Still a ways to go to get to my goal– I’m hoping to get to something about at 20 minutes (15 km/hr pace!!!), to be able to suprise my boyfriend on his birthday– he’s a fantasic runner and can easily complete a 5k going faster than 18km/hr, so I have a long way to go still! But he’d be incredibly happy to see that I could even run that long with him, so however fast I can get it’s worth it! (He’s also a Bodyspace user, but logs on so rarely, I bet he’ll never find me posting about my secret goals on here hahaha!)
So I’m doing 3-4 runs per week of roughly 5km, leaving a day of non-running cardio inbetween to recover all the impact to my knees (when I push the pace, I can definitely feel that I’ve pushed my knees near the limit of the impact they will endure). Even with that sensation of "pushing-it" for what my knees will take, I’m EXTREMELY happy that I’m not experiencing anything like the knee pain I would have this time last year for just running 6 minutes at 9km/hr!! The pain and inflammation in my knees was debilitating for weeks even for regular walking… Hence this progress is really exciting!!

After improving long-distances, I’ll definitely focus more intensely on improving sprints, which I also am finding a lot of fun! Wish me luck with my too-highly-set-goals! haha Let me know if you have tips for long-distance training or sprinting!

Tuna salad for a starter dish was a mix of 1 can tuna drained, one minced onion, 2 diced/minced stalks of celery, spoon of garlic aioli, one spoon of mustard, dollop of whipped herb lowfat cream cheese, and fresh ground pepper, spread onto baby lettuce leaves. (The type I used here is relatively analogous to baby Romaine lettuce hearts)

I used a *very* firm tofu–gave a good texture, sliced 500g into 4 patties..could have done 5 for thinner (hence more flavored) ones. I slightly marinated the slices with a bit of salt, garlic powder, and a dash of Worcesterschire sauce (or really any other light marinade to give them some flavor would do). Then I coated them in some seasoned ground soybeans, still with some crunchy grains to it. The first time I made it spicy by including chili pepper flakes in the coating–also tasty! Seared them for a couple minutes per side in a spoon of olive oil till the soybean coating was golden. Served them over rice prepared with boullion, garlic and herbs, and topped with some thick mushroom sauce with plentiful fresh basil straight from my balcony.

It was already decently flavorful from especially the flavor-rich mushroom sauce, also the soybean coating, and the light flavor to the tofu from the garlic and sauce, but next time I think I will plan ahead and marinate the tofu longer in some other seasonings to get an even more penetrant juicy flavor to the whole "steak".

This time I tried out a new "dried tofu" product, essentially like a more juicy "tofu-Jerky", which actually worked relaly well in the dish!

Have fun tailoring this to your dietary desires!

..of course with additional veggies, as I couldn’t resist

The orange-side was 3 red bell peppers and one onion, finely chopped and cooked in 1Tbsp olive oil until soft, then a dash of hot red chili pepper powder, salt, pepper, and in this case a small dash of curry for an interesting twist on the flavor, and one clove of garlic crushed. Then add in 10-20mL white wine, cook off the alcohol (ie, when it sizzles down a bit, and no longer smell alcohol in the steam from it), then a good cup or two of chicken broth, and into the blender, pureed till smooth.

The green side was 2 green bell peppers, one onion, and 100 g of ocra, cooked the same, then with salt, pepper, one clove garlic crushed, and the 10-20 ml white wine again, and ~1c broth, also blended.

Pouring them smoothly and evenly  into the bowl from either side at the same rate gets the nice clean divide down the middle.

And I found a nice basil cream very complementary to the soup (ie the swirl decor on top, using a good pouring-ladle) Made from heating a small amount of cream till steaming hot, then mixing in finely chopped basil and a pinch of salt, and lightly cooking to infuse with the basil flavor.

I’ll have to do this one again soon… I’m getting hungry for it  again writing about it now, after eating dinner and dessert

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Yesterday’s soup was perhaps less elegant or inspiring-looking but surprisingly delicious!
A smooth veggie soup inspired by what veggies had survived our ravenous hunger that day haha

cauliflower
some sweet red peppers (bell peppers, or the long-pointy sweet red ones)
remains of a clump of celery
onions
(the second time I also added in a big white zucchini in the mix too)

Cooking it:
heat a few tbsp extra virgin olive oil in a big pot (don’t worry, it’s the only fats goign into this soup, so be generous enough with 4-5Tbsp to coat the bottom), and toss in 2-3 onions diced, and about 4-5 stalks of celery also diced small. Over medium heat let them cook till tender, stirring to ensure none burn. Then trim the base of the head of cauliflower, and chop slice the whole head up, giving fairly thin pieces of the veggie. Toss into the pot and mix that up. Season with a tidbit of salt, (later will add boullion-water or chicken broth, which is salty, so not too much). Then still over medium heat, I poured in 1 c white wine over this, and let the alcohol steam off, and it cooked down until barely any liquid visible at the bottom. Then toss over the chopped sweet red peppers (3 in my case). Then pour in a good 2 cups of chicken broth over it– enough to reach the top of the veggies. And about 1-2 tsp of dried thyme, 1 tsp ground pepper, and 1tsp garlic powder. I let that stew covered over medium-low heat for about 30 min– or to the point that the cauliflower is very soft, so that if you stab it with a fork it’ll break apart rathe than stay on the fork. Pour the whole soup slop into a blender and puree on high speed until very smooth–a few minutes. Really when you leave it in a bit longer, the cauliflower clumpy texture goes away and blends it into a really smooth soft soup.

I think the highly-blended cauliflower makes the soup a bit creamy, or as though there were a potato puree in it, except, cauliflower is wayy less caloric than potato to get the same effect ( 23 Calories per 100 g cauliflower, versus 87 Calories per 100 g in potatos which is prettymuch all more starches)

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Both times i’ve  done this soup, i’ve happened to serve this on the side, too–
Wasabi-garlic broccoli  ….(or cauliflower works, too) SPIcy!!

super easy–> steam the broccoli or cauliflower chunks, and in somehting you can vigorously mix/shake mix a few spoons of olive oil, a hefty dollop of wasabi paste, and some smashed roasted garlic cloves, salt and fresh ground pepper, then when the broccoli’s done, just toss in the sauce… just enough sauce to make a very light coating and that classic wasabi flare in the nostrils when enjoying it

REally light-weight meals which is great that they don’t sit heavy overnight if I’m eating fairly late

I wanted to share my simple version of this dish from last weekend that I was quite pleased with (and am now addicted to)……. VEgetarian springrolls !   … great way to eat a whole head of cabbage, and with modifications these obvioulsy could be packed with strips of beef or chicken or even chunks of scrambeled eggs for higher protein portions.

Ingredients:

springroll wrappers
1 egg
olive oil
1 head white cabbage (med-small size)
2 carrots
3 medium onions
soy sauce
salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper (or something else spicy if desired!)

your favorite sweet-sour-hot-chili dipping sauce

Directions:
I used my food processor to super-fast grate the carrots, and then thinly slice all the cabbage and onions.
Heat a skillet with a couple tablespoons of olive oil, and over med-low heat cook down the whole mix of veggies until soft and mostly translucent.

Add in seasonings, and just a dash of soysauce, stir, then filling’s done.
Thaw the wrappers (while filling cools down enough to handle).

Beat the one egg in a bowl (just used for sealing the wrappers.
paint the outside of each wrapper with the beaten egg, plop in an appropriate lump of filling on the diagonal, fold in the sides, the top, then roll the whole thing over onto the final corner (dabbing once more with egg to get it to stick nicely).

Once all assembled, I heat the skillet again with just a little olive oil, spread very thinly in the pot, and lightly sautee them till turning golden-brown on two or so sides..

sooo tasty…..
Easy to make other versions, too… I had leftovers from making some other asian dishes the third time, so added in slices of babycorn,  tofu, various meats, or mint or basil leaves… all delicious!

hrmm… I think I know what’s for dinner tonight!!

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… again, Ooph!

Highly recommended meal!
Packed in lots of energy for a great workout tomorrow morning!

Directions:

I grind up a ton of dried soybeans to make a chunky-grained soy flour with my badass Cuisenart food processor, then using a good cup of this, seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder creates the coating. I just beat one egg, and I toss in some fairly big but bitesized cubes of turkey breast in the egg to get them ’sticky’. Then I toss all the coated cubes into the big tub with the soybean coating, and toss it around and it gets all the soy flour and bigger crunchier bits to coat it. then in a skillet, i heat up some olive oil to about medium, and plop in the coated turkey cubes sizzling in there, turning them to lightly brown each side. If there was a lot of extra coating that fell off in this process (which starts to burn at the bottom) then after hte turkey is done, I take out the turkey pieces, dump out the excess coating, and put the turkey back in and just for hte very last minute, I toss them around with just enough Sweet & sour chili sauce (spicy-hot), and voila!
So essentially it turns out to be a somewhat improved/healthier version of fried chicken you get in asian stir-fry dishes– first off turkey has a mildly better proportion of amino acid quantities compared to chicken, and it does not use regular carbohydrate-loaded flour as a batter– instead soybeans ground up have an excellent large proportion of protein, some good lipids and low in carbs. Importantly for this dish it delivers that extra bit of crunch without it having to be deep-fried. Just some good ol olive-oil sautee work gets it just right! And not to mention, olive oil is among the best types of oil to heat to high temperatures without forming trans-fats (unlike Canola oil)

I’ve served it many times, over a bed of vegetables and/or rice noodles, or rice, or just plain, and there’s never been leftovers!