A Case of the Runs

A while back, I received a sample of a new line of Oroweat bread, called "Health-full." I don't eat a lot of loaf bread anymore.  For ease and versatility, I usually stick to pitas and English muffins.  But there are certain things that only loaf-y breads can accomplish, French toast being one of those things. This bread is slightly lower in calories than most bread of this type and size.  They contain 80 calories a slice and come in multi-grain and whole-wheat varieties.  The downer, though, is the traces of milk that they use.  I never understood why a lot of bread, and bread recipes, need to add powdered milk.  It makes a perfectly vegan-able thing not vegan. Anyway, due to the milk content, "The Ukrainian" had most of the loaf, but I did make a lovely breakfast one morning by folding the final slice in half, adding peanut butter and mango butter (from Trader Joe's ), and dipping it into a batter of a lightly-beaten egg, a pinch of salt, a splash o

I tried making socca, a "bread" made from chickpea flour, a while back .  It didn't turn out as I expected, so to use up some of the leftover flour, I tried THIS recipe instead. As you can see, it made a pretty thick "crust" of sorts.  Next time, I will use a better pan and bake it a bit longer, but this was definitely edible and actually pretty tasty for something that's essentially ground-up garbanzo beans. To dress it up, I used squares of the sheet to line the bottom of a SPRAYED muffin tin.  I probably should have actually cut them to fit, but then I'd just eat all the leftovers. =/ On top went four beaten egg whites along with the leftover 1/3 carton of egg whites I had, with a splash of regular (not vanilla) almond milk, some dill, salt, pepper, some frozen spinach, and the remainer of that container of crumbled feta in the back of the photo. I realize some people like precise recipes... I definitely think this one is easy enough to imp

I made a list of things that I learned from Sunday's LA Marathon  for my future use... before I forget.  Since some random person/people out there might find a useful nugget in there, I decided to publish this publicly, as well. First off, I know that my overall performance wasn't anywhere near perfect.  And even if it was, there is probably some combination that could get me to that sub-4 marathon that probably doesn't include any of these tidbits below.  Yes, I still fought cramps, and it was still hard... but the overall experience was just SO much better than usual. If I am going to use the same strategy for any future races, I need to iron out what I can to maximize it, and given that this was my first time trying such methods, I have a lot to tweak. The strategy I used was some variant of the Galloway method , which was a suggestion from a physical therapist .  She told me that a run/walk method would "save" my legs for the latter parts of the race wh

EVENT: Los Angeles Marathon DATE: Sunday, March 18, 2012 LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA RACE BEGAN: 7:30 AM FINISH TIME: 04:27:12 I'm probably going to be long-winded in this entry... =) So this was my fifth LA Marathon , and for a couple of reasons, I figured it'd be my last.  For one thing, I had a marathon ultimatum when my last marathon went terribly.  Secondly, I was tired of the long pre-race, freezing wait that comes along with it. The day before, it poured.  And had it not been for Leap Year/February 29, we would have been running in that.  So thanks, astrologists.  In spite of all the prep, we did not get a drop of rain, and even some sun, with temps in the low 50s and generally not too windy until the last few miles.  I wasn't sure if I had overdressed, but I think I picked the ideal things (tech hoodie, Nike tights , and compression socks ) for the conditions -- even if I probably looked funny. This was my dinner.  I must have been so hungry that the pi

This is a review of yet another video that I've been using in lieu of the gym or pounding my legs to death too often. LA Marathon is coming up this weekend.  I talked about my strange strategy in this post , so I won't go into it again.  What I will say is that rain is in the forecast, again .  In last year's race, along with the other marathons I ran last year, rain loomed -- and sometimes it came to fruition and sometimes not. Anyway, I have given myself a chance to do this workout quite a handful of times before writing a review.  The first time I popped in this " Xtend Barre: Lean and Chiseled " DVD, I thought it was extremely frenetic.  She (Andrea) goes through the warm-up at an uncomfortable (for me) pace.  This is probably more of my fault, since I am one of those people who never likes to stop and read instructions or watch fitness DVDs before doing them, like I should.  After a couple of times, I actually like the pace, and I was actually able to

On Valentine's Day , I saw THIS vegan fudge recipe posted and decided to give it a go.  I had all the ingredients laying around and was in a "no flour-y dessert" phase at the time, so it seemed perfect. It started off as a night like any other, as "The Ukrainain" was working.  I Skyped with my undergraduate mentee, who expressed how bummed out she was to be alone on Valentine's Day. Basically, my response was... the time will come.  Of course, I used to hear that a lot, and it made me upset.  Sure, "the time will come" for many people, but weird and fugly me was below the worthiness level of most people. But I did mean it.  She's a sweet girl.  So I don't see "crazy cat lady" in her future.  Found my ( male ) cat sleeping in this position, hehe.  Okay, so maybe nobody escapes the "crazy cat lady" fate. Anyway, onto the vegan fudge.  This was my Valentine's activity -- it gave me something to do

No, I didn't make up the name of these bars.  They are actually called " Good 'n Natural ." It made me think that some person couldn't think of a name of a bar and just said, "Well, they're good and natural............. so yeah." Of course, this is coming from someone whose blog name is " A Case of the Runs ."  Touché. Anyway, the first time I spotted this was at a Ralph's (Kroger in other regions) in January.  They were on sale for $0.88.  In fact, I've never really seen them more expensive than $1.  Compared to other bars , that's pretty cheap. Good 'n Natural bars come in chocolate, peanut butter, lemon, and cranberry almond (above).  Over the past few months, I've tried them all and would have to say I didn't care for the chocolate one much.  But to each his own.  However, the cranberry almond and peanut butter flavors are quite excellent.  The bar has a chewy texture and is actually quite dense.  They r

Happy Monday, everyone!  Yes, even this corporate slave wishes everyone a happy start to the work week... perhaps this will start it on a better foot than my usual grumpy post-weekend self. Some folks representing Cranberry Naturals sent me a couple of bottles of juice to try.  These juices are sweetened with Stevia and are free of things like high-fructose corn syrup and artificial stuff. I'm not a juice drinker.  Something about the aftertaste makes me avoid it, unless I am really, really thirsty.  However, "The Ukrainian" loves drinking berry-flavored juice and would drink more of it if it weren't for the sugar content. Problem solved. My non-juice drinking self decided to cook with the stuff instead.  I had a pint of fresh blueberries that were inching past their ideal freshness, so I popped them into a saucepan and added some of the cranberry apple flavor to make the filling for THESE vegan blueberry oat bars. Making the crust... Layering.