Chik’n Qorn Chowder

As you may know from reading my blog I generally try to stay physically fit. I enjoy running and weight lifting and eating a healthy plant-based diet. I get plenty of nutrients from my food because my workouts are pretty moderate. My husband on the other hand has been doing P90x. With a workout this extreme and his interest in building muscles he wanted to start increasing his protein and decreasing his carbs. Our meals are predominately low-fat vegan, but I was able to rustle up a delicious vegetarian chowder with lots of healthy proteins. The soup was delicious and filling and will provide some great fuel for his workouts. The base of this chowder is Quinoa, a complete protein and has plenty of lysine which is essential for tissue growth and repair. To that I added Qorn Naked Chik’n Cutlets which are made from mycoprotein, feta cheese and hard boiled cage-free eggs. Several cups of leafy greens, some garlic and cayenne pepper and you’ve got one light and delicious one-pot vegetarian meal. My husband loved it, but said next time he would add onions or leeks, mushrooms and would scramble the eggs in the boiling soup rather than topping with hard boiled (a la egg drop soup). This soup is great because you can really substitute and omit ingredients to fit what you’ve got in your pantry. No Chik’n cutlets in the freezer? Just toss in some black beans. Vegan? Leave out the cheese and eggs. Want more Southwestern? Use a fresh jalapeno and add some frozen corn. You can really work this soup in so many delicious ways that the basic recipe can keep you full and body building all winter long.

Chik’n Qorn Chowder

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper

3 tablespoons of cumin

1 tablesp0on of lime juice

salt & pepper to taste

1 bunch of cilantro, chopped (or 3 tablespoons of the gel stuff in the tube if you can’t find fresh)

1 cup of quinoa

2 Qorn Naked Chik’n Cutlets (1/2 box), chopped

3 Cups of Spinach (1 bag)

3 tablespoons of pickled jalapeno (I didn’t have any fresh on hand, but that would be delicious).

2 Tablespoons of EVOO (olive oil)

8 Cups of Water

4 eggs, hardboiled and diced

4 oz crumbled feta cheese

Get Cookin:

1. First we’ll need to cook the eggs and the Quinoa, separate but simulataneously to speed things along for a weeknight dinner). Rinse your qinoa in a fine strainer, then add to large stock pot with 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil on medium-high heat and once boiling simmer for 10-15 minutes. The quinoa shells will pop off leaving the transulucent grains behind as they expand. Also, boil enough water to cover your eggs in a small saucepan. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook the eggs for 10-15 minutes. The eggs and the quinoa should finish up around the same time.

2. Drain the eggs and set aside to cool for peeling. Drain the quinoa and reserve the cooking water in a separate bowl. Add additional water until the cooking water measures 6 cups.

3. Heat the olive oil in the stock pot and add the garlic and jalapeno. (add leeks/onions/mushrooms now if you plan to use them). Sautee for about 30 seconds or until the garlic begins to brown. Add the chopped pieces of chik’n cutlets and continue to sautee until those begin to brown (about 5 minutes). If the mixture begins to stick add a tablespoon or two of the reserved cooking water at a time to release.

4. Add in the cumin and cayenne and the remaining reserved cooking water and simmer for 10 minutes.

5. Add in the quinoa and spinach and stir until the spinach is wilted, around 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the chopped cilantro and feta cheese. Top with the diced, hard-boiled eggs, a splash of lime juice, a dash of cumin and cayenne and salt and pepper to taste.

We did it! Race for the Cure Part Deux

If you were reading my blog last year you may recall that I decided to go out and learn to run again. I hadn’t run since high school and as a 30 something adult it wasn’t super easy to get back into running shape. I kept it up though and now I can say that I’m finally beginning to feel a bit like a runner. I competed in my first 5k last October in the Komen Race for the Cure. My husband dutifully tagged along and took photos and cheered me on. In May of this year, when a coworker was diagnosed with ALS, I decided to run another.

 This time my daughter joined me.  (I know she doesn’t look thrilled, but that’s just becuase teenage girls do not enjoy having their photos taken early in the morning, she actually had fun….but don’t tell anyone).

Again, my husband drove us to the race and photographed our finishes. It was after this race that he said that he too would like to start running, and so he did. I broke out the couch to 5k app again and we took off around the block. At first, he was a little overweight and miserable. He hated running, I mean really hated it. I’d prod him up the hills and force him to jog a mile and he’d grumble along beside me. Eventually he would get up and have his sneakers laced and ready to rock at the same pace as me. He purchased a new pair of running shoes and his own headphones for his ipod. He was keeping pace with me down and around the lake and back. He was running 2 or 3 miles now without any complaining. We signed up for the 2011 Komen Race for the Cure and he picked up his training. Some days he even beat me out of bed and more often than I’d like to admit, he put on his shoes and took off while I was laying under the covers grumbling about my alarm clock and nodding back off to sleep. As we approached the day of the race we took a long run together. He smoked me. I tried to keep up, but he was just too darn fast. Now a lean, mean running machine. On race day we both woke up at 6am and dressed for the cold weather. He drove us to the parking lot and we both whined a bit about wearing shorts in 40 degree weather. I still don’t have the proper running kit, I run in my two year old Gola tennis shoes that I wear for everything. I did grab some actual running shorts from Goodwill and I wore those. We wore our downhill jerseys because they are lightweight, breathe and wick away sweat. I grabbed gloves and ear warmers. We noted that the real runners were wearing tights and vests…good to note. I pulled my white gym socks up to my knees. I may look like a dork, but it’s nearly impossible to look fashionable when you are running anyway. I coach him on not taking off to run too fast, set a good pace  and stick to it. I warn him about the crowd surge when we first take off and that people will clump for the first half mile, so be patient and stick to the rear. Once you hit the one mile marker it’s safe to start passing people. There’s a big hill in the middle I warned him (he still hates hill climbing) and wished him luck. I told him I’d try to keep up with him, but I knew that I couldn’t. We hung together for the first mile or so and then he put on the gas. I turned on my Endomondo to track my pace. The first mile was crowded and difficult to get a steady pace. My first mile was the slowest as I jockeyed for position and walked a bit trying to move forward as the crowd initially surged and then came to a complete stop. I ran a 10:14 mile. Not bad for me, but not race pace either. The second mile was faster as I broke free of the crowd and really started pushing. I ran it in 9minutes flat. In the final mile I caught up with the faster pack and got choked in the crowd again. My knees and ankles burned from the overtraining that I had done in the two weeks leading up to the race. In fact, the Sunday before I took off on a seven mile jog. Not smart. I know some people run this distance for training all of the time, but I’d never run further than 4 miles, so this was not a good idea. However, I finished strong and I felt good. All told, I ran the 3.18 miles in 30 minutes and 13 seconds. I averaged a respectable 9:30min/mi pace. Not as good as last year, but about what I expected. My knees and ankles screamed and I hobbled off to find Jamie, tendinitis screaming at me to knock it off. Jamie and I met up and shared some water and swapped tales of our big race. He finished in 28 min and ran a 8:47 pace average. As he stood there looking svelte and accomplished I was proud. He ran his first charity race, hopefully the start of a long and healthy lifetime of running.

Did you run at the Komen 5K? If so, tell me about your experience in the comments below. Feel free to link to your blog, your Facebook or your Endomondo. I’d love to hear all about it. Congrats to everyone who competed in this year’s Race for the Cure.

PunchFork: Recipes made beautiful and easy

I love the internet for many reasons, but one of my very favorites is the access to an impossible number of recipes, often with user reviews and pictures so that I know that even I can do it. This has meant countless apps, blogs, feeds and searching to get just the recipes that I want. Then, along comes Punchfork, with its wide screen, full color, magazine-cover-worthy photos. So tempting, so convenient, so user-friendly. Recently I began using Pinterest to keep all of my favorites in a single location, which is engaging and attractive, but it’s not nearly as easy to capture my recipes as Punchfork. And let’s face it, I’m a sucker for good looks and on that front Punchfork can’t be beat. In the “About” section of the Punchfork web page the mission is clear:

Punchfork makes it easier to find the best new recipes from popular sites like 101 Cookbooks, The Pioneer Woman, Epicurious, Serious Eats, Food Network and The Kitchn. We use conversations on social networks to bring you high quality recipes that passionate cooks are talking about right now.

Even more interesting is the explanation behind how the site is powered. They use some social media wizardry to serve you up the most popular recipes from blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

These real-time updates capture the images and cooking instructions and post them on the site where users can save, by clicking a little red heart, and share by email, posting to StumbleUpon, Tweet, or even capture your own link for embedding into your personal blog and other sites. I love, love, love this concept. While I may occasionally continue to “pin” recipes that I find interesting, I’m likely to do my real searching no Punchfork.

Are you using Punchfork? If so, share your opinions in the comments below.

Fiesta 5K: Fundraiser to Support ALS

I'm the diminutive runner #10282

Last year I began training to run my very first foot race. I ran in the Race for the Cure 5k on October 23, 2010. My friends and family really helped to support my cause by donating to the event. My husband came out to wait for me at the finish line and photograph my triumph as I, along with many others, panted to our final steps of victory. Unlike training by myself around the neighborhood, where I am often exhausted, miserable and ready to throw in the towel, on the day of the race I really ran for it. Nevermind that I was hungover, dehydrated and experiencing some distress prior to the race. When it came down to it, I felt amazing. I had energy that I didn’t even know was possible as I ran with the crowd. Everyone pushed together and as I sprinted over the finish line I felt like I had really conquered the world.  The sense of accomplishment stayed with me long after the muscle aches and foot pain had faded.

This year I’ll be running in another 5k, but under slightly different circumstances. When a coworker announced that he had been diagnosed with ALS, aka Lou Gehrig’s disease, and that he would be participating in the Fiesta 5k, may of us decided we would do it to. The Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins is hosting the race this Sunday, May 7, 2011. Starting at 8am we’ll be running from the Power Plant Live area of the Baltimore City Inner Harbor. I’ll be running as a member of Team Nelly  along with my friends and coworkers. I hope that you will be inspired to lace up your sneakers and come run for a good cause. If you’d like to donate or join the team, just follow the link to my page. It would even be great if you could come out and cheer us along as we pound the pavement, a wave of runners rushing toward the tape. If you do make it out, be sure to take a few photos of me making funny and embarrassing faces as I jog out of the gate, slog through the midway point or even make a triumphant sprint for the finish. With no training this year for an unplanned foot race, it should be entertaining at the least, truly moving and inspirational at it’s best. See you Saturday!

And the Results are In!

I am happy to report on the results of my changes in diet, exercise and getting rid of a few unhealthy habits. My friends and family have been familiar with my ongoing battle with cigarettes through the years. As my husband liked to proclaim, “She’s the best quitter I know!” Unfortunately, what was meant by that was that I quit almost weekly, and then would cheat and smoke cigarettes and then renew my aim again. It was a long, hard and painful process but while I’m not yet to proclaim myself victorious, I can say that I have been doing sufficiently well to feel good about it. You can never really let your guard down with nicotine; it’s just waiting there for you to slip up. Fortunately I discovered the link between alcohol and cigarettes for me. It stared as me having a beer or a glass of wine and then wanting a cigarette. Somehow my twisted little brain decided that it was OK to just enjoy a beer or wine and cigarette on a Friday night after a tough week of work. And then Saturday…and maybe Sunday too, but I had to get it together by Monday. Then, at some crazy point I decided that if I had glass of alcohol, that a cigarette made perfect sense. Somehow this insanity escalated to the point that I would always have a beer on Friday night, just to justify my cigarette smoking. Now I had taken up regular imbibing as an opportunity to smoke? Fortunately I realized this and put a stop to this nonsensical, addicted mind and got it together. I decided that I was not allowed to smoke and for that fact, I really couldn’t drink either. I also didn’t want to gain weight when I quit smoking, so I started really pushing myself to work out regularly and watch my caloric intake as well. There are good and bad things about weighing yourself daily. The benefits are that you can track your progress on a chart that can be reviewed over a long period of time and also see how your diet is affecting you (eating too much salt causes water retention, etc). The bad is that your body weight can fluctuate by up to 5 lbs. per day.  If you aren’t expecting this kind of change it can cause you to feel as if you aren’t progressing and really set you back mentally. As an example, each time I’ve lost weight, I’ve gained a significant amount in the 48 hours before. I almost always see a spike of 2-3 pounds of weight gain on a Friday morning after a week of working out, and then a dramatic drop on the following Monday as I let my body rest and burn calories.

I purchased a scale that measures body fat percentage, water percentage and weight so that I could be sure to measure the fat loss. This allowed me to have the comfort of knowing that I wasn’t just losing a little water weight or wasting away my muscles instead of getting the fat deposits that I was seeking to search and destroy. I started out above 24% body fat earlier this year and I’m happy to report that today I weighed in and had achieved 22.7% body fat. Body fat is an excellent measurement and I set my sights on losing .5 lbs per week (to set my caloric limits) and .5% body fat per month. While you can lose up to 2lbs of week safely and a full percent of body fat, I’m just not that ambitious and I know that I am not likely to to do the recommended 60-90 minutes of exercise 5 days per week recommended by The American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association. Those are certainly great to aspire to, but I work, cook meditate and occasionally like to spend time with my family. The CDC has some pretty flexible guidelines though and my exercise level does meet these guidelines. On days that I don’t work out to a video in the morning I’m committing to taking a brisk 10 minute walk at lunch to at least get my body moving. Occasionally I even climb the 14 flights of steps to my office to help wake me up during that 3 o’clock afternoon slump.  In the end, even though I don’t work out as much as I should and I still eat more sugar than is really good for me, by maintaining a healthy diet and trying to stay as close to vegan as I can stand and being sure to move around as much as possible and really getting at least one serious workout in a week over time; the proof is in the pudding after all. I zoomed out on that daily weight chart, with all of it’s crazy fluctuations, and here’s what I found:

I’ve maintained a steady downward trend on my weight and achieved a healthy body fat percentage of 22.7%! I’m going to continue to push myself because my Lose It! app assures me that I will reach my goal in June. I’m not as concerned about when I reach my goal, but I will continue to push until I reach a healthy, but athletic body fat percentage that will allow me to feel good, strong, healthy and ready to compete in my favorite sports (running and downhill mountain biking). I’ve got my Lose It! motivators configured to push to my Twitter feed, so if you want to get training with me we can help to push each other and track our results, so join me on my quest to become a lean, mean, meditating machine. Here’s to a fit and healthy summer!

Bad Cupcake!

Bad Cupcake by knitmotorcycle on Etsy.com

I like to fancy myself a pretty healthy person. I try to eat well (as close to vegan as I can muster), I exercise (not as often as I should, but I do), I gave up smoking and I meditate. I am currently following the Mahayana Buddhist path which encourages a healthy lifestyle and finding balance, all things that are good for me. It seems that I have a real issue with balance in my life. Luckily, nothing that’s caused me too much long term damage and I’ve always been able to pull myself back from the brink before I’ve completely gone over the edge. As mentioned, I gave up smoking after 20 years and it feels wonderful. I’ve significantly cut back on my drinking with the intention to eliminate that as well. I have one last major obstacle…sugar. I love, love, love sugar. As a young girl I would hide under my grandmother’s table and eat directly out of the sugar bowl. As a teenager I would eat packets of the stuff that I grabbed at McDonald’s and carried with me everywhere. As an adult my relationship with sugar has gotten even less healthy, if that’s possible. I love sweet, so I’ve tried replacing it with Coke Zero and stevia, which is all well and good until I get my hand’s on the real stuff and go completely insane. At work, I’ve made what is known as “cup cake”. That is to say that I take a huge cup and fill it with cake and then eat it with a spoon. I never really buy or make sweets at home, but I frequently run into them at the office or parties and go bonkers. I think to myself, you’ve been such a good girl with your healthy living, you deserve an enormous piece of cake…and then comes the guilt. Yesterday I actually ate two donuts, a sugar cookie, and handfuls of Easter candy followed up with a home made mango sticky rice. Seriously? Who does that?!? Anyway, I’ve decided that I have an unhealthy relationship with sugar. It’s time to go cold turkey and get myself under control. So, starting today…that’s it. No sugar until I can learn to live without it and then I’ll think about letting it come to the party every now and then.

To get me motivated I’ve done a bit of reading about sugar and it’s effects as a reminder to what I already know, eating sugar isn’t very healthy.  Also, the adorable Bad Cupcake image above from Knitmotorcycle on Etsy is a delicious reminder of the danger of that hot looking cupcake over there. “Here is the “Bad Cupcake”. You know the type; creamy good looks, wavy frosting and sprinkles, with a badboy gleam in his eye. Who can resist? You know he is bad for you, but he looks so good.”

Here’s a few helpful strategies that I’m going to try to get my sugar addicted mind on the wagon:

Top Ten Sugar Craving Strategies by Verne Varona

The following could be individual or collective reasons for sugar cravings. Read each suggestion and notice how it applies to your eating or lifestyle. Reducing your desire or addiction for sugar should not require Herculean will power. Becoming conscious of the physiological and lifestyle factors that stimulate sugar cravings should make taming your sweet tooth a piece of cake–so to speak.

1. REDUCE SALT & PRODUCTS WITH SALT

The need for dietary salt from natural sources (sun-dried sea salt) is dependent on several factors; a lack of salt can cause fatigue, stimulate a desire to overeat and often result in a craving or animal protein. However, with the availability of good quality sea salt, miso paste, tamari soy sauce and natural pickles, it’s quite easy to overdose. Thirst and a craving for sweet foods is one of the most reliable indicators of excess dietary salt.

2. REDUCE ANIMAL PROTEIN

The standard four basic food group propaganda was force-fed to the American public along with the myth that animal protein should be a dietary staple. The meat and potatoes mentality has to re-think its philosophy since established research shows excess animal protein can lead to colon and prostate cancer. If this applies to you eat less in volume (2 to 4 ounce servings) and limit it to three to four times per week (maximum), as opposed to daily.

3. REDUCE FOOD VOLUME

Overeating leads to fatigue and sluggishness. This makes a stimulant like sugar (or coffee) more appealing. Eating more frequently will allow you to reduce overeating with a minimum of effort.

4. EAT MORE FREQUENTLY THROUGHOUT THE DAY

One of the most common reasons for sugar cravings–especially at night. By skipping meals or waiting long periods you stop supplying your blood with glucose. The blood sugar drops and by the time you finally get around to eating, you’re going nuts for simple sugar. You’re also likely to end up overeating or craving something fatty as a compensation for sugar. Initially, don’t wait more than 31/2 to 4 hours between meals.

5. AVOID EATING PRIOR TO BED

If your body’s digesting when it requires much needed rest, you’ll require more sleep, dream excessively and find it difficult awakening with alertness. Good deep sleep will result in wide-awake days. Eating to close to bedtime creates a groggy awakening craving the stimulation of sugar (or caffeine) the following morning. Eat a light evening dinner at least 21/2 to three hours before retiring.

6. AVOID SUGAR

This might sound obvious, however, continuing to eat simple sugars results in a falling blood sugar. This stimulates a need for more sugar and the cycle continues. Even though fruit is a simple sugar, switching to fruit instead of sugar is a good first step. Eat the skin of the fruit as well since fiber slows blood sugar elevation.

7. EXERCISE MODERATELY, BUT CONSISTENTLY

Daily aerobic exercise will increase circulation and strengthen will power. Brisk walking, biking, light jogging, etc. naturally increases sensitivity to the effects of sugar. Try to get 20 to 30 minutes of some type of pleasurable exercise at least 5 times per week. Enjoy this. It should not be a chore.

8. EMPHASIZE NATURAL WHOLE COMPLEX-CARBOHYDRATES

If your daily diet is includes whole grains (brown rice, oats, millet, barley, etc.), vegetables (roots, greens and round vegetables such as squashes, cabbages, etc.) as a primary fuel, you’ll find you automatically crave less sugar. Emphasizing sweet vegetables such as carrots, cooked onions, corn, cabbage, parsnips, squashes, etc., adds a natural sweetness to meals. Introduce some sea vegetables (aka “seaweeds”) for much needed minerals to enrich blood.

9. DON’T SUPPRESS FEELINGS

This doesn’t mean you have to broadcast every feeling–only those that matter and to those who really matter to you. Food indulgence, especially with sweets, is a convenient way to anesthetize feelings. Sugar can consume you with sensory pleasure, temporarily providing mental relief from whatever might be stressful. However, sweets can hinder energy levels and mental clarity so in the long run your emotional coping ability becomes compromised.

10. BEWARE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TRIGGERS

The many psychological associations we connect with food have a powerful influence. Beware of family associations, movie rituals, familiar restaurants, childhood habits, etc.

Verne Varona
Author of “Nature’s Cancer-Fighting Foods”- www.vernevarona.com

After reading that, I realize that I am soooo guilty of so many of those. I definitely overindulge in salt. I have low blood pressure, so I’ve used this as an excuse to crank out the sea salt on everything I eat from salad to pizza. I should cut that out anyway. Easy enough, I’ll start applying these tactics today. In case you ask, why is sugar so bad for you? Here’s some more information that I came across to arm myself with as I prepare for my sugar withdraw. A few excerpts from, The Dangers of Sugar by Paulette Mills:

Sugar is qualified as an addictive substance by the following two responses: 1) Eating even a small amount of sugar, for example, one candy or one bit of cake, creates such a desire in some people that they can’t stop; 2) When one quits sugar cold turkey, withdrawal symptoms appear, for example, strong cravings, depression, fatigue, mood swings, and possibly headaches.

Uh, oh…that definitely does not sound good. But it gets worse:

Excessive sugar consumption is believed to be involved in many common health problems: hypoglycemia, diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, obesity, indigestion, myopia, seborrheic dermatitis, gout, hyperactivity, lack of concentration, depression, anxiety, and more.

Yikes! As if that weren’t enough the recent article “Is Sugar Toxic?” which appeared in the New York Times earlier this month sealed the deal. I, like many others, had viewed high fructose corn syrup (hfcs) as the enemy, assuming that plain old sugar was a healthful alternative, but according the article, “marketing aside, the two sweeteners are effectively identical in their biological effects. “High-fructose corn syrup, sugar — no difference,” is how Lustig put it in a lecture that I attended in San Francisco last December. “The point is they’re each bad — equally bad, equally poisonous.” The article and researches have clarified that sugar in the types and quantities at which many of us, myself included, are consuming is going to us. Either through obesity, diabetes or cancer. “In animals, or at least in laboratory rats and mice, it’s clear that if the fructose hits the liver in sufficient quantity and with sufficient speed, the liver will convert much of it to fat. This apparently induces a condition known as insulin resistance, which is now considered the fundamental problem in obesity, and the underlying defect in heart disease and in the type of diabetes, type 2, that is common to obese and overweight individuals. It might also be the underlying defect in many cancers.

If what happens in laboratory rodents also happens in humans, and if we are eating enough sugar to make it happen, then we are in trouble.”

So that’s it folks. I’m off to eliminate added sugar from my diet wherever I can. I’ll continue to eat fruits and vegetables that contain sugar, but I’m going to have to learn to let the rest go. My unhealthy attachment to cookies has finally bested me and I want to get off the treadmill (quite literally). I’ll try to tweet and post up my progress. Wish me luck kids, because this may be my toughest battle yet.

Better Oats = Better Breakfast

I love to eat. I do not, however, like the calories in a bagel, the sugar in cereal or taking the time to cook my own breakfast unless it involves the microwave. I love oatmeal packets, but there is so much sugar that over time I stopped using them. I started buying quick cooking oats and adding my own dried and fresh fruit or nuts and spices. I did notice that I wasn’t feeling full for very long and after a while the texture got pretty boring. Then, as I was shopping around in my local grocery store, I saw Raw, a multi-grain hot cereal. It looked healthy, in that I recognized all of the ingredents and it didn’t have a load of sugar added to it. I also like that it’s plain so I can flavor it myslef based on my mood. Even better, the packaging was pretty a convenient size/shape. You can almost never go wrong by picking things based on good design, it’s a sign that they care about quality. Luckily for me it was buy one get one free, so I stocked up on four boxes. Here’s some information from the website that I found intriguing: