Thoughts on the Run

Update to last week’s Fantastic Four Things Friday post: I did lose a toenail!

Here are this week’s four picks …

1. Annual Backyard Camping
Each year we do an overnight at our friend’s house that have 3 kids the same age as our 3 oldest. Same age as in each corresponding child is 3-4 weeks apart! At some point we’ll probably do some real camping trips, but until then, this allows for the use of a blender.

2. New Job. New Trails.
I have had jobs where trails where not nearby. It would be deep in a city or isolated with no sidewalks or safe paths. The job I started last week is not one of them. There is open space, paved bike trails, and plenty of sidewalks. This morning I ventured out onto Fossil Creek Trail that turned into Spring Creek Trail. I thought I would go out for 2 hours and take it easy for 10 or 11 miles. It turned out to be only 1hr 51min and 12 miles. Such a beautiful morning that I could have kept going even more! Saw a few horses, people, dogs, and 1 cat. So many options for trails just off of this one path.

3. Volunteering at school
As someone that grew up in a restaurant, I do like to cook. When I heard my son’s class was doing a pancake fundraiser, I was in. We had 6 little griddles to cook on (there was some concern about tripping breakers, but we were all good) and cranked out over 300 pancakes in 45 minutes to feed 150 people. A great success and can’t wait to do it again!

4. Pumpkin Whoopie Pie Recipe
One of my loyal readers insisted that I post the recipe for the whoopie pies that I referred to a couple weeks ago. Always happy to please, so here is the recipe we started with. For the filling, we just used Cool Whip, but there are other recipes using cream cheese as well. Cool Whip was a small attempt at making these not completely unhealthy.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pie Recipe

Ingredients
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups solid pack pumpkin puree
2 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 tablespoon ground cloves
1 egg white
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3/4 cup shortening

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease baking sheets.
Combine the oil and brown sugar. Mix in the pumpkin and eggs, beating well. Add the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, 1 teaspoon vanilla, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix well.
Drop dough by heaping teaspoons onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cookies cool then make sandwiches from two cookies filled with Whoopie Pie Filling.

To Make Whoopie Pie Filling: Beat egg white and mix with the milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 cup of the confectioners’ sugar. Mix well then beat in the shortening and the remaining cup of confectioners’ sugar. Beat until light and fluffy.

Nutritional Information (but who cares???)
Amount Per Serving Calories: 425 | Total Fat: 21.7g | Cholesterol: 24mg

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Bonus!

Getting my dog in training to accompany me on some long runs. This is how he looked shortly after a 4 mile run:

Keep moving forward!