Lightweight Eats

Yum. This dish was super tasty, savory, nutty and satisfying. It more than made up for the lack of turkey on my plate at Thanksgiving, and would also be a festive addition to a Christmas feast. (In fact, I might bring it along to our traditional Christmas Eve meal, seeing as none of the dishes that are normally served are dairy/meat free.)

All of the pieces can be prepped individually and just thrown into the same bowl a few hours before serving. The cauliflower should be made no earlier than one day ahead, unless you expect zero leftovers. (It doesn't start to smell funk until about 4 days later, but taste deteriorates by the end of day two.)

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Quinoa Cauliflower Kale Salad
serves 4 as a main, 8 as a side

1c quinoa, dry
2c water

2 heads cauliflower, cut into florets, leafy bits reserved
spray oil

2 bunches kale, deveined and well chopped
1 onion, sliced
1T olive oil

1c pomegranate arils

For the dressing:
(from Smitten Kitchen)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
0.5c lemon juice
6T tahini
4T water
4T olive oil

1. Put the quinoa and water in a pot. Bring to a boil, reduce to a light simmer for 15 minutes. Let sit for at least 5 minutes covered, then let cool fully.
2. Spread the cauliflower on a baking tray. Spray with oil. Roast in a 375°F oven until lightly browned all over, about 30 minutes. Stir regularly (about every 10').
3. Saute the onion in olive oil and a pinch of salt over medium-low heat until golden. Add the kale, sauteeing over medium until tender. (If necessary, add about 0.25c water and cover the kale to help it steam to tender.) This will take about 15'.
4. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the dressing ingredients. Taste and adjust as necessary.
5. Assemble: Mix all of the cooked elements, at room temperature, in a large bowl. Add half of the pomegranate arils and the dressing, tossing to combine. Garnish with the remaining pomegranate. Serve at room temperature.
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Recently, I've been thinking more and more about purchasing organic produce. The move to our new place has helped with our budget enough that we can start to consider organics.

At our old place, we bought nearly all of our produce from the market. Much of the produce was pesticide free, although not certified organic; other items weren't available in organic form, or weren't affordable. I also felt good enough about purchasing locally that I wasn't as concerned with organics.

The local farmer's market at our new place is pretty pathetic--it's got maybe four stalls, one of which sells candied nuts and candy. Instead, I've started shopping at Farmer Joe's, our local natural foods store.



I'm still not entirely sure how much produce makes sense to purchase as organic. However, the logical side of me has a lot of good arguments in favor of organics:
It's better for the environment. It's better for the people who grow my food. It's safer. Most importantly, it's better for my body, and if I'm going to spend 2-6 hours a day training my body to be the best it can be, I should be fueling it with the best I can find.

I do have a few arguments against organics, though:
The produce isn't always high quality. (The poor organic bell peppers are always squishy..) It can cost significantly more. It isn't always available--although this is becoming less and less of an issue.

I've posted a list of the dirty dozen and the clean 15 on our fridge. I'm going to make an effort to purchase the dirty dozen as organics as often as possible. Otherwise, I think I'm going to try to start my shopping in the organic produce section and then follow up in the conventional section instead of the other way around.

I'm not sure how much of a difference it will make. Although I've never done an all-organic experiment, I have never felt a significant difference in my body after consuming more organics. Certainly I haven't felt the same changes I felt when I switched to not eating meat, or even to eating more vegetables and fruits.

I will keep you updated on my position on organics as time passes. Please, let me know if you have any thoughts on the matter!

P.S. Happy birthday, Kat!

At our old apartment, the living room, dining room, office and kitchen were all one room. There were certainly perks: if Dan was working and I was cooking, we could still chat and hang out. It also made it easy to transition from cooking to eating to hanging out.




There were also major downsides. When we moved in, getting our furniture to fit was like playing Tetris. The wheels on our kitchen cart were crucial, and helped us allocate space to either the kitchen or dining area as necessary. And we hardly used our "living room": the solitary couch and lonely chair were just awkward.

In the new place, our furniture has room to breathe!

This means we need a lot more decorations, which is awesome. I look forward to making this space home--putting up pictures and purchasing decorations (vases, sculptures, plants, etc.). I can't wait to hang curtains, mirrors and clocks. We're even thinking about doing some painting!

This house is much cozier--it's begging for a warm cup of cocoa and a Christmas tree. Maybe it's just the season, or maybe it's the central heating and the fireplace, which we aren't allowed to use :(, but I already feel more at home here. (It could also be the spacious kitchen, the well-stocked pantry and the yard.)



Clearly, we need some more decorations for our living room. We are slowly working on acquiring decorative elements. We were thinking about buying a crappy, old 10 speed, taking it apart, and hanging the various elements on the walls. I think the frame would look nice above the fireplace, and some wheels and chains between the windows.

There were so many things to be grateful for this weekend, and this whole year. My life is so different from this same time last year and looking better every day.

For this year's Thanksgiving, we decided to have a low-key celebration at home. It's been a stressful month for both Dan and me, so having the long weekend at home was much needed. We're both feeling much more relaxed.

Dan came home from work early on Wednesday and found me elbow deep in cooking. A lot of people find cooking for Thanksgiving very stressful--I had the opposite experience. It was fun and relaxing to plan and execute the menu!!

To help, I planned my dishes so that many of them could be made ahead of time. We had a few rowing friends over to our place for Thursday dinner and wanted to spend our evening enjoying good company, not slicing, dicing, chopping and cooking.

On Wednesday, I managed to make:
- bean salad: garbanzos, edamame, cucumber, bell pepper, red onion and a lemon-thyme dressing
- quinoa, roasted cauliflower, kale salad with a tahini dressing and pomegranate aril garnish (recipe coming soon)
- vegan pumpkin bread and accompanying cranberry sauce (recipes coming after more testing)
- Mmmm sauce, intended for broccoli

Thursday morning, Dan and I worked together to put the finished touches on the meal:
- oven roasted turkey
- super garlicky mashed potatoes
- broiled broccoli spears

Dinner was an absolute blast--we spent the evening laughing and eating until late.

Friday, we headed into San Francisco to see what all the Black Friday hubbub was about. Neither Dan nor I can remember going shopping on Black Friday, and it was quite an experience. I've never seen lines so long for deals that could also be found online. It seems to be as much tradition at this point as actual deal scavenging.

Saturday and Sunday were both spent around home. I had Saturday morning practice, and we spent the afternoon going grocery shopping, making dinner and generally putzing about the house.

Sunday morning, we made pancakes and went for a nice bike ride on the waterfront. In the afternoon, we explored our new neighborhood and went on a coffee date! Lovely!

Overall, a great way to spend a long weekend with an incredible husband.

This coming week, we start training in earnest after a light training week due to Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to the increased eating that comes with increased training! I'll also be putting in a number of hours at work while we prep for our launch.

As I've mentioned, the West Coast Speed Order this past weekend was our biggest and last race of the fall season. I definitely had mixed results.

The race was a two day event, with a weigh-in and 6K test on the erg on Saturday, followed by a 4K race on the water on Sunday.

In college, our weigh-ins were the night before the race. This gives you about 16 hours to recover from the effort. Generally, lightweights sit slightly above their race weight during the course of the season; in college, it was standard to sweat out at least a pound of water weight for weigh-ins, knowing that you could replenish your body before the race.

For this weigh-in, I did a really poor job of weight management in the month leading up to the race. I left myself too much weight to drop in the last two weeks, and ended up depleting my store of carbohydrates in my system. I managed to make weight easily (129.6 pounds, after eating half of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and having breakfast and snacks throughout the morning), but at a pretty significant cost.

The weigh-in was two hours before the start of the erg test, and about 75 minutes before I started my warm-up. This really didn't leave enough time to refuel. Having never tested this process before, I was stuck guessing what and how much to eat. I guessed wrong, and my 6k test suffered as a result.

Mentally, I was in a pretty bad place after that 6k, and it took some work to get back. Fortunately, my awesome family, a La Farine baguette and some football helped a lot. The Ducks' loss to Stanford Saturday night reminded me that even great athletes have bad days.

I went out Sunday morning, fueled, calm and ready to race. I've spent the last three months perfecting my steering over this race course, and I would give myself a 9.5/10 during this race. I made some of the same steering mistakes I always make, but I caught myself before they got too bad.

On the water training before the race.

I raced conservatively in the first half, still cautious after my previous day's experience, but managed to pull off a decent time. Next time, I would row with a higher stroke rate, plan a few power moves throughout the course, and spend a few more minutes warming up on land before launching. Overall, though, I was very happy with my Sunday performance on the water.

Going forward, I plan to research refueling options for post weigh-in, and do some practice runs, much like marathoners practice fueling during long runs.

Six months ago, I left my job as a coach and made my way back to the other side of the megaphone. After college, I wasn't really planning on continuing to train, and my efforts to stay in shape during my year long hiatus were pretty pathetic.

Before I even had access to our new place, and before our lease had officially started, I had already bought our first pantry staples. Therefore, I think it's fitting to start the tour of our new place with the pantry.

Moving is stressful. Racing and prepping for a weigh in? Also stressful. Managing work, training and keeping house? More stress.

I get stressed out easily and often unnecessarily. I think of it as a bad habit. In high school, I tended to take my stress out on the people around me. In college, I learned to manage stress by finding outlets like exercise and baking. Now, I try to avoid stress. Here are some of my solutions for managing stress:

1. Just say no. Your time is precious--which is why so many people ask for it. If I did everything people asked me to do, I would have absolutely zero time left, so I've learned to say no.

2. Ask for help. As it turns out, other people aren't so great at saying no. If you're overwhelmed, ask the people around you to lend a hand. Even if it's something unusual--like an extra set of hands and eyes in the kitchen while you cook or help mowing the lawn--you probably know somebody who is capable and willing.

3. Schedule down time. Sit on the couch and devour a book for 20 minutes. Use your commute to close your eyes and listen to music. Sing in the shower, even if air guitaring slows you down. Eat a leisurely breakfast. Whatever you choose, flee to it whenever you find your stress unmanageable.

4. When shit hits the fan, ask yourself this: will it matter in six months? So the barista accidentally made your latte with 2% milk instead of nonfat. Will you even remember in six days? Probably not. The guy at Home Depot mixes up paint two shades darker than you wanted. Will you remember in six months? Most definitely! Freak the f*** out!

5. Be honest. Seriously, people understand way more than you might expect.

How do you prevent stress? de-stress?

P.S. I'm using #1 as my excuse for not having posted pictures of our new place, yet.

Moving has begun! I picked up the keys to our new place on Tuesday afternoon. Yesterday morning, we took over the first load and things have progressed quickly from there.

Dan and I don't have tons of stuff, and we're using this move as an opportunity to sell and donate a lot of unused items. Mostly, we have a lot of old clothing and unused books. There is definitely some furniture we wouldn't mind parting with, but our new place is quite a bit larger than our current space so we need the furniture to fill out the space.

Some of our furniture will get repurposed into something more useful. I'm looking forward to spending some real time planning out our space instead of just trying to figure out how to fit it all in.

So far, we've managed to move about half of our stuff without purchasing a single box. Our giant Ikea shelves have bins in them, and by unloading the bins after we take a load over, we've managed to take a lot of the little stuff over.

We've also used suitcases and duffel bags to take a lot of stuff: sheets, clothes, etc. Our most recent trip, I packed plates and bowls amongst clothing in Dan's rolling suitcase. Our plates are super heavy, so it was a great way to move them without carrying too much.

A burst of rain this afternoon has given me a moment to pause and plan the rest of our move. I'm currently working on making a list of everything left to move over, and then sorting it into trips. We hope to get everything moved by Sunday evening, in time to catch a 7pm showing of Skyfall.

That will also give us three days to bring over any straggling items, and clean the old place. Because I'm racing next weekend, I knew I would want this buffer to help alleviate stress. Things are starting to come together nicely, though!

Pictures will follow as soon as I have some.

We row on the Oakland Estuary, situated between the city of Oakland and the island of Alameda. I rowed here in high school and know the waterway incredibly well.

Since I rowed here, the number of teams on the estuary has increased dramatically, as well as the number of boats. Yesterday's Head of the Estuary was an opportunity for a lot of those local boats to get out and race, so there were a lot of high school boats out on the water.

CRC entered a few boats: lots of singles, two pairs and two eights. We book-ended the regatta with our entries.

Once again, we trained through this race. Our Saturday morning workout was a toughie--a 5.6 mile run followed by a long to-failure workout (51 minutes of total work). After my poor performance at Head of the American, I knew I needed to experiment some more and see if I could race hard even with a tired body.

I made sure to get plenty of rest (the time change helped!). I also showed up, raced and left. This was a home race, which simplified matters, but I need to approach away races similarly.

My warm-up was a bit scattered. I launched later than I had hoped to and so I cut my warm-up a bit short to get to the start line 5 minutes before my race time. (This is pretty standard, if a little bit close.) Then, it turns out, the race officials were running late, so I had an extra 4 or 5 minutes to kill. I was very grateful for my 20-minute bike ride (so my muscles were really warm) and the warm temperatures (so they didn't cool down too much during the wait).

I started 4th of five women's singles (all from CRC). I'm normally fairly close in time to my teammate who started behind me, so I was anticipating some great racing. Unfortunately, she ran into some debris in the first 1000m and never fully recovered.

The last 3200m of the course is a straight shot down the estuary, but because the shoreline weaves back and forth it's incredibly difficult to steer. I held a pretty perfect course, kept my stroke rate high and powered through the muscle fatigue. Overall, a great race.

I placed third, I think largely because I steered the course well. I learned that a rested brain can make up for a lot of a fatigued body. I also learned that I should always look up the course map before the race--I  wish I had known some of the distance markers a bit better. One more race under my belt!

In the past few months, my schedule has changed a lot. When I first started training at CRC, we trained twice a day on weekdays, every day, and once on Saturday mornings. At that point, we had fewer athletes, and the lead up to the Olympics meant training was everybody's top priority.

While I miss that atmosphere, the new schedule has allowed me to find work, which has been both fun and financially beneficial.

Currently, we train once as a group and sometimes once on our own on weekdays. To make up for the reduced weekday load, we often have four practices on weekends.

This is what a typical weekday looks like right now.

5:30AM - wake-up and eat breakfast ASAP; pack snacks/clothes for practice
breakfast: oatmeal, sunflower seeds, frozen berries, dried fruit, hemp protein powder, soy milk; coffee
6:15AM - bike down to the boathouse
6:45AM - arrive at boathouse and launch for practice (easy/medium 17 km row)
8:45AM - finish up practice, clean/put away equipment, bike home

The oars and boats all have to be washed and put away after each practice.

9:15AM - arrive home, eat snack, check email
snack: grapes!
10:00AM - shower, nap (yes, this is a crucial part of my daily schedule)
1:00PM - wake up, eat lunch
lunch: two homemade veggie burger patties, red cabbage slaw with quinoa and avocado
1:30PM - work (copy editing, responding to emails, etc)
2:30PM - snack! I think best when I'm moving, and even chewing helps; if I eat while I'm working, I will just keep munching mindlessly forever, so I chew gum. I'm usually starving by the end of an hour of furious gum chewing
snack: half PB&J, apple
2:45PM run errands and snack again
snack: granola bar, handful of peanuts, handful of cranberries
3:30PM - get ready for second workout (short, hard erg workout; 20' supplemental lift)
5:30PM - blogging, catching up on workout log
6:00PM - dinner!!!
dinner: Field Roast sausage on Acme bread, brussels sprouts, apple; Kashi GoLean with frozen berries, pomegranate seeds, soymilk for dessert
7:00PM - chores (getting ready for move, dishes, packing for tomorrow's workout, etc.)
9:30PM - bedtime!

After my poor performance in the race this past weekend, I'm working on sleeping more. I really think sleep deprivation negatively affected my race. It's such a preventable issue that I'd like to nip the problem in the bud. Fortunately, my schedule affords me the opportunity to take two hour naps and still go to bed at 9:30PM.

In 2011, I gave up meat for lent. My body has loved the change. I certainly missed meat for the first few months, and for about a year after that, I continued to eat meat on rare occasions.

In the past six months or so, I have given up meat completely. Once we learned to cook without it, it has become so natural.

Dan requested chicken recently so we bought one and roasted it. Making meat-free meals is so habitual that I had to prompt him several times to use the meat before it went bad.

After some recent events, I'm ready to take the next step.

First, I read The Food Revolution by John Robbins. I definitely don't agree with everything he said, but I agree with the general message of the book. Since reading it, I've definitely thought twice about consuming non-organic animal products, including those used in commercial baked goods.

Second, we stopped buying most packaged foods. Dan and I had begun to rely on crackers and cookies to round out our diets. When hungry, I found myself reaching in the pantry and eating Triscuits by the fistful. I told myself it was ok, because I purchased generally healthy choices--graham crackers, Triscuits, and a very small selection of cold cereals. Still, I knew that wasn't how I wanted to eat.

Third, I travelled for a week. I didn't have any of my usual staples--cheese, milk, sugar, etc. I essentially got to create my diet from scratch and I made great choices. I ate a lot of nuts, fruits, vegetables and grains. What didn't I eat? Dairy. Sweeteners. Animal fats. What happened? My acne went away. No, seriously. I've had acne since I was 12, and while it's gotten better in the last few years, it's now 95% gone in a week. I'm convinced. And it really wasn't that difficult.

Fourth, it was happening slowly already. I've talked before about my reliance on dairy, and my desire to eliminate that. Well, I was having success. Recently, I've severely cut back on my cheese intake. Breakfasts now involve oats and PB&J's instead of cold cereal with milk every morning. I still eat eggs once a week or so, and I'm ok with that.

In light of these changes, I'm ready to really commit to a plant-based diet. I still plan to take fish oil supplements, because I believe they improve my training. I also still expect to eat eggs on occasion.

Overall, though, I'd like my diet to be at least 95% plant based.

It's going to be a lifestyle change, and it's going to have to change the way we cook and feed ourselves. Whole, single-ingredient foods are going to have to be the center of our meals--nuts, fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds. That's a great thing--these are the foods that make me feel best and keep me healthy for training.

Since I started eating more fruits and vegetables, as a result of eliminating meat, I've hardly gotten sick (even when the people around me do), I've solved a lot of digestive issues, and I've improved a lot of aspects of my life.

Please bear with me as we make these changes. I'm sure we will adjust the specifics of our diet several more times as we tweak it to figure out what foods work best for our bodies, schedules and needs. In return, I will try to be open and honest about the process of finding our own diet.