Sarah Henning

Yes, I'm pretty sure I'd run all the way across the country to meet my honey. Even if he were a wee bit undertrained.

Happy Monday!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

So, today, I'm in a bit of mourning. During my morning cardio, I finished "A Dance with Dragons" the fifth (and most recent) book of "A Game of Thrones" series.

I absolutely love these books and now I'll be waiting for some time before I get a crack at another one (author George R.R. Martin took six years between his last two books and he's got a pretty busy schedule these days with a little TV show you may have heard of).

I've got some other great books taking up my shelf — I'm loving "Speaks the Nightbird," which I started alternating with "A Dance with Dragons" to drag it out — but still, saying goodbye to Westeros for awhile leaves a huge hole.

So, I decided to fill that hole with juice.

Juice that happens to encompass the final book's theme of "fire and blood." I planned on juicing a beet with other tasty veggies and a bit of jalapeño. At the last second, though, the little man decided he wanted some (as you can see above), so I left out the pepper. But that jalapeño does add a great kick if you're not sharing your juice with a 3-year-old.

Either way, it comes out a really pretty red color that, well, admittedly looks a bit like blood.

Espeically when your 3-year-old is messy and spills some on the floor :)

Fire and Blood Juice

1 head celery

4 small leaves kale (dinosaur or curly or a mix)

3 medium carrots, peeled

1 large beet, peeled

1 large lemon, peeled

1 handful cilantro

1 small piece seeded jalapeño (optional)

Run all through a juicer. Devour with a good book!

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I'm in a pretty good mood this St. Patrick's Day. Last night, KU won, Mizzou and Duke lost and this morning is full of birds chirping and 60-degree temperatures.

Lovely, lovely madness, indeed.

Mad, and green. All across the Web, my blogging friends are posting green recipes for this especially green day. So, I thought I'd join that bit of madness.

Naturally, I want to share a green smoothie recipe. Because, for me, that's the easiest way to be green. This one has a summery feel to it, just like this T-shirt-worthy holiday.

Enjoy!

Emerald Isle Green Smoothie

1 mango, chopped

1 banana

1 cup strawberries

2 handfuls baby spinach

Handful raspberries

1 scoop Vanilla Sunwarrior

1 tablespoon Vitamineral Green, spirulina or chorella

1 to 1.5 cups water

Blend all. Serves 1 to 2.

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

<div></div>

This has exactly nothing to do with food, but I love my Jayhawks, and we had a super big win on Saturday. I had kale salad right before the win, by the way, so there's the food component:)

Make sure to watch the film all the way through the end. There are two videos, one before the players are announced and one after that's even cooler. Yes, that doesn't seem possible after watching the first video, but it's true.

Rock Chalk!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I have a smoothie every day. Sometimes twice a day.

And often, those smoothies have a chocolate element — cocoa powder, cacao nibs or chocolate-flavored Sunwarrior.

Rarely do I ever go the "vanilla" route. I've always been a chocolaholic to the core. Vanilla tastes just fine, but I'm not drawn to it like I am chocolate.

But, every now and then a girl's got to try a different flavor combination.

I went to my local co-op last week to pick up more Vitamineral Green. Right there next to it were some other HealthForce products, including some little sample bottles like the one I started with for Vitamineral Green. So, I decided to go "wild" and buy some vanilla-flavored Warrior Food protein powder. The little sample bottle cost less than $4 — perfect for a test run.

After a particularly tough track and stadium stair workout on Sunday, I decided to taste-test my newest smoothie ingredient. Because I was having it at about 4 p.m., I didn't want to make a chocolate-laced smoothie because of the caffeine factor. Therefore, vanilla Warrior Food seemed like a perfect solution.

I ended up combining it with cinnamon, sweet bananas and my trusty Vitamineral Green. The result is sure to become a new favorite!

Vanilla Green Protein Smoothie

2 bananas

1 to 1.5 cups water

10 grams vanilla Warrior Food

1 tablespoon Vitamineral Green

Splash vanilla

Pinch cinnamon

Put all ingredients in a blender. Blend. Serves 1.

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Make sure to watch this on an empty stomach ... and then fill back up with *real* food.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

By now, you've probably read the infamous New York Times article about how vegetarians are starving in the Midwest. As part of my job as the food writer for Lawrence.com and the Lawrence Journal-World, I wrote a response, which you can read here. It's gotten a lot of attention, for which I'm grateful.

Now, as you can see from the pic above, I'm definitely not going hungry. Even in the winter, I can manage to throw together a salad with ingredients purchased from any old store. And this salad, inspired by my friend Lauren's love of all veggies fermented, is really, really good.

It has a kale base and is topped with tons of nutrient-dense goodies: squash, avocado, olives and kimchi, the aforementioned fermented product. I'm trying to add kimchi to more of my meals as a way to get more gut-improving probiotics. Right now, I get most of my probiotics from kombucha, which is yummy, but pretty expensive. So, needless to say, I'm looking for cheaper alternatives. Kimchi fits the bill, and it's absolutely perfect on salads like this one.

Kimchi Squash Kale Salad

1/2 bunch green kale

1 to 2 cups chopped cooked squash (I used 1.5 roasted sweet dumpling squash)

1/2 cup kimchi (or more)

1/2 avocado, chopped

Kalamata olives

Tear the kale leaves into small pieces and discard the stems. Put the pieces in a bowl and top with avocado, massaging it gently into the kale pieces. Top with squash, kimchi and olives. Enjoy! Serves 1 as a dinner salad or 2 as a side salad.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

It's no secret that we love green smoothies and juices in our house. But, pretty much 100 percent of the time, our drinks get their color from just fresh greens like spinach and kale. That's what I prefer, and that's what I do.

But, the other day I was at our local health food store and decided I'd try something new. Well, it's not new, but it's new to me — Vitamineral Green.

It's not a supplement, per se, the creator's website is very adamant about that. Rather, it's a mixture of super foods in a powder form, meant to enhance what you already take in. The powder is a mixture of a few dozen beneficial plants, including spirulina, kale, ginger root, wheat grass, plus various enzymes and probiotics.

I have blogger friends who have mentioned it before, and so I picked up a tiny bottle. I decided my first trial of it would be to add it to a pre-run protein smoothie and the results turned out great. Vitamineral Green has a surprisingly mild flavor and didn't overpower the smoothie or make it taste "too green" (not that that bothers me, but I know it bothers some folks).

My little trial bottle cost less than $4, making it a great little investment if you want to dip a toe in the world of greens but fear smoothies full of kale and chard. If you do like those things (like I do), it's a great little addition to whatever you're whipping up in the blender or juicer.

Here's how I tried it, in a smooth-tasting concoction I'm calling my "Double Green Smoothie." Enjoy!

Double Green Smoothie

1 banana

1 handful spinach

1 scoop chocolate Sunwarrior protein

1 teaspoon Vitamineral Green

1 to 1-1/2 cups water

Blend all in a blender. Serves 1.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Since I'm in a juicy mood, I thought I'd share the nightcap I had tonight after a serious hill run, dinner and hanging out with my little guy. It's mean and super green — no watery filler in this sucker. It's straight and green and unforgiving. Yum!

Dark Green Night Cap

1/2 bunch dinosaur kale

1 small head romaine lettuce

1 Granny Smith applle

1 lemon

Run all through the juicer. Serves 1.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

My post-run snack today was totally lean, mean and green. And oh so yummy!

I have a feeling I'll be making this green juice a lot in 2012.

Mega Super Green Juice

2 Granny Smith apples

2 small heads celery or 1 regular one

6 small leaves dinosaur kale

1 inch fresh ginger

1 lime, peel cut away

Run all ingredients through a juicer. Enjoy!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Happy New Year!

I started my first morning of 2012 with this espeically lovely green juice, served in a wine glass. It was green with kale and celery but tinted nearly as dark as a pinot noir thanks to pomegranante seeds.

A weird combination, but it tasted great, and the amount of antioxidents in a single glass made me smile. Plus, the kale has calcium and iron, the pomegranate seeds have Vitamin C. Score!

This glass of juice might not cure a hangover (for those of you that have them), but it's an especially nutrient-dense way to start the New Year. That's something we can all drink too, right?

Green Juice Glass of Red

1 cup pomegranate seeds (from 1 large pomegranate)

4 stems kale (I used dinosaur kale)

1 head celery

2 small apples, cored

Run all through the juicer. Serves 1. Enjoy!

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

So, I haven't been posting a ton this fall, but really that's because I've been really busy running!

First, I did the Blue Springs 50/50 with Laurie and set a personal record for a 50K in 5 hours, 35 minutes.

Then, the next weekend, I went down to Tulsa with Nicole and got second place(!) in 7:01 at the Turkey and TATURS 50K on the very hill Turkey Mountain. Nicole finished third about 4 minutes later in her very first 50K (just two weeks after her very first marathon!).

My next race isn't until Feburary, but in the meantime, I got super excited about race season after seeing "Unbreakable: The Western States 100" a few weeks ago at a special screening put on my the Lawrence Trail Hawks. It's a fabulous movie and if it shows up on iTunes or Netflix, I highly recommend you take a look. (Or you can, like me, just buy it!)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

A great video from "60 Minutes" about all those flavors that show up in "food." I tried to embed it, but Posterous wasn't having it. Check it out!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I love chia pudding. I am abolutely addicted. For more than a year, I've been making my friend Kristen's Holiday Chia Pudding probably an average of once a week.

What is chia pudding, you say?

It's the best way to eat chia seeds, of course. Chia seeds are high in Omega-3 fatty acids, calcium and fiber. Another cool thing about them? When they get wet, they expand. Get enough of them in one place and they can creat a gel. Play with the ratio of chia to liquid and you get a pudding.

Easy right? Super easy — which makes it the perfect breakfast. The expansive nature of the chia seeds make them nice and filling. They pair well with nearly any fruit, but my favorite way to eat them is with blueberries in what I like to call Purple People Eater Pudding.

Purple People Eater Pudding

1 1/2 cups blueberries (thawed, if frozen)
2 scoops (30g total) chia seeds (or 2 heaping tablespoons)
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup raw cashews, soaked 1 hour or more
2 medjool dates (or 4 small dates, rehydrated if dry)
Splash vanilla
Dash or 2 cinnamon
Dash nutmeg
Put water, cashews, dates, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg in the blender and blend until smooth. Pour the cashew mixture in a bowl. Mix in chia seeds.

Pour in blueberries. Stir. Let sit to thicken up, or eat as is. It'll get thicker the more you let it sit (just pack your lunch or tend to other morning needs while you wait, or make the pudding the night before and add the blueberries in the morning). Alternately, you can just put the blueberries on top and eat it that way rather than stiring (though it'll be slightly less purple).

This makes one large breakfast serving, two snack-size servings.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Note: This blog is reposted from my everyday work blog on Lawrence.com.

I'm hoping most of you had the same reaction as I did when news came earlier this week that Congress had proposed to make pizza a vegetable within the confines of the school lunch program:

"Oh, that makes sense."

Not that I think it's right. And not that I believe pizza, or more accurately the tomato paste in the pizza sauce, is truly a vegetable. I think that's a bunch of junk. No, it was that I wasn't surprised in the least.

Why should we be surprised? Schools have to go through loopholes to get fresh, organic, local vegetables into their school kitchens. As a corollary to how hard local food leaders like Nancy O'Connor, Rick Martin, Linda Cottin and others have worked to get school gardens up and running and feeding children in Lawrence, it just makes sense that all of a sudden the bar for our children's food would be set lower. I mean, we are fat and getting fatter all the time. Why not keep our children — our future — in step?

Yes, pizza's sudden status as a vegetable is upsetting, stupid and disheartening. And though disgusted Americans can ship their kids off to school with lunch pails in hand, that might not keep children from eating crap. We can't control what children put in their mouths within school walls. French fries and pizza are just about as attractive to children as being just like everyone else. And if everyone else is eating pizza, it's not hard to imagine an allowance spent on "vegetables" and a sack lunch rotting in the trash.

So, what's a parent to do? Control what your child eats at home. Offer him or her fruits and vegetables at breakfast and dinner. Don't buy the unhealthy things he or she leans on for after-school snacks. Buy apples. Buy pears. Buy baby carrots. Stand your ground.

And if your children want pizza? Make them pizza.

Pizza isn't a vegetable, but it isn't a four-letter word either. Not so long as you lead by example. Make a pizza covered in vegetables. Serve it with a salad. And ask your kids if they want to help in the kitchen — let them learn the joy of making something for themselves.

For a few ideas on pizzas containing actual vegetables, try these:

Romesco Pizza With Caramelized Onions & Squash

Whole Grain Mini Pizzas

Grilled Heirloom Tomato and Pesto Pizzas (in the pic at the top of this blog)

Roasted Apple, Butternut Squash, and Caramelized Onion Pizza (my family's personal fave)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

You may have noticed I haven't posted new recipes recently. Honestly, it's because I CAN'T STOP MAKING these fabulously healthy treats from my friend Katie — Raw Thin Mint Brownies.

I seriously have been making a double batch once or twice a week. They're great for a snack at work or to stop a chocolate craving right in its tracks. Now, they're not the most photogenic little brownie bites ever (Something Katie mentions with her recipe, btw. She takes much better photos than me and they still are a bit humble looking...), but you'll love the taste. Yep, they capture the right mint-to-chocolate ratio of those famous Girl Scout cookies without any of the less-than preferable ingredients.

Some tips:
1. If you don't have time to roll out little balls (like in my photo) or patties (like on Katie's page), you can always press these into a glass pan, freeze them and then cut them into traditional brownie squares.
2. I often use half walnuts and half pecans instead of all walnuts. Using all walnuts is really tasty too, but there's something about the addition of pecans.
3. I tend to use about a 1/2 teaspoon of mint extract when I double the recipe, so a 1/4 when making the original recipe. Just play around with it.
4. I use soft medjool dates. If you use another type, I'd recommend soaking them for a bit first.

Enjoy! And check out Katie's other recipes. She's got some really fabulous ones on her site.

Also on the dessert front: I bought this great little book from my friend Natalia and I'll be writing about it and her full-sized cookbook soon!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Though I can't remember the last time I ate pork, this video says it all about how I'd love to see the food system change in my lifetime.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

In my humble opinion, summer 2011 was a fabulous one. Yes, it was the hottest summer on record since I've been alive, but that's not all it was (ignore the cries from my garden — now fried to a nutrient-dense crisp).

The past few months the hubby and I got to do a few races, Nate got to earn his scraped-up knees like any active little boy and we all ate a lot of good, ol' unprocessed food. Yay! (Oh, and I turned 30 ... not that I want to discuss that.)

Fall 2011 officially began yesterday and though it's finally 70 degrees and gorgeous, I'm still in a bit of mourning that summer has already passed. It's my favorite time of year — it's warm, sunny and the snow and ice of Kansas winters seem so very far away. Unfortunately, summer is also the season that seems to go by the fastest. Blink twice and suddenly there's frost on the ground and 10 butternut squash in the pantry.

To help work through my impending bit of "WINTER'S COMING!" doom, I put together a little retrospective of things we did, ate and grew this summer.

(Note: The pics of the kiddo in a hoodie were taken today, therefore one day into fall. But they're really cute, so they're included. Also, it wasn't hoodie weather and he was sweating bullets but he wouldn't take it off.)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Why didn't I think of this? I don't know, but I sure did sign up right away. And you should too! Take the pledge.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »