Friday pizza & Long run cheating

Yesterday we had a playdate with Nick's longest friend, Olivia, who was born just 2 1/2 weeks after Nick. Lauren and I were due within 3 days of each other, then I was 2 weeks early and Olivia was 8 days late.  Ever since Lauren stopped working we get together often and it's really fun!  Both of us have 2 kids now and are trying to sell our houses.  Our husbands went to graduate school together and then worked together for a few years - that's how we met. We also happened to go to the same college and be the same class year, but never knew each other. I like having a family friend where both the husbands and the wives get along and the kids are about the same age. It will be fun going forward hanging out. I do miss the guys working together though!


Anyway, yesterday Nick and Olivia made their own pizzas.  I adapted the pizza dough recipe from Peas and Thank You: the cookbook.

Ingredients (1 crust)

• 3/4 c. warm water
• 1/2 a packet of yeast (I used pizza dough yeast)
• 1 t rosemary or your favorite spice
• 1/2 t sucanat
• 1 T. olive oil
• 1 t. salt
• 3/4  c. whole wheat flour
• 1/2 c white flour

Instructions

• Mix water, yeast, and sucanat - let it sit for 10 minutes till foamy
• Put flour and salt in food processor and pulse to combine. Change to a kneading dough blade.
• Add in the liquid mixture while the food processor is still moving and allow it to gather up all of the flour and make a big ball.
• Take out the ball and knead on a floured surface until smooth (a couple of minutes). 
• Place the ball into an oiled bowl covered with a damp towel. I put this in the oven which I preheated to 350 and then turned off. Let rise for one hour. 
• Roll out the dough with more flour and place on a greased cookie sheet.
• Load with favorite toppings and bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes or until browned.

I saw that piece of pizza had that for kids and thought it was cute so we did it for lunch yesterday. Nick immediately started eating the cheese whereas Olivia was very neatly putting on the tomato sauce. We had mushrooms, chicken nuggets and eggplant for toppings. Nick loaded his with chicken nuggets but then wasn't into it when it came out of the oven.  Olivia had a nice blend of mushrooms and chicken nuggets.  Here are some pictures:

enjoying their pizza - Kara was in on the action

And the long run. Since I've been doing long bike rides on the weekend, my long runs have been during the week on the treadmill. I feel like the treadmill for a long run just isn't the real thing. I am telling myself I'm getting out with the group for a long run next weekend.  Biking just seems so much more appealing!! I think my running is suffering though and my goal to run a 1:45 1/2 marathon this fall might not be happening. I haven't been training at the pace that I need to for that but maybe all the cross training will help. I have a few weeks so I'll try to get my pace back to where I need it to be.

And last I've been freaking out about the race (olympic tri) in DC on Sept 11 - just since it's the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. This is what I've been training for. As a mom, things like this scare me. I wouldn't have thought about it before.  Hmmm.. what do you think?