A Blogging Break

I am taking the week off from blogging. The holiday has mussed my blogging schedule all up (not that I'm complaining, I love days off work). Also, my great aunt passed away last weekend and I need to take some time to pay my respects and have family time.

Don't worry, I'll be back soon!

The Friday Five

My five things today is going to start with some Mraz-spiration and end with my favorite song of all time...

{photocred: lyricsbird.com}

I draw a lot of inspiration in Jason Mraz's blog. The other day he wrote about beginners. It reminded me of a quote from Dan Millman's The Way of the Peaceful Warrior:

Every infant lives in a bright Garden where everything is sensed directly, without the veils of thought - free of beliefs, interpretation, and judgements. You 'fell' from grace when you began thinking, about - when you became a namer and a knower...The birth of the mind is the death of the senses. -Soc

{photocred: http://t2.gstatic.com}

Aside from their 14-2 loss the other afternoon, the Tribe is still at the top of their division with the most wins in the American League. I went to their game last Saturday (win! vs. the Reds) where they were supposed to be giving away Choo jerseys...they underestimated the number of fans that were going to show up for that game though, because the stadium was sold out. By the time we got there, we got vouchers saying "log online in the next 5 days to register to receive your jersey withing 12 weeks" (and hop on one foot while rubbing your tummy and patting your head...) Cleveland Chick wrote a post about it that, I think, reflects Cleveland's general attitude toward the Tribe right now.

{photocred: http://brookshall.blogspot.com}

I don't read much poetry, but I love the beautiful pictures and haiku's on Yogic Muse. This one, in particular, is full of vibrant LIFE! 

{photocred: partnershipforhumanservices.org}

I seriously need to start budgeting. Emily sent me a great blank budget template to get started.

Ok and the moment I know you've all been waiting for, my favorite song of ALL TIME:

Africa, by Toto.

Don't laugh...just love me. 

:)

happy MDW,

Fun Run!

PSA Alert!!

If you have ever tasted a bitter, metallic taste in your mouth lasting for days at a time...don't worry, it's probably not a brain tumor. You probably just ate pine nuts. 

Apparently pine nuts have been found to be the culprit in several cases of long-lasting-bad-taste-in-my-mouthitis. I have been experiencing this for the last day or two and it wasn't until I spent some time googling that I figured out what it could be. I searched for "bad taste in my mouth lasting days" and the word pine nuts stood out on the search results page a few times. Curious, because I just had pine nuts...when I made my stinging nettle pesto. In searching a little deeper (a.k.a. googling "bad taste in mouth" and "pine nuts" together) I found out that it seems to be a fairly common problem. I wouldn't worry too much about buying pine nuts though, it seems that the large majority of pine nuts sold in the U.S. don't cause this problem. From wikipedia: 

A small minority of pine nuts cultivated in China can cause taste disturbances, lasting between few days to maximal a week after consumption. A bitter, metallic taste is described. Though unpleasant, there are no lasting effects.

Meanwhile, the only thing that is getting that taste out of my mouth is the physical act of eating. As soon as I swallow my food, yucky taste returns. Oh well, looks like I'll just have to wait it out.

Okay, the real post today was supposed to be a recap of my first post-marathon run. It started on a warm Tuesday night...

Brandon and I wanted to take the dogs out for a run. I know Pele' can run for about 3 miles, but had no idea how far Buck could go (although they say that Rhodesian Ridgebacks can keep up with a horse for 30 miles). We decided on an easy 2-miler, which ended up being about 2.6 miles. 

Me + Brandon + dogs + running = love.

We went out in our vibrams too! I am looking forward to running in them more often, since we're not doing big mileage. So, I'm officially up to 2.6 miles in vibrams. 

After about a mile, without warning, Buck stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and pooped. Brandon almost ran right into him, mid-squat. Thank goodness we remembered to bring a bag,  even though I ended up carrying it all the way home! We don't usually have to bring one because Pele' is too embarrassed to poop in front of anyone. He needs his privacy.

For animals with four legs, they're pretty wimpy. I think we wiped them out.

"Oh please don't make me run anymore, Mom!!"

The run wasn't very long, but it was so much fun to take the dogs out. I want running with my pups to be a big part of  maintaining my fitness throughout the summer.

Do you run with your dog (or cat/horse/pig/chickens)?? What kind of exercise do you do that you can include your pets on?

peace+love,

DIY Vegetable Garden: Tilling and Filling

I am actually a bit behind on this post, we've made more progress than what is shown in the picture below, but I haven't taken any more pictures yet. So I'm doing this home project post in installments. Welcome to part 1 of the

DIY Vegetable Garden!!!

Brandon and I have been patiently waiting for the rain to finally subside so we can devote some time to our gardens. In the back yard, we currently have a 10'x36' in ground garden and are putting in two raised beds. The raised beds are going to be primarily for tomatoes and peppers so we can put them where they'll get the most sunlight.

We've slowly but surely been moving forward on this project! There have been a few days of sun here and there that we've tried to take full advantage of. While we can only work in the garden in steps right now, because of how wet everything is, we are definitely getting somewhere. With luck, by mid-summer, we'll have a bunch of veggies to share!

...and when I say "a bunch" I mean, we have about 15 tomato plants and just as many peppers, which isn't even the half of it! We went a little crazy with the Groupon for Gale's Garden Center. 

HOME GARDEN STEP ONE: till and rid the garden of weeds

This is what our garden looked like after all the snow melted: 

Roto-tilling the garden (this is about one-quarter finished)

My job was to pull up rogue weeds that the tiller missed, it was muddy

HOME GARDEN STEP TWO: put down and fill the raised beds

(This isn't a mandatory step, but we decided a while ago that we wanted to add to the garden by adding a few raised beds. Plus, more garden space = more veggies! With how wet it's been, it looks like raised beds are going to be our saving grace this year.)

The two 4'x6' beds are going to go right here:

A few two-by-twelves later, ta-da!

We ordered 3 yards of soil from Kurts Brothers to fill the beds and to mix in with the Ohio clay that our in-ground garden is full of. Many wheel barrows full of soil later:

There is still more work to be done, but that's what we were able to accomplish on the Friday before our marathon (shoveling soil before a marathon...poor choice? maybe.)

I am thoroughly looking forward to getting plants in the ground when everything dries up. Wish us some luck on that...this has been Cleveland's rainiest spring on record.

peace out girls scouts,

Stinging Nettles!

One of the vendors at the farmer's market last Saturday was selling stinging nettle. I've heard about stinging nettles before, but I

a) wouldn't know what they looked like if I came across them and
b) wouldn't know what to do with them if I came into possession of some.

Problem solved, thanks to Irvin...the wonderful Amish man who sold us a bag of stinging nettles for $2.00 at the market. He said he liked to make tea with them and he gave us a whole paper on the things we could use it for.

{photo credit: wikipedia.com}

Irvin said he liked to make tea out of it. So we did! It was pretty awesome tea, if I may say so myself. I was headachin' all day Sunday and the nettle tea did a bit to relieve it. I even made it iced - a refreshing refreshment for a hot day!

Last night, we did something different with the nettles though. We made them into pesto! I love your run-of-the-mill basil pesto, but I have no fresh basil to make it at the moment. Stinging nettle pesto was a nice retreat from the norm. 

Be careful with this stuff though, the plant has microscopic hairs all over that sting when you touch them. They are essentially, little needles that inject the skin with histamines and various other chemicals that produce a stinging sensation that can last a couple of hours. {side note, I just read that some people have eating contests with stinging nettle, to see who can eat the most raw nettle...that sounds painful!} So you have to boil the plant before you can use it in any recipes, because boiling will remove the stinging chemicals. 

stinging nettle pesto
adapted from Fat of the Land
enough for 2 servings

prep time: 5 minutes
cook time: 5 minutes

ingredients

• 1 cup stinging nettles, blanched and chopped
• ¼ - ½ cup raw pine nuts
• 4-5 large garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
• ¼ - ½ cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper, to taste

directions

1. Blanch the stinging nettle in boiling water, until they become soft (a cooked spinach-like texure). Drain and chop.
2. Put all ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until desired pesto consistency is reached.

stinging nettle pesto on homemade pasta

So that's the story, morning glory. Stinging nettles.

Definitely try them out if you get a chance to.

Not Training...Maintaining

In the name of recovery (and getting things organized around our home) I took a whole week off of exercise after the marathon. Now, I am just going to try to maintain half marathon fitness without actually having a goal race in mind. There are a few races I want to run this summer, but I want to have the flexibility to get up on any given morning and say "hey, I feel like running a half marathon today" and then do it. No training schedules...just flexibility. 

I am really going to need to shift my mental focus to maintaining rather than training. This is going to be especially tough for me because I am most motivated when I have a goal in mind. I want this summer to be a little different...I want to be motivated without necessarily having a race in mind. 

Here are some of the ways I am going to work on that attitude shift that I need, so that I can get my exercises in to be fit enough for random races throughout the summer.

#1 workouts are a privilege. I don't want my workouts to feel like "work" trying to fit them into my day. They should be something that I look forward to and want to make time for. In that same respect, it shouldn't be a big deal if I can't fit them in. That being said, I want to make good use of my free time  (a.k.a. my lunch break) when it comes to getting up and getting moving. 

#2 short workouts are still workouts. 10 push-ups every hour? Half hour of yoga at lunch? Yep, they're quick and good at getting blood pumping. No one should feel like they have to be active for more than an hour to get a good workout, though I know it's really common for marathoners. Switching from training, where long runs can be 4+ hours to micro-workouts throughout the day can be a paradigm shift in thinking. That doesn't mean there isn't value in shorter workouts. 

#3 running isn't the only way to get fit. Especially during training, I tend to get caught up in "run, run run" and not enough cross-training. Thankfully I have a goal this summer...the MS150 bike ride. So like it or not, I'm definitely doing something other than running this summer. In fact, running is going to be my cross-training! Look forward to different types of workouts! Trust me, your body is going to love you for it.

#4 flexibility is key. I am going to do my best not to begin feeling overwhelmed because I want to do it all. Sometimes you just don't have the time or energy to get in your workout and do all the other things that you want to accomplish in one day. No big deal. Like Brandon says, "you can plan a plan, but you can't plan results". I like to have a plan but I don't always need to stick to it, and that is going to be a big theme for me this summer. 

#5 combine workouts + chores...and I don't mean chores in the negative sense of the word. I mean, combine things like walking the dogs + running. It's kind of a given actually, dogs have four legs. They can definitely run, and they can do it more efficiently than I can too! Work in the garden can be like weight lifting (we shoveled 3 yards of soil last week, so I say this with absolute certainty). 

So these are the kinds of ways I am shifting my perspective a bit to my approach to fitness. I don't plan to run another marathon for a while, but I really want to just run. The weather here is starting to turn summery (well, kinda...) and I just want to make sure I maximize my time outside while I can, whether that is running, biking, playing with the puppies, working in the garden. Sometimes I forget that I don't need to do a traditional "workout" to get a workout. 

My yoga teachers have always said to practice salamba sirsasana (headstand) to get a change in perspective. I think I'll start there.

Peace, Love & Bagels,

The Friday Five

Thank goodness it's Friday. I seriously slacked on keeping up with my google reader this week, so it's super backlogged. I don't have anyone else's links to share with you today, but I do have five of my own random things to talk about... 

Thing 1

Yesterday, despite the fact that there was a dark and ominous thunderstorm cloud just southeast of us, we got out into the yard to work a bit on our raised beds and the in-ground garden! Here's a sneak peek of the raised beds

Thing 2

Saw my Cleveland Marathon race photos........

this is the only one I'm willing to share

I probably saw the cameraman and managed to eek out a smile!

Thing 3

I love the Indians. We are going to join a sold out crowd at the Jake on Saturday night to watch them play the Cincy Reds. Oh, and get a Choo jersey! Anyone up for a post-game meet up??

Thing 4

I am in the market for a new camera. More specifically, I want to get a dSLR. I've always liked Canon. Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I want to buy just a body, so I can get an f/1.8 fixed focal length lens (per a recommendation from my boss, who's wife is a photographer).

{photo credit: http://www.bhphotovideo.com}

 I had a dream about buying the camera last night, so I think now's the time to do it. Let me know if you have any faves!

Thing 5

A recipe! Brandon and I had an awesome night in the garden last night, which ended with a most delicious (and pretty easy) dinner! I have a TON of asparagus (and green onions, and rhubarb!) from our spring CSA

so I used up some of the spear-grass (as my dad would say) last night on this awesome asparagus mushroom gratin. I wouldn't necessarily call it a gratin, per se, it's more like an asparagus and mushroom casserole. I made a few adaptations to the recipe, namely in the form of cheese. The original recipe called for Swiss or Gruyère, but I used the grass-fed Caraway Cheddar that we bought from the farmer's market last weekend. 

individual asparagus and mushroom casseroles

adapted from Vegetarian Times

serves 4

prep time: 20 minutes

cook time: 30 minutes

ingredients:

• 1 lb asparagus
• 1 cup mushrooms (any type) torn into half inch pieces
• 1/4 cup milk (I used vanilla soy and it came out awesome)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup cheese (pretty much any kind you have on hand will probably do)
• 1 stalk green garlic
• 2 tbsp olive oil, plus more for oiling ramekins

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 500°F, and place oven rack in top position. Toss asparagus with 1 tbsp olive oil on baking sheet, and season with salt and pepper. Roast 9 minutes then let cool.
2. Heat remaining 1 tbsp olive oil in skillet over high heat. Spread mushrooms evenly across skillet surface. Cook undisturbed 2 minutes, until mushrooms begin to brown. Toss, and spread evenly across skillet surface. Repeat 2 or 3 times until mushrooms are golden brown. Remove from heat.
3. Cut off asparagus tips and save for later. Place stalks in bowl of food processor. Add milk, and process 1 minute or until pureed. Transfer to bowl then mix in eggs and cheese, and season with salt and pepper.
4. Turn oven down to 375°F. Brush four 4-oz. ramekins with oil. Fill prepared ramekins with egg mixture. Top with mushrooms and reserved asparagus tips. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Top with chopped green garlic and enjoy!

Okay, so I know these pictures don't look wonderfully appetizing, but I promise you...it's delish!

Alright time gods, let's make this day move faster so I can get home and play in the garden some more!!

Peace, Love & Bagels,

You just ran a marathon...what are you gonna do now?!?!

today's mantra: {let it go}

The last two days have been somewhat of an emotional struggle for me.

I feel like I just came home from a big trip and suddenly it's "back to the real world". Brandon and I have had many conversations about keeping up our running at about half marathon mileage and continuing to race through the summer.

Last time I did this, I immediately had to take the next couple of months away from running because I injured myself. That is the last thing I want to do this time around. I may be premature in talking about this, but I'm sensitive to it because of my last marathon experience; the outside of my foot has been hurting since Monday. A lot. Like, hurts to walk on hurt. Needless to say, I've been semi-freaking out. C'mon body, I've got big plans!


I'm hoping and praying that it's just a bruise on my bone and not a stress fracture. I'm icing and resting and ibuprofen-ing. I'll know better in the next couple of days, but in the meantime this pain is getting in the way of my life. I want to keep running!


Maybe I'm freaking out for no reason. Maybe I'm just being too hard on myself. I mean, it's only been three days since the marathon!

Okay Becca, time to remind yourself of your mantra for the day...

Worst case scenario; it is a stress fracture and I can't run for a few months. Well, I can still ride my bike (um, and I should be riding my bike, considering I'm doing a 150-mile ride in August) I can still swim, I can still practice yoga. There are worse things in life than a stress fracture. 

Sorry for the stream-of-consciousness freak out, guys. Sometimes I just need to put it all out there.

In reality, I am truly blessed :)

Race Recap: Cleveland Marathon 2011

(photo credit: mojamala2)

That's a picture of the Cleveland Marathon race shirt this year (courtesy of Jess, I neglected to take a picture of my own shirt!)

Oh what a Cleveland Experience it was!!

Let's just start from the very beginning here...Alicia hosted an OBA pre-race carb fest for anyone who was running and any other bloggers/significant others who wanted to be there! It was awesome to meet so many other bloggers from the area who I regularly stalk via their blogs :) Plus it was an awesome meal before a big race!

Race morning, Brandon and I woke up at 5 a.m. after we both had nightmares about various aspects of the race. We had every thing ready for the morning and only had to get up, let the pups out and get out the door. The plan was to take the 5:40 rapid into Tower City and use the walk over to Browns Stadium as a warm-up lap before the race.

That was the plan.

We waited for the Green Line at Shaker and Green, where there were about 10 other runners/spectators there waiting for the train to get them downtown by 6:03. 5:40 rolls around...no train. 5:53...no train. 'Um...okay...should we just drive? It's going to be a mess if we do.' A minute or so later, we see a bus labeled "Green Line" drive into the parking lot and beckon us over. 

The bus driver goes, "there's a car across the tracks and the train can't get down here, I'm going to take you to the Shaker Square stop"

Brandon asks "But if the train can't turn around at Green, are there any trains going west into downtown?"

Bus Driver "I'm not sure"

Holy crap! I am in panic mode at this point, 'what if we don't make it in time? How on earth are we going to get downtown?! All the roads are closed!!'

The bus takes us down to the Shaker Square stop, and on the way we see a car flipped over on the train tracks. As we are driving up we see a train (that is headed west!) pulling up into the station. So everyone jumps out of the bus and sprints to the train. It gets us to Tower City at 6:30. So, Brandon and I jog down to the stadium and get there by 6:40 (give or take a minute). We both need to poop. We need to check our gear at the bag check. I manage to find a bathroom with no lines and run in while Brandon waits outside for me. No such luck with the Men's bathrooms...they all have lines out the door. Oh, and where in god's name is the bag check???? 

Finally, I see signs for the bag check so Brandon decides to wait in line for the bathroom while I got check our stuff. We agree to meet right outside the bathroom he's going into. I go check our bag, by this time it's 6:53, and I run back to the bathroom to wait for Brandon. 

6:54

6:55

6:56

I start panicking (again) because I am seeing people filter all the way through the line and out of the other door while I was waiting there...but no Brandon. 'Maybe he tried to find me at the bag check?' I start hearing announcements outside and I am no longer seeing people with marathon-colored bibs anywhere in the stadium. I called him, thankfully we both had our phones on us in our trusty Camelbaks...but he didn't answer. I run back towards bag check...nothing. I head outside towards the start...nothing. At 6:59, I call again and he answers. He was waiting for me by the bathroom, where we agreed to meet. Dummy...why did I even leave? Apparently there were like 30 urinals in that bathroom and 4 stalls.

Honestly? Every runner there is going to want to poop. Not pee. Get real Browns Stadium.

Thankfully, either my watch was fast or the race didn't start quite on time. We got down to the starting area (for lack of a better word for the cluster that was the start of the race) and had a minute or two to calm down (well, I had a minute or two to calm down). Deirdre, my favorite yoga teacher ever, who was also running the race with her boyfriend, managed to find us right before we started to say hi. Then we were off.

I have never experienced so much anxiety before a race like I did that morning.

Seriously, my heart rate was probably higher at the start than it would be for the entire rest of the race.

Our plan was to get a couple of solid miles in before we started our 4 minutes running, 1 minute walking. Well, we ended up running the majority of the first 13 miles...and killing it! If we had kept up that pace for the whole race, we would have easily beat my PR. 

There was a problem with that. I hit a wall early. As soon as the half marathoners split off and we began to heat east, the field in our immediate vicinity suddenly went from about 50 people to about 12. The wind started blowing. It got cold. The 60 degrees and misty of the beginning of the race quickly turned into 50 degrees and rainy. My hands turned into two ice cubes. I seriously underestimated how cold it was going to get. My shorts and t-shirt were not keeping me warm anymore.

By mile 14, I had to start run/walking. I was getting tired, cold and the worst part was, my shoulders were tightening up on me. It started feeling more and more like there was a gorilla sitting on my shoulders and I couldn't shake the feeling. Thank goodness that Brandon was able to stay positive through all of those miles that I couldn't. Mentally, that second half of the race got the better of me.

At some point, the 4:45 pace group passed us, and I couldn't find the heart to catch up. I apologized to Brandon a few times for slowing down so much, but he kept reminding me "We trained together, we started together and we're going to finish together. That's all there is to it."

Love him.

At mile 20, I got a good jolt. Liz, a good friend of my from college, rode her bike down with her husband to see us. In the crappy weather, they came to cheer us on! That meant so much to me. I can't even put it into words. She asked how I was doing and I said "dude, I'm struggling". She reminded me that I only had 6.2 more miles. I could do this

Liz posted this picture on facebook after the race. Our mile 20 smiles:

We continued to run/walk all the way to the finish. I just had to digest it in 4 minute bite sized pieces or it was going to get the best of me. My shoulders were tight, I was soaked, my hands were icicles (isn't it freaking May?!?!) but I had Brandon next to me the entire time. Smiling and keeping me positive. I am so lucky for that. The clock time at the finish was 5:06 and we crossed the finish line holding hands. I swear I almost cried, until I heard them announce our names and then everything just dissolved. I made it...in once piece...so did Brandon...phew!

All I could think of was chocolate milk. Thank goodness they had some for us at the end.

Even though we wanted to beat my PR, I think the bigger accomplishment was working through four months of training and running that entire race right next to each other. We finished. Together. That 26.2 mile journey  with Brandon by my side meant more to me than I could ever put into words. Pretty sure we can conquer just about anything now.

Now, I think that deserved a day off work yesterday, don't you??

This Is It

My apologies if the title of this post makes you pine for Michael Jackson. What I meant by "this is it" was "THIS IS MARATHON WEEKEND"

It's here! After four month of training, Brandon and I ran our last training run this morning before work. It was warm and the air was soft...a perfect setting for a little nostalgia. I think we both were feeling incredibly grateful to have had company while grappling with training runs in the snow, rain, sub-freezing temps and even some sun (whhaaaa...?)

I am so thankful to have had Brandon by my side though this journey! Like he said this morning, it has been a lot of literal and figurative ups and downs for us. I am just glad he was with me. I know fully know the difference between training for a marathon alone versus training with someone else. It's made a huge difference for me. Mentally, physically, emotionally...training has been much more pleasant with him by my side.

That, and I can officially say I've been stress fracture free this time around!! That's not to say I won't develop one while running the marathon...but I've been almost completely pain free throughout our training. That is AMAZING to me. I've suffered from shin splints since my freshman season of lacrosse. I am absolutely amazed that I haven't been plagued with some kind of shin pain! I attribute it mostly to our run/walk training.

I spent some time on my Garmin website looking at what the last four months of our lives have amounted to. These are some of my totals and averages:

(I don't think I actually ever hit a max speed of 88 miles per hour...sometimes my Garmin can get a bit confused)

Anyway, to everyone running this weekend, I wish you the best of luck and let's hope the weather holds out for us! I think we're all nervcited (Thanks Jess)...but I absolutely cannot wait! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and you'll all hear from me on Monday (orrrr maybe Tuesday, since I'm taking Monday off of work) about the race!!!

Peace, Love & Bagels,

Almond Rhubarb Muffins

Something weird happened with blogger.

I posted this recipe yesterday, but it got put back to draft status. 

Lame.

I struggled to find a rhubarb recipe that didn't involve strawberries. I didn't have any strawberries and didn't want to go out and buy them for any ridiculously involved pie. What I did have were some nice stalks of rhubarb from my spring CSA and no clue of what to do with them.

That predicament was cured with a simple Google search and a few substitutions. I successfully veganized and healthified an almond rhubarb muffin recipe that I found and made some freaking tasty muffins!

Rhubarb Almond Muffins

makes 16 regular sized muffins (though I have no idea why the recipe would be for 16 muffins, I used one regular muffin tin and half of a mini muffin tin)

prep time: 10 minutes

bake time: 15-18 minutes

ingredients

• 2/3 pounds rhubarb, tops removed and ends trimmed
• 2 ½ cups unsifted whole wheat flour
• ¾ cups chopped almonds
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoons ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoons salt
• ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ¼ cup turbinado sugar
• 1 ¼ cups water
• ½ cups applesauce
• 1 chia egg (1tbsp chia seeds + 3 tbsp water, mix and let sit)
• 1 tablespoons vanilla extract
• ½ cups dates, chopped

directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly coat sixteen 2 1/2-inch muffin-pan cups with cooking spray. Wash rhubarb stalks; coarsely chop and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, almonds, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt, and cinnamon.
3. In a medium bowl, mix sugar, water, applesauce, chia egg, and vanilla until combined. Stir into flour mixture just until moistened; the batter will be lumpy. Fold rhubarb and dates into batter. Spoon batter into muffin cups.
4. Bake muffins until a knife inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean -- 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool in pans 5 minutes. Transfer muffins to a wire rack and let cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to three days.

Peace, Love & Bagels,