Yada Yada Yada

Happy belated 4th! I didn't go anywhere fabulous or anything...just didn't have anything blog-worthy to post about (not that I've let that stop me before).

I went for my long run on Friday because I knew I wouldn't be up and at the group run meeting spot at 6:30 on the 5th due to my weakness for holiday's involving beer and bbq. Also, the thought was 'hey, if I run, I can pig out a bit!' However, I'm happy to say that running 8 wonderful miles the morning of the 4th had the opposite effect on me...instead of over indulging, I pigged out way less because I didn't want the hard work of running 8 miles in the heat go to waste! I must be growing up. Sigh.

I took Saturday and Sunday off from running although I did finish up week 2 of the push up challenge and get some good core work in. Speaking of the push up challenge, it's going well but I don't think I'm any closer to doing 100 consecutive push ups in a row! Oh well, at least my lack-0-guns are getting a workout.

On to food. I recently posted about my new favorite breakfast/snack food, the Oatmeal-Raisin Bars from Every Day Food. They are crazy good, but not so good for you so I was looking to give them a makeover. I got some good suggestions, none of which I actually got around to trying but guess what I found in the August edition of Fitness Magazine? A recipe for "Smart Bars"! They sounded very close to my addiction so I gave them a try today. The things I wasn't crazy about in the original recipe were a stick and a half of butter, 1/4 cup of sugar, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 egg and 1 cup of flour. This new recipe had 1 cup of brown sugar, 1/3 cup of vegetable oil, 3 tablespoons of applesauce and 2 egg whites. Much better! The verdict: next time I'm going to try with a bit less oil because I'm not crazy about the consistency. The Every Day Food bars are nice and firm, like an actually bar. The Fitness Mag bars are a bit more chewy and fall apart. Not necessarily a bad thing, I just wasn't crazy about it. However, I think when the craving for raisin bars pops up, I'll make these instead. I only wish they told me what size bar they are talking about as a serving size! I'll bet it's smaller than what I cut!

Smart Bars
from Fitness Magazine Aug '08

2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons applesauce
2 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 325. Spray 9x9 bakin dish with cooking spray. Mix oats, brown sugar, oil and applesauce. Beat egg whites until frothy; add to oat mixture. Stir in salt, extract and raisins. Bake 30 minutes. Cool and cut into bars.

Per Bar:
103 cals, 2g protein, 17g carbs, 3g fat (1g saturated), 1g fiber.

Note: I didn't have almond extract so I used vanilla. Also, next time I think I'll add cinnamon.