Recent Favorites (and a Pizza Throwdown!)
I wrote about my last long run in my Weekly Rundown, but because I felt it was getting a little too long, I left out a couple things I did that worked really well during that run. The first is… I’ve never tried salt pills before, so this was an experiment. Instead of carrying a bottle of LMNT, I took one of these every hour. I guess it worked? I think the only way you would say these didn’t work is if something bad happened, like getting nauseous or cramping up. Neither of those things happened, so I’m going to say salt pills are the way to go in the Florida heat. It’s just easier than relying on an electrolyte drink. After all my complaining about gels, I ate this at mile 16 of my run, and WOW. It was like instant happiness in my mouth. It was sweet and tangy, and the taste alone gave me a jolt of energy. I think this is a new flavor, and I highly recommend! This next one isn’t something I did, exactly, unless you count being observant on the trail. It had been several weeks since I ran on this trail, and it was fun to see little things that had changed. This cactus had flowers! We don’t get lots of colorful flowers on our trails, so little bursts of color like this are fun to see. Okay, let’s move on to PIZZA. On Friday night my son and I decided to make pizzas. When I texted my sister that’s what we were making (yes, my sister and I regularly text back and forth about food) she said THEY were making a pizza as well. Oh, yeah? Well, in that case, we challenge you to a THROWDOWN! My son and I took this very seriously, and I went to the store in search of unique ingredients. One thing I didn’t mention to my sister (and I hope this doesn’t disqualify us) is that I used dough from the grocery store. They sell it in the refrigerated section, and it has the same ingredients you would use if you were making it at home. I just let it sit out in a bowl on the counter for a couple hours before rolling it out. We made two pizzas, and here’s our official entry to the throwdown: Homemade pizza sauce, vegan cheese, spicy Beyond sausages, roasted garlic, banana peppers, garlic butter (Earth Balance vegan butter) brushed on the crust, and finished with mango hot sauce, fresh basil and arugula! Our other pizza was less stellar, but still delicious: Half with just sauce and vegan cheese for my daughter, and the other half for me had Field Roast sausages (Beyond sausages taste too meat-y for me) and roasted broccoli, onion, garlic and black olives. Topped with fresh basil and arugula, and again the crust was brushed with garlic butter before baking. These were SO GOOD!!! Just for the record, here’s my sister and BIL’s entry: Pizza sauce, vegan cheese, Beyond meat crumbles, garlic, veggies, pesto and olives. And they put Trader Joe’s Everything seasoning around the edges of the crust. Of course we realized the fatal flaw to our throwdown- without being able to taste all the pizzas there was no way to declare a winner. Well, we were ALL winners! It was fun and delicious. So delicious, in fact, that my son devoured his ENTIRE PIZZA, causing my sister to suggest he become a competitive eater. My daughter and I, on the other hand, were able to enjoy leftovers of our pizza the next day. I’m thinking about future throwdowns when my son is home for the summer- Ultimate Vegan Burgers, perhaps? What are your favorite pizza toppings? Any unusual ones that you love? Have you tried the Beyond vegan “meat” products? – I’m the only vegan I know who doesn’t like them.