Eat. Tri. Venture.

So…What’s going on with training?  This week has been the second week in a block my coach is terming VO2.  We have added some intervals and upped the intensity.  Due to a late season snowstorm (!), the first track workout of the season on Tuesday had to be moved to the treadmill.  But it was done easily enough inside, alternating thirty seconds of 10k pacing with thirty seconds of recovery.  Wednesday was one mile repeats at a max but steady effort on the bike.  Swimming has been long broken sets of a mile plus, followed by shorter intervals.  On tap for the weekend is a brick, consisting of a road ride for endurance followed by a forty minute run.  And Sunday!  I am so excited.  Sunday is the first mountain bike ride of the season.  JMac and I are driving down to Mohican to ride the twenty-four mile loop.  Although I have ridden most portions of the trail at some point or another, this will be my first attempt at connecting all of the pieces together.  It’s not supposed to rain between now and then so the trails should have a chance to dry out. 

As training, or life in general, picks up, the one pot meal can be a valuable tool in your dinner arsenal.  There are endless options for veggies, protein and a side dish.  And, it comes together in one pot, eliminating extraneous dirty dishes.  You can throw in pretty much any vegetables you have on hand.  Here is my recipe, if you can call it that, for Easy Peasy Mexican One Pot.  I made this on Wednesday, after one mile bike repeats, and it hit the spot of being filling but still clean.

Easy Peasy Mexican One Pot (Vegan)

1 red onion, sliced

1 red pepper, sliced or a few slices of roasted red pepper, from a jar (I used Trader Joe’s roasted red pepper)

1-2 cloves garlic, crushed

Olive oil

Cumin

Protein (tofu or Beyond Meat, cut into ½” pieces or tempeh, crumbled)

Jar of your favorite minimally processed salsa

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

2-3 sweet potatoes, depending on size

Rinse the sweet potatoes and cook them in the microwave on your potato setting.

Heat about 1 tsp of olive oil in a deep skillet.  Cook the onions, pepper and garlic on medium-high heat until softened and starting to turn brown.  (If using roasted pepper, add the pepper a little later, after the onion and garlic have started to soften).   Sprinkle with ½ tsp-ish of cumin.  Reduce heat to medium.  Add the beans and protein.  Stir.  Add about ½ a jar of salsa or to taste.  Stir and heat everything through. 

Scoop out the baked sweet potato into an individual bowl. Serve the One Pot over the mashed sweet potato.  Add a salad trough et voila!  Dinner is served. 

Have a great week.  Fuel yourself for life, eat real food!

It’s been a bit of a hectic week the past few days Chez Mac.  Those darn work deadlines can be so pesky at times.  That being said, I thought I would share three super-fast, easy recipes which I made this past Sunday.

1.       Creamy tomato soup (GF, vegan)

I make this soup all of the time.  It’s fast, like five minutes fast.  It’s made with pantry ingredients.  It’s filling.  You get two vegetables in almost an instant.

Here’s the link:  http://www.averiecooks.com/2012/12/creamy-tomato-soup.html

Notes:  No worries if you don’t have stewed tomatoes.  I use cans of regular whole tomatoes.  Using baby carrots takes away all of the vegetable preparation.  I have used both cream and almond milk.  Both taste fine.  

2.      Citrus Orange Roughy

 I just found this one last week, courtesy of my local Heinen’s.  Makes 3-4 servings.

 Ingredients:

1 orange, sliced in half

1 lemon, sliced in half

1 lb. orange roughy

1 Tbl olive oil

½ tsp lemon pepper seasoning

Directions:  Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat.  Arrange fish in skillet.  Squeeze lemon and orange halves over the fish.  (Watch for rogue seeds popping out).  Sprinkle with lemon pepper seasoning.  Cook for five minutes until the fish is easily flaked with a fork.  Voila!  Add a salad trough, some steamed or grilled veggies and dinner is served.

Notes:  I didn’t have any lemon pepper seasoning in the cupboard so I successfully substituted Pampered Chef’s citrus and basil rub.  This is supposed to be a four serving recipe but JMac and I only got three.  Maybe we were just hungry but if cooking for four, I would recommend picking up an extra fish fillet.

Bonus recipe:  Marsita’s Grilled Veggies

You can make delicious cooked vegetables in less than ten minutes.  Keep a stash of frozen veggies in your freezer.  My favorite vegetable to do this with is Trader Joe’s French green beans.  I don’t know why, but they are the best. 

Directions:  Dump your desired amount of veggies into a large 2-3” deep skillet with a lid.  Add enough water (1/2”?) to get them steaming and cover.  Cook on medium/high heat until they are just barely tender—you don’t want mushy veggies.  Pour out the water.  Crank up the heat to high.  Return the veggies to the stove, drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cook the veggies for a just a minute or two until they start to brown, turning them over so they don’t burn.  If you want to kick them up a notch, add a little Cajun or other spicy seasoning while they are cooking.

3.       Simple Bread

You too can be a hero in your home.  Make your own gluten free bread.  I like all of the bread recipes I have tried from this site but this one is my new favorite.  It only requires three eggs, which seems to be the magic number that I have on hand whenever I go to bake.  Don’t be intimidated that this is “bread.”  It’s more of a quick bread.  There is no yeast, no kneading and no worrying about it rising.  JMac was about to deliver our toaster to the same fate as our VCR, a lonely shelf in the basement, when I first baked this.  Simple bread saved the toaster.  Here’s the link:  http://www.elanaspantry.com/simple-bread/  You don't need a magic line loaf pan but you do need a smaller than normal but not mini loaf pan.  Since there isn't any yeast, these recipes don't fill your normal, larger bread pans.

Finally, did you catch this in the national media this week?  http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/03/31/295719579/rethinking-fat-the-case-for-adding-some-into-your-diet  Turns out you might want to add some (good) fat back in your diet and get off those processed carbohydrates.  What?  This sounds an awful lot like eat real food.  Hopefully, these recipes will give you a few more options.  Take care and have a great week.

For most of my life growing up my parents worked opposite shifts.  My mom worked the traditional business day and my dad worked nights.  Between sports and other after school activities, this meant a crazy juggling of the schedules with one parent often picking my brother and/or I up one place and the other parent picking us up an hour or two later.  With all of this hustle and bustle, I do not recall much time for traditional family dinners most days of the week.  What I do recall is my mom spending a few hours in the kitchen on Sunday’s, preparing meals for the upcoming week, making sure there was real food in the fridge for us to eat.

Today, the pace of my life is much the same, as it is for many people.  Work obligations, self-imposed training obligations, family and social events and well, life, keep us busy all throughout the week.  However, this does not mean that in our haste our diets have to suffer, that we have to rely on industrial science experiments for nourishment. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was rolling into a recovery week.  I took full advantage of the extra time on my hands on Sunday to make food for the upcoming week and for weeks when I will not have adequate time to cook. 

On Saturday, I took a few minutes to flip through my cookbooks for some inspiration.  I decided to go veggie and settled on Appetite for Reduction

	Appetite for Reduction: 125 Fast and Filling Low-Fat Vegan Recipes ~ Matthew Ruscigno (author) More about this product List Price: $19.95 Price: $11.57 You Save: $8.38 (42%)

• Two loaves paleo bread http://www.elanaspantry.com/paleo-bread/ .  This is an excellent recipe, whether you are low carb, gluten free (GF) or not.  I doubled the recipe.  After cooling, I wrapped one and a half loaves in plastic wrap and then foil and froze them.  I kept the remaining half loaf out to be consumed the first few days of the week.  (And it was).  To defrost the frozen loaf, just take it out of the freezer in the morning and leave it on the counter (away from the dog) and by evening, it will be good to go.*
• One pan GF cornbread for JMac, which was inadvertently left out on the counter (not away from the dog) and later consumed by the dog (again).  Doh!
• Veggie Pot Pie Stew (6 servings) http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/3478411-Veggie-Potpie-Stew .**  After cooling, I separated the stew, 2/3 going in a large plastic container and being frozen for dinner/lunch later in the week.  The remaining 1/3 was put in a smaller container and also frozen with the intention of being emergency lunch some day in the future. 
• Lentil and Eggplant Chili Mole (6 servings) http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/01/lentil-and-eggplant-chili-mole-recipe.html .**  This was separated the same as above except that I left the large container in the refrigerator for dinner/lunch Monday/Tuesday.***
• Red Thai Tofu (4 servings) http://reductionproject.blogspot.com/2011/06/red-thai-tofu.html .  We ate about half for dinner on Sunday.  JMac had his over rice.  I had mine over half of a baked sweet potato.  The rest became lunch on Monday.^

So, in four hours I made sixteen meals^^ and enough “bread” to last more than two weeks.  If my math is correct, that’s a mere fifteen minutes per serving.  Add a salad trough and voila, dinner is served!  Real food in real time is really doable.  And your body will thank you for it.  Have a great week.

*Tip:  I substitute Trader Joe's gluten free flour for the coconut flour and the bread comes out fine.

**Tip:  Stews, soups and chilies are generally better the second day, after having a chance for the flavors to meld together.  Just a thought for meal planning.

***Yet Another Tip:  I passed on the agave and did not miss it in the final product.

^Last tip:  The author of this blog thought her sauce came out too thin.  I'm not sure what she did differently because my sauce came out both a good consistency and very tasty.  Also, to add more "Thai" flavor, I cooked the tofu in coconut oil as opposed to olive oil.

^^Ok, one more comment:  Any of these recipes could be doubled or tripled so that there would be more freezable leftovers for a larger family.  In particular, I like the recipes in this book because the serving size works out well for two people.

I have been on a podcast-listening marathon recently.  I switch between Rich Roll, Vinnie Tortorich (Angriest Trainer), Jonathan Bailor (The Smarter Science of Slim) and the Fit, Fat, Fast podcast.  Although they each approach diet from different angles, there are two common themes: 

• Processed foods should be avoided. 

• Eat more vegetables.