Spinach Salad with Blood Oranges

After getting home from the gym tonight and drinking a chocolate banana shake made with Sunwarrior protein, I decided I wanted a light, simple dinner. Luckily, I picked up salad ingredients when I grocery shopped at Whole Foods this past weekend. Blood oranges were on sale, so I bought a couple of them to segment into a salad. Blood oranges are sweeter than regular oranges, and have a great "blood" red colored flesh. This is thanks to the presence of anthocyanin, a type of antioxidant. Besides the antioxidants, blood oranges are full of vitamin C and fiber, just like regular oranges. I used spinach for my salad greens; perfect since the iron in the spinach is absorbed better when eaten with vitamin C rich foods. I also used avocado and sliced almonds to round out the salad, and I made a blood orange sesame vinaigrette to dress it. This was so good, I could have eaten a whole additional plate. The recipe below serves two; double as needed.

Spinach and Blood Orange Salad with Blood Orange Sesame Vinaigrette
-2 servings of fresh spinach
-2 blood oranges
-1 avocado, diced
-4 tbsp sliced almonds
-2 tsp red wine vinegar
-1 tbsp sesame oil
-1 tbsp canola oil
-1 tsp agave nectar
-1/2 tsp sriracha
-1 clove garlic, minced
-juice of half a lemon
-1 tbsp sesame seeds
-salt and pepper

-Divide the spinach between two dinner plates and set aside.
-Using a paring knife, slice the ends off of each blood orange. Then slice the rind and outer pith off the sides of the orange. Finally, slice out each segment of the orange between the membranes. Do this over a bowl and save the juice; you can also squeeze the remaining juice out of the membrane once you've removed your segments. Separate the juice and the segments.
-Make your salad dressing. You should have about 3 tbsp of blood orange juice. To this juice, add the vinegar, oils, agave, sriracha, garlic, lemon juice, sesame seeds, and salt and pepper. Whisk until combined.
-Top each plate of spinach with segments of one orange, half the diced avocado, and 2 tbsp of almonds. Divide the dressing between the plates and serve immediately.

Meals, a Quick Review, and a Smoothie

What a busy week, and weekend for that matter! I apologize for the lack of updates, but between busy nights at the gym, Mark's birthday on Friday, and lots of work on our house this weekend, I just haven't had the time. I have been cooking though. A few things I made this week are stir fry with bell pepper, broccoli, shiitake mushrooms, and edamame, pasta with artichokes, arugula, and white beans, and black bean tostadas (I'll have to post this recipe one of these days). I have some tasty meals in mind for this coming week so I'll be sure to have at least one new recipe for you all soon!

Earlier this month I posted about my new Nathan water bottle for running. Yesterday, on a positively gorgeous 65 degree morning, I got a chance to give it a test drive on a 6.5 mile run. Overall, this is a really good water bottle. First and foremost, it holds more than enough liquid (about 20 ounces) for really long runs. The sport top is easy to use, even while running. The fit around my hand was snug and comfortable, and the sweat wicking strap worked well. My only complaint was that the inside of my hand (around the bottle) got pretty sweaty. Over the course of the run I had to remove the bottle twice to wipe the sweat off my hand so the bottle wouldn't slide (sorry for the gross details). However, to be fair, I'm not sure how any water bottle would really deal with this issue. Overall, the bottle was comfortable, didn't negatively affect my running at all, and I was really happy to be able to have a swig of water every couple of miles.

I will leave you with a quick recipe tonight. After a strength training workout or a long run, it's really important to get a hit of protein and carbs to help your muscles recover. This smoothie hits the spot with just 3 ingredients. Feel free to add other supplements that you like to include in your diet. Flax oil or maca powder are my additions of choice.

Chocolate Banana Protein Smoothie
-1 cup vanilla almond milk
-1 serving chocolate flavored protein powder (any kind will do; rice, soy, hemp, etc.)
-1 frozen banana

-Add the ingredients to a blender and blend on high until well combined and smooth. Add any supplements you like and blend to combine. Serve right away.

Vegan Muscles!

Hi all! Mid-Atlantic folks, did it rain enough for you these past few days? Being stuck inside is never the best, but I got lots of quality running and working out in at the gym. I also had the time to check out a website that my husband showed me recently. Think you can't be strong and muscular on a vegan diet? Think again, and check out Mike Mahler. He's a sports conditioning trainer, a kettlebell expert, and a vegan. His website is full of useful (and often, free) information about working out and kettlebells, and also vegan nutrition. He freely admits that he eats mostly for fuel and not for flavor, but after reading through his basic food combinations, I thought up all kinds of tasty and healthy ways to make these base foods delicious! The homemade protein bar and smoothie recipes will also be really valuable to me, and they look so easy to make. I'll be sure to post the results of these experiments as I try them.

Mike's website also talks about his supplements of choice, and the one that kept popping up everywhere was Sunwarrior Protein. My friend Lauren uses this stuff in all her smoothies and loves it, so I figured now that I have multiple positive reviews I should order it. I went with the chocolate flavor, and I'm looking forward to trying it! Finally, visiting Mike's website really motivated me to work harder on my strength training days. I am a runner first and foremost, but the advantages of full body fitness and strength can't be ignored. Luckily my husband Mark is always there to push me farther than I think I can go, and I often surprise myself. If you feel like you're low on motivation, check out the website! There's no way you can read through it and not be inspired.

On a separate note, dinner tonight is going to be a stir fry. I'll use the base sauce from my earlier post, but tonight I am going to use broccoli, shiitake mushrooms, edamame, and red bell pepper. I'm also going to serve it over brown rice. Just one more variation on a dish that you can really get creative with!

Hemp - Not Just for College Students

I am an alum of the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont. When people hear this, they often gravitate to one of a few topics; commonly, it's hemp. Obviously, a student or two was known to use a variety of the plant for its, shall we call them, recreational purposes. There was also a store stocked full of clothing and other goods made of hemp (The Hempest). This was new to me, coming from New Jersey where I'd never seen the plant used in its fiber form. I may be living 300 miles away from Burlington today, but my hemp discoveries have not ended. In the past week, I've come across a couple of interesting hemp products that I wanted to share.

First, we have Tempt Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert. I was really excited to find this at my local Whole Foods.
I've had a few different soy based non-dairy desserts and I've always been underwhelmed. They almost tasted icy, if not a little freezer burned. Anyway, when I saw this frozen hempmilk dessert, I decided to give it a try. I picked up the Coffee Biscotti flavor. I will say, this little pint of wonderfulness blew me away. It was so creamy; I attribute this to the good fat that hempseeds are a great source of. Hempmilk has more than double the Omega-3's and Omega-6's than soy milk. Besides the healthy fats, this product is a good source of both protein and essential amino acids. Go ahead and try to find me another dessert that has all this AND tastes delicious, smooth, and creamy!

Another hemp product I just stumbled upon today is Nutiva HempShake. I haven't had a chance to actually try this yet, but I was intrigued enough to pick up a sample packet to try tomorrow. We've all heard the saying "everything in moderation". I like to make sure I take this to heart, especially with my soy intake. I enjoy soy yogurt, soy milk, soy protein powders, and tofu as much as the next guy. However, I'm trying to branch out to include other kinds of products to add variety to my diet.
The HempShake mix seems like a good choice because it contains about the same amount of protein as my soy protein mix and it also has blueberries, acai, and goji berries, which are all jammed packed with antioxidants. In addition, this mix is a good source of fiber. I promise to report back with a review of the taste and texture; I'm planning on blending this mix up with some almond milk and frozen strawberries.

Hopefully this inspired you to venture in the world of (legal) hemp products! If you feel so inclined, it's worth the time to do some reading on the state of hemp farming today; despite the fact that the industrial hemp used to produce food and fiber products can't be used as a drug thanks to low THC levels, it's still illegal to farm here in the United States.