Where Digestion Begins - Jodh Kaur

What I Ate - Half Marathon Prep

4/21/2019

After a very cold, snowy and windy training - I ran my first race of the year today. I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to cold weather running, but I scheduled this Half Marathon to motivate myself to get moving and to condition myself for Marathon training. This race was my I did it moment as I happily waved goodbye to winter. The weather this morning was beautiful, sunny and mild. The course was hilly. I felt strong and better prepared than I realized. I can't ask for much more.

This is what I ate yesterday and this morning, in preparation for my race today. I started yesterday with a smoothie very similar to my Spring Super Food Smoothie except I substituted orange juice for the plant milk and omitted the cacao.

For lunch and dinner I had Kichari made with quinoa, split moong dal, celery and spinach. This dish is packed with protein, carbs and fiber and ended up being a perfect meal for the day before a race. I would definitely have this again. It is also easy and inexpensive to make. Throughout the day, I snacked on 2 pieces of sourdough toast and 2 bananas and had a cookie - what can I say... carb loading.

My pre-race meal will sound familiar. One hour before race time, I ate one half of a brown rice tortilla with 1 Tbsp nut butter, 2 dates, a sprinkle of hemp seeds and about a teaspoon of maple syrup. I also had coffee with soy milk and drank about 32 oz of water before the race began. We had just over an hour of driving which gave me plenty of time to hydrate and eat my breakfast.

Here I am, post 13.1 - Mission Accomplished!

It's Friday - What I Ate Today

3/29/2019

It's Friday also known as my long run day, but today is a drop back week (yay!) so only a 10k - which felt really good. It was my first run this year without needing to wear a jacket, the sun was out, it wasn't windy - it was beautiful! While I have been having smoothies most mornings, today I opted for my brown rice tortilla-nut butter-dates and hemp seed combo.

For lunch, I was craving tostadas. Before my run, I pulled a jar of pinto beans out of the freezer and filled it with hot water to help the beans defrost while I was away. When I returned I emptied the jar of most of the water and poured the beans into a sauce pan and seasoned them with turmeric, garlic and onion powder, cumin, chili powder, cayenne and chipotle powder as well as salt and pepper. Once the beans were hot, I stirred vigorously making them into refried beans consistency. Meanwhile, I sliced red and green bell pepper (spring veggies! see my previous post for more details) and a small jalapeño and sautéed with a little grapeseed oil.

I seasoned the peppers similarly - chipotle and chili powder, cayenne, garlic and onion powder and cooked until they were softened, but still had a little bite to them. As you can see, they retained their bright color. To make the tostadas, I heated corn tortillas right on the rack in a 350˚oven until they became just crispy. I topped the tortillas with beans, veggies, avocado, salsa and nutritional yeast for a lunch rich in fiber, protein, healthy fat, antioxidants and vitamin C.

Sometimes buffalo sauce calls me, today it was in the form of Buffalo Cauliflower and this recipe is the best. They are easy to make and come out of the oven crispy and coated in spicy, yummy sauce. I make my own ranch - heavy on the dill - which cools the mouth and adds a nice balance to the spicy cauliflower. For dinner, I enjoyed these with oven fries which I pop in the oven after the cauliflower is sauced so they finish cooking at the same time. This was a perfect accompaniment to my Friday night with Netflix.

What I Ate Today - Happy Spring!

3/20/2019

In the spirit of spring, I tried something new this morning with my pre-run breakfast - I had a smoothie. I know, real ground breaking stuff! However, I am a creature of habit and I do believe it's important to be consistent with pre-run meals especially as my mileage increases. Still, I had an idea to try a Super Food Smoothie and it was super yummy, filled with good stuff and was perfect before a run. Hey - it's nice to have options!

Lunch was this Chickpea Curry. I love the combination of veggies which can easily be swapped out for what you have on hand. The coconut milk adds a richness and the spices warmed me from inside out. I had this over rice, but I'm sure it would be good over couscous or quinoa.

The recipe I linked to uses sweet potato and here I used a purple potato which changed the color of the dish making it look deep and rich. So don't be surprised when you make this and it looks a little different.

Dinner was this Quinoa Hummus bowl at a local restaurant. It is vegan when ordered without feta cheese and I don't miss cheese in this at all. The bowl is fresh, flavorful and satisfying, even though (as you can see in this photo) the quinoa was not cooked very well. Still, I appreciate a restaurant with a vegan friendly option.

ChickPeas 2 Ways

3/1/2019

I'm on a bit of a pasta kick lately... Last night, I came home hungry after a long conference day. I didn't have much time to make dinner before my evening class and to be honest - not a lot to work with (I still haven't gone grocery shopping this week 😳). I had a run scheduled for the following morning so I wanted to make sure to have both carbs and protein for dinner. I prepared this flavorful pasta with brown rice pasta, garlic, olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes and chickpeas and seasoned it with dried basil, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, salt, pepper and nutritional yeast.

I had a heaping portion and I know it was good because when I returned from class, it was mostly gone except a bunch of chickpeas left in the bottom of the pot. Does this ever happen to you - Too much sauce, not enough pasta? 🤔
I find it helpful to keep pantry staples on hand so that I can make something quick and easy when I'm short on time. Having a selection of dried herbs and spices, oils, beans, pasta (rice and wheat), rice, tortillas, salsa, garlic, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, artichoke hearts, jarred tomatoes makes a quick, flavorful and healthy dish accessible and easy to prepare.

For my post run lunch, I took the remaining chickpeas - which were well flavored and I mashed them up with some tahini and water for a chickpea salad. I slathered this on some yummy bread and topped with Aji and giardiniera - my two favorite sandwich toppings. I love chickpea salad and this was a great way to use the remaining chickpeas from the pasta dish, plus there were a few sun-dried tomatoes in the mix which provided an extra pop of flavor.

What I Ate Today During Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training

2/19/2019

We are now in the midst of our first week of Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training at Urban Yoga Chicago where we have 9 radiant women taking the course. This year we are blessed with a team of teachers who come in daily to prepare the lunch for the group. It is such a treat to have meals prepared by such generous souls and to have others prepare recipes that I have created. So far, they are working out nicely!

I'm not doing great with the picture taking, but I want to share what we are eating this week. For breakfast each morning, we offer crock pot oatmeal, toast, dates, walnuts, almond butter, apples, bananas and clementines. I love having oatmeal with a big spoonful of almond butter, a couple of dates, some banana and maple syrup as well as a piece of toast with coconut oil. We start our day with yoga and meditation at 5:30am so by the time breakfast rolls around, I'm hungry!

For lunch this week, we had Kitcheri and Potent Potatoes - a very Kundalini Yoga combination, Stir-Fried Vegetables with Miso & Mirin and Baked Tofu and Veggie Chili. The next 3 days of training will offer Lentil Loaf with Mashed Potatoes, ChickPeas and Fennel with Polenta and a Lentil MustGo Soup (where all of the left over veggies will go).

Dinners this week have varied from a meal out at Chicago Diner to a bit of leftover kitchari. I'm not always hungry after eating a big lunch, but try to eat a little something so my stomach isn't grumbling during sadhana the next morning. 😳 Overall I'm feeling very excited about how this week is going. The food has been so tasty and being in training again is inspiring and energizing. It's truly an honor to witness and support these new teachers on their journey.

What I Ate Today - Mixing it Up

2/13/2019

Sharing my food is prompting me to try new things. I'm one of those people who could eat the same thing every day and be content. But something I'm working on this year is to mix it up a bit.

With that said, when it comes to my pre-run eating that will remain the same & it's boring so I won't post a photo every time. I started my day with the brown rice tortilla, date, hemp seeds, almond butter delight that I shared in my previous What I Ate Today post and headed out for a run. I felt like I was running on the moon. It was freezing and the snow and ice crunched loudly with each step. But there is such a feeling of accomplishment to complete an activity in less than ideal circumstances - and we are about 50 degrees away from ideal circumstances. 🤷🏻‍♀️

For lunch, I took store bought pasta sauce up a notch by adding in chopped mushrooms, zucchini, onion, garlic, green bell pepper, carrot and jalapeño. I sautéed the veggies in oil and added marjoram, oregano, crushed red pepper, garlic & onion powder, salt & pepper to the mix. Once the veggies were softened I stirred in diced tomatoes and the pasta sauce with about a tablespoon of maple syrup to balance the acidity of the tomatoes. I used wheat pasta today, but this would be just as tasty with brown rice noodles. I finished this with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast.

Dinner was a date night at Urban Vegan. The awesome part of going to a vegan restaurant is - we can eat everything on the menu, no questions asked. The challenge is - we can eat everything on the menu and there are so many options! Which is why I usually order the same thing every time. In the spirit of doing something different, today I had miso soup followed by steamed dumplings in a green curry sauce which were creamy, slightly sweet and spicy, and Spicy Thai Basil Tofu with perfectly cooked green peppers and onions. I would definitely order this meal again and feel inspired to replicate this dish in my own kitchen.

What I Ate Today - I'm back to running

2/6/2019

While I'm not a fan of running in the cold (Ok I don't like it at all!), I'm working to shift my perspective. And let's face it, when the weather shifts from -20º to +20º - it makes 20º feel downright tolerable - dare I say warm? At the beginning of the week, I mapped out my running goals, scheduled my races and wrote out my training plan for the year and it all needed to start this week. So here we go!

I ran today and I always have the same thing before running, coffee with half of a brown rice tortilla (heated on the stove) with about 1 Tbsp almond butter, 2 dates and a sprinkle of hemp seeds. It's not pretty, but it is a light breakfast that is filling enough to send me out the door without feeling like I'm running with a brick in my belly. I also try to drink about 24-32 ounces of warm water during my morning sadhana so I'm well hydrated as my day begins.

I came back from my 3 mile run hungry so I had 2 slices of this polenta pumpkin bread toasted with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkling of Everything But the Bagel Seasoning. I absolutely love this bread and it kept me satisfied until lunch.

If you saw my post from last week, you know last week was a bean fest in my kitchen. I pulled out the chickpeas and some kale to make this hearty and delicious pasta recipe. One of my favorite things to do is to take what I have on hand in my fridge and see what I can do with it. This dish was a successful experiment. The sun dried tomatoes and lemon juice balance the flavors out nicely. Plus it was all ready in about the time it took to boil the water and cook the pasta. Hearty and satisfying, just what I crave fo lunch.

You will come to learn that I love tacos. For dinner, I made portobello mushroom tacos and vegan ground beef tacos which I jazzed up with some diced onion and jalapeño and seasoned with chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. We topped them with my cheeze sauce, salsa, lettuce and avocado and served with pinto beans over rice. I love these creamy pinto beans. The rice and beans inside of a tortilla make for a yummy taco on their own.

What I ate today - It's cold outside!

1/28/2019

Winter finally arrived here in Chicago and I just want to stay inside and be cozy, how about you? I have been on a savory-for-breakfast kick lately. This morning, I made tacos with the left over green crema and cheeze sauce I had in my fridge. For the tacos, I used the same recipe as my tofu scramble. I substituted spinach for the kale and loaded it up on corn tortillas with salsa, avocado, cheeze, crema, avocado and Aji Sobremesa. It was a little spicy and very filling. I like making the cheeze and crema at the beginning of the week and finding ways to use it throughout - tacos, nachos, chili, baked potato are all good uses for both sauces.

There is nothing cozier on a cold winter day than sitting in the kitchen while veggies are roasting in the oven. Today, I roasted red and golden beets, sweet potato and carrots. It smelled divine and warmed our kitchen. I served these grounding roasted root veggies with braised kale and basmati rice and drizzled the whole thing with a simple tahini sauce. The kale and veggies were tender and the tahini added a richness to the dish and tied it all together. Believe it or not, it's worth the time to dice the root veggies smaller like this. Not only do they cook evenly, they really do taste better.

Savitree makes the richest, most decadent, sugar-free (what?!) hot chocolate using Droste Cocoa. I enjoyed every single sip. What more can I say?

For dinner, I made grilled cheeze and polished off my cheeze sauce. This is my favorite sourdough bread, slathered with cheeze and topped with giardiniera, pickles and home grown pea shoots. The key to making a good vegan grilled cheeze is to use low heat and to cover the pan. Be patient! Cooking the sandwich slowly, over low heat helps heat the cheeze all the way through (whether you are using homemade or store bought) and also keeps the coconut oil from burning. It was a satisfying way to end the day.

What I ate today (besides tofu)

1/17/2019

I start my day with hot water which I continue to sip on throughout the day. I find it keeps me hydrated and helps my stomach feel calm.
I was in the mood for something savory this morning & hungry for a hearty breakfast. I used frozen shredded hash browns as the base for this Tofu Scramble. Adding in fresh kale is nice way to get your greens in first thing in the morning. I topped this with Aji Sobremesa which is a spicy sauce with a unique flavor (it goes well on almost anything) and served with a piece of toast and a cup of coffee. This was hearty and tangy. So satisfying.

I'm in work mode today so wanted something simple and easy for lunch. I love sweet potatoes because not only are they tasty and filling, but they are so easy to make. I baked this one at 425° for about 45 minutes. It smelled amazing and I was able to continue to work while it cooked - perfect. I mashed it with a fork and drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt & pepper. So simple, and the salt brings out the sweetness of the potato. I served this with spinach which I sautéed with sliced onion, garlic and crushed red pepper and also topped with olive oil, sea salt & pepper. Spinach is perfect when you don't have much time because it cooks very quickly. I had two pieces of baked tofu left over from my lunch yesterday so that rounded out the meal. I guess I shouldn't have tofu for dinner. 😉

I had a banana for a snack before heading out the door to an appointment and classes. By the time I returned home, it was late and I was hungry, but just wanted something light. Avocado toast is yummy for breakfast, but just as good for dinner. I have fresh bread that is wonderfully chewy so I didn't bother to toast it. I just mashed the avocado and topped with some nutritional yeast "nootch", Everything but the Bagel seasoning and black pepper. The fresh green salad topped with olive oil, more nootch, sea salt & pepper offered a nice contrast in texture and yes more greens. I had a few dark chocolate covered cashews for dessert and called it a day.

I have a cold :(

1/8/2019

Yep, it happens - we all get sick, even vegans, even yogis we are all human beings and whether we want to admit it or not, it happens. A few nights of poor sleep + increased stress left my immune system compromised. And here I am lying in bed headache, sneezing, eyes watering and crying because feeling awful makes me feel sad.

Our inclination may be to power through with over-the-counter meds and go on about our lives, but I choose to rest and use this as an opportunity to nurture myself. Extra sleep, saying no to appointments that aren't necessary, lying down and being silent, eating well, lots of fluids. This is what I crave.

After waking up this morning to a sneezing fit and watery eyes, it was Neti Pot to the rescue. I like to Neti in the shower since I can't seem to use the thing without water running down the side of my face. I followed this with Nasaya Oil which felt so soothing. Feels so good to breathe! When I'm under the weather I crave orange juice and fruit in the morning. I like a Smoothie Bowl because I eat slower with a spoon making it more satisfying. I topped this simple bowl with some chopped nuts for texture.

I'm often asked what I eat when I have a cold now that I don't eat chicken soup. I have a couple of variations of a miso veggie soup that are my go to recipes. When I had a cold last year, I made a hot water concoction containing hot water, fresh ginger, cayenne and lemon juice. It tasted good, like a spicy broth, and it made me sweat. I combined this with a soup that my good friend Savitree makes and created a simple, spicy and satisfying Ginger Miso Soup for lunch. I served it with rice because we had some made and added a bit of kimchi. I was sweating when I was done eating which I find to be so satisfying. A piece of high quality dark chocolate was the perfect sweet taste after this flavorful soup. Excuse the image - it was steaming hot and I was ready to eat!

I kept my hot lemon water near by and sipped it throughout the day. For a snack, I had a banana and a small handful of nuts. For dinner, I had a glass of OJ and 2 slices of toast topped with coconut oil and Everything but the Bagel Seasoning from Trader Joes (love that stuff). It was just enough as I was ready for bed.

Be well, here's to health and happiness in 2019.