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Lemon Pudding Cakes

I think my give-a-darn must have been broken last night when I was trying to make dinner. My parents brought the kids back to our house and I made the easiest meal ever, spaghetti, for  dinner and Matt whipped up this dessert, Lemon Pudding Cakes (from Great Food Fast, in case you’re in the dark). Spaghetti, being ridiculously easy to make, turned out great. And these turned out great as well, thanks to Matt being at the helm and not myself. I was unfortunately in charge of photographing them and that err … didn’t go so well.

But rest assured, despite the crappy photo over there, these are amazingly tasty and worth your time to make. They are also light and fresh and not a bit heavy. I believe they come in around 150 calories apiece too, so no guilt!

Lemon Pudding Cakes

ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/3 C all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 t baking powder
  • 1/4 t fine salt
  • 3 large eggs, separated
  • 3/4 C granulated sugar
  • 1 t finely grated lemon zest
  • 1/3 C lemon juice (from 2 lemons)
  • 1 1/4 C whole milk
  • Confectioners’ sugar, for serving

Heat the oven to 350. Put kettle on to heat. Butter eight 6-ounce ramekins or custard cups. Set in a shallow baking pan.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks with 1/2 cup granulated sugar until pale and smooth. Whisk in butter, lemon zest and juice, milk, and flour mixture.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat egg whites with 1/4 cup granulated sugar until stiff peaks form, 5 minutes; fold into batter. With a ladle, divide batter among ramekins, keeping sides clean if you can! Pour enough hot water (from the kettle) into baking pan to come halfway up sides of ramekins. Bake until cakes are puffed and slightly golden on top, 20-25 minutes. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve immediately.

 

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13.1 Miles of Crazy

Today we tackled our 7th half marathon, the 10th Platte Half Marathon. I’ve been training, probably no too religiously, but training nonetheless since January. I’ve done at least 4 runs over 10 miles and two of them were even pretty great and yet, I struggled today.

The race started out well enough. It’s a nice course, pretty similar to one of my favorite training runs, along Clear Creek trail. The weather was mild enough at the start and I was feeling pretty good at the start. However, by mile 4 or 5, it was pretty clear I was not having a good day. Matt said he could hear my breath getting heavy and wheezing. He said the way I was going he thought I’d be lucky to make it to mile 6.

But I soldiered on, not feeling terrible, but not feeling really ON. I was running under 10 minute miles and I was happy with that, but by mile 8, I really couldn’t keep it up. I had to walk for 30 seconds here and there (something I try to NEVER do) just to catch my breath and I felt pretty darn terrible. It was frustrating, because my muscles and joints were perfectly fine, but my lungs just didn’t want to do their thing.

Sometime around that point, the weather turned pretty cruddy. It had clouded over and gotten a little colder and breezy, but then the wind got serious and it started raining a little. The wind was the worst though. At one point, the gust was so bad that I felt like I was running about double just to keep going forward. It was really not what I needed at that point. There is a massive hill at the end (about the last .9 miles) that is pretty soul-crushing if you’re not doing well. But happily, I managed to make it up with only a short break when I couldn’t get through a pack of people. The finish line was a welcome welcome site and my time was not terrible despite how I felt. The Platte has a great post-race-party with some good food and a fun atmosphere, but we had to skip it. The line was looooooong and the weather was freezy. I was sorry to miss it, but the warm car was very nice.

Now I have to figure out what’s going on with the lungs. My good friend, H, a nurse, has suspected for a while that I may have some issues with asthma. It’s not exactly that I didn’t believe her, but my problems have been so hit or miss that I didn’t really want to delve into things. But it seems like this is getting more frequent and worse and I need to face the possibility that I am having issues. I’m really not a fan of doctors, but I’m also not a fan of feeling like crap on long runs.

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Pasta with Salmon, Peas and Mint

I frequently get a surprised reaction when I reveal that my kids like fish, but they do, like a LOT. We are met with squeals of delight when we mention fish is on the menu. I like this kind of weird! So I knew it was a pretty done deal when I selected this recipe from Great Food Fast to try out. Salmon is instantly popular and add pasta to it? Slam dunk. That’s the right basketball metaphor isn’t it? I’m more sure of football: TOUCH DOWN!

As an added bonus, we got to use the fresh mint from our garden and I am always a fan of that. Matt is constantly threatening to eradicate my precious mint before it takes over the neighborhood, but I say he’s a spoil sport. But I figure I better use it while I can and it grows so fast I can harvest virtually all the mint I want and still have tons left over.

Pasta with Salmon, Peas and Mint
adapted from Great Food Fast

Ingredients

  • 1 pound short pasta (rotini, farfalle, cavatappi, elbow macaroni?)
  • 1.5 lbs salmon (skin removed)
  • juice and zest of 2 lemons
  • 10 oz frozen peas, defrosted
  • 2 T unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint plus more for serving

Cook pasta according to al dente. Reserve 1 C pasta water and return to pot. Meanwhile, season salmon with S&P and place in a large skillet. Add a 1/4 cup of water and the lemon juice and zest. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and steam for 10 minutes. Add peas and steam until they are tender, 2-3 more minutes.

Combine salmon, peas and cooking water with the pasta. Add butter, mint and season with S&P to taste. Stir gently breaking the salmon into large flakes. Add reserved pasta water for desired consistency. Serve topped with a little extra mint if you like.

 

This was a great recipe and just as tasty leftover as it was the evening we first made it. The kids devoured it and asked for seconds. I would like next time to add just a little cheese, perhaps Parmesan or Romano or maybe feta? just to see how it would be.

Pasta with Salmon, Peas and Mint

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Baby Jogger*

Last night, I took Tabby running with me (*jogging is a term runners normally eschew, however I used it in this case for the fun play-on-words). She is keen to run a race with me soon and I wanted to test her mettle a bit before I signed her up. Title 9K (actually 9.9 K or ~6 miles) is my next shorter race and she is allowed to be a part of it. However, even though she’s eager, I don’t want her to get out there, not be quite up to it and end up hating it.

I’ve talked before about cultivating a love of various activities in our kids. I would love it if my kids loved running, but more than anything, I don’t want them to hate running because I was too eager about it and pushed them too hard into it (or any of my other favorite activities).

Anyhow, so we went for a run. My goal was to get her through a mile, so we set off around our neighborhood which is mostly flat with some small hills. I had to keep holding her back from going too hard because whenever she did, she would tire out and then need a walk break. She took a fair few little walk breaks, but managed to finish the mile right around 14 minutes, which for her little legs seems pretty darn good to me. I think she could have kept going too.

I asked her if she thought she could do that five more times (how much she’d have to run for the T9K) and she said she thought she could on another day. I’m not signing us up quite yet, but I’m not ruling it out either!

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Asparagus Tart and Cookbook Indecision

So after I decided that the original cookbook I’d selected for this month wouldn’t work, I decided to move on to Jaime’s Dinners, which I’d originally slated for next month. I started going through it and while I found some recipes that I want to try, the vast majority are heavier, BRITISH foods (err … duh) more suited for chilly winter months.

So I ended up giving up on it  and I’ve switched (AGAIN) to Great Food Fast, which is a compendium of recipes from my all-time-favorite food magazine, Everyday Food. I’ve already tackled two recipes from the book since making the decision and I am really glad I chose it. They are tasty, healthy, fast and easy. The book is divided up by seasons which I love because that’s how I cook and everything I selected from this week was from the Spring section.

Asparagus Gruyere Tart

Ingredients

  • 1 sheet puff pastry
  • flour for rolling surface
  • 1 lb of fresh asparagus
  • 5.5 oz grueyere cheese, grated
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper

Heat oven to 400. Roll puff pastry into 10×16″ rectangle. Fold in 1/2 inch on each side and pierce surface with a fork. Transfer to baking sheet and bake 15 minutes or until lightly brown. Top crust with grueyere. Trim asparagus to width of crust and place on top in neat rows, alternating which side the tops point to. Brush lightly with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake 10-15 minutes more until asparagus is tender. Cut into segments and serve immediately to general applause.

Since we are all asparagus fans, this was an immediate hit in our house. We have another sheet of puff pastry (two to a box) and some more asparagus and Tabby has already requested we make it again. Similar to the chalupas, this is a good jumping-off point for lots of other flavor combinations on top of puff pastry. I can see there being lots of possibilities here!

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Spray Painted Folding Chairs

One of the best things about Pinterest are the really great, yet really SIMPLE ideas that you see there. This is one such idea: to paint your ugly folding chairs in pretty colors with spray paint … DUH! I saw this pin sometime last fall and sometime thereafter, executed it on a couple of the army of ugly beige folding chairs we’ve had since college. I am not going to post directions because umm… you spray paint folding chairs. Obviously, you should do it outside or in a well ventilated area and you should put something down on your surface to protect it. Oh, also, we got a cool gadget that you put on top of the can of spray paint and it makes it a lot easier to spray because you squeeze it with your hand instead of pushing the little thing on the top.

This would be a great project to use up some spray paint that you used just a bit of for another project. It takes quite a bit of paint, but not quite a whole can.

The chairs, even after some months of use, still look great. Both kids have their own chair and now they are not ruining our upholstered chairs! I still want to do a couple other colors and probably will soon now that the weather’s warmer.

Nannersp
Check out the other great Pinteractive posts on Nannette’s site!
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Potty Soccer Surprise Bunny Weekend

Man it was a great weekend. We were crazy busy (duh) and it was jam-packed, but such fun! I’m also pleased to say the house doesn’t even look too terrible.

Friday I kicked off my leisure days with a 12 mile run in the AM with my good friend J. We got two hours of quality time pounding the pavement around our ‘burb. It was good sweaty fun and I was glad to get ‘er done. Then I started the MOST FUN of the weekend, working on potty training with Ben. If nothing else solidifies my (our) resolution to be done with having kids, potty training will do it. He apparently has the stubbornness of both his parents and about 10 generations worth of other ancestors combined into one little man. And that’s about all I’m going to say on the matter, oh and just a piece of advice … tackling potty training AFTER a 12 mile run is probably a bad idea. Aside from potty training, we did the normal Friday things like a run to the grocery store, naps, dinner, etc. We dyed Easter Eggs after dinner for some extra fun.

Saturday I officially started my career as a Soccer Mom. Tabby joined the ranks of soccer players with her first practice/game with her team. Our friend is coaching a team, and his son, one of Tabby’s good buddies is on the team and they are SO EXCITED to be playing together. Tabby is a good little runner (yay) and does pretty well kicking the ball, but she seemed to get a little intimidated when it got too wild chasing the ball. She did seem to get more into it as the game progressed.

Ben was a bit peeved that he couldn’t play too, but he got over it fairly quickly. He rotated activities, one minute greeting his public with enthusiastic “hello!”s, playing pick-up games with the other siblings hanging around, mooching snacks off anyone and everyone and taking up residence in whatever chairs were on the sidelines. I think he may be mayor of something someday. Kid cracks me up.

Post soccer, we headed home and had lunch then Matt dropped the kids at my parents’ house. They were staying over so we could attend a surprise party for a friend. The party was a decided success. The birthday girl was very touched and happy about her surprise and it was a great opportunity to catch up with many good friends. We had a great time and got to bed really late and super exhausted.

I hated missing the kids excitement over the Easter Bunny this morning, but I got a great call from Ben telling me, “The Easter Bunny came today! He brought cars! and candy! and jelly beans!” Love that jelly beans get their own specific call out. We met up with my parents and the kids and then headed to my grandma’s for Easter with the extended family. It was great seeing everyone and catching up. The kids had a great time hunting eggs and consuming sugar. SUGAR! There were no naps and we put the kids to bed a little early after a light dinner. So much to do before tomorrow.

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Food Fear Factor

The hilarious Becky at Suburban Matron posted a though-provoking response to a Jezebel article about parents in Park Slope (Brooklyn) wanting to ban the ice cream truck from their local park so they don’t have to have battles with their kids over ice cream. Her take is two fold: a) a little ice cream doesn’t hurt and b) saying yes generally makes the nos more palatable. I enjoyed the original very much and Becky’s take on it, but the first bit is what I want to talk about. A little ice cream doesn’t hurt.

See, I was watching Biggest Loser the other night. This is my favorite treadmill show because these people who weigh at least 20 lbs more than I do (at the end of the season) become totally strong and could probably kick my ass so it’s totally motivating. Like if that guy can do it, I can run another few tenths of a mile/hr faster, right?? Right. Anyhow, they had a cooking challenge judged by last season’s contestants. They all look great and have obviously kept up their weight loss, but when one of the contestants used a TABLESPOON of mayonnaise (not the low fat stuff, the FULL FAT stuff), they just about lost it. “I would have preferred you to use the light mayo” one of them said. People, we’re talking about 90 calories worth of mayo, spread over a whole recipe. Seriously???

I am all for vegetables and portion control and water drinking and running and KALE! I love me some kale! But when did we get so insane that we can’t occasionally allow our kids an ice cream at the park or a tablespoon of mayo in their chicken salad? I make vegetables to go with dinner almost every night, upwards of two cups for each person of steamed broccoli, green beans, peas, carrots, cauliflower (generally the kids don’t eat all of it and I take the leftovers for lunch) and I season them with everything under the sun … but I always start with a little butter. A tablespoon or around 90 calories worth of the stuff. It tastes great and adds around 23 calories to each person’s serving of veggies and a little fat (which we need, people!).

I don’t want to raise kids who are fearful of food. I want to raise kids who understand that mostly, we drink water, but the occasional cup of juice is OK too. I want to raise kids who eat because they’re hungry or occasionally because it looks tasty, not just because it’s there. I also want to raise kids who understand the difference between good homemade food and junky processed crap – though I don’t think the Oreo should be expressly forbidden either. I want them to recognize an ice cream for what it is – a treat – and to not expect it every day or every trip to the park. I want them to be able to live without worrying about every single solitary thing they put in their mouths, but enough sense to know that mostly, the fuel should be good wholesome stuff.

I am of course still working on this myself. But I will continue to drop a dollop of butter on the broccoli and I doubt anything anyone says could stop me.

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Broccamole!

Man, this week is kicking my butt. Long days at the office. Plenty of training to do (next race is in 12 days), kids have been … a bit on the frustrating side, house is a total mess. I don’t like feeling like this … under water, stressed. I like all my ducks in a row, all my plates spinning and it isn’t that way this week.

Well anyhow, enough of my whining. I’ve been wanting to share this recipe with you. A while back, I pinned and later tried a recipe for Crack Broccoli. It’s basically roasted broccoli with a little dressing and it is YUMMY. We’ve made it almost once a week since we first discovered it and it was Ben who came up with the name which we now use to refer to it: Broccamole! “Guacamole!” (presumably from “Holy Guacamole” is one of his favorite interjections and he charmingly bungled it into Broccamole! one night when we had this, and so now it is.

Broccamole

Ingredients

  • 1 large head broccoli
  • 3 Textra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 t kosher salt (or half as much table salt)
  • 1/2 t sugar

Line a cookie sheet with foil and place it in the oven. Heat the oven to 500 degrees. Cut broccoli into smallish florets and lightly peel the stems. Drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with salt and sugar and toss to combine. When the cookie sheet and oven are heated, remove the sheet from the oven. Work quickly and place all pieces of broccoli in a single layer on the sheet. Place as much of the surface area on the sheet as possible – this is where it will brown and be real tasty!

Put the sheet back in the oven and roast 9-10 minutes until broccoli is tender and lightly browned. Serve immediately with a drizzle of lemon juice if you’ve got a bit on hand.

Even if you don’t like broccoli you should really try this. Everyone in our house loves it!!

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Knock Out Weekend

We had a nice weekend. It was short like all the rest. I have no idea what we did Friday. I know I passed out in the middle of the day for a couple of hours. There was a trip to Target in there somewhere. Friday night we had the family over. Downton Abbey was watched. Tasty things were eaten.

Saturday was the day we ran. And ran. We started out with an 11 mi run with some friends. It was a SLOG. Seriously, one of my hardest long runs in recent memory. All day I felt a little off and overheated and thirsty. Drank tons and tons of water. But there’s no rest for the wicked. We took the kids to IKEA to get some storage furniture for Tabby’s room. My sister ordered a bridesmaid dress. Matt ordered a router (the woodworking tool, not the computer hardware). We looked at land (nothing good). We had Middle Eastern food.

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