Updated Breakfast Sandwich Recipe

I posted about homemade breakfast sandwiches a couple months ago, and here's my update. First, we've been making them with egg whites a lot, mostly to cut down on calories. We've bought cartons of egg whites, and we've also used separated whites from eggs (really useful when you have leftover whites from a recipe using yolks). Every once in a while, Joey still uses a regular egg.

The one change we've made is how we store and reheat them. We found that no matter what we did, freezing and then reheating them did not work out well. All of the moisture leached out of the eggs while reheating, leaving us with dry eggs that were strangely flaky. We tried heating in the microwave, wrapped in a paper towel, heating in the oven, and a combo of warming slightly in the microwave, followed by crisping up in the toaster oven. I even tried thawing it in the fridge overnight, and then cooking. We decided it wasn't worth it to prepare a ton in advance, if we couldn't actually enjoy them!

Instead, we decided to make a few at a time, and put them in the fridge. On Sunday we could make enough for the whole week, and they would last just fine in the fridge. You could either assemble and wrap them in plastic wrap, or just wrap up the eggs and assemble each day. We cook the eggs in the ramekins still (make sure to grease them really well), in a toaster oven set to 350 F. When there is one ramekin in, it takes ~10 minutes to cook. When we have three ramekins in there (the number of ramekins we have, plus how many will actually fit at once), it takes ~14 minutes to cook.

We've been doing that for weeks now, and it's been working out great. This morning I decided to switch it up a bit, and added some spinach to jazz it up a bit.

This is how I did it:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Thaw some frozen chopped spinach (I used about 1/4 cup), and squeeze out extra moisture. Spray a ramekin with cooking spray. Put spinach in the ramekin.

Pour in the egg. I used egg whites from a carton - it says a serving is 3 tbsp, or 46 g, I used 55g to make it a bit bigger.

Top with salt, pepper, garlic and whatever extra seasoning you would like (I use the African Smoke seasoning from Trader Joe's).

Bake until set - this might take longer than a regular egg, because of the spinach (and because I made mine a little bigger) - it took 14 minutes to cook.

Toast an english muffin topped with some cheese (I used some of Joey's Comte, it melted really well).

Add some sliced tomato, put it all together, and then take a big bite :)

7 Mile Run in Wilmington

I was back in Wilmington last weekend, and knew I would have to do a long run while I was there. I was there Friday evening through Monday afternoon, and couldn't put the run off that whole time. It took me a while to plot out a route. I haven't really done much running at all in Wilmington. In high school I tried cross country for a season, but put in almost zero effort. Besides going on an occasional walk with my mom, I never did any running. I wasn't sure where the good running areas were, which streets had side walks, where the hills were. Thankfully, Wilmington is much less hilly than Charlottesville. I picked a really easy route that included just a few turns, and my mom verified that it had sidewalks the whole way.

The only problem was that my back was still hurting. I strained something in my back last Monday night doing a KB workout, and it still hasn't healed itself. Working out on Wednesday probably didn't help things, and as of Friday, it was just getting worse. I was determined to still run, and was just planning on going slow. My training plan said to do 3 miles steady, 3 miles fast, and then 1 mile steady. I had no idea how I was going to be able to regulate my speed that much, so Joey just told me to make sure the "3 miles fast" section didn't feel easy. He said to make sure it felt difficult, even if I was still running the same pace, or even slower, since I would probably be tired by then.

I started out, and my legs were in a lot of pain. My entire right leg hurt, from my calf to my hip. After about a mile, the pain subsided, but at 1.5 miles, I felt something wrench in my back. It hurt quite a bit, but I tried to keep my left arm as close to my body as possible, without swinging it around, and that seemed to make things better. (You can see in my splits that 1.5-2 miles was my slowest portion.) Once I started going downhill after the first 3 miles, things got better. I picked up my pace, which wasn't surprising in the downhill portion, but was surprised when I realized I was keeping that faster pace. I really got into a good stride after the first 4 miles. I was extremely annoyed when a light forced me to stop just before 5 miles, since I was afraid I was going to lose my momentum. I ran in place until the light changed, and then tried to pick up at the same pace I was going before. Apparently I overshot the pace, since I completed mile 6 more than a minute faster than the previous mile! It was also mostly downhill, which helped a lot. I knew that once I got to the 6 mile mark, not only would I be almost home, but I could go back to a "steady" pace. Somehow, once I got there, I still kept a pretty good pace up, and that ended up being my second fastest mile.

I felt great once I got home. I walked around the neighborhood for a few minutes to cool down, and then went inside and bragged to my mom about my run! I was really happy that I finished 2.5 minutes faster than the previous time I did 7 miles. Once I showered, and started getting ready for the wedding (one of the reasons I was home for the weekend), the pain set in. I was in excruciating pain the rest of the evening, and wasn't able to sleep Saturday or Sunday night. I came to realize that laying down was the worst on my back. Things are a bit better now, but I'm still not pain free.

Even with all of the pain, I'm still really happy I did the run, and really proud of how I did. Now I'm starting to wonder if I'll need a 1-2 mile warmup before my next race, since apparently it took me at least that long to get into a good stride...

Splits: (average pace, pace in last 1/2 mile)
0.49: 5:08 (10:29)
1.00: 10:21 (10:21, 10:14) last mile 10:21
1.49: 15:30 (10:24, 10:31)
2.00: 21:03 (10:32, 10:53) last mile 10:42
2.51: 26:21 (10:30, 10:24)
3.00: 31:26 (10:29, 10:22) last mile 10:23
3.50: 36:29 (10:25, 10:06)
4.01: 41:37 (10:23, 10:12) last mile 10:05
4.50: 46:35 (10:21, 10:08)
5.00: 51:43 (10:21, 10:16) last mile 10:12
5.51: 56:26 (10:15, 9:15)
6.00: 1:00:54 (10:09, 9:07) last mile 9:11
6.50: 1:05:42 (10:06, 9:36)
7.00: 1:10:37 (10:05, 9:50) last mile 9:43

Also, I didn't wear the heart rate monitor. That's probably a really good thing, considering how much stress there already was on my back and side. 

Pumpkin Muffins with Shredded Pumpkin - Regular Version and Lightened-Up Version

With all of the pumpkin recipes out there, it's hard to choose one to make. I find it especially difficult when it comes to muffins or quick bread - everyone has their favorite pumpkin bread recipe. This recipe stands out to me, since it uses shredded fresh pumpkin instead of canned pumpkin puree. In that sense, it's made the same way as a carrot cake or zucchini bread. If you have a food processor with shredding discs, it's really simple to make. Otherwise it's definitely still possible to shred the pumpkin using a cheese grater, it just takes more time/effort and you have to be careful not to shred your hand in the process!

Joey found this recipe from Alton Brown years ago, and we've made it a bunch of times. I picked up a pumpkin at Trader Joe's last week for the sole purpose of making this bread. We usually make it in a 9x5 loaf pan, but decided to make muffins instead, so we could freeze some for later. I wasn't sure how much the pumpkin would yield, and wasn't sure if it would even be enough for a full batch. Those little pumpkins are deceptive - we got 7+ cups of shredded pumpkin from one pie pumpkin. More than enough for two full batches of this recipe. The first time we made it, I followed the recipe (almost) exactly. We just swapped out the pumpkin seeds for pecans. The second time, I decided to try to lighten it up. If Annie's Eats can lighten up her favorite pumpkin bread recipe, then why can't I do the same for AB's? I think it worked perfectly. Joey said it tasted exactly like the original.

I'm including both recipes below, so you can decide which one you would like to make, and so you can see what changes I made. Next time I might use even more whole wheat flour, since you couldn't tell it was there at all.

Recipe: Pumpkin Muffins with Shredded Pumpkin
Adapted from Alton Brown
Yield: 1 9x5 loaf, or 15 muffins, or 12 muffins + 1 mini loaf = 15 servings

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups shredded pumpkin
1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 F (Note - the second time I made these, I accidentally baked them at 350 F. It took 25 minutes for the muffins at this time, and they turned out just fine.) Lightly grease a 9x5 pan or muffin tin.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk until well combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Mix until smooth and well combined.

Add together the wet and dry mixtures - either add wet to dry or dry to wet - whatever you prefer. Mix until no flour streaks remain. Gently fold in the pumpkin and pecans.

Pour into greased loaf pan, or divide among muffin cups. I like to use a large ice cream scoop so each muffin is roughly the same size.

Bake muffins for 30 minutes, or 9x5 loaf for 1 hr 15 minutes. The tops should spring back when pushed lightly, and a toothpick will come out clean with a few moist crumbs. A mini loaf will take ~35-45 minutes, depending on the size.

Cool on a wire rack, and enjoy!

Nutrition:
265 calories
13.8 g fat
35.1 g carbs
1.7 g fiber
2.3 g protein

Lightened-Up Shredded Pumpkin Muffins


Ingredients:
2/3 cup white whole wheat flour
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup splenda
3/8 cup vegetable oil*
3/8 cup unsweetened applesauce*
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups shredded pumpkin
1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans

* For oil and applesauce - dump most of the contents of a 4oz container of applesauce into a liquid measuring cup. Pour oil on top until it reaches 3/4 cup

Nutrition:
194 calories
8.4 g fat
28.4 g carbs
2.1 g fiber
2.5 g protein

I managed to cut out more than 25% of the calories, almost 40% of the fat, and almost 20% of the carbs, just by making a few changes. I also bumped up the fiber content slightly.