Vegan Protein Bliss Bites

Quick to grab for a snack, light breakfast on the go, tide you over before dinner, or in my case….marathon training, so hunger is constant. There are tons of recipes online for Bliss Bites/Protein Balls/Bliss Balls. Whatever you call them. This is just a slap dash way that I make them, and it’s easy to customize and change the dried fruit, nuts, nut butter, etc based on your preference. Use this as a template!

Ingredients

• 15 dates, pitted (320g) If your dates feel dry/stale, soak them in boiling water for 10 minutes and drain before using
• 80g raw almonds
• 75g craisins
• 60g chocolate chips
• 130 g nut butter
• 46g protein powder I use Orgain vegan vanilla, and this is 2 scoops
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• sprinkle of sea salt
• sprinkle of cinnamon

Tools

• Food processor or high power blender
• Air tight lidded container for storing in fridge

1. Measure and add dates, almonds, craisins, and chocolate chips to food processor. Pulse until rough chopped.
2. Add remainder of the ingredients and pulse until mixture resembles wet sand**
3. Remove from food processor or blender and roll into ball size of your choosing, squeezing at first to get the ball to stick together. I make mine about the size of a 1 tbsp scoop size. Consistency should feel like grainy clay when squeezed and rolled into a ball, and it should easily hold its shape.
4. Store in an airtight container for fridge, if 2 levels of balls is produced put a sheet of parchment paper between them. They can be stored in the fridge for up to 1 week.

**The mixture should appear to be a dry, grainy mix that is fairly evenly distributed. Some nut chunks may be bigger than others, but that’s ok! When you grab a spoonful and roll it into a ball, it should feel malleable and form a ball easily.

**If it is too crumbly, add a splash of water and pulse a few times. If it is too wet, add a sprinkle of any flour of your choosing and pulse a few times.

Lentil Soup for cold winter nights

Soup is so forgiving and so easily customizable. I love this method to use up bits and bobs of things floating in the kitchen that need to be used.

This soup was made on a Sunday night for Monday night dinner, since soup is always better the next day. Adjust ingredients as you need, depending on what you have and what you like.

Lentil Soup

Cooking time – ~ 35 minutes

Servings – 6

We vacuum sealed and froze half of the batch of soup for a future quick dinner

Ingredients

• 2 c. dried lentils
• 32oz vegetable broth
• 4 c. Water
• 1 tbsp. Olive oil
• 4 large rainbow carrots, sliced lengthwise and chopped
• 1 large red onion, chopped
• 4 c. Raw kale, destemmed and chopped
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large Dutch oven, or heavy bottom pot, heat olive oil over medium flame. Add onions and carrots, sweating them until onions are translucent, stirring often. Salt and pepper lightly.

2. Add vegetable broth, water, and dried lentils. Keep flame on medium and stir occasionally.

3. Stir in cumin and cloves and bring to a low rolling boil.

4. After about 15 minutes, or when lentils are almost fully cooked, add kale and reduce heat to low. Cover pot and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 min.

5. Remove from heat. Take an immersion blender and blend very briefly and not uniformly. I plunged the blender in about 4 times on high. This creams up the soup. If you don’t have an immersion blender, let the soup cool for a few minutes and then carefully ladle 2 cups into a blender and blend for 1 minute. Try to get a good mix of lentils and broth. Return blended liquid to soup pot and stir in.

6. Let sit for 5 min to consume that night. Ladle into bowls and enjoy with some crusty bread.

soup days // vegan mushroom cauliflower chowder

We’ve been having quite the blustery few days in the northeast, and all I’ve wanted is some form of chowder. I’m a big soup fan, and continue in my quest to make delicious tomato-free soups. While I love tomato based soups, I feel like they inevitably all taste the same (minestrone-y). This soup is thick and creamy and chock full of flavor and comfort.

Vegan Mushroom Cauliflower Chowder
…………………

Servings – who knows? This yeilded a huge pot of soup, so this can feed a family of 4 for dinner with maybe some leftovers, or you can have a huge pot of soup for a single person for many meals. Soup always gets better after the first day.

Ingredients

Soup base
– 4 cups of vegetable broth
– 1/2 cup of dairy free milk of your choosing (I used original flavored soy milk)
– 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
– 1 large carrot, finely chopped
– 12 oz frozen corn
– 1 tsp. thyme
– 1 tsp. rosemary
– 3 tblsp. flour
– 2 medium yukon gold potatoes, chopped
– 1 bay leaf
– 2 cups of chopped mushrooms (I used white button mushrooms)

Cream base
– 1 lb. cauliflower, chopped and steamed
– 1 can butter beans, drained and rinsed
– 1 cup of dairy free milk of your choosing (I used original flavored soy milk)
– salt and pepper to taste
……………………..

1. Saute the 2 cups of chopped mushrooms with a splash of olive oil, until mushrooms are cooked down, and set aside.
2. In the bottom of a large soup pot, saute onions and carrot with a splash of olive oil until onions are translucent. Add frozen corn, thyme, and rosemary and saute until well mixed together.
3. Add vegetable broth to vegetables and whisk in the flour until mixed thoroughly (no clumps of flour). Stir in soy milk and reduce heat to a high simmer.
4. Add potatoes and bay leaf and allow mixture to come to a low rolling boil, stirring often.
5. Using a blender or food processor (I used a food processor), blend cream soup base ingredients and add to soup base. Stir together thoroughly and reduce heat to a simmer.
6. Simmer soup, stirring often, until potatoes are cooked through. Add mushrooms and let simmer for 2-4 more minutes. Salt and pepper if needed, while in this final simmering.
7. Enjoy with salad or crackers!

 

 

summer food // zucchini muffins

This year has been keeping me more busy than expected, which means it is mid-July and I haven’t yet made any jam. It’s a different busy from last summer, since I have no running races to train for, which means I’m not exactly sure where all my time is going but I am glad it isn’t all going to running insane weekly amounts. Relaxation-Summer-2016 is pretty alright.

In a recent inventory of my freezer, preparing for the upcoming purchase of many bushels of peach seconds and tomatoes and other summer likelies, I discovered a ziplock bag tucked away in back…full of frozen zucchini from the end of last summer. After a defrost and a quick blend in my food processor, I whipped most of the zucchini puree into so many of the most delicious muffins…while drinking coffee and listening to the news before work. Honestly, why don’t I do this more often? I’m not one to usually eat sweet baked goods for breakfast (I prefer eggs or oatmeal, if we’re being specific here), but I’m also not one to turn down a delicious baked good when handed to me (I see you, donuts).

There is nothing earth shattering about these muffins – but I inevitably get asked for a recipe when I post a photo of food on Instagram or Facebook, so here you are. THE most basic zucchini muffins ever.

zucchini puree muffins

yields an approx 2 dozen (that was unexpected!)

• 3 eggs
• 1 c. coconut oil (veg oil works fine)
• 2 c. zucchini puree
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 c. brown sugar
• 2 c. white sugar
• 3 c. all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix together wet ingredients and sugars until well blended. Fold in dry ingredients (sift together if you want. I never do.). Mix until uniform and no lumps exist. Pour into greased or lined muffin tin. Basically, do exactly what you would do with all muffins. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

(I originally baked for 15 minutes and they were still a bit too wet, so I added 5 more minutes. They could have taken a couple more minutes after that, if you like a more overbaked baked good)

Enjoy with a cup of coffee, cold or hot.

cold snap vegan curry

Completely devoid of cooking inspiration last night, a friend linked me to this simple curry recipe. Back in South Philly days, I would make curry dishes all the time so it was a “duh” kind of moment to be reminded that curry is easy, wonderful, and exactly what I wanted on a cold February evening. After a very cold 1 mile run with my dog (she’s getting more used to this being a thing I make her do now, but she still lags behind me a lot), I whipped up this warm wonderful meal.

The recipe is for a chicken curry dish, and so I used this more as an inspiration than a follow-the-recipe experience. I usually have all the ingredients to make curry on hand, so a quick stop at the co-op on the way home was made for a couple of veggies to add to the meal.

 

Adapted from Food 52 (link above) – all modifications below are by me to make this a vegan meal instead of a chicken-based meal.

• 2 tablespoons Canola or Vegetable Oil
• 2 Fresh Garlic Cloves, pressed
  
• 1 Large Yellow Onion, Finely Chopped
• 3 teaspoons Curry Powder
• 2 teaspoons Ground Cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (No Red Pepper Flakes on hand, so I added a couple of dashes of Sriracha)
• 1 teaspoon Ground Tumeric
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 block of extra firm tofu, pressed of water and cut into small cubes
• 1 medium red pepper, chopped
• 1 small zucchini, chopped
• 1 large potato, chopped and boiled (separately)
• 1 small cauliflower, chopped
• 2 teaspoons Tomato Paste
• 1 can Lite Coconut Milk
• Salt + Pepper to taste
• 1 cup Hot Water (optional)
  

1. In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onions, cook for 6-8 minutes or until transparent. Add garlic and cook for 1-2 more minutes.
2. In a separate small pot, boil chopped potato until cooked, drain and set aside.
3. Add tofu, cook until slightly crisped. Add red pepper and zucchini and mix to combine.
4. Stir in cumin, tumeric, 1 teaspoon curry powder, red pepper flakes (or whatever heat you’re using) and salt and pepper- cook for 1 minute. Add tomato paste. Mix to combine.
5. Pour coconut milk into the saucepan. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes, add the rest of spices and adjust if you want more heat or more flavor. Add hot water if there is not enough liquid, because it has cooked down.
6. Add chopped cauliflower and drained cooked potato, mix to combine. Cover saucepan (leaving a little space for steam to be released) and let simmer for 10 minutes or so, until cauliflower is steamed thoroughly.
7. Serve hot with white rice if desired.

 

———————

Running/Muay Thai update – I’ve officially run 11 days in a row now, mostly 1-2 milers and a handful with my not happy about running dog. I had to take a few days off from Muay Thai cause of a shoulder muscle spasm that happened in class last Sunday, but in total trained 9 hours so far this month, not including my run and classes tonight. This is almost the halfway point. Running daily is exhausting, but I’m hoping to make it the full 29 day streak.

february goals

In general, I detest new year resolutions as I like to try to be the best me on any given day, not just because a new year has begun. That being said, this past year has been fairly transformative for me in terms of happiness levels, mental/emotional strength, as well as so many other ways professionally and personally.

When I think about 2015, the things that stick out are the big hitters in terms of change – leaving my job as an environmental consultant and starting a new job, PRing at 2 half marathons, walking into a brand new muay thai gym last March and becoming increasingly in love with it, running a whole helluva lot more than I ever expected or wanted, etc. It’s funny how the things that I think about are all the physical, tangible items, when in reality the biggest hitter of a thing from 2015 is just loving life again, for real, in a most serious and epic way. I’ve made some killer new friends, and strengthened some really important long friendships, disposed of some lingering unproductive emotional baggage, and even when the year vacillates between “things are hard” and “things are magic,” as any year is bound to, I have to say that last year was pretty damn great with a lot of laughter and a good amount of tears.

The holiday season was a little too sugar and boozy filled than I would have preferred, and since then any amount of alcohol in general has been making me wicked depressed the day after. While I’m not a heavy drinker by any means, even just a couple of beers have been kicking my brain down the toilet and making me fuzzy. This, coupled with coming off a year where I managed to cut my running time down by a significant chunk, both in my splits in general and as a long-distance runner, have fueled my desire to be completely and utterly insane this February. The Philadelphia running community is partaking in #runstreakPHL, where you run at least 1 mile every day for 29 days straight. THIS is what I need after basically not running much since tonsillitis-gate of 2015, especially since I have a couple of races coming up, including a half marathon in June where I have a PR goal that I’m going to be attempting. (I’m also using this as an excuse to again try to get my 2 year old border collie mix laziest puppy ever to be into running.) So, in order to really shake things up for myself, and because why not just do everything in extremes, I’m also not drinking at all this month and going to as many back-to-back muay thai classes as possible.

So far, on Day 4, I have had a tough time getting up at 6am because I collapse into my bed in wonderful exhaustion every night. I’m calling that a win so far.

 

 

Race Report – Paine to Pain Trail Half Marathon

This past weekend, I completed my 5th half marathon. It’s strange to say that, since after 5 of these I do not consider a half marathon to be a desirable distance and yet, at the same time, it’s clearly a favorite challenge of mine. I heard about the Paine to Pain Half Marathon earlier in the year, even though 2015 is its 8th year. The starting point is a mere 5 minute drive from my childhood home in New Rochelle, NY, a stone’s throw from Thomas Paine’s farm, and the finish line is on the track of my high school. The race is almost completely run on the linked trail system in Westchester County, and the proceeds go back into funding the upkeep of these trails. SO MUCH TO LOVE about all this, right? And to boot, the logo is the best race logo I’ve ever seen. Did I mention there’s a musket shot to signal the start of each wave of runners?

Needless to say, I was a nervous wreck about this race. I’ve run on trails before, but the longest distance I’ve done is 5-6 miles max. The idea of 13.1 miles on trails was both terrifying and exhilarating. The days preceding the race were fraught with buckets of rain in Philadelphia and New Jersey, as the threat of a hurricane landfall was real. I tracked the weather religiously all week, and the forecast was looking pretty good for the Sunday. Not too hot. No rain. Partly cloudy. The only issue would be if the rain in New York impacted the trails heavily and/or if it was still raining on the morning of. Sunday rolled around and there were barely any muddy spots on the trails – a race day miracle. That just left me with the only real challenge to face – the course was tough.

The musket fired for wave 6, and my stomach was consumed with intense anxiety. I’ve actually never had that much anxiety at a race, so this was a bit scary. As a self-proclaimed nervous and anxious person, I was actually a bit worried that I was going to have an anxiety attack, which I haven’t had in so many years. My heart was pounding, my stomach in epic knots, my face flush, and I was about ready to throw the towel in on the low grade hill up to the trails, not even .25 mi into the race. The first trail section of the course is the Leatherstocking Trail, which I’ve run parts of before. This starts 1 mi down the road from my childhood home, so I would take to the trail a few times over the summer when visiting my parents. I love this trail, but have never taken it all the way to the end – this is where the difficulty lay. My anxiety subsided by the time I got to the trail-head, as my legs warmed up and I remembered that I’ve done this distance before. The course is beautiful and everyone running was so lovely and supportive. I paced behind a woman and her daughter for the first 6 miles or so, and they set a really nice pace. I had started way too fast, so pacing behind these two ladies was great for me to reign it back in a little. Of course, the damage had already been done by the time I hit the technical section of the trails and the hills. I passed the two women and continued on, and blew all my energy reserves before I even hit mile 7.

At this point, water stop 2 of 3, I was emotionally in a very low place. I had to switch to a lot of walking and had a hard time catching my breath. I had consumed some fuel and was saving one Gu for the last third of the course. My legs were tired and there was a bit of left side lower back pain flaring up by this point. I couldn’t get out of my head either, and the spiral of how terrible I felt was going out of control. I wanted to quit, as I waited in the short line at the mile 7 port-o-potty, but knew that I would never forgive myself, so those thoughts quickly turned to 3 miles of “there is no way I can do the full marathon in November. I am the worst at this. I’m never running again.” Low. Really low, guys. I have never felt this low on a run, let alone a race, so I just kept trying to find a new pace buddy ahead of me to keep up with. Around mile 8, the 3 hour sweepers passed me and my heart sank. My big goal of this race was to not be swept, and yet here it was happening at the halfway point. As they passed, and were running right in front of me, I asked them if they were the sweepers. When they confirmed, all I could muster was “well, that’s depressing…” Luckily, something was triggered and I was able to pass them and not see them again for the rest of the race.

Water stop 3, at mile 10.5ish, was a beacon of hope in all this low morning. My mood was able to turn around, I refilled my handheld bottle, and was able to push through and finish strong. My entire family (except my younger brother and sister-in-law) were at the finish line with signs and cheers and hugs and tears. It was heartwarming and wonderful to get that support at the end of the hardest race, to date, and I am so fortunate that they support me and my crazy ideas.

After walking a bit on the track, and grabbing a bagel and drinking 2 bottles of water, I was able to be a bit more cheery about the race. Was it incredibly hard? Yes. Was it an exercise in being way too in my head? Yes. Was it beautiful and fun? Yes. Will I do it again next year? Absolutely.

I learned a lot about my legs and my brain and my running self in this, and have chatted with my running coach about it in the days that followed. All that being said, the rule of thumb is to add 1 minute per mile to your half marathon time for a trail half marathon. My fastest half marathon time is 2:42, from June 2015 at the ODDyssey Half. My time for the Paine to Pain was 2:46 (though, my splits are all screwy on Strava due to fuddy GPS. I’m working on having Strava fix it to be accurate in mileage). So…maybe the reason why it hurt so much is that I’ve gotten so much faster over the summer and hadn’t really put that speed to the test on 13 miles of hills or on trails, and that even though I’m faster I’m still not so great at starting slow and pacing myself smartly. I’m curious to see what my new road half marathon time will be, on the hilly course of the Runner’s World Half Marathon next Sunday. I think it’s safe to say, half marathons are kind of my favorite thing. God knows why.

(Still dreading the full marathon though…)

Race shout-outs – if you are nearby New Rochelle, NY, I totally suggest this race. It’s small and wonderfully organized! All the volunteers were happy and helpful. There were no questions on what the course was, what the waves were, what anything was. It really is a wonderfully handled race. Everyone involved seems to truly love the Paine to Pain Half. Even though I had a rough race, none of that was because of the course or the race organization but rests entirely on the fact that it just wasn’t my day. I’ll be doing this race again in 2016, for sure. You should too. It’s beautiful!

*Thanks to my Mom, my sister, and my Dad for all the photos

the tipping point

Prior to today, I’ve completed 4 half marathons. The longest distance in one go that I’ve ever run is 13.1 miles.

Today I completed 14.5 miles. I’ve officially crossed the threshold that I’ve been thinking about for a long time. Once I cross the 13.1 distance, the full marathon is more real. It’s sort of like the moment I crossed the 50% completed mark, in grad school. At that moment, I knew that I couldn’t drop my program. How can you drop when you’ve gotten than far?

This morning, I woke to 66F with light breezes. I leisurely enjoyed my morning coffee before heading out the door. There was no need to race against the rising sun today – real early fall weather had arrived. The first 9 miles of this run were joyous and dance-like. I didn’t follow my exact path in West Fairmount Park, instead opting to noodle around a bit before taking the road down to West River Drive. Once I hit the Schuylkill River Trail, my pacing fell apart. I’m not sure if it was the distance at that point or the utter boring familiarity of the East Falls Bridge to the Art Museum. I’ve ridden my bike down that section more times than I can count, in my decade in this City. I’ve run that section so many times. This is the second half section of the Philly Marathon and I am not excited for it. Some people like running the same routes and find the familiarity a comfort. I am not those people – I prefer a bit of the unknown thrown in, otherwise it ends up acting like watching the timer on a treadmill (also a boring way to run, in my opinion). I managed to pull it together and run through to the end of the long run, and for that I am thankful and can honestly see major growth in my running life. I started running again 4 years ago in order to push through those mental barriers and emotional walls, and it used to feel harder than it does today. Today, on good days in beautiful weather, even 14.5 miles feels easy.

That’s kind of awesome.

10 weeks to go…

fa·tigue / fəˈtēɡ / noun

15 weeks away from 26.2 miles. I’m burnt. I’m burnt on summer. I’m burnt on heat. I’m burnt on having to eat constantly. I’m burnt on having to run so much. I’m burnt on wanting to sleep all the time. I’m burnt on thinking about it.

fa·tigue

fəˈtēɡ/

noun

1.  

   extreme tiredness, typically resulting from mental or physical exertion or illness.
2.  

   a group of soldiers ordered to perform menial, nonmilitary tasks, sometimes as a punishment.

When I say I have training fatigue, most assume I mean the first. I should probably mean the first, but in my heart I really mean the second. 15 weeks out, I’m wondering what the hell possessed me to decide to do this and why the hell I’m basically already mentally committed to doing this again next year on my birthday, in Anchorage. Ok well really, that one is more about going to Anchorage, but you get my point. I feel fortunate that so many of my friends and loved ones fall into 2 camps – runners who are all “hell yes” about me training for and completing a marathon and non-runners who are all “hell yes” about me training for and completing a marathon. It makes it easy to have such a supportive social network, when usually my excuses for things are “I’m too tired” or “Sorry, I have a long run tomorrow…” or I’m talking about how much I hate running in the heat or how hungry I am all-the-freakin-time. I sound like a broken record that is slowing getting deeper in this hole of mental fatigue. I need to figure out how to change my mindset, but really this is where we are right now. From internet-ing, this is all normal. For me, this is not normal and is indeed a big ole downer on my usual happy life. My weekly runs vacillate between the awesome and the sucky, and therefore my moods are also up and down in direct correlation.

I wonder what life post-marathon will be like. Will my days feel full of empty hours to gloriously do non-running things? Or will I merely find myself hitting the streets for 5+ mile runs for, horror of horrors, the fun of it? Will running have officially replaced some of my more time consuming hobbies? Will I start printing again? Will I actually finish knitting some socks and sweaters that are on my needles? Will I cook elaborate meals that have nothing to do with “fueling” again? Since I’m pretty self aware, I have a feeling I’ll be embarking on a whole new playing field of winter running this year, so in all honesty I should probably start up’ing my winter running gear wardrobe from the 2 items I currently have to maybe 3 or 4 items. I would say that I look forward to running without a mileage goal or a pace goal or a specifically orchestrated calendar balancing running and cross training, but then again I actually like competing against myself with every step of the run. Not sure I can give that up so easily.

All that being said, quiet hours spent watching the sunrise or sunset while having little else to focus on and having to be entirely in the moment, is a pretty great way to pass the time. So I guess there’s that…

Peach-Nectarine Cobbler Long-Distance Running Muffins

A few weeks ago, I hit the wall energy wise and had to re-evaluate my food intake to incorporate more…more of everything really. I eat well, easily and as my comfort zone, but the idea of eating even more was daunting. I feel like I eat all the time as it is. Last time, I tried a batch of pumpkin-cranberry-protein muffins and those were great for grab and go kind of fuel and midday snacks, etc. This time, saddled with a summer cold that forced me to skip my Sunday long run and sleep for 8 hours during the day, I decided to make something a bit more summery to fuel my running for the coming week. While I’m fine using Gu and Clif etc, I prefer real food when possible for fuel. I had picked up 25lbs of peaches from a local farm recently, and still have many pounds to work through, as well as a handful of nectarines that were ready to be eaten. Enter, these muffins of heaven. I want to try these again with a flax egg instead of a chicken egg to see if this recipe holds up with a vegan sub. I’m also curious to see how this taste with plums instead of peaches and nectarines, and also how apples would work in this come autumn time. Chances are, if you show up at my house from now until forever with a bag of coffee beans I will brew us coffee and make you eat muffins with me on my front porch.

Yielded 18 muffins

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup of protein powder (I used a vanilla soy one)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon (more if you like more)
• 1 1/4 cups of vegetable oil
• 2 1/4 cups of fresh peaches and nectarines (peeled and chopped)

Preheat oven to 350F

Beat eggs, oil, and sugar together. Add dry ingredients until uniformly mixed (most would probably suggest mixing dry ingredients together before adding, but let’s be real. I just added them all individually to the wet ingredients and mixed together then). Fold in fresh fruit.

Grease or line muffin tin and fill each most of the way, for a full big muffin top. For smaller muffins, fill 1/2-2/3 of the way full.

Bake for 25 minutes (or until toothpick is entered into a muffin and comes out clean). Let cool for a couple of minutes and then remove from muffin tin to cool the rest of the way on a wire rack.