Posts Tagged granola
Maple Pecan Granola Recipe
Until college, cereal was something only to be consumed at breakfast. It was something I ate without much of a liking for it, but I had it every morning with milk and orange juice.
Then, I got to college and faced the experience of eating in the dining halls. Our entire cross country team would pile into the Caf every night after practice and sit in the same cluster of tables. Most of the time, we were exhausted from whatever workout or long run we had done that day and were dying for food. Of course, the stingy workers would only hand out a few pellets of nasty roast beef or a few noodles of pasta after standing in line for ten minutes. We were starving — give us more!
“Get back in line,” the workers retorted.
Thus, after whatever inhaling whatever meager rations the Caf workers gave us, everyone on the team finished their dinner with a nightly ritual: cereal. Cereal wasn’t portion controlled by the miserly Caf workers, so we ate a lot of it. When I first arrived as a freshman, I couldn’t believe everyone else ate cereal for dinner. It seemed so out of place, but soon enough, I found myself doing it every night along with the rest of my teammates.
The Caf always had Kellog’s granola, which in some way or another became my cereal of choice for breakfast and dinner. A bowl of it in the morning gave me most of the energy I needed to get through a day of class and practice. It was also great after plenty of grueling workouts. So, I not only ate cereal with almost every meal, but I became addicted to granola.
At first, I stuck to the Kellog’s brand, which I ate at the Caf. It wasn’t until my sophomore year that I discovered bulk granolas in the grocery stores, while a few years later I found Trader Joe’s, which sold the same bulk granolas as well as other granola-based cereals for cheap. All the while I continued to eat cereal for dinner while at school: my parents would have a fit if I did that at home. Then, after screwing around on the Internet, I found that it was easy to make your own granola with a minimum of ingredients. I found a great recipe here and also here, but my version is as follows:
Preheat oven to 275 and combine the following in a large mixing bowl:
- 4 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup pecans
- 1/3 cup, heaping, packed brown sugar
- pinch of salt
- 4 tsp canola oil
- 1 cup pure maple syrup (I use Grade B, but Grade A Dark Amber is also good)
Place on a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Bake for about 40 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes to allow the edges and center to dry evenly. When the oats turn golden brown and the syrup has been absorbed, it’s done.
Since I don’t eat in the dining halls anymore, I wonder if my old teammates still finish off every dinner in the Caf with a bowl of cereal.
Every year it’s different
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on September 6, 2006
It seems everything is almost completely different every year I return to school. For the most part the people I interact with are the same, the professors are the same, and the environment is the same, but there is something big that has changed.
I finally got my computer put together and it’s up and running. So far, I haven’t had too many other major issues with it. I found out that the motherboard has two different SATA controllers, one of which I had my drives plugged into and seemed to be causing some trouble on booting. Sometimes it wouldn’t recognize my drives until I did a reset. After plugging my drives into the other controller, I haven’t had anymore issues with that. Then, awhile back, I was installing the drivers for my printer when the whole thing just shut down and wouldn’t power back on. After unplugging everything and plugging everything back in, it started back up. I noticed it shut down like that again a few more times over several days until I realized that the HSF wasn’t turning on all the time, causing the processor to overheat and shut down. It looked like some wires might be in the way of the fan, so I tied them back and it seems to be fine now.
In general, the new system flies. It starts up and shuts down almost instantaneously, which I think is due in part to the new hard drive. Oblivion, probably the most taxing game I’ve got, is amazing on this computer. Before, I had to run at a lower resolution and it was still pretty choppy in outdoor battles. Now, the scenery is amazing and everything runs smoothly.
School hasn’t been much different than undergraduate, so far. I did have a talk with one of my professors about doing a project for that class that could lead to an M.S. thesis. Hopefully the project won’t be too demanding since it’s really only supposed to be for the Biomedical Image Processing class this semester. Supposedly, it will deal with web services and distributed computing, which sounds interesting, but I have a lot to learn, especially since I’m not too familiar with web services. The other two classes seem more theoretical and have weekly homework assignments. Hopefully they won’t be too bad. I’m supposed to get my own desk in the Computer Science building with a good computer, but the CS office administrator hasn’t gotten back to me about that. I do like that from now on I won’t have to deal with anymore elective classes to fill my schedule.
My schedule isn’t too bad overall, but it’s a pain to be away from the main campus. I’ve been trying to take the bus or bike as much as I can so I don’t have to pay for gas. Besides, unless I’m going to practice, there’s nowhere to park. Having a car has helped things somewhat, but it only seems to offset the fact that I’m farther away from everything. I feel so isolated out by myself and especially since I’m not rooming with anyone on the team. From what I heard, it’s probably better that way as a graduate student. To make things worse, my knee has been bothering me and I’ve been on the bike, so I’m also by myself in that aspect. I’m sure I’ll adjust in time.
The other thing I’ve noticed is that I eat around 2.5 – 3 lbs of granola each week for breakfast. Previously, I would eat in the dining hall and didn’t think much of it, but I usually have been eating breakfast at the apartment since the dining hall is so far away. That equates to over $10 per week just in cereal. I was thinking of doing a bulk order from somewhere online so I wouldn’t be spending as much in the long term, but I still have to get my mailbox key.
Frustration
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on March 7, 2006
I never understood the term “tactical” race.
Personally, I think it’s a strategy for wimps who only care about winning. When I run, it’s less about winning and more about running a fast time and beating the crap out of myself. Basically, the entire field runs slow for 3/4 of the race and then everyone just takes off in the last quarter. Nobody ever runs fast this way, and I despise it.
I qualified for the indoor IC4As in Boston for the fourth consecutive year, but only ran it once before since I was injured the past two years. This was supposed to be the big one. Instead, my coach tells me not to lead for the first 2K (of a 5K race), and because of it, I’m forced to sit in a pack of about 10 guys who are tripping over each other because the pace is so slow. I nearly take out my teammate when I step on his shoe.
Finally I get the OK from my coach to pull out of the pack and get things moving, and I do so until about 3500m in. At this point one of the original leaders who was running slow passes me, and thinking he’s going for it, pull in behind and go with him, only to have him slow down again! The rest of the pack quickly catches up and I’m boxed in yet again. It takes another lap and a half until I can get back out (with the help of my teammate) and pick things up for the second time. Of course there isn’t much time left at this point, and so many guys I would have dropped had I run a fast, evenly paced race are still around. I do my best to hold on, but it’s a losing battle, and run 14:17.7, a new personal record by less than a tenth of a second. I’m glad I ran at least that fast, but it could have been better had I gone out harder like I wanted.
Somehow, I’ve made it this far without getting hurt, and I’m still crossing my fingers that nothing serious will happen.
Last week was a real mess with tests and leaving for Boston. Everything turned out okay, though. We wound up getting single rooms at the Hyatt in Cambridge, which was a really nice hotel. Usually we don’t get single rooms and have to share. I slept like a log both nights I was there. There was some high school leadership thing going on at the hotel, which was annoying with all the high schoolers running around and screaming.
Since we got there so early on Friday, we just sat around the hotel all day and then went for a run later in the afternoon, going by the track and then out along the Charles. It was freezing out, under 30 degrees with howling winds. That night we went to Vinny T’s for dinner, the same chain we had gone to three years before when I was a freshman. The portion sizes were just as big as I remembered, and I could barely put a dent in my veal parmesan. Some of the other guys made it into a contest to eat everything, and needless to say, they were suffering every time the van hit a bump on the way back to the hotel. My coach had gone off to the Reggie Lewis track earlier in the day with Sean, whose brother was running in the New England Championships. They were supposed to meet us for dinner, but got lost and spent two hours driving around Boston. I find it funny that the one guy who lives in Boston (or close to it) gets lost. We also stopped at a Trader Joe’s on the way back from dinner, which was the first time I’ve ever been to one of those. I got some granola from there that was really good. Apparently there is a Trader Joe’s in Newport News, so maybe I can check that out sometime.
On Saturday we went to the track since some of the guys had prelims. We were there pretty much the whole day and everyone ran really well and nearly everyone qualified to run the next day in the 800, mile, and DMR. The 5K guys, including myself, do a quick pre-race run around the city and then we go back to the hotel and then make another return to Vinny T’s for dinner. Why we went back was beyond me — there are a million other Italian places in Boston, but we were definitely guaranteed enough food. We spent the rest of the night playing Monopoly on Groff’s computer, and somehow I managed to pull off a win due to a critical deal I made early in the game. We also played the night before, but Groff and Jones colluded and dominated everyone, despite our protests.
Sunday was the big day. The only thing that had been bothering me was that they had the 5K scheduled to be run in 3 separate heats. Fortunately by the time I warmed up, they had merged the heats into two, which (I thought) would make things easier. After the race, we watched the DMR, and then Colin, Ed, and I did a run into downtown Boston, around Boston Commons, and finished at the hotel. We headed downtown again for dinner at Faneuil Hall, which was a lot like Reading Market in Philadelphia. I ate a whole pile of food including this awesome brownie that was nearly solid chocolate. The flight back was a little long, but we got in around midnight.
Now, I’m home since we’re on spring break. My main goal this week is to work as much as I can on the implementation portion of my Computer Science project. I’ve also got to figure out what to do for housing for next year. I don’t know anyone in the graduate programs here, and nearly everyone I do know will be living on campus next year. Graduate housing is separate from undergraduate, so I can’t room with any of them. I’ll probably just have to get a random roommate, then.
Interests
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on October 19, 2004
How common are ragemaster’s interests
Rewind <<
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on March 9, 2004
I went home Saturday night since I wasn’t racing and there wasn’t much reason for me to stay at school anyway. Definitely nice to sleep in my own bed for a few nights. It was also a zillion times more windy in Virginia Beach than back at school, which made the bike really difficult, but it gave me more of a workout. Today felt so much easier. Home cooking was also much better than the run-of-the-mill caf food too. I didn’t really do all that much but get up late, mess around on the computer, and then bike in the afternoon.
Today I took the car back to school because neither of my parents were able to drive me back so I could get to practice on time. Before practice, I biked out past the Chickahominy River again, and then ran about 3 miles on the track until my achilles got a little tight. The bridge I thought was closed must only have been for a few days or something. Having the car this week should definitely help since the buses are only running on the hour and we have to go out to eat since the dining halls are closed. Schoener and I went to Ukrops to get some food after practice — I stocked up on several different kinds of granola they have. Their granola is the best. And then I get back to eat this meatloaf I also got, my dad calls, telling me how nice it is in Los Angeles and how he went on this three hour bike ride along the beach in 80 degree weather. I could have gone with him had I not gotten hurt, but I had to be back here to get into the training room. There were even seats open on the plane too. Oh well, I’d rather be healthy, or more on my way to being so. That was the reason I didn’t go along to Boston just to watch.
Then when I go sit back down to finish my dinner the fire alarm goes off. It’s real loud and there is no way I could just sit there and wait until it stops. Besides there could actually be a fire. So I go down the stairs and outside, where I learn that Jacob had a little trouble cooking some vegetables, which resulted in their apartment being filled with steam. Somehow the steam set off the alarm. We stand out there for only a couple minutes until several police cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance pull up. It was pretty quick, considering that the fire station is on the other side of the town. Within minutes the whole street is crammed with emergency vehicles and lights flashing and people running all over the place. So thanks to Jacob we all stand out there like idiots while the firemen, complete with masks and air tanks, go into the building and look for any problems. I could see flashlight beams shining through the windows until they finally came down and let us back in. What fun. Then I finally got to finish my dinner.
We also got our housing lottery numbers today. Mine was okay, middle of the road, like last year. I was in the 1360′s, which could be okay depending on how fast things go. Schoener got a real good number, one of the first Junior ones. Chris, one of the seniors, got 22, so he could pretty much get anything. Charlie got one of the highest senior numbers, around 800 something. I’ll be lucky if I can get an Old Dominion double with my number. Maybe one of the other guys with a higher number will help me out if I can’t get anything worthwhile, but that priority goes to the freshmen on the team. Basically if they don’t get one of the first Sophomore numbers, they wind up at Dillard, isolated from the world. That would have happened to me this year if it hadn’t been for Gaffney. The lottery doesn’t happen for another month anyways, so we have some time to figure it all out.
The weather tomorrow is supposed to be pretty crappy. All this nice weather we’ve been having has slowly been grinding to a halt over the last few days. 40 and rain will probably not only be uncomfortable to bike, it will probably be dangerous. I haven’t biked in the rain much, but all it takes is me or a car to slip on the pavement and it’s all over. I’ll probably just wind up going to the rec center and doing the workout in there. Boring, but at least I’ll be safe and I can control things better in there too. Speaking of biking, when I was out along Route 5, I counted about 25 huge dump trucks that went by in about 15 minutes. Just one after the other, it seemed like they were digging a hole to Australia or something. I have no idea what was going on. I don’t remember there being that many before.
I guess that about sums it up for the past couple days.
I don’t understand
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on February 4, 2004
Why do they close down the caf and force us to eat catered food at the basketball game? If I wanted to go to the game, I would go on my own. It’s not that it’s a pain to get to — I stretch, ice, do my body weight exercises and shower in the Hall just before dinner. It’s more a matter of prinicple. I shouldn’t have to see the basketball game to get food. It seems like some kind of third world dictatorial coercion. So instead, I, and seemingly the majority of the school cram into the other dining hall, the UC, for dinner. It was packed, but fortunately, they didn’t run out of food… except for granola… grrrr…
Since I can vote in the upcoming presidential election, I started doing some research on the candidates. I started with the Democratic ones, since I am least familiar with those. If I were a Democrat, I would probably vote for Kerry. Kerry seems to be a strong advocate of civil liberties, ending overseas outsourcing, and will help provide federal funds for higher education (W&M is falling apart). Dean, I would stay away from. He seems big on continuing affirmative action, and is a big advocate of Title IX, which has demolished many successful men’s sports teams. His positions on Social Security and Medicare will be a huge burden on my future paychecks. The problem with all of these candidates is that they state they will roll back the Bush tax cuts to fund all of their endless new plans. Somehow I don’t think the tax cuts can cover all of the stuff they propose. And personally, I’m not in favor of higher taxes, either.
I’ll have to look at the Bush stuff to compare.
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