Gluten free Banana Zucchini Muffins

I am a bad blogger :(. Life has gotten a bit chaotic over the past several weeks, and in order to find time to get everything done, well blogging fell to the side. But then at a 5k last weekend people started asking about how my new diary-free, gluten-free life was going. It’s actually going quite well. I had no idea people were so interested.

I remember having zucchini bread when I was young, and thought it was really cool until I found out it had zucchini in it, and then I didn’t like it so much. It was definitely one of those weird childhood food things. You find out it’s good for you and then you don’t want it anymore. A couple of years ago I had grilled zucchini at a restaurant and loved it!! I couldn’t stop eating zucchini!

My mom has been slightly obsessed with making gluten-free things for me. I keep telling her I don’t need bread for carbs, vegetables and fruit are much better! But then we found this recipe, and with a little tweaking I give you diary-free, gluten-free banana zucchini muffins. You will not stop eating them, seriously, we’re on our 3rd batch…

adapted from Everyday Food

Zucchini, Banana, and Flaxseed muffins:

ingredients:

1 3/4 cup gluten-free flour

1/2 cup ground flaxseed

1 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 1/2 cups coarsely grated zucchini

1/3 cup mashed ripe banana

3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 large egg slightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

– preheat oven to 350

– in large mixing bowl combine dry ingredients, then add zucchini and banana and stir till combined

– in a small bowl whisk together wet ingredients

– Add milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir till combined

– Divide batter evenly among muffin cups

– bake until toothpick come cleanly out of the center of the muffin, about 20 – 25 minutes

– cool, and then enjoy 🙂

makes 12 muffins

The track

After conquering the Alaska Marathon back in June Diane & Jeff started hinting at what was coming as I work towards the Savannah Rock-n-Roll Marathon. I had been running for a while, had a good base of miles, and seemed to be handling the training they were throwing at me well. It was time to see what I could really do they said. And to find out we were going to the track.

Ah, the track. I have less than fond memories of the track from high school. You are in fact looking at a picture of my high school track because it’s just down the street from home. Oh how I detested this track during soccer conditioning. I remember when they finish building the track my junior year, and stepping out onto the rubber surface for the first time. It was bouncy, and fun to walk on, but then, oh then I had to run just over 4 laps on that track, and I thought I might die (it is in fact slightly short, under 400 yards a lap). That track had it in for me, or at least that was the way I felt. When Jeff and I first talked about yasso 800s I was a little nervous about heading back to the track.

Fortunately, my time away from this track was good for me. I walked back out on it for the first time back in June, and ran a mile warm-up without a problem. Then the speed workout started. No problems with the track. Take that! I’m not going to lie, the yasso 800 workout isn’t easy. It’s named for the runner Bart Yasso who developed it as a training tool when he was training for marathons. He discovered that it was pretty accurate at predicting finish times. To my great fortune Jeff grew up racing against Bart. They’re still friends, so Jeff knows how to train his runners with yassos really well. oh boy! The workout in itself is fairly easy. You warm-up, run 800 yards (1/2 a mile) in the minute/second equivalent of your goal finish time. For instance my goal for Savannah is 4 hours 15 minutes, so I run the 800 in 4 minutes 15 seconds, and get 4:15 to recover before the next repeat. We started with 4 repeats, and are steadily building to 10. When you can run 10 800 repeats at your goal time it’s a good bet that you’ll finish at or near your goal time. This week I”m up to 8 repeats! I’ve had to change my approach with the heat in order to hit my times. Instead of jogging the recoveries I walk a good portion of them to get my heart rate back down. I know each one is making me stronger, and once it cools off some I shouldn’t have a problem jogging the recoveries. I’ve learned a lot about form and efficiency with the yassos. Speed comes from good form, and I’m getting there. So Friday morning I will once again be out on the track sweating it out. Watch out track, I’m coming!

Finding peace

Last week was a bit of a tough week. It was just one of those weeks where too much is going on, and then things just start to go wrong. For example, your Dad finally decides after 5 years that it’s okay to have his name removed from your car title, but it has to be done this summer, and oh by the way, he’s not going to help. After weeks of staring at the Georgia DOR car title site I threw up my hands, and finally started asking people what the heck did I need to do this. While they were not necessarily the most pleasant people (really there’s no need to get snippy at me for asking an honest question) I did mange to get everything done once I got Dad to actually do what he needed to clear the insurance & title. Too much stress!

Then I took a look at my fall schedule. There are huge holes, and lots of students missing. Commence freak out number one. Where did everyone go? Then one of my students switches teachers even after telling me I was doing a good job. Huh? Wallow? Yes, I wallowed a bit last week, and freaked out. Friday morning I was in tears.

But then I realized there are some things I have no control over. Why should I blame myself for a student leaving when they said I was doing a good job? I have a bunch of students and parents who do appreciate what I do. And then oddly enough yesterday’s devotional from church comes in and ask this question, “So how do you go about seeking peace?” Did I have peace when everything was seeming to fall apart last week? No, and crying and wallowing was getting me no where. It was time to get back on my feet, and do what I could. I needed to focus on the students who did want me around. They each deserve the very best I can give them. I needed to remember that the car stuff wasn’t what was important. I had wanted this for a long time. Some help would have been nice, but I know by now not to expect help from my Dad. I needed to focus on the things that are truly more important than me, and the crazy ups and downs happen all of the time. If I blame myself all of the time, and assume that I am the problem then I get no where. I started taking control over my bank account so that when all of this crazy stuff happens every summer I don’t have to feel the added pressure of looking for money to pay the bills. I started to finding my violin practicing mojo again, and focused on what I needed to do to get better. I started to listen. Sometimes I just sat. There are so many things out in the world that want to tear us down. Monday I felt like I had a new pair of eyes. Do I have peace now? More than I did before that’s for sure, but then it’s an ongoing process. Find what’s beautiful in a day, and what’s really important to you. Don’t change who you are because of some slips. Find peace, and strength where ever you can