Sunday, March 11, 2012

Zooey Kobayashi

Zooey and Kobayashi: they seemingly have nothing in common.



It's been a tired week. The accumulation of several tough, gray winter weeks, lots of miles, not enough sunshine. Fatigue makes people do crazy things. Me? My brain operates on about quarter speed. My body is about on the same clock, minus the twice-weekly workouts that require me to operate otherwise. Wednesday morning, I awoke an hour earlier than desired because a couple birds decided to bunk up outside my window and pretend they just nabbed the two starring roles on Glee. Those two f*&$ing birds did this to me all last summer, and now those little shits are back from their winter vacation. If I wasn't so tired and didn't have to get to the track to meet Thing 1 and VinoVino, then I would've gone sniper on them. I don't own a gun. I'm not sure if that a fortunate or unfortunate thing.

Being that tired turns everyday tasks into insurmountable challenges. For instance, walking out of my way to pick up a prescription from the pharmacy before going into the office feels like someone asking me to run a marathon. Carrying my backpack and purse, which serves basically as a giant lunchbox, up two flights of stairs is like scaling a mountain. You know how kids get when they're tired: they cry. They throw fits. They're whiney. Yeah, well the same thing happens to me, so I do anything I can to pacify myself when The Cranky starts to bite.

This is probably divulging a bit too much. I did laundry Tuesday night. After my chirping alarm clock went off Wednesday crack-of-dawn, I marched straight to the kitchen to put something in my stomach. I went to gather up my things to take to the track: spikes, Gu, flats, watch. I go to change and realize the clean laundry is still in the dryer, which is a trip downstairs and out the door. It's raining. I'm cold. Instead of doing what a normal human being would do and going and getting a clean pair of shorts, I avoid the stairs, rain, and cold and put on the shorts that I had worn for what would be the third run in a row. I know, I realize this is ridiculous. It continues.

After sucking in an enjoyable 5 x 1000m worth of dry indoor air, I proceed, as usual, with my typical sneezing fit followed by an uncontrollable running of my nose. The snotting will continue all day. As soon as we finished, my nose is running at top speed and I have to walk into the RPAC to shower before heading into the office. I am swimming in snot, but I got no tissues, no napkins, no nothin'. But I do have the smelly ass sock I just peeled off my foot before shoving it into my road flats. I have to approach another human being close enough to hand him my ID card to swipe. He's going to see this snot. All that snot. Yep. I did it. I flew my nose into that sock. All-time low? Desperate times call for desperate measures. My wardrobe has even been dictated by how tired I am this week: I've decided to forgo skinny jeans twice because my knee-high compression socks don't fit comfortably under them.

Comfort food is a controversial thing for me. On one hand, the concept of comforting oneself with food is a dangerous thing. I don't think food actually "comforts" anyone; it merely distracts them temporarily from the issue of concern, and no real coping mechanism ever develops. On the other hand, when you're running on average 15 miles a day, sometimes you just want to eat something a little sinful. And if you don't like cinnamon rolls, then you can just head back to communist Russia.

I'm currently typing between bites of one of these guys thrown into a mug and drowned in almond milk with protein powder. I woke up this morning before the usual 8am mass exodus from the Dublin store and whipped these up before I went. They were quick and easy-a good choice for my first attempt at cinnamon rolls.

My current food obsession is coconut: coconut milk, coconut cream, coconut butter, flaked coconut. You get the idea. This combination is amahhhzing:

Mix that biz (coconut cream and date paste) together and throw it on top of a coconut banana smoothie? Whoa baby. Then I discovered  this stuff and I made a new food boyfriend...and glaze for the cinnamon rolls.


Fast & Easy Coconut-glazed Cinnamon Rolls


Ingredients


1 cup GF all-purpose flour (I used Bob's Red Mill AP flour)
1/2 cup GF oat flour (I used Bob's again)
1/2 buckwheat flour
1 1/4 cups almond milk
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup coconut oil, separated
1/2 cup coconut sugar (sucanat or brown sugar would work as well)
2 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup coconut cream
1/4 cup agave syrup (or maple syrup or honey)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk flours, salt, and baking powder to combine. Add 1/2 cup of the coconut oil and almond milk and mix until a stiff dough forms. You may need a hand mixer if you haven't been pumping iron. I did.

Flour a piece of parchment paper and roll the dough into a rectangle. You can just as easily use your fingers to press the dough into shape. Spread the remaining coconut oil onto the dough and then sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar evenly with your fingers, rubbing into the oil to create a paste on top of the dough. Roll the dough tightly from the long side. Cut into one inch slices. Grease a 9-inch pie pan, and nestle the rolls in and place in the oven for 13 minutes.

While the rolls are baking, combine the coconut cream and agave syrup. When the rolls are finished, pour glaze overtop, saving a spoonful. Eat spoonful. Now eat rolls.

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