Cheesy rice

:: Cheesy-rice topography speckled with black bean boulders ::

Yesterday I spit out another ~ 9.5k or so on the treadmill - cool breeze through my hair - so I declined a workout tonite in favour of baking a casserole. What?!, you might shriek. Isn't that a hippie health nut craze from the 70s? My reply would be: No, I just made this tonight.

As D knows, I am rather fond of mining fridge, freezer and cupboards for scraps to add a little somethin' to a mix like this. A hot pepper or some frozen corn can raise the status of brown rice and beans to great heights, or at least to the point where it can be considered a meal. In this case, I added a cup of raw shredded carrot, minced garlic and some cheese, bound it all up in a can's worth of diced tomatoes and tablespoons of chili powder and cayenne, and baked it for a half hour. The cheese bubbles on top and it smells GOOD.

Treadmillin'

I jumped out of bed expecting to run outside today on the frozen surface of the canal. Then I checked the temperatures and wimped out, defaulting to Plan B - treadmill at the gym. It's funny that a moderately low temperature can scare me away from running outside for an hour, while the superduper Gaz headed bravely into an ultra marathon today! But it's windy, I whispered to myself...

The treadmills at the gym are your standard hamster running machines, with buttons for speed, incline, TV channels, and so on. Today I noticed a button I hadn't before - a fan with three speeds! Cool air is expelled at the top of the screen, which is at about throat height for me, so after a few minutes I tried the lowest fan speed, and after 30 I boosted it to medium speed. It felt great! What a nifty option. 

I only ran 9.5 km in the hour I spent running. I was expecting another km on top of that, but I probably spent too much time jogging on low speeds to warm up.

Soup and muffins

Making soup and baking stuff satisfies my need to create, at least during winter. Long ago, I got my fix by playing music and making crafts and writing poems, and now I lock myself in the kitchen, one hand clutching a whisk and the other a stack of stained recipes, a paranoid look on my face. It's a weird, nest-y phase but I'm going with it.

This morning I threw ingredients into the crock pot, and then started on a batch of Oatmeal Muffins with Dates, Raisins and Almonds.

- You can't see the chia seeds but they're there. -

The soup - actually it's a chowder - is in its infancy after just two hours of cooking (out of an expected eight). The potatoes are just starting to look tender instead of crisp and attitudinal.

   

No more scratching

He's been hitting the exercise mats regularly to work out with the P90x DVDs, and occasionally I jump in too. I'm selective, though: I pass on the cardio and wait for days that target back, tris, and abs - areas I'd like to improve in. Running is fantastic for lots of things but it can't strengthen my shoulders or obliques. We pumped things up yesterday when we met the training expectations for the day, then threw in a tad more, and today I'm experiencing twinges in the back of the shoulder when I raise my hand to scratch my head - not necessarily a bad thing but indicating what I'll lightly call progress. I'd been meaning to do exercises for these areas for years! but had no trouble finding loads of excuses to avoid them until, as luck would have it, the very exercises I need presented themselves in my living room, accompanied by my very own training partner who I know pretty well and am fairly comfortable with them knowing that one-arm pushups are not my thing. So for now, I'm keeping my hands down and trying to heal enough to partake in the next dose of pre-packaged pain.

Longer time no write

Wednesday was a snow day. We were pummelled all day. By the evening, the skies had cleared. The temperature was most agreeable and I decided that a run on the path was just what I needed.

A real run outside! With wind in the face and all the exhilaration of being outside near dark. I followed the mini-snowplow that lumbered like a beneficient bear along the path, clearing a wide berth for me and the...cyclists? I saw a couple of dog walkers, two cyclists and no runners at all.

Long time no talk

Livin' on a prayer

I couldn't run today because I was feeling under the weather, so here is a good old fashioned food post.

The fella and I ran out this afternoon and came back with a car trunk stuffed with bags of food. We trucked in so many edibles that the cupboards and fridge had to cleared out before we could safety stash our finds in suitably cool and dark areas of the kitchen. And what a blitz it was! A dizzying number of containers holding bits of previously-tasty meals forgotten and left to spoil had to be sepulchered in the trash can. A moment of silence....

(A ten-pound bag of potatoes and another of beets! We'll be eating borscht until christmas.)

One leftover item I refused to toss was a couple of large sweet potatoes roasted to even sweeter perfection during their short but stellar career as holiday side dish. Maybe you've heard of them? They were quite popular in these parts about a week ago. Anyway, they were waiting for me to repackage their has-been careers into a Vegas-y show a la Bon Jovi and with help from a few carrots and some Thai red curry paste I made their dream come true. OK, it was my dream. 

PS> This recipe uses raw sweet potato, but if yours are cooked as were mine, slice them and add to the carrots with the Thai curry paste. 

   

Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup

serves 4-6

• 3 carrots, chopped
• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed 
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• smashed ginger and garlic to taste (I added a heaping teaspoon of each) 

Combine these items in a large pot and cook, covered, until carrots and potatoes are pierceable with a fork, about 20 minutes. 

Add:

• 2 tbsp Thai red curry paste
• 1-2 tsp honey

Cook for 5 minutes, then blend it up and add salt to taste. If too thick for your liking, add a half cup of water and blend again. 

Return to the pot and cook on medium heat until bubbly and hot. Serve garnished with cilantro, roasted squash seeds, and a few cranks of the pepper mill. And a bottle of pinot noir.