Asparagus Scones

Thank you so much for all your concern about my ankle! It's feeling wayyy better now. I ended up skipping out on the race Saturday, but I did run about four miles yesterday and everything is feeling pretty legit. Hurray!! I just love all of the support you guys give me (:

Speaking of love, I also love new recipes. And I love brunch, so you can see how yesterday was conducive to my overall happiness. While flipping through the Vegetarian Times cookbook I borrowed from the library the other day, I saw an awesome looking breakfast idea: asparagus scones. And I totally had some asparagus from the farmers market just chilling in my fridge, begging to be scone-ified.

Asparagus Scones

12 oz steamed asparagus

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon raw sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons almond milk

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Preheat your oven to 425° F. Place the asparagus in a shallow bowl with a tablespoon or two of water and microwave for 2 minutes to steam. Remove from the microwave and cut into small ¼ inch pieces. Separate out the tips and put aside for later.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Cut cold butter into small chunks and rub into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Stir in milk and mix thoroughly. Fold in asparagus, cheese, cayenne and pepper.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead a few times. Shape the dough into a ½ inch thick rectangle and then slice into three even strips. Cut each strip into five triangles. Coat a baking sheet in cooking spray and place scones spaced an inch or so apart on it. Brush scones with remaining milk and press asparagus tips into tops.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

I don't even know if it's possible for me to fully describe how delicious these were. They were slightly hot from the cayenne, so add less or none at all if you're not a spicy fan. These bad boys just melted in your mouth! And I'll let you in on a little secret - I totally devour three of these before I even got around to making the rest of my brunch. Shhhh!!

The meal I eventually got around to eating also included scrambled eggs and no, not cantelope - orange watermelon!! I love differently colored foods, it's a weakness of mine. Back home, there was an amish farm nearby that always had yellow watermelon and I stopped by nearly every week to buy one. When I saw this hanging out in the ice at Mustard Seed Market, I just had to snatch it!

fit happenings.

So the Beach Booty Challenge is a go! I've already started working on it, I can't wait to get going - my booty's gonna thank me later (and my bikini lol). I'm having way more fun than I should be picking out items for the Booty Giveaway too. Epic.

I also started my half-marathon training today! I decided to roll with the intermediate training plan from Hal Higdon. He seems to be so highly recommended by everyone. Hopefully this will keep me strength training more than usual as well! Wish me luck little bloggies!

There's still more fitness news, I've added a new event to my line up this year - The Men's Health Urbanathlon! The Urbanathlon is a nine mile run with 7 obstacles dispersed throughout the course, like jumping over taxi cabs, scaling walls and crawling under wire. It is seriously looking sickkkkk. They are having the event in two cities: Chicago and New York. I think I'm going to go to the Chicago arena. This is mainly because a. I've never been to Chicago (gasp!) and b. I'd rather not have to fly to NYC. I'm currently in the process of shaming convincing my boyfriend to participate as well. If anyone else is interested in doing this with me, I would definitely not turn down the company!

I'm off to do some whittling! Of the middle variety, of course. I apologize for not getting back to any blogs/comments - my internet has been having a great time being the bane of my existence, but I have beaten it back to submission and all is well. Looking forward to a good three hours of blog reading later (: