Still running, definitely eating!

I've very gradually made some profound changes to my diet this past year. This was prompted by a few things including the realization over a year ago that i needed to make some better choices with food and keep closer attention to weight. 

We cook almost all of our meals. Take out or ordering pizza or going out to dinner is a treat which happens maybe once a month. We've done this since we first started living together for many reasons.  it is a lot less expensive to cook and eat at home.  time is valuable and i don't want to spend it cruising a grocery store all the time AND (most importantly) if there is no plan for food immediately after work, i will melt down. I get very hungry!  This is even more an issue now that we are both runners.

Brown Rice Pilaf with dried cherries and almonds

We plan a menu for the week and plan to cook 2-3 times per week for dinner with planned leftovers. I also do a batch of something for lunch. So we cook all meals but still rely on a lot of convenience foods for certain aspects of our meals.  It's strange because I've lost my taste for a lot of things over the past few years.  What do I like? Freshly prepared meals with quality ingredients. And yet, we'd still get a box of rice pilaf. Or I'll use a can of beans. Great right? Well if you've tried freshly prepared pilaf or made your own beans, there is a difference. 

Seriously. It takes a bit more planning but the benefits are that it is usually much less expensive to get a cup of dried beans and make 2-3 cans worth of beans for just cents.  Organic too!  Pilaf?  Same thing.

So we've gotten rid of the box and some convenience foods like that. I've had a pressure cooker for years and have used it to make perfectly cooked beans in minutes.  Pilaf also works in the pressure cooker especially if you like brown rice pilaf. This recent holiday season, I finally got a slow cooker and i've been having fun trying out simple various recipes with that.  Sometimes I'll cook a portion of a meal the day before when i have a bit more time. Leftovers are always ok with me!

Hummous? It's a favorite afternoon snack at work with an apple. i would always buy the smallest container of it from the grocery store and could never finish it because that smallest container was still too big.  And I'd often be rather disappointed by store bought hummous. I like mine pretty high spiced.  Well hummous is one of those super easy things to make so I've been doing that. I pressure cooked a batch of garbanzo beans and divided up those into half cup packets and froze them.  When i need more hummous, i get out a little frozen garbanzo bean packet, thaw it and get to play with tastes and fresh spices again!

The next step was being introduced to The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flynn.  A little book set locally in Seattle, this french trained chef realized that so many people don't really understand the simplicity and fun of cooking. They think (like I did) that cooking is grabbing a box of something instead of just planning and grabbing ingredients in the house and cooking.  She took a bunch of volunteers through lots of simple straightforward lessons of cooking.

Curry Sauce for fish or for chicken. Extra veggies optional.

This book has even gotten me to try cooking fish. I'll eat salmon that K grills for me. i'll eat canned tuna in a very specific way and i'll eat fishsticks with lots of ketchup.  Pitiful. Why don't i like fish? My mom never really knew how to cook it in a way i could actually eat.  So we've tried a very successful curry sauce and will try some other things and you know, cook and experiment! 

What a concept.  I went to a cooking demonstration for a particular cookware. it was nice cookware but we didn't need it.  Another favorite snack? Microwave popcorn.  Yes i know. it's nasty stuff. She demonstrated popcorn in the microwave in a bowl.  Ok, yeah. I can do that.  One of the gals who was also at the class had never realized you could actually pop popcorn NOT in a microwave store bought bag. I think we've been brainwashed sometimes.

It's been fun casting a critical eye about the kitchen of late and trying new things. 

So some favorite new meals lately...

Coconut Curry Butternut Squash Soup
A spicy warming soup which is very simple to make. The recipe is endlessly variable. Carrots or parsnip or not. Less spices or more? I really like the coconut milk. This soup freezes well and I will make a batch for lunches at work.

Roast the butternut squash in halves like the recipe says or if you prefer to peel it and chop it up into pieces and then roast, you could.  It's a little hard to get the skin off of the freshly roasted and hot squash. I served with some frozen snap peas stirred in or have it with a cabbage salad.

Ingredients:

1 medium butternut squash, split seeds removed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 (14 oz) light coconut milk
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°. Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil on butternut squash and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt. Place cut side down on cookie sheet. Roast for 30 - 45 minutes (depending on size) or until tender.

Drizzle soup pan with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add carrots and onion to pot with 1 teaspoon salt. Saute until tender. Add coconut milk and vegetable stock. Add curry powder, garam masala and cumin. Add roasted butternut squash.

Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer, while breaking up roasted butternut squash for 15 - 20 minutes, or fragrant. Use a submersible blender to smooth soup or add to a blender to smooth. adjust salt.

From Scott Jurek's Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness

Indonesian Cabbage Salad with Red Curry Almond Sauce

Butternut Squash Soup & Cabbage Salad

A really simple cabbage salad which is a perfect use of cabbage. Cabbage will keep in the fridge for a couple weeks, add in whatever fresh vegetables or nuts you feel like.  The sauce is simple to whip up and keeps in the fridge too. I keep mine in a mason jar. 

1/2 head green cabbage, coarsely shredded
4 stalks bok choy or 1 head baby bok choy, sliced into 1/4-inch pieces
1 carrot, peeled and cut into thin rounds
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 2-inch-long thin strips
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/2 to 3/4 cup Red Curry Almond Sauce, recipe at right
Toss all ingredients to combine and let sit for 10 to 20 minutes or more before serving.

Makes 6 to 8 side-dish servings.

Red Curry Almond Sauce

1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup fresh lime juice or rice vinegar
2 tablespoons miso
1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons agave nectar or maple syrup
2 teaspoons Thai red curry paste, or to taste
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl or blender. Mix well until smooth.

Keeps refrigerated for 2 weeks or frozen for several months.

STOP!

Hair Ice

I've been running on trails for a number of years now. And I carry my iphone often on trails to take photos when the mood strikes. After collecting a number of photos, I'm make a PuddleThumper Wall Calendar which is a very nice thing to have at work in my little cube with florescent lighting. It does take a while to collect enough photos for an entire year's spread.

So whenever I run on trails, I'm always on the lookout for interesting shots, interesting features, lighting, foliage, etc. This morning I spotted a feature out on trails that I have only ever seen once before and stopped me in my tracks.

I was running with a new gal and we were chatting and having a fine ol' time on the trails. She's not new to trail running but hasn't been out there in a while and didn't know these trails too well.  I made sure to stop us at various trail intersection and have her map where we were.  hey, it's how I learned!  And I'd mentioned that I'd stop us if i needed to take a photo.

We are running along downhill along Tibbet's marsh Trail on Cougar Mountain. A nice trail which has the distinction for me of everytime i run on it, the sun comes out.  I happened to spot a downed smaller branch which what looked like a white fabric or white paper on it.

HOLD IT!  STOP!

Hair Ice or Silk Frost! That's it, That's it!  I've seen it just once before in similar conditions.

Those conditions:

• Freezing temps
• No wind
• Recent wind storms which knock down branches 

Now it was above freezing when we were running through but I'm sure the temps would've have been below (probably not by much) on this protected area on a downhill area overnight. I saw some other bits of silk frost before I stopped that looked a bit melted which i thought were a type of fungus or mushroom. This one was still intact.  

How does this happen?  Frost is deposited on surfaces from moisture in the air. That is not what happens in this case. So Hair Ice is a better term. Moisture within the wood is supercooled and is forced out from exposed wood (the bark of the wood has been compromised) in distinct hairs that stay separate.  Spectacular!

And like usual, the sun came out as we were running down Tibbet's Marsh Trail.  8 easy miles feeling good and ready for a long run on roads tomorrow.  Always take time to stop and look at the Hair Ice if you are lucky enough to spot it.

Joshua Tree

It was a very quick trip to Palm Springs. we had just two full days and I wanted to make sure we got out to see Joshua Tree National Park which was just about an hour's drive from Palm Springs. We'd woken to pleasant temperatures but it was very windy. However once we were about ready to go running, the wind magically died down.  Perfect! another pleasant run in summer (for us!) temps made me very happy.

Then off to Joshua Tree. To drive there, we went right through the area of wind farming in the Coachella Valley. This was really an impressive site and contains more than 4000 windmills of various sizes. Some are huge! If we ever get back there, i'd love to do one of the tours that they offer for the area.  Joshua Tree area is tucked up onto a high valley just northeast of Palm Springs. altitude! and it was definitely cooler and still rather windy in the area.

Bizarre!  Really that's the only way to describe Joshua Tree. Go.See.It. We just did some easy hikes and marveled about the whole strange alien landscape.

And take a Winter Break

On the Lykken Trail

Keeping training during the winter fun also requires a break from Winter. Woohoo! I consider myself very lucky that we can usually take a quick trip to somewhere sunny and warmer.

This year's break was to celebrate my mom's 80th birthday. I chose Palm Springs as the destination for a lot of reasons. It is easy and cheap flights via Ontario airport. it's a smaller location and one i was curious about seeing. I'd only driven through and done the tram when i was a teenager. And I thought it would be fun to go back to the southern California area for my mom and I. She lived in Southern California for over 50 years and hadn't been back. and the chances of it being sunny and warm were great! I also wanted to see Joshua Tree National Monument and get in some trail running if possible.

It was a good choice and we lucked out with the weather.  I'd found a good deal on a 2 bedroom suite with a kitchen that was roomy and comfortable and opened onto a shared pool and jacuzzi area. We had quick and easy flights and an easy drive, a quick stop at my favorite In-n-Out Hamburger (not in Washington State) and arrived in Palm Springs late Saturday. No jacket needed as we were moving into our room.

Museum Trail view of Palm Springs

I'd done my homework so next morning i woke up a bit earlier than I would've liked and went to check out the trails in the hillsides next to Palm Springs.  The San Jacinto Mountain take off straight from the Coachella Valley floor and rise to over 10,000 feet.  Yes there are taller mountains but evidently these mountains are among the steepest in the US. I'd planned on 7-8 miles with a few on the roads and then trying to make a loop up in the hills. I carried some water and a gel and knew the trails would be rocky and more like hiking when going up. It was warm too at about 60 degrees when i started and knew that with the sun out (Yay!), it would get warm quick.

Following the white marks...

I chose to go straight up the Museum Trail (yes accessed behind the Museum) and it did not disappoint. It went straight up and immediately there were great views. I steadily climbed stopping every once in a while to take photo. It's less than a mile up but a total calf burner! I passed a few others out for a hike and did see a guy who was running up the trail as well.  He caught up to me and we stayed together then chatting a bit as he showed me the way. The trail was marked with white spots on rocks but there were lots of different ways to go.

Dave from LA came out here quite frequently to run trails.  As we made it to the top, he let me know that he'd just set a record 18 minutes up the trail (it's about a mile) and was pretty happy about that. Evidently he and a friend keep track ad try to best each other with time and as we all know, chasing someone (me in this case) and running with someone (me!) always helps! Dave was very helpful. I asked some specific questions about which trail would work best for me once we were at the trail junction and on his recommendation took a left turn instead of a right turn and headed down the South Lykken Trail instead of the North Lykken Trail. Good choice as it was runnable downhill and just really enjoyable.  

Once back down onto the roads, I was whooped. I'd finished my gel and my water and still had a few miles to get back to where we were staying.  And it was vaguely uphill and warming up. It was all good though. Sunny and warm and so different than conditions ever in Seattle.

After a tasty breakfast, we went out to explore Palm Springs a bit but were back to our rooms for the afternoon with the idea of just hanging out in and around the pool.  I took a nap pool side and had a lot of fun splashing about in the water. Mom did too.  Wonderfully relaxing and I slept like a rock that night.