Banana Heaven!

So I'll start out with this week's banana recipe. I stumbled upon the new Banana Nut Cheerios at the grocery store this weekend so I had to pick up a box. I am looking forward to trying them tomorrow morning! And they have some delicious looking recipes on their website....Jess, is this healthy enough for you? ;-)

Banana Date Muffins from Cheerios.com
Prep Time:15 min
Start to Finish:35 min
Makes:12 muffins
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2 1/2 cups Banana Nut Cheerios® cereal
1 1/4 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1/2 cup chopped pitted dates or raisins
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse or granulated sugar

1. Heat oven to 400°F. Spray bottoms only of 12 regular-size muffin cups with cooking spray, or line with paper baking cups. Spray bottoms only of paper baking cups with cooking spray. In large resealable food-storage plastic bag, coarsely crush cereal with rolling pin or meat mallet to measure 1 3/4 cups.

2. In large bowl, mix crushed cereal, flour, brown sugar, baking soda and salt. In medium bowl, beat buttermilk, oil, vanilla and egg until blended. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in dates. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.

3. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from pan to cooling rack. Serve warm or cool.

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OK, so now on to this week's training and other stuff.
This week was "Kickoff" for our Team in Training summer season. Looks like the tri team will have about 12 participants - which is great! We had our first group workout on Saturday - in the 17 degree slightly snowy weather! Brrrr. But I think we all managed the 1.3 mile jog to Criterium Bicycles for a basic triathlon gear clinic. It was really nice of them to let us use some space in the store and since they have tri gear, I didn't need to lug any of mine! Then we jogged back to the cars and refueled at Einstein's Bagels. I was pretty hungry by then because I put in a 40 minute run prior to the group workout.

On my way home I stopped off to check on my brother's bird, Archie. He seemed just fine. I gave him some fresh water, some birdy treats, scratched his head a little bit and headed home for a well-deserved nap! After my nap it was time to hit the pool for about 2000 yards. The best reward was the hot tub afterwards, which was really hot, maybe a little too hot, but still gets the blood flowing from being in a cold pool! My swimming is also coming around - my SwimLabs lessons are paying off because I am faster. I also think the yoga I've been taking is working to improve my upper body flexibility.

Today I woke up with a bit of a sore throat, which is now turning into some head congestion. There is a cold going around work, so I may have a mild version of it (and running in the chilly weather probably didn't help). I think I got close to 10 hours of sleep last night - much needed! I felt well enough to get my 90 minutes in on my trainer mid-morning. I had really planned on riding outside, but with temps in the mid-30s (sunny, though) I decided it best to not get chilled with this congestion. So instead I was dripping sweat in the family room. The Bourne Identity helped get me through some of the monotony of sitting on a trainer.

Tomorrow is a rest day with only yoga in the evening, so I'm hoping the cold symptoms don't get any worse.