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I have two great Valentine’s Day recipes for you this year, and both of them were super fun to taste test and tweak. First up: a Valentine’s Day dessert you can enjoy all by yourself and don’t have to share!

If baking a full-on cake or batch of something feels intimidating and tiresome, this Molten Chocolate Mug Cake was made for you!

For those who have never made a mug cake before – they’re pretty magical. No bowls or baking equipment to dirty. No long cooking times. No cooling rack and frosting. You whisk together all ingredients in one mug, and microwave to perfection.

The trick to this mug cake is stuffing the middle with chopped dark chocolate pieces. It melts and creates a deliciously gooey center that’s reminiscent of a chocolate lava cake (but not quite). I recommend topping with homemade coconut whipped cream and more chocolate shavings, but I imagine a scoop of ice cream, or even berries, and fudge sauce, would be just as tasty.

Whether you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day alone, or with a special someone – I hope you enjoy! If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear from you.

Molten Chocolate Mug Cake for 1

• Author: APRÉS RUN
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 2 minutes
• Total Time: 7 minutes
• Yield: 1 1x
• Category: Desserts
• Method: Microwave
• Cuisine: Healthy

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Description

An easy, indulgent Valentine’s Day dessert for one. This mug cake is rich and chocolatey, with a delicious gooey center. It doesn’t require a lot of slaving away in the kitchen, or cumbersome clean-up, and it’s made with wholesome, good-for-you ingredients like oat flour, coconut oil, dark chocolate, and unrefined coconut sugar.

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Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup oat flour (See notes)
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 large egg
• 3 tablespoons oat milk, coconut milk, or milk of choice
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon espresso powder or instant coffee (Optional, but highly recommended!)
• 1/2 oz. dark chocolate, chopped, plus more for shavings on top
• Coconut whipped cream, for topping (See notes)

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Instructions

1. Grease a large, microwave-safe mug with cooking spray, or lightly coat with oil of choice.
2. Add oat flour, cocoa powder, coconut sugar, baking powder, and salt to mug, and whisk together until well-combined, and until no clumps remain.
3. Add the egg, oat milk, melted coconut oil, vanilla extract, and espresso powder, and again whisk until everything is well-incorporated and no flour is left at the bottom of the mug. Be sure your melted coconut oil is not steaming hot when added to the mixture, as you don’t want to scramble the raw egg.
4. Spoon your chopped dark chocolate into the center of the mug, and cover with batter on top. (You want the chocolate to create a gooey center filling.)
5. Microwave for 1 1/2 minutes, or until the mug cake has puffed up and is cooked through.
6. Top with coconut whipped cream, dark chocolate shavings, and enjoy!

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Notes

• If you don’t have oat flour on hand, you can make your own by running an equal amount of plain, old-fashioned oats through a food processor or high-speed blender. Pulse for 30 seconds to a minute or two (or until finely milled), and voila – oat flour!
• You can use store-bought coconut whipped cream, but I highly recommend making your own. It’s super easy, and I love having leftovers on hand for spooning over berries, oatmeal, hot chocolate, and desserts when company comes over. This tutorial from Minimalist Baker is wonderful, and she does a great job breaking down which brands of canned coconut milk will yield the best results. (Hint: not all are created equal!)

Keywords: mug cake, healthy mug cake, chocolate mug cake, valentine’s day desserts, valentine’s day treats, healthy valentine’s day recipes

I first started running in the eighth grade for my middle school’s cross country team. Back then, my race day lunch was always the same – a double-decker peanut butter and jelly sandwich from our school’s cafeteria – loaded up with heaping gobs of (processed) peanut butter and spilling with jelly. It was comforting, tasty, and something I could trust to keep me full through warm-ups hours later.

As training and race day routines have evolved, the love for peanut butter and jelly has never died. But I’ve gotten much more discriminating with what I put in my body, and I now hold my food to higher standards.

Behold, a new pre-workout (and snack) solution: these upgraded Almond Butter & Jelly Snack Bars. I swap processed peanut butter for natural almond butter, use unsweetened or fruit juice sweetened strawberry jelly, and make them into bar form – much more portable, and easy to take on-the-go. I hope you give them a try for yourself!

Almond Butter & Jelly Snack Bars (gf, df)

• Author: APRÉS RUN
• Prep Time: 20
• Cook Time: 40
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 12 1x
• Category: Snacks
• Method: Baking
• Cuisine: Healthy

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These snack bars are a wholesome take on a classic childhood favorite. Packed with whole grains and healthy monosaturated fats, they are a feel-good food with all day staying power and won’t leave you hungry an hour or two later. They’re enjoyed just as well for breakfast, an afternoon snack, dessert, or pre-workout. Enjoy!

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Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups oat flour
• 1 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted*
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon real vanilla extract
• 1 cup strawberry jam (unsweetened or fruit-juice-sweetened preferred)
• 2–3 tablespoons natural almond butter, for drizzling on top**

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Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350° F. Prepare a square baking dish – either lining with parchment paper or greasing with a little coconut oil. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients (oat flour through salt).
3. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together melted coconut oil, beaten egg, and vanilla extract.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, and knead together until a thick, sticky dough forms. Don’t be afraid to use your hands!
5. Measure out 1/2 cup of the dough, and set aside. Using either a spatula or your hands, press the rest of the dough into an even layer at the bottom of your baking dish. This will form your crust.
6. Spoon the strawberry jam on top of the crust layer, and spread evenly to cover the dough.
7. Crumble the reserved dough over the strawberry jam layer to finish.
8. Bake for 40 minutes, until the crust and top layer reach a nice, golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes.
9. Drizzle drippy almond butter over cooled bars, then cut into squares and remove from pan.
10. Enjoy! Bars are best stored in the fridge and served cool.

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Notes

*Make sure melted coconut oil is cooled slightly before combining with the beaten egg – otherwise it will scramble.

**Natural almond butter has just one or two ingredients – almonds and maybe salt. It should have a drippy, wet consistency (unlike Jif or Skippy brands). Warm if necessary before drizzling.

Keywords: Almond butter, jelly, peanut butter and jelly, healthy baking, snack bars, healthy snacks, healthy on the go

A couple of weeks ago on my Instagram stories I asked what recipes people wanted to see more of. A recurring theme quickly emerged: you wanted “fast”, “easy”, “prep-ahead”, “one-bowl”, “one-pan”… etc.

These Crispy Chickpea Patties not only fit the bill, but they’re fresh and full of light Spring flavors, while still being hearty enough to keep you full all afternoon or evening. You only need six ingredients to make them (not counting salt, pepper, and olive oil for frying… but you should have those on hand already). AND, you’ll only dirty one bowl and one pan to make them. They come together in under half an hour and are delicious served with a super easy Dill-Yogurt Dressing.

Ingredients:

Chickpea Patties

• 1 can chickpeas
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup almond flour
• 2 eggs, whisked
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 heaping tbsp minced garlic
• Sea salt and black pepper, to taste
• Olive oil, for frying

Dill-Yogurt Dressing

• 1 cup dairy-free yogurt (I like this cashew yogurt and this coconut yogurt)
• 1/4 cup avocado oil mayonnaise
• 1/4 tsp sea alt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp dried dill

Instructions:

1. Drain chickpeas and either mash by hand with a potato masher, OR toss into either a high-speed blender or food processor. Pulse for just 10-15 seconds, until chickpeas are mashed but still retain a good texture. If a few chickpeas are still whole, that’s great.
2. Transfer chickpeas to a large mixing bowl, add in remaining ingredients (except olive oil), and combine.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, add a few tablespoons of olive oil, and once the oil starts to shimmer, add in your patties. You can either use a 1/4 cup or 1/2 cup measuring cup to evenly form your patties, depending on how large you want them to be. Make sure they’re packed in tightly, so that they hold together while cooking. Cook until crispy and golden brown on the bottom, and then flip.
4. While patties are cooking, whisk together ingredients for the Dill-Yogurt Dressing in a small mixing bowl, let sit for 5-6 minutes, and then serve dolloped on top of the patties.
5. Enjoy!

I think that everyone — but especially women — go through a unique relationship with food over the course of their lives. Today I’m sharing the changes I’ve made over the past several years that have had the biggest impact on my body composition, performance, and happiness.

Could I be leaner than I am right now? Yes. Do I want to be? Yes, because I’m always working to improve myself — but not by much. Whereas in the past, I thought skinniness = happiness on an infinite ascending curve (where happiness increases as skinniness increases, and there is no endpoint), I now have a clear sense of where my “healthy median” is: where I feel energized day-to-day, I’m not hungry all the time, I can recover well from training, and my hormones are functioning at healthy, happy levels. I try not to stray too far above or below this set point.

Also — Note that I listed three things in the title, and the most important of those is without a doubt happiness. If the way you’re eating is consistently detracting from your happiness, and if the way you’re fueling isn’t consistently making you feel good… you probably need to make some changes of your own.

My best changes from the past several years

1. I stopped being afraid to eat more. I stopped calorie counting many years ago, but for me, I still had some picture in my head of what was and wasn’t a reasonable amount for me to be eating (???!). I had to completely throw out the drawing board and write a new one. I once had a nutritionist tell me that at 5’8”, my body is a “stretch limousine, not a taxi cab.” Things that you have to take into consideration when deciding how much food is right for you:

• Your activity levels – Including and outside of exercising. If you have a more active day job, or more active weekends, for example, you need to take this into account. If you’re a fidgety person who hates sitting (like me), you need to take this into account. (Google “NEAT.”) If you’re running 40-60 miles a week, or if your mileage has just jumped up, you need to take this into account.
• Your height and weight – Larger people need more fuel. It’s science. Even if you are larger for your frame but trying to lose weight, your starting energy expenditure is going to be higher than someone who is smaller and of the same frame size. So take this into account and don’t make drastic cuts. The same thing applies if you are tall and thin. Your body needs more fuel than someone who is 4” shorter than you, just at baseline.
• Your metabolism – There’s a lot of mixed research on metabolism speed, but from my personal experience amongst teammates and friends, I do think metabolisms vary. In college I had a friend of almost the exact same height and of a similar build. We were running similar mileage and doing the exact same workouts. But she ate like a bird and I was always starving. I think that as adults, most people can identify whether they’re someone with a “fast”, “slow”, or “normal” metabolism. I’ve had a fast metabolism since I was young, and my mom and brothers are the same way. I would encourage you to resist comparing the amount of food you need to what others are eating, as bodies are so individual.

2. I started frontloading my calories. This has made a HUGE difference in the way that I fuel. Step 1a was eating more overall, and step 1b was redistributing my calories. Before the cycle would look like this – Start the day eating the way I “thought” I should be eating. End up hungry an hour or hour and a half after eating. Have a massive blood sugar drop around 2 PM. End up at the mercy of my low blood sugar, sometimes making poorer food choices, and all of the time consuming the majority of my calories in the second half of my day. Now, I eat proactively instead of reactively. I always have a very big breakfast plus a mid-morning snack when needed, and I’ve made my lunches more hearty. As a result, I feel much more well-fueled. I’m eating the majority of my calories during the time of day I’m most active (and need them the most). Come dinnertime, I’m not eating a massive meal, and afterwards, I’m satisfied and not having crazy cravings.

3. I stopped depriving myself. No foods, except what I’m allergic to, are off limits to me. I don’t believe that “fit people” only eat protein, brown rice, and vegetables. Fit people eat all foods, they just prioritize foods that are good for their body and make them feel good.

The other side of this: when you prioritize fueling your body with healthy, from-the-earth and –farm ingredients, your taste buds start to change. In turn, you start craving low-nutrient foods less. It takes trusting your body to realize that allowing yourself to eat “bad” foods does not mean your body is going to want “bad” foods all the time. Now, I honor whatever cravings my body has, I enjoy it, and I move on. I don’t say “I shouldn’t eat that” and I stand up for myself when people say “You’re really going to eat that?!” Eating junk food no longer turns into a weeklong downward spiral of despair, self-hatred, and overeating/trying to compensate. It has taken me a lot of years to get to this place, but it’s been so incredibly worth it. Fight against diet culture, stand up for yourself, and start honoring your body’s cravings instead of fighting against them. A great book on this topic is Melissa Hartwig’s Food Freedom Forever.

4. I started eating more fat. This was a huge dietary change I made after my freshman year of college, which was disastrous for me running-wise. Eventually I’ll dedicate a whole separate post to this (because I feel so strongly about it!), but simply put: FEMALE RUNNERS NEED FAT!! When most people try to “diet” or even “eat healthier”, fats and carbs are two of the foods that are usually first to go. But fat is so important not only for appetite regulation (eating too low fat of a diet will make you hungry all the time, and can give you crazy sugar cravings especially), but it’s also incredibly important for female hormonal health. A good training diet is plentiful in healthy oils, avocados, natural nut butters, fatty fish, egg yolks, etc.

5. Non-nutrition-related… I started consistently strength training. The famous longtime University of Colorado coach once said that strength training is even more important for females than it is for males – because of hormones, bone health, and body composition, and I can’t agree more. Research shows resistance training:

• Improves bone density
• Improves hormonal health (in both males and females… but in different ways)
• Changes body composition in favorable ways, even in otherwise active people
• Creates resistance to injury
• And so much more

Since committing to lifting more consistently than ever before, I’ve watched my body undergo changes I’m really proud of, and without having to make any crazy changes to my diet. I can eat more at rest (muscle is active tissue and actually burns calories, whereas fat does not), my abs are tighter and more toned despite not doing a ton of targeted “ab work”, my legs are more shapely and defined, my back and arms are more developed, and my waist has actually shrunk. My body is not perfect by any means, and I still have a lot of things I want to improve, but noticing all these changes has been fun. The benefits of lifting will also become a separate post at some point!

I want to know: As you look back on the past several years, what are the best changes you’ve made for your body and happiness?!

Cold + flu season has hit our area really hard, and after coming down with three separate bugs since this fall, I’m trying to be more proactive about building up my immunity.

Enter my new go-to smoothie: packed with Vitamin C in the form of whole fruits (no processed, sugary fruit juice), probiotics from coconut yogurt, and extra hydration from coconut water, this drink is a super-potent immunity tonic that will build up your body + help ward off sickness. It’s also great for nipping things in the bud when you feel something coming on.

And the best part — it tastes just like the creamsicles you ate growing up!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup ice
• 2 whole navel oranges, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut yogurt
• 1/4 cup coconut water
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions: Combine ingredients in a high-speed blender in the order listed (ice first, vanilla extract last). When peeling your oranges, try to remove as much of the white pith as possible, as this will make your smoothie bitter. Blend until frothy, and serve immediately for maximum freshness.