Banana Bread Pudding and a Long Run

Let's cut to the chase... since once again, I SHOULD be doing homework and am instead writing a blogpost, because the things I made this morning was really, really good.

It was pudding...or maybe more like soft serve ice cream....or a super thick smoothie (you decide!) but it had the taste of banana bread. Really. I kid you not. EXACTLY like it... and then that added cold, frozen dreamy creaminess that 'banana soft-serve' has, for those of you who have just blended up frozen bananas know.

I STRONGLY recommend this. I think it may be my favorite thing I've made thus far! Sweet, refreshing, fruity, and really... banana bready :)

BANANA BREAD FROZEN PUDDING

1 frozen banana

1/3 cup almond milk

1/8 cup rolled oats, ground in food processer to powder

Dash Cinnamon

Dash Nutmeg

OPTIONAL TOPPINGS:

Coconut Flakes

Chocolate Chips

Chopped Almonds

Peanut Butter

Caramel Sauce

1. Put everything into your blender and blend on high until you get a creamy, soft-serve ice cream/pudding consistency.
2. Top with whatever your little heart desires. I went with coconut flakes (overcoming my fear of saturated fats!) and some cocoa roasted almonds, which were awesome because a little bit of chocolate got in there in the almond bites but I also got the plain-banana bread taste in others, which I LOVED. ENJOY!

Here she is! All topped up!

Okay, so I ate the toppings first :)

 At practice today we got the pleasure of getting in a long run. I love long runs, because you can really let loose and get the acid out of your muscles but still get in a bit of a workout. I find that my mind really clears up and I start to get in touch with my body more and more as the run goes on. Plus, you can talk with your teammates! We played a little game in which we speculated where all the people we knew would be in 10 years. It's funny, but according to us, it seems that we will all be doctors or physical therapists or physchologists. That tells you a bit about the kind of girls on our team, haha....fun-loving but also loving. And smart. I love my team. They are always there for me. Plus, when I shared the embarrassing fact that yes, I started a blog, no one laughed. They were very interested in learning how to make a smoothie taste like banana bread, I'll say that!

Question of the Day: Where do you see YOURSELF in 10 years?

Why Everyone Should Love Speedwork

I'm anticipating another Uber-busy week coming up. School will take off as normal, I assume, and I'm going to have to drag myself out of bed and get moving each morning in order to make it to the bus stop and through 3 hours of classes before the next real break for lunch. So of course, I need to be extra prepared with a filling breakfast that can carry me through!

Before I share my (hopefully) delicious new recipe, let's talk about speed work. Duh duh duh.... I know. If you're strictly a distance runner like me, the very phrase brings chills to your spine. To be honest, despite the title of this post, I don't love speedwork. I actually kind of loathe it...but just a little less than I did before.

You see, I had to face a grueling set of speed drills this morning at 8:00 AM, which is either a really good thing or a really bad thing depending on how you spin in. If you want to look at it negatively...it was 8 in the morning on Labor Day and I would really have preferred to be snuggled down in my warm bed, head buried deep in my yummy-scented pillow. If you want to put a positive spin on it, though... the fact that it was 8 meant that my mind hadn't completely woken up to figure out what the heck I was doing to it yet, so I got in maybe 200 meters before I had a mental breakdown. Hey. That's 200 meters more than last time, so I'm happy.

But the long and short of it is: speedwork DOES help you. It can't be denied (I've looked for a way. No go) The reason speedwork helps improve performance is it literally 'creates' a different energy-usage pathway in our muscles so we can burn through glycogen more efficiently. That means increased metabolism, people!

In more detail, our body only has so much accessible glucose at any given time, and this gets quickly used up in short sprints through Anaerobic Respiration. However, longer, sustained workouts activate Aerobic Respiration, in which the body has to use available oxygen for conversions. The more we build our Anaerobic pathway, the more we can prolong the time that the body starts Aerobic Respiration, and the more we can burn through any excesses of glycogen (essentially, sugar). So it helps our body out! Yea speedwork! (I'm not cheering, either, don't worry. I still do not love it, and probably never will.)

But let's get on to something I do love. Like food. Like maybe... FROYO!! Or even better...

CHOCOLATE BANANA PROTEIN FROYO

Okay... with some chopped espresso beans too :)

1 ripe banana, mashed

8 oz Fat Free Plain Greek Yogurt (could use vanilla or honey, also)

1-2 T. Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder

1 Packet Sweetener (optional)

2 T. Chopped Coffee Beans (optional)

Banana

Banana and Yogurt

Everything!

AND FREEZE!

1. Combine all ingredients and stir well. Place in freezer for at least 1 hour. Take out and thaw for a few minutes, stirring up or putting in blender to obtain soft-serve consistency. ENJOY!

Nutritional Information for ENTIRE RECIPE: 250 calories, 1.5 g fat, 24g protein, 33g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber

Happy Banana Day! (Celebrate with a Smoothie!)

Did you know that today, August 27, is National Banana Day? Don't worry, I only discovered this recently, too. But bananas deserve some recognition, don't you agree? I mean, their versatility is praiseworthy! Banana 'Ice Cream'! A base for pudding! A link in vegan baking! An essential piece in the Elvis sandwich! A boat for every kind of sweet deliciousness!

Yeah. I love bananas.

Plus, as if it couldn't get any better, my XC team calls ourselves the bananas (although the high school mascot is the viking. Don't worry... no one could cheer 'MASH THOSE BANANASSS!' at our football games. Our football team needs no help...) We sing a little song before every meet which goes like this:

I AM A 'B'.

I AM A 'B-A.'

I AM A 'B-A-N-A-N-A' YES I AM.

I HAVE A 'B-A-N-A-N-A' IN MY 'M-O-U-T-H' AND I WILL 'E-A-T' A 'B-A-N-A-N-A' Every Day!

It's a little silly, but I love it. No race is complete without the banana song, even if the challenging teams stare at us and try to spell out in their head to figure out what we're babbling about (we sing it pretty fast).

So...Bananas. Gotta love 'em.

I tried to make something with bananas today as a celebration, but the only thing I really made was not all that creative or original. It DID taste exceptional, however (imho), so I guess I'll share :) 

MY GO-TO SMOOTHIE (Chocolate Banana!)

1 Frozen Banana, Split in Half for easier blending

1/3-1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/2 Scoop Chocolate Designer Whey Protein Powder

Do you really need instructions for this? Throw everything in the blender and have at it! Vary your milk content to get either a thicker or thinner smoothie, based on your taste. ENJOY! I like to eat mine with a spoon, because I just don't really like drinking smoothies...

Question of the day (please leave a comment!): Did you do anything to appreciate bananas and their awesomeness today? Even if not, what interesting things do you use bananas for?