Episode 9: Cooking my way through the Runner's World cookbook

I believe from here on out I will use "episode" instead of "week" to mark my installments since this has gone to chaos. While I have been cooking right along I just have not had time to update on the internet- I'll chip away at it!

And yes, there was the week this summer that I/we ate pizza for a week straight. Quite a few different kinds of pizza which was good, and pizza really never gets old to me! (and sometimes, all you have time and/or ingredients for is pizza so you say screw it and go for it, with beer and chocolate as a side dish!)

Anyway.

Mint Potato Salad

Even for me this is a bad pic. Thank heavens I am not an actual real life food blogger because this is atrocious!
Right.... So Potato salad is one of my favorite foods and I appreciate how most are laden with eggs, mayo and ill health. That's my jam. (I am not lying.)
I went into the taste testing of this salad with a positive attitude knowing that it would probably be different and that different can be good.
In the end I was still "MEH" on this one. I'm not sure if it was the overall pungency of the mustard and lemon laden dressing paired with the equally salty/bitter capers or what. Perhaps it just wasn't really my thing? I also used some pretty flavorful fancy olive oil so omitting that for some very basic EVOO might do the trick.
I gave this a 5.5 and Eric (the non potato salad fan) gave it a 6.25 and ate all the leftovers. Evidently a win in the Eric department!

Awesome granola

Yes. This is actually called awesome granola and I have been meaning to make it for months.
HOLY CRAP this stuff is so good. SO GOOD!!!! Solid 8.5 from both Eric and me- we ate it dry, in milk, dry again and then it was gone, boooooo.
My only advice.
Make a double batch!!

Grilled vegetable polenta casserole

We had a good run of recipes that we really enjoyed and knew it was bound to end at some point.
And it did, with this atrocity.
I knew it would be time consuming (and it was- 2 hours start to finish. I made the polenta from "scratch" and had to grill the veggies in several batches.) Two hours is for fucking ever. I only have time like that if the food is so amazing that I cry tears of joy.
See my face? ^^^ That is not a happy face. Not joyful tears.
The polenta was nasty- I always try to like polenta and remember (upon re-trying it) that I do not.
The veggies, which were great immediately after grilling had taken on a slimy consistency. I do not like my food to be slimy, definitely not my favorite consistency.
And two hours.... UGH!
Eric gave it a 7 upon first bite and then a 5.5 when he was done because, honestly, it was crap.
I gave it a 4 which I still think was generous.
Skip this and make some damn eggplant rollatini or something...

Mediterranean pizza with (zero) ham

None of us like ham so I left it off. Otherwise I followed the recipe and this was a hit.
As previously mentioned, you can't really go wrong with pizza around here!
This was another fantastic way to use the kale pesto (I ended up freezing a big batch and I drag it out and defrost it for a variety of things- really tasty stuff!) Next time I make this I will drizzle some (or lots) of olive oil on either the crust, the spinach or both. It needed a little improvement and I am pretty sure that would fix it! This would also be great with some onion, some sun dried tomatoes, maybe a few pine nuts?
That is the fun thing about pizza- you can add or subtract to make it something completely different each time.
The crust wasn't terrific- it was a Portland Pie premade crust and was just "meh".
I gave this a 7, Eric an 8 and Kate a 6 because she really did not care for the crust.

Swiss chard with roasted quinoa and tomato

With both swiss chard and tomatoes coming out my ears thanks to my Dad's garden this was an easy choice for a side dish.
I only managed to take one picture because I was hungry and stopped caring.
This was good- all of the flavors were very complimentary to one another and the very sweet tomato balances out the pungency of the quinoa and the slight bitterness of the chard nicely. 
I am not always a quinoa fan (proving, once again my shortcomings as a health blogger as well as a food one!) However, this was a nice way to use it and we both enjoyed it and both gave it a solid 7.

OK, so I have managed to catch up a bit.
Hopefully episode 10 will be up soon since I am way behind!

Week 8: Cooking my way through the Runner's World Cookbook

At the rate I am going I will still be working my way through this cookbook this time next year!

I have to admit that last week we ate quite well, lots of good meals which generated some nice leftovers.

I got some verbal requests for upcoming recipes as well as the one in the comments (I think the long run chocolate PB cake looks great too- I plan to make that in the next couple weeks!)

So what did I manage to cook last week?

Soba noodles with chicken and peanut sauce

Sometimes you make food after a long day and it is so good that you just shove it in your face, never bothering to come up for air until it is gone. 
For me (and my sister) this was one of those meals. I grilled a couple chicken breasts and shredded them (leaving Eric's chicken free- making some marinated tofu for this would work GREAT.)
Since I grilled the chicken this certainly took longer than the 20 minutes of projected time- I don't know how you might magic cooked shredded chicken out of thin air! If you can, good for you. If not this is going to take you 40 minutes (but totally worth it!!) Kate and I gave it an 8.5 and Eric a 7 (which basically means a 10 in Eric language!)

Rigatoni with chicken (or tofu) sausage

I made one major alteration to this recipe- I used fresh vegetables instead of frozen. I'm simply not a huge fan of frozen veg so I made the rebellious choice to sautee some broccoli and red peppers.
Crazy, I know.
Despite my shenanigans this was fast- only about 30 minutes and stupid easy.
Sometimes stupid easy means kind of basic and this was one of those time.
This was a pleasant Wednesday night dinner but nothing special or worth repeating.
I gave it a 6.5, and Eric a 7. (Eric thought it was pretty fabulous! So maybe a VERY good veggie friendly dinner?)

Red beans and rice with turkey (or tofu) sausage.

For some reason I could not get even a reasonable pic of this monstrosity.
I LOVE traditional red beans and rice- throw a damn kielbasa in it and I'm good to go (for a heart attack...)
This combated that common problem by being rater dire and boring. All of us who ate it thought it needed something major- the ideas were a jar of salsa, a can of tomatoes, a shaker of salt and fewer peppers.
This recipe made an absolutely enormous quantity which we never ended up eating- which says something.
I gave it a 5.5, Eric a 6.5 and Eric's nephew a 7 but I think he was either just being nice or possibly starving. 

Kale-Almond pesto

I picked the kale fresh from my Dad's garden and ran home with it, preparing to tap this out in 15 minutes flat. Why? Because pesto is stupid stupid easy (like your mom...)
Anywhoo. If your kale is filled with caterpillars and you need to remove them this takes absolutely for-frickin-ever. However, if you do not have that horrible problem this would be pretty easy. I assume that anyway, I really do not know since I spent about a million hours picking away at the worms. Jesussssssssssss.
After all the trouble I was pretty psyched- this stuff was great. I dumped it unceremoniously on some pasta and woofed it down. De bugging kale makes a girl hungry.
I gave it an 8 because it tasted exactly as kale pesto should. Eric gave it a 6 because he prefers basil pesto....

Chocolate Berry Crisp

We had my whole (immediate) family over for my Mom's B-day last week.
First, I made her the salmon with lentil tabbouleh (a huge hit!) And as a side note- my Mom is as picky as the come. she said in her non-lying voice that she thought that the salmon was "Good!!!" When she doesn't like something but wants to be nice she says it is "good.....???" Take it from me, you can make this for your fussy Mah and she will really like it in her non lying voice!

Anyway. We finished off the evening with this amazing berry crisp. I used berries from my Dad's famous garden- a mix of raspberries and blueberries which were quite tasty.
The topping was fabulous- not too sweet and nice and crunchy. We LOVED it! Make this shit. Eat it. Throw some ice cream on it, or don't. Eat it for breakfast, I did. Whole pan goneeeeeeee.
Kate and I gave it an 8.5, and Eric gave it a 7.5.

That's it for this week! Being that we just wrapped up July things on the running front aren't all that exciting but they will be picking up. Eventually..

Week 6 & 7: Cooking my way through the Runner's World Cookbook

Well heavens. I'm predictably behind in posting about my cooking expeditions.
The past couple of weeks experiments resulted in some great meals as well as a few snacks that took less than 1% brainpower to make which is always key.

Before I continue, thanks for the good feedback on this adventure! I am having fun with it which is clearly important but I'm enjoying the positive response.

ANY REQUESTS? What should I make next? Is it time to tackle all of the shrimp recipes...?

Frozen peanut butter balls. Or, chocolate salted balls if you live here.

These are not the most lovely things to look at but they certainly are tasty if you need a quick cold snack. Pre run, post run, for breakfast, they earned the seal of Bradlowski approval. I see no reason not to have them in the freezer at all times. (I might add a few mini chocolate chips, or shredded coconut to mix things up next time. The base recipe is just fine though- and basic, it took 5 minutes tops.)

Blueberry oatmeal smoothie

I gave this to Eric, normally a smoothie fanatic and he gagged a little. Enough said.
At least it looks pretty. 

Chickpea, cherry and ginger salad

This salad was absolutely fantastic. If you plan to eat it and then head out for some vigorous speed work don't- the chickpeas and dried fruit will kill you! (but that goes without saying.)
I was supposed to add half an onion and the thought of that filled me with horror (I hate onion) but I sucked it up and added about 1/4 onion. WAY too much for me- I'll just omit it next time. The garlic and ginger pack plenty of flavor without the icky onion factor. Minus the oniony horror this was so delicious, I could not stop shoving it into my face. NOM.
Eric liked this and gave it a 6.5 which is good for him
I loved it and gave it an 8.

Egg and bean burrito with avocado and yogurt lime sauce.

Mmmmmm. The lousy grainy photo does not do this justice!
Make this for breakfast, lunch or dinner. (we had it for dinner)
One note, when one decided to scramble eggs in with beans they rarely get "fluffy" so if that is important to you cook the eggs alone, easy fix.
Eric isn't much into eggs so when he gave this a 7 I knew it was pretty great! I too gave this a 7 because it was good and simple- and great for any time of day. I will be making this again as eggs (locally raised, completely free range, organic, coming from HENS WITH NAMES kinda eggs) are a daily thing for me.

Warm butternut squash and kale salad

It is not squash season but it certainly is kale season!
I picked the kale fresh from my Dad's garden and made this salad from those tasty greens about 2 minutes after I lovingly harvested them.
The only thing that I altered about this recipe was to saute the garlic in with the kale and olive oil instead of adding it to the dressing. (which was an accident- reading a recipe is such a challenge..) Oh! I also did not have any mustard and we all think that would have been good. Oops.
I managed to get a really watery flavorless squash- the general consensus was that sweet potato would be a nice substitute.
Otherwise, we all enjoyed this tasty salad. We got rowdy and tossed in a few dried cranberries which improved the end result drastically. (so do it.) (oops ANOTHER alteration!) A solid 7.5 from Eric, Kate my sister and me. Good stuff.

Sweet and Sour tofu stir-fry

And the final entry for the week/s. Sweet and sour tofu stir-fry! An already veggie friendly recipe always makes me happy so this was a no brainer.
I pressed the tofu per the logical norm... Otherwise I followed the recipe.
This was good too! We had a nice run of scrum-diddly-umptious dinners!
The predicted time to completion for this recipe was 45 minutes and that was accurate- it was not super speedy. However it was worth it and we all enjoyed it.
If  I made this again I would ABSOLUTELY make more sauce- maybe another half recipe.
Like most stir fry recipes you could easily dress this shit up with some baby corn, water chestnuts, other veggies- whatever. You can't screw it up!
It was pretty consistently rated- 7's from Eric and me, and a 6 from Kate. Kate wanted more sauce which was a very accurate desire.

Phew! There ya go, more food more bad pics, more clearly non food critic critiques!
More to come and again- make some requests because that would make me feel like a real live food blogger ;-) 

Week 4 & 5: Cooking way through the Runner's World Cookbook

We seem to have a combo post going on here from weeks 4 and 5, blame my busy schedule and tendency to give up and simply eat cheese, Boboli pizza and bourbon. (there is nothing wrong with that.)

I did manage to make a couple of things. I continue to be easily able to find vegetarian alternatives for Eric- I will make notes of what I change since I don't always photograph the veggie option.

As mentioned in week one I know that once I get to "meatloaf" or "shrimp" there will be very little that I can do (or am willing to do) to make those veggie friendly. Most likely those recipes will call for a two dinner kind of night. Eric is hoping for grilled cheese I expect.

Olive and Anchovy pizza (or: the cover photo on the book.)

Basically a boboli pizza! #winning!
You don't really need an actual recipe for this but it was one- so there's another one checked off the list.
Clearly I omitted the anchovy for Mr Bradlowski and while I have no gripe with the little fishes I made a game time choice to use two ACTUAL anchovies rather than two tins. Yeah, these were supposed to contain a half tin of leetle feeshes per pizza.
NO. JUST. NO.
Two per pizza was plenty. Take my word for it..... A half tin would be a nightmare.

White bean artichoke wrap

Once again... You don't actually need a recipe for what is essentially white bean hummus but why not!
This recipe calls for the bean spread, artichokes and sundried tomatoes in a wrap. Neither of us are crazy about SD tomatoes so I skipped them and added olives and spinach.
This was absolutely fine. Limit to one garlic clove if you plan to leave the house (ever.)

Hearty red scalloped potatoes, grilled asparagus. And steak, obvs.

Ask me about the potatoes au gratin that I make- go ahead, ASK ME! I am the master of the cheese & potatoes. I have perfected the art and am quite proud.
NEEDLESS TO SAY..... I had ZERO hope for these little taters. I expected them to be undercooked, flavorless and disappointing.
I did skip the skim milk and use 2% because skim is disgusting. Otherwise I behaved and followed the recipe.
If you have potato skills I expect you too will have doubts...
You don't have to- they were AMAZING. Who would have guessed? Not me . Make them and eat them all, with a steak and maybe some grilled asparagus (also a recipe! another one that you don't need a recipe for! but quite good, as grilled asparagus should be.)

Salmon with lentil tabbouleh

This salmon with lentil tabbouleh was straight up incredible.
My sister and I voted it "best so far" and Eric gave it a 3 out of 10 which is fine since he doesn't eat salmon and dislikes tomatoes, cukes and lentils. Basically a 3 is a 10 (Eric got veggie sausage in place of the fish.)
I honestly have no complaints about this dish- it was delicious! (also gorgeous- you could certainly make this to impress people.)
One note- absolutely do not cook your lentils according to the recipe directions (if you are working with dried, unsoaked lentils that is.)
Lentils need about 35-45 minutes to cook and about a 2:1 water to lentil ratio. Simply, you just won't get good results if you follow their directions, so heed my words and don't. Cook your lentils like a normal person and you will be fine.

That's it for now! I hope to get with it and get back to my weekly posts ASAP!

Week 3: Cooking my way thru the Runner's World Cookbook

Welcome to week three of my adventures in cooking the recipes from The Runner's World Cookbook!

I was busy last week and busy means fewer chances to cook. Sometimes dinner just has to be some cheese and crackers ya know? (as long as it comes with some olives and wine....)

Anyway. What did I manage to cook?

Brown rice salad with curried tofu

OK, where to begin with this one.... I had high hopes because as a rule I really enjoy rice based salads. Combine that with the fact that this was already vegetarian friendly and I was really hoping for a solid win. 
However.... Eric and I both strongly objected to this dish for different but similar reasons. Eric HATED the tomatoes, the flavor and the texture. (that is a lot of things to object to.)  He gave it a 3 out of 10 rating.
I REALLY DISLIKED the way that the tofu (despite prep) still came out bland, the excess of SEEDS, the amount of work that it took to eat it (chomp. chomp. chomp.) I thought that the flavor was not objectionable but after champing my way thru 30 minutes of tedious salad I was over it.
I tried to figure out ways to improve this recipe but in the end I realized that I was simply writing a new recipe. I feel that the ratios are off- it is almost equal parts rice, tofu, edamame and seeds which makes for a lot of roughage. I feel that if the rice played a bigger role, and perhaps instead of a full cup of seeds there were a couple tablespoons, and maybe if the tofu was marinated things would have gone better. (also- I pressed the tofu which the recipe does not suggest but I think it goes without saying.)
Sorry salad. You were straight gross. Never again.

Spinach Kiwi Cooler

After the debacle that was the nasty ass rice salad I made a VERY easy smoothie for Eric. He is a smoothie fan- I am not!In the end even I found this one to be enjoyable and extremely easy. I think it took 2 minutes from start to finish. Eric gave it a big thumbs up and chugged it. Success!

Pasta Bean Toss

Next up was the very pretty and very, very fiberous pasta bean toss. (I have no idea why I thought I needed a can of tomatoes- I did not. but there it is. you totally could use one though and it would be good!)
This was not challenging to prepare and the 35 minutes that the cook book projects was right on target.
I omitted the Worcestershire sauce due to the anchovies and, if you can, would highly recommend using it as I feel it would add some valuable flavor. 
Overall we felt that this was enjoyable and extremely healthy. I do not suggest eating this the night before an early long run as the beans and broccoli will certainly play games with your digestion.
I enjoyed this- I ate a couple of huge bowls and also noted that it is attractive enough to serve to friends to impress them. Eric was fairly happy with it but noticed (as I did) that it needed a little something to add flavor (if you omit the Worcestershire perhaps consider an increase of salt, or a few red pepper flakes, extra cheese, pepper, more garlic...)
After the nasty rice salad this was a distinct improvement.

And finally... Garlicky Greens and Roasted Sweet potato wedges (blocks, whatev.) And steak.

Sometimes you just don't have time to cook up a whole long recipe.
However! I had fresh kale and a couple of sweet potatoes on hand and threw them together as sides.
This is totally cheating as I make these all the time, minus a recipe.
However, I felt clever as it was a two-fer! HAH!
Clearly they were delicious and Eric, my sister and I ate them with gusto. WIN.

So that's it for this week. I hope to be able to pull off making a few recipes for next week's addition- I have to eat but am also busy! I'm glad I did not put a timetable on this challenge- maybe I should as a motivator.....

Week 2: Cooking my way thru the Runner's World Cookbook

Week two of my adventure in cooking.

Eric and I have never had so many different things in such a short period of time! I continue to find all of the recipes very simple and user friendly.

Multigrain Pancakes

Pancakes are always a hit and I'm happy to have another recipe to add to my repertoire.
This was an easy mid week dinner and was a snap to put together (as pancakes should be) and they turned out very nicely. There was nothing remarkable about these pancakes- they were very pleasant and delicious (as pancakes should be.)
I have never used cornmeal or oats in my pancakes because I am the least creative human to ever live and I found them to be a nice addition. Well, the oats anyway. Who notices cornmeal?
I suppose you could health these up by topping them with some random fruit of yogurt or such nonsense but we took the legit route and doused them in syrup. #winning

Spinach, bacon and sweet potato salad

I made this post long run last week because I was seriously wishing for some spinach and this was the most spinachy option in the book.
With a vegetarian in the house I decided it would be easier to simply make some fakeon and call it good, rather than making a teensy bit of real bacon and a teensy bit of fakeon bacon. (whatever, I was hungry!)
I must be honest- I wasn't thinking this would be very good. I was thinking that it was going to be bland and one dimensional.
I was wrong. It was great. It took like, 5 minutes to make (well, the sweet potatoes took about 30 min to cook but we don't count that.)
This is easy enough to make post long run.
It was EXCELLENT- I would make this again in a heartbeat. (I'd make it next week if I didn't have 200 recipes to work through!) The absence of real bacon was not offensive, it was full of good flavors and health and nutrients and what not. I shoved it in my mouth at top speed and was very happy.
Clearly, these are ingredients that I cook with often and usually shove into a burrito or similar. Changing it up to a salad, with the pleasant addition of the citrus-y dressing made "the usual" taste new and fresh. Really good- an easy MUST repeat!

Garlic shrimp with while beans and tomatoes

I made the Garlic shrimp with white beans and tomatoes for my sister and me, and the same recipe minus the shrimp plus a vegetarian Italian sausage for Eric. 
As most of the recipes have thus far, this came together easily. I omitted the parsley because I did not have any but otherwise followed the recipe.
Overall..... This was "meh". We certainly ate it but found it to be unexciting- the flavors were more bland than we had hoped for and the tomatoes really over powered the shrimp,
As a group we felt the recipe could be significantly improved by adding a half a sauteed onion, possibly a diced red pepper and definitely a few cups of baby spinach. I will give that a try at some point and report back!
(editors note) I finished up some of the leftovers a couple of days after making the original recipe and found them to me much better- the flavors had some some mingling and it was pretty good. Also- I was very hungry so there's that...

Banana oat energy bars

I was completely out of things to eat pre run over the weekend and since I had all the ingredients in the house I made these up. So far, I have noticed that the writers of the cookbook seem to be very optimistic about our abilities to speedily prepare things for cooking. While this came together in the most simple way yet again, they underestimated the time it takes to get shit from the pantry to completion. Just saying. I'm fast but not THAT fast.
Bottom line these could not have been easier. I cooked them for a full 10 minutes longer than the recipe suggested and they were just firm enough to be viable at that point (40 min at 350)
If you don't care for bananas you will not care for these because the banana really dominates. While I had no issue with the cranberry and walnut additions I think these would also be nice with dates, pecans or dried cherries. I ate two big squares pre run and my belly never complained so I declare them to be a great success!
One critical mention- they were VERY sweet (and that is coming from me, the woman with an insatiable sweet tooth!) There was a full cup of sugar in them which I did not bat an eye at because sugar is my boo. But yikes- cut that shit back. I'd shoot for a half cup next time and see how things turned out. (if you want your bars sweeter than a cookie follow the recipe. if not, listen to me!)

More to come next week.
Possibly tackling some smoothies (my least favorite thing ever) and trying to figure out how on earth I am going to make things like "meatloaf" veggie friendly. Inside info: I'm NOT...

Cooking my way thru the Runner's World Cookbook

Since I do not have any marathons for a while I seem to have a tiny bit more time to do normal human things. Things like cook an actual meal on occasion instead of relying on english muffin pizzas and random pastas to survive on.

A little while back I had the most amazing success cooking up a fabulous dinner straight out of the Runner's World magazine.
It was such a hit- and so easy (which is absolutely critical to me) that I decided it would be amusing to cook my way thru the entire Runner's World cookbook. Why not right? It's very Julie and Julia of me, but in the day and age of thousands of legit cooking blogs and high def pics of amazingly presented meals and what not- the pressure to make things look perfect is a challenge that I'm not even going to try.  I am not a food blogger and I need to cook food to eat, not to take fancily arranged pictures of!

Here is what you can expect from me:
-Grainy photos
-Basic descriptions "this was only ok..." and so forth.
-My thoughts on the return on my investment. If I am gonna bust out the cooking tools that the food had best be worth my while!
-Honest appraisals of how good (or bad) each recipe is.

The only thing that might be actually useful to humanity is that I will need to find a way to make every possible recipe veggie friendly. Other than that I will not alter any ingredients. (I have a serious tendency to tinker with things to improve them- things do not need to be improved on the first try! *sigh*)

I can't claim to be a horrible cook- while it is not my favorite thing I am completely capable in the kitchen and have been cooking for as long as I can remember.
The only thing that I made which turns out horribly is lasagna. Go figure.

The great thing about this particular cookbook is that is is foolproof. You can find most ingredients easily and the challenge level is very low which is absolutely fucking critical for me!! I honestly have been put off cooking for a bit because so many cookbooks have ingredients that I CAN NOT find in my area and take 3 hours to prepare. Not my jam.

So. Let the journey begin! 

Week one:

Fresh Fruit Scones

Easy to make and easy to eat. I think calling them "scones" is a stretch- it was more like muffin cake but whatever. I used some fruit that I had kicking around- blueberries, strawberries, a peach and a handful of dried cherries. All good choices. If I were to make this again I would add cinnamon, maybe a pinch of nutmeg and some nuts. This was VERY simple to prepare so I felt good about the (short) time spent baking.

Asian noodle salad with eggs and peanut dressing

I rarely eat salads for dinner (I need real FOOD people!) I don't think I have ever made a salad that a cookbook suggested before- I tend to use my cooking time on more substantial things.
However, I needed to make this peanut dressing so I decided it was in my best interest to make a double batch and whip up this salad too. the dressing looks like poo- the recipe said to"drizzle" it over the salad and it more, globbed onto it unattractively (as pictured.)
Bad looks aside the whole dish really worked well- it was much better than I had anticipated and the egg made it feel like a full meal. Not to mention that the plate it is on is HUGE- this is no wimpy salad.
The biggest pain in the butt was making the dressing but that took maybeeeee 10 minutes so I really can't complain. Making extra was definitely worth it as I used in in another meal and then made some random peanut noodles too.
Again, time well invested. I would make this again with no alterations.

Thai beef and snow pea stir fry

I made this dinner at the end of a long, impossible day (hence the face.)
I was extremely distracted and it is amazing that it came together at ALL.
I had intentions of stirfrying some marinated tofu for Eric's portion but that went by the wayside so I tossed in some red pepper and onion (not in the recipe) to bulk it up a little.
I completely forgot the water chestnuts because I was not focused at all- they would have been a nice addition but it was in no way a disaster.
BIG win here- I think I threw the whole mess together in about 15 minutes, glugged some wine into glasses and called it dinner.

So there is week one of my Runner's World Cookbook adventure. I haven't made so many different things in one week in EVER so I feel quite accomplished.
More to come next week!  

(side note: I paid for the cookbook with my own money, I am cooking the recipes for my amusement only. I think you all know I'm not famous enough to write sponsored content!)