Thursday Three

I went back to school this week! I am really excited for this year. After having such an... interesting... year last year, I know it can only get better. I'll definitely miss hanging out with my family and all of the good cooking I get from my mom, but this should be a really good year. Here is what happened this week: 

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I love how my room turned out. My roommate and I didn't coordinate anything, but surprisingly our stuff looks great together. The one thing I really don't like about the room is the yellow walls. The color is cute, but even the closet doors are yellow so it becomes overwhelming when the doors are closed. Other than that I can't wait to spend the rest of the year here. 

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I am going to be going out to eat a lot for the first couple of days since my sorority doesn't serve food until classes start, but that means I finally have an excuse to try all of the restaurants on my list. The first meal, lunch with my parents, set a high standard for the week with a fantastic sandwich from Graze with great gluten free bread. I'll like any place that will make their own GF bread. 

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 Running again in Madison is so different than at home. There is so much more wind, but the views are so pretty from a path near the lake. I love seeing all of the sailboats bobbing up and down as the sunrises. I am excited to see what I can discover on my long runs. Fingers crossed that I find some pretty houses. 

How was your week?

xoxo,

Maddie 

What I Eat In a Day: Summer Edition

I love eating in the summer more than any other season. This year, I have loved it even more because it means I have greater access to fresh produce (ie my parents are paying for it, unlike in school) and I  can make almost anything I was since kitchen access isn't limited. Summer is also the time of year when all of my favorite foods are in season. I absolutely love peaches, berries and tomatoes. This summer I have found myself eating more and more produce. My mom and I have fun counting the different types of fruit and veggies we get in a day... once it got up to 14! With that being said, here is an idea of what I like to eat in the average day.

Breakfast is really one of two options everyday. I like to either have avocado toast with a bunch of different fruits, or scrambled eggs with veggies and fruit on the side. For this day, I wanted to try adding cherries with avocado, so I topped 1/2 a slice of homemade gluten free flax bread with that, and the other just had sea salt and pepper. For fruit, I had peaches, blueberries and more cherries. 

I really had no idea about what I wanted to eat for lunch. This is always the hardest time of day for me to decide on what I want. I try to eat something before I get too hangry (its real and really bad). It doesn't need to be big since I figure I can always have a snack later before work. Today I made a mock shrimp cocktail with pre-cooked shrimp and sauce made of a mix of ketchup and horseradish. We finally had pre-cooked shrimp in the house so I new I had to make this. We had just gotten some plums as well, so I added those on the side because I could. 

I didn't have work today, so I didn't need to have a snack but since I was hungry after having a small lunch I decided to have some plums (again) and apricots to get me through until dinnertime. I knew I really liked what was for dinner so I wanted to be hungry for it. If I do work, I typically have skyr from Icelandic Provisions. I just tried it this summer, and I love it more than Siggi's or any other yogurt. It tastes better, is smoother and keeps me full for a long time. 

Whenever I am home for dinner I typically get what I want if I ask early enough. My mom is trying to make all of my favorites before I go to school (isn't she great?) so tonight was burger bowls. This recipe is from Taste of Home Magazine . I have always loved her burgers in the summer and this gives me a fun, gluten free way to enjoy them. I added tomatoes, avocado, cucumber and pickles to my bowl which begins with lettuce. The sauce is really great too, just a mixture of ranch and ketchup. Don't knock until you try it.

This was a pretty typical day for me, the only big change is that I wasn't working. If I was, dinner would probably be either eggs with veggies or some sort of toast. I was able to get all of the fruit and veggies that I wanted ( 9 different kinds!), and every meal was something I really enjoyed eating. That combined is what I call a great day.

I am thinking about starting a What I Ate Wednesday or Tuesday's Eats with the idea of showing what I typically eat, and maybe giving ideas on how to change things up. What do you think of that idea?

What is your favorite things to eat in the summer?

xoxo,

Maddie 

Thursday Three

This past week was crazy busy. I am starting to get ready to leave for school so I have been starting to  pack for school, see everyone I want to before I go to school and figure out what else I need to buy. My to-do lists have been really long where it feels like everyday I am barely getting everything done. Here is what I did do this week: 

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I found my new favorite combination of yogurt and granola for parfaits. I got really sick this weekend when trying oatmeal (non-gluten free) so I new I needed to find a new, gluten free granola for my parfaits. I tried Purely Elizabeth and love it. I also recently started to eat Icelandic Provisions instead of Siggi's. It is so creamy and much more flavorful than Siggi's.

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I voted for the first time this week. Wisconsin had primary elections and since I had finally registered to vote, I made sure to participate. Even though voting isn't an exciting activity, I still think it is really important and I am glad that I finally was able to take part in the process.

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It was so nice to go out for coffee with my mom on Wednesday. I have been so busy this summer that we have't been able to go out for afternoon coffee for one reason or another. We went to a cute little coffee shop we don't normally frequent since it is a little farther away, but we made sure to plan out this trip so we could have enough time. It's the little days like this that make me realize how much I'll miss my family. 

How was your week?

xoxo,

Maddie

The (Gluten Free) Pancake Project: Pt. 4

      This pancake project has taken up most of the summer, but it has finally come to a close. The weird outcome of the experimentation was that now I like savory foods for breakfast. Before having to be gluten free, I really only liked parfaits, pancakes, French toast and waffles for breakfast. Anything savory such as eggs or sausage was more of a lunch food. If nothing else, this summer was great because it taught me how to like eggs (scrambled with veggies) which makes it a lot easier to go out to breakfast and still enjoy my food options. 

    I can happily report that, even though I do like savory breakfasts now, I finally have a yummy pancake recipe. Before that success occurred, there had been a couple of fails. One was just flat out terrible, and the other I didn't care for the taste. As much as I like trying new recipes, and am okay when things don't turn out as planned, it got frustrating as it seemed that every recipe wasn't working out for me. 

     The first recipe of these three that I tried are from A Girl Defloured. The pictures look so nice, and all of the reviews on Pinterest seemed positive so I figured I would give it a shot.  I have searched through so many recipes, and I figured that maybe the addition of xanthan gum was going to do the trick. Shocker, that was not the case.

      These are the worst looking pancakes that I made all summer. They were pale and thin. So thin actually, that the blueberries were twice as thick as a the pancakes. These pancakes were also gummy and gritty tasting at the same time. I am guessing the gummy texture was due to the xanthan gum, but I really have no idea. All I know is that I look one bite, and then threw the whole batch away. It was such a disappointment because it seemed like everyone else had been able to make this recipe work, so why not me? 

      The next time I decided to try gluten free pancakes again I was home alone, so I wanted to find a recipe that would make enough for one person. I could really only find paleo pancake recipes for one, but since I had just bought coconut flour, I figured why not try it out. I used The Little Honey Bee's Easy Peasy Grain Free Pancakes For One which involved almond flour, coconut flour and applesauce. I knew it wouldn't taste exact same as your typical pancake, but I wanted to try it anyways. 

     The pancake itself turned out really well. It was thick and fluffy, but it did take a while to cook. Even though these pancakes looked amazing, I didn't like the taste. I have decided that the taste and texture of paleo pancakes isn't for me. When I made these, I had forgotten that I had already tried Bob's Red Mill Paleo Pancake Mix and didn't like it. I think the problem is that I don't like the taste of too much almond flour. A little is fine, but not that much. If you enjoy paleo pancakes and almond flour, this might be a great recipe for you, but sadly it wasn't for me. 

     After the paleo pancake dissapoitnment, I continued to look around for more gluten free pancake recipes. I wanted to find ones that seemed different than the ones that I already tried. I stumbled across Fine Cooking's Gluten Free Buttermilk Pancakes one day and decided to try it for a couple of reasons. First of all, it is Fine Cooking. I trust their recipes, and the few reviews on these were very positive. Secondly, brown rice flour and almond flour is used instead of a gluten free flour blend.  This was the main reason that I tried this, I know almond flour can make something more tender. We also didn't have all of the ingridents for the other recipes so this was one of few choices for the day. 

      Well I sure am glad that we were out of different ingredients so this was the recipe that was tried. These pancakes were thick and perfectly fluffy. There was a slight almond flour taste, but I really like tasting a little bit, and it goes so well with maple syrup. This repine was also really easy to make, no need to whip eggs or do anything fancy. These were classic pancakes in the truest form. I would be happy to eat these again and again.
      Even though I have found some fantastic gluten free pancakes, I will probably continue to try out new recipes. I am always finding something new to try, but even if something is a mess, at least I know I will have these pancakes. Being gluten free can't stop me from enjoying my favorite foods, and pancakes are no exception to that.

Here are the other parts of this series.
The (Gluten Free) Pancake Project: Intro and Pt. 1
The (Gluten Free) Pancake Project: Pt. 2 
The (Gluten Free) Pancake Project: Pt. 3 

Do you have a gluten free pancake you like? 

xoxo,

Maddie 

Thursday Three

This was a pretty good week full of exploring new things, making money at work and even going shopping. I really hate going to the mall near my house. It is busy, noisy and has subpar stores where I can never find anything that I might want to buy. When I was younger it seemed like there were so many options, but now there are maybe three stores I will even walk into. This week though, I went with a friend to the mall to find clothes for parties in college and it might have been the first time I actually enjoyed a trip to the mall. One of a couple firsts this week. Here was the rest of the week:

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Everyone knows how much I like the farmers market, and this week I got to go to two new ones. One was a really little one in Door County, and the other was another big market about a half an hour away from our house. It is amazing the different types of food (like apricots!) you can find by just going a little bit away. With it being National Farmers Market Week, I figure there is no better time to support the local farmers. 

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Yesterday I was able to go on a day trip to Door County with my mom. This was really nice since the weather was great so we went to the beach, ate outside and wandered around. Other than the drive, we were able to spend almost the entire day outside. To me, summer should be careless days in my faovorite place with one of my favorite people, eating fish tacos outside on a beautiful day. 

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The final first of the week was find a new egg dish that I like- Migas. It has only been recently that I have started to like eating eggs. I am lucky enough that my parents buy local farm fresh eggs in the summer, and I have found these taste so much better than anything from the grocery. I loved Migas because it was flavorful, I could add veggies, it was naturally gluten free and it kept me full for quite some time. I used this recipe from Gimme Some Oven, its so easy, so why not try it?

How was your week?

xoxo,

Maddie 

Avocado Toast Six Ways

     I can't believe that I used to hate avocados... and I mean hate! If something had avocado, you could guarantee I wouldn't touch it. That changed a couple of years ago when I tried sushi for the first time, and there was a bit a avocado in it. I could appreciate how the textures worked together. Since then I have been liking avocados more and more, to the point that now I will eat avocado toast at least four times a week. 

      Avocado toast has become my go-to meal, along with scrambled eggs, for when I have no idea what to eat. Any meal of the day works for me, but I love it the most with breakfast when I have a big bowl of fruit on the side. This summer I have come up with several different variations on avocado toast that I like, and these six are my favorites. 

      My absolute favorite on this list is the toast with Aleppo pepper and sea salt. It is so simple, but adds. a little spice to the toast. Aleppo pepper is one of my favorite seasonings because it isn't as hot as regular red pepper flakes, but still adds the same flavor profile to the toast. 

      For lunch, I really like making a greek avocado toast with cherry tomatoes, feta with a drizzle of olive oil. One piece of this toast is filling enough to be a lunch, and flavorful enough that you will wish you made more and more of this toast. I also add sea salt and pepper, but I do that with all savory toasts.
     For breakfast, I typically add flaxseed to my avocado, unless I am using a flax bread. I like the nutty flavor of flax, and put it in everything from on top of my pancakes to in my parfaits. The fruit I put on top varies, but I have found that blueberries are probably my favorite fruit for on top of avocado toast. (strawberries are a close second)
     The other three toasts I still make a lot, but not as often mainly because of the work. For the roasted corn avocado toast, this normally happens on a Saturday because then I can buy a cup of roasted corn from the farmers market and not have to do that myself. With the strawberry toast, I prefer to use in season produce, so that was eaten a lot in the early summer, while some thing like the cucumbers with Aleppo pepper is eaten now.
     Avocado toast is something that is so easy to eat, I now understand why so many people love it. I can't believe how long I thought avocados were one of the worst things ever, and I even made fun of my mom for eating it on bread. Now I am making up for lost time and enjoying my avocados in some form almost daily, but avocado toast will never fail to be there in my hour of hunger.

What do you like on your avocado toast?

xoxo,

Maddie

Thursday Three

Other than a fun trip to Door County, this was a pretty average week full of work, running, baking and coffee with friends. For me, these kinds of weeks are the classic summer weeks and could repeat over and over without me being bored. Here is what happened this week: 

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By far the best part of the week was being able to go to Door County with my family for part of the weekend. I managed to get to some of my favorite places, such as the White Gull Inn and Dippy's Ice Cream. It was also really nice to just relax there and read a book. I miss Door County in the school year, so it is always nice to make it there in the summer. 

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One random, but remarkable thing about this week is the amount of avocado that I have been eating. Until about a year ago, I hated almost everything to do with avocados and then all of the sudden I started liking them more and more. This week I think I have had at least 1/2 an avocado everyday. I eat it in everything from kale salads, toasts, sandwiches and sometimes by itself. I can't believe how long I went with hating them. 

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My marathon training is starting to get into full swing and I am loving it. I have spent wayyy too much time reading everything there is to be read about marathons. My favorite things to read about are nutrition, not shocking since I am now a dietetics major, and general tips for doing your best. I am only on the fourth week of eighteen so I still have a long way to go. Read more about my marathon training plan here! 

How was your week?

xoxo,

Maddie