Recent Eats: Thanksgiving

Every Thanksgiving, there is nothing that I am more thankful than my mom's cooking. Coming home from college makes this even more special. My mom always makes whatever I want when I come home, and this year she put in extra work to make sure that my first gluten free thanksgiving was all I wanted it to be. I ate a lot of really good food last weekend, but these were my favorites. 

Thanksgiving dinner of course was great. I don't love turkey, but I am all about the sides. I had sweet-potato apple puree, kale salad with apples and dried cranberries, cranberry sauce and a mix of roasted veggies. It was so nice to have a full, delicious plate of food. I loved how it had so many colors and flavors. 

I ate a lot of kale salad when I am home, but that is because it is one of my favorite foods. I made sure to change it up every time because I had so many options. The first salad had avocado, honey crisp apple, pumpkin seeds and pomegranate seeds. The second salad also had avocado and pomegranate seeds, and I also added leftover roasted veggies and cauliflower rice. If I always had my way in life, I would be eating big fancy salads like this almost everyday. 

I never get pancakes anymore, so my mom made these yummy oatmeal-based pumpkin pancakes. Even though I eat a lot of oatmeal, these really hit the spot and were one of my favorite parts of the weekend. I ate these pancakes with local maple syrup and local pears. Putting maple syrup on fresh fruit is always so good, and is one of my favorite parts of eating pancakes, well and the pancakes of course.

 

 

My mom and I wanted to make a fun but simple appetizer one night, so we made these brie apple bites. We used almond flour based crackers, sliced brie and then topped each cracker with sautéed apple. After the picture, I decided they all needed cracked pepper as well. This made them so good. I love cooking like this where it is't a recipe but instead going by what might taste good. 

 My roommate at school is also gluten free, and she had been telling me about a certain gluten free pizza at Costco that has a cauliflower crust. I decided to try it out last weekend, and let me tell you, it was so good. I have been craving pizza for so long and this hit the spot perfectly.

Now for my favorite thing I ate all weekend, over and over again- pumpkin bread pudding. I have always loved bread pudding and since it is so easy to make gluten free (just substitute the bread), my mom made sure we had it as the gluten free dessert for thanksgiving. This bread pudding has a really good caramel sauce that goes on top, and is actually the best fall dessert. I ate this every night and it was disappointing to not have a yummy dessert being back at school. 

I was not let down this Thanksgiving. I was surrounded by the people I love, eating amazing good food and having a great time. This year really showed me how much I have to be thankful for, even if I did have to spend of a lot of the weekend studying for a chemistry exam. 

xoxo,

Maddie 

Madison Marathon in Review

      I have officially finished with my 4 months of marathon training! (Well, I finished it a couple weeks ago, but better late than never) I had previously posted (here) my game plan for training along with possible set backs I might comes across, and of course my goals. Training started off really well, but didn't continue that way. My training pretty much had two phases, marked by everything going well and then getting hurt. 

      To start, everything was going perfectly. I had no problem making long run routes and finishing them fairly quickly. No matter how far I was running, my pace was typically around an 8:30 mile. I easily found gels that I liked for mid-run fuel, which are Stinger. Fun enough, the first brand I tried was GU since that is was is given during most races and I couldn't stand it. I actually had to spit it out in the middle of a park (oops). Now the idea of those gels makes me nauseous but the Stinger Gels did the trick. I was really enjoying my runs and not having any problems with motivation. This was all happening through my 16 mile long run... and then I raced a half marathon. 

     The week before the half, my hip had been starting to bother me so I took a day or two off to see if that helped. I was feeling alright for the half marathon, so I decided to go for it. My mom and I had been planning on running it together, but since my pace was getting faster, we decided to do it separately. Within a couple miles my hip flared up again, but being the super competitive person that I am, I kept running. I ended up doing really well with a PR of 8 minutes and finishing second in my age group. 

      After the half my hip kept getting worse and worse, until it came to the point where I couldn't finish my long runs, let alone the short ones. I went to a physical therapist through my school to see if I could figure out what was wrong, but nothing seemed to be an exact problem. I was told by the doctor that I shouldn't continue training for the marathon, and that instead I need to take a month off of running. Well, I am not the person who is going to give up on a goal, especially one that I have been looking forward to for almost a year. I ended up taking a little over a week off, stretching a lot and resuming hip exercises. The problem never went away, but it was minimized enough I could handle running.  

     The week before the marathon I was a mess. I was so nervous that there were moments I would be getting nothing done as I scoured the Internet for advice on marathon recovery, what to wear and almost anything you could think of. Let's just say I am sure Runner's World saw a massive spike in viewership. What got me through the week was how so many people kept telling me how excited they were for me and were wishing me luck. I couldn't have gotten through the last four months without the amazing support system that I have.

      The marathon itself was hard, there is no better way to put it. My knee and hips flared up by mile 6 and got worse as the run progressed. By the end of the run, I could barely lift up my right leg which made going up hills difficult. This proved to be a large annoyance as the second half of the race primarily consisted of hills. Throughout the run I just kept reminding myself of how hard I trained and how long I have wanted to do this. I made sure to enjoy the pretty views and take in the fact that I was finally running a marathon. I was able to finish the marathon, get third place in my age group, and even though it involved walking, I am so happy that I was able to complete it.
      Now after the marathon, I have my 26.2 sticker on my laptop, my medal hanging on my wall and am going to end up taking a long break from running for my hip. It will be weird not running all of the time after running almost everyday for several months, but I am hoping to find fun, new ways to workout and have my hip heal quickly so I can get back to running.