Active Life Cooking

Another Week, Another Step Closer…

Plus a Recipe for Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels!

Yet again I must apologize for the tardy post this week. We finally had our long-awaited long weekend in San Antonio and I wanted to be disconnected from the intertubes (well except for my iphone…must be able to find good food ). Well, we had a successful weekend (more on that next update) and came back nice and well-rested to face the small stretch until we reach Thanksgiving!I’m happy to report that with each training session, it appears as if my ankle/tendinitis issues are becoming a thing of the past (with proper maintenance of course). I’m successfully increasing my mileage and runs little by little and am now currently chugging along at near full strength (albeit a bit slower…).

Fundraising has hit a bit of a wall last week. I was in a week long training class at work that was held offsite, so I was unable to have my weekly bake sale. However, I believe I’m still on track and am taking a bit of a break to gear up for Christmas baking/saleing! Christmas bake sales should be a lot of fun, so if anyone has any suggestions of recipes to try, please send them my way! This is my first holiday season where I’ve shown an interest in cooking/baking so everything is fair game at this point (with my special healthy twists of course).

So, on to the specifics…

Training update:

Saturday: Weekly run with Team in Training…Mark ran 10 miles, I completed 5 miles (my longest post-injury run to that point). I was really happy to be back and even happier to finish half the run with no pain!

Sunday: Rest Day

Monday: Mark did an easy 20 min run with Sasha; I decided to rest up my ankle another day

Tuesday: Mark – rest; Me – Easy Memorial Park Loop after work (2.8 miles)

Wednesday: Both – Track Practice…we decided to do this week’s track practice on our own a bit earlier than everyone else. As I was easing back into speed work, I did a mile at tempo pace (0.5 mi warm up), Mark completed ~2 miles at tempo

Thursday: Both – rest

Friday: Both – easy 15 minute run (a bit over 1 mi)

My total mileage: ~10.3 mi

I’m still trying to keep up trying new recipes and keeping it fresh in the kitchen for not only our dinners, but for healthy snacks as well. A few weeks ago I was feeling homesick for a good old fashioned soft pretzel. I was raised in an area known for it’s pretzels, well, let’s face it, one of my favorite restaurants is owned by Auntie Anne’s daughter (of Auntie Anne’s pretzel fame). When I found this recipe at King Arthur Flour, I just had to give it the good old college try (with a few modifications)!

Honey Wheat Soft Pretzels (modified from King Arthur Flour)

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp Honey (alternatively sugar, but then they won’t be “honey wheat”)
• 2 cups room temp water
• 1 tbsp active dry yeast
• 3 cups All Purpose Flour (grumble, I’ll do it for a good pretzel…)
• 0.5 tbsp salt
• 1.5 cups White Whole Wheat Flour (King Arthur preferred)
• 1.5 cups Traditional Whole Wheat Flour (King Arthur preferred)
• 6 cups water (for bath)
• 2 tbsp baking soda (for bath)
• egg whites (optional egg wash)
• salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, brown sugar, etc. (all optional toppings, experiment with your favorite pretzel toppers)

I followed the instructions on the King Arthur website, which was straightforward and worked very well. Please boil your pretzels before baking. It really does make a big difference in the texture and gives you a more authentic taste (in my humble opinion).

This recipe is quite large and makes 16 pretzels. However, the great news is that these pretzels freeze quite well! I took each individual cooked pretzel and wrapped them Saran Wrap tightly and placed them into gallon freezer bags. You could alternatively freeze them pre-cooked (but boiled) but I wouldn’t recommend freezing the non-boiled dough. Whenever the craving hits, take one out of the freezer and nuke it in the microwave if you are impatient (like me, takes ~1 min) or warm it up in the oven. If you are defrosting unbaked pretzels, I would suggest baking them and not trusting the microwave to bake them correctly.

Overall a great, healthy comfort snack!

Nutrition (1/16th of batch):

• 152 cal
• 0 g fat
• 29 g carb
• 3 g fiber
• 5 g protein

Stay tuned next week for our San Antonio trip update!