May is a big month…
aside from the small thing called ‘seeding’ going on, there is spring hockey and baseball to get the kids to… there is a yard to take care of and a garden to plant… my birthday and Mother’s Day all in the same busy month for the poor farmer to deal with… (and let me tell you I don’t let him cut any corners… this year I got a card and an InstaPot out of him)
also, for the second year I am running a half-marathon at the end of May…
in February when a friend suggested I talk to her running coach I was still not sure if I was even going to ever run another half-marathon again…
the only thing that got me through the last one was a saying I repeated over and over again as I was running… ‘go as fast as you can because you will never do this again’…
but alas, here I am on Mother’s Day running 10 miles on my treadmill… (it was raining outside and ironically I watched the movie ‘Mother’s Day’ on Netflix)
the difference this year is that these selfies I take get sent to my running coach, Irene… not the farmer (who am I kidding… I send them to both… and occasionally some friends to brighten their day)
I anxiously await every Sunday for Irene to email me my workout schedule… I liken it to when I was younger waiting for the Sears Wish Book to show up in the mail…
she sends me three running plans and two workout plans…
what she gets in return is daily updates on how my training is going, along with the selfies and some occasional pictures of the road and my dogs…
we maybe didn’t set the ground rules firmly right off the get go as to how much of my personal life she wants to know about…
I tend to error on the side of ‘every last detail’…
a good amount of my training this year has been on my trusty old treadmill… which my dad bought for me when I got married… so 18 years ago…
I assumed it was a hint that he had noticed I gained 20 lbs at college and perhaps needed a new hobby other than eating…
at first I thought I could never run for that long on a treadmill… and then I discovered the wonderful world of Netflix…
you barely know you are working out when you have Grace and Frankie on… or House of Cards or the Crown… most recently I really started to get into documentaries… specifically food documentaries…
the issue I was having was when I would passionately tell the farmer about the latest cause I was concerned about, I realized that I do not retain very much from these sweaty viewings and that they all seem to get jumbled in my head and leave me with a overwhelming sense of the world is awful and we as humans are morons...
the farmer advised me to go back to my ‘lighter’ shows and maybe limit the ‘world is ending documentaries’ to one a week…
this wild rice salad I thought was delicious but was worried might look a little too healthy for the farmers so I threw some homemade croutons on top… well, my 13 year old son did… that is him packing up the salads… I was probably busy watching Netflix…
wild rice salad
Ingredients:
Salad:
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 cup wild rice
- 6 radishes, diced
- 3 cups loosely packed, finely chopped kale (without the stems)
- 4 carrots, grated
- 6 scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced
- 1 cup frozen peas (or edamame)
- ground black pepper
Dressing:
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- 1/2 shallot, minced
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Directions:
- bring 4 cups salted water to boil
- add rice, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30-35 minutes
- allow the rice to cool
- add remaining ingredients and dressing
- for the dressing – in a small mason jar shake the ingredients for the dressing until well combined
- let the salad marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes prior to serving
next on the cooking list for the day was burritos… I had the brilliant idea to use butternut squash instead of meat… you can feel free to omit that step!
upon some reflection while eating the burrito I decided next time to cut the butternut squash a bit smaller… then you don’t get a big chunk of squash as you bite your burrito…
burritos are possibly one of my favourite food items… you get your bean/squash mixture well simmered, your coconut lime rice (best rice recipe ever) and assembly line ready and away you go!
after years of making chicken wraps in the booth at the rink I have toyed with different ways to wrap a burrito… this is currently my go to…
tin foil halfway up and plastic wrap doing the rest of the work…
butternut squash burritos
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 3 cups peeled, chopped butternut squash
- 1 jalapeno, minced
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp Bragg’s
- 1 cup beer
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups pinto beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 10 large flour tortillas
- options: coconut lime rice, salsa, lettuce, avocado, cilantro
Directions:
- in a skillet, cook onion in oil
- add butternut squash, jalapeño, chili powder and smoked paprika
- stir around for about a minute
- add Bragg’s and beer and sprinkle in the garlic
- cover and reduce heat
- cook for around 20 minutes
- fold in the beans, lime juice and syrup
- simmer until liquid is absorbed and remove from the heat
- assemble the burritos with the ingredients you prefer
coconut lime rice
Ingredients:
- 2 tsp coconut oil
- 2 cups brown rice (or rice of your choice)
- 1 tbsp lime zest
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp lime juice
Directions:
- heat oil
- add rice and saute for around 2 minutes
- add the lime zest and stir
- add garlic, broth and salt
- bring to a simmer, then reduce heat, cover and softly simmer for around 35 minutes
- when rice is tender, remove from heat and fold in lime juice
last but not least the dessert… this one is easy easy… and packed with things that can make me run faster!!!
springform pans are ingenious … and this cake really will only take you a few minutes to throw together…
I like to sample the first slice for quality control reasons…
almond flour cake
Ingredients:
- unsalted butter at room temperature
- 6 eggs
- 1 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp almond extract
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 5 cups almond flour
- 3/4 cup raw sliced almonds
Directions:
- preheat oven to 350 degrees
- grease 9” springform pan with butter
- in a mixing bowl, mix eggs, maple syrup, oil, almond extract, lemon zest and salt
- add the almond flour and stir
- pour the batter into the springform pan
- sprinkle the almond slices over it
- bake for 40-45 minutes
- cool the cake on a wire rack
- cut into 12 pieces
i feed a farmer 
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