Food Friday

I think we all have sweet tooth's I know I do. So given that - I have a suggestion for a dessert that can well be eaten at any time, and if you were my father you would eat it at every meal, as the meal.

For a 8x11 pan (1 1/2 inch deep)

5 large peaches peeled and sliced
1 pint (2 cups) of blackberries

Toss in 1/4 cup of sugar (or less) and 1/2 - 1T of cornstarch (depends on juiciness of your peaches)

Add 1-3T of diced crystallized ginger

Top with:

1 small box of gingersnaps ground up in a food processor or beaten with a pot while in a ziploc. (I used Mary's Gone Crackers - you need about 1/2 of the box or go for the whole amount)

1/4 cup cold butter - I used goat milk butter - I really prefer it's consistency and flavour - the fat content makes it a different substance.

Sprinkle of GF flour mix and sugar - I did this solely on flavour

Combine crumbles, butter and flour/sugar and crumbles over the fruit and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Note you can add more fruit or less topping - remember you are the one in the kitchen, not me.

Website Wednesday

So this sort of fits in with Food Friday, but since I plan on actually posting a recipe on Friday, I am offering you this lovely website, the PPK blog aka The Post Punk Kitchen. The PPK is a vegan blog which offers a wide variety of vegan/children/non-vegan/gluten free friendly recipes. I really encourage you to have a look at the recipes:

The Post Punk Kitchen

Food Friday

So I will admit that this recipe has minimal nutritional value, but what it lacks in some ways it makes up for in many others. I have a sweet tooth and I have this combined desire that my sweets don't suck nutritionally, which is why I love this recipe - which is NOT mine:

Graham Crackers

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour or a GF alternative (if using this consider adding a little tapioca or stabilizer)

1/3 cup sugar (unrefined preferably)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup oil (non-flavoured)

2 tablespoons molasses

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup rice milk (plus maybe an extra tablespoon or so), soy milk or water will work, too - I used vanilla hemp milk

1/2cup-3/4cup chopped crystallized ginger

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat (worth the investment for you, the environment and your sanity)

In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the middle and pour in oil, molasses and vanilla. Give the liquid ingredients a quick whisk with a fork and then continue mixing until everything is well combined and crumbly.

Drizzle in the milk and combine. Use your hands to knead the dough a few times until it holds together, add an extra tablespoon of rice milk if needed. Add ginger, knead a little to combine. You should be able to form a pliable ball of dough.

Roll, press, smush out into a rectangle on your silpat(or whathave you), trim the sides to make it a real rectangle if your neurotic like me and then score out the sizes you want. Bake for about 14 minutes, longer if you really like your crunchy.

Let cool completely on the baking sheet. And then if your like me, melt some 70% cocao dark chocolate and dip the ends in.

For this recipe and many wonderful others: http://vegancupcakes.wordpress.com/2007/07/04/graham-crackers/

Photo

Many W's Wednesday

In honor of more snow in our forecast and the stress that weather can play on our training days, I would like to offer a little insight into my method of stress relief and into my life. Exercise in general for many of us whether we're training or not is a place of stress relief, but sometimes it isn't. For me I turn to yoga which just happens to be beneficial, which leads us to infinite websites that can be used if you cannot make it to a local studio for a variety of reasons ( I would strongly encourage newer practicers to attend a studio for a session, so that you can learn what a corrected/proper posture in the basic poses feels like). I would recommend:

Yoga Journal

YJ offers class locations, poses, a vinyasa for month and so on, they also offer pod casts and etc.

So on to me, I've been changing my eating this week in a grand, poorly executed test of what I can do to make me feel more like me as the miles increase and maybe lose weight and gain back my upper body muscle tone - obviously that isn't just an add more miles, eat less combo - I'm back to two days on the bike and weights/core work - those were my rest days. This grand test was actually kick started by a review of what I use to eat on an average day when I was a vegan, and let me tell you no wonder I felt better and was thinner...

Today(Some is projected/planned):

1 Moothie - It's an organic yogurt smoothie - Serving size 200mL - instead of my 250-400mL protein smoothie I would make for after workout

1 1/2 eggs (2 whites, one yolk) and a slice of Ezekiel bread, 1 Venti Zen Tea and a banana (breakfast)

2 graham crackers

Sandwich - WF Black Forest ham, LF Havarti, Ranch dressing (LF), grated carrots, sprouts, tomato, and raspberries

Soup - Carrot Ginger soup 1/2 cup serving

2 Graham Crackers, 1 mango diced

Panko breaded Sea Bass, Salad, Broccolini and Whole Wheat Couscous

1 Homemade Graham Cracker w/additional ginger(that's plan for tonight's baking) and a tall soy marble hot chocolate ... of course loads of water

Food Friday!!

I have to say talking about food, dreaming about food and eating food of course... is about the only thing these days that keeps me from panicking about the upcoming dates, like Oh, Oklahoma fast approaching on the horizon at this pace it is likely to pass me by... but enough of that metaphor.

Healthy food can and often does get a bit monotonous, we have our go to meals and so on and so forth - at this moment Chicken Souvlaki for some reasons comes to mind as my go to meal, that or Pad Thai. If I could get my single self together and convince my roommate to eat meat - I know, I know the pseudo vegan should not be doing that... this is what we'd be eating and we will be eating on Monday night.

Slow Cooker Lasagna

1 lb ground lean beef or chicken, turkey, tofu crumbles, tempeh or whatever you want to use
1 onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic
3 cups veggies - mushrooms, eggplant (sliced or smalled diced), zucchini, peppers
1 bag frozen spinach
Seasoning - basil, oregano, thyme - whatever you would like to add
1 (29 oz) jar of organic "spaghetti"sauce - I use whatever is on sale at WF
1 package of whole wheat/spelt/alternative lasagna noodles - NOT PRE COOKED
1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese (I detest cottage cheese) - OR Tofu Ricotta (firm tofu, raw cashews and nutritional yeast)
2 cups mozzarella cheese or TEESE

Note: The veggies will cook down, so understand that in relation to what kind of texture you would like.

Cook the meat (if using a veggie option - no need, though I would steam my tempeh to get the "flavour" out of it), onion, and garlic. Combine the remaining ingredients - the sauce and veggies

In the slow cooker, spoon a layer of the meat mixture onto the bottom of the slow cooker. Add a double of layer of the uncooked lasagna noodles. Break to fit the noodles into the slow cooker if needed. Top the noodles with a portion of the ricotta and mozzarella cheese. Repeat the layering of sauce, noodles, and cheese until all the ingredients are used. Cover and cook on low heat in a slow cooker for 6-8 hours, or as I do, text your roommate or significant other to put it in the slow cooker and plug it in on their way to work, so that you when you return home from yoga can eat.