Not Quite Mashed Potatoes

While its not exactly cold out yet, no one is calling it warm either.

Did the weather get the message about labor day or what? Last weekend, it was sunny and everyone was wearing shorts and sundresses and sunglasses, and on Tuesday, like a light switch, the coats, pants, umbrellas, and ties came out.

Along with a wardrobe switcheroo, it's also time for me to change up my diet. Gone are the days of cold food morning, noon, and night.

It's way too early to be talking about Thanksgiving but in my world, turkey is what they serve next to the mashed potatoes. Not the other way around.

And since, it's way too early to be talking pilgrims and cranberry sauce, I thought why not mash up something else.


Source
Enter the yuca, also known as cassava or manioc. It's a starchy root vegetable, similar to a potato that is grown in tropical and subtropical regions. When cooked, it's reminiscent of mashed potatoes with a sweeter, starchier, and some say slightly more bitter essence. No matter how you describe it's taste, few leave out delicious in their descriptions.


And I decided to use up a little bit of the summer squash I had laying around the apartment in my recipe too.

Yuca and Summer Squash Smashed

1 Yuca root, skin removed and chopped up (see note below)
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup of onions, finely chopped
1 yellow squash, chopped into quarter inch pieces
Sea Salt to Taste
1/4-1/2 cupped of finely chopped dill
2 tbs of olive oil

Cut up the yuca root into small pieces. To shorten the cooking time, I chopped my yuca into 1/2 inch square pieces. Yuca roots are very tough, so I suggest using your sharpest knife and cutting the yuca into several large chunks, cutting the skin off the large sections, and then chopping the sections up into pieces.


Once yuca is chopped up, cover with water about one inch about the yuca, add a dash of sea salt and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat slightly and watch until cooked. My 1/2 pieces only too about 8 minutes. Keep checking the pan by sticking a fork into the pieces, it should be soft and mashable - the same as if making mashed potatoes.

While the yuca is cooking, saute the onions and garlic in one tablespoon of the olive oil. Once caramelized, remove from the heat and set aside. (Make sure to keep garlic and onion pieces similar sized or you will end up with slightly over browned garlic like I did.)


When the yuca is done, drain the water and set aside.


In the same pan, bring 2-3 cups of water to a boil. Add the squash and cook until tender. Then remove from heat and drain.


In the same pan, combine the sauteed garlic and onions, yuca, squash and olive oil and mash the ingredients together. You can do this over heat but be careful as you do not want to cook anything much more.


Once well combined, add the dill and sea salt to taste. Serve and enjoy.

(Since I'm a sucker for spice, I also added 1 chopped jalapeno to my recipe. You could also mix this up and exchange the dill for parsley or cilantro, butter instead of olive oil, zucchini instead of yellow squash.)

How to Eat More Home Cooked Meals

You'd be hard pressed to find a person who doesn't love a home cooked meal. Even the most seasoned diner loves to crowd around the dining room table. So what if if the dishes don't match the cup? Who cares if the wine glasses aren't all the same size, and if you have to sit on a barstool instead of a real chair? Even the taint of doing dishes afterwards can't spoil a real homecooked meal.

But those homecooked meals are not simple feasts for most of us. Grandma's and Mother's make these meals look simple and effortless, but as any budding chef will tell you: these meals often result in a full days effort, plus time to prepare, shop, and clean house.

While I won't discourage anyone from trying their hand at a homespun feast, unless you have hours upon hours of free time every day, such an effort is not only impracticle but almost impossible.



Still, the homecooked meal is not to be forsaken. You can make meals from scratch without spending a boat load of time. Here's how:

(1) Stock up on spices, oils, and keep a few basic ingredients in the house at all times. This way, you will only need to stock up on produce, meat and dairy at the grocery store. I always have:

Condiments:
olive oil
vegetable oil
balsamic vinegar
apple cider vinegar
soy sauce
hot sauce (multiple kinds actually, I'm a sucker for spice)
tahini

Spices:
garlic powder
sea salt
pepper in a grinder
basil
parsley
cumin
oregano
chili powder
corriander
red pepper flakes (mmm, love me some spice)
taco seasoning

Produce/Refridgerated foods:
garlic cloves
onion
limes and lemons

If you eat dairy:
butter
parmesan cheese

Dry goods:
rice - usually a wild rice and a brown/basmati rice
pasta
canned garbanzo beans and black beans
stewed tomatoes
tomato sauce
tomato paste
quinoa
lentils
sesame seeds



(2) Prepare a big batch of grains on the weekend. Pick a grain or two and prepare a huge container to store in your fridge for the week. Try to pick a few recipes which will center around these items.

(3) Cut out cooking. Get creative with your salads and cold recipes. Make salads a bigger part of the meal by adding substantial ingredients such as nuts, avocado, and seeds. This will cut down the need to cook two or three things.

(4) Get a crock-pot and learn to use to it. So many excellent soups, stews, and other recipes can be made on a crock-pot. All you do is dump everything in it, turn it on and go.

(5) Roast vegetables. Cut up vegetables, put them on a pan in the oven along side your meat or protien of choice, pour a sauce on top (or use plain sea salt and pepper), then stick in the over until good smells waft out of the kitchen. (Make vegetables the same thickness as the protein to ensure even cooking times).



(6) Learn the art of stir-fries. Cook your protein, dump a bag of frozen veggies when almost cooked, and then add a sauce at the end. You can buy stir-fry sauces at the store or make one with: 1 cup broth, 3 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs brown sugar, and 1/2 tsp of garlic powder. Add a little water mixed with flour to thicken up the sauce at the end.

(7) Make more casseroles. Dump everything in a pan (or sometimes artfully arrange it), then bake.

Cooking your own meals certainly sounds scary, but that's because we tend to hold ourselves up to our Mother's standards. Give yourself a break! Make your kitchen, YOUR kitchen.

Happy cooking!

Summer Fruit

I love summer, most of all because every piece of fruit and every bite of vegetable is sweet, juicy, tart, crisp, and fresh, fresh, fresh.



You can literally smell the sun and dirt emanating from these fresh tomatoes.



I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the quissential summer fruit is really the tomato. Oh yeah, you thought that was a vegetable? It's ok, I used to think that too.

Sandwiched in a juicy, fresh off the grill hamburger, chopped up with onions, garlic, lime, a jalepeno and served with crunchy tortilla chips, or glistening on a plate with a dollop of fresh mozzerella and basil leaves, the tomato is the perfect center piece to any recipe.



Sure tomatoes get their fair share of air time all year round - ketchup (barely tomato), marinaras, sundried tomatoes, and those pale pink, mushy, measly tasteless things that insist on calling themselves tomatos in the winter.

But nothing compares to the fresh taste of tomatoes in the summer. At first bite, you notice how they are firm, yet utterly tender and juicy. None of the that fuzzy, stuff from the winter that dissolves in your mouth. The summer tomato begs to be chewed slowly, with eyes closed and a blissful smile.



There are so many ways to enjoy tomatoes, and I'm sure you already have a few tricks up your sleeves. If you are one of those people who can't stand tomatoes, I beg you to give the freshest, ripest, redest ones from your farmer's market or gourmet grocery store a try again. You might be surprised by what a *real* tomato tastes like.

One of my favorite ways to enjoy tomatoes is in a salad. Here's an untraditional take on a summer salad.

The Red Salad



2 large fresh red tomatoes, I used Roma tomatoes in this recipe
2 cups watermelon, chopped in bite size cubes
1 cup strawberries, halved)
1/4 cup feta (I used a feta made from sheep's cheese
Balsamic vinegar to taste
Sea salt to taste
1/4 cup mint, chopped

Mix all ingredients, except vinegar and salt together. When ready to eat, add the balsamic vinegar, salt if necessary (the feta will add salt, so add to your taste. I like my food salty to usually add more even with feta). This salad is best made 1-2 hours before eating.

How to Make a Good salad

If the were one staple in my diet, it would be the salad (ok,you got me on this...and coffee). I eat a salad almost everyday for lunch, and sometimes for dinner too.



If this sounds like punishment, then you have been going about the salad all wrong. Salads don't have to feel like rabbit food. In fact, a salad can be downright unhealthy if laden with cheese, creamy dressing, fried protein options, or even if you skip the obvious culprits and load up on avocado, beans, corn, and nuts.

To make a delicous salad and keep it healthy too, there are a few simple components too keep in mind.

The Base



The base of a salad will typically be a leafy green of some type, but don't feel obligated to pick a lettuce, as cucumbers, beets, beans, grains, and just about any neutral tasting vegetable can work. Head lettuce is not the go to lettuce either. Romaine makes a nice substitute, but I prefer some of the more exotic lettuces such as arugula and mache.

Don't use the same lettuce everyday for your salad or you will get bored. I try to use two bases a week. This week, it's kale and spinach.

Crunchy Ingredients



I'm not sure you can call something a salad if it doesn't crunch. Carrots, radishes, roasted nuts, cucumbers, jicama, peppers, cabbage, and apples have major crunch factor plus lots of nutrition. The crunch doesn't have to come from produce. Asian noodles, crunched up tortilla chips, or even a crispy protein option could work, but be aware that those options can pack extra calories and should be balanced out with lighter dressings and healthier creamy options.

Creamy Ingredients



Creamy doesn't mean cream-based; it means melty, smooth options which add substance and depth to the salad. My go to options are avocado, beets and white or red beans. Sometimes, the creaminess comes from the salad dressing such as when I make a tahini-based salad dressing.

If the creamy option is a dairy product, that's perfectly fine too, as long as the portion is reasonable and it's balanced out with the other ingredients. As a rule, it might be good to allow only one salad "fun" ingredient is allowed per day. "Fun" foods might be fried onions, croutons, cheese, extra nuts, or ranch dressing for example.

Protein



Grilled chicken, if you are a lover of grilled chicken, is the death of a many a healthy salad. Look it's perfectly healthy and a good source of protein. I'm not saying you shouldn't eat grilled chicken anymore. But cold grilled chicken on a bed of cold vegetables is just not appetizing to me.

Protein in the salad can come from so many sources: beans, tofu, nuts, chopped up veggie burgers, diced cold cuts, tuna, and the aforementioned chicken, just to name a few.

Salad Dressing

The salad dressing brings everything together. In my opinion, it's the missing link. I experiment with my dressings almost daily and when I hit upon a great combination, I look forward to the salad all day long.

The best salad dressings are homemade, but there are a lots of amazing store brands out there too. My favorite salad dressing is a combination of vinegar and oil. I use more vinegar than oil, but most people prefer equal amounts. Try adding a pinch of sugar or a little water if the vinegar taste is too strong.

Set a Theme

The best salads work because all the ingredients compliment each other. Not sure what vegetable compliments which nut? Me too. Instead, I look to other food combinations to come up with my salads.



Do you like pizza? How about spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, caramelized onions, croutons, a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and a basil vinaigrette?

Or do you like Mexican food? Then put your favorite taco fillings in a salad, forget the sour cream and cheese and make a vinegar and oil dressing but use lime juice in place of vinegar.

Finally, if you are still don't think you can put together a yummy salad, keep these rules in mind:

Make the salad colorful. The richer the colors, the more chock full of nutrients the salad will be. Plus, food that looks good, tastes better.

Dress the salad right before eating. The acid in vinegar breaks down vegetables and will cause a salad to wilt and lose it's crunch factor by the time you get around to eating it. So carry the salad dressing in a separate container if you are bringing it for lunch.

If you are using a really fibrous vegetable, dress the salad a few hours before eating. I know I just said to wait until right before eating, but ingredients like kale and broccoli are just too tough to eat raw. However if they marinate for a few hours, they will end up the perfect texture.

Now here's a Kale Salad I put together for lunch this week:



3 cups Kale chopped into bit size pieces
6 baby carrots
5 radishes
1/2 cup white beans
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 an Italian sweet pepper, sliced

Dressing:
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tbs water
1 tbs olive oil
Pinch of salt and pepper
Sprinkle (one or two shakes from the container) of garlic powder

Chop up the carrots and radishes in the food processor.




Mix everything together and enjoy! Because this salad is full of kale, add the dressing immediately and then wait to eat. I made this in the morning before work and ate it for lunch, so it marinated for about four hours.

The Keyboard is Fixed and Vegan Kale Chips

Finally, I’m back!

I bet you thought that I was kidding about being back to writing my blog in January and that it was just another New Year’s Resolution that had finally lost its steam. Not quite.

Actually, what happened is that one cold, grey Sunday – you know the type, where all you want to do is curl up on the couch and watch your favorite movies and snack on comfort food your mom didn't let you eat as a kid – I woke up to find that a few select keys on my keyboard didn’t work. Miraculously, my computer password doesn’t use any of those keys so I was able to log in but I couldn’t type in ‘gmail’, ‘Amanda’, ‘google’, or ‘nymag.’

As one of my friends on Facebook pointed out, this wasn’t nearly half as bad as Egypt (unless you count the emotional turmoil I felt inside by not being able to check my favorite blogs (blocked at work), facebook (also blocked at work), and generally the fact that I have to do work at work….how unfair!). But I felt unhinged and bored nonetheless. Oh yeah, didn’t you know? I don’t have cable TV. So my computer is not only my link to the world wide web, but my DVD player, my Netflix and my DVR. I do have basic cable but I can only watch so many reruns of Seinfeld and Two and Half Men (take notice CBS), before you just need to do something.

So what did I do? Well, I took to the kitchen and made like a Top Chef. I made vegan kale chips, granola bars, spaghetti and garlic bread, a Thrive pizza, vegan pesto, and a bunch of new salad combinations. The best part about the week is that I finally crossed a huge threshold that has been staring me down for the better part of four months.

Nutrional Yeast. EWW, right? Yes, it does sound gross, but seriously get over it right now, because cheese is moldy milk, beer is fermented wheat and mushrooms are fungi. It’s yeast that is grown on molasses and unlike the yeast used in bread, it is not alive or active. When you buy it from the store, it comes in light yellow flakes and is almost odorless.


But the best part about it is that it melts and tastes like mild cheddar cheese, and it’s chock full of vitamins. One serving (3 tablespoons) has more than your daily recommended allowance of B-1, B-2, B-3, B-6, folic acid, and B-12, plus nine grams of protein, five grams of fiber, and only eight calories. Sounds like a power food if ever one were to exist. I used the nutritional yeast in Averie's vegan kale chips recipe, which also included a ton of cashews. It didn’t quite come out looking the same way and I think its because I used the food processor instead of the blender. The second time I added a dollop of tahini because I heard that goes well with nutritional yeast, but the flavor was a bit too powerful for me.

So don’t be afraid. Try them! And if you still can’t get your mind around nutritional yeast, then get your fabulous behind to a health food store and buy some and try some. Trust me, you will be surprised that vegetables can be so deliciously bad.

I'll have the burger, raw

When I decided to try raw food, I knew that I wouldn't last on fresh fruit, carrot sticks and salads. That would feel way too much like a diet. And I don't do diets. But that's exactly how I ate the first time I went raw, and I passed most of the time with a pain in my stomach - either because I was starving or from all that roughage.

I had started googling raw foods and recipes a week earlier to see what was out there. A lot of raw recipes call for time consuming steps such as dehydrating and marinating, but the ingredients were surprising simple and readily available. The odd ingredient or two out there - such as miso or nutritional yeast - were still readily available and inexpensive. Vegan recipes cannot boast such things.

Since this was only a week long experiment, simplicity was the name of my game. So I axed any recipe that called for dehydrating, soaking or marinating. I also took to using the daily plate to keep track of the nutrition in the food as well.

The first raw recipe I went for came from a very familiar source. I read the vegan nutrition book by professional triathalete Brendan Brazier this summer and I loved his simple recipes and his "recovery" theory on improving performance. Brendan inspired me to quit coffee (something that I love with all my heart and soul), and many of his recipes were raw or had the option to be made raw. So I knew that my first recipe would have to come from an old friend that I could count on.I went for a recipe that was basically devoid of the crazy supplements he loves to add - such as the seaweed dulse or hemp protein powder and chose the simple Almond Flaxseed Burger. Just six ingredients, all already part of my kitchen staples, and one simple step - blend in food processor. The only substitution I made was to replace the balsamic vinegar with rice vinegar, as I had just run out.

The burgers came out awesome and each bite was an explosion of flavor. Processing all the ingredients together gave the burger a nice, sticky and slightly creamy texture that made the recipe seem, well not quite cooked, but not raw either. My only criticism on this recipe is that the garlic taste was quite strong, so if you just have a hot date the next day, I would suggest cutting the garlic in half.

I'm not interested in getting in trouble for posting recipes that belong to someone else so I can't post the recipe on my blog, but lucky for you one of the blogs I love to read, No Meat Athlete, has the recipe to share.

And with that first raw recipe, I was converted. I had imagined the raw food as a punishment for my holiday indulgences, and that the pain and suffering, the gnawing in my belly, was penance for all those Christmas cookies. At the end of the week, I imagined that I would emerge delirious and light-headed, but no longer hungry because the sensation had become de rigueur. Instead, after only day one, I was energized and (dare I even suggest it?) excited to eat more raw food.

If only cleaning up after all my other indulgences and extravagances was this much fun.

Ready, Set, Go

As anyone who has ever spent months upons months preparing for one big day, a few miniscule moments of life, knows, when the countdown can be kept in hours, rather than days, mixed feelings abound.

From food choices to my social calendar, for the last five months everything has been organized around a training regime. It started out as a chore. A chore whose results I desired, but whose tasks I did not enjoy nor really mind. It was simply a part of my life to be tolerated, much like brushing my teeth. But over time, toleration turned into adoration.

The logical assumption is that running thirty plus miles a week has flooded my body with so many endorphins that it was just a hangover from the "runner's high." Perhaps that is part of the answer, but the real cause of this love affair with running is this blog. Finally putting pen to paper (ehh, fingers to computer) and expressing all the crazy thoughts that come to me when running, turned out to be the x-factor in this marathon training plan. Just as much as I have enjoyed conquering each mile, I have loved sharing my experience.

But all good things must come to an end, and the marathon is right around the corner. After the marathon, I will post once more to recap the marathon and then I will plan on signing off until next marathon training season. But before I head out to Philadelphia for the experience of a lifetime, I wanted to share (once more) my favorite blog posts and the story of my blogging/running experience. Read through them once more and then lace up your shoes, and do something that you always wanted to do but never thought you could do.

Here's my first real blog post: Waking Up and Working Out. It's by no means the best one, but it's my first and thus that makes it special.

I had written Central Park Jogger long before I actually typed it out. Central Park brings so many runners together and those runners put all of my excuses out of business. If they can do it, so can I.

Mid-summer I changed jobs, and this inspired a story about quitting a run. Quitters is one of the first times I tried to draw a parallel between life and running. It's right around this post that I finally found my blogging voice and started to love the blogging as much as the running.

Is it hot in here or what? represents my second foray into drawing a parallel between life and running. This time I tried to show how running through the second hottest summer in New York helped me reconnect with my sixteen year old self. Corny? Maybe, but then again the heat makes me do crazy things.

By the end of September, my love affair with marathon training was in full swing and this post was my attempt at trying to get others to drink the Kool-aid. For the love of the run might be my favorite.

October brought some pre-marathon anxiety and worry, but these were quickly resolved when I volunteered to help at NYRR's Grete's Great Gallop Half Marathon and then I shared my story in Plus One, Minus One Wall.

And now, I'm off to Philadelphia to run twenty-six point two miles.

Vegetarian Sources of Protein

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a hardcore vegetarian. I’ll have the occasional steak or sushi roll when the mood strikes me – mostly when I’m dining out or back home in Michigan. But by and large, I eat a vegetarian diet. These choices are motivated by health concerns: many cuts of meat are high in saturated fats and cholesterol. And by lifestyle choices: meat based meals provide almost no immediate running fuel. Meat is also harder to digest than plant products and therefore consumes more energy to extract nutrients.

My muscles still need their protein though, and tofu can get to be pretty boring. Not to mention the fact that there is conflicting information about whether or not excessive amounts of soy protein are beneficial or harmful. Thankfully, there are so many other sources of protein available these days and the health food store around the block from my apartment carries many of these options. Here’s a list of my main sources of protein – supplemented with the weekend treat of a steak.

Quinoa-Oh, how I love thee. I’ve already waxed and waned poetic about my love for quinoa and even shared a recipe on it. 1 cup cooked quinoa has 254 calories, 4 grams of fat, 47 grams of carbs, 9 grams of protein, and 4 grams of fiber.

Tempeh-A protein made out of fermented vegetables or grains, it has a chewy, hearty texture and it tastes mild but a little nutty. It’s good in stir-fries, or toasted up in a pan with a little oil and salt. It’s nutrional profile is pretty awesome which I why I tolerate it. Half of a package has 240 calories, 11 grams of fat, 16 grams of carbs, 20 grams of protein, and 9 grams of fiber.

Nuts-Walnuts, almonds, pecans, and cashews are my favorite and I get my fill by adding them to salads, pasta dishes or alone in trail mixes. One ounce of almonds (about 24 nuts) has 170 calories, 15 grams of fat, 5 grams of carbs, 6 grams of protein, and 3 grams of fiber.

Seeds-My favorites seeds are chia seeds, sesame seeds, flaxseeds and sunflower seeds. I eat them like nuts, except for chia seeds which I use in a whole different way. I add chia to smoothies, in baked good recipes, and I make chia gel and use it as a substitute for oil. One tablespoon of chia seeds has 69 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, 6 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein, and 5.5 grams of fiber.

Peas-Cooked peas can only go so far in life. They taste delicious but with their distinct flavor cannot be used often. However, I am addicted to the Trader Joe’s Wasabi Peas. It’s a bit of a splurge, but the sharp wasabi flavor helps temper the appetite. One quarter cup of TJ’s Wasabi Peas has 120 calories, 3 grams of fat, 19 grams of carbs, 4 grams of protein, and 1 gram of fiber.

Seitan-A vegetarian protein made out of the gluten of wheat, it has a meat like texture and taste. It’s hard to make and so I never make it, but once in a while I get it at a restaurant. Three ounces of seitan has 130 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, 8 grams of carbs, 20 grams of protein, and no fiber.

Ancient grains-Wheat berries, farro, and spelt are ancient grains served still in their husks. They have a chewy texture and nutty taste that complement salads. You can now buy pastas, crackers, cookies and more baked goods made from these flours and providing a more attractive nutrition profile. Half a cup of farro has 200 calories, 2 grams of fat, 52 grams of carbs, 8 grams of protein, and 7 grams of fiber.

Hemp seeds-My current protein powder of choice, the taste of hemp is nutty but a little bit off. It also is bright green and imparts this color on everything. That being said, it’s has Omega-3’s and Omega-6’s and is a great source of protein. Four tablespoons of hemp protein powder has 120 calories, 3 grams of fat, 14 grams of carbs, 11 grams of protein, and 14 grams of fiber.

Keen-Wa!

In my quest to eat healthier and increase protein, I’ve been experimenting with more obscure grains. Things like spelt, wheat berries, quinoa and amaranth. They taste like a cross been a pasta and rice, with more texture than plain old pasta. The most attractive aspect of these grains (and sometimes they aren’t even actually grains but seeds) is their rich nutrient profile.

One cup of cooked quinoa contains approximately 227 calories, 5 grams of fiber, 8 grams of protein and 4 grams of fat. Best of all, it provides a complete protein because it contains all the essential amino acids. Essential amino acids are needed by the body but must be obtained through food. It is difficult to find complete proteins outside of animal foods, which makes quinoa even more special.

I love quinoa. The texture is slightly creamy but also a little crunchy, and it has a taste somewhere between whole wheat pasta and an almond. I’ve been trying to find new ways to eat quinoa and Quinoa with Tahini Dressing is my latest development. It blends the flavors of falafels with the nutrition of quinoa. I had it for lunch yesterday and the whole time I was eating, I was wishing my lunch would never end.

I adapted this recipe from 101cookbooks.com and basically just trimmed the fat in the dressing and replaced cilantro with parsley. I bought the parsley by mistake because I was tired and in a rush at the grocery store, but it really enhanced the Middle Eastern flavors rocking this dish so I’m happy with my choice. Feel free to try either herb, depending on your preferences. Also, if you go with the parsley, I think tomatoes and cucumbers would complement the dish very nicely.

Quinoa with Tahini Dressing

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 can garbanzo beans, or dried equivalent
½ cup parsley, chopped
¼ onion, chopped

Tahini Dressing:
1 garlic clove, smashed and chopped
¼ cup tahini
Zest of ¼ lemon
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
½ cup hot water
Sea salt to taste

Fill pan with warm water and add quinoa to soak for about 8 minutes. Then rinse the quinoa in a fine-meshed strainer. In a medium saucepan heat the quinoa, sea salt and the 2 cups of water until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until water is absorbed and quinoa fluffs up, about 15 minutes. Quinoa is done when you can see the curlique in each grain, and it is tender with a bit of pop to each bite. Drain any extra water and set aside.

While the quinoa is cooking make the dressing. Whisk together the garlic, tahini, lemon zest and juice, and water. Add the salt to taste.
Toss the cooked quinoa, beans, parsley, red onion, and half of the dressing. Add more dressing if you like and season with more salt to taste. Serve garnished with a bit of parsley.

Serves 4 as a side or 2 as a small meal.

Here's a link to the original recipe: Lemon-scented quinoa

Asian Style Vegetable Lettuce Wraps

Back in college, my roommate and I took a roadtrip to the luxury mall Somerset. After our taxing shopping trip, we decided to grab dinner at one of the mall restaurants, P.F. Changs. Our waiter recommended that we try the chicken lettuce wraps. He assured us that it was very popular and so we agreed despite the then-foreign-combination of cold lettuce and chicken. One hour later, I was sold on the delicious combination of hot stir-fry wrapped in a crisp cool lettuce leaf. It was perfection defined.

This past week, my little sister came to New York and I decided to cook her dinner. What better thing to make for her, than those chicken lettuce wraps! I decided to make my meal vegetarian, but you can substitute chicken or pork or tofu crumbles with the same results. Also, I made it with a plum sauce for dipping, but this didn't go over too well. I think a better compliment would be some sort of vinegar or soy-sauce based sauce. I've include a few links to dipping sauces to check out. Also, you can just add plain soy sauce as well.

Asian Style Vegetable Lettuce Wraps

1 cup frozen stir-fry vegetables (mine had carrots, broccoli, sugar snap peas, mini corn, mushrooms, and water chestnuts)
1/2 cup chopped bambo
3/4 cup chopped raw cashews
1/4 cup water chestnuts
1 tsp ginger, diced
1/2 tsp of ginger
8 leaves of lettuce - you can use the traditional head lettuce, or any other large leaf type you like. I used bibb lettuce when I made it.

Sauce ingredients:

1.5 tbsp Hoisin sauce
1.5 tbsp soy sauce
1.5 tbsp dry sherry (I substituited champagne vinegar)
3 tbsp water
1.5 tsp sesame oil
1.5 tsp sugar
3 tsp cornstarch

To begin, mix all sauce ingredients together and set to the side.

Heat up frozen stir fry vegetables in a non-stick pan until mostly unfrozen. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

If you can't find chopped cashew nuts, then buy whole nuts and chop them by placing in a plastic bag and pounding them with a pan until crushed. Add the cashews to a pan with 1/2 tsp seasame oil and toast the nuts. They should turn a little brown, and some of the smaller crumbs will turn an even darker color. Watch these and stir frequently. Once the nuts are done, turn off the heat on the stove but leave in the pan.

Take the now cool stir-fry vegetables and chop them up finely. Then turn the heat back on for the cashews, and add the vegetables, bamboo shoots, ginger, and water chestnuts. Stir-fry until all ingredients are warm.

Then add the sauce, and serve with fresh washed lettuce. Makes about six wraps.

For dipping sauces, try these recipes:

Ginger & Lime dipping sauce
Basic Spring Roll Dipping Sauce
Soy Sesame Dipping Sauce
Vietnamese Spring Rolls Dipping Sauce

Happy Meal?

When I ventured out to New Jersey for "the wedding", I did something that I don't usually do when I'm in the city. I ate at McDonalds. Like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, the scent and taste of a meal from Micky D's transports me back to my childhood, when happy meals were a special treat.

Now that I'm grown up and eating on my own tab, I rarely go for the $5 meal anymore. It's quite possible that I may never venture through the golden arches again after spotting this art project.

Recipes

To be honest, I'm not much of a cook. It's not that I don't like cooking or that I can't make a decent meal; it's simply that there is not enough time in the day to dice and sautee, stir-fry and roast. Most days, by the time I get home from work, I am one hungry girl with absolutely no desire to wait for more food.

There is just no sense in pretending that I'm a gourmet cook, when I'm already spending so much of my energy being a blogger, runner, accountant, friend, sister, and daughter. So instead I will share my homemade meals made from frozen vegetables, canned food, prepared sauces, and fresh produce. All which take me less than 15 minutes to make, cost relatively little and are healthy. One more thing too, it's almost all vegetarian and most of it is vegan.

What's wrong with meat and dairy? Nothing, if you can afford the organic, hormone free, antibiotic free stuff. But if you can't, I think it's better to abstain as much as possible. There are plenty of sources of protien out there, and it doesn't have to come from tofu either.

So without further ado, here's today's lunch:

Lemon-pepper green beans:

2 cups frozen Haricot green beans
1 tsp Extra virgin olive oil or butter
1 tbs lemon-pepper
Salt, if your lemon pepper doesn't have any added (Mine is from Trader Joe's and it has salt in it)

Steam the beans for 3 minutes, or rinse with hot water for a few minutes. Add lemon pepper, oil or butter and salt to the drained beans. To serve, simply heat up in the microwave for a minute.

I enjoyed this with a quinoa salad that I bought from Dishes.

Enjoy!

Keeping Myself Accountable

The nice thing about training for a marathon is that I burn about 3000 extra calories a week. To put that in perspective, that's roughly 20 scoops of vanilla ice cream, your own pie of New York cheese pizza, or 15 bottles of Pepsi.

I don't use the excessive calorie burning as an excuse to forget everything I've ever learned about eating healthy, but I definitely indulge and don't stress over it. Recently, I have discovered that most runners have a weight where they run their fastest times. This weight is somewhere around a BMI of 18 for men and 19/20 for women, and depends on each individual.

My current BMI is nowhere near that number. It's somewhere in the mid-20's (I don't have to tell you people everything, ok!), but I have no doubt that taking it down will increase my speed. Just last week, I bought a new pair of tennis shoes which were mere ounces lighter than my old shoes and I immediately noticed a difference. So what would fifteen pounds lighter feel like? Probably, really fast.

How in the world am I going to shed a few more pounds? I can’t exercise more – that’s for sure. (I can definitely work-out better but that’s another post for another day.) What I can do, is eat less. What I can’t do, is trust myself to eat less. In order to really consume fewer calories, I need to keep myself accountable and monitor my intake.

Here are some of the ways that I have tracked my daily calorie intake over the years. Everything is free too unless otherwise noted.

Fitday.com

Pros: It’s easy to use and to record accurate consumption because it allows you to choose from many different types of measurements – ounces, cups, teaspoons, if relevant, slices, and for certain items like produce there are options such as medium banana 7 inches long or large banana 9 inches long. Also, it has cool reporting tools like a pie chart showing the breakdown of calories by fat, protein, and carbohydrates.

Cons: The food options are plentiful but they are missing a lot of name brands and prepared dishes. I found Special K but couldn’t find: Luna Bars, Cliff Bars, wasabi peas, and pad thai. I had to create a lot of custom foods to make this site work. Also, it doesn’t allow you to record meals by meal time which can get a little disorganized.

Bottom line: If you cook for yourself a lot, then this might work for you if you have the time and patience to enter in the nutrition information from the foods you are eating or to hand select all the ingredients of your meal. But that’s a whole lot of if’s, so buyer beware.

Livestrong’s The Daily Plate

Pros: Every imaginable food option, brand and combination. I have yet to not be able to find something. I even went through a list of Indian recipes and was able to pull up every single one of them! The site also has lots of graphs and tracking tools to help you figure out how many calories you should eat in a day and how many calories your workouts burn.

Cons: It’s a bit slow and it doesn’t search for food items if you put a space after the last word in the search box. I also had a hard time navigating the site and figuring out how to do things. It wasn’t intuitive as the other two tools, but again, once you figure it out, does that really matter?

Bottom line: This is great for everyone, especially if you eat out a lot or eat a lot of prepared meals. If you won’t take the time to fill it out daily, then the slower than normal search function will not let you easily catch up if you are a day or few meals behind.

Calorie Counter by Fat Secret (the Blackberry application)

Pros: This site also boasts a huge database of foods – prepared and brand names, and on my Verizon Blackberry it works pretty quickly. I figured out how to use the app almost immediately and haven’t encountered any major problems. Plus, it has been so easy and fast to use that I can quickly enter in data.

Cons: If you eat a lot of ethnic foods, then this might not work. There are options but they are limited and so may grossly over or understate the nutritional content. That said, all major food chains, brands, and restaurants are on the app. (The Daily Plate has a Blackberry app you might want to check out but given their technology glitches on the website, don’t blame me if the app disappoints. It will also cost you $2.99 a month.) The design is utilitarian and offers no extra reporting and analysis tools. For example, I have to manually compute my percentages from fat and protein.

Bottom line: Good for anyone on the go and my personal weapon of choice. So far, it’s been pretty good to me. Also, it's available for iPhones and Droids as well.

I’ve only been tracking my food and diet for two days this week and already I figured out that the serving of Mexican Caesar dressing that I had was a whopping 620 calories and 67.8 grams of fat, bringing my lunch up to a staggering 1244 calories. I was able to keep daily calories under 2000, but imagine all the other food I could have enjoyed had I just gotten vinaigrette. My calories from protein are in the 15% range both days, which is about 10% lower than my goal. I'm already trying to incorporate more protein in my meals.

A few more weeks of this calorie counting business and I hope to be able to safely trim down my waistline and dial up my speed. It’s always worked for me in the past and it allows me to indulge without going over total daily calories. Whether your goal is to lose weight or speed up, keeping track of calories is the most important step in achieving a smaller number on the scale.

No Time For Cooking

Do you feel like cooking? Nah, me neither. So then what to do about that little monster in your stomach that is grumbling, "Feed me."

Feed him already! When I am too exhausted from work or just have an empty fridge, I like to order in. While there is no debate that cooking for yourself is the best way to eat healthy because you control the ingredients, sometimes that just isn't an option.

So when heating up soup is just too tiring (yes, that actually happens to me), I like to order in. Whenever I eat out, I always figure I’m going to be consuming a few more calories than usual but I also have learned that I can limit the extent of my indulgence and still feel fully indulged. Here’s what I order at a variety of restaurants.

Thai: Go for the wok or stir fry options and forgo the rice. I think Thai places prepare some of the best tofu dishes around, so if are feeling adventurous get tofu in your stir-fry one day. Otherwise, go for chicken or shrimp. Start with steamed dumplings.

Chinese: Hot and sour soup makes a great first course with a meal of steamed vegetables, the protein of choice, and garlic or brown sauce. You won’t feel like you are eating healthy at all. Again, skip the rice, or eat just a few spoonfuls.

Japanese: Sashimi, sashimi, sashimi! If you don’t like sashimi, have any rolls that doesn’t have tempura or crunchy in the name, plus avoid the spicy stuff. Most places make the spicy sauce with mayo. For an appetizer or starter, miso soup AND a green salad are super healthy and very delicious.

Italian: Oh, how those Italians love their cheeses and olive oil. Here my suggestion is to go for a meat, and not a pasta dish. Avoid, breaded and battered meats, and try out the vegetarian options. Eggplant parmesan will leave you satisfied – it will typically be low in calories but high in fat. A nice trade-off if you are craving Italian. Don’t forget a delicious appetizer of fresh tomato, mozzarella, and olive oil in the summer. Any other time of year, those tomatoes just won’t do the recipe justice.

Mexican: Vegetarian fajitas sans the sour cream but plus the guacamole. For an appetizer, chips and salsa are great as long as you don’t have too many chips. Load the salsa up on those chips and fill up!

Indian: Try chole, a chick-pea curry, Aloo Gobi a delicious cauliflower curry, and anything vegetarian and cream free. Indian food is ooh so yummy but the food available in restaurants is saturated with cream, so here I suggest sticking to vegetarian and dairy free options, and eating the rice sparingly. Finish off your meal with rice pudding or a mango lassi.

American/Diner: Go for the veggie burger if you need to spoil yourself. These are so delicious, full of fiber and protein, and way less in calories than the carnivorous options available. Surprisingly, a BLT is a pretty healthy as long as the mayo is kept in check. A Rueben is a good option as long as you ask for Thousand Island dressing on the side. Try the broth-based soups or a garden salad to start. If you like breakfast anytime of the day, try an egg-white omelet, but hold the cheese please.

Middle-Eastern/Lebanese: I love a good falafel but those little balls of yumminess are fried, so if you must have falafel, go for the platter and forget the pita. Take full advantage of the appetizers and have some hummus (without pita please), any eggplant salad, or one of their delicious vegetable appetizers. Just watch out for tahini…while delicious, it is like an oil, and so it’s best if you can control the amount of it in your food and ask for it on the side.

Greek: Start with dolmas or any one of their salads – just ask for the dressing on the side. Even if you pour the whole dressing on your salad, it’s probably less than they’d add otherwise. Or try the yogurt and dill salad, tzatziki. For a meal, there are so many options just go for the protein based meals and look for words like grilled and sautéed. I personally would mix a few of the side salads together and call that a meal.

The basic point is this: when eating out, avoid carbohydrate based dishes - like pasta or fried rice. They just add so many calories on top of the oil and butter the restaurant industry uses to make its food yummy. Then look out for words that indicate a ton of butter or dairy products are included. Avoid: cream, cheese, battered, breaded, fried and look out for words like roasted, steamed, grilled, poached, and sautéed. Stick with poultry and seafood dishes, and don’t be afraid to inquire about the makings of a dish. Or google the recipe, if you are ordering in, and see what the most common ingredients are in a few dishes.

Most importantly though, if you are eating out, enjoy it and don't stress out about how you've messed up your diet. Instead, what I do is either run a little bit more or eat a little bit less the next day.

Burrito with Chipotle “Mayo”

Don’t be afraid of the uncooked burrito! Do you like bean dips? Do you like those really tasty multi-layered taco dips that one of your uncles always brings to family parties? So then you’re already eating the makings of a cold burrito, just rearranged differently. Turning on a stove is torturous on certain days, but sometimes you need a real meal. This burrito filled me up, made me feel like I was having a treat, and took all of 20 minutes to “cook.”

I adapted this from a sandwich recipe. The original one calls for adding all the ingredients to pita bread, but I’m not a huge fan of pita and I already had whole wheat tortillas in the house. I also changed the “chipotle mayo” so that it’s lower in fat too. I skipped the cheese because the “mayo” added enough flavor for me, but feel free to add or subtract the cheese to your taste (and your diet - it will add an extra 100 or so calories and about 6-8 grams of fat). It’s a nice touch, but it definitely won’t make or break it. Fresh corn would also make a nice addition if you have some on hand.

Ingredients

½ cup non-fat Greek yogurt

2 teaspoons chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (I found this “chipotle salsa” at the grocery store which was just the peppers chopped up in the sauce instead of the whole peppers. If you can find this, try it out.)

1 16-ounce can black beans, rinsed

3/4 cup chopped red onion

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tablespoon mild chili powder (I used cayenne pepper instead. If you like heat, feel free to make this substitution.)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 tablespoons lime juice (about half a lime)

Salt, to taste

4 whole wheat tortillas (read the labels and look for the ones with the most protein and fiber…they’re not always the expensive ones)

1/2 small head romaine lettuce, shredded or chopped

1 ripe avocado, pitted, peeled and chopped

1 vine-ripened tomato, cored and sliced

Stir together yogurt and adobe sauce or salsa in a small bowl; set aside.

Combine black beans, onion, cilantro, garlic, chili powder, cumin and lime juice in a large bowl, and season with salt to taste. Slightly mash the beans while stirring, until all ingredients are incorporated and the mixture just holds together.

Spread the bean mixture inside each tortilla. Top with the chipotle mayonnaise, shredded lettuce, chopped avocados and tomatoes. Serve within 30 minutes.

See how easy that is? I swear getting dressed can take more effort than this meal.

Cool Soup, Hot Flavor

Last summer, I was introduced to the world of cold soups. If you’ve never had cold soup before, it sounds nasty. I discovered chilled soups on accident one day when the soup I ordered from Hale & Hearty arrived cold. By far, my favorite in this genre is gazpacho and I particularly love this variation of the recipe below.

This soup is filling, low in calories, and delicious. I used to pair this with either a garden salad, grilled vegetables with olive oil & vinegar, or a small pasta or bean salad for a great summer lunch.

I recently made gazpacho with a can of diced tomatoes, no salt added, so feel free to cheat. Also, you can skip the blending part and just mix everything together and then let it sit in the fridge for a few hours for a chunkier soup.

Watermelon Gazpacho

3 medium garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup coarsely chopped basil leaves, or mint leaves
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds or power
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 1/2 cups coarsely chopped tomatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
4 1/2 cups coarsely chopped watermelon (about 1 1/2 pounds)
2 small Kirby cucumbers, peeled and coarsely chopped (about 2 2/3 cups)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped red onion
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons sherry or balsamic vinegar
Finely mince garlic, basil, cayenne, cumin, and salt to form a rough, sandy paste.

Place tomatoes, watermelon, cucumber, onion, and garlic paste in a large bowl and toss to mix. Let stand for about 15 minutes.

Working in 4 batches, place 1/4 of the vegetable mixture in a blender (or use a hand blender) and process until smooth, adding 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and 2 tablespoons water to each batch. Transfer puréed soup to a large nonreactive bowl and repeat the blending process with remaining vegetable mixture. Whisk in vinegar and adjust seasoning to taste.

Optional: Garnish with some cubed watermelon and tomatoes, a little mixture of equal parts salt and cayenne, a thin slice of cucumber and basil oil.

If you’re not up for the sweet-savory thing, here’s a link to some great traditional takes on gazpacho.

Enjoy!