Vegan Goulash + Tasty Dal!

Last week, while menu planning, I asked Paul what sorts of dishes he'd like me to make for the coming weeks. He's been eating vegan meals with me most nights — a new thing, since before he tended to come home from work and heat up some frozen pizza or canned Spaghetti-Os. But he's started having health issues lately, and poor diet is definitely to blame. So I convinced him to eat more vegan meals. He's not all the way vegan by any means, but he's definitely eating more fiber now.

One meal he requested was goulash. I'd had it before, but it'd be a looooong time, and I'm pretty sure I'd never tried a vegan version. So I googled and found this recipe for Vegan Goulash (American-style). It was super-easy to make and has lots of vegan grounds (I used the Simple Truth brand) cooked with bell peppers, tomatoes, and onions. I used a gluten-free pasta for this because Paul prefers white pasta over whole wheat, but I wanted to use something a little healthier. This pasta was made with brown rice flour.

This was really good! I will definitely make it again! I would probably just go with a whole wheat pasta (or maybe even a chickpea pasta) next time because the gf pasta was a little soft. But still very good. And the recipe made a ton! On the side, I roasted some okra in the air-fryer, my new favorite way to eat okra.

Here's a quick meal from lunch today. This is mostly all from a bag. I'd purchased some TastyBite Coconut Squash Dal and TastyBite Brown Rice bags for our camping trip, but I never ate them while we were camping. So I heated that up in the microwave while I sauteed the last of some spinach that was about to go bad. Not toon shabby for a microwave meal!

Tomorrow, I'll blog about this weekend's awesome 50K race! I didn't have time to write a full race recap tonight, but I've got lots of fun pics to share. Spoiler: The race went great!!

Breakfast Nachos! And Minestrone!

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I've tapering for my 50K this week (it's Saturday!), so that means I've been doing a lot less running and a lot more breakfasting. On Tuesdays, I usually run and then have a smoothie for breakfast. But this Tuesday, I slept in and had a big meal of Breakfast Nachos! I made tofu scramble with bell pepper and onions, seasoned with my signature scramble mix (onion powder, garlic powder, nooch, oregano, Bragg's, turmeric, celery salt, and black salt — it's in Cookin' Crunk!). 

I air-fried some corn tortilla wedges until they were crunchy, and then I topped them with scramble and some leftover potato-carrot cheese (from The Plant-Based Athlete). Plus, chives and black olives. Scrumptious!

I'm using a free taper nutrition plan that I downloaded from Another Mother Runner, and it included a recipe for Classic Minestrone. The recipe called for chicken sausage, but of course I subbed vegan sausage. I've been enjoying this every day for lunch this week with a vegan grilled cheese. 

I also had planned to show you the awesome goulash I made last night, but I forgot to take a picture! I never do that! Luckily, I've got lots of leftovers, so I'll snap one later this week.  

Tofu Scram, Tofu Thai Curry, & Mac & Cheeze!

It's taper week for my 50K! And that meant Sunday's recovery run was extra short. And that meant that I finished my run in time for brunch. And that meant Tofu Scramble & Avocado Toast! 

I listened to a Another Mother Runner podcast about taper nutrition a couple weeks ago, and they included a taper nutrition plan in the show notes. So I downloaded that plan, and I'm using it to plan my meals and hydration this week. The plan came with a couple recipes, and though they weren't vegan, they were easily veganizable. There was a Thai Curry that called for chicken so I made it with tofu (which was actually a suggestion on the recipe notes, so that was cool). It's not the prettiest curry, but it was tasty. The sauce is made with coconut milk and red curry paste, and it has red bell pepper, zucchini, and tofu. I air-fried some okra on the side (a gift from my neighbor Dennis' garden).

For me, tapering is all about getting in those healthy carbs! So I'm doing lots of potatoes and whole wheat pasta this week. I made this Vegan Mac & Cheese with Potato-Carrot Sauce from The Plant-Based Athlete, and it was AWESOME. The sauce is made from potatoes, carrots, nooch, and miso, and you stir in pasta, vegan sausage, and broccoli. The recipe was contributed by Julia Murray of Hooked on Plants, and her stuff is always great.

Beans & Cornbread, Chickpea Pasta, & Loaded Sweet Potatoes!

A couple weeks ago, I stumbled across a bag of 15 Bean Soup in the grocery store, which I hadn't had in years. I used to love this stuff as a kid! It's like a rainbow of beans for your soup bowl. I checked the ingredients to see if the little ham-flavored seasoning pack was vegan, and it was! It even says VEGAN on the bag. So I had to get it! I cooked these in the slow cooker and served with cornbread, and it really brought me back. Paul loved this meal too! It doesn't get much better than beans and cornbread.

Here's another ramen bowl. I've been eating lots of ramen lately. I had this bowl, with tofu and veggies, before the screening of Tampopo (the 1980s Japanese ramen western) at Crosstown Arts. I'm glad I had this before the show because I would have left that theater craving ramen so hard otherwise.

Here's a night-before-my-long-run meal of Chickpea Pasta! I put this together with bits of leftover stuff — some whole wheat pasta from the bottom of a bag, leftover marinara from another meal, the last of a can of chickpeas (that I air-fried with Italian spices), and some zucchini that was about to go bad. 

And here's a Sunday night dinner of Loaded Sweet Potatoes! I topped this with pinto beans, baby spinach, homemade kraut, and avocado. So simple and delicious.

Vegan Ham, Spaghetti Squash, & Ramen!

A couple weeks ago, my friend Susan texted me and said "left something in your mailbox." I was at the office, so I couldn't check it right away, but when I went home for lunch that day, I found a sandwich in my mailbox! A whole wrapped sandwich! Susan had gone by Le Delights, a Vietnamese place in Cordova, and she knew I'd been wanting to try their Vegan Ham Sandwich. But I literally never drive out that way, so I'm so glad Susan thought of me! This has a soy-based veggie ham, and it was so good.

I got a tiny spaghetti squash in my CSA a few weeks ago, so I made some Spaghetti Squash with Tempeh Marinara and vegan mozz, plus some garlic toast and kale on the side.

When I got back from vacation last week, I still had Monday off for Labor Day, so I slept in and then had Ramen with Soy Curls in my PJs while watching Netflix, an old Sunday tradition that I can't do these days with my 50K training schedule (I'm always running on Sunday mornings now). But I don't run on Mondays, and Monday was basically a Sunday last week. Yay! Btw, I use Koyo noodles because they're baked so I feel like they're a little healthier.

And here's a sad looking picture of a delicious Vegan Chicken Sandwich with bread & butter pickles and vegan mayo (the ONLY way to eat a chicken sandwich, IMO!), plus a side of sweet potato fries made in the air fryer. I'm sad that we're losing daylight so much earlier. I guess I'll need to drag out my lightbox again soon. Winter is coming.  

Camping in Nashville: Part 3

I'm back with the last installment of my Nashville camping trip posts! My last two posts detailed how we ended up camping in Nashville (rather than at Bonnaroo, as planned), our road trip to Fall Creek Falls, and more. And tonight, I've got a recap of Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday morning started in much the same way that Friday morning did — with pancakes! But this time, I added dried blueberries, which I'd packed to add to oat cups. The sausage is Morningstar Farms Maple Sausage. 

I'm currently on day 252 of a yoga streak, so I made sure to do yoga every day at the campsite. I am using the Yoga with Adriene monthly calendars most days, but for the trip, I found some of her travel yoga videos. 

We didn't pack our kayaks for this trip because we never intended to be camping in Nashville, but since we ended up there, we decided to spend Saturday kayaking on the Harpeth River in Kingston Springs (right outside Nashville). The kayaking rental shops had been closed for several days prior to Saturday because Hurricane Ida caused the river to be too high to kayak safely. But it was down enough on Saturday to be considered safe. It still moved a little faster than normal, so our 3-hour trip was over in less than 3 hours.

We have a little tradition any time we kayak the Harpeth. We always stop at Tailgate Brewery on the way back to Nashville for pizza and beer. It's located just a few miles from the kayak rental shops, and they have Vegan Cheese & Beyond Sausage Pizza!

We were worn out after kayaking and pizza, so we spent the rest of the night hanging out at the campsite.

The next day, Sunday, was check-out day. We woke up to light rain, so we sat under our camper's awning and had a quick breakfast of ramen! I love these Soon Veggie Ramen Cups!

Then we packed up and headed out. But first, we had to stop at Graze for brunch! Unfortunately, there was a 45-minute wait for a table, and we wanted to hit the road, so I ended up just ordering takeout (and Paul ended up not ordering anything because they took his favorite biscuits and gravy off the menu). I got the Nashville Hot Tempeh Biscuit with coleslaw and ranch. Damn, this was good!

Camping in Nashville: Part 2

In yesterday's post, I blogged about the start of our camping misadventures. Bonnaroo Music & Arts Fest was canceled, so we had to quickly pivot, and we tried to book a camping site at Fall Creek Falls State Park. But we accidentally booked the wrong weekend! And by the time we'd discovered our error, the only available campsites we could find in Middle or East Tennessee were at a North Nashville KOA. So we headed there and set up camp on Thursday morning.

This was our home from Thursday to Sunday! 

It wasn't the camping trip we'd planned. Nashville isn't super-exciting to us since Paul lived there part-time for years, but we decided to make the best of it and find fun, new things to do.

On Thursday, we just set up camp and decided to stick around the campsite. I grilled some Impossible Burgers and asparagus (wrapped in foil) on our campfire grill.

The North Nashville KOA has live entertainment on Thursday nights. A man named Ron plays guitar and sings country and classic rock covers. It wasn't our kind of music, but we had fun watching him play anyway!

On Friday morning, I made our favorite vegan campsite Pancakes & Sausage! Paul insists on pancakes for every camping trip, so I pre-mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients to pack with us. I always use this recipe for the fluffiest ever vegan pancakes, and the sausage was Morningstar Farms maple sausage (it's vegan!). 

Since we didn't get to camp at Fall Creek Falls, we decided to spend Friday driving to see the waterfall. It's a two-hour drive from Nashville, so it sounded like a good idea. And it was! But we got stuck in Nashville mid-day rush hour traffic on the way, and the drive took us more like three hours. Still worth it. Look how beautiful this waterfall is. They say it's the tallest waterfall in the eastern US.

We hiked down a big mountain to get to the base of the falls. 

Of course, Paul tried to get in it! The water was so strong that he was afraid to get underneath it, but he got close. I was so worried he'd fall and get injured, and we'd be stuck trying to find help at the bottom of a mountain. But he was okay!

Well worth the drive! We spent Friday evening driving back to our campsite, and when we finally arrived, we were too pooped to cook. So I just had a microwave ramen cup for dinner. 

Tomorrow, I'll check back in with a recap of our last two days at the campsite!