Before I get into the good stuff (aka the food) I want to talk about a few things I’ve done the past few days! Sunday, I went to the Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market, and got some fresh peaches and greens for my favorite summer salad. Afterwards, I went to Target to pick up a few things. Prior to the weekend, I had only rode one Metro line. Sunday, I rode them all. I’m pretty sure I officially live here now! One thing I want to do sometime is play Metro roulette. Get on a random line and then get off at a random stop to explore. We’ll see.

On the fitness front, Monday kicked off the official start to my training cycle for my 4th half marathon! How crazy is that? 4? I knocked out an early morning 3 miles. For some reason, my Garmin kept losing me, so I’m not sure if I’ve actually gotten slower or if it was losing its little mind…Either way, I have no problems waking up for these views.

Can you guess which picture I stopped to take, versus just shooting on the run?

Now, onto the food. I’m insanely, insanely proud of Sunday’s meal. It was probably my most beautiful creation. I made my Grilled Peach and Chicken salad, but baked the chicken instead of grilled it and sautéed the peaches on the stove.

Plus a hunk of farmer’s market fresh whole wheat bread. What more could possibly say “summer”?

I feel like I should just stop there with that picture. This also marks my first time cooking chicken. That’s right-I’ve never cooked chicken. I’ve done ground turkey and even fish, but never chicken! (At home my dad would usually grill). It was insanely easy and came out way better than I was expecting!

Also, feel free to ignore the fact that it’s in a loaf pan. Kitchen tools are a bit sparse around these parts…(But a loaf pan was clearly a priority.)

For breakfasts, I just haven’t been feeling the yogurt+berries+sunbutter, although I need to eat that tomorrow before my berries go bad. Instead, I’ve been feeling the lighter fruit salad with sun butter. Currently in the mix is a banana and blackberries. Monday this was prepared and eaten in 3 minutes flat. Not ideal, but better than nothing!

In terms of lunches, I packed lunch on Monday. Baked chicken, plus roasted broccoli and cauliflower, and mashed sweet potatoes with sage.

Lunch on Tuesday was bought from the cafe at work. I needed to buy something. I had the pleasure of only doing half my laundry on Monday, and being one quarter shy of actually being able to dry it (and how the heck do you hang dry socks??). I’m spoiled at school because our laundry is free, but I managed to not have any bills the quarter machine would accept. Hence why I needed to buy lunch-just to get quarters and smaller bills. I got a hummus veggie pita on a whole wheat pita.

These things are massive. The pita is stuffed with tons of veggies, hummus, feta, and provolone. I was glad to be eating this alone because it’s kind of a mess!

Plus an impulse buy of marble bread. This seriously is my weakness.

After Crossfit today, I went grocery shopping. Twice. Apparently coconut flour is much more rare here? I was at Trader Joes and couldn’t find it, and with the knowledge that dinner would therefore be a ways off, I grabbed a protein bar. I’m not a proponent of artificial sweeteners in general, but it is what it is. This is one of the few protein bars out there with no nuts, and I munched on it as I walked to grocery #2.

Even at Whole Foods, I barely found it. In CA, there would be like 5 different types…

Once I FINALLY made it back, I whipped up a quick dinner. Coconut flour quesadillas, from Blogilates. With plenty of avocado and a side of grapes.

It didn’t come out as well as I would have liked-I didn’t add enough water to the batter so it was sort of dry. Take 2 is tomorrow night though so I have a chance to fix it! This may be my go-to easy meal for a while because the recipe calls for 4 oz of meat, so I was left with 12 oz leftover, which I cooked up and froze. Now that I have coconut flour, the other ingredients are staples. So maybe I can get food on the table before 8:30!

That’s all I have today-I have an early workout (followed by lots of coffee) on the Lincoln Memorial steps!

What is your favorite summer food?

I began the morning with a 6 am spin class. I was originally planning on going to spin tomorrow and not today, but I am babysitting early tomorrow, so today it was. Sadly, I did not go to bed early enough. I was planning on doing my half training run after spin, but I had Crossfit in the evening and didn’t want to die. 

Breakfast was a yogurt bowl with vanilla Greek yogurt, pineapple, and a mix of gluten-free muesli and cereal. 

FYI- Whole Foods brand vanilla Greek yogurt is really good!

Then it was time for a NAP. My day consisted of running errands, but that’s not what we are here for, right? So FOOD. I had a mid-morning snack of part of a chocolate Thinkthin bar. Lunch was at the cafe at my dad’s work. I had a teriyaki chicken wrap. <

One highlight of my afternoon was going shopping for new running shoes! I went to Fleet Feet, and they were super helpful. They measured my feet and then watched me run to determine which shoes would work best. No surprise-I favored Nikes. I did want something different for my feet though, so I ended up with these:

…and a new pair of Nikes, which are waaaay better than my old ones (no picture because I had to order them to get a prettier color). So….here’s my justification for getting 2 brand new pairs of running shoes. My biggest limiting factor for being able to run a half marathon is my feet. I’ve had problems with them for a long time, especially from living in softball cleats for years. When I played softball, the balls of my feet were perpetually bruised because my cleat would start poking up into my foot through the sole of the shoe. Plus, I have this weird problem where I lose circulation in my toes when I run more than 4ish miles. And, if I have 2 pairs of running shoes that I alternate, they’ll both last twice as long. If I only got one pair, I’d have to buy new shoes eventually anyways, so this is just like buying my next pair of running shoes early. I have yet to try my new shoes though!

I decided on a snack before Crossfit. I got some Quaker kettlecorn flavored rice cakes at the grocery to try. they were pretty good, but not the real deal! I also microwaved some blueberries with  blueberry-crisp like topping, but they were very unphotogenic. I decided some protein was probably a good idea. I finally saw the Chobani flips at the grocery store today, so I wanted to try it! I got the Key Lime flavor. I was pleasantly surprised by the sugar content-I was expecting it to be much worse! 


I really liked this! I just wish the yogurt had a bit more lime flavor and tang. 

Crossfit was pretty good today. I can’t wait until I can start doing the real workouts. My did back squats today, but it is wayyyy lighter than what I ever do on my own! But working on my technique is probably good for me! Our WOD was 3 rounds for time of a 400m run, 21 lunges (each), and 12 pull ups (with a band). I finished in 15:05. Pull-ups are definitely a weak point for me!

For dinner, we made the best quiche…ever. It’s the Spinach Smoked Gouda Quiche from Cooking Light. I’ve made the version with the crust from scratch before (and it is awesome), but normally it is easier to just buy a crust. This time though, I wanted to try it as a crustless quiche. We greased the pan with olive oil, and then sprinkled panko crumbs, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to keep the quiche from sticking. 

It came out well and didn’t stick at all! I want to take a crack at a microwave version of this. On the side was brussels sprouts and herbed carrots. 

I’ve dabbled in Paleo eating in the past, but since I’ve started Crossfit, I’m considering giving it another try. I haven’t been feeling that great lately, and I think some clean eating would definitely help. And since I wanted something interesting to post for WIAW, this seemed like the perfect time to try a recipe I’ve been meaning to make for a long time. 

I modified my favorite banana bread recipe-it is the Nancy Clark recipe, by eliminating the sugar (I reduce it a ton when I bake the regular bread-the bananas add a lot of sweetness), subbing in coconut flour for the regular flour, and using Coconut Almond milk instead of regular milk.

Since coconut flour dries things up a ton, I added pineapple juice as the liquid. The texture of anything with coconut flour is a little different, but I’m all about the flavor! Other bonus- this only uses one bowl!

Ingredients:

3 large ripe bananas

1 egg

1/3 cup coconut almond milk (or any type of milk)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons canola oil

1.5 cups coconut flour

1.5 cups pineapple juice

(Before baking)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Mash bananas in a small bowl.

3. Add all other ingredients and mix.

4. Transfer into a loaf pan. I recommend lining the pan with nonstick foil, or greasing the pan.

5. Flatten out the top of the loaf.

6. Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden and brown around the edges. 

This recipe is not perfected-this was my first try, and I’m fairly new with coconut flour! Since there is no gluten, it is a bit crumbly. In the future, I also might add more pineapple juice, or maybe some crushed pineapple. And maybe more egg? The flavor is there though! Just don’t be expecting the texture of regular banana bread!

Well, that’s all for tonight! A few thoughts-I want to add some workouts to my blog. I mostly blog about food, but in reality I’m a bigger fan of working out. I want a go-to workout that I can do anywhere, without equipment, that really kicks my butt! I’ve been brainstorming. Hint: think Dirty Thirty. I’m recruiting some friends to test it out on this Friday, so be on the lookout for that!

Have you ever baked with coconut flour? Tips??