Good morning!
Yesterday was all about the spin-offs…
Spin-off #1:
I made a spin-off of my loaded oats by making curry flavoured loaded oats! They were deelish.
Curry Loaded Oats
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup regular oats
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup frozen veggies
- 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
- 1/4 teaspoon tumeric
- No Salt Added PC seasoning
- Black pepper
- Pinch of sea salt
- 1/2 tablespoon nutritional yeast (optional)
Directions: Throw everything into a pot and mix well over high heat. Bring to a boil and reduce to low and cook for 7-9 minutes. Pour into a bowl and add your favourite toppings!
Topping ideas:
- Mary’s Crackers
- Hummus
- Salsa
- Tomato Paste
- Avocado
- Stir-fry or roasted veggies
- Chickpeas
- Shredded coconut
The key to making delicious loaded oats:
1) Lots of toppings
2) Some crunch + texture (think Mary’s Crackers!)
3) Some type of creamy mix-in like hummus, nutritional yeast, or milk
4) Treat oats like any other ‘savoury’ grain like rice, quinoa, couscous, etc.
Hop, hop.
Isn’t this bowl cute? A reader named Christine gave me this bowl at the Orlando meet-up! The bowl is from Target’s new spring collection. Does she know me well or what? ;)
This bowl of oats was amazing. Loaded oats are my favourite new quick lunch or dinner lately! I just can’t get enough of them…they are so filling too.
Sadly there was no avocado in this bowl!
Downfalls of coming back from vacation:
1) No food,
2) Waiting for everything to ripen when you do buy food!
Is it weird that I put avocados on the windowsill to ripen faster?? lol…what can I say I love avocados!
Spin-off #2:
Meet my newest spin-off of banana soft serve! Other spin-offs include fudgicle soft serve.
Carrot Cake Soft Serve
Ingredients:
- 1 frozen ripe banana
- 1 small carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- splash or two of almond milk
- pinch nutmeg (optional)
- 1/2 tablespoon nut butter (I used cashew butter)
Directions: In a food processor process the carrots until fine. Add milk and frozen banana and process, scraping the bowl frequently until mixture is smooth. Now add in the spices and nut butter and process more. Add more milk if necessary. Serve and enjoy!
It tasted a lot like carrot cake batter which is always a good thing. :mrgreen:
Race Updates
I still haven’t decided about the 10k race this weekend. The only thing that is holding me back is that the race is a 1 hour 15 minute drive from me and I have no one to drive down with! Doesn’t make for a very fun trip! I shall play it by ear though…
However, I am officially signed up for the 15k in Guelph on April 18th and I have two girlfriends running with me so far! We are going to have a slumber party here the night before and drive down together. :) Give me a shout if you are running in either race and maybe we can meet-up!
Today’s question- Do you have a limit for driving somewhere for a race or sporting event? What is the farthest you have ever driven (or for a partner/child)?
The farthest I have driven for a race was my first 10k race in wine country- the drive was about 1 hour 45 minutes. Luckily I had Eric by my side to keep me company! The other 3 races I have run were all in Toronto and took about 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes to drive to. Eric was with me for all of those trips too. Because of where we live we don’t have many races that are close by. All of the major races are at least 1-5 hours away from us. I don’t mind going a fair distance when someone else is going with me or when I am running with other people, but I hate the thought of driving somewhere far in the early morning and running by myself with no one I know at the finish line! One of the things I want to do is do a race in another province or country and make a big road trip out of it and run it with friends. I think that would be really fun!
When I used to play fastpitch we would drive all over for our games…sometimes across two provinces to get to the playoffs! We had many long road trips. It was fun though because there was usually a car load of my friends with me!
I am thinking that maybe I need to do a race ALONE though…just to say I have done it…sort of like going to a movie by myself or eating at a restaurant by myself… ;)
Time to get crack-a-lackin!!
I’ve never driven very far for a race (20 minutes max, and walked to one from my front door), but I would definitely be willing to!
I love the loaded oats idea. Yum!
i drove from orange county up to san francisco for a race. but i was with friends and hubby so it was more like a vacation.
Last October i flew to Munich, Germany with my sis and ran the Munchen Marathon with her to cheer me on at the finish. It was amazing :)
This weekend I am driving 3 1/2 hours to watch my boyfriend’s mountain bike race and later this month I’m running a 5k that’s about 2 hours away. A couple of years ago I drove about 8 hours to do a 10k. I don’t mind driving far to race because usually wherever I’m going is more beautiful than what I could find immediately around my house.
Mmmmmm, the carrot cake soft serve looks great. If I have a limit, I haven’t reached it yet. :-) So far I’ve only driven an hour. But if there was a good race in, say, Maui for a good cause, then I should, right? :-P
I’ve run local races on my own before and I’ve driven 4 hours to NYC for races and 5 for Phila races. Unless there is some very emotional reason, I try to only travel for distances at 10K or above . . . OK, so haven’t done above yet, but getting there! It’s fun to run somewhere different and I like the challenge of being organized to travel and prep for a race. If they’re local often I won’t drag my poor husband out of bed to come and cheer, but travelling together is fun and he usually knows someone where we’re going and can hang out with them.
I tried to banana soft serve – and it was OK. I think maybe I need to add some of your other ingredients in, like the nut butter. Have you thought about doing a strawberry one? I bet that would be good!!
Well, my answer is a probably a little different, because it’s my JOB (on the weekends) to travel to sporting events. I work for a cheer and dance event company, and we have events all over the U.S.
So basically I’ll travel as far as they want me to. ;)
I’ve driven 3 hours to Atlanta to run in the Peachtree. But, that was a long time ago. Now, I think I’ve driven 2 hours at the most to take my daughter to sports games.
Anything under a 15K I don’t really travel that far, especially on my own (and usually it is a big race). I did a 4 mile race the other day on my own, that was only a half hour away.
Longer distance races, especially marathons I’ll travel a further distance either driving for a few hours or flying. Any time I do that though I usually have others with me, it helps to have a mom that runs and is retired!
Oh Angela! You used the bowl!
*Squeal* :D
I use my matching bowl and think of you ~
and you remembered who gave it to you… you rock girl!
I think I just might be brave and try those savory oats.
p.s. putting an avocado in a brown bag in the window sill is supposed to ripen it uber quick.
Those oats look fabulous!
I have done races up to 1.5 hours away- but I don’t think I would do one any farther!
xo
K
Ange! Send me the deets on the Guelph race. I’ll come cheer you on!
ill def be trying that soft serve soon! looks great!
There aren’t a lot of races in our area since we basically live in the middle of nowhere. My sister-in-law and I drive about an hour and a half to the closest “big city” for most of our races.
the carrot cake soft serve looks fantastic!!!
Mine was just a half hour into the city, but I was doing it with a bunch of friends (including a crush of mine at the time!) I quite enjoyed talking with my crush the entire time and ended up dating 2 months later. hehe, oh high school.
Sometimes I love long drives to help me think. I can also blast music and sing to it really loudly.
FUnn…I didn’t know you played fastpitch! I played softball for years and then our school district switched to FP when I was in 9th grade. What did you play? I was at 3rd base. Those oats look craZy girl!!! Wow..you are quite adventurous! Great idea with the soft serve :)
Hey! I also live in a small town in SW Ontario and therefore often need to travel to race. I plan on running the 10k in London this weekend (though I haven’t signed up yet!)… so if I see you there, I will be sure to say hello :)
PS. Though a long drive may seem like a drag before a race, I have honestly never regretted it!! Racing gives me such a high – makes me feel like a champ!
To drive the morning of I will drive no more than 2 hours. If I’m staying overnight I’ll drive a good ways. I’m driving to Philly which is 7 hours.
Have driven to Ottawa for a race from Toronto! Stayed there for the weekend though. For a same day race the farthest I guess would be Around the Bay in Hamilton.