These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things....

It has been a while.  Sorry about that.  I was on vacation, teaching summer school (preschool!) and finally started my new year at school.  Luckily we are not on strike, like another district I know.  We ratified our contract the day before school.

It has been a hectic start to the school year.  New students that have caused numerous headaches already, switching from 4 class periods per day to 6 (quite the adjustment!) and I am also training for my first (and last) marathon!!

While training for this marathon (Nike Womens Marathon), I have been HUNGRY!  And there isn't much to eat with all of my allergies.  At least not the things that all the real runner people say to eat.  So I have been finding new things that are working to keep me hydrated, full, and running!

Before all the allergies, I drank chocolate milk after a hard workout.  Doesn't work anymore.  Now I drink Chocolate Coconut Milk!  Although it is difficult to find.  I have drive a ways to a Whole Foods to get my fix -- and I make sure to stock up.  It is the perfect after run drink! 

One of my newest favorite protein is Sunbutter -- especially the No-Stir kind.

I never liked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches growing up -- but now I am obsessed with sunbutter sandwiches!  Sunbutter and jelly, sunbutter and honey!  Yummy!

The hardest thing has been finding granola bars that are safe to eat.  You can find gluten free, but it has nuts and/or soy, you can find nut free but it has soy and gluten.  UGH!  I finally find just ONE that I can eat and it really isn't that bad tasting.  NuGo Nutrition Bars make one kid that works for me: the chocolate version!

I also have been having a hard time finding safe (and good) things to eat while running.  Not only can I not eat all the allergen stuff, I also can't have caffeine which happens to be in a lot of energy items for running.  I have found a few items to eat while running that I could recommend: Clif Shot Gel Chocolate, Clif Shot Bloks -- my favorite is strawberry, and Hammer Gel -- my favorite is Montana Huckleberry!

My marathon is three weeks away so pretty soon I will carbo-loading.  How do you carbo-load without gluten?!  We will find out -- stay tuned!  And I promise to update with a few recipes I have baked over the summer..... And I just got a Cooking Light Best Baked Goods special edition.  Can't wait to adapt some recipes!