The "All By Myself" Marathon

Well folks, I ran my 7th marathon ever today, it's been three years since my last marathon and this one was different from any other marathon I have ever run before. How so? I ran it alone, and it was unofficial...no race chip, no water stations, no running bibs, and sadly no medal. So why did I do this? I guess it was a test. When I arrived in California 4 months ago I found a culture of running shared amongst my co-workers, which was great. And several of them were training for a marathon so I hopped on the bandwagon and started training along with them. Sadly the marathon they were training for is this up coming weekend, and being a new kid on the block working weekends I couldn't really request the time off to join them. But training was fun. My days off did not overlap well with the others, so I was surprised that I stuck with the training and peeked at 22 miles a couple weeks ago, again all by myself. So this week I really had no reason to try to run the full 26.2. However, several of the actual marathoners asked me if I would run it on my own. I said no, and then naturally started thinking about it more, and decided this morning to give it a go. I mapped out a route the night before, brought my water bottle strapped to by back, and took off at 9:15am. It started out as an easy jog around some San Jose neighborhoods so that I would end up on the Los Gatos Creek Trail after already logging 5 miles, and that part went fine. I continued along the trail for the length of it, not having any issues, aside from almost faceplanting while I tripped as I was looking at Great Blue Heron around mile 11, things went fine. And then the usual marathon wall was struck around mile 15. I was definitely feeling it in my hips at that point. But I struggled along. I did walk a bit from then til the end, basically whenever I stopped at a water fountain to refill my water bottle I would walk about 0.2 miles until my stomach stopped sloshing from the water and would pick it up again. I had a near bathroom crisis around mile 19, which has happened before to me during marathons, though normally relieved via the desperate search for a porta-potty and hoping to find one with some toilet paper remaining. Well thank the gods I had good karma and shortly after my GI tract started getting all willy-nilly I saw a Campbell public restroom along the trail, and by gosh it had toilet paper. Five minutes later I hit the trail again, feeling a couple pounds lighter and seeming to have found a second wind. For a good 3-4 miles I felt great again, helped along by some great tunes and thinking I didn't have the far to make it. The true testament to my jedi mind strength came at mile 24- I got to the end of the Los Gatos Creek Trail by my house again and could easily turn left to head home in 0.5 miles, but I forced my willpower to keep me moving straight and add another 2 mile loop before returning home and finishing the miles I had intended. Those last two miles, like many marathons before, were brutal. My hips hurt. My feet hurt. And I had no one to cheer me on this time. But I continued on and finished. I did it. 26.3 actually. And super proud of it. Of course, I then climbed the stairs to my apartment and collapsed, and was too tired to push the dog away from me as he indulged in licking all salty goodness that had accumulated on my face off. I was thinking about what to call this "race" and thought the "All By MYself" Marathon summed it up, though when I thought of that phrase I pictured the opening scene of Bridget Jones' Diary as she drinks a bottle of wine and sings that song embracing her spinster-hood status. I then thought it would be worthwhile drinking my own bottle of wine when I got home, but gladly my dumb blonde brain had enough cells remaining in it to realize wine+26.3 miles= instantaneous vomiting. No PRs here, but I will say the phrase that came to mind again and again was "That'll do pig, that'll do."

taco night!!!

Had a really fun taco night with friends, making lots of recipes for one night: 1. My classic mandarin chicken tacos- using gardein mandarin orange chicken. I've posted the recipe before, this version was served with black beans as well as a mango salsa where I substituted avocados for the cucumbers. 2. My lime-cashew-cilantro tofu tacos, recipe identical to the one posted on this blog before. 3. My chickpea tacos- recipe identical to the one posted here before. 4. A new one! I used one package brussel sprouts and one package small yellow potatoes, diced. These two were fried in some olive oil, then served in a taco shell with black beans as well as a sauce made of 1/4 cup vegan sour cream, 1 avocado, and 1 TBsp lime juice. It was a great night!!!

Mexican Pizza!!!

God I love pizza. And black beans. And tomatoes. And avocados are probably my favorite thing in the world....so naturally this was a great pizza. As will be the recipes from taco night to follow. Tacos and pizza, I could live on those two staples as there are so many creatuve ways to make recipes from it all. So this pizza: Basically I had a whole wheat pizza dough rolled out. I rinsed 1 can black beans and 1 can diced tomatoes then mixed them together and spread them all over the pizza. Then I topped this with vegan cheese, then sliced red and green peppers, red onion, and mushrooms. This was all baked at 450 for 15 minutes, and topped with delicious avocados when done.

Vegan Drunken Noodles!!!

Loved this recipe! TJ's carries fresh vegan rice noodles- I used two packages for the recipe. I brought a large pot of water to a boil and added the rice noodles until cooked. In the meantime I mixed together 1/3 cup soy sauce with 2 TBsp brown sugar. In a large skillet I fried some diced extra firm tofu in a little peanut oil. Once starting to brown, I added 1 small chopped red onion to the skillet. Lastly I added all the ingredients together: 3 garlic cloves, 2 cups broccoli florets, 1 cup basil leaves, the cooked noodles, and the sauce I made up earlier. Once cooked through I removed this to a bowl, added 2 cups fresh bean sprouts, and topped with a crunchy Asian snack (TJ's had a vegan sesame stick topping that I used here).

African Groundnut Stew

Another oldie but a goodie. In a large pot mix 1 chopped yellow onion with 1 TBsp olive oil until browned, then stir in 2 TBsp garlic, 2 tsp ginger, 1 TBsp brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1 tsp cumin. Once blended in add 2 cups chopped butternut squash and 4 chopped sweet potatoes to the pot. Stir to coat with all the spices. Then add 2 cups of water, or enough to bring to just over the level of veggies. Bring to a boil. While heating, in a bowl whisk together 1/2 cup peanut butter with 1/2 cup water until very thin mixture. Turn the heat in the pot down to low after it was brought to a boil and add in the peanut butter mixture, as well as one can of drained kidney beans. Let simmer for at least 30 minutes, then add 1 cup peanuts and stir in. Serve over rice, or with flat bread (I love the TJ's middle eastern flatbread).

open face fajita style quesadilla

This quesadilla was super easy. I used one package of trader joe's fake steak- placing the package in a large ziplock bag I also added 4 TBsp lime juice, 1 TBsp canola oil, 1 TBsp cumin, and 2 tsp chili powder to the bag, mixing it all up. This was then left out to marinade for 30 minutes. Once marinaded, I fried this up in a little canola oil in a skillet. Then I sliced up one green bell pepper and 1 red bell pepper, and added them to the skillet and fried them up a little. Then I used an open face tortilla and topped with daiya mozzarella and pepperjack as well as the ingredients. Super simple and tasty.

And the really fun part about this dish was the super simple tasty side sauce: mix together one cup vegan sour cream, 2 TBsp lemon juice, 1 TBsp agave, 2 tsp paprika, and 1 tsp cumin.

vegan shrimp on the barbie quesadillas

I know a lot of people wonder why I like fake meat as a vegan, and often times question me saying things along the line of "aren't you missing the point?" or "why not just eat the real thing?" Well, those of you that know me better know that I went vegan for the animal rights aspect of it. And yes, I did like meat, the taste, smell, and texture of it, before I went vegan. But I ended up realizing that with my ethical beliefs I just could not justify eating flesh, something that meant I was taking a life in the process of enjoying my meal. So being a new vegan I was a fan of the fake meats. And they have come a long way since I went vegan. However, one area that is truly lacking is the meat that I miss the most: seafood. There are a couple brands of vegan shrimp or scallops, but none are really that good. This meal, with Sophie's fake breaded shrimp, was actually pretty good. I thawed them in the fridge the night before. First I sauteed 1 bag frozen corn, 2 diced zucchini, and 1 package chopped green onions in a little margarine. Using a mixture of vegan provolone and swiss cheese sliced in to strips, I placed them on a tortilla wrap in a skillet. Then I spread the fake shrimp over this, then the veggies, then another layer of fake cheese. Lastly another tortilla went on top. As always I struggled most with flipping the quesadilla without losing the innards, but once crisp I served the quesadilla with barbecue sauce: really tasty, though the texture of vegan shrimp is a little unnerving.

chicken parm burgers vegan style

This is another super easy, quick in a jiffy recipe. I had some vegan spicy fake chicken patties that I first heated up in the microwave for a minute. Then I applied a layer of marinara sauce and daiya provolone on top of them, placed them in the oven along with a bun, at 400 for 5 minutes. Meanwhile I mixed some arugula with olive oil and balsamic vinagrette, and pureed some vegan pesto together in the food processor. For the pesto just blenderize 2 cups fresh basil leaves, 2 TBsp garlic, 1/2 cup pine nuts, 4 TBsp lemon juice, 1/4 cup olive oil, 3 TBsp nutritional yeast, and a dash of salt and pepper. I applied the pesto to the bottom bun, and then topped the burger on the bun with the arugula. Super tasty and takes 15 minutes or less to make!

tostados

Wow, Mexican really is a fall back for me and I can't really go more than a week without making something Mexican: It's so easy! Take this tostado dish: I fried up a small amount of Trader Joe's fake beef,chopped up some tomatoes and avocados, piled all of this and some butter lettuce on a tostado, and topped with some in a jiffy vegan ranch dressing. Amazing....