We covered a lot of territory in this edition of the The Healthy Giraffe Event (HGE) and it added a great deal of health to my life. The final preparation for the gathering started Friday night as Morgan and I made a visit to Sprouts Farmers Market to pick up a few final ingredients for the main dish we would be preparing. This was the first HGE Morgan has been able to attend this year due to school so this was a special occasion for sure.
Morgan and I are always on a quest to make a killer Mac & Cheese and we have recently seen some recipes using butternut squash so she gave it a go via the Minimalist Baker’s Everyday Cooking: 101 Entirely Plant-based, Mostly Gluten-Free, Easy and Delicious Recipes. Morgan worked on that and Chloe Coscarelli’s Chocolate Chip Cookies from her cookbook, Chloe’s Vegan Desserts: More than 100 Exciting New Recipes for Cookies and Pies, Tarts and Cobblers, Cupcakes and Cakes–and More! All looked good…
When the group arrived, we watched our cooking video to prepare The Happy Pear’s Super Easy Vegan Burger. This was an interesting one as the burger included beets and sweet potatoes…so cool…hopefully I was thinking. The preparation for these took some time so that gave us an opportunity to watch two brief videos.
The group chose to watch the video, Foods to Improve Athletic Performance & Recovery, from Dr. Michael Greger’s website, nutritionfacts.org first. Dr. Greger shares science based research demonstrating how tart cherry juice and spinach enhances recovery and thus giving people the ability to be fresher in their next workout. This is something we can all benefit from and I have been including two tablespoons of tart cherry juice in my recovery drinks since watching this video. I continue to buy the large container of spinach from Costco so I’m covered there.
Next we watched a video from the Rich Roll Podcast where this week he hosted Des Linden, winner of the 2018 Boston Marathon. We watched a snippet of the podcast here titled, Failing Your Way To Success. Here Des shares how she learns from failure and the importance of showing up everyday and as she states, “Keep Showing Up.” This is a glimpse of the incredibly inspiring full podcast you can access at the Rich Roll Podcast – Episode 375.
I had a rough Sunday morning getting up and immediately thought of her message and what another phrase I have pinned to my wall – Action Sets Mood. I ventured out of Safety Harbor and made it to Clearwater Beach. After completing a grueling triathlon workout I was extremely satisfied that I showed up today. As Des also asks, who ever comes back from a run and says they wish they hadn’t done that? So true…
When the videos were complete we finished making the burgers and then it was dinner time! What a variety we had:
- Gail (first timer at a HGE!!!) made a wonderful sweet and sour cabbage slaw
- Anthony after pulling Elia and I along on the morning run made his epic Hummus Recipe. I was busted however for not sharing the recipe from a previous event. That will be on Facebook this week, I promise. If it’s not, blame Elia…
- Elia and Eva brought a variety of chips, salsa and guacamole
- Jenn and Chris made a tasty potato salad
- Morgan worked on the Mac & Cheese and cookie combinations
- I didn’t do anything…
We ate together and as always shared many stories and laughs. It was great to have Morgan meet Anthony, Eva, and Elia as I have talked about them so much with her. Special thank you to Jenn and Chris for the incredible kitchen clean up.
As always it was a fantastic evening with great friends and family. As I noted in my blog last week, Community in Racing, I will end this post with a statement I used there, “I love this community and I’m so happy I’m part of it.”
– Add Health to Your Life
The Healthy Giraffe 
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