Help Meghan Run

Wow do I have a lot of food to show y’all! WordPress was being funky and wouldn’t let me upload photos for some reason. But here they are. First up is a cute little dessert I whipped up. This is a parfait with Greek yogurt, strawberries, granola, cinnamon, and a little shaved dark chocolate just for fun. Served of course in an appropriately fun glass. You can’t really tell from the photo, but there are a few layers of strawberries and yogurt.

Next was one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever made. And since I consider myself to be a bit of a breakfast queen (regarding eating them, of course ) that’s saying a lot!

I used this recipe and just tweaked it a little, halving it and using whole wheat pastry flour instead of regular to make the pancakes a little lighter. (Whole wheat flour has a tendency to make baked goods a little dense and tough (which I hate in pancakes!) and this is a softer, finer flour that is still whole wheat. It’s a low protein flour similar to cake flour. Because there is less protein, there is less gluten formation and therefore more tenderness.) 

But my oh my, these pancakes were amazing, and I am self-admittingly super picky about pancakes. Perfectly soft and delicious. (Clearly, as I cannot stop taking pictures of them.)

I covered them with a simple strawberry sauce (strawberries, water, and a little maple syrup simmered in a saucepan) and also made a great almond butter-banana smoothie. Half a banana, a tablespoon of almond butter, a little milk, a couple cubes of ice, and a 1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder for the color, the slight chocolate taste, and those antioxidants.

Clearly this breakfast was awful, and I will never make it again.

Next up was dinner. One of my mom and I’s favorite things to do is make our own pizza with a premade whole wheat pizza crust. (We buy ours at Whole Foods, I’m sure they’re available most places.) It’s super simple: cover the pizza dough with whatever you want and pop it in a hot oven (425*, preferably on a pizza stone because they keep the crust crispy) for about 10-12 minutes. 

This pizza was loaded. It had tomato paste as its base, as well as chopped cherry tomatoes, sliced zucchini and summer squash, mushrooms, olives, black beans, and chicken-apple sausage. I think that’s it? I could have forgetten an ingredient (or four). Look how good that looks! And it’s super-healthy with all the veggies and the whole wheat crust, so you don’t have to feel bad about eating four slices.

Last is another breakfast of mine, which I admit is a little weird. But it’s delicious and if you think about it, it’s honestly not that weird! I made a great, standard smoothie: banana, four frozen strawberries, a little milk, and ground flaxseeds (I just bought ground flax and am adding it to smoothies, yogurt, baked goods, cereal, etc. as a fabulous source of omega-3 fatty acids, which have anti-inflammatory properties and help our heart.) Then…I just pour the smoothie over Kashi Heart to Heart and eat it with a spoon in a cute red bowl. What’s weird about that?

And lest you think I do nothing but eat (which is not exactly true ) here’s a great workout for ya: Self’s “Get a wow booty now!” workout. (Please ignore the corny name, I certainly didn’t come up with it.) I did this workout last night and while I was doing it I felt pretty good, going along through the moves pretty confident in the strength in my booty. But today? Ouch! This workout is a good one because I am definitely sore. And best of all, you don’t need any equipment. None, zilch, nada. Great for a quick at-home workout!

I’ve also been keeping up with the running, I headed out there yesterday morning and earlier this evening. All is going well, I’m keeping it relatively short and sweet until I get my new shoes and my official training starts. I’m pretty excited: my Team in Training kick-off party is on Tuesday, and my first workout is next Saturday. So please check out my fundraising page with the link to the right of the page! Or I’ll make it easy for you and you can just click here.