Carb Loading

Tomorrow I am running the Chase Corporate Challenge in Rochester. It's a packed race of 3.5 miles, with over 9,000 participants, many of whom are walkers. So, anyone who runs at all can feel like they're fast.

Dinner tonight was angel hair pasta, baby bellas, yellow peppers, Morningstar burger crumbles, and Enrico pasta sauce. The pasta sauce was a departure for me, because I'm so used to Prego, which is loaded with added sugar.

Now I am carb loaded and ready to run!

Training Progress

Whew it's been a hot few days! Yesterday, I was up at 6:30 am to do a 45-minute run before it got hot out. Today I swam indoors and then went for a 2-hour bike ride with the Bettys, a local group of women who ride on Tuesday evenings from the local bike shop. I like when I can do my workouts with other people; it makes things more interesting.

It's going well. Each week I'm biking about 45 miles, running about 15 miles, and spending one dreaded afternoon swimming about 1300 meters in the pool. I don't really like swimming in a pool -- I feel like a rat on a wheel.

My coach Mary puts together a training plan for me. At first I thought it was a bit ambitious, with me working out every day, and with about 8-9 hours of training each week. But, I'm doing it. And if it weren't for her, I wouldn't be pushing myself this hard.

My first triathlon is on Sunday. We'll see if it all pays off.

Cold Food for a Hot Day

It was hot today -- over 90 degrees! I was in no mood to fire up the oven.

The hummus is supposedly California Pizza Kitchen's recipe. It's probably the best hummus that I've ever made in my kitchen. I also made my version of a spinach dip. Most recipes for vegan spinach dip call for a lot of Vegenaise and vegan sour cream. I use a pound of spinach, about a tablespoon and a half of Vegenaise, and then add water chestnuts and soup mix to give it flavor so you don't miss the extra fat.

Farm Sanctuary

This weekend, I was on call for a small town hospital. I had some free time on Sunday, so I drove the 35 miles to Farm Sanctuary!

I've visited before, but it's always so much fun to see the animals and hear their stories. The animals are absolutely beautiful. It's a reminder that a vegan diet is the most compassionate diet for the animals.

Coconut Curry

I have had a can of lite coconut milk sitting in my cabinet forever and decided to put it to use.

I sauteed orange and yellow peppers and cauliflower in a little canola oil. Then I poured in the can of coconut milk, added sliced organic sweet potatoes and extra-firm tofu, salt and pepper, Bragg's sauce, and some spices like cumin, coriander, paprika, and chili powder. I covered and cooked this for about 30 minutes.

This dish went well with Indian roti bread.

Ouch!

I love being in the cardiac cath lab, but the job has its inherent hazards. One day this week, while removing the sharps from our cath table, I was stuck with a sharp needle.

Fortunately, the needle was only used to draw up medications and had never touched our patient. But what if it had? The small wound in my hand is healing well, and my risk of contracting anything is exceedingly low.

From now on, I'm going to be much more careful.

Organic Alley

Organic Alley has been open for five months. My first visit was on Monday evening after a run along the Erie Canal with a couple of friends. I had the Zen Delight, which had tofu marinated in teriyaki, onions, peppers, and greens -- Yum!

They also have a yoga studio and a small grocery store with organic items.

I'm thrilled that Rochester can support an organic place. I'll be visiting them often!

Stir Frying

My favorite kitchen toy by far is my wok. Woks are great because stir frys come out so well and the vegetables stay so crisp.

Here, I used about a tablespoon of canola oil, an organic cooking onion, red and orange hydroponic peppers, organic baby bella mushrooms, cauliflower and broccoli. The cauliflower and broccoli were blanched in hot water for about five minutes before I added them to the stir fry. At the end I added Morningstar Farms Chik'n Strips.

For flavor, I used Bragg's sauce, but found the taste weak, so then added my standard sesame garlic sauce to the recipe.

My Letter to the Editor

Baked Beans

I attend the Rochester Area Vegetarian Society meetings every month, and there is always a baked bean dish there, and I've always enjoyed these. However, I've never prepared them at home.

I sauteed an onion in canola, then added a can of Heinz vegetarian baked beans, some frozen corn, and two chopped veggie dogs. A serving of this made for a terrific in-between workouts snack.

Speaking of my triathlon training, I am sitting here with an ice pack on my knee, which I hope helps before meeting up with my friend to go running this evening. Otherwise, everything is great!

Indian Wedding

A friend from residency got married this weekend. She's Indian, as were most of the guests. Another friend's mother, "Auntie", offered to dress me for the occasion. It was a fun wedding. I love the music and the outfits.

The food was mostly vegetarian, but with heavy emphasis on the "lacto". The ghee (clarified butter) was omnipresent. There was one dish that appeared to be some form of green vegetables in oil, and I think the rest had meat or a cream sauce. I also enjoyed some whole wheath paratha bread and basmati rice, so even with the limited vegan selection I ate well. Ok, I am pretty sure what I ate was vegan; I do my best and don't want to be a difficult vegan guest.

I saw a yellow sauce next to one of the breads, so I put some on my plate thinking it was mango. I dipped my bread in it and found the flavor quite dull. On my next trip to the buffet, I saw the label that I missed the first time: ghee. Whoops!

Mock Egg Salad

The egg salad is made from extra-firm tofu. I squeezed out the excess moisture and mashed it with a potato masher. Then, I mixed in one stalk of organic celery chopped finely, half an organic cooking onion, paprika, turmeric, and a quarter cup of Vegenaise.

I put the egg salad on toasted whole wheat bread with an organic yam that I had microwaved for about 5 minutes. Since organic yams are sweeter than the conventional ones (at least I've found this.... has anyone else?), I only topped the yam with a little bit of Earth Balance Buttery Spread (vegan margarine).

This felt like the perfect dinner for my first week of intense triathlon training. I am calling 8 1/2 hours of training intense, which for some may be a walk in the park, but I'm definitely feeling like I'm working hard!

Adam Durand Sentenced to 6 Months Jail

I read this today:

Adam Durand, the Compassionate Consumers investigator who revealed egregious animal cruelty at Wegmans Egg Farm, was today sentenced to six months in jail for trespassing. Adam should be applauded, not sent to jail, for his courageous efforts to bring to light the suffering of animals perpetrated by Wegmans. Wegmans requested the harsh sentence received by Durand—-a first time offender-—in an obvious attempt to silence critics of the company’s inhumane practices.

You can read more in the article from Newsday.

I am really mad about this. Adam isn't a criminal, he didn't harm property, he's just someone trying to educate the public about where their eggs come from, and that there are better more humane ways to do things.

For the first time ever, I wrote a letter to the editor of the Democrat and Chronicle, our Rochester newspaper. I hope it's published. More importantly, I hope Adam Durand is able to successfully appeal his sentence.

Chop Suey

I saw Kai-Vegan's chop suey post from May 11, and I decided to give it a shot. My version has garlic, onion, celery, carrot, cauliflower, baby bellas, and seitan for a little extra protein. I forgot (whoops!) the corn starch, so it's a little watery, but nonetheless very good. I ate this with Indian paratha bread for a superb post-workout dinner.

My little speaking tour

Back in February, I spoke to Heartbeats For Life, a group of people interested in preventive heart health and Dean Ornish's lifestyle program. I talked about women and heart disease and the importance of diet and exercise. As a result, I was invited to present to Oasis, an educational program for older adults. I'm also giving the talk on Sunday to the Rochester Area Vegetarian Society.

Yesterday, I went to Oasis to present the talk. I guess the brochure made me sound like this would be a good presentation, as I had a full audience. Everything that could go wrong did. My computer wouldn't boot up, since unknown to me there had been an update to the system last week and all the logins were wiped out. So, here I am, standing in front of an audience of 40 people, and I can't present my slides! To burn time while one of the staff members tried to hook up a computer system that I could use, I introduced myself, and offered to answer questions about women's health and heart disease. Slowly, the questions came in, enough so that I could ad-lib until I had a functional computer that would run my slides!

First I discuss women and heart disease. That gets lots of interested looks and questions. Then I talk about obesity and how Americans are getting fatter since we eat badly and don't exercise.

And then I talk about vegetarian diets. Blank stares. More about the Ornish diet, how vegetarians live longer and are healthier. More blank stares. Then about dairy and the myths behind it, that milk doesn't reduce osteoporosis. Continued blank stares.

And finally, I get to the topic of exercise and cardiac rehabilitation, and it looks like my audience is now with me again. I finish and answer several audience questions.

In all, I'm not so sure how well it went. I had some positive feedback afterward from some of the participants, but I wonder what some of the others were thinking. Maybe the vegetarian stuff was too much? Perhaps it challenged too many preconceived notions, particularly the dairy part? The dairy industry has its hooks so far into the American public that milk is necessary for bone health, and yet there is no single study that shows that increased dairy consumption reduces osteoporosis. In fact it's the exact opposite -- countries with the most dairy consumption have the most osteoporosis.

Perhaps if I give the talk again to a non-vegetarian group, I'll tone down the vegetarian/dairy stuff a bit. I'm not sure. I'm very interested to hear what people had to say.

Indian Lunch

For lunch, I made chole, along with some some paratha bread and samosas that I picked up at the Indian grocery store yesterday. Now I have all the energy in the world to go rollerblading... let's hope it doesn't rain!

What to do with Chick Peas

Herself75, my dear sorority sister from college, wants to know what to do with chick peas. Oh, I could go on all day! You can make hummus, a veggie stew, cover with spices and bake in the oven as a snack, or use in place of meat in recipes.

Or, here are a few older posts from this blog that use chick peas:
Chole
Veggie Stew (use chick peas instead of cannelini beans, as they're very similar)
Chili

Enjoy!

Vegan Pizza from Two Paisans

I found myself craving pizza, and I've been dying to try out Two Paisans' vegan pizza. Yes, a pizza place in little 'ole Rochester with a vegan menu. Here it is, with Follow Your Heart cheese, seitan, spinach, and roasted red peppers. I finished off the whole thing, with a mango and a brownie for dessert.

Grilled Tofurky Sandwich

Whole wheat bread with Tofurky, avocado, sliced tomatoes, and a little Vegenaise (vegan mayonaise), placed in a sandwich griller, and voila!

Good Tempeh... finally!

The secret to tempeh is to boil it for about 45 minutes. That softens it and gets the bitter taste out. Then I sauteed an onion and some frozen broccoli in my wok with canola oil, then some Sesame Garlic sauce, then added the tempeh to cook for another 5 minutes.