[banana bread]

Yesterday I got the itch to bake something. For some reason I have an unending supply of frozen bananas in my freezer, so I opted for banana bread. I don't have a tried & true recipe that I always use, so I Googled "banana bread" & picked the first recipe that popped up since I had all of the ingredients. I think this little gem will be my forever go to recipe for banana bread! (:


Ingredients

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed

1/3 cup melted butter

3/4 cup sugar 

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

*Sprinkle of cinnamon

*1/3 cup of Craisins

*I added the cinnamon & craisins, but these can easily be omitted

directionS

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda, cinnamon and salt over the mixture and mix in. Fold in the Craisins. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Loop

Loop

You’ll remember Brock, or “Loop,” as the 3^rd member of the original Monkey Tribe on the AT. He’s been training like Mike & myself – with cross fit 2-3x / week plus a long run (he’s Upstate’s running buddy) on the weekend. Loop will be our closer, running in the 6^th slot. Since he’ll be finishing the race, our plan is to run the last mile with him – team Monkey Tribe will cross the finish line together.

Loop’s legs:

6.  7.99

12. 7.4

18. 9.67

24. 2.32

30. 3.67

36. 6.66

Total: 37.71

Benji

Benji

Ben is a friend of ours from our community group. Ben has run several races (including a marathon) before. Like Mel, he’s been faithful to train with runs during the week plus a long run on the weekend. He’ll be running in our 5^th slot.

Benji’s legs:

5.  6.27

11. 3.55

15. 8.54

23. 3.84

29. 4.72

35. 6.42

Total: 33.34

Ben has a bigger gap between his 3^rd run (number 15) and 4^th run (number 23) in order to make the total for each team member more similar.

[Benji is in the middle]

Upstate

Upstate

Mike, or “Upstate,” has been training like I have for the most part. However, he’ll get out and run 10+ miles for his long run on the weekends regularly. He’s crazy if ya ask me! He’s been working out 1-2x / week (cross fit) and running a long run on the weekend with Brock. He’ll be running in the 4^th slot and has the longest leg (his 2^nd leg, which is the 10^th leg).

Upstates’s legs:

4.  2.6

10. 10.03

16. 5.64
22. 3.68
28. 7.47
34. 3.1

Total: 32.8

[from the Lauren's Hope 5K 2010]

Melbug

Melbug

Mel is our little sister. I say “our” because Mel’s been my little sister too for a long time now.  She played D1 soccer at PC for 4 years and was on board pretty immediately when we brought the idea to her! Like I said, Mel & I decided to do Hal Higdon’s training program to train for this race. She’s been way more faithful to complete the required weekly runs than I have (running 2-4x / week in addition to the long run on the weekend). She’ll be running in the 3^rd slot.

Melbug’s legs:

3.  9.26

9.  4.54
17. 2.43
21. 5.6
27. 7.47
33. 4.3

Total: 33.4

You’ll notice that Mel has a longer break between her 2^nd run (number 9) and third run (number 17). This was done in order to give everyone on the team a more similar total than it would’ve been if we left it.

Me, Brock & Mel after the Reedy River 10K (: 

birthday love

cookie cake [no.1]

fudge and peanut butter layer cake [no.2]

something to wear, something to read, something he wants, something he needs 

root beer chocolate cake [no.3]

because everyone needs three birthday cakes to celebrate turning 26

I love birthdays and birthday celebrations. This year, I've managed to drag out Mikey's 26th birthday for as long as possible. In just a few days we're leaving on a jet plane for his BIG birthday surprise! (: Stay tuned for pictures from our 1st out.of.the.country.trip as a family of three! 

wedding weekend

Our first weekend without the babe we ventured to just outside of DC for the wedding of one of Mikey's Clemson roomies. 

Lots of driving, lots of eating, and lots of dancing. 

What a sweet time with dear old friends celebrating this new marriage! 

loving lately

something Mikey "needed" for his birthday

Amos' sock monkey

a very thoughtful birthday gift from Mimi & Papa

a single dried flower

Root Beer Chocolate Birthday Cake

What have you been loving lately?! 

Caboose

Caboose

Since you all know me already, I’ll save you the background info & just give you my training schedule for the race. Mel and I decided to try Hal Higdon’s Novice 2 half marathon training schedule to train for this race. However, I modified it to incorporate my cross-fit training as well. And, the weeks that are over 10 miles I’ll probably just run 10 miles since my longest leg is 9.75 miles (I figure if I can run 10 miles I’ll be just fine). We started training in January and will train until the race in April. I’ll be running in the 2^nd slot.

◄ Dec 2012	~ January 2013 ~					Feb 2013 ►
Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
3.32 mile run		1	2 4B	3	4 4B	5 4 mile run
6	7 4B	8	9 4B	10 4B	11	12 5 mile run
13	14	15 4B	16 4 mile run	17	18	19 6 mile run
20	21 4B	22	23 4B	24 4B	25	26
27 7 mile run	28 4B	29	30	31	Notes:

◄ Jan 2013	~ February 2013 ~					Mar 2013 ►
Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
					1	2 8 mile run
3	4 4B	5 4B	6	7	8 4 mile run	9
10	11 4B	12	13 4B	14	15 4B	16
17	18 4B 6 mile run	19	20 4B	21	22	23
24 Ski	25 Ski	26	27 4B	28	Notes:

*4b = work out @ the gym 

Caboose’s legs:

2.  6.02
8.  5.55
14. 5. 23
20. 9.75
26. 3.75
32. 2.96


Total: 33.26

[from a training run] 

Root Beer Chocolate Cake

Lately Mike has accused me of having "lost my passion for baking," so for his birthday I thought I'd make a good ole old fashioned homemade birthday cake - from scratch. I found a recipe for root beer chocolate cake and voila! Passion rediscovered.

Cake Ingredients:
2 cups root beer - made with cane sugar 
unsalted butter (room temp)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs (room temp)
*Disclaimer: I forgot the brown sugar & it turned out fine (: 

Frosting Ingredients:
2 ounces milk chocolate or semi sweet melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup root beer
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar


Cake Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325°. Spray bundt pan with Pam.

2. In a large saucepan, heat the root beer, cocoa powder, and butter over medium heat until the butter is melted. Add the sugars and whisk until dissolved. Remove from the heat and let cool.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together.

4. In a small cup, whisk the eggs until just beaten, then whisk them into the cooled cocoa mixture until combined. Gently fold the flour mixture into the cocoa mixture. The batter will be slightly lumpy–do not over beat, as it could cause the cake to be tough.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a small sharp knife inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let cool for 20-30 min on a wire rack, then invert onto a plate.

Frosting Directions:
1. Melt the chocolate over low heat on the stove. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir.

2. Take the mixture off the heat and allow to cool (you may have to put in the fridge for a few minutes).

3. Whisk the cooled mixture to make sure it's mixed well and stiff enough to frost.

[via]

homemade peanut butter

homemade peanut butter

If you know me at all you know of my undying love for all things peanut butter. While eating Whole30 I made the switch to natural, no sugar added peanut butter [& love it even more than the stuff with sugar!]. Last week I bought a can [12.5 oz] of peanuts at the store because they were on sale and I had a coupon so they were cheap! I had no intention of making peanut butter, but once I ran out I decided to give it a try! It's super easy and delicious! (: 

All you need is: 12.5 oz [1 can] of peanuts [more or less depending on how much peanut butter you want to make], a pinch of salt [only if your peanuts are unsalted] and a blender.

Put peanuts in the blender and turn on. I used the "mix" function for about 8-10 minutes. You may need to stop every 2-3 minutes to scrape the peanuts/peanut butter down the side. At first the mixture will be very dry and powder-y, just keep blending, because the mixture will turn creamy! *Depending on the freshness of your peanuts you may have to add a little oil [I added a splash of olive oil]. Once blended, add salt to taste. Store in an air tight container in your fridge. The oil may separate out [just like in the natural, no sugar added store bought peanut butter], if this happens, just stir with a spoon before eating! 

Face Jacket

Face Jacket

Mike & Brock met Zach “Face Jacket” (AKA Face) on the trail in Vermont. They quickly became friends and hiked until midway through Maine with him where we had to part ways due to illness. However, after the trail, Mike kept up with Zach. We knew that he’d competed in other “crazy” competitions (the Tough Mudder being one) and that if anyone was up for this challenge, it was him. Seriously, by the time he and Mike hung up the phone he was 100% committed to our team. Face Jacket will be our lead man, running in the number one spot.

Face Jacket’s legs:

1.   5.69

7.   1.69

13.  4.2

19.  3.75

25.  8.91

31.  7.39

Total: 31.63

Palmetto 200 Part 2

Palmetto 200 team members

(in the order we’ll be running)

The Monkey Tribe

Zach Joiner “Face Jacket”

Megan Martin “Caboose”

Mel Martin “Melbug”

Mike Martin “Upstate”

Ben Renfrow “Benji”

Brock Cooke “Loop”

The Monkey Tribe is the name we went by on the Appalachian Trial and have decided to use again for our newest adventure. Our team is an “ultra mixed” team, meaning that we consist of 4-6 runners, both male and female. Here’s the breakdown of the miles each of us will be running:

Zach: 31.63

Megan: 33.26

Mel: 33.4

Mike: 32.8

Ben: 33.34

Brock: 37.71

Our goal is to complete the 200 miles in 30 hours or less (which is equal to a 9 minute mile or better for 200 miles). Once the clock starts, someone from our team will be running ‘round the clock until we cross the finish line.

Stay tuned for a breakdown of the exact legs each of us will be running and a little background info on all of our team members!

*Also, stay tuned for info about our Sponsors! If you or your company is interested in sponsoring us as we take on the Palmetto 200, please email me at: a.megan.martin@gmail.com for more info! [The race benefits juvenile diabetes.]