Breadmaker 101: My first loaf!

So now that it is summer, I have a ton more time to cook and bake!  I'm still doing camp but I have way less work to take home with me. Camp has been really great so far.  I am the director for three park district camps and they have all been amazing!  The site directors and counselors are doing a fantastic job and that makes my job even easier! 

Today I am going to tell you about my latest obsession: bread!  I got a bread maker at one of the wedding showers and I have been totally obsessed.  I also got a bread making cookbook.  I have already tagged multiple pages of recipes I want to try.  The first loaf I decided to go with was a 1 pound whole wheat loaf.  It came out amazing and I promptly announced that we were done buying bread! 

Whole Wheat Bread in a Bread Machine

I used King Arthur white whole wheat flour and bread machine quick rise yeast.  

This was also a honey whole wheat recipe and I really liked the flavor.  I went with the dark crust option and I think I'm the future I'll go with medium.  I also didn't take the paddle out after the mixing stages and I ended up with a hole in the bottom of the loaf.  Next time I'll change that as well. 

If anyone has any suggestions for me on what I should make or technical things, I'd love to hear it! 

Enjoy :)

Marathon Training Monday: Summer Marathon Training

Sorry! I took a little vacation.  And, by vacation, I actually mean I was like really sick for a while!

I ended up finishing up my last day of school and coming down with something.  It was horrible.  I had a fever and just felt like I couldn't move.   Turns out I had a sinus infection and bronchitis!  I took medicine and now I am all better!

I had to take a break from running as well and I am grateful that this illness happened at the beginning of summer marathon training.  I missed a few runs, but nothing that would get my off track.  And, in general, summer training has been off to a great start!  The runs have been pretty hot and I think this is going to be a sizzling summer in Chicago, but at least I have my group that I train with and there is a lot of water support along the lakeshore path where we run.  During the week, to beat the heat, I wake up around 4:45 or 5 and get my run in super early.

Our long runs so far have been 6 miles, then 7, and then 5 this past Saturday.  This week I have to run 3, 3, and 3.  Then, Saturday we jump up to 9 miles.  I feel like this is the week where I am going to really start to feel like I am training for a marathon again.

For those of you that don't know, I am training for TWO marathons.  I got into Chicago and New York through the lotteries and so I am going to do both.  The races are 1 month apart and I am super excited about them.  This will be my third time running Chicago and I just love it.  It will be my first time running New York and so that makes it really exciting.   If anyone out there has any advice for New York, I'd be grateful to hear it!

Today is Brian's Mom's Birthday!  Happy Birthday!  Brian's mom is awesome and I am so excited to celebrate with her later!  I also can't wait to become part of her family later this summer! #LegallyPflaumed (yes that is our wedding hashtag and yes it is super amazing).

To celebrate, we are going to get some delicious pizza at Lou Malnati's for dinner.  I was also asked to make my chocolate chip banana bread.  I was really excited to bake this because I haven't in ages and it is so good! I seriously have the best banana bread recipe ever.  Of course there are chocolate chips in it and for this birthday celebration I went with some milk chocolate chips.  This recipe holds nothing back.  It has white flour, sugar, and chocolate chips.  There are also TONS of bananas in it.  This is actually the only way I will eat bananas.  If you want, you can substitute the flour for whole wheat or add in other mix-ins like fruits or nuts, but if you want something just plain yummy, I would stick with the original.  We are celebrating a birthday so you need to get a little crazy!

You can find the recipe HERE.

Enjoy :)