Lightweight Eats

We were very behind on our FoodGawker favorites (we've got hundreds of recipes to cook), so we decided to dig into the archives for inspiration this week.

1. Salad with spring mix, lettuce, carrot, avocado, beets, roasted mushrooms, bottled dressing
2. Spaghetti with edamame, green onions, cilantro, olive oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, chili garlic sauce, rice vinegar, broccoli
3. Carrot casserole with onion, parsley and tofu
4. Thai peanut slaw salad (peanut sauce, shredded cabbage, red bell pepper, green onion, cilantro, mint, green peas, roasted peanuts) in rice wraps
5. Quinoa salad with roasted delicata squash, roasted cauliflower, mmmm sauce
6. Red Lentil Soup (onion, oil, garlic, cumin, coriander, curry, canned tomatoes, red lentils, veggie stock, pepper, cayenne, lime, cilantro, green onion)
7. Lentil loaves (green lentils, stock, oil, zucchini, fennel, onion, garlic, carrot, flour, quinoa, parsley, paprika, celery, soy sauce, miso paste) with avocado-tahini dressing (avocado, tahini, stock, garlic, soy, parsley)

Breakfasts: Vanilla-Honey polenta with blueberries, bananas and almonds; 6-grain hot cereal with apples, raisins and cinnamon

Lunch ideas: Protein smoothie with spinach; roasted sweet potatoes with mmm sauce; sunflower seed butter and jam sandwich; pasta with kale, sun-dried tomatoes and olives

Snacks: Pita, baby carrots, hummus; cereal; instant oatmeal

We also have a house guest staying with us for a few days, so some of these dinner options might be amended with salads, or combined into larger meals.

What's on your menu for the week??

Over the past few weeks, Dan and I have started to plant our garden. Our new place has a yard!

In the back, it's mostly covered with a concrete driveway, but has 2 feet of edging extending along approximately 75 feet of fence. There is also a small patch of grass (~20'x10'), half of which is taken over by the orange tree. All of this will get fantastic year-round sun.






Our front yard is really just a tiny patch of forlorn grass and wet dirt. I don't expect it to get much sun, making it a prime candidate for a lemon tree--in NorCal, they produce so much fruit that poor growing conditions are probably a good thing.

Getting the garden planting ready has taken quite a bit of work, not all of which is completed. The edging was completely overrun with weeds. Although the soil was otherwise in excellent condition (it appears some previous owner had lots of roses and cared for the soil), some of the weeds had deep roots. There were also a few plants with extensive bulbs.

Weeding was cold work--I wanted to get the beds ready for planting as soon as possible. Most seeds say plant 6-8 weeks before the last frost. I'm guessing the last frost just happened; last year, we planted in December and things just kept on trucking through winter. This year has been unusually cold, but the ground should be ready.

In already are carrots, peas, cabbage, Chinese cabbage and our pepper plant that successful overwintered. Inside, we have cilantro, basil and tomatoes starting in pots. Outside, we have spring mix in a pot; I'm hoping to plant radishes and beets shortly as well.

We have big plans for watermelons, lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, blueberries and stone fruit. We may also grow some green beans and a few other vegetables, depending on how much space we've got once everything goes into the ground. It's awesome having so much room to play!

Our seeds aren't certified organic, but they will be grown in a pesticide-free environment. I expect that the harvest will reduce our food costs by 10-15%; already having oranges on our tree has helped our food budget significantly. We'd like to keep that savings with the addition of vegetables and more fruits.

This past week, California Rowing Club has been hosting a lightweight women's camp: several athletes and the coach from a program in Connecticut made their way across the country to enjoy California sunshine and liquid bodies of water.


This is my first time sculling with other lightweights. (At Princeton, we rowed sweep--one oar per person.) It's been an absolute blast.

Highlights so far:
- lifting weights and not having to re-rack 45 pound plates before every lift (the men lift a bit more than I do...)
- battle paddling in doubles
- rocking the quad in the midday sun, wearing shorts and a sports bra (summertime, here we come!!!)

The first one heads back tomorrow, but we'll still be three through Friday, and two through late next week. It's been a great change of pace, and an awesome kick in the pants to snap me out of winter hibernation.

Things I need to work on? My squat--these girls kicked my butt! I also clearly need to improve my self-motivation--it's been much easier to get down to the boathouse twice a day and to get my heart rate up with some teammates around.

Vegan sandwiches are difficult. Of course, there's the quintessential combination of avocado, sprouts and chopped veggies piled high on whole wheat bread. Two problems: first, that gets boring pretty fast; second, sprouts don't keep particularly well.

(I know, I know, I should just grow my own sprouts. In due time.)

So, for your eating pleasure, I'm hoping to come up with some great topping ideas to either add some sandwich to or remove some animal from your lunchbox.

January's sandwich idea:
Pita pocket or whole wheat bread

Our roommate has a Vitamix blender. It took us a week or two to use it, but we've since jumped onto the smoothie bandwagon. Since the beginning of December, I've probably made 2-3 smoothies a week--and it's winter!

Here are some of my favorite things to do with a smoothie:
1. Add fresh ginger. I often find that smoothies get a bit too thick and sweet; ginger helps brighten them back up a bit. Eating more ginger is also part of my new year's resolution list--this one is practically already checked off just from smoothies! Adding lime juice, apple cider vinegar or other acidic foods/liquids also works.

2. Use up veggies. All those veggies we chop on Sundays for the week? They mostly get eaten, but eventually, they start to look a little bit sad. When they are getting too squishy or dry to gobble up on a fresh salad, I throw them into my smoothie. Last spring, I also threw pea pods into a smoothie--this is probably best reserved for high powered blenders, though.

3. Round it out with fat. I try to throw in one source of fat into each smoothie. My go-to sources include: chia seeds, flaxseed meal, nuts/seeds and nut/seed butters, and avocado. These, and olives, are the main sources of fat in my diet, and I have trouble getting enough. (Too little fat can increase risk of injury.)

4. Make it a protein smoothie. I hate protein shakes--who doesn't? So I throw my protein powder into smoothies, and the sweet fruit masks the flavor and, more importantly, the texture of the powder. Perfect! It also gives the smoothie a bit more staying power.

5. Add oats. Speaking of staying power, I find that a handful of baby oats helps me stay full for longer. This may be a placebo affect, but I'll take it.

Some combinations I'd like to try:
- banana + cocoa powder + instant espresso (or real espresso)
- kiwi + raspberry/strawberry
- vanilla + ginger + pear
- pumpkin + spices

Pantry, to be more specific.

We've tried to commit to eating primarily non-packaged goods. It's cheaper and healthier. It also makes me appreciate the food I'm eating a bit more--for example, we just ground our own sunflower seed butter. The works that goes into it (admittedly not much) makes me think twice when I grab a giant spoonful.

We'd fallen off the bandwagon a bit, though. We hadn't gone to buying chips, crackers and sodas again, but suddenly jars of peanut butter, bags of crystallized ginger and chocolate covered cherries found their way onto our shelves.

So last weekend, we raided our pantry and tossed almost all of it. The dried fruit went into a cabinet for treats if we are having a particularly difficult week, along with the honey. But the brown sugar and the JIF peanut butter got the axe.

The original plan was to use and not replace, but I've found myself to be more of a cold turkey kind of girl, rather than gradual changes. I'm sure we can find a hungry stomach to consume these for us.

Our pantry is back to its original intention: whole grains, legumes, and a few nuts and seeds to snack on. The rest of it lives in the fridge--fresh fruits and vegetables, cooked grains and beans, roasted veggies for snacking, condiments/dressing, tofu, non-dairy milk and the occasional egg.

For now, we've kept the sliced bread in our freezer. We still have vegetable and olive oils, both of which come in packages. And we are working our way through our collection of cold cereal

I would like to commit as strongly as possible to only buying non-packaged goods. This might mean bringing my bulk containers with me to the Food Mill to stock up on grains. It will probably also mean grinding our own nut and seed butters; maybe even making our own hummus and salsa.

I think, for now, I am ok with canned goods--tomatoes and corn, especially--as I'd rather eat a healthy meal with canned beans than go buy burritos from the store. Our limited freezer space also makes canned soup incredibly convenient--there just isn't enough space to store frozen meals. (Perhaps taking the sliced bread out of the freezer and baking our own would help...)

Have any of you given up packaged foods? How far should we go? What about flours and rolled oats? Cold cereal? Hot cereal?? Where do we draw the line on "acceptable"? And how do we draw a line that makes the choice at the grocery store easier?

1. Turn off the thermostat. California is pretty temperate--and we pay for that in cost of living. So we might as well save where we can: by turning off the thermostat as much as possible (especially when we aren't home). As long as the temperature falls between 55 and 80 degrees, we can stay comfortable by layering up or layering down. Our windows are also fairly well-sealed, but strategic opening and closing of blinds makes a huge difference.

2. Sign up for email lists. I'm on the emails lists for companies that I shop at on a regular basis: Peet's Coffee, GNC and Walgreens to name a few. Peet's offers cheap or dramatically reduced in-store beverages on a fairly regular basis; I use these when I need to go get work done in a cafe. (See #3)

3. Take full advantage of what you're paying for. When you buy a coffee at Peet's for $1.80, you are paying for the cup and the service (although most stores will give you 10 cents off if you bring your own mug!). But you're also paying for the space, the WiFi, the marketing, the promotions, and even the electricity charging some other dude's laptop. So take advantage! If you're going to buy a coffee for $1.80, charge your computer, sit in the cafe and use the internet. (You might as well hit the restroom, too.)

4. Eat at home. We menu plan and purchase all of our own food. When you eat at a restaurant, you are paying for the ingredients, the water, the gas for the stove, the heating, use of the linens, the labor, etc. For us, we can save a significant amount of money by doing it all home. If you get paid a high hourly rate, though, and you could be working instead of washing dishes, it might be to your advantage to buy pre-made food. Dan also takes advantage of free lunch at work usually once a week.

5. Demand quality customer service. Our french press broke, due to faulty construction; so we contacted the company and they replaced the faulty piece for free. The same thing has happened with Dan's kick scooter. I've purchased clothing and had it wear out sooner than I had anticipated or was reasonable--I returned it and got a full refund. Again, that's part of what you are paying for.

6. Shop sales. This one requires some patience, and willingness to get by in the meantime. Some of my favorite clothing I've gotten at 10% of the original price because of sales. Awesome! We also got the aforementioned french press on sale. Obviously, don't buy anything you don't need or wouldn't have been willing to pay full price for.

7. Telecommute. I know this isn't an option for everybody, but at the very least look into all of your commuting options. When I coached in SF, I carpooled with one of my co-workers. Dan takes advantage of pre-tax commute dollars to save some money on his BART ride. We use autoload high value tickets to get a 6% discount on every trip. I also work from home most days.

8. Find free or low-cost entertainment. There are tons of ideas out there. I like to garden and read blogs. Dan likes to take photos and read about scuba diving. These are things that I always wish I had more time to do, and not paying to see concerts and movies or go out to bars gives me that time. (You can also invite friends to join you!!)

9. Speaking of gardening, grow your own food! This probably isn't cheaper if you don't have a yard. If you do have a yard and some spare time, I'm a big fan of cucumbers, radishes and carrots. Fruit trees are also really easy--our orange tree suffered some serious neglect and still produced hundreds of oranges.

10. Stay as healthy as possible. Washing your hands more means getting sick less; fewer illnesses mean fewer cold medicines and tissues consumed. Obviously not everything is preventable, but medicine is expensive and the more you can do to prevent illness before it happens the better. I'm a big believe in fruits and vegetables, plenty of sleep and regular exercise.

Any other suggestions? We've saved a lot of money with each of these items and many have improved our quality of life rather than detracting from it. We're always looking for similar ideas!

I see what other people eat on a regular basis and it gets me to wondering: how are Americans so incredibly thin? Don't get me wrong, we're an obese nation, but with the amount of food most people eat, I'm amazed that we aren't a fatter nation.

Despite exercising for significantly more than two hours daily, I eat a diet of primarily vegetables just to maintain my weight. I don't eat cake, muffins, ice cream or even bagels slathered with cream cheese, when people (myself included) think I should be able to eat whatever I want.

Believe me, I want to eat a lot more than I can.

Even looking back on my high school years, I find it remarkable how much food I consumed. Even when I began training in May, I was eating significantly more. Yet, clearly I was still the same person. So I got to thinking.

The Garmin Dan gave me for Christmas has a heart rate monitor that tracks calorie expenditure. There are a few factors that go into this: your self-assessed fitness level (on a scale from 1-10), your weight/size, and your heart rate.

My heart rate at any given time? It's very low. In fact, it's much lower than it has ever been for a given energy expenditure. It stays under 100 for a brisk walk; sits around 55 when I'm lounging on my computer; and has trouble going over 140 on the stationary bike.

And that's what a lot of exercise is supposed to do: make your muscles more efficient. This allows you to go faster for longer.

But I wonder: does it also mean I burn fewer calories on day-to-day activities? Perhaps, where I used to burn 100 calories a mile, I now burn 70-80 because my body isn't working as hard. And perhaps, sitting still, my base calorie burn is almost nonexistent.

I certainly don't miss the days where running a mile was impossibly difficult. But maybe, just maybe, there's a fringe benefit to being out of shape--every little thing really does count.

In the meantime, I'll take my lunch salads with a side of Olympic dreams.

For some reason, this combination sounded really tasty as I was writing up our grocery list; I was right. I imagine it would also be great with some walnuts on top.

----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Spinach, Fennel, Apple Salad

2-4 cups raw baby spinach
0.5 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 small apple, cubed or thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced

Dressing:
0.5T olive oil
1T Bragg unfiltered apple cider vinegar
1t dijon mustard
1t ketchup (to sweeten)

1. Layer all of the salad ingredients in a big bowl.
2. Whisk together the dressing ingredients.
3. Dress and toss. Add salt and pepper to taste.
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

I'm usually pretty awful at eating healthy lunches. I get home from practice hungry, grab a spoon and hit the peanut butter jar. Not a great start to the day.

Every week, I plan out our dinner menu. In light of my terrible snacking habits, I decided to also throw some lunch ideas onto the list--nothing complicated, but healthier ideas.

I've done this before and it's been mildly successful; this time, I decided to put in some extra effort in the hopes of improving the success rate. Over the weekend, instead of shoving all the veggies in the fridge, I pre-chopped them. I know this isn't the best practice for the longevity of vegetables, but that wasn't the point--I wanted to eat them, not keep them.

We also bought a few convenience foods: pitas, hummus and pre-made salad dressing.

I'm not a huge fan of pre-made salad dressing, and prefer to make large batches of my own, but my schedule is busy enough that that's not always possible. I carefully read the ingredient lists, and hope for the best.

The recent cold weather has also called for lots of soup. We bought a large slow cooker a few months ago, and I've been using it to make huge batches of soup. They're usually part of the dinner menu, but a crock full of soup is enough for 3-4 lunches and 2 dinners, at least.

On my lunch/snack menu this week:
- pita pockets with hummus and chopped veggies
- split pea soup
- salads with chopped veggies, avocado and bottled dressing
- celery sticks with peanut butter (yea, that's right, replaced the spoon)

Success rate? High. I think this is the first time we've finished an entire bunch of celery in a week. (Please don't think about that one too hard.) Our soup is super tasty. (Haha!) And we managed to finish off two pounds of romaine, two beets, a large turnip, a bunch of radishes, four pounds of carrots, and two cucumbers in three days.

I'm also a big fan of changing up the routine PB&J for lunches. I use almond butter or sunflower seed butter, and for a while I was using cranberry sauce instead of jam. Dan makes an awesome sandwich with peanut butter and pomegranate seeds. Not the most veggie-ful option, but a very comforting lunch. It's great with a hot mug of tea and the FoodGawker app.

In summary, I'm planning to make a habit out of pre-chopping veggies and planning healthy lunches into my week. I also think celery sticks are here to stay--more calories than a spoon, but also a lot more filling.

I love the way my life has turned out. In the past few years, I've made a lot of positive changes that have put me in a great place. And I've developed a lot of great habits that have gotten me here:

- Exercising: even on my days off from formal exercise, I usually make it outside for a walk, or spend time gardening. Trips to the grocery store certainly count; it's only a mile away, but a mile with 25 pounds of groceries is pretty significant.
- Eating breakfast: in high school, I couldn't even wait long enough to get dressed before I ate breakfast. For me, being a little bit hungry in the mornings means I'm eating the right amount of food.
- Sleeping 8 hours a night: in college, this was a big part of my success. Sleeping enough at night gave me the energy to get thru my day. Now, I often supplement my 8 hours with a nap.
- Getting enough vegetables: a few years ago, I read a blog post about vegetable consumption that made me think twice. I wasn't actually eating enough of them. Well, I've turned over a new leaf: every day I eat at least five servings of vegetables. It's not easy, though, even as a vegetarian. If you're not trying, you're probably not getting enough.
- Acknowledging the things I've done well: every day, I try to list a few things that I'm proud I did. For example, when I finish a particularly hard workout right on target, or the time I walked in to buy a slice of cake and walked out with plain granola. I try to do the same for Dan--he's really a pretty impressive guy.

I also have a few habits that I'd like to break:
- Eating instead of sleeping: despite getting eight hours a night, sometimes I'm still wiped after a particularly hard training session (or week). The worst times are 10 am and 8:30pm, and I really should learn to just crawl in bed and sleep.
- Skipping workouts: I've gotten into a bad habit of skipping afternoon workouts and lifts, usually because I'm either tired (and should have napped) or because I want to spend time with my husband. I need to let him cook dinner more often so I can get these done. Those 1-2 sessions a week really do add up over time.
- Always wearing my hair up: I've gotten remarkably attached to my long hair, but I always wear it up, and usually in a ponytail. That's not good for my hair, and it's kind of a waste. At least twice a week, I'd like to wear it down.

And habits that I'd like to form:
- Brushing twice a day: the key habit forming years for this coincided with 5:15AM practice, when time was at a premium in the morning. I know it's gross, and now that I drink coffee regularly, I should get into this habit to prevent yellow teeth. I do floss every day now!!
- Stretching: I used to be the last one at the boathouse every day because I spent 10 minutes stretching. I need to rebuild that habit; it helps me recover and sleep better.
- Drinking more water/tea: I got out of the habit of drinking water senior year because I was worried about making weight for afternoon practice. Not good. Now, I avoid it before AM practice because there's no bathroom in my boat. That's no excuse for 10AM-10PM, though. It prevents me from snacking when I shouldn't be and helps me recover better.

Any other habits I should be making or breaking in 2013?

I've read about athletes that only train to race. I don't think they'd make it very far in rowing. We spend countless hours training, probably over 1000 hours a year, for maybe ten 8-minute races. 12.5 hours of training for every minute of racing? You'd better really, really, really love to race.

But personally, I don't think I could do this if I didn't love to train as well. There is something glorious about my time in a boat, on a boat, running and lifting; the clear correlation between input and output is what motivates me to continue.

And that is why I love racing.

I've won silver medals and cried with joy and elation. I've won silver medals and cried with disappointment and frustration. The result is simply what you make of it, and not really the point.

There was a quote in the Princeton locker room:

"It's not the will to win that matters—everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters." — Paul "Bear" Bryant

That's why I love racing. First, it gives me the will to prepare. It gives the training cycle and end point and therefore must give it a starting point as well.

Second, there is nothing more satisfying than showing up on race day having prepared beyond a doubt to win and then winning beyond a doubt. Racing, by nature, evens the playing field on the will to win front--everybody wants to win equally as badly. What racing really displays is who prepared.

If at any point you doubt that, and think that born talent is enough to win, rethink your commitment to your training. Take a step back and be critical of yourself; in the end, that's what being a great athlete is all about. Finding your weaknesses and systematically eliminating them through power of will.


In the past seven months, I've learned an all important lesson: weighted importance of races. Yes, all races are important, just as all practices, all meals and all good nights of sleep are important. And some are no more important than that: they are practice races, and places to learn lessons about your race day performance.

I have learned that sleeping enough is more important than a training taper, and that I need to be responsible for race information like course maps, race times and entry numbers. I have yet to learn how to manage a weigh-in the day of a race, and how to plan a successful race strategy; I'm looking forward to the opportunity to practice. It would be disappointed to prepare to win the 8 minutes down the course only to lose the race on the way to the starting line.

Do you love to race? What's your favorite part?

After a brief winter break, training resumed in earnest this week. I did a really good job of getting in all of the workouts over break--something I have historically been less than stellar about.

Having new toys to play with helped.

Ever wonder how much (or little) you could/should spend on food per week? I've heard of a lot of people chasing the elusive $50/week marker, but I knew that eating organic and fueling my training wasn't going to allow for that.

Every time I came up with a meal plan that seemed to have enough calories, I was ending up with $60/week for just my food.

So I decided to do some math.

I opened up a spreadsheet and got to work. Follow along and you can do the same. In the first column, list the foods you eat on a regular basis.

In the second column, list the serving unit you'd like to use. I recommend weight units where possible (i.e. pounds, ounces). In the third column, list the price per serving. This information can be found on your receipts or approximate values online. In the fourth column, the calories per serving (this info can be found online or on food packaging).

You will also need to know how many calories you consume in a week. Dan and I consume between 35000 and 40000 calories per week, or around 5500 calories a day, between the two of us.

[Some useful info: there are 16 ounces in a pound, and 28 grams in an ounce.]

Ok, so that's the hard part--the input. Next comes the cool part.

I re-organized by $/calorie; this is definitely not a complete list of everything we eat.

In your spreadsheet, divide column three ($/serving) by column four (calories/serving) to get cost per calorie ($/calorie) in column five. In column six, multiply column five by your calories per week to get the cost per week if you were to eat only that food ($/week) to achieve your calorie intake.

Obviously, it's not a good idea to eat only one food, but this measure is what you're looking for--how much food should cost you per week.

For example, the cheapest food (per calorie) on our list was peanut butter. If we tried to meet our calorie intake using only peanut butter, we could spend around $38/week on groceries. On the other hand, if we only ate radishes, we'd be spending more like $4300/week on groceries.

I don't have a great system for determining total grocery expenditure--it's ultimately a weighted average of the values in the right. But it did give me a good sense of the minimum. Based on this information, I'm guessing that we'll be closer to 85 or 90 dollars per week.

This makes a lot of sense. We're eating about 3 people's worth of food, mostly organic. And we're not trying to spend any less than we are--we are choosing quality food for a reason.

However, if money got tight, we could easily switch to non-organics outside of the dirty dozen, and rely on more grains, beans and fruits for calories, supplementing with primarily sale, frozen vegetables. Not surprisingly, carrots and potatoes also do well on the price per calorie scale.

Try playing around with this! Let me know what you find out.

People often ask my how I fuel my training without eating meat and animal products. Strangely enough, I often find myself wondering how I managed to fuel my training before.