One of My Favorite Healthy Fats and Races!

I have never done more than one race in a single week, until now. Last Thursday I attended the first of six 5k races in the Jersey Shore Running Club Summer Series, and the Saturday after that I ran the George Sheehan Classic 5 mile race. Summer Series was really fun. About 100 people came out. I finished a few seconds under 25 minutes, which was not a PR or anything, but I did come in first in my (minimally represented) age group. I'm looking forward to the next race tomorrow, even though it's supposed to be 94 degrees out. The Sheehan Classic is one of my favorite races. It's right in my town, so I don't even need to worry about leaving early or parking or anything. I had a bit of an upset stomach that morning, but I was able to get over it in time to race, and ran a PR! I finished in 42:31, which I was thrilled about since this course is pretty hilly compared to the course I ran my previous best time on. I don't have any more big races scheduled for a few weeks, so it will be nice to use the weekends to get some longer runs in.

In case you were wondering if I feel guilty eating fat, well, I can assure you that I do not. Fat gets such a bad name, when in reality, it's a really important part of everyone's diet. Of course, some fats are better than others, and coconut is one of my go-to healthy fats. I find that coconut is great in both sweet and savory dishes. Last night, I used coconut milk to make a hearty curry dish. This is a great meal to make on a weeknight when time is an issue. My favorite part of this meal was the delicious snow peas that I picked up at the farmer's market this past weekend. They were so crunchy and sweet, so much more delicious than what you get at the grocery store. I served the curry over brown rice, which soaked up the coconut milk. Yum. This makes about 4 servings, and the leftovers are great. In fact, Mark took them to work for dinner tonight.

Tofu and Veggie Curry over Rice
-1 cup brown rice
-2 tbsp canola oil
-1 lb. package extra firm tofu, diced
-4 cloves garlic, minced
-1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
-4 red skinned potatoes, diced
-1 red bell pepper, diced
-1 cup snow peas, ends trimmed
-2 tbsp curry paste (I used green, but you could use red)
-1 15 oz. can coconut milk (don't buy light!)

-Get going on preparing the rice first, whether on the stove or in the microwave.
-Heat a nonstick pan over medium high heat. Add the canola oil, then add the tofu. Cook for 6-8 minutes, until golden, then flip and cook another side until golden. Remove the tofu and drain on a paper towel.
-Add the potatoes, peppers, and peas to the pan. Cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring often.
-Add the garlic and ginger and cook for another minute. Then add the curry paste, and stir to incorporate.
-Add the coconut milk to the pan. Bring everything to a simmer, then cover. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until the potatoes are fork tender. Add the tofu and toss to coat with the curry sauce.
-Serve the curry over the cooked brown rice immediately, or refrigerate for a few days.

Taking a Little Help for a Quick Dinner

Before I get into last night's tasty dinner, let me quickly recap my race this past Saturday, the Pre-Father's Day 5k. It was another really nice morning for a race; fairly cool and a little overcast. I was planning on running the race with just my dad, but at the last minute, my husband Mark decided to run too. My not-so-secret goal is to one day have my whole family participate in a race, whether doing the run or the walk that often happens concurrently. Anyway, the course was nice and flat with lots of shade, but regardless of that, I still felt pretty rough the whole time. I guess it was because I was running at a fast pace for me. I finished in 23:16, a new PR! Mark and my dad both finished in under 27 minutes for their first ever 5k, which is better than I can say about my first race. I have heard rumors that the course is about .1 miles short, but I really don't know. I guess I will get a gauge of that when I run my next 5k. Another bonus about this race was the abundance of raffle prizes that were given away. There must have been at least 30 gift cards. Now I never win anything, but somehow I won a gift card to Spellbinders, a local surf shop. Mark and my dad won too, a Dunkin Donuts gift card and a free oil change. Speaking of running, the Jersey Shore Running Club Summer Series begins tomorrow. It's a series of six 5k races on Thursday evenings throughout June and July. The cost is minimal, and it will be a great way to meet club members, since I finally went ahead and joined JSRC. And last but not least, I am running the George Sheehan Classic 5 mile race on Saturday. I have a bone to pick with this hilly course since I ran it so slow last year.

On to the food! Now normally, I am not one to buy pre-made stuff. In fact, the only things typically in my freezer are frozen fruits, out of season frozen veggies, coconut milk ice cream, and ice packs. But, on my last shopping trip to Whole Foods, the prepared raviolis caught my eye. There were multiple varieties, all of which sounded tasty, and each box had 2 servings, which was perfect. Best of all, there were no funky ingredients that I couldn't pronounce. I settled on a package of broccoli rabe mozzarella raviolis. They were a tad pricey, but certainly not prohibitively, and I figured they would come in handy on a night where I was short on ideas but still wanted a filling meal. Last night turned out to be that night. While the pasta water came to a boil and the raviolis cooked, I put together a quick, rustic marinara sauce. Just some olive oil, onion, garlic, red pepper flake, and canned crushed tomatoes brought to a boil and simmered for a few minutes. I added seasoning and some of the oregano that is growing like crazy in my garden for extra fresh flavor. I also threw together a salad of romaine, carrot, and radish with a simple shallot vinaigrette. When the raviolis were done, I divided them between two plates and topped them generously with the marinara sauce. The verdict? Good and convenient. Not the best ravioli I've ever had, but for being frozen, they were pretty tasty. I wish there was more pronounced broccoli rabe flavor; perhaps the sauce was a little too much for it to come through. Would I buy these raviolis again? Probably. I'd like to try another flavor. Like I said, these are good in a pinch, and you can get creative with sauces to top them. Marinara, something red pepper based, maybe a creamy garlic sauce. I wouldn't call myself a frozen food convert, but it is nice to know there are products out there that I can feel good about keeping around for convenience's sake.

Spring Lake 5 and Stir Fry

In my last post I talked about my most recent race, The Spring Lake 5. I am happy to report that I set a new PR! It was a perfect day for racing, despite the heat that had plagued us during the week or so leading up to it. It was overcast, a little sprinkly, and not hot at all. This race was huge; about 7,500 people finished it. This also provided me with a good lesson learned - I am faster than I give myself credit for, and I should not start THAT far back in the pack. I got pretty stuck during the first mile due to crowds, and ended up running it in 9:20. Luckily the pack started to spread out, and I was able to pick up the pace for the rest of the race. I finished in 42:55, which was 492nd out of 3512 women racers. I am psyched! I felt really good and strong the whole time, and was really happy to come in under 43 minutes. Now onto the next race. This Saturday I am running the Pre-Father's Day 5k with my Dad. I am excited that we get to do the race together, even though I intend to beat him handily! Ha. I set a new 5k PR back in April, so we will see what I can do this time around.

Last night, after a hard workout at the track (400m repeats, ouch), I made a huge pan of stir fry. I eat stir fry a lot, probably once a week, since it is so versatile and never gets old to me. You can find my base recipe for the stir fry sauce here. I used tofu as my protein and for vegetables I used onion, red bell pepper, shiitake mushrooms, and boy choy stems and leaves. The boy choy was so delicious. It almost takes on a little sweetness as it cooks, and it's nice to have two totally different textural elements (crunchy stems, wilted leaves) in one vegetable. For my sauce, I left out the ginger and garlic that the base recipe calls for and instead added some fermented black bean garlic paste. YUM. This stuff is super flavorful and gave the sauce a whole new spin. I served all this over brown rice. If you still haven't experimented with stir fry, now is the time! With all the tasty spring and early summer vegetables we have available now, you will have all kinds of creative options to make it yours.

Changes, a Race Recap, and a Salad

I am writing while sitting down and resting a pair of tired, but recovering legs, thanks to Sunday's Long Branch Half Marathon! But we'll get to that in a minute. First, this may come as a surprise to some, but I am changing my eating habits once again. After a lot of thought and rather stressful consideration, I am not going to call myself vegan any longer. Lately I have been finding the label to be very restrictive, and I've been uncomfortable with it. I'm sure I could ramble on about my reasoning for paragraph after paragraph, but I will save it, and just say that I feel that this decision is the best thing for me personally right now. Going forward, I don't plan on hitting up a burger joint 5 nights a week, don't worry. I will thoughtfully consider any animal based products I put in my body, and make my decisions in a fluid, day-to-day way rather than by a strict set of rules (which works great for some people, I'm just finding it doesn't for me). My house, however, will most likely remain vegan (at this point I can't think of any meat or dairy products I need to have at home) and I will of course continue to focus on eating a healthy diet, so rest assured that many of the recipes I post will be vegan-friendly (and of course, delicious). I hope you all, regardless of your dietary choices, will continue to follow Runs on (Mostly) Plants.


On to the half marathon! My mom and I arrived to the start and finish area hour well ahead of the start time, at which point the weather was still reasonable. By the time the race started at 9am, it was HOT. The lovely ocean breeze faded as we headed inland on the loop course right around mile 3 and it didn't make an appearance again until almost mile 12. In between it was hot and humid, but everything else about the race was great. Through every street there was great crowd support. People with signs, bells, hoses and sprinklers, and even some with homemade water stops and snacks were out. There were even a few bands playing along the course! Before I hit a few road blocks in my training, I was shooting to finish in under 2 hours. But after my fall on my knee and some Achilles tendon trouble just a week and a half before the race, I eased up on that and decided to just enjoy the race and see what happens. I'm happy to say I finished in 2 hours 6 minutes 18 seconds (from the unofficial results posted today), and ended up in the top fifth of both my gender and age group. Not bad at all considering the unseasonably hot weather and a couple setbacks during training. And most importantly, I had a really good time doing the race. My friend John (who did the marathon) and his parents hosted a party after the race, and it was nice to kick back with friends old and new and a few beers and snacks. Overall, this was a great race! Mom was awesome taking pictures and cheering me on, a number of my friends completed the race, and everything was really organized, from pre-race packet pick up to the post-race massage. I hope to be back next year.
Last night I was craving a salad for dinner, but a salad with a bit of substance. A few months ago I made this Avocado Wasabi Salad from VeganYumYum. It was amazingly delicious. It's a bit of a process to put this whole thing together, so for a fast meal I decided to just make the chickpea part of the recipe and work it into a simple salad. The chickpeas are super easy to do, all you need are canned chickpeas, soy sauce, and wasabi in some form. The recipe called for powder, but I used paste and it worked great. Anyway, I made these chickpeas and tossed them with some mixed greens, carrots, cucumbers, scallions, and a orange sesame dressing that I whipped up (this is obviously my favorite dressing of the moment, I can't get enough of it). Easy, quick, and light, but still substantial.

Race Recap and a Delicious Dessert

Hi all! First off, I hope everyone had a happy Easter/Passover/spring weekend. I had a busy and fun weekend for sure. Saturday morning was my first race of the spring season, the Sgt. Pat's 5k in Long Branch. This is a great race that is run in remembrance of a Long Branch police officer that was killed in the line of duty. It also supports a scholarship fund and a non-profit that assists those with mental illness, both in Sgt. Pat King's name. It's nice to know your entry fee is going to such good causes. Anyway, it was a little foggy and chilly in the morning, but by 11:00am when the race started it had warmed up a little bit. It was a big field, over 600 people in total, and the race went out and back on the promenade along the beach. I'm happy to report that I set a new PR! I ran the 3.1 miles in 24 minutes and 26 seconds, good enough for 3rd place in my age group. I felt good the whole way through and was really pleasantly surprised at my time; I'm really psyched on acheiving a sub-8 minute mile pace. It was definitely a confidence booster for the half marathon, now less than 4 weeks away. Here's me (#338) just before the final turn around.
For a little Easter and post-run treat, I made a batch of Lemon Bars. The folks at No Meat Athlete posted the recipe, care of Veganomicon. This is a cookbook I really need to get myself next time I get a Borders coupon in my email. Anyway, these came out awesome. I love lemony desserts, and sadly, vegan lemon curd or custard is pretty much non-existant. Using a few alternative ingredients (agar flakes, arrowroot), these came together perfectly. A must try dessert recipe in my opinion, especially for lemon lovers!

Slow Food Central NJ Farmer's Market and NJAHPERD 2 Mile Winter Warm Up Run, Reviewed!

It has been a busy and eventful weekend, in a very good way. You might remember my earlier post about the Winter Farmer's Market sponsored by Slow Food Central NJ. Well, I took the ride out to Princeton on Saturday to check it out. What an awesome event! Everyone was really friendly, the vendors were plentiful, and there was even a live band. I picked up a few tasty goodies:I got cremini mushrooms from a farm in Pennsylvania, which I turned into a tasty soup for dinner tonight. I also got a half peck of cameo apples for juicing, salads, oatmeal, and snacking. I got a tin of spiced black tea that I couldn't turn down after I had a sample of it. Finally, I got lunch and dessert. Lunch was a kale salad from a local health food store, and dessert was a delicious carrot cake cupcake. It was maybe the most moist, texturally pleasing vegan cupcake I've ever had, so awesome! All in all, I'm really glad I took the ride to check this market out, and it seemed well attended. I hope it was a success for the sponsor.

As for today, I had the comeback race I decided to do last month, the NJAHPERD 2 Mile Winter Warm Up Fun Run. I was feeling pretty "eh" about it going in, since my training has felt just okay. Keep in mind, this training is pretty low key at this point, nothing more than 2 runs a week or so. But the good news is, I exceeded my expectations. I finished the race in 16:33, putting me at a pace of 8:16/mile, and in 21st place out of 66 runners. Much better than any of my training runs! My dad and my sister's friend Dave did the race too, so that was fun. Dad came in 27th and Dave came in 8th! Here's me doing my trademark "I'm super tired so I'm letting my head list to the side" at the end of the race:All in all, a good race for all of us. I'm still deciding on what race to do next; I'll be sure to post it here.

As for tonight, I'm just relaxing! I'm sipping some of that tasty black tea I bought at the market yesterday, and I just took a batch of banana walnut muffins out of the oven. I am set!