Holiday Streak and Hedonic Hunger

Day 32 of my Holiday Running Streak complete.  (My goal is to run at least one mile every day until New Years Day...)

I'm not covering the distance I'd like to... but today I was not warm enough and was feeling a little heavy...


It was my favorite annual event today... the "Cookie Exchange".  Bake a dozen cookies for each participant and trade a dozen with everyone to take home some new tasty treats.... to give away, of course!  But there are plenty there to taste too.

So, being mindful of how much I consumed and "Hedonic Hunger"...  I ate one or two too many and really needed to hit the street, freezing rain or not.  This might be exactly why many sign up to do this run streak!  There are plenty of seasonal treats right now that are pretty tempting...

I love this cookie exchange!  Last year, I made a cardamom black pepper cookie with juniper berry icing and the year before was a persimmon cookie with orange glaze.  My favorite cookie will always be "Santa's Whiskers".  

Well, this year, I was lazy and did a known favorite of my husband's.

Chocolate Chip Bacon cookies.

 Recipe makes 3 dozen cookies.

 6 slices maple-cured bacon, chopped

 1 1/2 cups white sugar

 1 cup softened butter

 2 eggs

 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 2 cups all-purpose flour

 2/3 cup cocoa powder

 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

 1/4 teaspoon salt

 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks

Directions:

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Place the bacon in a large, deep skillet, and cook over medium-high heat, turning occasionally, until evenly browned, about 10 minutes. Drain the bacon slices on a paper towel-lined plate. Crumble.

Beat the sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla extract with an electric mixer in a large bowl until fluffy and smooth. Stir in flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix in the chocolate chips and bacon. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Let stand 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Enjoy.  Maybe I'll look up my other cookie recipes for you in time before Christmas?

What are your favorite cookies?

Recipe: DIY fuel bars

I think Bugaboo could eat me out of house and home with her ferocity for Lara bars or Picky Bars and the cost to keep them in the house in ready supply.  So... why buy them (or any bar that hefts a heavy price) and why not make your own for a fraction of the cost?  Also, getting to control the ingredients and make fuel organic is a big bonus for me.  (Especially if I'm going to share them with my little running partners.)

 Bugaboo has named them "Running Cookies" because she only gets one when we are out on a run together.

Outrunning The Rain's "Running Cookies"

• 1 Cup dry (old fashioned) oats
• 2/3 Cup coconut flakes
• 1/4 Cup Pumpkin Seed Protein Powder (or wheat germ or other dry ingredient of your choice)
• 2 Tablespoons Chia seeds
• 1/4 Cup cocoa powder (instant coffee might be a good substitute.)
• 10 ounces Medjool dates (without pits)
• 1/4 Cup dried fruit (such as cranberries or cherries... whatever you enjoy)
• 1 Tablespoons coarse salt (or more. 2T will taste salty, but I use that much because I sweat a lot...  If you don't sweat much or don't want to taste salt, try just 1T.)
• 1/2 Cup Peanut butter (I prefer crunchy, but creamy is fine.)
• 1/3 Cup Honey
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla

If your food processor won't be temperamental with you, throw the pit-free dates in and coarsely chop them up.  My ancient machine prefers I do that first before adding them into the mix.  

Mix dry ingredients with the dates and pulse together in food processor.  Then add in wet ingredients (p.b., honey and vanilla.) and mix together.

The mixture should be like a thick cookie dough.  (If it's too dry, the bars will fall apart on your run and you'll have a baggie full of crumbs.  If it's too wet, you'll have a gooey mess and be sucking the "fuel" off your fingers.  Eww.

Press the mixture into an 8x8 glass baking dish and refrigerate overnight.  I like to score the pressed mixture so that it's easier to cut the cold dough and pry out the bars for the next morning's run.

After they have refrigerated, store in air tight container in refrigerator.  I don't know how long you'd want to keep them around, but I usually eat mine up in about 2 weeks, depending on the miles covered in each week.  I like to eat one pre run and then again every 3 miles or every 30-40 minutes... which ever happens first, I suppose.)

It's a forgiving recipe that can have substitutions and lots of combinations, but this is the ratios that have worked for me and been easily transportable on a half marathon.  I put the bars in a zip lock baggie and carry them in my flip belt.

Mixture pressed into an 8x8 pan before being placed in the fridge. 

I hope you enjoy them!
Do you make your own fuel/running food?  I'd love to hear your recipes!

Product Review and Giveaway: The Protein Bakery

I was recently contacted by The Protein Bakery to do a review of their products and a giveaway on my blog.  While I received free product for this review and free product to giveaway, my opinions (as always) are my own.  

The packaging was very pretty!

 The classic combination of peanut butter and chocolate will always be my favorite, so without hesitation, this was going to be the one I tried!  The Peanut Butter Brownie mini is a solid 1oz. of pure sweetness.
You can't do peanut butter and chocolate wrong... I was just hoping for a little more flavor.  The sweetness and the goodness isn't going to punch you in the face, and maybe my sweet tooth is a bit of the "sock it to me" type.

This is a subtle sweet that is a little bit more amaretto than chocolate.  I don't know why I thought that, but that was the first thing I jotted down in my notes.  Then reading the label I see that the chocolate used is chocolate liquor.  Maybe that's what I was tasting?!  I'm such a foodie.  Or maybe it was just the  pure vanilla extract?

The label also says "corn starch from non genetically modified corn."  Get out of town!  I'm in love with you.

The brownie is very soft and very dense.  I microwaved the goodie for about 15 seconds and it was just enough to make it warm without being too melty.  The texture is smooth and very delicious.  1 oz is gone way too fast.  But don't worry!  That's just the "mini"  there are lots of products to choose from!
Cookies, Brownies, Blondies, Minis and assorted gift sets.

The Protein Bakery says they've found the secret to happiness:  Balance.

“We chose the name Protein Bakery, for a good (and healthy) reason. Muscle-building protein is a huge component in all our delicious cookies, brownies and blondies. Every delectable, guilt-free bite is high in dietary fiber, low in gluten, and delivers up to 5 times more protein than the average baked treat”.  They also say: “Our trans-fat free, preservative free, and wheat flour-free recipes are also nutritionally balanced. We combine natural ingredients like heart-healthy rolled oats, light brown sugar, and the finest chocolate”.

These little treats are trans-fat free, made without wheat flour and very low in gluten, higher in dietary fiber to satisfy hunger, and higher in muscle building protein.  However, my gluten free friends or vegans would not enjoy these treats so much.  "Contains eggs, milk and soy.  May contain wheat..."

My sweet 1 0z treat was 100 calories, 70 from fat.  Sugar 2g and protein 4g.

That being said, this is a prefect bit of "junk food" to not feel terribly guilty about after a long run.

I am excited to give them a try post workout and interested to hear what you think about them too!

The Protein Bakery also has a giveaway going on too.
They'd like for the winner of my giveaway and for any others who have purchased their products to enter their giveaway:  "Show us your muscle!"

Submit a photo of you holding the product and making a muscle!  Email it to info@proteinbakery.com for your chance to win a free Bakers Pick gift set plus a t-shirt.   They also will highlight the blog that you learned about them through.  ;-)

 

Click HERE to enter my giveaway for your chance to win:  one "Wicked mint Brownie" (3 oz.); one Black & White Blondie Mini (1 oz); and one package of Peanut Butter White Chocolate Chip Cookies (2 oz.).

Evidence that Bugaboo enjoyed her bite.