Summer Blahs...

I missed my Sunday long run :o(
Something about an evening of margaritas makes it hard to get up and run at 5:30AM the next day. Who knew.

I've been running strong so far this week, but feeling blah. No air conditioning makes 90 degree weather a little unbearable. I've been trying to adjust my run schedule to run during the coolest parts of the day. It's been crazy. BUT I'm not complaining. If mother nature hears me complain we'll get 8 months of sub-zero temps this winter. It's the curse of living in Michigan.

Since running has been such a crazy sweat-fest, I've been trying to really pack the nutrients into my food.

I got this recipe idea from theAlmostRunner I made it the way she does originally, and it's great...then I got a little crazy with it. This recipe is so easy and so versatile you just gotta start messing with it....and yes, I actually fire up the oven when it's 90 and I have no air conditioning. I'm mental like that.

First the ingredients:
Frozen edamame
Frozen Okra
Frozen Stir Fry Veggies (any frozen veggies will work)
Fresh sliced mushrooms
Raw Baby leaf spinach (chopped)
Fresh Brussel Sprouts (with the ends chopped off and split in half)
1/4 cup - Tamari or soy sauce (slightly more if needed to coat veggies)1/4 cup pineapple juice (slightly more if needed to coat veggies)



To Prepare:
combine veggies, pineapple juice and soy sauce in a gallon size ziplock bag...shake vigorously to coat veggies. This could be done several hours in advance if you add a smidge more pineapple juice...the acid in the pineapple juice will keep the veggies from going brown.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spread the veggies thinly on a cookie sheet.


Cook for 15 minutes...flip and shuffle veggies then cook for 15 more minutes.

While the veggies are cooking...you can mix up some Quinoa...I had some ready made in the fridge. It takes 15 minutes to cook up so you have time to cook it while the veggies are in the oven. (or in my case...just nuke them to warm them through)


Pull the veggies out of the oven...mmmm...looks yummy!


Combine veggies and quinoa in a bowl and serve...

U-Pick

Yum!
Nothin' better than fresh hand-picked Strawberries!



We took the kids to pick strawberries this evening. It was a good day for it 70's and cloudy so we didn't have the sun beating down on us.



A local farmer does this u-pick every year. I love supporting them...and I love farm fresh fruits and veggies!!


That's my little man picking berries...so cute.


and my baby girl....testing the product. (it's u-pick...not u-eat...lol)


That's me showing Buddy which berries to pick.


That's my hubby holding our bounty...that's 12 pounds worth of Strawberries!! Cost us $15. We'll be eating strawberries forever.

I also started the week out right with a nice 6 mile run this morning. I ran down to the local park and back. Coming back is a challenge coz it's all up hill. Ugh.
I got home just before it started to rain.

Today's Half-Training Run:
Time: 1:21:06
Distance: 6.04 miles
Pace: 13:25

Let them eat...Pizza?

lol, yes I'm still vegan. And yes I've been told vegan pizza is an abomination... but hey, don't knock it till you try it! Tonight was pizza night. Yummy pizza which is definitely a favorite of mine. This time, done vegan. It's not hard to make a plant based pizza, and it can be AWESOME. Here's how I did it.

Get a pre-made plant based pizza crust. Yes you could and probably should make your own, but I'm really bad a making dough...so premade crust it is.



1 Natures HiLights Brown Rice Pizza Crust (looks to be about 10" diameter)
1 Jar Eden Organic Pizza Sauce
1 bag of Daiya Mozzarella Shreds
Spinach (chopped)
green pepper (diced)
Roma tomato (sliced like pepperoni)
mushroom (sliced)
black olives (sliced)

I follow the directions for the crust and pre-cooked it then pulled it back out and topped it with the pizza sauce and veggies and viola... vegan pizza.



The Diaya really seems like cheese, and is amazing on the pizza!
Since there were 2 crusts in the package hubby and I figured we'd each cook up one and make it our own way. Well if there is one thing I can say for sure about vegan eating...it is FILLING. So I actually only ate 3 of the four pieces you see in the picture above. We should have cooked up just the one crust after all. Old Pizza habits die hard..sigh. From now on we are going to just make one pizza and each eat half.

As for running, Hubby talked me out of the 5 miler I had planned for today, and into running the C25k W1D2 with him. It was nice to go back to my C25k roots. W1D2 is so easy now. It's amazing how fast my mileage and endurance have grown

Today's Memory Run:
Time: 01:02:20
Distance: 3.26
Pace: 19:07

Rest, Potassium and a Race?

Good Morning!
So, Today is my rest day. Time to stretch, take it easy, and let my muscles heal. So I'm reading up on proper hydration (also a good thing to be mindful of) and I see that while water is important, so to is the amount of salt and potassium in our bodies when we exercise.(3) Apparently Salt and potassium work to balance each other out. So if your a big salt fan your probably going to want to pay closer attention to how much potassium your getting. So what does potassium do anyway, "Potassium is especially important in regulating the activity of muscles and nerves. The frequency and degree to which our muscles contract, and the degree to which our nerves become excitable, both depend heavily on the presence of potassium in the right amount." (1) Not only that but, "Potassium is involved in the storage of carbohydrates for use by muscles as fuel." (1) So wow, potassium does play an important role in my running. I've tracked my food before (not a fan of tracking food) and I have noticed that I don't get very much potassium at all from my diet...well anyway my diet as of a month ago. " .... most American women 31 to 50 years old consume no more than half of the recommended amount of potassium."(2) My diet a month ago contained a lot of pre-packaged foods, meats, and occasional fast food. All high in Salt. But, since reading the Veganist, I've been vegetarian. Which sadly means making more of my own food and not relying on so much pre-packaged stuff. But, now I'm looking at my diet and my seeing that wow I bet I am getting enough potassium. I should track my food for a week and see how I'm doing. UGH, but I hate, hate, hate, measuring and writing stuff down and looking up calories and all that. I track at sparkpeople from time to time, but it's just such a chore for me.
I'm looking over the list of high potassium foods and surprised to see bananas down that list a ways... I would have figured that to be #1 or darn close. But, surprisingly Spinach beats it out...who knew. That's great coz I love baby leaf spinach in salads and wraps...and in my green smoothie's!
A few great food sources of potassium are:
"Chard, crimini mushrooms, and spinach, fennel, kale, mustard greens, Brussel sprouts, broccoli, winter squash, blackstrap molasses, eggplant, cantaloupe, and tomatoes.
Good sources of potassium include parsley, cucumber, bell pepper, turmeric, apricots, ginger root, strawberries, avocado, banana, tuna, halibut, cauliflower and cabbage."(1)
To see the rest of the list you can visit #1 in the links below. I love the World's Healthiest Foods website www.whfoods.com there is a TON of great info there about all sorts of foods. I have this page http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php bookmarked in my browser for easy reference.

Today, in my random net surfing, I found a new blog to follow RunwithJess and signed up for a virtual 5K to be completed Anytime during Easter week (April 18-24)hurry up and go there now if you wanna sign up!!

(1) http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=90
(2)http://iom.edu/Reports/2004/Dietary-Reference-Intakes-Water-Potassium-Sodium-Chloride-and-Sulfate.aspx
(3) http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/aa011599a.htm