One For All

.....And All For One

I am giving a €50 One For All voucher away on my Calso Cooks On The Run page on Facebook.

All you gotta do to be in with a chance to win is click on the link above, like the page and leave a comment... the comment with the most likes wins the voucher.

Deadline for this competition is Wednesday 3/10/12 at noon so you only have less than a week to enter!!

Best of luck!!!

Chunky Seafood Chowder

Chunky seafood chowder

This is comfort food at its best… the smell of it alone is enough to make you want to curl up in front of a roaring fire! Choose the fish from Cod, Haddock, Pollock, Ling, Whiting, and Salmon etc. Serve with the freshest crusty bread you can get your hands on.

Serves 4:

250g mixed fish cut into cubes

50g of either mussel or razor clam meat

50g butter

50g flour

Half litre of fish or vegetable stock

Half litre of milk

1 onion

2 carrots

2 sticks of celery

1 potato

I tin of sweetcorn

Sea salt & black pepper

Method

¨ Finely chop the onion and celery and cut the carrot into thin strips, peel and cube the potato. Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add the vegetables, cook gently until softened but not coloured. Stir in the flour.

¨ Gently whisk in the stock and milk and add the sweetcorn and cubed potato. Turn up the heat and bring to the boil then reduce back down to medium heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

¨ Add the cubed fish and mussel/clam meat and simmer for a further 5-10 minutes. Taste and season.  Serve with a ladle in a bowl.

Charity Marathons Getting Closer

T-minus 5 weeks... And Counting

Today 5 weeks time I will be setting off on my mission... 16 marathons in 12 days broken down into 32 half marathons in 12 days, one in every county in Ireland. Some people are still finding difficulty in grasping this, I explain it to someone then they ask things like...

 'What about the North?? are you doing any up there??'... Yes, all 32 counties...

 And  'Are you doing the New York marathon as part of it??'... No, that's in America!!!

 And other questions like... '16 marathons in 12 days?? how long will that take you??... Em, 12 days!!!

Anyways, maybe I have just soaked it in so much that I obviously know what it entails but at the same time its not that hard of a concept.

Training has really stepped up another gear to start getting the endurance levels going, as I'm typing this I'm in the middle of a 3 run day, 2 down - 1 to go them a yoga session tonight followed by a short core work. I have started doing core work every night because a strong core will cut down on the risk of injury (keeping form while running) and really help with the endurance end of things. 8 of the day I will be running 3 half marathons per day, that's 39.3 miles per day so that's where the endurance must kick in. On those days I will be starting my first run at an early 7am-finish at 9.30... 2nd run starts at 12noon- finish at 2.30... and 3rd run starts at5 finishes at 7.30... well that's the hope anyways I'm sure some will take longer but I cant plan for hiccups only deal with them if and when they occur.

On the other 4 days I will be running 2 half marathons per day, that's 26.2 mile. On those days I will start the first at a later 9am-finish at 11.30... and start 2nd at 2pm to finish at 4.30, this will give me an opportunity to hopefully get some physio in and some time in the pool for recovery, if I am even fit to move that is!!

I have had a great response from hotels in the country and only need 2 more to put me up for the night on my stop overs, you can see the one that have sponsored me a room here along with details of my other sponsors.

Well that's it for now, I must go get fueled up for my next run, you can find most of what I am eating for training purposes on my Healthy Recipes page, taking in a lot of carb's for fuel, protein for recovery and the good fats to help with digestion and the distribution of all the good nutrients... this is why a Good Healthy Balance Diet is a must... these other fad diets that make you cut out any of these are not good for a normal healthy lifestyle!!!

Its not rocket science, use some common sense

Alternative Potatoes

I have been neglecting new recipes of late due to training flat out for my charity run and time has not really been my own, but I've manage to pull my face up off the ground for 20 minutes to put this up. Here is an oldie but definitely a goodie... Give these a try and they will become a firm favourite!!

Pan Fried Potatoes with Garlic and Rosemary

These potatoes are so fragrant and tasty they nearly become any meals main feature. They will go with any meat and feature in my kitchen once or twice every week.

Serves 4:

1 kg baby potatoes

1 fat clove of garlic

1 sprig of rosemary

Olive oil

Sea salt

 Method

¨ Scrub the baby potatoes and cut them into quarters. Place them into a saucepan of salted water and put on a high heated hob. Bring to the boil and turn down for 5 minutes or until you can push a fork into them.

¨ Drain in a colander in the sink and let steam off for few minutes.

¨ In a pestle and mortar pour in a teaspoon of sea salt and a clove of garlic and grind into a paste. Strip the rosemary and finely chop it adding it to the paste, pour in a good glug of olive oil and mix all around.

¨ Pour this mixture into a hot frying pan on the hob and pour in the par-boiled potatoes. Toss it around insuring they all get coated with the mixture.

¨ Shake them around every now and again on a medium to high heat for 20-25 minutes until coloured and crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.