Training for a Half Marathon in 4 Days

On Monday I was asked if I wanted to run a half marathon on Saturday. 4 days to prepare for 13.1 miles. I said yes with no hesitation. Crazy, for a person who's longest run in the past few years has been 6 miles. I did run both a half and a full marathon in 2006 with two months training, so I'm not completely crazy. After the call, I ran 8, so I know it will be fine.

On Christmas Eve I was talking to a friend about running long races without training. We both have the personalities that would want to try just to see if we could. So this week I will get my wish :)

It is giving me a great excuse to start clean eating this week. I've been eating too many holiday treats for months now (lots and lots of sugar). A nice, unexpected way to start the year.

WooHoo! We'll see how it goes!

Cracked (or bulgur) Wheat Bread

I cleaned out my pantry and made an inventory of odd things that needed to get used up. One of those things was bulgur wheat. Not sure what my intent was when I bought it. Last week I went to the library and go a big stack of cookbooks for us girls to look through. My favorite cookbook (meaning I went through it and wanted to bookmark every recipe) was A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman. On the cover it says, "Bake to celebrate ~ Bake to nourish ~ Bake for fun", which I love. If you love cookbooks like I do, this would be one to browse through next time you are at the library or book store! The Best Pizza Dough Ever...Deluxe Sticky Ooey-Gooey Peanut Butter Cookies....White Chocolate and Vanilla Bread Pudding....Choclate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake. I'll stop.





Cracked Wheat Bread
from A Passion For Baking by Marcy Goldman



1/2 cup cracked wheat or bulgur wheat
3/4 cup boiling water
1 1/4 cups warm water (100 to 110 degrees)
2 1/2 teaspoons rapid rise yeast (I used regular and was fine, maybe a little less lofty)
1 1/2 cup wheat flour
2 tablespoons honey
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 cups bread flour
cracked wheat, cornmeal, and bran for dusting

In a medium bowl, cover cracked wheat with boiling water and let stand for 20 minutes.

In a mixer bowl, hand whisk warm water and yeast together and let stand 2 or 3 minutes to dissolve. Add whole wheat flour, honey, salt, and soaked wheat and mix well. Add most of bread flour and then knead with a bread hook on the lowest speed, adding more bread flour as needed to make a soft dough. Knead on low for 6 to 8 minutes.

Remove dough hook, spray dough with cooking spray, cover and put in a warm place. Let rise 45 to 60 minutes, until doubled.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Shape into a ball and sprinkle with wheat, cornmeal and bran. Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet and cover with plastic wrap and let rise 30 to 45 minutes.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until done.

Enjoy!

This post has also been linked to:

Mouthwatering Monday at Southern Fairytale

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace

Tuesday at the Table at All the Small Stuff

What's on The Menu Wednesday at Dining With Debbie

Hearth and Soul at A Moderate Life

Recipe Swap at Prairie Story (Thursdays)

Recipe Swap at The Grocery Cart Challenge

I Conquered PW Cinnamon Rolls

Yes, after two years of having them on my "to-bake" list, I finally made the Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls! I've been so intimidated by the whole process but they really were not hard. I made the dough 2 days ahead of time and it was very easy to work with. No sticking whatsoever and very easy to roll out. They were as delicious as they have been built up to be. The recipe made 7 pans of rolls. We ate some, froze some and shared the rest with our neighbors and family on New Year's Day. I am going to try to do this every year.

UNO For Jesus! Get them while they're a buck!

On my trip to Ukraine this summer we played a lot of card games with the kids at the orphanage. UNO and Blink are both great games when there are language barriers. The kids had already played UNO before and had some pretty funny rules (i.e. everyone puts there hand in the middle when a 7 is played and the last person with their hand there has to take two cards).

One boy in our group didn't really want that much to do with us (while so many of the others just craved the attention). We prayed about it that night and the next morning Hannah ended up playing UNO with a group of kids, this boy included. They played marathon games and after that the boy was completely changed. We dubbed this "UNO for Jesus". LOL.

Here are Hannah and Dima below. She is at the orphanage with him right now! That is so awesome. Her mother looked into adopting him but Ukrainian law dictates that single parents cannot adopt. Next year, when he turns 16 he will age out of the orphanage and be on his own.

Anyway....what I wanted to share is that 40th Anniversary UNO games are ONLY A DOLLAR this week as Target.

(They are usually $5 or $6!)

Anyone up for a game of UNO? These will be for a future missions trip.

Great Gifts! GEO Puzzles

I never took a world geography class and wish I had. One of the goals I have is to teach my girls geography. I don't think they'll get enough of it in school and since I would like to know more myself, this is a great opportunity. Last year we started with where WE are...Earth - Northern Hemisphere - North America - United States of America - Florida - county - city - subdivision - street address. We received world map place mats last year and the girls love to locate different countries. It was right after the earthquake in Haiti and it was eye opening for the girls to see where Haiti was in relationship to Florida.

This Christmas we received these continent puzzles. I love these puzzles! Each piece is a different country. While they are not easy to put together (because the pieces are based on geography and are not interlocking) they are a fun way to get familiar with countries. Even just reading the names is a great start. There are ones that we never hear of and there are ones that we say, "Oh, so that's where ____ is at!". I am going to try to do these each month on my own so I can learn them.