Just J.Faye

Hiking & Other Adventures

Thursday Things

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Thursday Things 10.01.14

Happy October! It’s definitely feeling like fall. Let’s be cozy and drink hot black coffee and eat delicious pumpkin bars and enjoy the perfect cooler running temps. Mmk? We can also carve pumpkins and tailgate and go for walks on crunchy leaves by beautiful orange and red trees.

Fall. Love it. Love these links too:

  • I was excited to see that Kate posted another October Produce Guide! I posted the September one last month and used it for some recipe inspiration. There are so many delicious veggies and recipes. What will you make first?
  • This Roasted Butternut Squash Pizza is calling my name. Must.Make.ASAP.
  • It’s fun to watch Jeopardy! every now and again. I get really excited when I can answer one or two. But this category, yikes. They didn’t think that one through.
  • Not going to lie, I am a Harry Potter geek. I need to go visit all of these places.
  • The quotes by these business ladies are super motivating. Let’s work hard and learn lessons and be successful.

Yay Thursdayyyyy! xoxoxoxjenna

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Sprinkle Pudding Cookie Bars

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Find me a person that doesn’t love sprinkles. I want to tell them to their face that they’re crazy. sprinkle pudding cookie bars Sprinkles. They just make everything so much more fun. And couldn’t we all use an extra dose of fun on Mondays?

I think so. That’s why I’m bringing you these sprinkle pudding cookie bars.

And as if sprinkles weren’t enough, I topped them with these cute frosted animal cookies. Because, why the heck not? sprinkle pudding cookie bars

sprinkle pudding cookie bars In case you’re curious: yes, they do taste as good as they look.

The secret here is in the instant pudding mix. A couple of months ago I made these banana pudding cookie bars and discovered how truly amazing pudding cookies are. They are just so… soft. Soft and crumbly and delicious.

From the flavor to the sprinkles to the texture to the animal cookies, I just love everything about these adorable little bars. They appeal to both the eyes and the taste buds. sprinkle pudding cookie bars They are also super easy and quick to make. The dough comes together like standard cookie dough. Cream the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs, vanilla, and our new favorite cookie ingredient (pudding mix). Stir in the dry ingredients. Throw in sprinkles and crushed up cookies, just for fun. Press the dough into a pan.

sprinkle pudding cookie bars Top it off with some animal crackers. Bake for approximately 13 minutes. Wait for bars to cool (warning: this is the hardest part). Then cut them up and enjoy one… or five. sprinkle pudding cookie bars Then go bring some to your friends because they deserve sprinkles on Mondays too. sprinkle pudding cookie bars And because having an entire pan of these around is a dangerous thing.

Sprinkle Pudding Cookie Bars
 
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I love everything about these adorable little bars. The addition of pudding mix into the dough makes these bars extra soft and delicious. The sprinkles and animal cookies make them super fun.
Author:
Serves: 20 bars
Ingredients
  • 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup butter, room temperature
  • 1 (3.4 oz) package vanilla instant pudding mix
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup animal cookies, coarsely chopped (optional)
  • 1 cup sprinkles
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, cream together sugars and butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
  4. Add the pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
  5. Add in the flour mixture. Stir until combined.
  6. Fold in the cookie chunks and sprinkles.
  7. Put the dough into the prepared pan and press until even. Then press animal cookies on the top of the dough. I did 5 columns and 4 rows (20 total).
  8. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Let bars cool completely before cutting and eating.

sprinkle pudding cookie bars

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Thursday Things

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Thursday Things 9.25.14 This week marked the 3rd anniversary of buying my condo. Crazzzyyyy. I still remember the day my realtor brought me to see it. It was love at first sight. I never looked back and am so happy to be where I am.

Fall is a good time to reflect.

It’s also a good time to read fun thing online, like these:

  • If you are a man, you need to read this. If you are a lady, you need to forward it to all your man friends. Being a gentleman is important.
  • I gasped out loud when I saw this post. Vanilla Bean Sweet Potato Waffles? Gimme.
  • This roundup of slow cooker recipes is awesomeeee. I can’t wait to break out my slow cooker and make them all!
  • Find out what these 13 fitness acronyms stand for and what the concepts behind the mean.
  • Confidence is key. Strike a power pose.

Sending you lots of Thursday love! xoxojenna

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The Magic Of Foam Rolling

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Foam rolling. It’s a magical, magical thing.

foam rolling Are you familiar with the magic of foam rolling? If not, let me tell you about it. If so, let me remind you.

Foam rolling is a form of self-myofascial release. I know, “self-myo-whaaaa?” Fascia. It’s the connective tissue that surrounds all of your muscles and nerves, kind of like tendons or ligaments.

Self-myofascial release (SMR) is a stretching technique just like static stretching and dynamic stretching. I can get really sciency here and talk all about Golgi tendon organs (GTO), muscle spindles, and autogenic inhibition, but I won’t. Basically SMR helps muscles and tissues to relax. Due to things like overuse, repetitive movements, and poor posture, muscles can become tight and develop adhesions. Over time this can lead to muscle inflammation, spasms, impaired movements, and muscle imbalances.

Who wants that? No one. That’s where the foam roller magic comes in.

The purpose of a foam roller is to put pressure on these sore spots or “trigger points” in order to release the knots. It’s like giving yourself a deep tissue massage.

The act of foam rolling is really quite simple. Roll the foam roller along the targeted area (calves, quadriceps, hamstrings, upper back, etc.) until you feel a tender spot. Hold the roller on this spot for 30-90 seconds. This is the hard part. It is painful with a capital p (AKA: Painful). Hold it, try to relax your muscles, and breathe through it. You’ll feel better later, I promise. After the hold continue to roll along the targeted area looking for more of these trigger points to release.

The SMR technique can be done as part of your warm-up routine or as a post-workout cool down or just do it everyday while you’re catching up on The Mindy Project. It also pairs well with static stretching.

The magic of foam rolling is that it helps improve range of motion, muscle alignment, flexibility, and neuromuscular efficiency. It is also way more cost-effective than getting regular $70 massages. It is only about $20 for a foam roller than you can use over and over and over and over again. Not a bad deal, huh? I have this one.

For more information and some pictorial instructions, go here.

I can’t begin to express how important foam rolling is. After you add it into your routine on a regular basis you’ll begin to notice and feel all of the benefits. I really hope you try it out.

I’m sitting here typing this after a week of running 42 miles, including a hill workout, a variety speed workout, and a 17-mile long run. Yikes. Let me tell you, I did not do a good job at foam rolling this week. My legs are tight and I could definitely feel my left hip flexor and knee during the last 14 miles of my 17-mile run. That’s not ok.

Lesson learned: foam roll, errday.

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Thursday Things

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thursday things 9 17 The weather was definitely fall-esque last weekend so I finally broke down and baked with pumpkin. I tried to hold out as long as I could, but the temperature dropped to 40 degrees. It just had to be done. I don’t regret it in the slightest.

I baked up these Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars on Saturday and did my very, very best to pretend they weren’t there for the rest of the day – #selfcontrol. On Sunday I met up with some friends at a bar for a mild form of Sunday Funday (I say mild because this only lasted 2 hours. Our current record is 6 hours) and brought these bars along with some plastic bags. I needed to give them all away, because otherwise I would just go home and eat whatever was left. Not necessary. Luckily they were easy to pawn off on people. The waitress was super excited.

Moral of the story: Let’s have Sunday Funday. I might bring treats.

Also, some interesting things I found on the web this week…

  • I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a spiralizer for a few months now and have come to the conclusion that I absolutely need Because of this, this, this, this, this, and these. Do I need to have more reasons than that?! I could just get a julienne peeler too. Either way, one of those tools needs to get into my kitchen ASAP.
  • This idea of pairing movies with food is wonderful. My friends and I are hoping to have a Will Ferrell movie marathon soon (saving it for a rainy day). Soooo we should probably have meatloaf, spaghetti with syrup, and, of course, scotch.
  • These 15 career tips from smart women are pretty awesome. When an article posts quotes from Mindy Kaling, Tina Fey, Hilary Clinton, Nora Ephron, and Arianna Huffington you know it’s going to be good.
  • And then there are these 9 ways to be a more badass woman. Do them all.
  • This soup. This salad. This pie. Let’s eat.

Happyyyy Thursdayyyyy xojd

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Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread

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Let’s kick off this week with some bread. Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread  Brown bananas are a little bit ugly, but beautiful at the same time and filled with so much delicious potential! Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread What to make, what to make… I was brainstorming as I watched these bananas slowly turn browner with each passing day. Then I decided: chocolate banana bread. With some cacao nibs. And a little bit of Greek yogurt. Delicious, yes?

Have you ever heard of or tried cacao nibs? They are basically pieces of cacao beans that have been chopped up and roasted. If you were to grind them up with some sugar you’d have chocolate! Cacao nibs themselves aren’t very sweet, but still have a light chocolate flavor to them. They also have a nice crunch, kind of like a roasted coffee bean. As an added bonus cacao nibs are pretty healthy. They are full of antioxidants as well as magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, and potassium. Plus, they can elevate your mood and give you an energy boost! Soooo… let’s eat some. Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread My mom had given me some a while back to try, but I had stuck them in my cupboard and forgot about them. Out of sight, out of mind, you know? Then when I was in Costa Rica I came across some dark chocolate covered cacao nibs, which led me to remember the long-lost cacao nibs in my cupboard, which led me to buy the chocolate covered ones, which led me to want to make something delicious with them, which is now leading me to this bread with my brown bananas. Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread Isn’t that a nice little chain of events? It led to such a delicious place.

This chocolate banana bread isn’t overly sweet. The melted butter and Greek yogurt give it the perfect level of moist-ness (is that a word?) and density. The cacao nibs add a nice crunch. You can have it for breakfast with some jam or, better yet, some almond butter. Or you could have it for a mid-day snack or a post-dinner dessert. Or you could just eat it all day, every day for the rest of your life, but I’ll let you make that decision.

Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread So the next time you have some brown bananas on your counter staring you in the face, you should probably make this bread. You can track down cacao nibs (plain, chocolate covered, or both) in Costa Rica, but also Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s if that’s more convenient for you. If you aren’t interested in cacao nibs, that’s ok! You can replace them with chopped nuts, chocolate chips, or nothing at all.

Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread

Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread
 
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A delicious chocolate banana bread studded with cacao nibs. Perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack.
Author:
Serves: 1 loaf
Ingredients
  • 1½ cup all purpose flour
  • ½ cup cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup butter (1 stick)
  • 2 eggs
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • 3 ripe bananas, mashed (~1-1 ½ cups)
  • ¼ cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 ½ cup cacao nibs (I used a mix of plain and chocolate covered cacao nibs)
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan.
  2. In a medium size bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Let is cool slightly.
  4. Whisk in the eggs. Then add the brown sugar, bananas, yogurt, and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth.
  5. Add in the dry ingredients and stir until combined, being careful not to over mix.
  6. Stir in the cacao nibs.
  7. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until you can insert a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean.
  8. Let the bread cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then take it out and let it cool completely on a wire rack.
  9. Slice, serve, and enjoy!
Notes
I used a mix of plain and chocolate covered cacao nibs, but feel free to use one or the other.
The cacao nibs can be replaced with a mix of chopped nuts and chocolate chips.

Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread

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