Category Archives: Recipes

New York New York!

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It’s a good day to be a runner.

In the wake of hurricane Sandy, New York and it’s neighbors were left hungry, cold and some without homes. In the days following a horrible debate came to play, to go on with the NYC Marathon or to not. Bloomberg kept the show on until Friday, a mere 2 days from the race. Runners, not our Mayor, were being threatened and attacked by people who thought it a bad idea. Shame on them for attacking people who run to raise thousands of dollars to help others.

My personal opinion was that the race should have been cancelled Tuesday. I was not going to run it anyway.

Before continuing on to more positive things, I need to say this… if you were one of those people with an opinion, you better have been out there PHYSICALLY helping, otherwise you just added to the problem.

Runners, and especially the ones I am honored to call my friends, are noble and amazing people.

On the morning of the NYC Mary thousands of runners (wearing their orange race shirts) banded together and went to Staten Island, bringing much needed supplies and to help in any way they could. My friend Eissa organized our own event. At 9:30AM today a few dozen of us runners compiled loads of donated items to bring to Brooklyn and Staten Island.

At our donation drop off point I finally got to meet Ron, who is also coached by Sonja! Speaking of Sonja, her friend Gaye was there to join in! What a small world! The rest of the Runner Army was there in force too.

We packed Eissa’s car to the brim! It was so funny to see! Today she will drop off all of these goods to people in need affected by Sandy.

Next, we took off toward The Central Park for a loop. As we entered we were totally amazed at all the positive energy there! Thousands of runners, decked out in their marathon gear, were doing loops of the Park! There were people all over cheering with signs and cowbells, some handing out water. Every few miles there were groups with donation drop-off areas, collecting more goods to bring.

We made the best of it and really took it all in. It really made me happy and renewed my faith in humanity.

“I love this town!”

 

Did somebody say Chobani Yogurt?

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So I’m on Twitter the other day and a few of my running friends (who am I kidding, all of my friends on Twitter are Runners or Triathletes) were talking about how good Chobani is. Being that most of these people are female athletes I tend to ignore strange references because otherwise I accidentally enter a give-away to win a Lululemon yoga outfit or something. Today, I decided to ask, “What is this Chobani all of you are talking so highly of?” Shortly after Chobani’s twitter handle mentioned me, explaining that they make exceptional greek yogurt. I love greek yogurt. It’s like man-yogurt. A few moments after that my friend Lindsay, who works for Chobani, saw my tweet that I had never tried Chobani before. She said she had to change that.

2 weeks later a huge box of Chobani Yogurt arrived at the office! I’m a photographer so I figured I’d do a lil product shoot before I ate them…

Chobani is amazing. It has the bite of greek yogurt mixed perfectly with whatever flavor you have chosen. The 2 I have tried so far are Honey and Vanilla, both exceptional.

Aside from taste, Chobani is very healthy. It uses no artificial ingredients, gluten free, and no synthetic growth hormones. If you like greek yogurt I would highly recommend trying Chobani. (Its sold in most major markets and is everywhere in NYC!)

Baker’s ‘Race Burritos’

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By now most people have heard of and hopefully come to terms with the fact that I eat ‘Race burrito’ during any distance race over a Half Mary. I started this nutrition tactic during the Knickerbocker 60K last year when I was freaking out over how I would survive the race. It worked that day and a new way of fueling was born for me.

A lot of people have asked how they are made and what goes into them so I though I would do some explaining.

SIDENOTE: I will make you ‘Race Burritos’ if you give me a few days notice before a race.

Baker’s ‘Race Burritos’

Ingredients:

– 5-10 Flour/Wheat Tortillas (do not use corn, they fall apart)
– 1 cup brown rice
– 1 Can GOYA Black Beans
– 1 Can GOYA Kidney Beans
– 1 Large Tomato
– Sea Salt
– Cumin

In a large (deep) sauce pan cook brown rice. It’s important that the rice is over cooked rather than under cooked. (Crunchy food during a run just ain’t cool)
While the rice is cooking, drain and rinse the beans and dice the tomato. Add them to the rice mix once it is cooked thoroughly.

On low heat, keep stirring the rice and bean mixture. Add a hearty amount of sea salt and go light on the cumin. Do not over do it (regarding the cumin) otherwise it will affect you on the course.

Once the mix has cooled a bit (and there is minimal moisture) add very thin strips to the tortillas. Try and get an even spread of beans and rice.

Roll them very tight and moisten the outside flap with warm water to seal it. Then, wrap it in cellophane by folding the left and right ‘open’ sides of the burrito first, then roll the rest around it. This helps to keep it together and to make it easier to open while running.

Refrigerate, then on race day tape them to your bike, stuff ’em up your shirt or in your arm warmers.

SIDENOTE: I normally eat one the day before a race so my body adapts to it.