)

Mile 7 – 7:21 – I’m not thrilled about the endless out-and-back on Great Highway. Where are Mike and Ellie?

Mile 8 – 7:31 – Yay! I saw them! I’m sooo tired of running directly into the sun.

Mile 9 – 7:46 – Where is the $%^# turn-around?!

Mile 10 – 7:44 – 5K to go. I can do this.

Mile 11 – 7:42 – This feels sooooo loooongggg

Mile 12 – 7:57 – I’m ready to be done.

Mile 13 – 7:51 – I’m REALLY ready to be done. WHERE IS THE FINISH LINE!?

Aaaand then I finished in 1:39:48. A PR by almost 3 minutes! The best part of the day was celebrating with my friends – they PRd too!

I really liked this race, even the death march along the Great Highway. It was really well organized, the volunteers were great, they called splits at every mile, and the finisher shirts are long-sleeved cotton (which I love – I have way too many technical shirts and I appreciate having something new to sleep in!)