It never gets old

The book sale ends today, though it's long since been picked clean by the final half-price Sunday. This year, Cassie and JC came for the FotL member pre-sale on the Friday evening before the book sale's official start on Saturday morning at 10:00 AM. Everyone did pretty well, though Mom took the prize as usual with not one but two big bags of books. Mom didn't want to take the time to line her purchases up nice and neat, so you won't see her piles below. But here are photos of the stacks of books that Cassie, JC, and I picked up. Can you match the stack with the book buyer?

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I already read one of my books, which has the greatest running quote of all time. The author is an accomplished amateur runner who spends 13 weeks training with a team of pros in Flagstaff. One of the pros has a running camp, at which she tells the attendees, “What I love about running is that it’s the only part of life where you get to choose how much you suffer. And the more you are willing to suffer, the greater the reward.” (To which one of her pro teammates adds, "It's a messed-up sport.") You gotta love it.

During his time living in Flagstaff, the author stays with another pro, who is a huge fan of the "superhero muffins" from Run Fast. Eat Slow. by Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky. I've had that book for years—it's the source of our well-loved Banana Oatmeal recipe—but I haven't tried all that many things out of it to date. Then I searched the internet for "superhero muffins" and discovered it's a huge thing with runners. To the point where Flanagan and Kopecky included three more superhero muffin recipes in their first sequel to Run Fast. Eat Slow., and something like two dozen more in the second sequel. 

 

These really aren't all that different from morning glory muffins, for which there are scads of recipes on the internet. But Flanagan and Kopecky made a few changes, including making them gluten free and ditching granulated sugar for maple syrup, so we'll keep the name to honor the original. They're dense and rather hockey puck like, so I tried messing with the leavening to achieve some more lift. But then I decided just to stick with the original 1 teaspoon baking soda, which makes them a little more portable if you're bringing something to nosh on before or after a workout. Brad also likes them for breakfast or an after work treat. I switched to my one-bowl muffin method to make them a little quicker and easier, since there's a fair number of ingredients and some vegetable grating involved.

 

Loaded GF Superhero Muffins

Adapted from Run Fast. Eat Slow. (2016) by Shane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky

Time: ~43 minutes (~18 minutes prep time)

3 large eggs (~57 grams each still in the shells)
160 grams (½ cup) maple syrup
85 grams (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted, or olive or neutral oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice mix; or 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon + ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg + ¼ teaspoon ground ginger or cardamom
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
113 grams (1 cup) grated zucchini, from 1 small-medium zucchini
85 grams (1 cup) grated carrot, from 1 large carrot
200 grams (2 cups) almond flour
90 grams (1 cup) old-fashioned rolled oats
113 grams (½ cup) raisins or chopped dates
55 grams (½ cup) chopped walnuts
40 grams (¼ cup) chocolate chips (optional)

    1. Place a rack in the center of the oven, and heat to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper cups, or spray well with Pam spray, as these tend to stick to the pan.
    2. Crack the eggs into a large bowl and whisk to break them up a bit. Whisk in the maple syrup, butter or coconut oil, and vanilla.
    3. Sprinkle over the spice(s), baking soda, and salt, and whisk until smooth.
    4. Using a silicone spatula, stir in the zucchini and carrot.
    5. Stir in the flour, oats, raisins, walnuts, and chocolate chips (if using).
    6. Scoop the batter into the muffin cups, filling each to the top; you should have about ¼ cup of batter in each cup, so a #16 (¼ cup) disher works well for this job. Bake until the muffins are nicely browned on top and a skewer or toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 23 to 27 minutes.
    7. Store leftover muffins in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Reheat in the oven at 300 degrees for 10 minutes or in the microwave on low power for 30 seconds, if you like. Makes 12.