Eat Drink Run Woman

Forget flowers, diamonds and boxes of chocolates; when it comes to celebrating the Hallmark holiday that is Valentine’s Day my darling and I do what we like best: we go running.

First up was the Valentines Marathon on February 8.  We had no intention of running it, but when we saw several of our Maniac friends were signed up, we figured we might as well too.  (I never imagined I’d be at a point where I could sign up for a marathon at the last minute).  While I intended to run it extremely slow, my darling offered to pace one of our Maniac friends to a 3:30 PR.

This race, along with other “holiday” themed races put on by the same race director (Halloween, Christmas, Leprechaun, Easter) has quite the reputation among the Maniacs.  It’s basically a love-hate relationship; while many appreciate having such races available, the organization leaves much to be desired.  Although most are touted as being Boston certified, apparently the director has been known to change the course at whim.  There are no road closures, so runners must be on the lookout for cars whizzing past at 50+ MPH.  The t-shirts are old-school cotton and the timing at the end is suspect (there may or may not be a teenager there to mark your time; typically you have to hunt down the director to record what your Garmin states).  While this wouldn’t be a problem if the race was inexpensive, for $65 I expect more.  Still, we decided we’d have to run one and form our own opinion.

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Although I’ve been somewhat of a slacker blogger of late, when I saw the theme of this week’s Take It and Run I knew there was no way I could skip it. ‘Cuz after all, I’m all about the food. (Besides, I’m sure they would have taken away both my runner’s AND chef’s cards).

When my darling and I first got back into running, we’d use our long runs as an excuse to indulge afterwards. An 8-mile run meant Flamin’ Hot Cheetos would be waiting in the car; 12+ miles would warrant a burger & beer lunch. But as we got more serious about our training, particularly when we set our sights on Boston, our food choices became much more healthy and sensible. We’ll still treat ourselves on occasion (nothing beats fries and a beer after a marathon), but moderation is our mantra.

Doing a long run after working all day leaves precious little time for fancy dinners, so we keep ours simple. One night it might be Suprêmes de Volaille à l’Écossaise or Pièce de Boeuf à la Cuillère or perhaps Ris de Veau à la Crème et aux Champignons. If I’m feeling particularly lazy, I might whip up a batch of Gnocchi de Semoule avec Pâte à Choux Patalina.

Um, yeah.

One need only hop over to my Ovens to Betsy blog to see I haven’t been doing a lot of cooking (at least fare that’s blog-worthy). But that doesn’t mean we’ve been resorting to pizza and other take-out. If we are to eat pizza, it’s made-from-scratch (although sometimes we’ll use dough from Trader Joe’s). And if it’s burgers we’re craving, I’ll make my own with either ground turkey or organic ground beef and cook ’em up on the grill.

So here I’ll share with you some of our favorites — breakfasts to fuel our races and long runs, the night before carbo-loading dinners, meals that are lower in fat and calories, and yes, even a few indulgences. Many of the recipes are posted on Ovens to Betsy, so hopefully you won’t mind clicking over.

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I’m set to run almost 13 miles in tomorrow’s Mt. Si Relay (first leg is just under 6 miles, second leg is just over 7), so I wanted to make sure I consumed enough carbs today to keep me energized throughout the race. Pancakes seemed a perfect choice for breakfast; they’re fast and easy to prepare and would pair wonderfully with the fresh strawberries we just picked up at Costco.

I’ve made multigrain pancakes in the past, but this morning I wanted to make things even simpler. There’s nothing easier than my darling’s buttermilk pancakes, but this time I substituted white whole wheat flour and oat bran for the all purpose flour. They truly hit the spot.

Whole Grain Buttermilk Pancakes
(makes 6 4-inch pancakes)

3/4 cup white whole wheat flour (can also use regular whole wheat)
1/4 cup oat bran
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon EACH baking soda and baking powder
Butter or oil for pan

Gently whisk the flour, bran, buttermilk, egg, baking powder and baking soda until relatively smooth (I start with the whisk, then switch to a spatula). Let batter sit for 10 minutes.

Heat a skillet over medium high until hot. Brush with butter or oil and drop in 1/4 cupfuls of batter. Bubbles will start to form on the top of the pancake; cook until they break and do not fill in. Flip over and cook on the second side for about a minute, or until golden brown. Serve with toppings of choice (I tossed the sliced strawberries with some maple syrup and topped with a dollop of plain yogurt).