Good news, I finally completed my long run today and the weather was perfect for it! But I first enjoyed lots of coffee, a Vega smoothie and lounging with my furry friends enjoying the Sunday paper and fireplace since the house was very chilly this morning.
Shadow was a bit doped up on his catnip toy, can you tell?
All 9 miles of the run actually went pretty well, I trekked a new route around nature trails to change things up and I had to detour once because it’s sheep grazing week here where sheep are brought in from local farms and let loose around the huge, grassy fields to eat extra grass – sort of natural mowing/wildfire prevention. One of the nature trails I was running was blocked partway with a herd, so I hung a U-turn and detoured through a neighborhood to pick up the trail again.
After the run, I had another Vega smoothie and a big, salty bowl of popcorn for lunch – odd? That’s because I have strange food cravings after long runs. And somehow I still had energy to take the dog for her long walk and enjoy the wonderful weather more, not hurting for vitamin D today!
Many of the trees here are already blooming and it’s gorgeous.
Plenty of these guys buzzing around too.
For snack I broke out an old friend that I just don’t use as much as I should, my Breville juicer.
I juiced broccoli stalks, carrots, small beets, apple and ginger which only created one glass of juice.
A beautiful, vibrant pink glass of juice though. It was a bit too spicy thanks to the ginger, but I still liked it. And my pee will probably be pink for a week now, TMI? :-P
One of the reasons I don’t use my juicer too much is I hate wasting the pulp, so I always have to plan to use pulp in something too. Today it was Gena’s Juice Pulp Crackers because they’re simple and I had time at home to load the dehydrator.
But I didn’t have ground flax seed and had to grind some quick in the Vita-Mix dry blade container.
Then I threw the rest of the ingredients into the food processor and processed until the juice pulp chunks were blended into the mix.
Spread onto a dehydrator sheet and after 3 hours of dehydrating, I had pink crackers.
If you have a juicer, Gena’s recipe is a great way to use the pulp because the crackers taste a lot like Wheat Thins to me with a hearty Triscut-like texture. It’s relatively fast and easy to make a huge batch at a time to store and enjoy for a few weeks. I like the crackers as salad croutons, hummus dippers or making mini sandwiches with them.
And for dinner I was feeling pretty lazy, the long run was catching up with me. I whipped up a stir fry sauce in the Vita-Mix using carrots, ginger, garlic, agave nectar, soy sauce and a little water. And stir fried it with tempeh cubes, broccoli, red cabbage and green onions for a quick dinner.
After successfully dirtying every appliance in my kitchen today, I think it’s time for a hot bath!
Do you have a juicer? How do you use the pulp?
9 miles? Impressive!
Watching cats on catnip makes me so happy – though still probably not as happy as they are :)
I have wanted to get a juicer for a while but I feel like I can’t really justify the expense at this point. Hopefully soon though!
Thanks, the mileage is part of my half-marathon training plan, but I’ll be looking forward to shorter runs on the weekend after it. :-)
My cats are hilarious on catnip going after anything that moves.
True on the juicer, I really wanted one at first and got it for Christmas awhile back, but now finding time to use it and the pulp has been a problem, smoothies are much faster an easier.
No juicer for me, I always think it’s a waste of the rest of the fruit or veg – but the crackers are a great idea!
Agreed on the pulp, I only use the juicer when I can use the pulp too. Ani’s raw carrot cake is an awesome way to use carrot juice pulp though. :-)
“a great way to use the pulp because the crackers taste a lot like Wheat Thins to me with a hearty Triscut-like texture.”–
That is such good info!!!!!!!!!
Ok so i lived on triscuits in my 20s. And wheat thins in my childhood. Not even kidding…i mean, i am a cracker addict! til i went GF and now, none. I miss them so. When i make crackers i havent been able to get the texture i want, i will defi try her recipe.
Dirtying every appliance in your kitchen, yeah, i hear you!
I dont juice anymore b/c the cleanup takes FOREVER! I have the same breville you do but in all stainless steel…the filter is stainless and it takes me 20 mins to get all the food particles outta the juicer’s “teeth”…..I hate it! And not to mention, juicing is expensive…all that stuff for 1 glass of juice. But using the pulp is smart…waste nothing :)
They are good crackers, dare I say it’s worth breaking the juicer out just to make and have a huge batch of the crackers. Oh yeah, we ate plenty Tricuits and Wheat Thins as kids too, my mom always packed lots for boat vacations.
True on the juicer, it takes awhile to get all the pulp out of the mesh even with the special brush and sadly that model is supposed to be one of the faster ones to clean.
I feed my doggy the pulp usually with some ground flax and EVOO drizzled on top. She loves it!
I should make a batch of the pulp crackers though.
Very interesting on the pulp, I need to try that on my dog – thanks!
You can also put a plastic bag in the pulp bucket—then you don’t have to wash that part!
I love making juice, but feel the same way about wasting pulp. Sometimes I use it and most of the time I don’t….
That’s my thing on the pulp, I always want to use it too. Good tip on the plastic bag, thanks.
What a wonderful day! Great 9 mile run!
Yep, I juice, almost daily. I have the Breville compact. It doesn’t take up too much space so I leave it out on the counter, which makes it easier to use daily. I also either just rinse the 3 big pieces for easy clean up, or toss all pieces in the dishwasher.
I started using carrot pulp when I read Gena’s carrot pulp/avocado/lemon juice recipe. YUM. But I’ll confess I really only save carrot or beet pulp. And I don’t compost (eek, I know).
The crackers look fantastic. After three busy weekends of dehydrating (and I’m going out of town this week) I gave my dehydrator a break this weekend — but then I noticed our over abundance of apples so I’m going to dehydrate some today for travel snacks! Happy to have Monday off for one last day of homey-stuff (it’s snowing….CRAZY!)
Thanks, but the long runs on the weekend can be tough because they’re so time-consuming. I’m looking forward to shorter runs for a bit once the half-marathon is complete. :-)
That’s impressive on juicing daily, wow! I tried for awhile, but ended up sticking with smoothies because I just don’t have time to wash the juicer before work. I revisited the juicer again after reading that’s a huge part of Kris Carr’s diet, but not sure I could do it regularly.
I need to try that recipe too, sounds great. Also Ani’s raw carrot cake is a great was to use carrot juice pulp.
love the pics of your cat-so beautiful! glad you had a good day :) i have no juicer-honestly it seems like so much work to clean……
Glad you had a good long run– you’re really getting up there! How much longer until your race?
Hey, just under 3 weeks until the half, so I’ve gotta do an 11 mile run next weekend – eek! :-)
I think a smoothie and salty popcorn is a good lunch, sweet and slaty always a good combo to me ; )
I need to bring my juicer back out, I always say Im going to but dont : p I love the cracker idea with the pulp, your crackers look yummy! Oh and I know what ya mean about pink pee, lol!
I cant wait to get my vitamix, the stir fry sauce you made sounds amazing!!
p.s. I need so much help! WordPress is overwhelming me : p I have to leave tomorrow too for 6 days, going back home for wedding stuff and a trip too, so im stressed about my blog, I am going to be blogging while away but I just dont understand wordpress yet : p
Ok first question, how do you get your pics to be like the size of yours? Second , can I have a blogroll or add my fave blogs somehwere, and how do I get smiley icons?!!
I probably just overwhelmed you : p sorry! Any help is much appreciated!
p.s.s. I have to do my giveaway over again! : ( I moved my blog, and forgot my comments would disappear , ahhhhhh!
Lol, pink pee is a fun adventure! :-P
You’ll love your Vita-Mix, we used ours 5 times yesterday and 3 times today so far! I keep finding new uses for it, but it’s amazing for smoothies and healthy veggie-based sauces.
To re-size pics, you can edit them in WordPress after you edit the properties after you upload them into WordPress and shrink the size percentage. I use Paint.NET, free Windows photo editing software to resize them before uploading. For Mac, good free photo editors are Gimp and Seashore:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pixelbased/tp/freephotoedm.htm
I recommend resizing them before uploading them because it’ll make the file smaller and save space on the web server. Test to see what the maximum width your WordPress theme will support since different themes have different widths for the posting area, probably 600 wide on your current theme.
No worries about overwhelming, I like this stuff. :-) Email me if you have anymore questions.
I’ve been dehydrating my pulp and using it for the dogs. Something I’ll blog about at some point. I can’t always find a use for it right away so I figure find a way for it to last longer. I do like juice pulp crackers, but sometimes my juice has weird things in it like ginger that make odd crackers. So I have to be intentional about it.