So last weekend I said I could not run because of excrutiating pain (from falling on the stairs), but on Monday I tried it on the treadmill, and found the I could run without pain (other than the normal discomfort running causes me). I took a step all prepared to stop immediately, but I didn’t feel any leg pain so I kept going. My thoughts were “Yea I can run” and “Damn now I have to run.” But it was good. And on Wednesday my friend and I met and did our 2.25 mile run on the path, and that felt good too. As good as running can feel for me. I’ve said here before there’s no such thing as an easy run for me and that’s still true.
So tomorrow is the 5K that I had planned to walk because of continuing pain and the way the pain curtailed my training. Now I know I can run without pain, but of course I still did not get the training in so I think I’m going to do some combination of walking and running tomorrow. Tonight before dinner, Sweetie (who is doing the 10K) asked “Are we carbo loading?” and I said as a matter of fact we are. I boiled up some whole wheat linguine, coated it in pesto, and topped it with steamed green beans. There are no leftovers.
And my sweet tooth is still “on” so I made some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. I have revised my recipe slightly, using one and one eighth cups of flour instead of one and one fourth. I think the texture is better with slightly less flour.
I hope everyone’s having a good weekend.
Tags:
chocolate chips,
cookies,
green beans,
pasta,
peanut butter,
pesto,
running
I’ve added this video to my favorites on YouTube and watch and listen to it to make myself feel better. Try it and see if it works for you.
I am in Rockport for the weekend. There were all kinds of delays in the traffic due to accidents and construction. A trip that normally takes me under two and a half hours took over four – !!! I was listening to podcasts, but I would periodically turn them off and check out the AM news radio station for traffic updates. Doesn’t every city have one of those? Up in the Boston area it’s WBZ. I don’t even know what it’s call number is; I just scanned through other stations and ended up finding it pretty easily. I learned there was big accident in “Grafton.”
Then since the traffic was so slow, I started surreptitiously texting my sister. She was giving me traffic updates too and then I’d ask her a question like “Where’s Grafton” and she’d give me some oh so descriptive answer, not what I wanted to know at all. I texted back “am I near it?” because that’s where the accident was. Finally I made it off the Mass Pike onto Route 128, and there was some kind of delay there too. Then as a final insult, on my way into Gloucester, there was construction and a subsequent delay on the A. Piatt Andrew Bridge. Oy.
When I finally arrived, the last thing I felt like doing was getting back in the car, but I did want to eat (lunch was a bag of chips procured at a rest stop) so my mom and I headed out to the grocery store. We bought all kinds of vegetables (and Smart Balance Light which I heard is vegan) and then came home and I made us some dinner: boiled beets and gemelli pasta topped with stir-fried Swiss chard, mushrooms and onion. (For dessert, there were So Delicious ice cream sandwiches left from the last time I visited.) It was great having a vegetable-filled dinner with my mom. She loves vegetables and she loves when I cook for her.
Tags:
beets,
family,
mushrooms,
onions,
pasta,
Rockport,
Swiss chard,
travel,
vegan butter,
yoga
Lately, Whole Foods is sporting and touting a lot of “local” produce. I’m not sure what the criteria for local is because I’ve seen stuff from Maine labeled local and the Maine border has got to be at least 200 miles from here. Still that’s a lot more local than New Zealand or Peru where stuff frequently comes from during the winter months.
Today I found *local* (from Massachusetts) green patty pan squash and I picked up six of them. I cooked them “the balsamic vinegar way” and then served them alongside some whole wheat linguine with pesto. I bought the *vegan* pesto already prepared from the frozen section from a company called Linnabella. I like their website because it explains exactly what you need to know and gives good answers. Such as… how should you thaw it and how much do you use and what do you do with the rest of it once it’s thawed? You can refreeze it! I was afraid I was going to be forced to refrigerate it and use it within a week or something. As delicious as pesto is, it’s a strong flavor and not something I want to eat more than once in a week. Hey, and I just noticed Linnabella’s a local farm too.
Dinner was yummy, and I was pretty tired after my day of doing laundry, grocery shopping and cooking, but I managed to muster the energy to make a blueberry pie afterward – !!! Pie is pretty major for me because the crust is my nemesis, but I’m a baking snob and I don’t think you’re really making a pie if you don’t make the crust yourself. I managed to do a pretty good job (with minimal cracking) of it by rolling the dough between two sheets of wax paper. And the blueberries were local of course (super local – from Connecticut). The pie is cooling now, but Sweetie and I will be sure to delve into a little later tonight.
Tags:
blueberries,
pasta,
pesto,
pie,
summer squash
I remember last year we had some of the worst weather for summer. I remember lying on the couch under a blanket in July – !!! I’m not super crazy about hot humid weather, but I do like for the weather to be seasonal. Like when it gets warm in the winter, I find it disturbing because it’s not supposed to be warm, even if the warm weather is “nice.” Warm weather is nice in spring and fall, not winter. This is New England and we’re supposed to have four seasons. So anyway, now it’s summer and the weather is acting like summer. The cicadas start singing early in the morning, and you just know you’re in for another hot summer day.
On Friday, I had a real scare when I looked at my bank account online. I was just checking to see if a payment I’d made had gone through, and I saw an overdraft charge and a couple days previous a charge for $499.99 that I had not made. What???!!! I googled the name of the company and found a website with very little info. No “about” page, no “contact us” link. There was also an “888″ number (on my bank statement, not the website) that I called once I got to work and the number just rang and rang so I hung up. I tried it again a few minutes later and finally after about a gazilion rings I got someone’s voice mail. I gave my name and told them that there was an unauthorized charge and corresponding overdraft fee on my bank account and that it was “unacceptable” and that they needed to call me back. They never did.
At first, I was afraid that I had made a mistake and inadvertently signed up for something without reading the fine print, but I’m pretty convinced that this was not my mistake. I just googled the company again, and nothing comes up. Fortunately, I called my bank and they refunded the charge and the overdraft fee and are starting a fraud investigation. The charge was made at 6 PM on July 7th and I happen to remember that at that time I was getting a pedicure. I sincerely hope it wasn’t anyone at the spa who fraudulently used my card, but it does make me wonder. At least my toes look nice.
And now it’s time for our random meal of the day picture. I had some sliced mushrooms, shredded carrots and an onion hanging around, and I decided they would work well stir-fried with greens and served over soba noodles. I just needed something green. There is a lot of local produce becoming available right now, and I found some nice small cabbages that fit the bill. Unfortunately, once they’re cooked, they don’t really look that green, but the meal still tasted good. Sweetie and I seasoned our plates with nutritional yeast, sesame oil, sesame seeds and tamari.
Tags:
cabbage,
carrots,
meal of the day,
money,
mushrooms,
nutritional yeast,
onions,
pasta,
pedicure,
sesame,
summer
Blue and I went up to Rockport this weekend to visit my mom and my sister. Saturday night dinner, the three of us (me, Mom and my sister, not Blue) went to one of our favorite places, Passports in downtown Gloucester. My sister treated us – w00t!
I love this restaurant’s location and atmosphere, but the menu isn’t very vegan-friendly. I had to ask them to make me something vegan. I was nice about it, and said I didn’t want to cause any difficulty, and the waitress was able to procure a pasta dish for me. I also shared some of the salad that came with my mom’s meal.
They do a nice job presenting the food there. I love the little rosemary “tree” garnish on my pasta.
It was nice to spend time with my mom again.
After a dinner we went for a scenic drive. I never get tired of this view. You can actually see the skyscrapers of Boston from Niles Beach in Gloucester – so cool!
Tags:
Cape Ann,
dining out,
family,
pasta,
salad
The main news here is that spring semester is over. Woo hoo! The last week of it had some pretty intense writing (and freaking out), but I got the paper done , did a presentation and got an A in the class. It’s been a week now, and I’m still reveling in being done! At least for now. I need four more classes to get my degree. But still – four more classes – that’s not many at all.
Right now I’m in Rockport with Blue, visiting my mom and Andrea (my sister) and the cats of course. I brought Woody’s ashes with me to give to Andrea. Sweetie and I still miss Woody, but she was my sister’s cat for years before that, and besides, with the ashes of Max (my dog) and Trinka (my cat) on the fireplace mantle, I feel like that’s enough. I don’t think I will be saving the ashes of all my pets for years to come. I mean, it could get out of control. I did put Woody’s personalized ceramic bowl on the mantle though.
During the last few weeks of the semester, I gave myself something of a pass on working out, planning to train for a 5K and hit it hard once I was “free” again. I pictured myself running fast and feeling great. It didn’t really end up going that way. Monday I didn’t have any running buddies so I ended up walking (I ran for like two minutes somewhere in there) the 2.2 mile path at work, then Tuesday I went to Power Sculpt class (more on that in another post), Wednesday I bagged out, but on Thursday I did run-walk intervals for 20 minutes on the ‘mill and 10 minutes on the recumbent bike, and that felt more like it as far a training for a 5K. That is, training to *run* a 5K. I have to do some more cardio this weekend too…
I also kind of took a break from cooking the last couple weeks of the semester, but last week, I got back into it. I guess it’s fortunate that I love vegetables so much since they’re naturally vegan and healthy. Monday night I made of my favorite combinations: braised leek, Swiss chard and corn served over soba noodles, seasoned with roasted sesame oil and nutritional yeast.
I also adore the seitan made by The Bridge, (admittedly, I haven’t tried any other brands yet), but I hadn’t had any for a while when I finally made some on Thursday. I came home from my workout and slapped together an easy but yummy dinner: pan-fried seitan, Road’s End Shells & Chreese, and steamed asparagus. It was all delicious, and especially great to have seitan again. I’m going to make sure buy some more for the coming week. A friend mine who tried seitan after she learned how much I love it commented on Facebook that she’d like to love it but she really doesn’t. Oh well, more for me then!
Tags:
animals,
asparagus,
corn,
leeks,
nutritional yeast,
pasta,
recipes,
Rockport,
running,
school,
seitan,
sesame,
Swiss chard,
working out
Next to purple (and maybe pink), green is my favorite color. I also enjoy eating greens. I think my favorite greens are Swiss chard, and I buy them fairly frequently. A couple of months ago, I realized I was buying the same vegetables over and over: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green beans, sweet potatoes and Swiss chard so I have tried to branch out since then, but last week, there was the most beautiful Swiss chard at Whole Foods so I bought it even though I was probably “due” to add something else to the rotation. Seriously, how could I resist this?
It’s very easy to prepare: wash the leaves and then cut them crosswise into about 1 inch strips. You can include some of the stems because they’re quite edible too. I like to braise my Swiss chard: first cooking it in oil with crushed garlic over medium heat, and then adding about half a cup of water, bringing it to a boil and covering the pan until the chard is done, still bright green, but limp. It only takes a few minutes. Swiss chard cooks down quite a bit, but I usually find the bunch I get at the store is enough for two generous servings. I use nutritional yeast as a seasoning for a lot of my vegetables (see my vlog where I talk about nutritional yeast a little), and Swiss chard is no exception: hence, the yellow topping you see below. I served the chard alongside some vegan shells and “cheese:” Road’s End brand is quite yummy.
Tags:
nutritional yeast,
pasta,
recipes,
Swiss chard
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