Tag: Hummingbird Bakery

What to eat after a run, and the best chocolate cookie recipe ever!

So after yesterday when I was thinking about recovery foods after running, I decided to dig out the article from “Women’s Running” magazine. I don’t normally keep magazines but I do sometimes cut out useful articles to keep. I think putting it on here will mean I can refer to it when I have forgotten. The list includes:

Flavoured milk; apparently it shows better muscle recovery than a specific sports drink (why oh why did I try that SIS banana stuff yesterday when I had Nesquick powder in the cupboard?).

Yoghurt; a 4;1 ratio of carbs and protein which apparently is ideal for recovery.

Cereal bars containing oats (hello Nak’d bars). I would not normally choose a conventional cereal bar as they have more sugar and less protein, but I suppose with milk or yoghurt alongside they would be ok.

Bananas! It recommends having it with milk or yoghurt, but I think they are so good as the carbohydrate is quickly released to boost your energy again. It is normally the only thing I fancy after a race. The thought of a banana was in my head after mile 10 of my half marathon!

Raisins; because of their carbohydrate level. I think that they would be ok after a short run but after a long run I would need a bigger snack than that!

Blackberries; they contain vitamins C and E to help muscles recover (again it is suggested to have them with greek yoghurt as on their own they would nbe providing carbs but little protein).

Nuts; lots of protein, fibre and vitamins E and B to help you recover. Maybe nuts with raisins would be a better combo as then you have carbs and protein together (like a punnet from a graze box).

They also suggest rice cakes with peanut butter (that magic 4;1 ratio again) but I do not like rice cakes- they stick to your tongue! Also pancakes and baked beans are suggested (no not together that would be gross!) but I would not go for any of those options.

So I am going to be good and refer to my list to see which foods work for me. I have often been having a banana along with a cereal bar and sometimes have a graze punnet (usually dried fruits with nuts) so I suppose I am naturally choosing some of those good foods.

Today I made another recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery book ; double chocolate cookies and I think this has to be the best ever recipe for double chocolate cookies! The recipe is mostly chocolate, which you melt with a teeny bit of butter, then you whisk eggs and sugar, mix with the chocolate mixture, stir in flour (I used wholegrain spelt flour again) and more chocolate chips (I included some white chocolate too). The mixture went really runny and spread all over the baking tray but when they came out they looked amazing- just like the picture. I always like it when a recipe turns out how it looks in the book- it shows that the recipe is easy to follow. They are very chocolatey, chewy and delicious. Yum yum yum.

I also had a walk to stretch my legs as they were feeling a little stiff this morning after yesterday. I might make some fudge to take to work, so if I do I will be sure to say how the recipe went.

Now am off to enjoy the rest of Sunday!

Peanut butter cookies

This evening I was looking though my Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook hoping for inspiration. I fancied cookies, and came across the recipe for peanut butter cookies- heaven! The recipes in the book are rather generous; I halved the recipe and still made 20 (fair sized) cookies. The entire recipe was supposed to make 24! I also added some chopped white chocolate as well as dark chocolate, as white chocolate goes so well with peanut butter. I also used wholegrain spelt flour (from Doves Farm) instead of normal flour and that seems to give them a more wholesome flavour. I think wholemeal things go with peanut butter anyway. When they first went in the oven they puffed up massively, but by the time they came out they were lovely and flat, and are really chewy and delicious (even if I do say so myself!). I will definitely be making them again. Am going to see if I can freeze them as I didn’t think I would end up with that many!

Birthday surprises! And make your own birthday cake.

Well I have had a lovely birthday today. I was most excited to be given a Nike+ sports band (pink one!) to complement my running. This may see an end to my notebooks with lists of runs and times. Or maybe I will still keep them just in case the computer loses the info.

The weather was not that great (wind and rain is not a good mix for a day out) so we have postponed until tomorrow. So instead I made myself a birthday cake (carrot cake from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook). I cooked it in 2 tins instead of 3 (only have 2 that are the same size) so it needed longer. Also it said to use double the amount of cream cheese frosting but one lot seemed plenty. You can tell this is an American recipe book! Yet again I forgot about using the electric whisk for the icing, so used it for the cake batter and then got all hot and bothered making the icing by hand. I think next time I would make normal cream cheese icing (cream cheese plus icing sugar) instead of their recipe (which also has butter in it). The finishing touch was to sprinkle it with cinnamon, which would also be good to hide any lumps in the icing! Let’s face it, cinnamon makes most things taste even better.

The two of us went into the garden while the rain had stopped and managed to plant all the purchases from yesterday. The wind had battered the garden a bit though and a lot of the tulips had been blown over. Once that was done we came inside for a cup of tea (and a slice of yummy carrot cake) to warm up because it was freezing outside.

I also made some flapjacks to take to work (from Rachel’s Food for Living book)- they seemed to turn out really well. Sometimes when I make flapjacks they are too gooey and they all stick in the tin, or they are too crumbly and turn into granola when I slice them. I would definitely use the recipe again; at the bottom of the page there were ideas to make other flavour ones (ginger ones sound nice) so it’s a recipe that can be adapted.

I was also given a book about women’s running, some chai tea from Whitards (I had chocolate chai for Christmas which was yummy, am looking forward to seeing what they one is like- it’s chai tea but without black tea so just cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and a few other spices), some pretty butterfly and dragonfly sculpture things for the garden, and a lovely pink cake stand. Watch this space for my creations being displayed on a pretty cake stand instead of a plate (or the lid of a tub).

I am hoping that tomorrow I will have enough energy after my day trip that I squeeze in a run so I can try out my new toy, it’s all so exciting!!!

Brownies and marathon pondering

I got up this morning to rain! What a shock! I am very glad that I did my long run yesterday and so today is a good old rest day. Alongside my cornflakes I had a yummy smoothie from Innocent for breakfast (Honey, lemon and ginger). It had a free packet of bee friendly seeds which I may plant later if it stops raining.

I have been watching the London Marathon on TV; I do enjoy watching events like this (Great North Run, New York Marathon and so on). It’s so amazing how fast they go! Seriously they finish the marathon quicker than my half marathon time. Some of their miles are on the 5 minute mark! It is so impressive that they can keep up a sprint pace for the entire distance.

It got me thinking about my own running “journey”. This time last year I had run a 5k race, and signed up for a 10k (my first) and I was so nervous about not being able to finish. When I ran the 10k the last mile was really hard and the backs of my legs felt like they would give way and I did think that after that I would not attempt any other longer distances. But then During the summer I did two more 5k races and had started naturally increasing my long run to 5 miles or so each week, so I decided to sign up for another 10k in the autumn. As I knew I could finish I had almost less pressure on myself. After that my long run was getting even longer (7 miles) and so I decided to sign up for a half marathon. Again I was so worried about finishing but one of my training runs (by mistake, I mapped it out wrong before I left) ended up being 12.3 miles, so I knew I could make it. To my surprise I really enjoyed the race, it was probably my most enjoyable race so far. I ran most of it with my younger brother, but we finished separately, so maybe having someone to run alongside helped (although I normally run with music so I cant hear my breathing and I kept my music on the whole time). It was such a massive achievement for me, I think I was on a bit of a post run high for the following week!! Even so that was going to be the only half for me, but I have again been persuaded to do a local half this summer! My Dad has been interested in doing a marathon and has been researching different ones. I think it is achievable, but what worries me is the amount of time for training; even if my longest run was 18-20 miles that would take me nearly 4 hours, so the time commitment would be huge. I could do a long run at the weekend but doing longer runs after work would be hard to fit in. But anyway it’s something to think about; who knows what the future holds?

I suppose for the people running today at least the rain will help to cool them down a bit, and they won’t be right in the sun as they would be on a clear day so may stay cooler.

I am seeing family later so decided to make a batch of brownies. I have a brilliant tried and tested recipe from a really old book (think I got it from a discount book shop years ago) but I still like to try new recipes. I used the recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and it does smell pretty good! Although in the book they dust it with icing sugar but that really annoys me (when you inhale you end up coughing all over the place!). The ingredients are simple; butter, dark chocolate, sugar, plain flour and eggs (no baking powder or cocoa or syrup or anything). It was easy to make and is now cooling in the tin before I slice it up.