Pomegranate Guacamole

I don't need to say much, the picture and the word avocado speek for themselves... enjoy!

- 2 avocados chopped into small chunks
- 1 large tomato seeded and diced
- 1/2 of a red onion finely chopped
- 1 jalapeno seeded and diced (include the seeds if you prefer it spicy!)
- 1/3 cup diced cilantro
- juice of one lime
- salt and fresh-cracked pepper to taste
- 1/3 cup fresh pomegranate seeds

Mix avocado, tomatoes, onion, jalapeno and cilantro in medium bowl. Squeeze fresh lime juice over mixture and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Fold mixture together gently and top with pomegranate seeds. 

The Perfect Blueberry Muffins - Finally!

Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins

Blueberry muffins aren't like brownies. I mean, when have you ever had a bad brownie? Never! It doesn't matter if they come from a 99 cent box, a coffee shop or were homemade by a 12 year old, they are always good. Admittedly, some are better than others, but I have never meet a brownie I didn't like. But a blueberry muffin on the other hand, they are tricky little suckers. They seem so tame and innocent. I mean how could blueberries, butter and suger be bad? But the fact of the matter is that they are a far cry from being created equal. Boxed versions, forget about it, not even worth it. Even most homemade or coffee shop muffins are usually disappointing. 

I am a "heal of the bread" kinda girl. The top of the muffin should be firm and have a texture different from the inside of the muffin. You should be able to pull the top off the muffin, like in the "Top of the Muffin" Seinfeld episode. They should be able to stand up to cup of strong coffee. I don't want my blueberry muffins delicate and cupcakey. 

Okay, so I admit it, maybe have a mild obsession with the nuances of pastry. And it is fair to say that my mediocre blueberry muffins have been an achilles heal. But, finally, after years of average blueberry muffins, with the right recipe and a few of my personal twists, I have hit the jackpot. These suckers are perfect: substantial, flavorful, and full of juicy blueberries!  

Adapted from Williams- Sonoma Essentials of Baking

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup fine-grind cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup vanilla soy milk
4 T salted butter, melted 

1/4 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt

1 & 1/4 cup FRESH blueberries 

3 T Turbinado sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Position a rack in the middle of the oven, and preheat to 400 degrees F. Butter ~10 large muffin-pan cups or line them with paper liners. 

In a bowl, stir together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and brown sugar. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until blended. Whisk in the soy milk, yogurt and butter. Pour the egg mixture over the dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula just until moistened. Fold in the berries.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each cup about three-fourths full. Sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar evenly over the tops. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 16-22 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 2 minutes, then turn out onto the rack. Serve warm.

Healthy Pumpkin "Ice Cream!"

Pumpkin Soy Ice Cream

- 4 parts Trader Joe's Vanilla Soy Cream

-1 to 2 parts canned pumpkin 

- pinch nutmeg

- pinch cinnamon

- walnuts (if desired)

- Mix well and enjoy or freeze for later!

PS: canned pumpkin is also great mixed into cooked oatmeal and adorned with similar toppings!

Broccoli Carrot Fruit Slaw

- TJ's shredded broccoli and carrots (approximately 1 bag)

- 1 cup garbanzo beans

- 1 tart apple chopped

- 1/2 cup salted and toasted sunflower seeds

- 1/2 cup dried cranberries

- 3 green onions chopped

- desired amount of Goddess Dressing

Harvest Grains Fruit Feta Salad

Salad

- Head Romaine lettuce chopped (or TJ Very American Salad)

- 3/4 cup cooked Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend 

- 1/3 cup raisins 

- 1/2 cup crumpled low fat feta

- 1/2 chopped Jazz or Gala apple

- 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
- 1/2 cup toasted walnut pieces

Dressing

- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

-2 tablespoons olive oil

- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

- 1 tablespoon mustard

- pinch of salt

1) chopped salad ingredients and cook Grain Blend, omitting butter
2) mix dressing ingredients
3) mix salad ingredients together and top with dressing when ready to serve

Broken Arm AND a Sweet Potato Madness

Some of you may know that I broke my arm a while back. Needless to say that my summer plans changed rapidly and endless hours chilling out in Sacramento with nothing to do has been gifted to me (or something like that...)

After the Percocet haze I moped. 

After long, surprisingly fun, ten hour drive with J - Dub, I arrived in sunny San Diego.

After relaxing time with my family, friends, sunshine and sand I felt a bit of acceptance. 

After I could use my lower arm I spent countless hours aimlessly wandering the streets of Sacramento. Many streets have been explored and many iphone photographs have been taken. 

And I discovered that the album Lost Horizons by Lemon Jelly is totally amazing.

After I could move my non-weight baring, non-muscle using shoulder, I cleaned, a lot (in case you didn't know, this is my neon green super awesome cleaning outfit.)  Between working and taking full-time care of me, Pete definitely had his hands full. I walked the neighborhoods more purposefully, I played artist, and I cooked. Here is a hint of what's to come. 

Sweet Potato Fiesta - Ay!

- 1 medium cooked (baked or microwaved) sweet potato per person
- 1 ripe tomato chopped
- 1 can of black beans
- mozzarella cheese (feta might works well too)
- 1 or 2 chopped green long peppers (mix between a bell pepper and a jalapeno)
- salsa

- slice open cooked sweet potato and top with desired amount of cheese and beans. Heat in oven or microwave until cheese is melted and beans are warm. Top with desired about of salsa, fresh tomato and pepper.

And since I still had some cooked sweet potato left over...

Farmers Market Sweet Potato

- 1 medium cooked (baked or microwaved) sweet potato per person
- 1 ripe yellow heirloom tomato chopped
- 1 can of chickpeas, rinsed
- goat cheese
- chopped fresh basil
- cracked pepper
- salt

- slice open cooked sweet potato and top with desired amount of cheese and beans. Heat in oven or microwave until beans are just warm. Top with desired about of tomato and fresh basil.

I have a bunch more recipes to post once typing become more comfortable. But by then, I may be back on my bike ;-)

Quinoa Banana Bread

By the time I got around to writing down the recipe, this

was all that remained of the loaf.
Well, I guess that is not entirely true... by the time I got to taking the picture, that was all that was left. Currently, the loaf is gone. Poof, gone. And I barely shared!

This recipe was inspired by my friend Megan who creatively added millet to a loaf of banana bread she brought camping with us a few weeks back.

(In case you are wondering, yes, I did burn my shoes...)

The millet provided a nice nutty texture and made for a bit denser bread. Since I love quinoa, I decided to go out on a limb and add some to my next loaf of bread. The end result was a nutty bread, without the nuts, that was not too dense or dry and still tasted like ripe bananas :)

This recipe is similar to one I found online, with a number of my own additions and modifications of course. This made one regular sized banana bread plus 5 muffins.

- 1/2 cup of butter
- 2 eggs
- ~2 1/4 cups mashed rip banana
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup turbinado sugar, plus ~ 3 tablespoons to sprinkle on top
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 cup cooked red quinoa
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon, plus some to sprinkle on top
- 1/8 teaspoon salt

- Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour 9 x 5 pan.
- Cook quinoa (follow directions on box)
- Cream butter and sugars together. Add in honey and eggs. Mix well.
- Add in the mashed banana and make sure well mixed.
- Mix all dry ingredients together, including cooked quinoa, and separate bowl and add to wet ingredients.
- Once well mixed, pour into pan and muffin tins and sprinkle with turbinado sugar and cinnamon.
- Bake for ~ 1 hr or until toothpick comes out clean.

Protein packed arugula, sweet potato salad

I think I could live on sweet potato... 

I think this salad has it all: the bitter greens go well with the nutty quinoa and sweet flavors of the potato and creamy avocado. It is really a meal it itself, colorful, well balanced and full of protein from the beans and quinoa. I wanted a salad for dinner and thought I could pull it off, let me know what you think!

Salad

- bag arugula

- large sweet potato 

- 1 cup red quinoa

- ~1 cup white beans

- 1 ripe avocado

Dressing

- lemon

- olive oil

- salt

- cracked pepper

- red wine vinegar

Cut sweet potato into 1/2 inch chunks and cook in ~2 tablespoon of olive oil until golden brown on the outside and soft on the inside. Allow to cool.

Cook quinoa according to package directions and allow to cool.
Cut avocado into bit sized pieces and rinse beans.
Arrange generous portion of arugula in salad bowl and top with sweet potato, beans, quinoa and avocado.
Mix a approximately 2 tablespoons good olive oil, 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar with 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste. (you may need to adjust the amount of dressing to the size of the salad.)
Toss dressing with salad and serve immediately.

Fancy Bacon Quesadillas!!!

I swear they are good. I have tested them out on real live unsuspecting people. Friends even. They agree.

- Whole wheat tortillas
- Sharp cheddar cheese (graded)
- 1 large Granny-Smith apple (thinly sliced)
- Prosciutto (chopped into bit size pieces)

Preheat frying pan and heat both sides of tortilla. Cover one half of tortilla with a thick layer of cheese. Cover cheese layer with apple slices and prosciutto. Fold over and heat on both sides until slightly crispy. Let cool, slice and enjoy as an appetizer or on its own.

PS: I am not a very good vegetarian...

Pumpkin French Toast

- 2 slices whole grain bread
- 1 tablespoon vanilla soy milk (regular milk would work fine too)
- 1 egg and 1 egg white
- 1/4 cup pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- dash of salt
- pinch of cinnamon
- pinch of nutmeg

Mix all ingredients together. Butter frying pan and pre heat. Soak both sides of bread in mixture and fry until golden brown on both sides. Great with 100% maple syrup!

Makes one serving of 2 slices. Increase recipe as needed.

Gone with the Wind Granola

Trust me, you will never go back to store bought granola...


6 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup of each of 3 different types of nuts (roasted but not salted: walnut pieces, sunflower seeds, cashew pieces, almonds etc.)
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup honey
1/3 hot water
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4-1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup raisins (or other fruit, cranberries, etc.) 

Preheat oven to 325
Mix oats and nuts together
Mix oil, honey water and vanilla together in a separate bowl.
Mix liquid mixture with oat mixture. 

Pour granola into rimmed ungreased baking sheet or glass baking dish. 
Bake for 15-20 min, stirring every 5 min. Stir in coconut and cook (continue stirring every 5 min) for an additional 10-15 min until granola has reached desired golden brown color.
Add dried fruit when done. Let cool and store in airtight container. 

Round 2 - Forest City Mountain Biking

After our only somewhat successful trip to the trails near Forest City, CA the previous weekend we decided to have another go at it. The weather was supposed to be windy and 75 in Sac town, perfect weather to escape the flats and skinny tires.

The drive up was beautiful, that is until about 15 min from the trail head... when we noticed SNOW. Only a few patches at first, but by the time we reached Ridge Road, the road on which the trails begin, there was a lot of SNOW....  Although this time around we were more prepared: maps, check; matches, check; chain tool and backup tools, check and check; we did not plan for SNOW.

Sad faces :(

We attempted to ride the snow covered trails with little success. Okay, maybe I was just unsuccessful...

The snow was much deeper and wetter that it looks!

After a short jaunt to determine that the trails were unrideable, we decided that we would go for a spin on the road to enjoy the scenery. But first Pete needed to tighten his loose cleat.... this resulted in a inch wide portion of the sole of his shoes, including his cleat, coming completely detached from the shoe! At least it happened at the car during already botched day. 

Pete is a trooper and decided to ride with one foot clipped in. Our spin on the road lead us down the valley into Forest City... which lead us to some muddy fire roads... which lead us to the single track we attempted to ride the weekend prior! Yippie!

Super cool little bike specific stone bridge.

We rode the single track up to where the snow got too deep and then back down the way we came. Super fun trail. Unfortunately it looks like we will have to wait till next season to get to the rest of them...

Offseason Adventure Mountain Biking

This story really begins about three years ago when Pete meet a hippie mountain biker who told him about some new trails that he and some of his buddies were building north of Grass Valley. Mesmerized by the stories the tie-dyed shirt wearing, hippie passed along, Pete has been begging me to get out to these trials ever since. I managed to avoid the trip to this theoretical trail system mostly because I didn't believe that it actually existed. I fully expected our 2 hours of driving to be rewarded with a few miles of unmarked overgrown trails.

Following a week of unseasonably amazing weather (and some internet research that indicated that the trails really did exist - http://foresttrailsalliance.org/), we decided Sunday the 6th of November was the day. We woke up early (for us...) and picked up our friend, Peter, and drove 2 hours to the trail head..... which was surprisingly well marked! I took this as a good sign.

We were on our bikes at 11 am.  The trails were amazing, burmed switchbacks, lots of fun rollers, jump options and numerically marked technical sections!

Did I forget to mention that the forest was gorgeous in all of its Autumn glory!!

Unfortunately we didn't print a map. Pete hand drew one.... our printer was out of ink. And there was no cell phone coverage in the valley. And, big surprise, we kinda sorta got lost... 

After a bunch of super fun single track, a flat, and 2.5 hrs of riding, we were supposed to ride a bit of fire road to more fun single track that would take us around the the town of Forest City and up the valley we just spend a few hours riding down. The fire roads were not well marked on our hand drawn map (surprise, surprise) and soon we became tired of riding down similarly looking (and named!) fire roads that all turned out to be dead ends. 

Also, for obvious reasons, we were at least moderately worried about gun sling'in back country folk.

(In case you missed it, please note the spelling of the spray painted sign....)

Still unsure of our location and a bit frustrated, at about 2:45 we had just enough daylight to ride back to the car the way we came. The boys decided that the best option was to continue riding further from the direction of the car on the largest fire road we could find, hoping it would either lead us to the thriving metropolis of Forest City (population ~2) or to the only paved highway in 50 square miles. 

Fortunately they were right...

Feeling relieved that we would not be spending the night freezing in woods, we took the opportunity to explore the old mining/ghost town for a bit. What a cool place!

In case you were wondering, yes, you can rent this old Dance Hall: $100 for 24 hrs

After looking at the map posted in town, the boys decided that the best way back to the car was a fire road that would lead us to the single track we had been searching for all day. 

The fire road ended up being a hike a bike all the way to the top of the ridge.

However we did eventually end up on single track.... 

only to realize that we had already ridden it... 

the same direction.... 

that morning! 

Awesome.

We made it back to the car by 4:30 pm, well within my "as long as I am back at the car by dark" request.  We even managed to eventually find the trail we were looking for... at the trial head :) 

We concluded our great day with some killer burritos and dinner time trivia at the infamous Maria's Taco Shop in Auburn. 

We may be heading back sometime soon to ride the trails we missed, anyone want in!?

BEERMOSA, enough said.

Pete and I took a vacation to my family's cabin in Big Bear, CA and attempted to leave the cabin for only the most important of reasons...

... kick ass mountain biking from the door step

and talking the dogs on walks.

Otherwise, this was our plan...

While this made for an incredibly relaxing trip, the food and beverage consumption required some... creativity.

Personally I am not a big fan of Corona. So when you find yourself on vacation, it is 10:30 am and life hands you a few Coronas (or your mom leaves them in the fridge) the only natural thing to do is... make BEERMOSAs!!!

Easy steps to making your own Beermosa:
~1/2 Carona
~1/2 OJ
Stir with juice from a lime wedge
(the bamboo martini glass are a bonus, but not completely necessary...)

Another of our favorites was modeled after the German Radler, a mix of beer and lemonade.
I think ours is much better!!!

~2/5's Firestone Double Barrel Ale (or similar, Sierra Nevada works well too)
~2/5's Trader Joe's Pomegranate Limeade
~1/5 Trader Joe's Sparkling Lime Mineral Water

Having a difficult time telling our drinks apart, Pete came up with a clever glass identification system that, I must admit, is pretty kick ass - Lime wedge carvings!!!

Here we see an alligator and the letter "E" 

... a pine tree. 

All you need is a lime, a knife, some creativity and a bit of patience. The possibilities are endless!!! We are thinking that this is going to be the next "big thing." We might be going big with this one...

Hey,... it is the off season right?

Gateway Cup - St. Louis

Vanderkitten invited me to guest ride for the Gateway Cup, four crits in St. Louis, MO over Labor Day weekend. Pete said the races were fun, the prize money was good and I had a super fun team to ride and travel with so I was stoked.

Friday's race was at 8:30 pm and was my first race ever under the lights! I raced aggressive and 3 of us finished in the money!

                                          
Elevators with 4 girls and 4 bikes are a bit tight!

The second stage was around a downtown park.

People were everywhere picnicking, BBQing and enjoying the long weekend. I was a bit frustrated after the race as I felt I was racing well but, despite my efforts attacking and bridging to some promising moves, the second race ended in another field sprit; not my forte.... We had a renegade photo shoot in front of the famous arch in the evening (photo above) which was super fun.

We did a spin to the arch and along the waterfront the next morning. What an amazing piece of architecture! Such a different feel up close.

                        

Sunday's stage was the highlighted race of the event: the biggest prize money as well as the race's 25th anniversary! The Giro Della Montagna ("The Hill") is the only stage with a hill and is held in the Italian District of the city; the race has a great atmosphere. I was a bit nervous before this stage because I thought that with battle for the leaders jersey and the course profile, it might be a good day for a break to stick and I wanted to be in it!

I was right... :)

The 3rd of 4 prime bells rung and I was in a good spot. Laura Van Guilder and another rider were already battling it out but I was able to come around in the downhill draft and take the $100 prime! I had a good gap along the bottom stretch and a few riders came around... but soon realized that the rest of the pack was a ways back and so 5 or 6 of us starting working together. After a few more laps we were down to a four person break. Laura Van Gilder and I worked hard together, increasing our lead to over a minute. Going for the win, I jumped first just before the last corner, hoping to get a gap on the sprinters in the break, but Colavita and Laura came around and I came across the finish line in 3rd. Not too shabby :)

                                                              

The race holds a dinner at the local Bocci Ball club in the evening and we celebrated our team's great ride and podium finish playing Bocci ball until way too late in the evening...

The forth stage was a fun, technical 1.8 mile course that ran so close to a brewery that I could smell the fermenting hops while racing... ummm beer. We raced great as a team, attacking and covering moves and Starla sprinted to a 4th place finish!

We enjoyed beers in the park with friends while watching the men's race and followed park beers up with a delicious lunch/dinner at a restaurant on the course.

The ride back to the hotel was bit... hummm, interesting ;-)

The race promoters did a fabulous job, St. Louis is awesome and I am planning on coming back next year!

Photos taken by the famous Jason Perry (www.JasonPerryPhoto.com) and Jake Drevs! Thanks guys :)