I finished up my year teaching preschool; a bittersweet moment to be sure as I will certainly miss my little kiddos, but I am very excited to be living more in the heart of the city, and getting a chance to do more cooking and baking at work. (You should definitely come check out the cafe- we have breakfast all day, awesome smoothies and a great outdoor patio!)
I also was able to visit an awesome friend of mine (and make some new ones!) in Alaska, which happens to be one of my all-time favorite places on earth! :) The two of us were going to run a half-marathon together, and what had started out as a strict training regimen got gradually pushed to the side as both of us became busier and busier... and busier. So when Saturday morning rolled around, and I hadn't carved out time to run even just once in the past two weeks (and prior to that had just gotten maybe one to two runs in a week)... hitting snooze seemed like a much better idea than jumping out of bed and going to run 13.1 miles. We had a delightful breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes on the roof, overlooking gorgeous Alaskan mountains. I wouldn't have changed any part of it! That same trip, I also got to go rafting in Talkeetna, fly in a 6-person plan around Mt. McKinley AND get out on a glacier up there too, see a mama and baby moose suuuper close up, smoke a cigar, and have some great chats with some amazing people. :) What an incredible world we live in!
I have realized that "the best laid plans" really do not always go according to plan... and although I chose not to run a half-marathon at that time, there will be others (perhaps the same one next year!), and I am excited that each day is a new one, and with it comes the ability to make choices that bring me life and let me bless others.
NOW, onto some baking news. I had been really pondering how many calories one really consumes when they eat a cupcake.... possibly because how often do you go into a bake shop and see nutrition facts posted or available? Ummmm... never. (I suppose that's because we don't really want to know...) Anyway... I found this article through NPR (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10328143) which discusses the calories in popular NYC bakery cupcakes. A vanilla cupcake ranges from 386 to almost 800 calories. YIKES!
I decided to do some experimenting with different ratios of sugars, flours and fats, along with different ingredients... and came up with some pretty good combinations! I'm going to tweak them still, as I used olive oil instead of butter (which gave awesome texture but tasted a little too olive-y for my liking). But here's the best part.... the cupcakes (sans frosting, since I haven't played around with that yet) were all under 200 calories! One clocked in at 161 per cake! That means even with frosting, these new cupcakes are way worth the "indulgence" (since they'll still be no more than 250 per cupcake). For one mix, I used honey, ground flax, and olive oil to replace granulated sugar and butter. Now, you can have a cupcake that tastes great, and has great things for your body too!
More updates (and photos!!) to come soon!
I have realized that "the best laid plans" really do not always go according to plan... and although I chose not to run a half-marathon at that time, there will be others (perhaps the same one next year!), and I am excited that each day is a new one, and with it comes the ability to make choices that bring me life and let me bless others.
NOW, onto some baking news. I had been really pondering how many calories one really consumes when they eat a cupcake.... possibly because how often do you go into a bake shop and see nutrition facts posted or available? Ummmm... never. (I suppose that's because we don't really want to know...) Anyway... I found this article through NPR (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10328143) which discusses the calories in popular NYC bakery cupcakes. A vanilla cupcake ranges from 386 to almost 800 calories. YIKES!
I decided to do some experimenting with different ratios of sugars, flours and fats, along with different ingredients... and came up with some pretty good combinations! I'm going to tweak them still, as I used olive oil instead of butter (which gave awesome texture but tasted a little too olive-y for my liking). But here's the best part.... the cupcakes (sans frosting, since I haven't played around with that yet) were all under 200 calories! One clocked in at 161 per cake! That means even with frosting, these new cupcakes are way worth the "indulgence" (since they'll still be no more than 250 per cupcake). For one mix, I used honey, ground flax, and olive oil to replace granulated sugar and butter. Now, you can have a cupcake that tastes great, and has great things for your body too!
More updates (and photos!!) to come soon!
