I do appreciate having my trusty Timex 1440 watch with me. I've had it for, gosh, five years now. Cost me $15.00 at Target. It's a basic watch. Has a stop watch feature, does something with laps I've never figured out and has Indiglo. (Ooooh.) Not that I run in the dark. Well, except in running class pre daylight savings time change. My Timex and me, we've spent lots of hours and miles together. Good times. (Pause to reflect fondly. Beep. Two seconds.) Moving on.
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| Simple, yet effective. |
While my Timex has been a dear friend and faithful running companion to me, I think it's time to upgrade! Good is good, but better can be, well, better! Now that I'm back to running more, I want more from my watch. (So demanding.) Something my trusty little Timex cannot give me: GPS. Oh yes! A watch that picks up a satelite signal and can tell me distance, pace, time AND calories is where it's at. (I know I ended my sentence with a preposition and I'm not changing it.) Hello Garmin 210 - I think I love you!
Let me tell you how much research I've done on this - um, a ton. I've read reviews on running websites, I've read reviews on commercial websites, I've asked my friends with running watches, I've asked my friends with specifically Garmin running watches. And after all that, I think I've settled on the 210. Why you ask? (Just pretend to care, okay?) Because it gives me just enough technology to be helpful and not too much that I won't use it. Plus, it's not as big as a house like some GPS trainers are. The 100 series was missing the vital "current pace" feature I refuse to live without, so that wouldn't do. The 300 series was the size of a Mini Cooper. And the 400 series tried to woo me with its fancy touch bezel, but no no, I would not be swayed. I... am practical! (With an occasional bent for a "why the heck not" moment. Yes you're now thinking - she's so edgy.)
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| Just enough features to make it super duper cool and amazingly fantastic!!!! |
Now to stealthily transition to food. Which, after a 4 mile run, I don't have to feel guilty about. I figured, well, I had an ordinary watch and I wanted an extraordinary watch, so how about instead of french toast, I make an extraordinary french toast. (If you dig deep, there is logic to be had here.)
Stuffed French Toast
4 slices of challah bread (From Whole Foods is wonderful!)
2 heaping tbsp whipped cream cheese
2 tsps sour cream
2 tsps sugar (or more or less to your sweet tooth liking)
Couple drops of vanilla extract
1 beaten egg
Any time I see the advertisements for stuffed french toast, all I can think of is: "That must be 1,500 - 2,000 calories." I knew if I made it at home, I could control some of that and not make one meal my entire day's (or more) caloric intake. (A sure fire way to put a dent in obesity is to be mindful and make it at home.) So I started with some fresh fruit: strawberries.
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| Ripe, red berries. |
You can use whatever looks good that day. And with the farmers markets starting to open, boy, are you gonna be lucky soon. Just make sure the berries are sweet or the final product can end up tasting bland. (You could add a little sugar to the berries if you were so moved to sweeten them directly as well.) I chopped them into small pieces.
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| About the size of a bean. |
I had whipped cream cheese at home at the time, but you can use regular.
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| There's that lactose I can't seem to stay away from... again. |
Into the bowl went the cream cheese, sugar, sour cream and vanilla. The sour cream helped to thin out the cream cheese a bit, but I also think it added a cheesecake like zing to it.
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| Am I making cheesecake? Almost. |
I mixed it up well with a spoon until it was velvety.
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| Do we ever run out of descriptive terms? Creamy, silky, smooth... guess not. |
Growing up in New England, challah can be found at the many Jewish bakeries around and really pretty much any bakery. Here in Virginia I thought, oh crumb, where am I gonna find it. Enter Whole Foods. I had actually bought it for Easter dinner and it was delicious just with butter, but today it was in for a job change.
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| Buttery, soft bread. So good even plain. |
I took four slices and spread some of the cream cheese mixture on each of them. Note: It's important that you make sure you put this on the correct sides so that the asymetrical bread will come together in matched fashion.
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| You are noticing that I did one the wrong way. Yup. Perhaps I should rename my blog to: Cooking with a sometimes moron. |
Well, at least I'm honest about my flubs. (Makes you feel slightly more competent, doesn't it. It's okay to admit it.) Next you'll want to add the fruit on top of one side of each pair using your Duluth souvenir spoon. (Because of course, everyone has a Duluth engraved spoon from the early 1900s in their home. I've never even been to Duluth. Where the heck is Duluth?)
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| Don't be scant about it, but you also don't want it falling out the sides. |
Take your non fruit slice of bread and place it on your fruit slice. The cream cheese mixture is like sweet glue. Try to seal the edges as best you can to keep everything stuffed inside where it belongs. Then into the egg wash it goes, quickly.
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| Bath time! |
It would be good as is, but I wanted to add a little something extra. So I mixed a few tbsps of cornflake crumbs with 1 tbsp of sugar to make a crispy coating. (You can omit this step if you want.)
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| You can crush up cornflakes instead or Frosted Flakes if you're crazy and have them around. |
A light dip into the crumbs on each side.
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| The crumbs will stick super well because of the egg. |
Into a pan on medium heat until toasted on both sides. Like any regular French toast. The cream cheese gets all melty, so flip carefully and don't lose a side that might slide.
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| And I've tried to hide that the top one is the mismatched wrongly cream-cheesed sided one. What an embarrassment. |
Just a couple/few minutes on each side and you are ready to plate. One per person. And you're probably super hungry at this point. Your options are 1.) eat as is, 2.) add powdered sugar on top or 3.) add a little maple syrup. I even tossed around the idea of warming up some of my home made strawberry jam to put on top. See what I mean - extraordinary is better!
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| So good, it makes me wanna challah! (Okay, so that works better as a spoken joke.) |
Don't get me wrong, I like plain French toast. It's reliable. Predictable. Trustworthy. Just like my old Timex 1440. But there comes a day when I want a little somethin' more. Now that I've had my stuffed French toast, it's time to order my satelite finding, current pace keeping Garmin 210 running watch! And that means I'll be running even more, so hey, then I can eat more, right? (Nooooooo. Say it again with me, nooooooo.)
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