Would you believe that I’ve never baked a loaf of “real” bread – excluding quick breads (like Banana)? A friend of mine kept telling me how easy it was so I whipped out one of my cookbooks and started poking around. I came across this recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, The Grit Cookbook.

**This image is a screen capture from the cookbook preview feature on amazon.

What could be more perfect than Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick’s Day?

It turned out great. It’s a bit sweet from the raisins but the caraway seeds make it taste almost like a rye bread. I love the combination of flavors! I shared a few warm slices with Isaac and his friend last night, saved a bit for breakfast this morning and sent the rest with Isaac for his students to enjoy!

Breakfast turned out to be quite lovely. Too bad my eggs aren’t colored green- that would have been really festive.

I spread a little sunflower butter on the Irish Soda Bread after the photo and it was amazing! This combo of fruit, grains, fat and protein kept me feeling full all morning long.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day – if you need a delicious and easy bread recipe for the holiday you should definitely give this one a try.

At this point I don’t think I’m going out tonight so please drink a green beer for me!!

- Brittany

It truly is the Bomb. So much so, I’ve had it for breakfast two days in a row!! A few minor changes were made to Kristen’s recipe because I didn’t have all the ingredients on hand. Here’s what went in my (vita)mix:

1 frozen banana, 1 cup TJ’s Very Cherry Berry Blend of frozen berries (cherries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries), 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 cup water, 1 tablespoon cacao powder, 3 tablespoons vanilla sunwarrior rice protein powder.

Hopefully soon I’ll be able to get my hands on plain frozen cherries, the Very Cherry Blend was all that TJ’s had this weekend. :/

For lunch yesterday, a made another batch of humbecue tuna and put it atop a spinach salad with some Hippie Chips on the side.

I don’t even love canned tuna so me having it two days in a row tells you that the hummus and bbq sauce combo is quite awesome.

I took a frozen Apple Berry VitaTop out of the freezer to thaw.

It was still a little cold come mid-afternoon snack time but still tasty. I loved the big chunks of dried fruit. I’m the biggest dried fruit lover you’ll ever meet- only I don’t like dried apples – they’re too squishy. Interestingly, this muffin had more dried berries than dried apples. That made me happy.

Isaac and I hit up the gym after work and I came home and whipped up the Polenta Casserole from E,D & BV.

I’d actually never had polenta before so this was a totally new culinary experience for me. The polenta, which is just boiled cornmeal, reminded me a lot of grits only the consistency was thicker and the color was more yellow. Overall, the recipe was super easy to put together and very tasty. Yet again another winner from this awesome cookbook.

Since I’d eaten the polenta casserole on it’s own for both dinner yesterday and lunch today I decided I would spruce it up and make a little something different for dinner tonight.

A polenta casserole wrap with fresh spinach and salsa seemed like the perfect way to switch things up!

Yum!

After trying polenta, I’ve found that I really like it, but I have to tell you all a secret. Every time I hear the word polenta I think of placenta – not exactly what I want to picture in my head before eating. Sorry if I just ruined polenta for you.

I’ve been in the kitchen tonight baking for the upcoming holiday. I’ll be sharing my creation with you all tomorrow so please get excited and don’t forget to wear green.

- Brittany

PS: This is why I love my boyfriend.

For breakfast: oatmeal / oat bran combo with banana and cinnamon- cooked in water and topped with TJ’s sunflower butter.

For lunch: an open faced Humbecue Tuna Sandwich inspired by my friend, miss Eating Bender.

My version was quite simple. 1 can of tuna mixed with 1 tablespoon of garlic hummus and 1 tablespoon of bbq sauce. It’s one of the best tuna mixes I’ve ever had! Seriously, so good. Jenn’s a genius!

After a 20 minute core conditioning download and 45 minutes cardio reading at the gym I came home and whipped up a Chocolate Pie for a Pi Day Party we were invited to! And, not just any chocolate pie, a tofu chocolate pie!!

I used the Magic Pie recipe from PPK. It was super easy to make and despite a little apprehension on my part, it firmed up perfectly.

Chocolate Tofu Pie

Ingredients
16 oz. Silken tofu
1 Vegan Graham Cracker Crust
1 pkg (12 oz) Vegan Chocolate Chips
1 tsp. Vanilla

Directions
Mix the tofu and vanilla in the blender. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave. (It took me a total of 3 minutes, stirring every minute). Add melted chocolate to the blender and mix until smooth. Pour the mixture into pie crust and refrigerate for about 3 hours. Enjoy!

**The recipe makes a vegan pie, but I unveganized it by adding the Butterfinger topping.

The tofu pie was quite tasty. Although, I used semi-sweet chocolate chips and it turned out a bit too bitter for my taste. I think the Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Chips recommended in the original recipe may have been a better choice. It was also very rich so it probably would have been better topped with fruit rather than more chocolate.

I knew that the Pi(e) Day Party was going to be fun but what I didn’t know is how many delicious pies there were going to be!!! Are you ready to see the goods?

The Savory

Spinach Pizza Pie

Each slice was topped with pizza sauce and as you can tell, the crust was thick and hearty. Yum!

Tomato Pie

Basically tomatoes, mayo, cheese, and Italian seasonings baked in a pie crust – a true southern classic.

To make eating a ton of sweet pies seem legit we all ate a bite or two of savory aka dinner pies before digging into to the sweet ones.

The Sweet

Two Apple Pies, both with homemade crusts

A Chocolate Pretzel Tart

Coconut Pie with Dried Fruit

This was one of my favorites!! I think it would have been awesome as a oatmeal topping.

Chocolate Chip Pie

It was still warm and the chocolate chips were melty- it was sooo good!

I realize now that I forgot to get a photo of the pie with the coolest name – The Banoffee Pie, made with bananas, cream, and toffee. It’s on my plate at 1 o’ clock.

I wanted to try all the pies so here’s my plate with a sample of each.

Holy Sugar!!!! All the pies were amazing and I ate almost every bite. Why can’t it be 3-14 everyday?!?

A big shout out and thank you to my friend/running buddy, Rebecca, the mastermind behind this fun holiday shin-dig.

9 pies later we’re at home digesting and getting ready for the working week. After all the chocolate, butter and sugar I consumed tonight I think a big salad is on the menu for tomorrow.

- Brittany

PS- I am in need of some guest posters for the first week of April. Spring time topics would be fun, but I’m up for other ideas as well. If you are interested please shoot me an email!

It was suppose to rain all day on Saturday, but it turned out to be beautiful! I met up with my bootcamp running group with the intention of running 6.5 miles. A few girls and I were ahead of the group and ended up getting a tad lost. Turns out we ran about 8 miles rather than 6.5. Opps – at least we know that we’re more than ready for the 10K we are running in 2 weeks!

After recharging with a cup of coffee and a fruit cup from Ellwoods Coffee Isaac and I took a little drive to some of my favorites – World Market, Ulta, Trader Joes, and Whole Foods. Let’s just say my bank account is not happy right now!

Want to see the goods?

Here’s the shelf-stable items from WF and TJs (the cold stuff had already been put away). Some staples I always get from TJ’s : Better n PB, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, raisins, and maple syrup, and goddess dressing.

Benefit Erase Paste from Ulta. I’d asked for under eye concealer recommendations on twitter before leaving so I went in with some products in mind but the sales lady sold me on this. She put it on me and I was sold! Seriously, this stuff works wonders.

New scarf from World Market

I love the coral color. It may be my imagination but I think it make me look a bit more tan.

I also found a small spatula for getting things out of the Vita-Mix at World Market. Turns out it came in handy because I decided to whip up some home made dressing when we got home.

I had mentioned to a friend while running that I had all the stuff to make lemon tahini dressing but hadn’t made it yet. Not sure what I was waiting for!

Easy Lemon Tahini Dressing

1/4 cup lemon juice
3 tbsp. sesame tahini
2 tbsp. tamari (wheat free soy sauce)
1 tbsp. maple syrup
zest of one lemon
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. dry mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
pinch cayenne pepper
1/4 cup water

Combine all ingredients except water and blend in a blender. Add a bit of water until the consistency is how you like it. Use as a salad dressing or as a sauce for steamed veggies.

I used the dressing on my dinner last night.

Yum!

I’m off to get ready for Pi day aka make a chocolate tofu pie for a Pi party I am attending this evening.

- Brittany

So I’ll just throw it out there and say that I’ve had canker sores before… and no it’s not herpes. They’re sores inside the mouth that are typically caused by stress or tissue injury and aren’t contagious! Anyone who’s suffered through one can tell you that they hurt really badly. Certain foods – including citrus or acidic foods can trigger a canker sore or make the problem worse. In some cases canker sores are caused by an underlying health condition, such as an impaired immune system; nutritional problems, such as vitamin B-12, zinc, folic acid,, or iron deficiency; and gastrointestinal tract disease, such as Celiac disease and Crohn’s disease.

Last fall I had a series of canker sores – at one point I had 5 in one month!!! It was awful. I was in pain and couldn’t help but spend the majority of my time putting Orajel on the sores (which does nothing but make your mouth numb) and searching everywhere to find out what was causing them and how I could prevent them. Most of the typical suggestions I had heard and tried before (Lysine, B-12, licorice root) Randomly, on some forum a person suggested to use natural tooth paste because most commercial toothpastes have a chemical, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, that can increase the occurrence of sores inside the mouth for some people. WHAT- my toothpaste may be to blame? I didn’t want to believe that this could be the case, but I was also willing to try anything so I went out and bought this:

Tom’s SLS-Free antiplaque plus whitening

With the absence of SLS the toothpaste doesn’t foam as much as normal toothpastes, but once I got used to that I started liking this toothpaste much more than my tube of Crest. Thanks to Tom I’ve been canker sore free since November 2010!!!! I’m no dentist and I’m not saying that using SLS free toothpaste will prevent canker sores for everyone, but it surely has worked for me. And, I can definitely say that I’ll never go back to using commercial toothpastes again.

I hope this post will help at least one person who suffers from canker sores. And even if you don’t have a problem with canker sores I’d highly recommend Tom’s toothpaste – it’s my favorite product of 2010!

I’m off to run 7 miles, eat breakfast, and perhaps go shopping. Hope everyone is having a great Saturday!

- Brittany