It's Tuesday! That means we are that much closer to the weekend, haha. It's funny, when I went back to work I thought that I would countdown to the weekend, but I really was so busy that it seemed like each Friday would creep up super fast. Now that the kids and I are hanging out together all day, every day, I miss Daddy more, haha.
With that being said, I've been so happy and extra fulfilled with this decision, even though Cora is going through a massive turn with the terrible two's. Little Miss has quite the attitude and throws one hell of a tantrum, but we are working on helping her to not get frustrated. I think a lot of it has to do with her still not having much of a vocabulary to literally speak of, so she gets angry when she is misunderstood or feels ignored. I read an article last week about more mindful and involved parenting with children up to age 3, since it can more effectively help them deal with emotions. I forget how they described it, but it was like the Mom acts as an emotional gauge for the child, so I've been working on being available and not getting frustrated. We read more books, get down on the floor more and I've been messing with my phone less. So, all around a win!
I've also been putting way more effort in to doing the romantic ideals of being a stay at home Mom-ing. For instance...I COOKED PLAYDOUGH TODAY. We found a recipe on Pinterest and Ryker and I pulled out the ingredients, mixed 'em up, colored it blue and the kids are happily playing with cookie cutters. You know what I learned during this activity? My kid knows fractions! I asked him how many halves made up one whole, and he said two, like "duh, Mom". He also knew how many thirds made a whole, but I got him at how many scoops were needed with the 1/4 tsp to get to 1 tsp. He's so dang smart. I read him the recipe for playdough and the ingredients before the gym. When we walked in the door after we got home he was like "alright Mom, when I get my shoes off, we need flour, water, salt and blue coloring, that's what you said was in the recipe". I swear that kid remembers more than I do throughout the day. He reminds me of my grocery list, the fact that he listens and remembers my every word is fantastic...until he repeats some of the less than wonderful words that I use, haha.
My weight is mysteriously up to 138 pounds today. That's a five pound increase from last week which is fuckin' nuts, man. I've had some untracked treats, but not that much, so I'm guessing either my period is coming, or the cauliflower that I've welcomed back is still sitting in my digestive tract for insane amounts of time. Considering that with my marathon training on top of my powerlifting plan and the overall increased NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis) that comes with no longer being stuck in my car, but instead walking the dogs, cleaning the house, chasing the kids, etc, I just don't see how the slight increase we've made with my intake could lead to this much of a weight gain that quickly.
This is extra confusing and frustrating because (I overthink everything, but not the point I'm making), I'm wanting to gain strength and muscle while running this much. Now, I know those things are usually seen as mutually exclusive, you can't run this much and gain muscle, but you can if you do it mindfully. I read this cool article about a guy that referred to himself as a strength runner. My calories are still relatively low coming off of that prep, so I worry about losing muscle and bla bla bla. I had my longest run yet on Sunday, 7.5 miles and my plan called for a 10 min mile pace. Some people might find that super slow, but I've never claimed to be fast, haha. It took me a little over an hour and ten minutes to finish and I felt great afterwards. Yesterday, I squatted 140 lbs for three sets of 10, deadlifted 170 for three sets of 10 and benched 80 lbs for 4 sets of 10.
I write all of that and I'm like damn, girl! If I read about someone else doing all of this shit, the last thing that would stick with me was their weight being at 138 or that they gained five pounds in a week, except for thinking that the weight must just be a weird anomaly for the week, in fact, as a coach, I'd probably tell her to take a week off, haha. But alas, when do we ever allow ourselves the breaks we would suggest to others? I'm using this week to prepare for a fantastic off day on Sunday, lately I haven't been planning my workout well to allow for that, but I'm going to move my long run from Sunday to Saturday so that I can have one total rest day.
Now, if you successfully made it through all of that rambling, I am going to present you with a fantastic pumpkin biscuit recipe that I worked on last week! I started with one I found on Pinterest, but found that the dough just wasn't what I wanted it to be so I made some tweaks. I made FOUR batches before this one came out the way I wanted the biscuits to be! This makes a ton of biscuits, but it came out best this way.
Pumpkin Biscuits
1 can of pumpkin puree
5 cups of flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
2 sticks of frozen butter
3/4 cup sour cream (full fat)
3/4 cup of milk
Pre heat the oven to 450. Mix together the dry ingredients and whisk them up so they are fully incorporated. I learned the fancy new trick of grating the sticks of frozen butter in to the flour mixture with a cheese grater. As you grate the butter, try to get it to land all over the bowl covering the flour mixture evenly. Mix the sour cream and milk in another bowl until smooth, then pour evenly over butter and flour and mix all of it with your hands. Then, I spooned in the pumpkin so that it got evenly mixed throughout the dough. It also helped to pick up the dry spots of flour. As you knead the mixture into a ball, your hands will warm the butter and help the mixture get incorporated. Once it is, place it on a floured cutting board.
Roll out the dough to about 1inch thickness. Don't go any thinner, in fact thicker may be better! Flour the dough as needed to get it there, I didn't have trouble with it getting to dry during this part. Using a round cookie cutter, or a mason jar, cut out the biscuits and place them close together on a greased baking sheet.
Start by baking them for 10 minutes, then check them! They will rise and have those super sweet layers that Grands Biscuits do! These overcook quickly, so err on the side of caution. I think that I found 12 minutes was perfect in my oven.
I suggest keeping them in a tight container in the fridge, the pumpkin makes me nervous, haha. I found they tasted downright amazing when you microwave one for about 10-15 seconds and topped it with Nutella. Oh. My. Goodness. Enjoy!
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