Coconut Key Lime Squares

I've never been so happy to see Thursday than I have this week!  Not that it has felt like a very long week, it's just been a very tiring one!  Coupled with the fact that I spent a long weekend in Buffalo, eating totally healthy food (aka - hot dogs, Buffalo wings and Perry's ice cream), I'm exhausted.  I even missed one of my scheduled runs for my half marathon training plan!  I'd make it up, but I'm tired.

This past weekend I headed to Buffalo for a few reasons.  1. It was my dad's birthday!  We enjoyed local hibachi at Shogun (ONION VOLCANO!) and ate Dessert Deli cake that was more chocolatey than just pouring chocolate syrup in your mouth.  2. Perry's Ice cream invited me to come visit them and eat ice cream!  And they told me I could bring someone.  I brought my dad, because it was his birthday and he loves their ice cream.  I'll talk more about our ice cream factory tour next week, what I want to talk about today is - my long run in Buffalo.

If you have been reading along, you'll know that I'm only three weeks out from my half marathon!  Each weekend I've been making longer and longer runs to help train for my eventual 13.1 miles in central park.  I've run 10K races in the past and never really trained for them.  BF and I ran a Spartan Super last year that wound up being 11 miles, we trained one day for that race and ate crossant sandwiches the morning of the race.  I decided that neither of these tactics would be a good idea for my upcoming half marathon, I wanted to do it right.

Knowing that it was still a little cold in Buffalo, I packed my new running hat and gloves and fuzzy running jacket.  The only thing I wasn't prepared for was snow.  Which it did on Friday, four inches worth of the white stuff.  I headed to my brothers house and used his treadmill for my 4 mile run.  But there was no way I was going to run 8 miles on a treadmill.  It's so boring!

Instead, I mapped my run online, trying to find the right route from my parents house that would give me an 8 mile loop.  It also had to avoid running up the highway overpass near their house.  I decided upon a route that was just longer than 8 miles and crossed only one 4-lane highway.  It was also on a series of roads that I grew up driving down.  I'm very familiar with the roads of my hometown and I know exactly when each road intersects.  This proved an amazing bonus when running.

Saturday morning, around 9:00am, I worked up the energy to go running.  I put on my layers, showed my mom how to track me with her phone, laced up my shoes and hit the road!  I ran past my High school best friends house, my first house that we moved out of when I was 5, my high school and first middle school.  At mile seven I ran past my brothers house and was on the home stretch!  I crossed the highway and my mile tracker called out the completion of my eighth mile.  Unfortunately, I was still a half mile from home.

After running 8.47 miles in 82 minutes and burning almost nine hundred calories, I had no qualms with eating a big slice of cake for dads birthday that night.

One Year Ago: Lemon and Honey Chicken
Two Years Ago: Filled Meringue Coffee Cake

Coconut-Key Lime Sqaures

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living Magazine

I would describe these bars as my perfect dessert.  Sweet, tangy, tropical.  Love 'em.  I wanted to bring these bars to work so I wouldn't eat them all, but I couldn't bring myself to let them leave my house!  These bars are perfect when you want something citrusy, but don't have time to make a lemon curd.

6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup shredded, sweetened coconut
3 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped

3 large eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2/3 cup Key lime juice

Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Coat an 8x8-inch pan with cooking spray, line with parchment paper.  Lightly spray parchment paper with cooking spray.

Combine flour, brown sugar and kosher salt in a food processor, pulse to combine.  Add butter and pulse until the butter is the size of peas.  Add coconut and white chocolate and pulse until just mixed.  Pour into prepared pan and press into the bottom of the pan with your hands.  Bake for 18 minutes, or until golden brown.

Reduce heat to 300 F.  In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar.  Add flour and whisk to combine.  Add Key lime juice, stirring gently to combine.  Pour liquid over the hot baked crust and bake for 15 minutes, or until set.  Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack. 

Remove cookie from the pan with the parchment paper.  Dust lightly with powdered sugar and cut into 1-inch squares.