It’s been a busy busy week again here.  I’ve been cooking up a storm and working on our most recent homework assignment for school.

How are your poached eggs going?  Anyone give a try to a new technique?

When I last wrote to recap school fun, I’d left off at Vegetable Proteins and Fish.  Since then we’ve been focused mostly on Health Supportive Desserts, Intro to Natural Desserts and Savory Baking.  All I can say is, “Mmmmmm!”

On Health Supportive Desserts day, I was assigned a pumpkin tart recipe.  The crust is made with finely ground almonds, sorghum flour, maple syrup, maple sugar and coconut oil.  It tastes just like a graham cracker crust!  I was so crazy about this crust that I’ve made it twice at home since, making it with different flours.  The pumpkin for the filling was freshly roasted and blended with cashews.  Here are my Twin Tarts:

A few of us got to work separately on the same recipe – I love when we do this because it’s so fun to see how each of us does something a little different.  Here are the other pumpkin tarts:

The other half of the class created Raw Fruit Cobblers with Raspberry Coulis and again it was fun to see everyone’s individuality with the same recipe:

In our homework assignment, one of the 5 recipes we were to create included a dessert using alternative ingredients.  I decided to try using the agar agar with some coconut milk to create a custard of sorts, as well as an almond wafer inspired by our tart shell from school.

Want the recipe?  OK, twist my arm. 

Coconut Carob ‘Tapioca’ Custard with Almond Crisp Wafers

Coconut Carob Custard by Shari Becht
Almond Crisp Cookies adapted from Tart Shell by Bauman College Staff
Serves 4

The healthy fats in the coconut milk react with the agar agar to create tiny ‘tapioca-like’ grains, providing interesting texture to this dessert.  The almond wafers for dipping provide crunch as well as a bit of lightly salted flavor contrast.

Ingredients

For the Almond Crisp Wafers
¼ cup very finely ground almonds
2 tablespoons garbanzo bean flour
½ tablespoon Sucanat
pinch of sea salt
½ tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon coconut oil (unrefined), softened

For the Custard
2/3 cup water
2½ teaspoons agar agar
1 cup coconut milk + ¼ cup water
2 teaspoons carob powder
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1½ tablespoon maple syrup

1. Preheat oven to 325.  In a medium mixing bowl, mix almonds, garbanzo bean flour, Sucanat and sea salt.  Add honey, vanilla extract and coconut oil to same mixing bowl.  Mix until all ingredients are thoroughly blended to a paste-like consistency.
2. Place almond wafer mixture onto a small baking sheet.  Cover with a piece of wax paper and roll out to ¼ inch thickness.  Press a round cookie cutter (about 2½“ diameter) into the mixture, forming 4 round wafers.  Bake until the edges turn golden brown (about 10-12 minutes) then immediately remove to a cooling rack.
3. In a small saucepan over high heat, bring 2/3 cup water to a boil.  Add agar agar and stir continuously until it has dissolved, about 1 minute.  Continue boiling for 5 minutes until agar agar begins to gel.
4. In a small bowl, combine coconut oil, ¼ cup water, carob, vanilla, sea salt, cinnamon and maple syrup.  After the agar agar begins to gel, add the coconut milk mixture to the saucepan.  Return to a boil, then remove from heat.  Divide evenly among 4 ramekins (about 1/3 cup each).  Refrigerate for 45 minutes, or until custard has set.
5. Just prior to serving, press a cookie perpendicularly into each custard – it will stay upright in the dish for presentation.

My suggestion is to eat this the same day.  The agar agar can get pretty tough on the next day.

Joan, this might be a place for you to use up your carob chips (melt them in with the coconut milk, in lieu of carob powder).

Well friends, it’s time to get my workout done then head off to school.  Today is the start of our Ethnic Cuisine module (Day One:  Mediterranean!)  We’ll be working on Ethnic Cuisine until Thanksgiving, and then when we get back from that long holiday weekend, we have MIDTERMS!  Time is flying by!

Have a fabulous day, blog buds!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Where did the weekend go?  It FLEW by!  I hope yours was wonderful!  I took Sunday off from blogging and enjoy some time with MSP and the pups. 

Exercise highlights from the weekend: 

• 4 mile hike session with MSP on Saturday. It was a blue sky morning and absolutely gorgeous.  The mountains always look so amazing in the morning light.  Later in the day a haze will often build up and obscure them somewhat.  Seeing them first thing in the morning never gets old to me.  It was a great hike.  We had a fun time chatting about anything and everything.
• 5k run with MSP on Sunday morning.  It was a chilly and breezy.  We followed the same route that will be used for uur town’s Turkey Day 5K, which has 360 feet of ascent over the first half and then descends that same amount over the second half.  We ran our legs off and still were only able to keep a 9 min mile pace.  It felt like we were working so much harder than that.  I did see sub-7:00 briefly on a downhill portion, so that was exciting. 
• As a follow up to last Friday’s very brief Tabata leg training session, let me just say:  Oh. My. Aching. Legs.   My legs were SO sore still yesterday!  Normally cardio will bring some extra blood flow to sore muscles so they can heal and feel better.  After yesterday’s run and stretching, I was even MORE sore.  YOWZA.  That Tabata training can be ouchie.  MSP did that leg workout this morning while I did upper, so I’ll be interested to see if he’ll be limping around tomorrow like I was this weekend. 

Some food highlights for the weekend:

First I have to tell you about an idea I had for changing up my baked kale over the weekend.  I used Annie’s organic Goddess Dressing (well the generic brand anyway) to coat the kale pieces this time in lieu of olive oil, and it made for another tasty treat.  It gave the kale chips a little extra zip.  I was able to control myself this time and eat it in TWO sittings instead of one.  This is one sitting:

I’m still using up some of my pumpkin puree, so my weekend oatmeal was looking a little orange.  On top is a sprinkle of unsweetened coconut and some raisins.

I reached for the cinnamon plus spice bottle to sprinkle on my oatmeal and ended up with the cajun herb bottle.  Thank goodness I took a look before I sprinkled, or I would have been in for a shock to the tastebuds with my first bite!  Cajun oats anyone??  (I suppose it COULD be interesting…)

I purchased carob powder Friday to make the chocomole recipe, and it has a recipe on the back for a hot carob drink.  It sounded good yesterday when I was feeling chilly post-run so I gave it a try.

And of course I made substitutions to it:

• 1 cup unsweetened organic soy milk (and now I have officially finished that jug of soy – they restocked the almond milk at the store, yay!!)
• 1 tbsp carob powder
• 1 tbsp agave nectar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

I even made it on the stovetop, since it said to be sure not to boil.

It wasn’t bad.  I’d say it’s a nice replacement for a packaged hot cocoa mix. 

(Sundays during football season require the obligatory Broncos mugs…!)

The weekend often calls for a visit to MSP’s favorite place:  Chipotle.  I ordered the veggie bowl with no rice.  So it came with fajita veggies, black beans, corn salsa, pico de gallo and guac.  I added some baked Tostito scoops at home. 

Late Sunday afternoon meant ‘treat time’ and I was in the mood for a savory treat rather than something sweet.  I ran down to Vitamin Cottage for my favorite raw, unpasteurized version of goat cheddar (that’s the one that doesn’t seem to cause me any digestive trouble) and some almond Nut-Thins.  MSP ran in the other direction to the liquor store to pick up my favorite organic wine, “Our Daily Red”.   Ahh, my elegant afternoon wine and cheese plate!

It was a wonderful weekend (as they should be, which is why I’m in love with Saturdays!!) 

***

Today’s FitFeature and discussion topic is about fitness gadgets.

I am a gadget gal.  (I somewhat blame MSP for this, because he is a gadget guy and it’s rubbed off onto me.)   Often, I am loaded up with gadgets when I head out for runs.  My hydration pack, my GPS, my iPod, my whistle, pepper spray, etc.  (Safety first, people!!)  If you passed me on the running path, you’d probably think I was all loaded up for a marathon run.  Nope, more likely around 4 miles.  Just like to have my gear!

My favorite fitness gadget by far has to be my Garmin Forerunner GPS 305, which I received for Christmas last year from MSP (he’s such a great gift-giver!)  He got me the newer model to replace my original Garmin 201.  My old one was getting really slow at catching a satellite signal, didn’t offer an option for heart rate and the readings started to become inconsistent. 

I fully credit the Garmin with keeping me interested in running.  I LOVE that I can look down at it and see what pace I’m doing at all times.   I love that it comes with a “virtual trainer” so you can set a specific pace and a little guy on the screen will tell you to run faster if you are getting behind.  I love that it has a “breadcrumb trail” feature to keep you from getting lost.  I love that the newer model has a heart-rate monitor option. 

Above all, I love that I can plug it into my PC, download each run and look at all the stats.  I like to compare pacing from previous runs on the same routes, or see how my heart rate compares on different routes.  There is something about being able to look at these that propels me to want to go out again, and then agai, and again another time.

I also love that there are so many features left for me to discover.  One of these days I’ll actually look at the manual and see what other cool things it does! 

Do you have a favorite gadget that helps keep you motivated in some way?  Please drop a comment and let us know!  Gift-giving time is coming up and maybe you will inspire a great gift idea!

Have a MARVELOUS MONDAY! 

– Shari B. =)

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