Fall [pumpkin] Guacamole

The first time I went to the farmer's market this summer, I came back having bought lots of wonderful goodies, among which were 5 avocados purchased for a whopping $1 total. Woah, baby, was I excited! I came home and immediately smashed those babies up into some super scrumptious guacamole and Annie and Claire and I proceeded to sit on the couch with a bag of corn chips and eat it all. Yummmmmmm doesn't even begin to cover it.

Avocado is a summer-linked obsession. Pumpkin is my autumn/winter obsession. You can totally eat avocado all year round but I can only tolerate a certain number of obsessions at a time, so the avocado situation dies down for a few months while I consume pumpkin puree as one of my main food groups itself.

With little to no avocado, I end up with little to no guacamole which leaves me one dip short of a full life. Dips, as Marissa and I simultaneously confessed earlier this week, are the shit so I needed to come up with some mixture to temporarily replace guacamole's role in my life. This realization led me to the concoction of fall [pumpkin] guacamole:

1 part peanut butter 

to 2 parts pumpkin puree 

mixed with enough 

oats and raisins

to build a chunky but 

still smooth consistency

and pumpkin spice to your taste

used as dip for apples and celery

used as spread on rice cakes

and it's really good by the spoonful too :)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies

DUDES! These cookies are unlike any other cookie.

These cookies are...

gluten free

dairy free

soy free

[added] sugar free

nut free

and can be egg free if you want

How'd I do it?

magic,

duh.

Ask my parents, I've never been fond of measuring and following recipes. That's probably why it's safer to let me cook than bake, but because of this gluten free, dairy free lifestyle my doctor has mandated for me, if I don't bake for myself no one else will. So I've been experimenting.

It started with the usual culprits:

2 1/2 c. almond flour

1 1/2 c. pumpkin puree

1/4 c. egg whites

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. xanthum gum

1 tbsp. pumpkin spice

as many chocolate chips as you desire

as many raisins as you desire

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients.

3. Whisk in pumpkin puree egg whites. And mix in raisins and chocolate chips.

4. Plop spoonfuls onto cookie sheet, spread with fingers (no butter means they won't spread themselves).

5. Bake 12-15 minutes.

That was easy.

Pumpkin Parfait

I am an a-typical college student, and proud of it. Some may find it odd, but I function quite well at 5am and therefore I have made it known to my boss and so I am at work by 5:45 three days during the school week and on the other two I get up even earlier to bet in a pre-sunrise run. And on the weekend, sleeping past 7am is a rare occurrence.

But just because I am awake before 99% of this university population--student and staff combined--does not mean I wait for them to wake before I have a little moment of joy called breakfast.

Breakfast is sacred.
Take me to a breakfast restaurant and I can easily find something to eat without having to make half a dozen alterations to the meal because of my gluten-free needs.

Yesterday, my nerves were a twitching as I put the first bit in my mouth but...I almost died it was so good.

1/4 cup oats

1/3 cup plain greek yogurt

1/2 cup pumpkin puree (or less if you're not an addict)

dash and a half of pumpkin spice

Directions:

Put it in a bowl and mix and enjoy. :)

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Thank you Gwen Stefani for teaching me that 'banana' does not actually have a double 'n' after the first like I admit I've always thought.  If you don't know what the heck I'm goofily referring to, GO BACK TO THE TURN OF THE CENTURY AND LISTEN TO CHEEZY POP/ROCK.

Anyway...

Since I started distance running last spring (training began in January though so really since then), people have told me I'm crazy. psycho. loony. bananas. Whatever word they used, they've been complimenting me by putting me down. How's that work? I'm not a fan. People, these are mixed signals. You tell me I'm crazy but keep it up--you can't just redefine 'crazy' like that.

Now, there are also some people who tell me I'm crazy and mean it--not in the sense that I need to be put in a mental hospital to be treated for psychosis right away (or ever), but meaning that they don't think it's a well thought out idea. I can appreciate and respect those comments regarding my craziness much faster than the others. Yes, I like being propped up but the idea of saying something demeaning as encouragement does not sit well with me.

Whatever the case, whoever the commenter, thank you for thinking about me and caring enough to say something--good or bad. Your words keep me motivated...and keep me humble. But, honestly, I'm doing this for me. At first, I wanted to do this to make my mom be able to be proud of me for something. She's been a runner (though nothing more than a 10K) for as long as I can remember and so I figured she'd be able to connect with what I was doing and find something respectable and prideful in it. Well, I stopped holding my breath on that one. She encourages me to keep it up but it's not exactly the achievement of relational bonding I had hoped for...and that's okay (no lies, it was disappointing for awhile but that's how it is). I run for me. I run to help control my asthma. I run to clear my head. I run to feel. I run to be in the moment. I run to eat chocolate chip pancakes. I run to be proud of myself for doing something I thought I could never do.

And while we are talking about bananas, I just made 

gluten free, dairy free 

BANANA PANCAKES!

1 banana

1/2 c. egg whites

3 tbsp. almond flour

mash

pour 

flip

cool

eat

YOU CAN EAT THE WHOLE BATCH FOR

less than 200 calories 

(actual calorie count depends on the size of the banana)

approx 18g. protein

1 serving of fruit

100% YUM