Saturday

I remember the excitement that Saturday brought when I was a kid. I loved waking up to play with toys and watch Saturday morning cartoons. Mind you, this was a time well before the Cartoon Network, so kids actually had to get up and watch cartoons when they were available! It was such a thrill to tune in and see what sort of mischief my favorite characters would get into. My all-time favorite cartoon was Captain Planet. I can still sing the song, lucky for you I'm not including a video of me singing with this blog! "We're the Planeteers, you can be one too, because saving our Earth is the thing to do! Looting and polluting is not the way, hear what Captain Planet has to say!" Oh I really loved that cartoon.

Piping hot straight out of the oven!

I also loved playing with my toys, a habit I have not really grown out of. On this fine, and slightly hot, Saturday morning I was motivated enough to get up and run. The terribly hot and sweaty experience reminded me why I usually take the summers off from running, but since I suffered from amnesia two weeks ago and signed up for a half marathon in November...the responsible thing to do was get started on my training program. My reward for enduring the heat was to play with my Vitamix. Enter redemption! I started off with a recipe from my Vitamix Whole Foods Recipes cookbook called Blueberry Breakfast Cobbler. Naturally, if you have the good toys to play with you may as well go all the way, so I started by grinding a fresh batch of whole wheat flour before jumping into the recipe. I felt good about mixing up the fairly virtuous list of ingredients and then popping the dish into the oven to bake.

Blueberry Breakfast Cobbler

As the cobbler baked, my sweating came to a halt and I began to notice that my stomach was growling. I decided to try my hand at fresh carrot juice to help rehydrate my cells and tide my stomach over until the cobbler was ready. I loaded up the Vitamix with water, carrots, freshly grated ginger, freshly squeezed lemon juice and ice, and then blended it to a frothy-juicy consistency. I was not quite satisfied with the flavor so I added an apple, 1 1/2 teaspoons of maca powder (why not beef up the antioxidants, right?), some lemonade-flavored coconut water and a little more ice. After another whirl in the super sharp blades my juice was ready and absolutely delicious! I started to think that maybe my hot run wasn't quite so bad afterall. In fact, maybe it was a pretty darn good run! When I finally sat down with a heaping serving of the cobbler, my amnesia fully returned and I was plotting out what an amazing runner I was going to be- heat or no heat. Each satisfying bite of the warm treat that seemed like part dessert, part baked oatmeal transported me a little farther from the discomfort I endured on the road only a short time ago and gave me a glimpse of those old Saturday mornings when my toys and some cartoon dreaming were all a kid could want.

Saturday morning treats

Blueberry breakfast cobbler and fresh carrot juice