Lightweight Eats

An update to the old PB&J standby.

Toast your bread.
Slather one side with peanut butter
Mash half a banana onto the other side (or a whole banana if your bread is big)
Sprinkle with fresh or frozen blueberries

The frozen wild blueberries from Trader Joe's work really well--they are small so the PB + B grips them a bit better than bigger berries.

Everything in this dinner keeps pretty well in the fridge, and is pretty nutritious. It also happens to be both gluten free and vegan, if you're wondering.

What you need for two adults:
1 block extra firm tofu
Pinch of sugar
Pinch of salt
Cumin and chili powders
Half medium head of red cabbage
Half sweet onion
Garlic
Half jar salsa (about 6 ounces) -- we used a jar from TJ's
Some corn tortillas

What you do:
Slice up the tofu and dry it as well as you can. Toss it with some sugar, salt and spices. Sauté in hot oil until gently browned. Set aside.

Meanwhile, shred the cabbage with a knife. Cut the onion and garlic into slices. Sauté all three over medium heat until lightly browned and softened. Add salsa and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, tossing to coat.

Serve with tortillas. Optionally, squeeze lime juice over the top and add some cilantro. If you're super pressed for time, skip the tofu and eat with black or pinto beans.

Quick, flavorful, healthful, cheap, easy... Perfect? Possibly.

As training and work have progressed, I have been able to settle into something of a routine. I thrive on routine, so this has been super helpful for me. It's been a while since I've done one of these, so I thought I would share what a day in the life of a full-time athlete looks like.

5:30am - The alarm goes off. I drag myself out of bed and onto the scale. I weigh myself every morning, first thing, and record it in a chart in the bathroom. Although my weight fluctuates day to day, it helps me keep track of patterns. For example, I'm lighter when I drink plenty of water the day before and heavier when we have pasta for dinner.

5:45am - Breakfast! This is seriously my favorite meal of the day. It's usually hot or cold cereal with tasty additions, like coconut milk, bananas and blueberries. I also love a cup of hot coffee in the mornings, but only if the row will be less than 90 minutes.

6:45am - Practice time. (Yes, I like to take my time getting ready in the morning.) I bike down to the boathouse in about 10 minutes, drop my stuff in the locker room and head to the boat bay.

I first take my oars and water bottle down to the dock, then grab my boat from the rack. The boats are awkward--25 feet long and 30 pounds--but I've learned how to balance it on my head. The workout is 90' at medium-hard pace. My heart rate is around 150 bpm, and I try to row continuously for the whole workout.

9am - I've soaped down and washed my oars and boat. They are safely back in the boathouse. I eat a small snack, usually a piece of fruit, and bike home.

9:15am - I take a quick shower followed by more aggressive eating. I probably eat 500-750 calories at this point, focusing on getting fats and proteins, since my breakfast is usually carb-heavy. After eating, I stretch for 5-10 minutes and hop in bed for a nap.

I can't always fall asleep, but taking the time to decompress and relax is super important. Without it, my afternoon is unproductive.

If I wake up early, I do household chores or go frolic in the garden.

11:30am - Lunchtime. Although I haven't accomplished anything except sleeping since my last meal, the food I eat for lunch helps fuel my afternoon workout. I aim for a nutritionally balanced meal: carbs, protein, fat, with plenty of vegetables. If the afternoon workout is short or easier, sometimes I will just eat a small salad and some bread for lunch. Other days, I will make a stirfry with tofu and rice, or eat a huge homemade burrito.

Noon - Time for work. I work mostly from home, so I try to set aside chunks of time for work. Sometimes, I will go to a cafe for work, but most of the time, I enjoy sitting I our dining room with a nice big mug of some hit beverage. From there, I can enjoy the garden view and the sun beaming in.

3pm - I try to dedicate three hours to work. After that, it's time to prep for my second workout and do chores around the house. The second session is almost always a harder 60' cardio session or a lift. The cardio session I do on our erg at home. Boathouse access is limited in the afternoons, so I save time and do my workout on land. Lifting, I try to do at the boathouse when I can. The equipment is better there. Sometimes, though, I am too busy and have to do the workout at home.

5pm - Shower #2. I know it's probably bad to shower twice, but if I don't put on normal clothes during the day, I feel lazy and unproductive. And I refuse to go to sleep workout sweaty.

5:30pm - Cooking dinner! Sometimes, I'll start prep before my workout. Things like slow cooking beans or rising bread happen during the day. Dan tries to get home between 6 and 6:30 and I try to have dinner ready most nights. There are definitely days when I just sit on my butt after the second workout, though, and let him cook.

7pm - After eating and cleaning up dinner, all of my necessary activities are done! Dan and I often linger over dessert or watch 30 minutes of TV before starting to get ready for the next morning.

9:30pm - Bedtime! 8 hours a night is crucial to functioning for me, so we tuck in early almost every night.

Yesterday, I talked about making a general meal plan--laying out the paper, documenting what's in the fridge and how many meals you need, etc.

This is all about how to fill in that middle section: the recipes themselves. And however much Dan wants me our menus to be unsystematic, I have a system.

I love pulling recipes from FoodGawker. As I scroll through the photos, I favorite recipes I might want to make. I usually try to make 1-2 recipes a week from FoodGawker, often relying on it to help me use weird ingredients (like the mung beans I bought on a whim.) However, these recipes are usually fairly involved and not great for weeknights.

The rest of our recipes have a formula: grain + vegetables + protein + sauce. Sounds boring, but there are INFINITE possible combinations.

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pasta + kale + blended tofu + pumpkin

rice + bok choy + broccoli (high in protein!) + teriyaki sauce

quinoa + sauteed peppers + chickpeas + tahini sauce

bread + peppers, tomatoes & corn + mixed beans & nutritional yeast + broth & chili powder (i.e. vegan chili and bread)

potato chunks + salad veggies + nuts/seeds + salad dressing

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With this in mind, we usually have around 5 meals a week that use this formula.

GRAINS: I try to use 2-3 different grains, repeating them over several meals. I try to make sure they are not only different forms of the grain, but actually different grains. In other words, I will try to avoid doing pasta, bread and flour tortillas as the three grains, instead choosing rice, wheat bread and corn tortillas.

VEGETABLES: These are essentially always seasonal. We use a mix of frozen/fresh/canned, organic and conventional. Sometimes, we plan for one veggie and have to substitute another (kale for spinach, or broccoli for kohlrabi). However, they are omnipresent.

PROTEINS: There is protein is most things you eat—vegetables, grains and even fruits have protein in them. And generally, by combining {fat+protein} sources and {carb+protein} sources, I get a good balance of carbohydrates, proteins and fats in my diet. I still like to include at least one item in each dinner that has a higher concentration of protein--it helps correct for any less-than-stellar choices during the day, with regards to protein.

I mostly rely on legumes for this. Although I have no problem eating soy, I like to vary it up. I usually aim for at least 3 nights of beans in a typical week, and 2 nights of soy (tofu, edamame). I round out my arsenal with nuts and seeds—from pepitas in a salad to tahini dressings—and nutritional yeast.

SAUCES: These are a staple of the vegan diet. While the flavors of meat often call for tamer sides, and vegetarians can add cheese and eggs as flavor anchors, a good sauce can make or break a vegan meal. They definitely add to omnivorous meals, but their potential is greatly improved by removing meats, dairies and eggs.

We have an arsenal of sauces. The key components can be combined in a lot of ways: peanut butter, tahini, miso paste, sesame oil, vegetable oil, olive oil, lemon/lime juice, various vinegars, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, nutritional yeast, spices.

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peanut butter + soy + ginger + sesame + lime or rice vinegar = peanut sauce

olive oil + garlic + lemon juice + tahini = creamy salad dressing

tahini + miso + lemon + oil = grain bowl sauce

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{Any ingredients we're missing that we should have?}

This is definitely easily adaptable to a vegetarian or omnivorous diet. For me, it's an easy, formulaic way of making consistently tasty, healthy meals using seasonal and inexpensive ingredients.

I'm sure this system will morph and adapt as fresh garden produce becomes abundant and as our needs change. For now, though, this method is keeping us healthy and wealthy!

Every week, I make a menu plan. We have them all stacked on our fridge. They all look kind of like this:

I use graph paper because it's better. (It's actually engineering paper, if you're wondering. I love it.)

Here's my process:

At the top, I write down the days that we need the plan for.

Any unusual days are marked with parentheses (e.g.

Dan is missing dinner, or friends are coming over)

On the right hand side, I write down everything we

have in the fridge or pantry that needs using.

This includes all fresh fruits and veggies, as well as

grains/beans that have been sitting untouched,

interesting sauces I'd like to incorporate and freezer

items I think might work well during the week.

Down the left hand side of the page, I write out the indicated
number of meals. I start by trying to use things that we already
have (usually impulse buys or rollover meals). Then, I find/develop
other recipes that I want to make. I'll go into this process in more
detail tomorrow. As I go, I underline any ingredients we don't have,
and draw a squiggly line under and ingredients that might need
special prep (e.g. beans that need to soak, bread dough making, etc.).

Just below, I repeat the process for breakfast, lunch and snacks.
A relatively recent addition, this ensures I have ingredients on
hand for healthy meals throughout the day.

At the bottom of the page (not shown above),

I write down the shopping list. This just means

writing down all of the underlined items from

the menu above. I will also add any staples that

we need, like bananas, peanut butter or olive oil.

We allow for some flexibility in this as well. Some nights, we've planned an elaborate pasta dinner, but really just feel like having cold cereal or smoothies. I usually try to plan some overlap, like the same soup but with different sides, or rice in two or three meals.

This system has made a world of difference in the quality of our food and in our budget. Although the engineer in me wants to make the process systematic--every week we buy 7 vegetables, 2 cups of dry grain, 2 cans of beans, etc.--Dan has reminded me that that's no fun. And he's right.

Now that I have some practice, the whole process takes me less than 20 minutes. And it saves me way more time than that during the week. {I cannot emphasize this enough!!} For example, while I'm roasting squash for one night's dinner, I can also pre-roast potatoes for a dinner later in the week. Or, if I'm making a super tasty sauce for a grain bowl, I will just make extra as a salad dressing for later in the week. I simmer tomorrow's beans while I'm chopping vegetables for tonight's stirfry.

Not to mention, it saves me extra trips to the grocery store. In fact, some weeks, when we're really busy, I'll draw on our small stores of frozen fruits and vegetables, and pantry items like grains, onions and potatoes, so that we don't have to buy anything at all. {These are usually the weeks where we eat a lot of oranges and run out of soymilk.}

Lots happened this week! My seeds are finally sprouting:

And I made some new seed starting soil-holders (for free!) that are currently holding spring mix.

We got our first CSA share. We're not sure it's right for us--it's a bit of a trek on our bicycles to the pick-up site, and the box isn't quite enough vegetable for us for the week. That means we have to make an extra trip, for three stops total. It might make more sense when our garden is in full swing and we don't need as much supplemental veggie.

Oh, I also like grocery shopping and picking my produce, which is a major downside to a CSA.

On Friday, our housemate and I went for a ride to our old 'hood and did some shopping at the farmer's market. Since we transitioned to organics, it's not quite as excitingly inexpensive and abundant as it used to be. Still, it was fun to frolic amongst the vegetables.

On a less positive note, I think I overdid the running these past few weeks. I've been doing a lot of running in the afternoons, when the water is too rough to row, or I don't have time to get down to the boathouse. After a long run earlier this week, my lower back was incredibly uncomfortable. I scaled back across the board, and I think I'm now back in business.

It's always good to have a reminder of how valuable and fragile the human body is. Experiences like this remind me to cherish the trust I can put in my body. When I start a hard workout, it's very valuable to trust that my body--although it may be exhausted--can do it.

And to end on a high note--I am going to Australia! Confirmed yesterday, we are racing our lightweight quad and potentially a few other boats in Australia at the end of March. Flights are booked, and travel arrangements are being put in place very quickly. I'm looking forward to seeing the girls again, and to the opportunity to race!

Giving up meat was not a very well thought out decision. It just happened.

Same with dairy and eggs. I was traveling. Buying dairy or eggs didn't make sense without access to a fridge. And it wasn't so bad without them. Actually, it was great without them.

But it is hard to maintain. We were out in San Francisco late and needed dinner. Tired of the one vegan restaurant downtown, we thought we would try the Cheesecake Factory, figuring their extensive menu would have something vegan.

While they were super helpful and flexible about making me something to eat, my options were salads (sans chicken) with balsamic dressing, or their veggie burger without the bun. (Note: they will also happily sub broccoli, mushrooms, spinach etc, for chicken in their pasta dishes. Just request a dairy free preparation or let the server know you are vegan. Also, have them check that the pasta is vegan.)

It was a trying moment.

But it's worth it. Ethically, I don't have a problem eating an animal, provided that animal has lived in a healthy, natural environment. I'm not sure if I trust that to exist, or that I know enough to be able to judge.

I do not believe there is an ethical way to obtain dairy or eggs on any sort of scale, so I try my best to not contribute to their consumption.

It has become too easy to ignore the conditions that deliver animals to the grocery store. For most of my life, I ignored it. But, when buttery croissants call my name, it's also easy to remember those conditions--to make the connection between butter and the dairy cow. And however scary it is, however guilty I feel about the years I ignored it, it's worth it.

Furthermore, environmentally speaking, meat and animal product consumption is costly. I know I'm just one person, and my impact is small, but that impact makes me feel connected with the world around me. Trying to reduce our garbage production makes me think about the effect of landfills and trash flotillas in the ocean. Eliminating animal products has made me consider the toll farming takes on our environment.

Finally, it's worth it for my health. Everybody has different beliefs about the best way to eat. And every body has different needs. For me, it has become clear that whole plant foods are best. I could go into studies about cancer rates and a myriad of other diseases linked to animal product consumption. And anybody pro-meat could easily counter with soy and estrogen studies, among others.

That's not what's important. Studies do not a healthy diet make. Ethical and environmental concerns aside, I could probably build an equally healthy diet including meat, eggs and dairy in limited quantities. But, personally, I needed to give them up to re-establish the foundation of my healthy diet: whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts. Not packages of sweetened Greek yogurts, sugary fortified cold cereal or muffins and pastries.

For you, it might be joining a CSA, getting rid of packages, or going "Paleo". For me, it was becoming vegan. It became easier to make it at home than to read every label. And easier than making crackers, muffins and pastries at home was just eating cooked grains with fresh fruits and tasty sauces.

And, for my health, it's worth it to pass on the cheesecake and to replace the beef with beets and the bun with lettuce.