You can never buy too much chocolate

Today I decided it was time to get out of my winter slump and finally do a decent outdoor run. It helped that the weather was gorgeous finally (and by that I mean it was 0C). So first thing this morning I woke up, threw together a small bowl of banana cereal (just a banana, chocolate hemp protein powder, flax, dried cranberries & almond milk) and headed out the door.

Man it felt good to run outside. No amount of mileage on a treadmill or track ever makes me feel like I’ve actually been running. I enjoy it on some level but as soon as I get back outside on the road/trail/path it’s a whole different world. Unfortunately, the huge amounts of snow make it really difficult to maintain a decent pace. I try not to be bothered by this because it’s not really that important as long as I’m doing what I can, but once I get into marathon training next month I’m worried that it’ll hurt my ability to train adequately.

Distance: 14.5k (9 miles)

Time: 1:31:00

Pace: 10:00 min/mile

Not a terrible pace by any means, but I was aiming for a 9 min/mile pace so it feels crappy anyway.

Song Of The Run : I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas

This song always makes me want to dance and as I’ve mentioned before I love to dance while I run, so this one always gets my spirits up. It doesn’t hurt that the song started just a minute after this lovely old man smiled at me as I ran past and lifted his adorable, puffy yellow gloved hand to give me a thumbs up. I couldn’t stop smiling after that. It just shows – no matter what you think about your performance, there’s always someone out there who thinks that what you’re doing is pretty great.

I stopped in to my local health food store after my run to pick up some groceries. I wasn’t planning to get much but there were so many fun items on sale that I ended up with a full bag (funny how that always happens ). I don’t usually buy very much packaged/processed foods so I thought I’d share some of today’s purchases, just for fun.

This is my favourite brand of tofu. It’s made somewhat locally (Nelson, BC is about a 7 hour drive from Calgary), it’s organic and made with minimal ingredients. I try to stay away from too much soy, but I love tofu and this is the freshest, most authentic stuff you can get. Even the herbs used for flavouring are local and organically grown. I haven’t tried the curry flavour before; I usually buy the ‘hot’ flavour and it’s my favourite by far.

This is the only brand of raw milk cheese I’ve found but that’s okay because it’s really good and it’s Canadian as well. I’ve had both the old cheddar and now the parmesan. The texture of the cheese is a bit harder than traditional, pasteurized cheese but the flavour is better than most commercial cheeses.

Delicious, delicious Manna Bread. I like to pack chunks of this into my lunchbox. It’s so dense and flavourful that I just eat it straight, either cold or heated slightly. I also got some Ezekiel english muffins. Now that I’ve been converted to sprouted grain bread products I just can’t imagine going back to the regular stuff. For some purposes I can see wanting a softer, more refined bread but I’m a big fan of breads that are full of grains and have a more dense texture. For a softer grain bread I eat Healthy Way’s Flax Multigrain bread, which is probably my favourite brand of sliced bread.

I don’t usually like canned soups and the ingredient list on these isn’t ideal but they were on sale so I decided to pick up a couple for those times when I just want a quick bowl of soup on a cold day. I’ll let you know how I like them.

PB&J Larabars! I was so excited to see that my store finally got this flavour in (still no Tropical Fruit Tart, though). They were on sale 3/$5 too.

I’m really starting to have a stock-pile of protein powder but when I saw this today I couldn’t resist. I haven’t been able to find brown rice protein powder until now and it has a higher protein count than the hemp protein I usually use. I like the nutritional quality of hemp protein better so I’ll probably still use that primarily but this will be a nice change. Plus, Cafe Caramel flavour sounds yummy.

Now onto the onslaught of chocolate. Haha.

I’m making truffles for a function at Dan’s work on Friday so I had to pick up a bunch of dark chocolate.

They only had one bar of Green & Blacks baking chocolate left so I had to supplement it with some Cocoa Camino. I’m sure it won’t be a problem

They also had the regular Green & Blacks bars on sale so I picked up a bunch. These may or may not get slipped into some Christmas stockings. I don’t trust myself around this much chocolate.

I also picked up this gourmet chocolate bar from Wild Sweets. They had a good selection of different chocolates so I picked this one to do a taste test and see if it was worth the cost. I had a piece after dinner and good God in Heaven, this stuff is so good. The quality of the chocolate is amazing – dark and rich with a nice smoky finish – and the fillings are perfectly balanced. I really love praline so this was perfect for me. It’s definitely a special occasion chocolate, but lucky for me I consider a lot of things to be special occasions .

As much as I love when companies are Canadian, knowing that I can order these chocolates online at any time is a terrible temptation. I want pretty much everything on their website. The wine confits alone are enough to make me want to cry with sheer pleasure.

I also finally got my hands on some raw cacao powder. I bought this mainly because I needed some to coat the truffles but I’ve been wanting to splurge on some of this for months, so it was really just a good excuse

And thus ends my cornucopia of chocolate shopping trip. I made sure to let the cashier at the store know that I was baking with and giving away most of this chocolate because it looked pretty funny stacking it all on the counter.

When I got home I made myself a real dinner, once again involving my new obsession with cornmeal.

Roasted Vegetables & Black Beans on Cheesy Grits

This was actually a really easy meal to put together. I’d soaked the black beans overnight so I threw them on the stove to cook while I showered and took pictures of my shopping trip. Then I cooked up the grits using this basic recipe:

2 cups water

2/3 cup almond milk

1/3 cup cornmeal

salt & pepper to taste

1 tbsp earth balance or butter

1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese (I used my raw cheese mentioned above)

1/4 cup grated parmesan

Heat 1 cup of the water and the milk until boiling. Add the cornmeal and stir quickly so it doesn’t clump. Reduce the heat and cook until thickened, adding the remaining cup of water 1/4 cup at a time until it reaches the proper consistency, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from the heat, add salt & pepper, earth balance and stir in the grated cheese until smooth.

Makes two servings.

While the grits were cooking I chopped up some broccoli, brussels sprouts, zucchini & shallot and roasted them in the oven at 425 for about 20 minutes. They were topped with olive oil, salt, paprika and cayenne pepper.

Then I put everything together in a bowl and topped it all off with a little nutritional yeast and sriracha.

This is pretty much the definition of comfort food to me. I love roasted veggies and the grits really added a nice textural element, different from the rice that I often have instead. And sriracha pretty much makes any meal better, IMO.

That’s it for me. I’m making truffles tomorrow so hopefully I can get some good pics to share of how it goes.

You know what?

Fall running is the frickin’ bees knees. This is definitely the perfect weather for me because I just don’t handle heat well. Thankfully the Calgary weather system is actually gracing us with a proper fall this year. My runs lately have been pure bliss.

To be honest the start of the run wasn’t great. My body just felt off, uncomfortable and plain awkward. But I said to my body, “screw you, let’s do this” and pushing through. It got easier, as it usually does, and my pace ended up being way better than I expected. I ran the exact same route as Wednesday and although that run felt easier, I ran it faster today.

Distance: 9 km

Time: 47:10

Pace: 8:26 min/mile

At the end of this run I just ran like a child, flailing arms and all. In other words, I ran without thought or care. I ran without regard for my body or my pace or my form. I ran with pure, unadulterated joy and it was amazing.

I’m telling you, it’s unbelievable how much I’ve come to love running. I never thought I’d be saying that a year ago. I think in the beginning the notion was there that I might one day find it fun but I don’t think I ever knew I could love it this much. As much as biking, or even more because it’s so new. If you don’t think you’re the running type, it’s worth it to try it anyway. I’m not saying you’ll love it but you might and then you’ll thank me

I also put some new songs on my ipod which always makes me happy when they come up. I’ve decided to start doing a ‘Song of the Run‘ series because there’s usually one song during a run that really sticks out to me and makes me run faster or smile or dance. Yes, I am one of those crazy people who dances while they run. Don’t knock it until you try it because it’s maybe the most fun you’ll ever have. Other than bike dancing, which is just as good.

Song Of The Run (okay, I maybe need a better title than that) : September – Earth, Wind & Fire

Okay, maybe I’m just a big hippie at heart, but this song is the happiest thing you can imagine. If it doesn’t make you want to dance than you might want to check on the status of your soul, or maybe you just don’t like dancing, but that’s a whole other problem. The moment this song came on I got the widest smile on my face and it didn’t go away until the run finished. And I definitely danced.

And now on to the food.

Yesterday was a rest day and I was in the cooking mood when I woke up, so I did. First off I made pecan milk to go with my apple cinnamon cereal. Pecan milk is a great alternative to almond milk, with a nice caramel flavour. You just take 1/2 cup soaked pecans, 3 cups water and some vanilla stevia, whirl in the blender, strain if you’d like and you’re good to go. Sorry, no pic, I ate as I cooked. It just looks like almond milk, though, I’m sure you can figure it out

I also finally got around to starting some buckwheat sprouting (sprouted buckwheat is a staple in Thrive and I always seem to do Brendan’s biding).

Kinda pretty, isn’t it? I drained it and rinsed it today and it actually produced a mucousy substance as though it had contracted swine flu over night, but I guess that’s the nutrients growing, eh? I plan to use it to make some of Brendan’s energy bars.

I finally made some eggplant bacon, as well. Gina, aka the Fitnessita, has been mentioning this stuff forever so I actually got Everyday Raw out of the library just so I could try it. But you’ll have to wait until I try it to see a pic. Okay, I did have a taste and it was smoky and delicious.

For dinner (and lunch) I made a lovely salad. I got the inspiration recipe from the cookbook ReFresh, featuring food from the restaurant chain Fresh in Ontario. Next time I go east I definitely want to try this place.

I changed the recipe a bit, based on what I had. Great northern beans in pesto, artichoke hearts, tomato, avocado and pecans on a bed of spinach/arugula. It was a great combination and definitely satisfying.

I also packed up some of Gina’s Chocolate Chia Pudding to eat after yoga volunteering. I didn’t have maca (still looking for it) so mine wasn’t really ‘malted’, but I added a bit of carob instead.

I also topped it with some hazelnut butter and goji berries. I ate this while walking home and it was a fun, delicious snack. Chia pudding always has such an intriguing consistency.

Okay, I was going to share lunch from today but I’ll have to do it later. My battery is about to die and I have to head off because I’m going to a special yoga class tonight with the owner of Moksha Yoga, the studio I volunteer and practice at. I’m pretty excited.

What do you mean it’s not Sunday?

I am loving having Wednesday off in the middle of the week (It’s Remembrance Day in Canada).  The last two days have felt like an extra weekend.

Yesterday I dragged my butt out of bed early so I could adjust my schedule and headed straight to hot yoga class. It was a new instructor and she was having some difficulty so the class didn’t flow quite as well as usual but it was still awesome. I think she might have been an athlete too, because we did a lot of pigeons, runner’s lunges and all my favourite poses for loosening up my ridiculously tight hamstrings and hips. I feel so much better with all the yoga I’ve been doing lately.

I also got a fantastic tempo run in. It was crazy windy out but I was feeling speedy and energetic. I always second guess myself on this route because there’s a giant hill halfway and I often question if I can keep my pace despite it, but it barely fazed me today.

Distance: 9km (5.6 miles)

Time: 47:40

Pace: 8:31 min/mile

This is right where I want to be with my tempo pace right now so I’m quite pleased. I felt so good at the end of the run, like I could have gone another 5k at that pace, so I’m stoked. Hopefully I can do another 10k race soon because I’m definitely on target to set a PR. My last 10k was May 30 and I ran a 51:46. My goal now is to make it under 50 min. It may be a lofty goal but I think I can do it.

Before yoga I was finally able to try Brendan’s Toasted Apple Cinnamon Cereal recipe from Thrive. I’ve been meaning to make this for months now but I’ve procrastinated because for some reason the long cooking time was throwing me off. It was more than worth the wait, though.

The best thing about this cereal, aside from the crunch factor, is the great roasted flavour the molasses provide. The “cereal” is pretty much a granola made with a ton of seeds and nuts and a coating made up of molasses, hemp oil and spices. It’s quite delicious. Unfortunately I ran out of almond milk the day before and forgot to soak any nuts to make some more so I ended up doing a cheater version of coconut milk. It was pretty much about 3 tbsp of dried, unsweetened coconut blended with just over 1/2 cup of milk and a couple drops of vanilla stevia extract. That blinding white blob in the middle of the bowl is some of the yummy coconut pulp left over after straining (holy overexposure, sorry about that). This is quite a lovely and quick milk solution when in a pinch.

For dinner I decided to try out Melissa’s Raw Pad Thai, which has been waiting patiently in my recipe folder for months now. I really wasn’t expecting this to turn out as well as it did.

It might not look like much – a bowl of red cabbage, carrot, cucumber and green onion may be a feast for the eyes but it isn’t that palatable on its own. However the dressing for this was outstanding and I almost gobbled up the whole (HUGE) bowl before remembering that we were going for dessert in an hour and I might not want a belly full of fiber first. This would have been even better if I’d had the mango & cilantro recommended but I’d used the last of my cilantro in a smoothie that afternoon. Damn me.

It was a good smoothie, though. You can’t really go wrong when pineapple & cilantro play together.

Post-dinner we went out with some new (!) friends for dinner at a great restaurant in town called The Ranche. The last time I was there the dessert was absolutely transcendent. I could have waxed poetic about the intricacies and perfection of that dessert for hours. And, like all good food, it had me swinging from the rafters. Alas, the dessert I had yesterday (the Sweet Potato Cheesecake with Marshmallow & Cranberry Beet Syrup), while lovely, did not quite reach those heights. I plan to go back to try the Banana Rum Sticky Toffee Pudding and hope for better luck. Not to be too greedy or anything. But I love sticky toffee pudding and would have chosen it had I not ordered my wine first and thought the cheesecake seemed like a better match for it.

I really, really planned to take pictures and even had my camera sitting patiently on the windowsill beside me, but I got wrapped up in friendly conversation and didn’t remember until my plate had been licked clean. Too bad, because the presentation was impeccable. I’ll definitely remember when I go back for seconds.

This morning I had a fabulous swim. I’ve been slacking hardcore on my swimming training lately. It’s unfortunately my least favourite of the triathlon disciplines and therefore the one I need the most work on, but I’ve had difficulty being motivated to swim since fall has arrived. Luckily I managed to make it there today and the best thing about midday swims is that I usually have a full lane to myself. It felt good to just get in the water, cruise, and let my mind wander. Unfortunately, since I tend to zone out while swimming I have a hard time keeping track of my stats. I think this is pretty close, though.

Distance: 1750 m (70 lengths)

Time: 42 minutes

Workout: 2 x 25m breast stroke, 2 x 750m freestyle, 2 x 50m side stroke, 4 x 50m breast stroke

Dan picked me up after the pool (he’s had the week off work) and we went to an early matinee at the cheap theatre. We finally saw District 9, which I’ve been wanting to see for awhile now. It actually exceeded my expectations (which were already quite high) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I had an early dinner/late lunch that was pretty much just thrown together on a whim. It consisted of roasted cauliflower with a crunchy coating of bread crumbs, nutritional yeast & red pepper flakes, sweet potato fries with chipotle seasoning, and a mushroom, onion & spinach frittata with a little blue cheese on toast. I may or may not have added some ketchup to this post-pic.

Tonight I went to see a play with a friend who got free tickets through work. It was called Speed the Plow, written by David Mamet, on the suitable topic of the movie industry (in case I didn’t mention it before, I work in film/television post-production). The play was really funny with blazing fast dialogue and very truthful subject matter. If it’s playing in your area I’d definitely recommend checking it out. I don’t go to the theatre nearly as much as I’d like because I really do think it’s a completely under-appreciated form of entertainment. The talent involved in even a local production is often amazing.

I’ve had a fabulous ‘faux’ weekend so hopefully the real one lives up to it

Just the basics

I’m starting to feel like I’m talking to myself here. I think I need to be a little more proactive in advertising my blog. Hello to anyone who stops by.

Part of my problem is that I’m not really sure what I want to be talking about yet and I’m having a hard time working out how to maximize my blogging time. I feel weird asking people to read my blog when I’m not sure it’s what I want it to be yet. But I may as well get into the habit anyway.

Yesterday’s post-yoga dinner was a quick but fun number.

Some nori rolls made with leftover brown rice mashed with miso, cucumber and avocado. Soy sauce and wasabi for dipping. And a guac salad – just spinach/arugula topped with guac & tomatoes.

I did a lovely bike workout at the gym today. I was supposed to do some strength work as well but I was still super sore from my long run/yoga yesterday so I tried to lift a few weights but finally decided to call it quits so as not to make my muscles worse. Instead I got on the bike and rode my heart out.

Time: 37:00

Distance: 17.00 km

I’m really happy with this time. My goal is to achieve a 2min/km pace for my races next summer, specifically I want to ride a 3hr Half Ironman bike leg. This time included a warm up and cool down so I’m right on track for pace. Now I just have to do 5 times this distance

I had another spelt pizza crust leftover from Monday so I whipped up another pizza tonight. It was beyond fabulous.

I stuck with a really basic formula – pesto sauce, sliced tomato, sundried tomatoes, and a little goat gouda. This was mind-numbingly awesome. I had a salad on the side – spinach/arugula, black kale, carrot, cucumber, sunflower seeds and a dressing made with cilantro, hummus, lemon juice and a little water. Perfection.

I thought I’d share my lunch today as well because I haven’t yet and I’m mildly obsessed with my lunchbox.

It’s from Laptop Lunches and I’ve used it every single workday since I bought it about a year ago. I work nights so I don’t really have a choice about bringing a lunch – there’s nothing open except 7-11 – but I never mind because this lunchbox brings me incomparable joy. It’s the perfect portion size for me and usually allows me 2 snacks and one meal per work day. I almost always fill the yellow square with fruit, the green square with a fun snack (nuts & dried fruit, a muffin, crackers, etc.) and the purple and red usually house leftovers from dinner.

Today I had:

Yellow: Grapes and apple

Purple: Leftover pesto pizza

Red: Oatgurt with simple raspberry sauce (raspberries, agave & apple juice, smushed together) & flax

Green: Pumpkin Spice Roasted Chickpeas, Medjool date with almond butter, and a piece of Zazubean Ego (goji berries & matcha) chocolate.

I probably won’t share my lunch very often because it’s often just a replay of other meals but it makes me happy so if it’s an interesting mix I might feel compelled to share.

Chili & Sweaty

Bah. My instructor wasn’t in today and I don’t tend to like the style of the others so I just did my own thing instead.

I’m working on following the plan in The New Rules of Lifting for Women, but only partly since I don’t have it in my schedule to do the full 3x/wk. Here’s what I did:

5 min warm-up on the rower (such an underrated machine)

Squats: 3 x 8 reps @ 95lbs

Seated Row: 3 x 8 reps @ 60lbs (for some reason the last few weeks I’ve gotten progressively weaker at this one)

Step Ups: 3 x 8 reps @ 25lbs per hand

Prone Jackknifes: 3 x 15 reps

Push ups: 3 x 20 reps (on knees – I’m still a push up weakling)

Medicine Ball Obliques: 2 x 20 reps @ 5lbs

21 min Bike Interval workout: 3min WU, 5 x (1min @ 100 RPM, 2min @ 85 RPM), 3 min CD

I love, love, love doing bike intervals. It might make me weird but I think it’s so much fun and my legs were so sore after just 20 minutes today, although that could have been because of my long run yesterday (Oh, I forgot to mention my long run! I ran 19.5km yesterday in 2 hrs flat. Right on pace. There, mentioned).

I swear I sweat more than anyone else at my gym, especially during intervals. I literally make little pools of sweat under the bike. It’s kind of ridiculous and sometimes people stare.

After the gym I came home and made some scrumptious raw chili. I won’t give a recipe since it was based of a recipe in Everyday Raw, but I’ll give an ingredient rundown.

Carrot and soaked almonds, chopped in the food processor. To which I added finely chopped crimini mushrooms, red onion and cabbage. Then doused it all in a lovely, spicy sun-dried tomato sauce.

I thought it would be ironic to use my oven-safe french onion soup bowls for the chili, ’cause it’s raw, get it? But I did end up throwing it in the toaster oven at 150F for about 3 minutes, just to get it a little warm. I served it with Buffalo flavoured Food Should Taste Good chips (good, indeed).

(segue)

Can we stop a moment and just talk about how damn good these chips are? We just got them in my local health food store a couple weeks ago and I literally squealed with delight when I saw them (I do this a lot, I think the employees are starting to get scared of me). Anyway, I’ve tried a bunch of flavours and they’ve all been fantastic. I try not to buy processed foods too much but it’s hard when they’re this good and on sale 2 for $5 to boot. So far my favourite flavour has been The Works, but they haven’t had the Lime in stock yet and I’m pretty sure that’ll win in the end. I also haven’t had Chocolate, Cinnamon, or Yellow Corn. I’m sure that will be rectified before too long.

(/segue)

Back on topic – this chili is also a food that tastes good. A lot like regular chili, but crunchier Raw food make me happy. What can I say? I like to experiment.

Meghann actually posted recently about what it means to be a foodie, and that’s what it’s about for me. The love of food in all its forms and the willingness and desire to seek out new and wonderful ways to appreciate it. I think I’d do a post in more detail soon because this is a topic that’s close to my heart.