a dozen years old

Time certainly does fly.  I cannot believe my little pup, Crosby, is TWELVE years old already!  Well, he rung in his dozenth year quite well – pretty sure I’ve never had a birthday that could top this one ;).

Birthday Morning Pancakes (Funfetti Style with Sprinkles!) in the shape of his face… or hearts.  You can choose.

He went sailing – although I don’t think he would actually pick this activity on his special day… he still got some quality snuggle time with Kinley!

One particularly gluten free friendly restaurant allows dogs on the porch – but more on this later!

Yes, he got his own birthday cake… the main reason was actually Kin and I have had an incurable sweet tooth lately.  Well, I am happy to say it is cured (and there’s still some in the freezer for later!).

Finally?  On his actual birthday (the 29th), he had Meatloaf Cupcakes with Mashed Potato Frosting.  Yummm – and decorated with hemp seeds!

This little guy is definitely sad his birthday weekend is over.  But we’ve got a THREE day weekend coming up to spend some more quality time with the old man!

Aren’t we are such horrible pet owners?!

pre-race fuel

I do not have a long history with running, as I have said before.  It is relatively new in my life and I am still trying to figure out how to best fuel my body for short and (more importantly) long runs.  I obviously know pasta is a huge tradition for pre-race dinners.  Spaghetti nights being very common the night before a long run or race.  But since recently eliminating gluten from my diet, it has become harder to fill my meals up with carbs.  I used to eat a sandwich every day, something that I rarely have since the bread I now buy is more expensive than my previous gluten-filled sprouted wheat bread.

A simple carbo-loading night is now not quite as simple.  No plain spaghetti for us.  So when Kinley was gearing up to run in the Summerfest 1/2 marathon, we had to think of something that would help her get through her run.  What did we end up with?  Pancakes!

We had somewhat of a pancake party as my friend, Ashley, was spending the night.  She brought her own mix, but Kinley whipped up a delicious recipe we have been using that was inspired by the recipe Weekend Pancakes Made Easy in the cookbook, Vegan Yum Yum.

Gluten Free Oatmeal Pancakes (the picture above is actually a triple recipe, so don’t be concerned when you don’t make a pile of pancakes with the below measurements ;) )

makes 2-3 servings

• 1 c oat flour
• 1/3c millet flour
• 1t baking powder
• 1/4t salt
• 1t cinnamon
• 2T ground flax
• 1cup non-dairy milk (plus more milk or water if needed to thin out batter)
• 2T unsweetened applesauce
• 1t vanilla

1. Whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and flax.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, applesauce and vanilla.

3. Mix the wet ingredients to the dry and add more liquid if necessary.

4. Preheat a skillet over medium-high heat and cook until golden brown on the one side, flip and cook the other side to golden-brown as well.

*It also works to keep cooked pancakes in a 250* preheated oven if you wanted to make up the whole batch before serving!

I love my pancakes topped with banana, almond butter, coconut butter and of course pure maple syrup – but use any of your favorite toppings (or mix-ins!).

These definitely helped Kinley carbo-load for her race!

what i ate wednesday #1

I noticed a few other bloggers were participating in “What I Ate Wednesday”, or WIAW.  I thought it would be fun to post everything that I ate today, just so I can compare how my foods and tastes change and develop over time.  So basically, the following is what I ate today – which is somewhat typical to what I eat every day! I did start out my day earlier than I have been – 5:15am… I had to drive to my parents to drop my little puppy, Crosby, off at the vet to get his teeth cleaned.

Breakfast:

Overnight Oats in a Jar

1/3c old-fashioned oats

1 banana, mashed

1T cocoa powder

1T chia seeds

1c unsweetened vanilla almond milk (I think next time I will either switch this to 3/4c or add an extra 1T chia to help it get thicker)

+topped with 1T natural peanut butter in the morning

Simply mix all ingredients together and let them thicken up in the fridge overnight (or at least 2 hours), such an easy grab-and-go breakfast in the morning!  I also had some coffee + soymilk for the drive!

Mid-Morning Snack:

Since I got up earlier than I have been used to, I needed a mid-morning snack to tide me over until lunch.  I accidentally ate almost all of my pineapple before a picture… whoops ;).

Lunch:

Leftover dinner from last night (recipe here!) + dollop of hummus.

Carrots & Sugar Snap Peas

Afternoon Snack:

 
 

Since I was home, I met up with a friend for coffee in the early afternoon. I got a small soy latte. I also had plantain chips & an apple later on.

Dinner:

Coconut Cashew Pancakes w/ an Egg

We don’t have breakfast for dinner very often… but breakfast is by far my favorite meal :). Crosby’s mouth was also a little sore from the dental and pancakes are one of his favorite meals so he got his own little coconut-less pancake. We used Bob’s Red Mill Pancake mix with toasted coconut added to the backside of the pancake, and then topped them with peanut butter, cashews, coconut butter & more toasted coconut – YUM!