Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Chicken, Peaches, and Ricotta with Honey

rotisserie chicken with white peach and ricotta with honey

There might be a day when you have in the fridge some rotisserie chicken, a white peach, and leftover ricotta cheese from making oatmeal ricotta pancakes, and on that day you should put them together for lunch with a little bit of honey drizzled over the ricotta. Trust me on this.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Chinese Ground Pork, Kale, and Rice
 or korean ground beef, kale, and rice

chinese ground pork, kale, and rice

a packet of Trader Joe's microwavable rice
a scoop of Chinese ground pork or Korean ground beef
a scoop of blanched sauteed kale

Cook the packet of rice according to the package instructions, three minutes in the microwave.

Empty half the packet into a bowl, then scoop in some ground meat and kale. Save the rest of the rice for another bowl another night.

Heat the meat, kale, and rice for another three minutes in the microwave.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Blanched and Sauteed Kale

blanched and sauteed kale

I love this Buffalo Bill's-eye view of the kale at the bottom of my stock pot.

Getting up the starch to get myself a little bit of vegetable to go with my spacefood. A little bit of kale is going to be delish with meat and rice, and I already told you about meat and greens and sweet potato. I guess I can tack this at the end of my cooking practice, it's easy and Jewel has giant bags of prewashed, precut kale and also collards and mustard greens, how much more can I ask for.

a bag of kale
olive oil
3-5 cloves garlic

Bring water to boil in a stock pot over high heat. Empty the bag of kale into the boiling water, squish it down with a wooden spoon, and let it come back to a boil. When you can smell the kale, pour it out and drain in a colander.

Mince garlic and heat olive oil in a saute pan—or back in the stock pot if you don't feel like dirtying another pan, but it takes a bit longer to cook down then—over medium high heat. Add the blanched kale to the pan, then the garlic and a bit of salt. Saute kale until it's fairly dry and cooked down, about ten minutes.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

State of the Biz
 summer 2013

odie drinking his coffee

Odie is ready to talk business.

I'm in a smooth sailing stretch this summer. I have four regularly scheduled clients, I work with each of them most every week. If somebody has to miss a week, we just skip that week and move on to the next week. I suppose that's not ideal for my cash flow, but it works for everybody's life flow. Which is shaping up that I'm offering a particular style of training, which is shaped by my own life demands and by my developing training philosophy. Which are what.

Life demands: I had honestly planned to be retired from derby by now, but instead I'm on Third Coast and having the best time ever. Not a problem, I'm not too bound up in preconceived notions of what I'm supposed to be doing, obviously, I don't even have a doorknob on my door. It just means that in any given week I'm fitting in a lot, and I feel like I should always say, not fitting in a lot, there are lots of things that I'm just not doing until I don't know when, maybe never when, because I'm doing what I've chosen. Work. Keep my house in order if I don't want to be crazeballs, which I don't. Practice with my team. Train clients. Blog. Be alone at least one night a week. See people, like, in person, not at practice, at least one night a week. Sleep. Eat. And not much more, and even these aforementioned things limit each other, training clients limits work to 2-3 days per week, practicing limits training right now to the aforementioned four clients, mayyybe I could take on one more, being alone limits seeing people... I mean, not in a bad way! I'm just saying that at the heart of successfully doing a lot of things is NOT doing all the things. Isn't that funny, "all the things" and also the reason I can now remember the correct form of "a lot" come from the same person. Anyway if a surprise peg suddenly pops up, I don't stress myself or you out trying to fit now twenty-two pegs into twenty-one pre-drilled holes, which is unpossible, or trying to drill more holes, which I think inadvisable. I don't live that kind of life, I wouldn't ask you to live that kind of life, and if you live that kind of life I wouldn't want you to ask me, it's not a matter of right or wrong, it's a matter of fit. If the shoe fits, read on!

Training philosophy: Welp, I guess it's that training isn't just, like, a block that you stuff into your life. I mean, it can start out like that. My favorite metaphor involves the difference between therapy and training, wherein therapy is like unstuffing your closet, looking at all the stuff, throwing some stuff out, and putting the rest back in more neatly, and training is like putting shelves—or you know, a shelf—in your closet, wherein you have this hard piece of furniture to organize your stuff around; it takes up its own room so you might have to throw some stuff out, and then you can put the rest back in more neatly. And does this work for everybody? No, it does not. If you've ever put shelves in a closet and stuffed everything right back in, raise your hand. How's this for empowering: you can defeat any system. If you know that you can do that, know that you can also make any system work. It's the same power, it's just up to you whether you want to use your power for or against yourself. And if you're having trouble with that, well, we're back to therapy. My point being, I don't think training is for fighting your life with. I guess it could be for fighting for your life with, but gah does everything have to be a fight. I like working with your life better. Sometimes life comes into training and flips over a chair, but I think more often training sneaks into life and rearranges all the chairs.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

T-Shirt Surgery: A Cylon Back Top

golden bowl back

Haha remember when cylons' backs used to light up when they had sex? Maybe I can string some lights back there.

I think my racerback t-shirt is so popular because it includes pretty good instructions, but meh. All I did for this was cut off the neck and sleeves, cut out where it said VOLUNTEER on the back, and cut off just the hem at the bottom (which I am wearing in my hair). Then I cut up the back in 1-inch strips roughly between the inside edges of both arm straps all the way down, stretched the strips, and then figured out what to do to pull the t-shirt closer to my torso. It needed to be pulled in quite a bit, so I ended up knotting loops in the middle of all the strings and then knitting the loops together—i.e., poking the second loop up through the top loop and pulling it down, then the third loop through the second loop, and so on, tying it off in a little tail loop at the bottom. I know that a picture would be worth a thousand words, but the drawing stuff is ...over there.

golden bowl front

Even after all that, there was more to be taken in. I pleated the front, just eyeballed and pinned where it looked good and ran a line of handstitching over the pleats. I folded in the straps a bit too, so that made some pleats in the underarm area.

Il est okay. It was something to do last night while watching the interminable Cloud Atlas.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Chicken, Fennel, and Red Bell Salad
 over sliced apples alla Mya Ssault

First Sarge said, "The epiphany of putting fennel in a salad is mindblowing," and then Mya said, "Fennel with Granny Smith apples, lemon SnP and olive oil. My fave snack of the summer." And then I said "woah" and ran to the kitchen.

For the salad jars:
a fennel bulb
a red bell pepper
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
kosher salt
10-15 grinds of black pepper
a rotisserie chicken

chicken, fennel and red bell pepper in lemon-pepper vinaigrette

Thinly slice the fennel, dice the pepper, and divide between four jars.

Whirr lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper in the small cup of the rocket blender and divide between the jars.

Divide the breast and thigh meat of the chicken between the jars, saving the rest for snacks and soup.

For a salad:
a Granny Smith apple
a jar of chicken and fennel pepper vinaigrette
handful of pepitas

Core and thinly slice the apple and pile the slices in your salad bowl.

Then you empty your jar of chicken and fennel pepper vinaigrette over the apples, and toss a handful of pepitas on top.

chicken and fennel lemon pepper vinaigrette apple salad

Just in time, too, I was getting bored with lettuce. Who needs it, I am going to be piling salad on fruit for the rest of summer.

I didn't want to lose the iron + Vitamin C combination, pepitas as it turns out are a good source of iron and also really really good. The sweetie man found me shelled pepitas at Trader Joe's when he was getting my microwave rice.

Monday, July 22, 2013

Chinese Ground Pork

chinese ground pork

The sauteed shallots are kind of a pain, but pretty darn tasty. I will not judge you if you decide to just throw in chopped green onion at the end like in the Korean beef recipe, because you can do what you want with your own food and because that's probably what I'm going to end up doing, too.

3 shallots
2 Tbsp coconut oil
1 lb ground pork
a thumb of ginger
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 c soy sauce
2 Tbsp honey

Peel and sliver the shallots. Heat one tablespoon of coconut oil over medium high heat in a saute pan and saute the shallots until golden and crispy, stirring frequently, about ten minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add the other tablespoon of coconut oil over medium high heat in a saute pan. Brown the ground pork in the coconut oil, about ten minutes.

Meanwhile peel and mince the ginger and add it toward the end of browning the meat.

Add red pepper, soy sauce, and honey, stir and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.

Stir the crispy shallots into the meat at the end of cooking.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Bout Day Breakfast
 WCR Third Coast vs ARRG Fleur Delinquents

salmon with apple fennel zucchini hash, orange juice, and water

Salmon with apple fennel zucchini hash, orange juice, and water. Out of coffee, OMG, the sweetie man is going out right now.

More bout day breakfasts!

Friday, July 19, 2013

Business Development Breakfast
 also Egression #65

oatmeal lemon ricotta pancakes with blueberry compote, peaches, and bacon

Oatmeal lemon ricotta pancakes via Jax House with blueberry compote, peaches, and bacon.

Ermahgerrrrrd these oatmeal lemon ricotta pancakes come straight from my friend Jax who I used to skate with in Derby Lite and who now does a thing I would never do a) run and b) marathons. Still however, we have food and food blogging in common! My pancakes did not come out as pretty as Jax's, I don't make pancakes that often and am not too handy with a spatula or how hot the pan has to be to not burn the butter but still cook the pancakes. So I covered them up with blueberry compote, that works too!

These pancakes really work for me because I'm still waffling a bit about what grains I want to eat, with rice and oats as the frontrunners. I'm mostly over wheat and flour, though hey, here we make flour out of oats, and it cooks up so soft and delicious. Also these pancakes have no added sugar, I am also mostly over the taste of sweet; the amount of sweet from the honey in the compote and the fruit itself is just enough for me. And I like the amount of eggs and ricotta in here, it's not high protein but at least there's some protein. Plus bacon! I think this is going to be my go-to pancake breakfast for when I want pancakes.

Also the sweetie man are back to our nice breakfast tradition that we had going last fall that sort of fell apart during home season, I think I told you that every other Friday is going to be business development day? Which is not my favorite thing to do? So I am going to bribe myself with breakfast and quality time with my man first.

For the bacon:
bacon

Lay bacon on foil-covered baking sheet and bake in a 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside on a paper towel-covered plate until it's time to eat.

For the compote:
a bag of frozen blueberries
1 Tbsp honey

Empty half of the berries into a saucepan. Add the honey (totally okay to eyeball the amount) and cook over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, for until the berries have started to break down, about 10 minutes. Add the other half of the berries and cook for 10 more minutes.

Remove from heat and set aside.

For the pancakes:

This is basically exactly Jax's recipe except that I am too lazy to zest and juice a lemon, I used RealLemon. Also I must have made my pancakes smaller because her recipe said serves four and mine only served two, baha.

1 c oatmeal
1/2 c ricotta cheese
3 eggs
1/4 c almond milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3 Tbsp lemon juice
butter

Pulse the oatmeal in a food processor until a fine flour is formed, then add remaining ingredients and process until smooth.

Heat skillet and melt a pat of butter over medium heat. I used the 1/4 cup measure to drop the batter into pan. Cook until bubbles form on the surface, flip and cook for another minute. Remove to a plate. Repeat until all of the batter is used, adding more butter between pancakes as needed.

Plate pancakes with blueberry compote, bacon, and at the last minute I thought peaches would be good.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Training Skeleton Redux

training skeleton redux After working with it a bit I redid my training skeleton, which is how I do:

  • I took out body composition as its own goal, I'm just not into that. Improved body composition as a function of fitness or performance, grudgingly okay.
  • I added BAMF! as a supplement between Get Active and Get Fit.
  • And here you see SNIKT! as a supplement. Most of the stuff that was under body composition is here. Really though sleep and reducing stress and improving diet are not just about your body fat percentage, but so much more—quality of life. Hell yeah, sleeping better and reducing your stress and eating better will get you lean, and also improve your athletic performance; but also you will sleep better and have less stress and be healthier and feel better, what more do you want.
  • I played around with this in my mind and finally came up with Get Elite for what I'm going to call the top tier training.
So now you have three training levels to choose from, plus two booster programs.

Where am I on this, I mean with talking about this. I think I have talked about Get Active and BAMF! I personally have been implementing BAMF! and SNIKT! for almost six months, so that is what I have the most to talk about.

So, SNIKT! TK.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Interval Workout
 tractor runs

So this is the interval workout that I'm doing that I talked about yesterday, I guess I've been popping these in for the past three weeks? Since the DDD bout and since Posh and Berg got raptured and it looked like I was going to have to step up to jam.

What you need for this workout:

a confederate
space to run
a resistance band or bike tube
an interval timer
and don't forget your water bottle

The sweetie man is my confederate, we go out to the schoolyard behind our house. Last summer we used a bike tube for this, and the sweetie man learned why not to be competitive when you are on the other end of an elastic tube attached to a person running hard and little bit mad in the other direction, that sucker snapped and, you know, it was a bike tube, it had the metal nozzle still attached, which whanged him and cut a little smiley face on his chest. I have since cut all the nozzles off my supply of bike tubes, but now we use a rubberbanditz. Pictured is the medium, but he thinks we could go up to heavy or robust.

So basically we go out, I warm up and then we do the workout. He puts the band around my chest and nicely cooperates to give me enough resistance to make it hard to run against, but not so much to make it impossible. We do a classic tabata, 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off. Though I do my 10 seconds as active rest, meaning I keep my legs moving in slo mo.

Forward:
tractor run forward

Lateral:
tractor run side

Pictures of food and inanimate objects I take, pictures of me the sweetie man takes, so who took these pictures. Dawn did, thank you Dawn.

Now a tabata is supposed to be you do eight rounds for four minutes, and you're done for fat burning. The first time we went out, that's what I did and then two days later I jammed against Second Wind and was out of gas halfway through the first half. I honestly don't fear getting the crap beaten out of me, I fear being too tired to do anything about it. That's some serpent and rainbow shit. Fat burning, shmat burning, what I need is to be able to explode all out for up to two minutes, rest for maybe two, three minutes, and then be recovered enough to do it again, over and over, for an hour. I'm not going to get there with a four-minute workout. So I increased my rounds to four, with four minutes total rest sucking on my water bottle in between. That's just about thirty minutes total, so that gets me at least to halftime. And actually, I have been jamming entire scrimmages since then. We shall see, Golden Bowl coming up.

Warmup

1 lap walk
1 lap light jog
1 lap brisk jog
ROM series, 10 reps ea

Workout

20 sec forward drive
10 sec active rest
20 sec lateral drive right
10 sec active rest
20 sec forward drive
10 sec active rest
20 sec lateral drive left
10 sec active rest
...repeat 1x

Rest 4 min

Repeat 3x

Cooldown

3 laps walk
light crying

Some notes:

  • You don't need me to tell you that you have to do this all out, do you? There's nothing to be gained from holding back here. If you can't make it through all four rounds, even if you can't make it through one round, AWESOME, you have worked up to your limit. That's how you push your limits! Next time you will push farther.
  • There's also nothing to be gained from a floppy core, keep it engaged even though it's more tiring like that. If you feel yourself flagging and not picking up your legs, at the very least engage your core—squeeze butt, tighten abs, set shoulders—and then, force yourself to pick up your legs another few steps. You're never that far away from the end of twenty seconds.
  • Note in the pics, I am not pumping my arms. This is because I am training myself to drive with my arms down to avoid penalties and also the better to squeeze into tight spaces. I will probably further adapt this drill to train myself to drive with my torso turned to squeeze into the aforementioned tight spaces.
  • For the lateral drives, the sweetie man keeps me honest about driving straight to three or nine o'clock. You want to train pure lateral movement off skates, because on skates all your wheels do is pull you forward and any lateral movement is all about muscle.
This is a pretty hard workout, but it's over in less than thirty minutes and like I said in three weeks I went from a quarter tank of gas to a full tank scrimmagewise. And last Sunday we did an hour of off skates at Third Coast starting with suicides, god I have always hated suicides, and it was so weird, sprinting without dragging 180# boyfriend behind me was ...delightful.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Summer Chart redux

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP
morning morning morning morning morning morning morning
PLAY
practice
WORK
 
HOME
Cooking
WORK
 
HOME
Cleaning
WORK/
Bus Dev
 
HOME
Laundry
Grocery
HOME
Systems
 
WORK
 
PLAY+
 
WORK
 
PLAY+
 
WORK/
Bus Dev
 
PLAY^^
 
PASTIME
referee resume 8/4
PLAY^
volume
PLAY
practice
PASTIME++
 
PLAY^
scrimmage
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
evening evening evening evening evening evening evening
SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP

I love my summer schedule so much, I memorialized it in a chart. Even though it's going to change in two weeks when refs resume practice, and then only a month until home teams resume after Labor Day. Or whenever they do, I don't know for the first time in three years because I'm not head of trainers. Do you know, I became head of trainers because I wanted to plan my practice schedule and I had to know what was coming up. I am talking haaaaad to know, had to be in control. I am cool with not knowing now. I am cured.

By the way do you know what else I am cured of, wanting a dog. Taking care of two dogs for a weekend cured me.

If you want to compare this to the chart I started summer with, I'm going to talk myself through what got changed:

  • Ref practices were cancelled for July, so instead of a kind of grueling Sunday where I would leave the house at 11:30 for Third Coast practice then kill time between two and ref open skate at six, I go to Feed with Dawn after practice and then go home and sit on the couch with my schedule and budget, and then just chillax after dinner. I'm thinking about thinking about refs as pastime when they resume. I train them for sheer love and fun at this point, so really why not.
  • I made Tuesday morning my cooking beat, since my client moved to Saturday. This works sooo much better, I think I will not schedule daytime clients just yet. I need the time for me!
  • I already did Systems Sunday afternoon, so that frees up Tuesday afternoon for blogging. But. After an eight hour workday Monday followed by fourteen miles of biking and ninety minutes of training Monday night, Tuesday I am ...tired. And I usually have practice Tuesday night that I want to be up for. So half the time I get my cooking done and then I lay down to rest and, if I'm lucky, sleep.
  • Okay so, interval workouts are just not happening Friday nights. Ever, but especially not Fridays after I work. But what I can make happen whether I work or not is salmon and broccoli for dinner.
  • Anyway so I moved the interval workouts to Tuesday and Thursday, those are the pluses. They're short, so I can punch them out and then sit down to write for the rest of the afternoon. But. The Tuesday tired thing, and every other week I have mixed meat scrimmage (double plus) that I wasn't planning on. But is happening now, and scrimmage basically is an interval workout. So I only do the extra intervals as needed, or more to the point I don't do them as not needed. If I have a full week, I don't do them. If I'm light on practices because of how they're scheduled, I throw them in.
  • Kind of the same thing happens on Thursday as on Tuesday afternoon, especially weeks I have mixed meat scrimmage. Rest trumps blog, is the upshot. I'm cool with that. It is what it is.
  • I waffled a bit about maybe trying to work three days a week again, but had an epiphany that I should use my every other Fridays to do the play that is work that I always manage not to find time to do, viz., business development.
  • I can squeeze in laundry and grocery before my two clients (double carats) on Saturday, so all my housework is getting done. All I do for laundry is sort and all I do for grocery is make the list, the sweetie man does the rest at his convenience. Just so you're not thinking I'm getting all the laundry and groceries in before I train my clients like some annoying superwoman.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Korean Ground Beef

korean ground beef

Time to switch it up, swap out carne asada and carnitas for these other meats that I pinned a few egressions ago. I've never eaten a thing called Korean ground beef, but I must say it smells like home. I'm not a person who can isolate different smells, but I guess beef + soy + garlic + something sweet? It just smells exactly like home.

I'm going to serve this spacefood style over a packet of Trader Joe's microwaveable rice, but I think this would also be good over steamed broccoli or sauteed kale. I might work with this recipe a bit more to see if I can get the kale in.

1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 lb ground beef
5 cloves garlic
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 c soy sauce
2 Tbsp blackstrap molasses
a bunch of green onion

Heat sesame oil over medium high heat in a saute pan. Brown the ground beef in the sesame oil, about ten minutes.

Meanwhile mince the garlic and add it toward the end of browning the meat.

Add red pepper, soy sauce, and molasses, stir and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.

Finely chop green onions and stir into the meat at the end of cooking.

Friday, July 12, 2013

BAMF BAMF
 what it do

BLARRRRRRR okay, let me see if I can put together something coherent about BAMF!

Some time ago, I put together this training skeleton to help folks figure out where they might be fitnesswise, different strokes for different folks and so on and scooby doo.

And then I started at the top and talked a little bit about what it might take to get from sedentary to active, which is defined as 30 minutes of moderate intensity activity three times per week. Maybe you fit this in three Workouts per week, or maybe you find this in your normal daily activity, or maybe you soup up your normal daily activity to hit this.

And then I feel like I clouded the issue with my demented BAMF! chart, which is measuring ...what. I'm going to say that BAMF! gets introduced at the same time but is a separate measure from Get Active (30 minutes of moderate intensity activity 3x per week), and is carried, still separately, though Get Fit (30-60 minutes of moderate intensity activity 3-5x per week), Get Performance (60-90 minutes of high intensity activity 3x/week, 60-90 minutes of low intensity activity 2x/week), and Get Lean (any workout plus diet protocol). And yet, not separate. Because BAMF! supports all of those protocols, and at the same time the raison d'etre of all these protocols is BAMF! In other words, BAMF! is your daily life. What you do in your daily life supports—or doesn't—your activity, your fitness, your performance, and your body composition, but what do you want to be active or fit or fast or strong or lean for... if not your life? One hand washes the other, is what I'm trying to get across.

Here's another way to look at it: the difference between active and fit and performance-oriented persons might be 1.5 versus 5 hours versus 8 hours of working out per week, and believe me working out 8 hours per week feels like a lot, full stop, but also a lot more than 1.5 hours per week. Yet it's still less than a tenth of the rest of your life and if we look at that, now we're talking about 110.5 versus 107 versus 104 hours of daily life per week. Which is not so different from this end. Pretty much for everybody except for elite professional athletes, the volume of daily life greatly overwhelms training volume. ALSO if this needs to be said, you cannot bring this even in the ballpark of balance, so please don't go there. That's not what I'm saying.

Well then, what am I saying.

Okay so, at the Get Active level, you have the Get Active goal of 30 minutes of moderate intensity activity 3x per week and we also introduce the BAMF! goal of 500, because I'm sneaky like that. Which means what? Which means standing or otherwise moving around for half of your waking life, and the other half sitting. If you count your whole life and add in a third sleeping, that's a third on your back, a third on your feet, and a third on your butt. But for easier math, let's just say half standing and half sitting when you're awake.

Half standing might not seem like a lot but believe me, I almost never got to BAMF! 500 in a month of tracking and I'm pretty active. Outside of workouts I'm a pretty standard office worker, or well, I'm not standard at all with my two and a half days of work per week, but if you add one and a half days of writing per week, I'm potentially sitting from 9 to 5 like a lot of folks.

On the other hand, it's not as hard as standing for eight of your sixteen waking hours straight. (Not that I don't know people who are on their feet all day, this is the opposite problem that has to be worked from the opposite direction—put a pin in that.) You get a BAMF! point for standing up at all—but let's say for at least a minute—in any fifteen minute increment, so BAMF! 500 means that you're standing up and shaking it out every half hour. And also any intensity of movement counts, it's perfectly fine and I think preferable to keep this at low intensity.

I'm reading Kelly Starett's Becoming a Supple Leopard right now and it's great, and he says:

As a rule, you should mobilize for four minutes for every thirty minutes of sitting. For example, you could do the couch stretch—a brutal hip opener you can find on page 331— for two minutes on each side very half hour. The idea is to tackle the areas that become restricted, specifically your glutes, psoas and other hip flexors, thoracic spine, hamstrings, and quads (to mention a few). Think of it as a mobilization penalty based on sitting time.

And I will tell you this, athlete that I am, this frankly seems unattainable. Remember I tried something like this and unhinged myself? But you know what, you do it the way you eat any whale, one bite at a time. I'm not going to try to deadlift 2x my bodyweight right off the bat, even though Box says I will definitely be able to do this someday.

I'm going to leave that 4 min/30 min out there as my goal, and right now here's where I'm at:

Get up every hour, you can go to the kitchen or the bathroom or whatever, or you can shake it out and sit right back down.

How am I going to do that without unhinging myself. Ha, I have a plan. TK!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Memento

p: omg, i am the funniest person in the world.

p: isn't that amazing?

p: you meet this random girl, and she turns out to be the funniest person in the world.

m: yes, we have established this.

p: wait, what?

p: have i said this already?

m: yes.

p: but wait, have i said it using this particular construct?

p: random girl, funniest person in the world?

m: yes, pretty much.

m: about every two weeks.

p: ...

p: the funniest, slightly forgetful person in the world!

m: that's you.

Maloma

Between Stiegl Radlers and these, this summer is my summer of grapefruit. Or grapefruit drinks, I guess. I am not eating actual grapefruit. I mean, I like grapefruit. I'm just not eating it.

A maloma, if you want to know, is my play on a paloma made with malort instead of tequila. And it sort of takes the fun out of malort, because it doesn't taste horrible like this; it's a perfectly light and refreshing drink. Grapefruit goes with malort for some reason, and it's not just covering up the taste of the malort. I tried a virgin version, and I actually missed the malort.

Honey syrup, by the way, is just one part honey mixed with one part hot water that I keep in a jelly jar in the refrigerator for making drinks with honey.

For one:
1/4 c grapefruit juice
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp honey syrup
2 Tbsp malort
ice cubes
club soda

maloma

Stir together the grapefruit juice, lime juice, honey syrup, and malort in a pint glass. Fill the glass with ice cubes and top with club soda.

To bring to a picnic:
2 c grapefruit juice
1/2 c lime juice
1/4 c honey syrup
1 c malort
club soda

maloma mix and club soda

Stir together the grapefruit juice, lime juice, honey syrup, and malort in a quart mason jar. To serve, fill a red solo cup with ice, pour in maloma mix, and top with club soda.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Greek Yogurt Pumpkin Chia Smoothie

Okay so, first I got intrigued by a couple pins for pumpkin chia pudding and you know the way I made mine was that I got a regular-size can of pumpkin puree, emptied the pumpkin into my mixing bowl, filled the pumpkin can with almond milk, and then measured how much milk that was in a measuring cup. It's 1-3/4 cup, if you want to know. I do not a) make my own pumpkin puree, or b) use partial cans, or c) write recipes with 1-3/4 cup as a measurement. In future, I will be making this with a can of pumpkin puree and a pumpkin can of almond milk; if you make your own organic pumpkin puree, use two cups of pumpkin and two cups of homemade organic almond milk.

2 c or a can of pumpkin puree
2 c or a can of almond milk
2 Tbsp agave,
actually optional
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 c chia seeds

Whisk together the pumpkin, almond milk, agave, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a mixing bowl. Stir in the chia seeds.

Chill for two hours.

DISGUSTING. I always fall for these recipes that are like oh this is just like pudding, but hello I still remember what pudding is!

Which left me with like a quart of pumpkin chia pudding. Made with half a cup of chia seeds, I'm not normally reluctant to pitch a cooking disaster but chia seeds are, like, a dollar each. I'm also not normally reluctant to exaggerate, but they seriously are expensive. What did I have to lose, the next night I whipped some up into a smoothie.

DELICIOUS!

greek yogurt pumpkin chia smoothie

I use the Bella Cucina Rocket Blender to make my smoothies.

Okay so, you mix up your pumpkin chia pudding as above. Probably don't need the agave, you're going to sweeten your smoothie to taste anyway. Put it in a container and into the refrigerator. I suppose you could freeze the pudding in ice cube trays and then you'd have pumpkin cubes, but I actually think you want regular ice cubes to lighten up the smoothie just a bit.

a scant cup of pumpkin chia pudding
a scant cup of greek yogurt
2 ice cubes
almond milk
a squirt of agave or honey or maple syrup or blackstrap molasses
a spoonful of creatine,
optional

I'm saying "a scant cup" because I put in four big spoonfuls of pumpkin and yogurt, and that's just under a cup. That's good, that's a good amount of protein. Add two ice cubes, almond milk to fill the cup, and a squirt of agave. Screw on the cap, stick the cup on the motor base, and blend for 30 seconds. Then take it off the base and give it a little shake to get anything that's stuck on the top of the cup. Blend for another 20 seconds or until the smoothie is churning freely from top to bottom.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Greek Yogurt Cherry Chia Smoothie

greek yogurt cherry chia smoothie

I use the Bella Cucina Rocket Blender to make my smoothies.

This is my new supereasy smoothie: just greek yogurt, frozen fruit, chia seeds, a little agave or honey for sweetness, and almond milk, but not in that order. Mainly you want to put the chia and the sweetener last so they don't trickle to the bottom of the cup, which when you turn it upside down is the top and then they get stuck up there.

Cherry just happens to be pictured, but I also do peaches, mangoes, mixed berries, and strawberries too.

frozen fruit
about half a cup of greek yogurt
almond milk to fill the cup
a spoonful of chia seeds
a squirt of agave or honey
a spoonful of creatine,
optional

Put enough frozen fruit to half fill the blender cup, then the greek yogurt, then fill with almond milk. Spoon in the chia, and squirt in some agave. Screw on the cap, stick the cup on the motor base, and blend for 30 seconds. Then take it off the base and give it a little shake to get anything that's stuck on the top of the cup. Blend for another 20 seconds or until the smoothie is churning freely from top to bottom.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Salmon and Broccoli with Parsley and Garlic

salmon and broccoli with parsley and garlic

This is my earlier quick trout recipe, all done on the stovetop, and my nod to the salmon and broccoli combo. I try to eat this once a week, I have four nights when I don't eat spacefood. One is taco night, one is salmon and broccoli, one we go out, and one I'm mournfully searching the refrigerator for leftovers, which in my house, there aren't.

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
2-3 cloves garlic
12 ounce salmon filet
1 lb frozen broccoli

Heat the olive oil and butter in a saute pan over high heat.

Mince the parsley and garlic together to make a paste. Rub the paste on one side of the salmon. If your salmon has skin on, not that side.

Lay the salmon in the melted butter and saute for 3-5 minutes per side, depending on thickness. Remove from pan and keep warm.

Empty the bag of frozen broccoli in the pan and stir into the browned—or hey, blackened—butter, parsley, and garlic in the pan. You could cover the pan and let the broccoli cook, by which I mean thaw, for 3-5 minutes. Then remove the cover and cook for 3-5 minutes longer, until done to your liking.

Divide the salmon and broccoli between two plates.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Carne Asada and Rice
 or carnitas and rice

carne asada and rice

Let us end this week on spacefood, this is what I eat before practice. I tried cauliflower and rice, and rice won. Because rice is 100% digestible and cauliflower not always, I only have to blow up like a Macy's balloon once to not care whether or not cavemen ate grains. Also nothinggggg is easier than these Trader Joe's microwavable rice packets. And they're not too expensive, though it does mean the sweetie man has to trek out to Trader Joe's and in that case I do wish that there were more than three packets per box, like I wish there were five smaller packets per box. One packet is not enough for the two of us and slightly too much for one serving, which of course means omnomnomnom. So I limit myself to eating these only before practice; it works specifically for this purpose, and I wouldn't otherwise.

If you don't eat grains, I'll tell you what's actually a better and perfectly digestible spacefood dinner: half a roasted sweet potato, a big scoop of sauteed kale, and a scoop of carne mushed together. I'm not roasting sweet potatoes in summer though, and I hope I get a little bit more patience for cooking back by fall and can power through putting a container of sauteed kale in the fridge for the week.

a packet of Trader Joe's microwavable rice
a scoop of carne asada or carnitas

Cook the packet of rice according to the package instructions, it's like three minutes in the microwave.

Empty the packet into a bowl, then scoop some carne over.

Heat the carne and rice for another three minutes in the microwave.

Another glass of water with dinner, remember. All you have to wash is your bowl and your spoon.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Black Tea, Chocolate, Almonds, and Grapes

black tea, chocolate, almonds, and grapes

This is my afternoon snack, and it varies how hungry I am in the middle of the afternoon. Like at work I almost never bother with the grapes, most days I don't even pack them. I mean, probably because I just ate an entire head of romaine lettuce. And at home I haven't usually eaten the lettuce, so by midafternoon I'm hungry enough for grapes. But whatever, we're talking about lettuce and grapes, by all means, go to town with your lettuce and grapes.

black tea
a square of chocolate
a palmful of almonds
a bunch of grapes

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Chicken, Artichoke, and Hungarian Hot Salad
 over romaine and mango

chicken, mango, and romaine salad with artichoke pepper vinaigrette

You can vary this recipe a lot of ways, right? Right now there's nothing easier than rotisserie chicken, though I might sub in hearts of palm for artichokes now and again; fresh, raw vegetables in vinaigrette are also good, just a little more fuss. I'm pretty much decided on eating as much mango as I can until I'm sick of mango, and then I will have strawberries or blackberries or peaches or plums. It might be nice to have other salad greens for variety, but romaine keeps the best. Though I did see baby kale in the produce section, that might hold up better than baby spinach.

I'm less hungry for some reason on days that I'm home, and often just put the chicken and artichoke pepper vinaigrette over the mango.

a heart of romaine
a mango
a jar of chicken and artichoke pepper vinaigrette

I eat a whole heart of romaine at a time, so I don't mind being a princess about discarding any less than perfect leaves. Then chop the romaine on your disposable cutting board also known as a paper towel, and put it in a bowl.

Now cut and peel the mango. Here is the thing about a mango: a mango is a flat, hairy pit jealously clinging to tender sweet fruit. This is my advice: don't fight with the pit, let the pit keep some fruit. Get what the pit is willing to give up, and be happy with that. If you fight with the pit, the fruit gets mangled and ruined. Or if you get angry about not getting every last bit of fruit, you're not enjoying what fruit you do get. This also applies to people, and to life! Okay but in practical terms, envision where the pit is and cut as close as you can across the face of the pit. Turn it around and cut closely across the opposite face. Then lay it down flat and cut four angled pieces from around the sides of the pit—if you cut into the pit, back off and make a shallower cut. Then cut away the pieces of fruit from the peel, and pile them on top of the lettuce.

Then you empty your jar of chicken and artichoke pepper vinaigrette over your salad.

Then you wrap up the scraps of romaine and mango in the paper towel and toss. All you have to wash is your knife and the jar, and your bowl and fork. And water glass, because you'll get yourself a glass of water to drink with your salad.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Hardboiled Eggs, Avocado and Tomato

hardboiled eggs with avocado and tomato

OMG another picture of hardboiled eggs, avocado and tomato.

Okay so, this week I'm going to presume that you prepped your week's food on your cooking day and so these "recipes" start from there.

And first of all, do you know how many times I've had the thought, somebody should invent disposable cutting boards that come on a roll, and do you know what, these are called paper towels. Globally I honestly think it's a wash, har, between using a paper towel versus washing the whole cutting board, and personally I definitely know that it frees me up to not have a sink full of dishes day in and day out. Though it does make me wish for a compost pile, I could whisk the paper towel and vegetable scraps right into the compost. I don't actually want a garden, I just want to compost.

Anyway.

a plum tomato
an avocado
two hardboiled eggs
kosher salt
lime juice

So you lay down your paper towel and cut up your tomato and put it in a bowl, and sprinkle it with kosher salt.

Then you cut up your avocado, put it in the bowl, and sprinkle it with lime juice. I use ReaLime which is not the best, but very convenient. I suppose you could cut up a jar of limes when you do your lemon, too. At work I have one of those squeezy plastic limes.

Then you have avocado on your hands; so you wash your hands and as long as you're doing that, you can wash your knife.

Then you peel the eggs, rinsing off bits of shell as needed. Split the eggs with your fork—I actually worked out that this is better than slicing the eggs with the knife. Because sometimes the yolk clings to the knife. Whereas it all goes to the same place if it clings to the fork.

Then you wrap up all the peels in the paper towel and if you're a very good person, you toss it in the compost. I have to get on this.

Ta da, bowl of hardboiled eggs, avocado and tomato. The only thing you had to wash was the knife and it's already done, and after breakfast all you have is the bowl and the fork.

I drink a glass of water with my breakfast and after breakfast, I get a cup of coffee.

Monday, July 1, 2013

Start the Day with Green Tea and Lemon redux

start the day with green tea and lemon

Ahhhhh three's a charm, I started with start the day with green tea and lemon, then I switched to start the day with lemon water, and now I'm back to green tea and lemon, but differently. So ridiculous that such a simple habit needed to be reworked three times, but on the other hand that's how it is?

The Cue

The cue, still, is slouching toward Bedfordshire, and I don't know why but lately I've been very rough at the end of the day.

The Routine

Which means, I am sad to say, it was too much for me even to just slice off a slice of lemon. So instead I cut up a whole lemon on my cooking day, and I have a jar full of cut-up lemons in the fridge. I can just about manage to fish out a piece of cut lemon and squeeze it into my jelly jar, and also, light bulb, put in a bag of green tea. The sweetie man usually makes himself mint or ginger tea before bedtime, so there's water of varying hotness in the kettle and I pour that over the lemon and the tea bag, screw on the lid, and put the jar on the nightstand.

In the morning I sit up in bed, grab the jar, unscrew the lid, drink down the water, and start my words.

The Reward

So yeah, I don't know why I've been so tired—or possibly, depressed—this past month. It does help though, significantly, to start the day with my drink of green tea and lemon, and for a couple of weeks I couldn't even set that up, which was making me even more depressed, and when that happens, make it easier.

Status: ACTIVE