I'm back...with a recipe

 Oh my goodness, where have I been? I haven’t posted anything here in ages.

Well, actually I can tell you where I’ve been. I’ve been training for, raising money for and completing a marathon! My first marathon and I tackled the hills of San Francisco for it. It really hogged up my time for a while there. But that’s done and I’m on to the next thing.

I’ve got about two months in which I’m not actively training for a specific event (my off-season, if you will) so I’m going to do Shaun T’s T25 program. Then in late January I will start training for my Ragnar Relay in June – 200 miles, 2 days, 12 people. We’re going to run from Madison, WI to Chicago.

And I also plan to complete about 3 triathlons next summer. 

But this is supposed to be about food. Last night I made a newish recipe. Growing up my mom used to make tamale casserole (I’ve also heard it called tamale pie). I loved it. It was one of two casseroles from my childhood that make me feel warm and fuzzy. Unfortunately it’ll take more time to figure out how to do the chicken enchilada casserole I love so much – the dairy-free part keeps getting in the way. 

But tamale casserole was totally doable, once I found the right vegan cornbread recipe. And I did it. I found it with the help of my good friend Google. I halved the recipe from Post Punk Kitchen. It’s moist with a crunchy crust and that golden yellow color and a little sweetness. Super yum.

This dish turned out just the way I remember it and got high marks from the family (including my uber picky one). 

Tamale Casserole

Filling:

½ red bell pepper, diced

½ green bell pepper, diced

1 jalapeno, diced (optional)

½ onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 lb ground meat – I use turkey

1 can tomato sauce

1 can whole kernel corn, drained

1 tbsp chili powder

Salt & pepper to taste

Cornbread topping:

1 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp canola oil

1 tbsp maple syrup

1 cup soymilk (I actually used coconut)

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat over to 350. Spray a 9x9 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

Brown meat over medium high heat in a large pan with peppers, onion and garlic. Drain if necessary. Add tomato sauce, corn and chili powder. Reduce heat and let simmer while you prepare the topping.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk and the vinegar and set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt).

Add the oil and maple syrup to the milk mixture. Whisk with a wire whisk or a fork until it is foamy and bubbly, about 2 minutes.

Pour the wet ingredient into the dry and mix together using a large wooden spoon or a firm spatula.

Pour filling into baking dish. Immediately pour cornbread topping over meat mixture. Spread to cover.

Bake 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Serve immediately.

Approximately 6 servings

Thank you, Kings Island!

Last year at this time I was just finally starting to feel comfortable going out to eat and learning about how to find food options at restaurant that met my restrictions. Going to amusement parks isn’t easy when you eat vegan or even just gluten-free. So I was excited but still weary when I saw this sign at a food kiosk at Kings Island.

It wasn’t even lunch time yet, but I went over to find out exactly what they were referring to when they said “All Gluten Free.” They told me the entire kiosk was gluten free. No chance of cross-contamination in the fryer. I had my first non-homemade chicken tenders in 1 1/2 years! They also had gluten-free beer. 

Maybe it doesn’t take much to make me happy, but knowing this option was available for dinner at the end of the long day made me happy! Thank you, Kings Island. You’ve done a good thing. 

It only took a year...but a new recipe is born

Last summer I got to spend some time with my sister out in Montana. We stopped at a co-op in Bozeman to pick up some food for camping in the Tetons. The co-op had a great deli area with several gluten-free and vegan salad options rather than the traditional potato and pasta salads that you find in most grocery store delis.

I got two that I really liked – a chipotle potato salad that I recreated last summer – and a curry quinoa salad.

I successfully made a similar quinoa salad this past week. It contained quinoa (obviously), shredded carrots, steamed edamame, red onion, craisins and an orange curry dressing. It would also be good with some chicken added as well, but I’m eating vegan for a few weeks.

Curry Quinoa Salad

2 cups water

1 cup rinsed quinoa

1 cup carrots, shredded

¼ cup red onion, diced

1 cup edamame, shelled and steamed

1/3 cup craisins

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup orange juice

½ tsp coriander

1 -2 tsp curry powder

½ tsp salt

Bring water to boil

Add quinoa

Reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Let cook for about 12-15  minutes. Liquid should be absorbed. Remove from heat and allow to rest while you prepare remaining ingredients.

Toss carrots, onion, craisins, and edamame together in a bowl.

Stir together olive oil, orange juice, coriander, curry powder and salt. Add quinoa to vegetables and toss with dressing. This salad is best if it is allowed to sit for a couple hours in the fridge before serving. Serve cold or at room temperature.

It's Summer!

Well, technically not quite yet...in like two days though. Memorial Day was a few weeks ago and the kids are out of school, so I'm going to go ahead and go with  IT'S SUMMER!

Summer to me these days means more time to work out. Train, train, train. Last summer I was training for the triathlon. This summer its a marathon and P90X. Annyka (the now 8yo kidlet) is at her dad's for two weeks at a time so I can be much more flexible with workouts - mornings at the Y, evenings at the pool, riding my bike to work, running downtown at sunrise...all options in the summer that are not viable when she's home. I miss her bunches and can't wait until she comes home this weekend, but I take advantage of the time I have when she's away.

But with all that working out, I have not been spending a ton of time in the kitchen. I did break down and join Pinterest - mainly as a way to keep track of those recipes I come across that I want to save for trying later. Several of my athlete friends are going Paleo so they post yummy things that I can eat. Anywho, I haven't come up with any earth-shattering new recipes lately. Plenty of veggies with pasta or rice and salads lately because it's fast and fresh. I made the Pioneer Woman's Asian Noodle Salad this weekend. I hadn't made that in a long time and I don't know why. It's very good. I only made half the dressing though and I thought it was plenty (in fact, I have some leftover dressing), oh and I made one small substitution - I used grapeseed oil in the dressing rather than olive oil because it doesn't have any taste to compete with the other ingredients.

So sorry for the boring update, but I'll come up with something good soon. Polenta with bruschetta is coming up on the horizon soon. I haven't quite pinned down the bruschetta recipe yet.

Everything must go!

You know when you're getting ready to either go on vacation or move and you want to get rid of your food before then? That's where I'm at now.

We're going on vacation (not moving). We're leaving on Thursday morning and it's liquidation time. Everything must go!

I practically forced Scott to eat a bag of grapes last night. I'll finish off the last of the carrots at lunch today and put a good dent in the spinach. The brussel sprouts are slated for annihilation at dinner tonight. I still have a small bag of snap peas to have a lunch tomorrow (at least that's the plan) and the last of the onions and bell peppers will hopefully make their way into fajitas on Wednesday night. And I'll down as many apples as I can between now and Thursday.

Yesterday we fired up the grill for dinner - chicken breasts - and I threw some tamari-sesame pork chops on to join the party as well. Those are now slated for tonight's dinner. I had big plans for meatballs this week as well, but with too much leftover chicken, that is going to fall by the wayside. I did, however, make, bake and freeze said meatballs last night for future use.

So here's the plan for the next three nights:
Monday - pork chop sandwiches (for those that eat such things), sauteed brussel sprouts and leftover rice salad from yesterday.
Tuesday - spaghetti with meat sauce, additional vegetables if we still have some that need to be eaten.
Wednesday - fajitas made with the already grilled chicken we have + sauteed bell pepper and onion add the half a can of black beans I have in the fridge and corn tortillas and dinner is DONE!.

At some point I also have to figure out what food I want to take on the plane with me on Thursday - airport food for people who don't eat gluten and dairy can be someone challenging (and expensive). I wanted to make some "almond joy" bars (still working on the recipe but it will involve dates, cocoa, almonds, & coconut) to take, but I haven't managed to get any dates to make them, so that probably won't happen with judo (twice) and a doctor's appointment on the schedule in the next three days. Plus I want to go get a spray tan. Wish me luck on the spray tan. It's my first time. 

Chicken Chili and Costumes

I made chicken chili last night but I was rushed and I didn't feel like the flavors came together very well.

I had to make a "costume" for my race tomorrow and my supplies were failing me. I'm doing an obstacle course race with a team tomorrow and we're supposed to be "game characters." Since the team captain originally wanted to do Street Fighter characters and we vetoed him, I'm pretty sure he meant we should be video game characters, but I don't like to do the expected all the time, so I went more old school. I wanted a BOARD game character. And I found one! I am going to be the Operation game guy. I modeled my costume after the guy on the board game cover - he's wearing red polka dot boxers on his bottom half.

So I got a pink (closest to skin colored I could find) T-shirt, painted red areas on it for each of my body parts that can be removed then each of those areas received a velcro piece. Then I cut the parts out of white felt and stuck them to the velcro. I couldn't find red polka dot boxers, but I did find black ones so I went with that. And since it will be cold tomorrow, I'll be wearing tights and a long-sleeved shirt under.

Anyway, I bought a fabric marker for the T-shirt and it was dried out when I opened it. So I took it back and approximately four seconds after I started the exchange process with customer service my child has to go to the restroom...like immediately. Ugh. So we stop the process for a bathroom break, then make the exchange. Second marker is also defective. That when I switched to paint. But in the end a 5-minute trip took more like 20 minutes and I had less time for dinner. So that's making a long story longer.

I'm having leftovers of my soup for lunch and maybe it will be better.

Pollen Sucks.

I look outside at green grass and blooming trees and want to be happy about it, but it’s hard to smile through the sneezing, bloody noses and swollen eyes. 

I look like I’ve been crying non-stop for four days. But I haven’t been. Just breathing in the poisonous pollen. I need to find some local bee pollen…you think I can rub it in my eyes? 

I ate relatively well yesterday:

                Breakfast – shakeology with almond milk and a banana

                Lunch – crunchmaster crackers (14 = 1 serving), 1 bell pepper (cut into strips), baby carrots (I didn’t count) and some snap peas, hummus and three slices of turkey from the deli.

                Snack – apple and chocolate almond milk

                Dinner – bell pepper and broccoli stir-fry with ginger quinoa.

Then I slipped up and finished a bag of Sriracha Lays. The good news is they are now gone so they can’t tempt me any longer. 

Today’s plan:

                Breakfast – cantaloupe and blueberries

                Snack – Shakeology with water

                Lunch – crunchmasters again, three slices of turkey, ½ avocado, an apple, two clementines.

                Snack – cashews and a banana

                Dinner – Mexican rice bowls: brown rice, black beans, corn, salsa, avocado and maybe chicken if               I feel like I need meat. 

Boring post. Sorry nothing super exciting to report.