My Macho, Nacho Father

Growing up I was messy child- chocolate goo smeared on the fridge, flour sprinkled in the kitchen drawers- I left every drawer open- and egg whites shinned the hardwood floor.-Just a quick description of the kitchen without going into detail of what it looked like after I had been in there. However I was fortunate enough to have a patient, tolerable father who followed me around with a sponge complaint-less. And would swallow down any half baked, malformed treat I cooked up. 

As I got older (and cleanlier) most of my kitchen memories consisted of slapping my father’s hand to save my food from the “human vacuum cleaner”.  However, still to this day there is one thing my father can build in the kitchen that has been dubbed the status of “World Famous.” A creation so simple, but so complete that after long days of skiing I’d beg for. After mountains of homework never failed to put a smile on my face. My father’s “World Famous Nachos”:

Chips

Re-fried Beans

Corn

Olives

Cheese

And maybe some Chicken

The ingredients are simple staples, which makes building the nachos ever easier. Place chips on a plate, spoon some re-fried beans over, throw on some corn and olives. Look in the fridge for some chicken to cut up and put on. Sprinkle cheese and nuke in the microwave. Bam! Ready to eat!

With my Dad in mind, I made a giant plate of nachos last night! Accompanied by a tall glass of milk too!

Happy Fathers Day! I love you Dad! 

How much does FRESH matter?

I found this bumper sticker last week in the parking lot of the Marshal Mesa trail head. While I instantly loved it, it made me wonder how much does FRESH really matter?

Welcome to the Boulder Farmers Market, where the hype for FRESH, ORGANIC, LOCALLY GROWN food is the equivalent to a child on Christmas, every Wednesday and Saturday.

The obvious selling point for local Farms might be less chemical usage than commercially sold vegetables and fruits to big name supermarkets. However what I want to know is how much greater is the nutritional value at the Farmers Market? How much does FRESH matter?
All veggies lose some of their nutritional value from the time they're picked, shipped, unloaded and sold in the grocery stores. Considering the average fruit or vegetable travels 1500- 2500 mile from the farm to your plate, this shouldn't be surprising. At the Farmer's Market, everything is locally grown and picked-so there is no lag time.

In my search, the common motif of the suffering green beans and spinach kept popping up.
According to a study published in GlycoScience and Nutrition:

• Green beans refrigerated after harvest lost more than 90% ascorbic acid following 16 days of refrigeration

• Broccoli lost about 50% of both ascorbic acid and beta-carotene following 5 days of storage.

• Following cold storage for 8 days in the light, spinach lost 22% lutein; in 8 days of dark cold, spinach lost 18% beta-carotene. Carrot carotenoids were stable under both conditions.
• Storage partially depletes milk of vitamin C.

While the elite runner in me would like all of my fruits and vegetable to come from the Farmer's Market, the college student's wallet argues that it's not going to happen. I settled with a bag of spinach and a tomato plant!

Stuffing the Stomach with Stuffed Peppers

My dinner menu can often be dictated by the sale ads of the local grocery store’s newspaper. 77 cent red bell peppers this week made my college wallet happy! Yep, I might have had an over flowing basket of peppers. I love bell peppers! Raw, bell peppers are crunchy, flavorful, and full of vitamin c, however tonight I cooked them! Adding heat to the peppers makes them soft and sweeter. However it's important to realize the heat also diminishes their vitamin c content; but the good new is the heat also allows for a crucial release of some antioxidants we can't obtain from a purely raw diet. So lets crank up the heat and get to work.

Here we go:

I started with cooking some brown jasmine rice (rice always takes so long for my impatient tolerance, so I made sure to start it first).

1 cup brown jasmine rice
2 cups water

Then I took a pound of ground beef, throw it into my cast-iron skillet (no literal meaning of throw) and dowsed the beef with three table spoons of lime juice. I used a spatula to make sure all the meat had a change to get a sip of the sour liquid. Following this I added a half cup diced red onion, a tablespoon Onion powder, 2 teaspoons chili powder, and two teaspoons salt. I let the meat sit in the skillet for about five minutes before turning on the stove burner.

3 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 cup diced red onion
tablespoon onion powder
2 teaspoon chili powder
2 teaspoon salt

The great part of stuffed bell pepper is there is no right or wrong way. I merely used the things on hand. I would have loved to put in some taco seasoning! But unfortunately I didn't have any. With a can of black beans and a jar of salsa in my cupboard, I decided to take a southwestern approach.

I turned on the stove to start cooking the meat (medium heat).  Then proceeded to add a cup of black beans (drained and rinsed) half a cup salsa and a generous cup of the now cooked rice.
1 cup rice
1 cup black beans
1/2 cup salsa

Once the peppers were hollowed, it was stuffin' time! Alternating cheese, meat, cheese, meat, I filled the peppers and slid them into the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Dig in with a fork- and don't be afraid to eat the pepper like an ice-cream cone! 

The Runner's Burger

Burger and fries- that’s what I craved after the NCAA National Track Meet. For an unfortunate, but somewhat valid reason, the plate of burger and fries has been pushed away by the runner many times. The greasy, fat filled burgers and oily salty french-fries aren’t always appealing to the runner’s temple, uh a runner’s stomach. Still everything in moderation is ok once in a while- I still ordered a juicy gorgonzola burger with french-fries after my race; I felt I deserved it.  

Tonight I attempted a “runner’s burger”, a bit more lean and green. While most burgers use 80/20 ground beef for their patties I used 93/7 (97% lean meat to 7% fat). The downfall to this decision is that the less fat in the meat, more likely you are to get a dry-crumbly burger. To compensate for the lack of fat, I threw in an egg. 

Patty time:

1lb. ground beef 93/7

1 egg

¼ cup feta cheese

2-table spoons fresh cilantro

3-table spoons diced red onion

¼ cup corn meal

Mix completely and form into patties.

Since we’re doing this running style, I decided to give the potatoes a night off. Nothing against potatoes- without a load of condiments or hot oil, they’re a great carbohydrate. I sliced up some fresh veggies for a side of “fries”

Red Bell Peppers

Squash

Zucchini

Another runners call- I swapped the average, white, fluffy, high glycemic hamburger buns with Oroweat's Mulit-grain Sandwich Thins (upper right hand corner of the picture above). With a lower glycemic index, less calories and some more whole-grains, they definitely are the way to go.

 I drizzled a tad of olive oil over them, then sprinkled some salt and ground pepper before putting them on the grill.

Time to fire up the grill and slide the patties on. I gave them about 10 minutes with the lid up before flipping them. Once they were laying on their backs I dispersed the zucchini, squash and bell pepper strips around them. Another 7-10 minutes and I pulled the burgers off! The veggies were soon to follow.

Assembling of The Runner's Burger! Mashed avocado, spinach, and thinly sliced tomatos, yum, that’s what I added to tower my burger to perfection.

ENJOY!

THINK BEFORE YOU EAT

Last week I found this bike parked in front of the Walnut Cafe. "Think Before you Eat," what a great bumper-bike-sticker. How often have I been so ravenously hungry that I just tear through the whole kitchen snacking on a bit of this and a bit of that until my stomach is sufficed? Probably more than I should. To fight back on the urge of extreme-acute hunger (normally found right after stepping into the kitchen after a long run) here's what I do.

1. Have a plan- "I'm going to have an omelet and toast"    

2. Drink a big glass of cold milk- Milk has just enough calories to hold me over until the toast has popped and the omelet's stuffed. Plus liquids are good at making the stomach feel momentarily full. 

Think before you eat! Bon appetite! 

On the Road: On Eating Out-

Des Moines, Iowa- the NCAA Track and Field National meet is upon us! It feels like we were just up in Eugene, Oregon! But it is time to hit the road and lace up the spikes again!
With all this travel a friend asked the question,

“So, like do you guys always have to eat out?”

She knew- eating out is not always an endurance runner’s preference. Heavily dressed salads and oil-shinned food are often the things found at restaurants.

“We generally stay away from chain restaurants,” I told her, “ Chain restaurants always seem to be a little more greasy than locally owned ones. Plus it lets us experience the town we’re staying in too- which is really fun!”

Last night we went to the Raccoon River Brewing Company, right by the Raccoon River- notorious for flooding the city of Des Moines. There, Joe made the claim that he could look over the two page menu and in three chances, guess what Emma was going to order. He got in two.

So maybe we become a little predictable when it comes to ordering- but that's not a bad thing. We know what works in our bodies, and the night before race day, we don't want to chance ANYTHING. But also endurance runners learn to read the language of menus. What heavy cream-cheese sauce might sound appealing, a runner crossed off the menu and skims down to the next item.

"But doesn't that get pricey?" My friend asked

"Yeah, but the Coaches are pretty good about taking us to grocery stores to stock up on provisions. I normally get sandwich fixings to build sandwiches for lunch; crackers and pretzels too."  

I filled my shopping carte with my regular items this afternoon. Granola cereal (good for snacking), Oatmeal (good for breakfast), crackers, salsa, milk and avocados- things to get me through the weekend.  

Now that my stomach is fed, and body happy, it's time to get ready for the races ahead!

Prelims tomorrow! 

  

Picnics and Pasta Salads

After arriving home late Sunday night from our Regional track meet in Eugene Oregon, the Boulder Creek Festival greeted me.

Memorial Day in Boulder, Colorado is celebrated by the infamous Boulder-Boulder 10K race. Over 50,000 runners hit the street creating a thick flow of all imaginable (and unimaginable) types of runners. Costumes, wheelchairs, baby-strollers, elite athletes, enlarged athletes- the Boulder-Boulder sees it all!  If Historic Hayward Field gives Eugene, Oregon the title Track Town USA, then the Boulder-Boulder is what makes Boulder, Colorado the Mecca of distance and trail running.

The race is sandwiched between days of carnival rides, arts & crafts booths, sample tents, live music and a duck race!

After the few last remaining runners trickled through, a bunch of us headed up to the Festival and laid out picnic blankets. We made sure to have front row seats in order to cheer on our rubber ducks that we’d entered in the race. Prior to heading up, Cameron and I had thrown together a Salmon Orzo Pasta Salad to pack along.

 Salmon Orzo Pasta Salad:

1 cup uncooked orzo (rice-shaped pasta)

1 (1 1/4-pound) skinless salmon fillet (If you’re short on time, canned salmon works fine)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Cooking spray

1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion

1 pound asparagus, steamed and cut into 2-inch pieces

         Lemon-Dill Vinaigrette


1/3 cup (1.3 ounces) crumbled feta cheese

1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill


3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice


2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil


1/4 teaspoon salt


1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper


Combine all lemon-dill dressing ingredients in a small bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Set vinaigrette aside


Boil and cook Orzo pasta like any other type of pasta
Drain and add other ingredients


Dress with vinaigrette (pour and toss)

Good Chilled or Warm. (I personally like chilled better)

Sounds easy, huh? Well that’s probably because it is! And it made a great bring-along-salad as well!
Unfortunately it wasn't our lucky duck day. None of our ducks won, but I don't think anyone really cared. It was hanging out and making jokes with friends that mattered that day.