Hike for ‘the’ Cure name change and update.

Kind of a name change for my charity event. Tracy came across an international charity even with name ‘Hike for a Cure’. So I will name mine Hike for the cure on some things but for the most part it will remain Hike for a cure. I am sure that it will not be that big of a deal. Both groups are working for the same goal and mine is a local scale, where they are on a global scale.

So far the invites are out for the after party on the 15th of September, and it looks like there will be a good turn out, and there are still more people to respond. The training is going well, aside from a small bit of pain we suffered from a long hike as we both got shin splints. It was a combination of being tired and not having a great deal of rest and then attempting a 25km hike.

We have since recovered and have been running and hiking back to a decent distance and pace. This week we are looking at several runs, one 10 to 12km hike and then a 30km hike on Saturday. But the difference being that we will be much more rested.

Good thing is that we actually need to train tired from time to time or at least do back to back long hike. Reason being is that our second day (the Saturday) we will be hiking tired after covering 50km on the Friday. So if we are tired or not we have to get up the sat morning very early 530 to 6am and start hiking all over again.

Great past weekend a little cottage relaxing a 12k hike/run. Made grilled pizza at the cottage and it was rather great. We found whole wheat personal size crusts they work much better on the Q. Much easier to cook with and move around.

Preheat barbeque at 500F. Best way to make grilled pizza -I find- cook your crust on the Q for about 1 min just until it starts to harden a bit, that way the center of your pizza crust has some pre-cooking before all the toppings are tossed one. If you put everything on right away and then put the crust on cold, most of the time the center will not cook.

Reduce heat to about 300F and grill (optional) your veggies just to get charred don’t let them cook fully. We normally put on zucchini, mushrooms, red peppers, red onion, Tracy also puts on light amount of goat cheese and I will use some green olives from time to time -although I try not to as they are extremely salty. I use light old cheddar great for pizza and being light it is not as filling, oily or salted.

Just like with the veggies if you put chicken or meat on, grill any meat till it is still slightly pink -a little longer for the chicken is ok- not fully cooked or it will get tough when it cooks while on the pizza. I like to use low fat turkey sausage or chicken. Add sauce toppings and then cheese.

Reduce heat again to about 200 to 225F and shutoff one side of the grill as you want to cook with indirect heat. Once the bottom starts to brown and crusty and cheese is melting -about 12-15 mins- place on top rack and turn heat back up for last several minutes 2 to 4 depending on how done they are. Placing them on the top rack and cranking the heat will act like an oven’s broil and brown and crisp the cheese.

Now sit back open some wine -a dry red (shiraz) is recommended- or beer something full bodied and/or bitter -Sam Adams is perfect- and enjoy the pizza. These pizzas can be a quick (prep and cooking time max 25 to 30 mins) fun and easy to make, delicious healthy meal. Sticking with the whole wheat crusts, light cheese (go light on the amount as well), and all your favorite veggies, these pizzas are low in calories and are topped with at least a couple of your required daily intake of veggies. Enjoy.