First Post! Recovery Oatmeal Pumpkin Bars

Hello everyone, welcome to my new blog and first post! The past few days in Boston have been so steamy-not optimal running conditions.  I did make it out the past few days, though.  I woke up early in an attempt to beat the heat-which despite my efforts, failed-and ran 9 miles through Jamaica Pond.  I'm looking forward to exploring  my new neighborhood in NY once I move, but the convenience of knowing Boston so well will be missed!

Last night when I got home from a long day outside at the pool with Jackie and Campbell (two wonderful kids I've babysat for the past year), I was in a cooking kind of mood.  I don't know why, it was still ridiculously hot and sticky, but I made some oatmeal pumpkin bars.  I've been making them for a few months now, they're a great recovery food and vegan (I am a vegetarian, and I do flirt with vegan-ism). After a good workout, your muscles are very susceptible to up-taking glucose from the blood and storing it as glycogen within the muscles for later use.  Because of this, it's important that recovery foods are source of simple carbohydrates-like sugar-so that the glucose can be quickly taken up by your muscle cells.  Maximizing the muscle's ability to store glycogen is very important for distance runners especially who go extended periods of time without taking in any glucose.

Oatmeal Pumpkin Bars Recipe:
1 cup oats
1/2 cup canned, pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup softened earth balance soy butter (regular butter would work too if you're not feeling the whole vegan thing going on here)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons milled flax seed
nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon to taste

Soften the butter then combine all above ingredients into a bowl and mash it with a fork.  Add some add-ins like chocolate chips, walnuts or raisins (I used all three).  Press the dough evenly into a greased bread pan and bake at 400 deg F for about 30 minutes.  Once out of the oven and cool, slice into "bars" and wrap in individual foil.  Perfect for a homemade bar on the go or for breakfast-like I just had this morning with a banana and almond milk!