Raw, Dairy-Free Cream Pie

I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, but as promised, here is your berry cream pie 🙂 This pie is so versatile, and can be made into any type of pie! Add lemon zest and coconut whipped cream for a lemon-iced-box pie. Add canned pumpkin and cinnamon for a pumpkin pie. Easy as 1-2-3!

[Berry] Cream Pie (raw, vegan, refined sugar-free)
Yields 6 slices
Ingredients for Crust
1 cup walnuts
¾ cup chopped dates, pitted (soaked in hot water to soften, if necessary)
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
Ingredients for filling
2 cups raw cahews (Soaked in hot water for 1 hour, or room temperature water for at least 4 hours)
½ cup chopped dates, pitted
¼ cup coconut oil
½ cup lite coconut milk
1-2 cups assortment of berries
Instructions:
In food processor, pulse dates until fine. Add walnuts, and continue pulsing until mixture is completely combined and sticky. Press crust in the bottom of a spring form pan. Place in the refrigerator while preparing the filling.

After cashews are done soaking, first pulse dates in food processor, then adding remaining filling ingredients until smooth.

Pour and spread filling on top of hardened crust. Refrigerate.

Once pie is hardened, garnish with fresh berries. Store in the fridge for up to 1 week, or freezer for a month.

Recipe inspiration: pureella.com

My Go-To for Quick Fuel

Helloooo and Happy Monday! After my last post on the updated IT band craziness, I am looking forward to giving another update in about a week. Spoiler alert: Things are going well!! Really so very happy to be making progress. …

Snow Day Survival: Day 2

Because we are all getting a little cabin feverish over here . . . So I actually ended up going into work yesterday, and the photo above is how I felt about it. This morning I woke up and my …

Snow Day Survival Food

You guys. Snow food. YESSSS. Guess who got their first snow of the year?!?! Memphis, TN, yalllll! Okay, well actually it’s like 2 inches of ice, but we don’t know any difference in the south, so let us party people …

Post Long-Run: EAT ALL THE FOOD

 

Still to this day, after every Saturday morning workout or long-run, my favorite thing to do is get right in the kitchen and make a huge breakfast/brunch. Before we moved to Memphis, oftentimes my training partners would run home and shower, then come over to my place for the most massive post long-run brunch ever. Glorious. I wanted to share some recipes with you guys to give you a few ideas for a great Saturday morning brunch. Whether it’s after a long-run or not, I guarantee you all will love this menu. Here are the basics: carbs + protein + large cups of home-brewed coffee. WINNING.

First things first. Give me a coffee IV, please 🙂 For those of you who are intimidated by home-brewed iced coffee, this recipe is fool-proof! **Make sure to start brewing the night before, though!!

Cold-Brewed Coffee

Ingredients

1/3 cup ground coffee (medium-course grind is best)

1 ½ cups water

Milk and Sugar (optional)

Instructions

1. In a jar, stir together coffee and 1 1/2 cups water. Cover and let rest at room temperature overnight or 12 hours.
2. Strain twice through a coffee filter, a fine-mesh sieve or a sieve lined with cheesecloth. In a tall glass filled with ice, mix equal parts coffee concentrate and water, or to taste. If desired, add milk.

Recipe source: Smitten Kitchen

Next up, dat incredible edible EGG.

Pesto-Potato Eggs with Crispy Basil**

serves 4

Ingredients:

10-12 small red-potatoes or 4 medium sized regular potatoes

4 large eggs

1/3 cup basil pesto

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Scrub and thinly slice potatoes.  Toss potato slices with olive oil, minced garlic, salt and pepper, and in a skillet, cook the potatoes 10-15 minutes, or until cooked and crisp on edges.
3. Transport potatoes to a casserole-type dish, spoon in pesto, and toss to coat evenly.  Bake in oven for 10 minutes, or until brown on top.  Remove from oven, and carefully make wells in potato-pesto mixture.  Crack eggs in the wells, and top with salt and pepper.  Bake until eggs are set, 5 to 10 minutes.

Crispy Basil**

a handful of basil leaves and 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat.  Carefully add half the basil leaves to the oil, and stand back while basil fries for about 30 seconds.  Once sizzling slows and the leaves have fried, remove basil with slotted spoon and lay on a paper towel covered plate.  Scatter crispy basil on top of the pesto-potato eggs and serve warm.

Finally, brunch isn’t complete without something sweet to top it all off. Coconut bread FOR THE WIN.

Coconut Bread

Ingredients

2 large eggs
1 ¼  cups milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup granulated sugar
5 ounces unsweetened flaked coconut (about 1 1/2 cups)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Spray vegetable oil or nonstick cooking spray for baking pan

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Add sugar and coconut, and stir to mix. Make a well in the center, and pour in egg mixture, then stir wet and dry ingredients together until just combined. Add butter, and stir until just smooth — be careful not to overmix.
3. Butter and flour a 9×5-inch loaf pan, or coat it with a nonstick spray. Spread batter in pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, anywhere from 1 to 1 1/4 hours.
4. Cool in pan five minutes, before turning out onto a cooling rack.

Recipe adapted from Bill’s Café in Sydney.

Maybe you didn’t know this about me . . .

In addition to my day job, I actually write food articles and recipes + take photos for a local print magazine (gasp, I know, those still exist!). I’ve been doing that for 3 years now (has it really been that long?!), and although I’d probably consider myself somewhat experienced in that area, I guess I’ve been hesitant to share recipes on here because it seems like everyone in the universe has a food blog. I mean, c’mon, do we REALLY need more recipes for the “Best brownies ever” or “Kale chips”?

Even though most of me said, “Make MsKatieBlaze just a running blog,” I feel not sharing the foodie side of me is kind of like not sharing the full me. So, as I find more time now that grad school is (FINALLYYYY) done, I decided I might start incorporating a few food photos and recipes.   I am really intrigued by the fueling aspect of running, and I think as athletes it becomes easy to get in a rut eating the same thing every day. Maybe the recipes I share will encourage you get creative in the kitchen with your eats!

I’ll share a little bit of everything. Because it’s the end of the summer, I really wanted to post these salmon burger sliders. THEY.ARE.DELICIOUS! These were inspired by the Curried Salmon Burger Lettuce Wraps over at Half-Baked-Harvest. Tieghan is a pure genius in the kitchen, and I know anything I make from her blog is going to be a hit. Without further a-do . . .

End-Of-Summer Salmon Burger Sliders

Yields 8 small sliders

Ingredients:

1 lb wild caught salmon, skin removed and roughly chopped

1/3 cup bread crumbs

2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons thai red curry paste (found in the international section of most grocery stores)

½ tablespoon fish sauce (found in the international section of most grocery stores)

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon oil (I used coconut)

½ medium-size cucumber, thickly sliced

1 small mango, skin removed and thickly sliced

4 ounces goat cheese (log, not crumbled), thickly sliced

Crushed red pepper

Instructions:

1. Place the chopped raw salmon in a food processor on high until it is ground.
2. Combine salmon, bread crumbs, parmesan, thai red curry paste, fish sauce, ginger and garlic and mix well. Form into 8 small sized “slider” burgers.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add coconut oil to skillet. Add burgers, and cook until done, a few minutes per side. Set aside.
4. Using toothpicks or small skewers, begin to stack sliders beginning with cucumber, goat cheese, burger, and finally the sliced mango. Sprinkle with crushed red pepper if preferred. Serve immediately.

Recipe adapted from and heavily inspired by the Curried Salmon Burger Lettuce Wraps  at www.halfbakedharvest.com. 

Spring Panzanella Salad with Leeks & Asparagus

This salad is genius. That’s all there is to it. Except, wait. WHAT IS WITH THIS WEATHER?!

You know what I really wish? I really wish the idea for this salad was something I invented myself. But, alas, I’m entering the blog world about 8 years too late. 

This is a “panzanella” salad, which in my eyes, just means a hearty bowl with some good crusty bread. There are lots of great spring panzanella salad recipes out there. (Food and Wine 2012 anyone?!) Save yourself some time like I did and go with this one from Smitten Kitchen. Really, though. Smitten is pretty genius.

In fact, I recreated her recipe in hopes of changing something drastically so I could call it my own. Just didn’t happen. It’s that good. Only minor changes were needed in my humble opinion (tehe). Really, though. Make this. Pronto.

Spring Panzanella Salad (adapted from Smitten Kitchen in 2008)
Serves 4
Ingredients:
For the croutons:
¼ cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups day-old bread, crust removed and cubed
6 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper, to taste
For the vinaigrette:
½ of a medium-sized red onion, finely chopped
2 ½ tablespoons champagne or white wine vinegar
Juice of ½ lemon
¼ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
For the salad:
3 large leeks
2 teaspoons salt
1 pound asparagus
1, 15-ounce can of white beans, rinsed and drained
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix the bread cubes with the garlic, olive oil and parmesan in a large bowl.  Toss to coat well.  Transfer bread to a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake stirring once or twice until croutons are crisp and lightly colored on the outside, but still soft within, about 10 to 15 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

Mix the red onion with the vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil and Dijon. Whisk well and set aside.

Cut off dark green tops of leeks and trim root ends.  Halve each leek lengthwise to within to inches of root end.  Chop leeks into 1-inch pieces and separate strands.  Rinse well under cold running water to wash away sand.  Cover leeks with water in a large rimmed skilled. Cover, and simmer leeks until tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Without draining the cooking water, transfer leeks to a strainer, and run cold water over to prevent overcooking.  Break off ends of asparagus; chop into 1 inch pieces, and cook in the boiling water until somewhat tender, but not wilting, about 3-5 minutes.  Strain and run cold water over asparagus.

Place leek and asparagus pieces in a large bowl with beans and cooled parmesan croutons.  Pour vinaigrette over and toss well.  Season with salt and pepper.