Frittata Time! Plus, Rice Bowl & Rice Noodz

Last Thursday, I had a rare morning off running because I was tapering for my St. Jude 2-Race 10K/Half-Marathon Challenge. So I traded my usual post-run breakfast of protein oats for a fancy Chickpea Frittata. When I don't run, I have way more time in the mornings, so I was able to fit in a Yoga with Adriene video and whip up this hearty breakfast from Eat Feel Fresh.

This frittata is made with chickpea flour, and I added the recommended veggies for my vata dosha — sweet potato and spinach. I roasted the sweet potatoes in the air fryer first and then added to the batter. You bake this in the oven and top with avocado. Here it is fresh out of the oven!

It made a big frittata, so I had half for breakfast on Thursday and saved the rest for Sunday's lazy breakfast. I also usually run on Sundays, but I took that day off to recover from the 2-Race Challenge. I was out of avocado on Sunday, so I melted some Chao cheese on top. 

The night before I ran the 10K in that 2-Race Challenge, I had a really awesome bowl inspired by Hillary from My Cat Loves Daiya. A couple weeks ago, she posted a rice/tofu/lettuce/avocado/peanut sauce bowl, and I knew I wanted to make it. I had some satay sauce in the pantry and everything else on-hand, even the avocado! So I made the bowl, ate the whole thing, and realized I'd forgotten the avocado. Still amazing! But I need to make it again with avo.

And here's a recent Soup Sunday meal. I found Ocean's Halo Thai Coconut Broth on clearance at Kroger for 75 cents! So I made some Tofu & Mushroom Brown Rice Ramen with it. The broth was very lime-y (maybe a little too much so), but it was good. 

Race Recap: St. Jude Virtual 10K & Half-Marathon

The first weekend in December is always St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend here. It's a big deal! The city shuts down most of Midtown and downtown for the marathon route, and everyone basically has three options: 1) run the race, 2) come out and cheer on the runners, or 3) plan to stay home all day because there's no way you're going to be able to navigate through the city without hitting a race course roadblock. I always go with option #1!

This fundraiser raises so much money for St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis, which provides free medical care for children with catastrophic diseases, particularly leukemia and other cancers. This year, however, the race was forced to go virtual, thanks to the pandemic. But that didn't stop Memphis runners (and runners all over the world!) from signing up. 

Every virtual race is a little different, and for this one, you could pick one distance (5K, 10K, half-marathon, or marathon) and commit to running it anywhere you wanted on race day (December 5). Or you could pick two distances or all four for the 2-Race or 4-Race Challenge. If you opted to do that, you committed to running the longest distance on Dec. 5 and the others any day you wanted leading up to race day. I signed up for the 10K and half-marathon and opted to do them back-to-back to make it a real challenge. I ran my 10K on Friday morning before work!

Y'all, I shaved about a minute off my 10K PR (personal record)! St. Jude provided an app for official time tracking, and it included the actual race course for those who wanted to try and follow it. You could run the race anywhere, but I tried to stay on the real course downtown. Just for fun! I felt strong and fast, and my PR came pretty easily. I've been working on my speed all year!

After my run, I stopped my LuLu's (which is also downtown) for my usual Friday morning treat. I got the Brekky Sandwich (tofu egg, smoked beets, cashew cheese) on an Everything Bagel and enjoyed it on the drive back to Midtown.

The next day, I was set to run the St. Jude Half-Marathon. I've run many half-marathons but never the day after running a fast 10K, so I had no idea what to expect. I did a little muscle massage on Friday night and made sure to focus on whole foods for recovery. Surprisingly, I wasn't all that sore when I woke up Saturday morning.

I had my usual pre-run breakfast of overnight oats, and then I headed back downtown to run on the half-marathon course. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many other St. Jude runners in their St. Jude Heroes singlets, race bibs, and tech shirts. Everyone was running their own race on their own course, but we all passed each other quite often. Any time I'd see another runner in a St. Jude shirt, I'd smile and wave, and they would too. 

A couple of crazy synchronicities happened early on. St. Jude runners who raise money for the hospital are called St. Jude Heroes, and they had a special Heroes car driving around downtown, honking at runners. I had David Bowie's "Heroes" on my playlist, and the line that says "We can be heroes just for one day" was playing in my headphones as the car passed me on Front Street and honked and waved. Crazy! Brought me to tears a little bit.

And then, just a few blocks away, Florida-Georgia Line's "This Is How We Roll" came on my playlist right as I passed the intersection of Florida Street and Georgia Avenue. WHAT?! So weird! Also, y'all, I don't care for country music, but I like that song because Jason DeRulo has a little rap in it, and it's fun. My running music is super cheesy and inspirational AF.

After those two events, I just knew it was going to be a good run. And that was only mile 3! But I was right. I kept a steady and quick pace the whole 13.1 miles, and I ended with a two-minute PR! That's two PRs in two races in two days. I wasn't really trying to beat my previous times in either run, but I was just in a great flow state. That happens sometimes! The runners' high is real. 

The coolest thing about doing the 2-Race Challenge is that I got a third medal just for that. And it's big! Look at all this bling.

After my run, I treated myself to a Big Smack (like a vegan Big Mac) from Imagine Vegan Cafe, with cheese fries on the side. I definitely earned it! This has two vegan beef patties, special sauce, pickles, onions, and that double bun action. I rarely order it because it seems so decadent, but I was hangry after my races.

Cookbook Review: The Vegan Cookbook for Kids

My internet friend Barb of That Was Vegan has a new cookbook out! This woman has been steadily putting out cookbooks lately! Her new book, The Vegan Cookbook for Kids, is one that I probably wouldn't have gravitated toward in a store since I don't have human children (just fur babies!). But after glancing through the review copy, I realized that I am actually a big kid!

All of the easy, healthy recipes are designed so that kids can make them, but they also happen to be delicious enough for an adult to enjoy. I picked a few recipes to try! 

Last Friday night, the night before my St. Jude virtual half-marathon (which I got a PR in!!), I carb-loaded with the Pasta & Beanballs. These balls are made from kidney beans, bread crumbs, and spices, and they come together quickly. The recipe calls for a jarred sauce, which I intended to use, but realized about halfway through cooking that I was out of it! So I whipped up a from-scratch sauce using canned diced tomatoes.

For my mid-day snacks this week, I've been munching on Barb's Chipotle Sweet Potato Dip with Laiki black rice crackers and veggies. This creamy dip is made with blended cooked sweet potato, cashews, and spices. And though it does have chipotle powder in it, it's not at all spicy (which is a good thing for kids!).

I also made Pizza Toast! This recipe is more of a snack suggestion since it just calls for bread, pizza sauce, and cheese. I used Italian herb bagels! The photo with the recipe was one of bagels (even though the recipe says any sliced bread will work), and that made me crave bagels. Nothing is more satisfying that pizza on a bagel, y'all. 

The book covers breakfasts, snacks, soups/salads/sandwiches, dinners, and desserts. All the basics! Some other recipes I'd like to make soon: Breaded No-Chicken Nuggets (made with tofu!), Pizza Soup (yes, you read that right!), Creamy Bacon & Pea Pasta (with tempeh bacon), Sloppy Joe Casserole, and the PB&J Ice Cream Pie (WHAT?!). 

Whether you have a kid or not, if you love simple vegan meals, you'll love this book. Eating like a kid is just more fun!

Vegan tamales + Tacos 4 Life & more!

My mom knows a lady who makes homemade tamales (and sometimes, she makes vegan ones!), so my mom picked me up a bunch! My parents then vacuum-sealed them three to a bag and froze them. They sent me home with lots of portioned, frozen vegan tamales at Thanksgiving. I finally had some last week on Taco Tuesday, and they were fantastic! They're bean tamales, and I topped these with vegan shreds, avocado, and hot sauce. I'm so glad I have a freezer full of tamales!

Speaking of taco-like things, I finally got a chance to try the Seared Tofu Tacos at Tacos 4 Life! There's a Tacos 4 Life location in Jonesboro, where my parents live, and we went through their drive-through the night before Thanksgiving for a quick dinner. I got a side salad too (minus the cheese).

The morning of Thanksgiving, I went on a 4.5-mile run, and when I got home, my mom had Vegan Sausage & Biscuits ready! Perfect post-run treat and light enough that I wasn't stuffed before the big holiday meal.

Here's a random bowl! I had some frozen borracho beans from awhile back, and I had some frozen greens that Granny had put up before she died last year. I was holding onto those greens forever! But I realized I needed to eat them before they got freezer-burned, so I had a Grain/Green/Bean Bowl with brown rice, garlic aioli (vegan mayo with fresh garlic), chow chow, and some air-fried green tomatoes.

When I found those greens in my deep freezer, I also stumbled on an old bag of FitQuick Protein Waffle mix. I was obsessed with this vegan protein mix for awhile, and I ate it after most runs. But I'd switched to smoothies and protein oats awhile back and forgot I had some of this left. I made some Chocolate Raspberry Protein Pancakes to enjoy after a run one day last week. 

Cookbook Review: East

Sometimes a cookbook comes along that's as much a work of art as it is a cookbook. That's the case with East by Meera Sodha. The tagline "120 Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes from Bangalore to Beijing" lets you know the "east" refers to the eastern part of the globe. The hardcover is a natural brown paper with a subdued orange, purple, and green illustration, and the inside is filled with beautiful, full-page color photographs of nearly every dish. 

Even the table of contents is gorgeous! As you can see from this list, this isn't a fully vegan cookbook. Some recipes do call for eggs and dairy, but since Eastern dishes tend to be less heavy on dairy, there are more vegan recipes than non-vegan ones. The vegan recipes are labeled with a V, and the non-vegan ones are easily veganizable with vegan egg subs and plant cheese.

Indian cuisine is my favorite, and there's plenty of that in here, but I also love Indo-Chinese, Japanese ramen dishes, Thai food, and Korean food. It's all in East!

I tried two recipes from the book, starting with this White Miso Ramen with Tofu & Asparagus. This is a classic soymilk ramen, so the broth is made with unsweetened soymilk, tahini, miso, shiitake, garlic, and ginger. It's super-flavorful! You simmer the broth and then blend in the Vitamix before adding the chile-spiced tofu, edamame, and asparagus. For the noodles, I used Lotus Foods Forbidden Rice Ramen, but any ramen noodle would work here.

I really love the creamy tofu dish, but I loved the Chile Tofu even more. This Indo-Chinese recipe reminded me of the gobi manchurian I loved to order at the old Woodlands vegetarian Indian restaurant in Memphis that closed down years ago. The robust sauce is made with cumin, garlic, ginger, chiles, tomato paste, and soy sauce, and it coats cornstarch-fried tofu and sauteed bell peppers. 

A few other recipes I've got my eye on: Quick Coconut Dal with Tomato Sambol, Sweet Potato & Eggplant Massaman Curry, Scrambled Tofu Akuri (a Parsi recipe), and Mushroom Mapo Tofu. The dessert chapter is less vegan-friendly than the others, but there are a few options: Salted Miso Brownies, Sunken Ginger Plum & Spelt Cake, and Stem Ginger Chocolate Truffles.

Butternut Mac, Sheet Pan Meals & Moroccan Soup!

The week before Thanksgiving, I was trying extra hard to eat mostly whole foods since I knew I'd be subsisting on plant meat and casseroles for days after the holiday. I got some butternut squash in my CSA, so I made my favorite recipe for Butternut Squash Mac & Cheeze. It's from No Meat Athlete's Health Made Simple program, so I can't link to the recipe since it's a subscription site. It's unlike other versions I've made because you not only roast the squash, but you also roast the other veggies that go in the sauce (onions, garlic, shallots). The roasting makes for a super tasty caramelized flavor. I served this with some braised mustard greens (also from my CSA) on the side.

Here's a recent burger! Gardein Black Bean Chipotle with Chao Cheese, plus some air-fried fries with homemade fry sauce for dipping. I ate this after a Saturday long run (10 miles, maybe?).

Here's another burger! But this time, I had PlantMade Buffalo Cauliflower with vegan ranch on the side. The PlantMade buffalo cauliflower comes frozen, and I just toss it into the air fryer. It's by far by favorite frozen convenience food.

On a recent Monk Bowl Monday, I made the Sheet Pan Meal from the No Meat Athlete Cookbook and served over farro. This recipe is just a blueprint because you can roast any veggies and tofu together, add some seasoning, and – boom! — dinner is ready. I roasted daikon, cauliflower (both from my CSA), sweet potato, and tofu. I topped this with a little TJ's Green Dragon sauce.

And finally, here's a tasty Soup Sunday meal. I made the Moroccan Lentil & Chickpea Soup from Eat Feel Fresh. It's got lentils, chickpeas, kale, and Moroccan spices, like cinnamon, and it's topped with cashew cream. Super filling and delicious!

Solstice Decorating & Snacks!

Black Friday is my veganaversary! As of last week, I've been vegan 16 years and vegetarian for 26 years.

The date that I celebrate changes every year since Black Friday changes, but I celebrate my vegan anniversary on Black Friday (rather than a set date) since I went vegetarian in 1994 on the day after Thanksgiving and vegan in 2004 on the day after Thanksgiving. It seems easier to keep that celebration on one easy-to-remember holiday! Most years, my veganaversary begins with leftover Thanksgiving pie for breakfast, and then my mom and I head to Brother Juniper's for veganaversary brunch. And then we hit up all the shops for Black Friday deals. I know some people hate the idea of Black Friday crowds, but we don't mind!

Unfortunately, things are just too risky this year for Black Friday crowds, so we broke tradition and skipped brunch and shopping this year. Instead, Paul came home from Nashville, where he had been banished to during my pre-Thanksgiving quarantine, and we celebrated by sleeping in, eating leftovers, and later in the night, putting up the Solstice tree.

My best friends Sheridan/Drew always post about their holiday tradition of enjoying a vegan snack plate while they put up their tree, and it sounded like such a fun idea. I was planning to rip off their tradition anyway, but after my friend Susan shared part of her Feast & Graze vegan charcuterie plate with me, I knew it was meant to be. Susan left a Tupperware with some snacks from her board on my porch!

Feast & Graze is a Memphis-based charcuterie delivery service, and they've recently added vegan boards to their offerings. This was so yummy! It had a vegan cheddar, a spreadable vegan cream cheese (Kite Hill maybe?), two kinds of crackers, fancy mustard, apricot jam, marcona almonds, candied orange, grapes, blueberries, dried apple slices, cherries, grape tomatoes, seasoned cucumbers, dried mushrooms, and Swedish Fish! 

So much fun! And all for me! Paul doesn't like most foods, so he made his own plate with just non-vegan cheddar and some Club crackers. He's a very simple dude. We also opened a bottle of Tennessee Shine Wine that our friends Simon and Jen picked up for us on their recent trip to the Smokies. 

Here's Paul decking the halls (or, rather, our fireplace mantel).

I convinced Maynard to wear this silly Santa hat in exchange for a couple treats. He's so easy.

It's hard to believe it's already Solstice season!