Boringity & Gingerbread Waffles

When I tell people that I'm a runner they often say something to the effect of "I tried running but it was boring." I have to admit, there are times when it is boring to me too. Boringest (yes, I just made up that word) of all is running on a treadmill.

And so I enter winter in Detroit. I've mentioned a couple of times how the weather outside is fittingly frightful this time of year, causing me to retreat to the basement to slog it out on the treadmill. There's not much that I can write about these runs, and if you're a person that doesn't run because of the boringity (yes, that's another made up word) of it, I'm sure reading about running is torture.

So here are some things that I have done to decrease the boringocity (that's three) of running:

- Music: whenever I run outside, and sometimes when I run on the treadmill, I listen to my MP3 player. Music comes in handy for me when I need something to pump me up. Over a long period of time, though, I find it boring because all of the songs on my MP3 player are songs that I know by heart and don't demand my attention. So I start thinking about how tired I am or just start to get bored. Disclaimer: be careful when running while lisening to music, especially loud music. Be especially aware of cars that may or may not see you.

- Audiobooks: My favorite for outside running. Besides running and creating sugar based substances I love to read. With all the demands on my time I rarely have time to read like I would like, so I load books onto my MP3 player and multitask. One drawback is that not just any book will do. They have to be captivating and fairly mindless. Tolstoy will have to wait. I have gone through about a hundred books this way. What am I listening too now you ask? The Life of Pi.

- TV: Obviously only works when running on the treadmill. It helps when something good is on.

- Running partners: Works great for other people. I've already described how I'm not a social runner. (I am, however, a social sugar consumer.)

So, if you've wanted to be a runner but found it boring, maybe give one of these ideas a try. If it's still boring, try skydiving because I hear it's very antiboring (four).

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Since it's just a few days before Christmas I'd better hurry and get all the gingerbread out of my system. There are a lot of complicated recipes for gingerbread waffles out there. This is not one of them. It uses Krusteaz just-add-water pancake mix but any plain pancake batter will work as a base.

Gingerbread Waffles

Ingredients

-3 cups Krusteaz buttermilk pancake mix
-2 cups water
-2 tsp ground cinnamon
-2 tsp ground ginger
-1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
-1/4 cup molasses
-1/4 cup brown sugar
-1 Tbs vegetable oil

Mix all ingedients until combined but still slightly lumpy. Add more water if it is too thick. Cook it up on any ol' waffle iron. I cook them for a fairly long time because I like waffles crispy.

Serve with syrup, especially buttermilk syrup, the recipe for which you can find in another post.

Merry Christmas!