Get into a fight…

… with some powerful fruit.

I never really had pomegranate in-the-raw before. I remember last year, Baberaham and I bought one, but it barely had any seeds and the seeds it had just tasted terrible. I saw one this weekend at the Keweenaw Coop so I bought it to go Round 2. Let’s get ready to rumble!!!!

Here’s a fun way to get the seeds out of this delicious fruit:

Cut the pomegranate in half transversely. Hold one half over a bowl and beat with a wooden spoon, trying to not hit your hand.

Keep hitting it. In hindsight, pomegranates make good stress-relievers.

Be careful not to squeeze the fruit, otherwise you might get some of the pulp in mixed in with the seeds. It’s not really that tasty.

Once the seeds are out, they’re ready to eat!

I'm a Frugal Gluten-Free Girl

One of the hard things about following a gluten-free diet is not just finding food to eat, it’s finding food that I can afford. When bread costs $7 a loaf and the fear of contaminated grain belts has me reaching for oats processed in special facilities, I tend to shy away from the easy-to-eat foods like pb&j, if for nothing else than to be a little more easy on my wallet.

Luckily, the crock pot is a great tool for the gluten-free grad student, athlete, or all-around busy person. Not only can I make relatively cheap food with high leftover potential, it’s typically food that requires little prep work and chef-like maintenance. As an added bonus, I can also make many things in the crock pot wheat-free.

Since it’s fall, and fall usually implies warm, hearty soups and stews, I thought I’d share my super-easy chili recipe.

One thing I love about a cool fall day is the way chili smells as it simmers all day long. Just add a few cans of tomatoes and beans to a pound of cooked beef and you’ve got yourself an easy, all-day-cookin’ meal. Here’s my super easy recipe:

1 lb ground round [$3.49]
2 cans diced tomatoes [$1.98 for 2]
2 cans kidney beans [$1.98 for 2; one light and one dark can of beans makes the chili look more festive]
1 green pepper [$2.50 for an organic one]
1 sweet onion [$0.50]

Dice the onion and green pepper and cook on the stovetop with the ground round. Once the meat is cooked through, add to the crock pot and throw in the tomatoes and beans. Add ~1/2 tbsp of salt and pepper each, stir, and cover. If you are feeling adventurous, add a few squares of dark chocolate or a spoonful of cocoa powder to make it mole-esque. Let simmer on low all day.

Total cost: $10.45 for five humangous servings

What goes great with chili? Biscuits, of course. My mom bought a box of gluten free Bisquick mix when I was home a few weeks ago and made an apple pie from it. It was quite a delicious dessert, too. Although it was more like a crumb cake than a deep-dish apple pie, I marveled at the idea of having Bisquick once again. Luckily, the gluten free version of Bisquick is just as easy as the regular gluten-full kind (and, dare I say, just as tasty?):

If you mix looks like this, keep blending it with a fork or pastry blender!

Blend 1/3c butter into the dry Bisquick mix with a fork (or a pastry blender if you are that sophisticated) until little pea-sized balls form. Then, add 2/3c milk and 3 eggs, mix well. It doesn’t matter if you add the milk first, then the eggs, or both milk and eggs together. Just make sure you mix it well.

I like my biscuits more in the shape of the ones from Bob Evans, so I put them in a muffin pan. You can also spoon them onto a cookie sheet for a smaller, portion-controlled size biscuit. Who am I kidding, though? I know I will eat at least a quarter of the biscuits in one sitting. Bake at 400F until the tops brown. One box of Bisquick makes 11 normal sized biscuits or 6 mega-sized muffins, whichever you prefer. The larger ones have more calories and cost about a buck apiece.

For under $5, I’ve got a great, savory fall meal. And, best of all- chili works great as a leftover!

Random questions, and questions about food

Jamie tagged me in his latest blog post over at Swim Bike Run Live, and I feel honored. This dude is legit! His answers made me giggle. So, here are mine!

1. If you could eat anything without any health repercussions or guilt, what would your meal be?

Ice cream. Mint chocolate chip? Yes please. Moose tracks, french vanilla, Zanzibar- its all awesome. Although I used to love chocolate chip cookie dough and was sad when I had to give it up after going gluten free, but now I don’t miss it. But I still probably wouldn’t say no to a double dipped CCCD in a waffle cone.

2. If you could meet anyone living or dead who would it be and why?

Bill Clinton. He’s a pretty smart dude who (I’d imagine) could carry on an intellectual conversation.

3. Why did you start blogging and what did you expect when you started?

I started blogging about two years ago to keep my family updated with my happenings, and so I didn’t really expect too much in terms of traffic and readership.

4. What is the one book you could read over and over again?

Like Jamie, I’m also not big on books. However, I do really like The Book Thief and could probably read that again. And Life of Pi. Mind you, these are middle-school-reading-level kinds of books.

5. If you could travel anywhere, where would it be?

The Himalayas. I love the mountains. Studying abroad in New Zealand was awesome and I’d totally go back for another semi-permanent vacation.

6. If you could have a TV show on the Food Network, what would it be?

Probably something where I could eat the food that someone else cooks. I’d be one of those full-time judges on Iron Chef or something. Baberaham is the master chef in our household. I can master protein shakes, salads, and noodles with butter. Or, if I really had to have my own show where I cooked, it would be a show where I cook gluten-free stuff that actually tastes good.

7. What was the best meal you ever had?

The best meal I have ever had would probably one of the last gluten-full meals I remember. Not just because it was gluten-full, but because it was perfect. I brought back fresh halibut and Deadlift Imperial IPA from a race in Seattle and Baberaham made beer-battered fish and chips with it. It was the most amazing, buttery, awesomeness that I have ever had. I only wish that IPAs were gluten free. C’mon beerologists, dooo it…

8. Who has been the greatest influence on your love for food and learning to cook?

B- for sure. My skills at cooking pale in comparison of this kid. He’s not afraid to experiment, add spices, mix things up. It is adventurous. He also encouraged me to try the gluten free diet because of my stomach woes, and for that he’s definitely influenced my way of cooking. He’s helped me learn to love food, not just because it nourishes our bodies but also because it can nourish our soul. Food isn’t just for eating, its for enjoying.

So I’m tagging:

Aimee and Shannon – my new blogger friends and foodies

Jess, Bre, and e410– some sweet grad school athletes

The Post-"A"-Race Triathlete's Binge: Foodie Edition

I feel very fortunate to have completed my 2010 “A” race, the Rev3 FullRev at Cedar Point, before taking on all of the traveling craziness of interviewing for a post-doc position. Not because traveling is stressful (even though it is), but because my diet gets wrecked when I travel. Of course, my warm-up to this foodie binge was a trip to Madison, Wisconsin, where I ventured to for an interview around the time I was beginning to taper. Of course, I had to hit up Bluephies and the Silly Yak Bakery, which meant plenty of delicious gluten-free goodies that filled my comfort food quota.

Then, my trip to Cedar Point meant pre-race ice cream, and post race whatever-the-eff-I-wanted.

But now, I have no concerns about upcoming races (my next isn’t for another four weeks) or how I’ll feel for workout #2 in a few hours (because there isn’t one). One thing I am concerned about is the number of calories I take in when I don’t have anything to plan on. Does that sound good? Then I will probably eat it. And, one thing I’ve noticed since traveling for interviews this week is that whenever anyone talks about how awesome their locale is and why I should live there, it always gets directed at food.

“We have great restaurants!”

“The international food is to die for!”

“You can have practically any food you want any time you want it.”

Pretty sure this isn’t a good thing.

You see, in Houghton, there are basically three restaurants I go to on a regular basis. One is a Tex-Mex place that has fast service close to campus, but its close to campus… and I like to avoid that place when I can. The other is a pizza place that makes a mean gluten-free crust, but its expensive. And the third is the slowest service you could ever imagine with mediocre American food. Needless to say, I don’t go out that often.

But if I have variety, I gotta try it out.

For example, I had bacon, eggs, and potatoes at a diner near my hotel this morning, because that is my favorite breakfast and I have to compare it to the MUB score of awesomeness*. For lunch, I was treated to an Indian buffet (which was awesome, by the way). Buffets are always bad news bears, because as a grad student, I feel like I have to get my money’s worth; and as an athlete coming off from race week, I feel like I can still eat a dinosaur. Needless to say, I was stuffed.

But not too stuffed to turn down FroYo. St Louis is hot, and FroYo is not. Take some mango tart fro-yo and add some fresh fruit and shazam! you’ve got an awesome air conditioner.

And did someone say pizza? Pi Pizzeria in Central West End is amazing, the service is phenomenal, and they even have gluten free pizza. Guess what? It’s awesome. I ordered the Central West End pizza, not just because I was in CWE, but also because it was made with goat cheese and arugula. I love arugula. And, just when I thought I was too full, the server handed over the dessert menu, and *gasp!* there was Askinosie chocolate ice cream on the menu. And *double gasp!* its better than my homemade chocolate ice cream. Of course it was, because Askinosie is to.die.for.

Here’s hoping for some nutritious salads tomorrow?

I am eating like I just raced an Ironman yesterday, and I need to slow my role before I become a rollie-pollie. But, I also need to “absorb the culture”- so one more day of this foolish behavior shouldn’t hurt!

*I love MUB breakfast… when Andrea makes it.

The blueberry queen

Yesterday afternoon, I went blueberry picking at the Gierke Blueberry Farm in Chassell. I was on a mission to pick a shitton of blueberries, enough blueberries to (dare I say it) last me through the year. This is a big feat, because I 1) LOVE blueberries and 2) have a problem with stopping when I eat them.

I picked and picked, and picked some more. I found a few jackpot bushes, and felt gluttonous about halfway through but could.not.stop.picking. By the time my friends dragged me away, I was 17.5lbs of blueberries richer.

What will I do with all these blueberries, you ask? What won’t I do. Muffins. Cobbler. Ice cream. Oatmeal. A bloggy-friend sent me a recipe for Zippy-Fast Blueberry Crisp (via microwave) and I am psyched to try it. But my favorite thing to do with blueberries is just eat them raw and plain.

Today, they’ll be fueling me right on a long ride through the Keweenaw (I had creamy grits with 1/2c blueberries for brekky). Chances are good that I will stop along the road somewhere and find another blueberry (or raspberry. or thimbleberry) bush to steal from.

Fresh tastes of summer

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I love the UP.

Let me preface this by saying that I don’t think I could ever live for an extended period of time in a place that doesn’t have four seasons. I also really love the fruit and wildlife of the temperate areas, where several weeks out of the year include foraging for fresh berries and eating more than you throw in your bucket for later.

I am blessed to have a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) from a local farmer. He has somehow acquired the green thumbs that I obviously do not have. Along with his CSA partners (like me!), he sells his pickins’ to local markets. Marg even had some of his spinach and mixed greens for her wedding dinner. Every week, I get a bag or three of vegetables in my cooler, ready to eat (after I rinse them off in my greens spinner, of course). Last year, the weather was poor for growing and I ate my lifetime supply of spinach (or so I thought at the time). This year, the sun and rain ratio must be superb, because I’ve been eating beans and peas and courgettes to my big heart’s content.

The best thing about eating fresh in a UP fashion is the availability of these great foods. Sure, they are seasonal. Don’t expect to find good quality strawberries at the market in March (because they have to travel how far?!). But during the summer months, you can either pay $5 for a pint of fresh raspberries (handpicked, of course, at the roadside stand), or you can go exploring in the woods and find your own. The blueberry bushes are everywhere, and the thimbleberries are beginning to turn as red as rubies. Buy a jar of thimbleberry jam from a jam pot up here, and you’d second guess their value as jewels themselves.

So when the growing season is here, I dive right in. Sure, I still spend head to the grocery store, but bypass the produce aisles and shoot straight for the frozen meats and gluten free grains. I even get  eggs from a local farm for a few bucks a dozen.

Here’s a little taste (from a visual perspective) of the scrumptious UP:

wild blueberries

fresh picked raspberries from my CSA

Here’s one of the easiests recipes that I used, inspired by Marg’s bridal gathering at The Tea Room in Houghton:

Veggie Salad

5 courgettes (small ones)
4 carrots
1 pickling cuke
2 roma tomatoes
1/2 cup Italian dressing (I use Kraft’s Tuscan Italian)

Chop/slice vegetables into 1/4in thick slices. Place into bowl. Toss with dressing. Add 1 can of garbonzo beans if you want! (I hate chick peas, but I strangely love them in this salad!)

veggie salad

Wisconsin-raised buffalo gluten free spaghetti (extra sauce!) with Reggiano

The week-long bonk – or "How a slab of meat changed my week"

This week has not been very awesome.

In fact, last week wasn’t either.

With traveling, conferencing, interviewing, meetings, research, and training, I have been feeling the weight of life slam down heavy on my shoulders [although, I can’t even imagine how Marg must feel with her upcoming wedding and job search]. And of all things, its my training that suffers. I feel tired, and my speed work ends with me crapping out. I swim 2000yards and I feel like I am drowning. My plans for running after work end up with me and heading home from campus at 7pm, only to seek refuge in grilled cheese and True Blood on Blu-Ray because I don’t have any energy for anything else. Yesterday, I tried to get in a long road ride, and a flat tire had me in tears and calling my boyfriend to come get me in BFE.

The question I have asked myself every day this week: Who took my energy, and where did they go?

Last week, Baberaham hinted that I might have symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome, and taking it easy is probably not a bad idea. Granted, we were in Florida, where swimming in a lap pool set to 86 degrees and “getting refreshed” by jumping in the ocean (which was 91 degrees) was only minimally satisfying. Not to mention, running at 4pm before lightning storms because that was the only time there was a breeze didn’t really help my energy levels. But I wasn’t having any headaches (except for when I wasn’t injesting caffeine) and I felt descent after napping, so I chocked it up to a shift in the climate and a lot on my plate.

Then I got to thinking about one of the cruxes of endurance training: my diet.

It’s true, I hadn’t been eating as great as I should have been after Rev3 Quassy. I do a great job of hydrating and eating right before a race, but afterwards I don’t care as much. And a trip to Florida, with big meals and glasses of wine, threw me out of whack a little. It wasn’t until I got home, spent a week cooking for myself, and feeling like absolute dump, that I realized what mgiht be going on.

After the failed bike ride of yesterday (55 miles does not equal 130, thankyouverymuch flat tire), I had a craving. Not a normal craving, either. I usually want to eat things like chocolate or ice cream, or a Snickers bar or cheese. No, this craving was unusual, for me, especially since I am no longer a vegetarian. The craving: a big fat juicy STEAK.

Growing up, I was raised on red meat. My parents bought a cow and had it processed, and we’d eat beef 3-4 times a week. Hamburgers, chili, meatloaf, you name it. I depended on finding, during summer weekend evenings, a T-bone steak and an ear of corn on my plate. When I went off to college, I stopped eating so much meat, and when I went to graduate school I became vegetarian. I never had too big of issues with training, but I rarely trained as much as I do now (plus, so it goes, I was younger and could apparently recover faster then… plus during graduate school I was adament about having a protein shake after every big workout).

Now, even though I have reincorporated meat into my diet, I struggle more in recovery, and have found that it takes more time and more discipline to feel good during and after a big training block. Although we don’t eat a lot of meat, Baberaham and I usually fill our meals with a good variety of foods like black beans, eggs, and whole grain rice. I usually make an Ultragen shake after long workouts, but my First Endurance supply has been depleted and my ambition as of late has not been focused on reordering more.

So, yesterday, sitting on our friend’s couch watching World Cup, I saw a Bon Appetit magazine on their coffee table with a big rib eye steak. I then counted the meals I had consumed this week and could count on one hand the number that had either meat, egg, or beans in them. Immediately, I turned to B and proclaimed: “I need to go get a steak dinner.” He looked puzzled, and I continued, “My treat.”

After the US’s disappointing loss, we went to Calumet and both ordered the rib-eye. All 16-ounces of the bone-in, medium rare meat melted in my mouth and slid down my gullet. I felt euphoric, and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my mouth. Baked potato? Gone. Grizzle? Gone. Sour cream? Gone. Of all things, I left the limp green beans on my plate, I suppose as a sacrifice to the bovine gods.

I didn’t know how it happened, but I had put my finger exactly on the issue that my body was dealing with. After the meal, and the post-feast lethargy of more True Blood and muddy buddies, I slept like a baby and woke up in the morning before the alarm. I pulled on my running shorts and darted out of the house, tackling the 3hr run to South Range with more umph than I’ve had all week. I felt like I was flying during the last hour, and I felt strong, fluid, and forward. I felt good.

True, part of that could have been because my ride yesterday was cut so short and I let my brain and body rest all afternoon. But I really, truly believe that the thick, juicy, delicious slab of meat I ate last night changed my week, and my week-long bonk will happen again if I don’t pay better attention to the protein I put in my body.

Don't forget: It's what you do after the run that counts (too)

When I ran in college, I was a (shockingly) a little less regimented with my recovery than I am now. Maybe it was because I was young and spry. Maybe it had more to do with my love of dancing and party-natured roommates (and my love of college-type beverages). Or, perhaps, it had more to do with the fact that I raced 5Ks, not marathons. Whatever the case may be, I have changed my post-workout and post-race mentality quite a bit since I was 20. I guess when your body starts to protest, you kinda have to listen.

This week was the biggest mileage week I’ve had for running since … I’m not sure when. Might have been last summer, when I was training for Ironman Wisconsin, or it might have even happened before that. I honestly can’t recall (mostly because I trained by hours for IMWI). Anyway, I threw in close to 70miles this week (68, actually), without any two-a-days for running and with two days sans-run (because I didn’t run every day this week, that may have actually helped my recovery).

I am feeling pretty darn good. Today’s 21mile run pushed 30sec/mile negative splits even before the halfway point. The route we picked included a 550ft climb in two of the first three miles (up Quincy hill). The drastic up-and-down’s of the Keweenaw will keep a runner honest, and even though I caught my Garmin reading 7:15s in some instances for longer stretches, our fastest mile was just around 8minutes.

Quincy Hill is a "hufta" at the beginning of a long run.

Midway through the week, after taking a rest day form the Hills from Hell (which we have done two weeks in a row, now… I’ll be sure to tell ya’ll about those at a later date), I was having a weird tightness in my adductor. So I spent some quality time with my massage baller this week, as well as pampering my legs with some Chomper Body’s muscle butter. It’s got a similar feel of like IcyHot, only not nearly as stinky and not as intense. Perhaps the key to good muscle butters is their ability to promote circulation, and getting the blood in there to get the lactic acid out. Chomper’s are also all-natural, which gives their products an extra bonus in my book. The muscle butter feels like cool breaths of someone blowing ice on your legs. A little goes a long way (I usually dip my fingertip in the jar and it’s enough to cover both my inner thighs). I’ve also tried the Warming Up Cream by Sportique, which is quite nice, although I do not recommend it to be used after shaving!

As far as real good recovery goes, nothing beats the real thing: 1hour sessions with my trigger point massage therapist, Mel. Probably because she doesn’t relent even when I am “eeeking” and “ouching”, and even crying. But when I can’t get in to see her, and for general maintenance, I’ve picked up a good habit in using Trigger Point Therapy’s products.

What exactly do I do with the massage baller? Well, usually I use it on my shoulder when it gets sore from swimming to relieve some of the tightness near my supraspinatus (the muscle on the top part of my shoulder blade, for you non-anatomy driven folk). I became a believe in their product after it allowed me to regain full range of motion at the IMWI expo (two days before the race, I could barely raise my arm above my head). But as of late, though, I’ve been using it to relieve some pains-in-the-rear. I sit on the ball, close to where the tightness is (and with clean clothes on, of course), and rotate my leg in small circles with my knee either bent or straight, depending on how much pain I can handle. I “search” for the hot-spot, the location that is really tight on my glutes that needs some relieving. Sometimes, I will just lift myself up with my hands and roll the ball on the lateral side of my butt muscles. Hurts so good. I don’t show it as well, but the goal of this is to tilt my hips toward the ball to target my piriformis.

The Grid is also pretty neat for treating tightness of the IT band

I use the footballer to alleviate any tightness in my calves. Funny thing about biomechanics: pains in the feet and calves can be translated upward, into the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. It’s best to nip any tightness before it gets out of control. My favorite trick is to put the footballer slightly superior to my ankle. Then, I rest my non-massage-foot on the top of my massage-foot’s shin, and press juuuust a little. I rotate my massage-foot in circles, sometimes lifting my butt and moving myself a little forward to move the footballer up my calf. This has helped keep me from getting super sore later in the day after an intense run (I use TPTherapy either right after a run or after I have a snack and shower). I sometimes give it a go right before bed, too.

Practically everyone talks about what they eat while they are training, and what they put in their bodies before a big workout or race. Race day breakfast? Meal the night before? We know that we need to have these things dialed because otherwise our race/big-workout-day GI system will be all out of whack. But nutrition is really important and often overlooked part of proper recovery after training. Getting in easily-absorbed nutrients to replenish the system and help your body recover from the stresses you just put it through is key if you want to get stronger. I make sure to get in two-scoops of Ultragen after each big/hard run (today’s 21 miler was one of those). I also try to get some food in my system within the first hour, too. Today, I enjoyed a peanut butter and chocolate scone from the SillyYak Bakery (out of Madison, Wisconsin). Baberaham’s mom sent us a box heaping full of delicious- and gluten free!- treats to stock our freezer with. What better timing?! I am really excited. We got a pumpkin pecan coffee cake, and Baberaham doesn’t like coffee cake… so I am one lucky girl (here’s hoping I don’t try to eat the entire thing before the weekend’s over). Additionally, for the rest of the day, and tomorrow (a recovery, easy-training day) I will make a strong effort to stay hydrated, replenish lost electrolytes, and not eat crappy foods. Oddly enough, minus the coffee cake, I don’t really crave ‘crappy’ foods (french fries, candy bars, etc) after a hard workout or race. Usually, I would just kill for a Keweenaw Co-Op salad with pumpkin seeds and goat cheese…

It’s important to keep moving after a hard workout or race, too. Just because you crossed the finish line doesn’t mean your done. Walk around a bit, flush out the legs. If you are going to sit, prop up your feet (and take a nap!). Although not proven in clinical studies, runners can experience deep-vein thrombosis, which is why it’s not a great idea to do a race and hop right into the car for a long drive (or get on a plane right away). Compression socks help circulation, and might give your legs a happy-feeling after a hard workout anyway. I am not too geeked on spending $60 on a pair of socks, though, so I go with the ol’ geriatric-style socks from Walmart (yes, they are beige, but who really cares? $20 beats $60 any day).

Speaking of which, time to go walk around downtown on this absolutely sunny, beautiful day. Happy training!

Askinosie Chocolate

My adventure bug has bit me a few times already, and I am putting my eggs in all sorts of baskets this spring. With a marathon in April, followed by Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim two days later, and the American Triple T a month after that (with a half-iron distance tri in between), my racing and training schedule is calling for a no-holds-barred endurance-athon that includes treadmill marathons and ski marathons (in the same week). So I went on a search to find something that I can’t get enough of to help me get through this: chocolate.

I came across Askinosie on Twitter, and based on their website (which looks like this)…:

I decided that they’d probably fit the bill.

When I look at their website, this is what I see: Do you like learning about how chocolate is made? Yesssss. Do you like looking at yummy pictures of chocolate? Uh-huh…. Do you like adventures? Yes. Want your chocolate to come from adventurous places? Sure! Want fair trade chocolate? Yes! How about something better, like A Stake in the Outcome? Oh! PLEASE!! So, do you want to buy chocolate? YES.

Askinosie is an interesting chocolate company. The owner, Shawn, is a criminal-defense-lawyer-turned-chocolate maker. I’d love to get the story in person and meet the people behind the chocolate, because their description and bios are so intriguing– but the jist is, Shawn was given the gift of an idea, and tediously, meticulously, and methodically figured out how to make chocolate the right way. And it’s really, really good chocolate.

Another cool thing about the company: they follow a motto called From Bean to Bar. This motto means that Shawn and friends develop a solid relationship with bean farmers before they even order any beans. Each bar is made with authentic, traceable, single-origin beans, and the bars are made in small batches. Askinosie does so many unique things that are hard (if not impossible) to find anywhere else in the states, including pressing their own cocoa butter and making white chocolate from scratch. When it comes to getting beans, Askinosie travels to the countries where they get their beans, meet the farmers, and get to the heart of chocolate making by learning the old-fashioned way (and getting up-close-and-personal with the ground from which the beans come). Pretty sweet. Then they buy the beans (above Fair Trade prices), ship in the beans using the help of a shipping broker (and bing-bang-boom; but not really that easily), and the beans arrive and are made into chocolate.

Ok! So, what about the chocolate? There are a lot of options. First thing I looked at was the price (dudes, I’m a graduate student). And, yes, I cringed a little. But after reading all the work that goes into making these bars and after I took a single square off the Davao White Chocolate Nibble bar, I wondered why they don’t charge more (shh! don’t tell them I said that). To start, the packaging is awesome; the bars come in wax-paper-like brown bag packaging that is unbleached and all natural (its home compostable and biodegradable, too). The packaging folks do a most excellent job of making sure the bars arrived to my doorstep safely- the bars were rolled in biodegradeable, soft material. The bar has really creamy white chocolate with cocoa nibs embedded into it, which makes it crunchy, but the bar has such great balance of flavor. It was sugary-sweet, but not too sweet, and I felt what I thought were the sugar crystals on my tongue as it melted in my mouth (they actually make their bars with organic cane juice). It tasted so wonderfully blissful, but also not like any other white chocolate bar I’ve had before, and I think I know why: they made it with goat’s milk powder. There were no other ingredients that detracted from the flavor of the cocoa beans and cocoa butter. Just goat’s milk powder and cane juice.

I love the letters in each square

For $10.50, the bars don’t disappoint. They are large (enough to share even!) and one square makes me smile and keeps me content. These are indulgeable bars of chocolate, but not in the sense that you wanna eat the whole thing in one sitting (like pizza, or ice cream). It’s one of those find-your-center foods, for sure.

Other really cool things about Askinosie:

• They profit share with their farmers. This ensures that the farmer has a Stake in the Outcome and Askinosie gets the best bean.
  • Simply put, A Stake in the Outcome means they guarantee to their farmers above-Fair-Trade prices, open books, and a share in Askinosie’s success
• Askinosie is the first company in the world in over 100 years (outside Mexico) to make chocolate from the historic Soconusco, Mexico region
• They are the first chocolate maker to export cocoa beans from the Philippines in 25years
• Other than the white chocolate bars, they use two ingredients to make their chocolate: cocoa beans and cane juice

Cocoa nibs: super-antioxidants!

Since Askinosie sent me some bars and cocoa nibs free of charge to get-me-rolling on my endurance-challenge, I have obviously been a bit more frivilous with the chocolate. I am even sharing it with Baberaham. I made some fruit-and-nut bars with dates, cocoa nibs, and almonds, and ate the whole batch in one sitting (I don’t recommend that). I’m experimenting with the cocoa nibs to develop some yummy energy bars for R2R2R, and expect my kitchen to be a disaster area for the next two months.

The first round of bars from Askinosie aren’t enough, though. I spent $50 yesterday and bought some more (even though I haven’t even gone through my current stock). But, I couldn’t pass up the current deal they are running (4 bars for the price of 3) and, with free shipping over $40, I decided to get the V-Day deal and threw on a white chocolate bar with pistachios and another bar, an El Rustico bar (specially developed for Zingerman’s Deli near my hometown). So, six bars, for $45? That’s … doing the math… $7.50 a bar. Now that’s more in my price range. It’s also a really easy Valentine’s Day gift for Baberaham, because the 4-bars-for-3 comes in a special V-Day wrapped in a kraft box with a tag already attached to it (fill in the blanks V-Day gift!). Who knows if I will be generous enough to give him the whole box, but we’ll see. Good thing he likes to share.

My recommendations (and I haven’t tried all of them, but here’s what I’ve liked so far):

• Dark Milk Chocolate Bar + fleur de sel sea salt
• Davao White Chocolate Nibble Bar
• Cocoa nibs in yogurt (put the yogurt and nibs in a container the night before and let the nibs infuse into the yogurt)

I’m excited to try:

• White Chocolate with pistachios
• El Rustico
• Del Tamba
• Ok, I’m really excited to try ALL of them!

Want to learn more? Feel free to ask me. Take a tour of their factory if you’re in Missouri. You can also follow @Askinosie on Twitter or check out their website.

My second delivery!

Post-script- my second deliver came today (the V-Day box and the two bars). Another awesome thing about Askinosie: incredibly fast turnaround. I placed my order for the chocolate on Monday, it shipped Tuesday and arrived today! So, it’s not too late for Valentine’s Day treats, folks!! 🙂 These I bought with my hard earned money, too!

FTC disclaimer: Askinosie sent me these bars for free to run through my test kitchen in preparation for finding the right Adventure foods. But- they didn’t sponsor this blog post with extramural funds, nor did they even request one. I guess they knew I would like the chocolate so much I’d want to write about it anyway.

Could it be? The best "snack bar" ever?

After the brief stint of traveling over the weekend, Adam and I came back to Houghton late, exhausted, sluggish, and hungry. Who’d have guessed that a half-ironman would work up your appetite? (um… that was sarcasm) We had stopped at a restaurant in Hayward to grab some grub, but my brat (sans bun) and fries had already vacated my tummy. It girgled and I scrambled to find something to munch on. Cookies? Chips? Anything sounded good. That’s why I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning when I opened the mailbox to find a box from Larabar.

Let me start out by saying that, even if I hadn’t been starving and exhausted, I’d still have been super excited to see said box. I always grab a Larabar from Jim’s on my way home from the pool following afternoon swims, and it’s my number-one go-to-food for a deceivingly healthy snack. Regardless, I tore open the box and to my amazement, I got not one but three new-(not yet released) flavors of bars. I couldn’t stop smiling. And they all sounded amazing. The day just kept getting better.

My favorite food as a kid: Peanut butter and jelly. What did I get in the box? A PB&J larabar (well, actually two)! I thought the days of delicious PB&J ended when I gave up wheat and gluten. I doubt I’m the first to say: “Gluten free bread tastes and smells like cat food.”

The new flavor Larabar is by no way misleading. I bit into the bar and was brought back to a time when I ate Wonder Bread smeared with Jif and jam, only this bar tasted even better than that. Then I thought to myself, “ok… maybe I’m just really hungry. Maybe I should not get too excited about this just yet…”

So the next day, I grabbed the other peanut butter and jelly bar for a mid-ride snack. After my first bite, I knew I’d hit the jackpot. If Jim’s Foodmart doesn’t stock this flavor, I am going to have to order a few cases for my own secret stash. Scratch that: I think I am still going to have to order a few cases, anyway…

A few interesting facts about Larabar:

• All their bars are gluten free, dairy free, soy-free, GMO-free, and vegan. So what could be in them that tastes good? They are practically the most simple food I’ve ever purchased ready-to-eat, besides dried fruit and nuts. That’s because Larabars are pretty much just fruit and nuts! The Peanut Butter and Jelly bar has peanuts, dried cherries, and dates. That’s it! Besides, I don’t think GMOs make anything taste better… but its good to know that what I am putting in my body is REAL FOOD!
• The bars are tiny, but pack a lot of punch! The Peanut Butter & Jelly bar has 22o calories, which is about the same as a granola bar the same size (or less), but has 6g of protein! I am trying to get away from thinking of foods as macronutrients (carbs, fats, and proteins), but for those that need to consider this for dietary reasons, keep this in mind: would you rather eat something to eat it or eat something that tastes good, satisfies, and is good for you?!
• It seriously satisfies. I could eat 200calories from a candy bar the size of my thumb and want seventeen more, or I could eat a Larabar and be happy. They also don’t melt or freeze, so they make the best training food. Slip one in your pocket and you can be outside for that much longer!
• It’s real food. Dried cherries. Lemon juice. Dates. Almonds. Healthy, good-for-your-heart-and-soul foods. No hydrogenated oils. No fillers or additives that just don’t belong. Maybe that’s why it tastes better!

I’m really excited to try the two other flavors they sent along… But I won’t announce them just yet. You’ll have to come back tomorrow!