Homemade Baked Chocolate Donuts with Strawberry Glaze Icing

Well I had meant to get this recipe posted a couple days ago, but it seems the universe had other plans. Both boys caught some sort of virus that included a high fever, nasty chest cough, pink eye, and LOTS of snot. So I have spent most of the past few days cuddling, reading stories, watching movies and trying to get them to eat something... anything.

Phinn and I made these donuts for his class since he was in charge of bringing snack to school this week. He loves to be my baking assistant. He likes to help me pour ingredients in and then take a turn mixing everything together. Then he watches the oven eagerly as they bake, waiting until he can do the official taste test.

These donuts got two sticky chocolate thumbs up from Phinn and from Hubs who spotted the rows of them on the kitchen table as soon as he got home. I actually knew Phinn was sick the next morning because I offered to let him have one at breakfast and he didn't touch it. My son with the super sweet tooth, who never says no to anything chocolate ever, passed on it.

Anyway, we are all on the mend around here and just in time to enjoy all the snow we got and Valentine's day.

So without further ado, here is my very first recipe (Yay!). These are perfect if you are looking for something special and sweet to make for your Valentine(s) this weekend. While they aren't healthy so to say, they are about as healthy as a glazed donut gets ;)

Baked Chocolate Donuts with Strawberry Glaze Icing

Ingredients
Donuts:
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup sour cream (or you can sub plain greek yogurt)
1/2 cup milk
3 tbsp canola oil (or you can sub coconut oil)

Glaze
1 cup fresh strawberries
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat your oven to 375.

Spray your donut pan with baking spray or use butter to grease it.

Combine flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and then add the vanilla, sour cream, milk, and oil. Mix until combined.

Next pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Spoon the mixture into the donut pan.

For mini donut pans bake 5-6 minutes, and for standard size donut pans bake 7-8 minutes.

Allow donuts to cool before removing from the pan and placing on a wire rack to cool completely.

For the glaze:
While the donuts are baking, cut your strawberries and place them in a blender. Blend until you have a fairly smooth puree.

Add 2/3 of the puree to a small sauce pan, bring to a boil over medium heat and reduce mixture by a third. Then add the last 1/3 of the puree to the pan, stir, and remove from heat.

Add powdered sugar, milk and vanilla to a bowl and whisk until completely mixed. Then add strawberry puree and mix again.

To glaze the donuts, I placed the donuts on wax paper and then dunked each one into the bowl of glaze. Then I placed it back on the wax paper until the glaze hardened or they were eaten...(not going to say what happened at our house)

These taste great with a cold glass of milk or a good cup of coffee which ever you prefer.

Enjoy!! Happy Valentine's Day!

Weight Loss After Two

Plateau.

That's what happened to my weight loss around the time Hudson was five months old. I extended myself some grace, because my hands were full, and I tried to have patience remembering the whole "nine months on, nine months off" thing. I kept waiting for the same super metabolism that I had after Phinn to kick in.

And I kept waiting, and waiting...

Still waiting actually.

However, I'm not waiting so passively any more. 

While I was being pretty good at working out and pretty good at eating healthy, I was being pretty terrible about snacking. During my second pregnancy, Hubs and I got into a bad habit of eating ice cream way too often, and that  habit has lingered - along with my love of dark chocolate and baked goods. 

But, I read something the other day: "abs are made 30% at the gym and 70% in the kitchen." BAM! It hit me. My eating habits are sabotaging all the hard work I'm doing. All of the results I was hoping to see from my running, Tracy Anderson DVDs (still loving her post-pregnancy DVD!), and Baby Boot Camp classes were being ruined by over indulging. 

I am working to change my eating habits, and luckily I have a great program called the Mother Love Fitness Challenge (MOLO) to help me get started. MOLO is all about setting goals for yourself and making little changes each week to help you not only reach your goal, but to change your habits for the long run. 

This first week, we started by giving up our BIG daily vice. Mine was chocolate. This isn't a permanent break-up, but I am hoping to get our relationship under control. I did find myself taking a bite of my son's cookie the other day. It was a chocolate chunk cookie that he had gotten after school, and I had only given him half of it. As soon as it was in my mouth, I remembered the challenge and spit it out. And all I could think of was the episode of Sex and the City where Miranda eats cake out of the trash. That's how bad chocolate and I have become. I am eating it without even really thinking about it.

I have read about some ways to set boundaries for yourself. If you're anything like me, the minute you deprive yourself of something, there is nothing you want more. For me, being completely restrictive would only set myself up for failure. 

One suggestion that I liked was to plan your indulgences into your week. For example, I know that Friday nights at our house are usually homemade pizza night, so I make sure my other dinners that week are healthy. That means doing things like skipping take-out and subbing spaghetti squash for noodles. 

Another tip I picked up was if you are going to indulge make it count. Skip the store-bought cookies and candy, the handful of chocolate chips, or in my case, the bite of your son's cookie, and wait for the opportunity to have something that you really want, something that is really worth the fat and calories like a homemade chocolate doughnut or your favorite dessert at your favorite local restaurant or a chocolate from Gearharts' on Valentine's Day (hint! hint!). 

Changing my eating habits is not going to be all about restricting what it is that I can eat, but it's also going to be about finding new ways to enjoy fruits and veggies more. When I started eating a vegetarian diet (well...pescatarian, because I do have seafood every couple months), I became aware of a lot of vegetables that I hardly noticed before; squash, kale, chard, fennel, beets, radishes - and I learned how to use them to make some really delicious (and some not so delicious) meals. 

These last five pounds have not gone anywhere, despite how hard I feel like I'm working. My pre-pregnancy clothes mostly fit, however, they're not nearly as comfortable as they once were. 

While there are some numbers I am trying to hit on the scale and tape measure, there's also a bigger reason. All the weight I'm carrying is lower abdominal fat, which can play a big role in health problems such as diabetes and breast cancer - both of which run in my family. Nothing can quite snap me into action as quick as the thought of having to fight cancer or even worse not being there for my boys.

So I'm going to be sharing more about my workouts, some recipes (even a few of my own!), and any other useful tips I pick up along the way. I'm going to work hard to find the balance between eating healthy, exercising, and indulging - because let's face it, life is too short not to have chocolate ;)  

Running Postpartum Round 2

After Phinn was born, it was pretty easy to fall back into running. I tried starting back around six weeks postpartum. Although I was mentally ready to run again, my body just wasn't. I tried again a few weeks later and my body was ready to go.

Once my body was on board, I was able to make time to hit the gym in the early morning or evenings, and Hubs would give Phinn a bottle. I could also do a long run on Saturdays. As Phinn got older and the weather warmer, I would strap him into the BOB, and off we would go together. I was a happy runner and a happy mama.

After Hudson was born, I started to ease back into running around seven or eight weeks postpartum, and everything was going beautifully. I still had pretty good endurance. My speed was picking up. Hudson was taking a bottle, and I was sneaking in early morning runs. I also had been hitting the treadmill during nap times.

But then, running started to become really uncomfortable about a month after resuming. Not to go into too much detail, but after running, I would have debilitating discomfort. It was as if I had a bladder infection, but I knew that was not the case. I saw my OB/GYN and she confirmed that it was not an infection and couldn't pinpoint any source for my problem, but I was still in pain after running.

Luckily, my mom is a nurse and she spoke to a urologist friend to see if he had any recommendations for me. He advised cutting out alcohol, caffeine, and spicy food, making sure I eat a clean diet, and remembering to do kegels to strengthen muscles that had been weakened by in utero baby punches and kicks.

Cutting out the spicy food I could handle. It was summer though, and who doesn't love to eat Mexican food, but I felt like I could forgo it. Giving up my coffee and wine was much more difficult, but at least it was only temporary. Once I gave my body some more time to heal, I would be able to resume enjoying my vices.

A few weeks into my new regimen, I was able to increase my distance without discomfort. I successfully trained for the Charlottesville Women's 4 Miler (a great race to run if you're local or semi-local) in August. I was able to set a new PR of 32:22. Not too shabby for someone who had a baby four months prior and had a few training set backs!

Next up was the Richmond Half Marathon in November. I had my training plan, and was ready to go. The first few weeks went well - I was meeting my mileage and still feeling strong.

As the weeks went by, and my runs were increasing in distance, I was finding it more difficult to make them happen. Hudson had started refusing bottles, so early morning runs were out. The boys were only content in the double BOB for about 3-4 miles (okay, Phinn's complaining usually started around 2 miles in, but I was usually able to distract / bribe him with animal crackers in order to make it to 4!). The only run I could reliably count on was my long Saturday run. Thank you Hubs for helping me make that happen!

Two days before the Richmond Half, I woke up with another bout of the "toddler virus" that cycles through the house every few months. My head was stuffy, my body ached, and my ears felt like they were going to explode from all the pressure. I made the call the morning of the race not to run. I was disappointed, but I knew running this race would set back my recovery from toddleritis, and I couldn't do it. Being sick as a mom makes your job exponentially more difficult.

As I reflected on my training experience, I decided to take a break from long races. It is just not feasible for me to train properly at this point in my life. It causes me to feel unnecessary stress, and it was really robbing my favorite hobby of a lot of its joy.

So, what am I up to these days?

I try to enjoy 2-3 runs during the week. They're short 2-3 mile runs, and I can easily squeeze them in during nap time or while the boys play.

On the weekends, I am still getting in my long runs - they just aren't as long as before - usually about 5-7 miles. I find these are necessary, though. It gives me an hour or so of freedom to stretch my legs and mind. It gives me an hour of silence where I can think about nothing (or everything). Even though the last few weekends have been pretty darn cold, I find myself bundling up and looking forward to feeling the cold air on my face and the invigoration I feel when I am finished.

As for my race schedule, I currently only have two races on it. The first is the Four Courts Four Miler, which is a bit of a family tradition and the second is the Monument Ave 10K.  I have been thinking of doing other races, but I'm going to take it as it comes and just enjoy my hobby and the invaluable mental and physical benefits it provides me.