Are we there yet?

...as you can see, it's bound to be a productive day....

Mmmm....granola

It is probably the best tasting, most unhealthy cereal out there. Oh sure, it's advertised as healthy, but have you ever actually read what's in it? Ingredients? Sugar? Fat? Yuck. I am also at the disadvantage of having a peanut allergy, so most of the commercially produced granolas, I tend to avoid like the plague.

When I came across this recipe (originally from Gluten-Free Girl) I was after a granola that was peanut-free, had minimal fat and sugar and was easy to make. This is what I came up with. My husband, who's not much of a granola eater, even likes it. As an added plus, it is soooooo much cheaper to make your own, and at the moment, I'm totally into hand making everything. I pretty much make granola & bread every week. But that's another post.

The trick to making granola "healthy" is to not necessarily avoid sugar & fat, but to put in the right healthy sugars & healthy fats. I try to use whole grains whenever possible and I would like to say that I use the purest, most organic ingredients I can find, but seriously people, this is rural-town Walmart we're dealing with here, so let's be realistic, shall we?

Good Granola
adapted from Gluten-Free Girl, who adapted in from someone else, I'm sure

3 cups Old Fashioned oats
1/2 cup almonds, chopped
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 T. cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. ginger
3/4 cup pure honey
1/2 cup cranberry juice
1 T. vanilla extract
2 tsp. canola oil

Preheat your oven to 250 & coat a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, flour, cinnamon, allspice and ginger and mix them together with a wooden spoon until everything is well combined.

In a glass liquid measuring cup combine the honey, cranberry juice, vanilla and oil and whisk until thoroughly combined & it looks like one, cohesive liquid.

Pour your liquid ingredients into the dry, and stir until all of the oats are moist. You don't want there to be any liquid pooling in the bottom of the bowl - make sure you get it all mixed. Dump the raw granola out onto the prepared baking sheet and spread out into one even layer.

Place the baking sheet into the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Take it out of the oven, stir it up and put it back for another 20 minutes. Continue this process for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, depending on how crunchy you like your granola. I usually pull mine out after 1 1/2 hours, mostly due to impatience more than anything else.

When the granola is done, it should be dry to the touch. Let it sit and cool for 15 minutes, and then put it in an air-tight container with a lid (I use a mason jar). It will keep for 7-10 days in the refrigerator, if it lasts that long.

Makes about 4 cups of granola, depending on how much you eat during the cooking process.

Why You Should NOT Taunt the Sports Writer...

....he will put you on the front page.


Yes, that would be Alain & I laughing because we were just yelling and Mr. Sports Writer, "Hey!! Take our picture!! Put us on the front page!!". Hmm. Be careful what you wish for! At least I don't look like Phoebe running through Central Park.

Race results came out in the paper today.......((drumroll please))..... 65:45! Alain & I tied for 74th place. woohoo! The part that gets me is that the girl who won our age group only beat us by 3 minutes. Definitely something to shoot for next year.

In other running news, I had an ok 1.5 mile run today. I say ok because today I did feel like Phoebe in Central Park. I have forgotten how much nutrition plays a part in exercise (oh, so you mean I shouldn't have had that hot chocolate and hour before my run?) - it's important to remember you need the proper fuel for what you're doing. Save the chocolate for after the run, and then I prefer my after-workout-reward in the form of a cookie. Or fudge. Or cake. I'm not really too picky. The few redeeming factors of the run was that it was finally sunny, and that I held a 7:50 pace for 1.5 miles - now the goal is to be able to do it for 3.

After biking 13 miles.

Bring it on.

The First 10K...

...that would be 6.2 miles, for those of you counting.

I needed something to help get my training moving for the  year, so I signed up for the Canal Caper, a local 10K, plus I could walk to the starting line in 5 minutes from my house.  Seriously.  It's a small town.  

I hadn't planned on running with anyone - but one of my girlfriends was there, so we decided to putter along at a 10 minute pace together, thinking "we'll run to the halfway point and then see how we feel."  The halfway point goal then became 4 miles, then 4.5 miles - the goal kept on moving, which was great!!  We probably ended up running somewhere around 5 miles, maybe more, & only stopped to walk twice, just for a minute or two.

Now, I was all set to run this thing on my own, but it would have sucked.  Running with Alain was so much fun, we had a blast!  We were teammates in high school, and coach together now, and (not to get all mushy) but we fell right back into "teammate mode" - encouraging each other, checking to see how the other was doing, and just having a good time.  I know that if I had done it alone, I would not have done that well, so thank you Alain!!

The other reason to be excited:  at this time last year, I could barely run 1 mile - and I just ran 6!!  HA!