Warrior Dash

Well I found this a few days ago from a friend and am going to start training for it.

http://www.warriordash.com/register2010_central_texas.php

The Warrior Dash is a 3.2 mile run. I know, not the hard part. The hard part is all of the obsticals that take place during to run. They include belly crawling through the mud under barb wire, flame jumping, junk jumping, running through the woods with no trails, bog wading, ect. I think its going to be a whole lot of fun and I suggest that anyone around one does it. They are taking place all over the country!

Just thought I would share!

Pasta e Fagioli

Well I had a craving for a dish that reminded me of my childhood. If you read my profile you know I am from a culture and family that loves to eat. Can you guess where we are from? Thats right, my father side is Italian. While I love my other sides food, German food is a bit heavy for me and has a great deal of meat in it. I love both but the Italian side of food really inspires me. Like most Childhood (And Italian) recipies, this one will need to be adjusted for personal taste.

I love the tuscan take on foods with their attention to fresh veggies and love of pomodoro...that is tomato. So when I went to the farmers market and bought a bag of them I was more then happy to share and partake in this dish. I know that everyone will enjoy it! There is so much to love!

1 cup of white kidney or cannellini beans

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 yellow onion, Finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tablespoon of sage

2 1/2 cups of fresh tomato, skinned, de-seeded and chopped

salt and pepper

4 cups of veggie stock

3/4 cup of whole wheat pasta (smaller works best. Think shells or elbow)

Cook beans according to instructions and set aside in the sink. they should be tender with the skins cracking.

In a soup pot add onion, garlic and olive oil. Sautee these slowly, stirring until the onions are soft (about 12 minutes). Add the sage, tomato, salt and black pepper and simmer for another 20 minutes. You want all of the tastes to combine together. If you like a little bit of zest add a pinch of red pepper flakes to the mix.

Next add the beans and stock to the veggies. Simmer this for about 30 more minutes. The soup should become more stew like. If it is getting too dry add a bit more water or stock but you might have to adjust the spices so don't go over board.

Next add the pasta to the stew and let that cook to desired tenderness.

Enjoy! Next to it is a bread that I got from the farmers market. Its a yummy vegan rye from Phoenix Rising bakery.

Will's baby bok choy

Well even though my boyfriend is not vegan he does under stand that I am. It wasn't until talking to a lot of other vegans on blogs and in chat rooms that I really noticed that this was something rare. Funny, I just thought that respecting others beliefs was part of being in any health relationship but I guess that sometimes isn't the case. Any whoo.... Will made this for me one night while I was at work. It was so good for a hot summer night!

Ingredients:

1-2 heads of baby bok choy

1 tablespoon of Umeboshi vinegar

1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil

pepper (optional)

Steam your bok choy lightly. It's really easy to over cook bok choy so you should stand by the steamer. It should only take one or two minutes. Always under cook it if you can because the water denseness of the plant keeps it cooking a little after you remove it from heat. The leafs should just be starting to wilt but it should still be crunchy. Take out of the steamer and set aside.

Mix the oil and the vinegar together and drizzle over the bok choy. Add pepper if you want.

Pickled red radishes

I have never been as huge fan of pickles until I made these. Nor did I ever think that there was anything that I really needed from them. But then I read an article about the healing benefits of the amino acids that are found in home pickled veggies, so I decided to give it a try.

Ingredients/ Supplies

glass jar

cheese cloth

rubber band

6-10 red radishes (sliced thin)

1/2 umeboshi vinegar (This is a plum vinegar that can be found at many Asian markets or SunHarvest)

Place the sliced radishs into the jar. Combine Ume Vinegar and 1 cup of water. Pour over the Radish in the jar.

Cover the jar with the cheese cloth (Pickles will need air to ferment properly so don't put the lid back over the jar) and let start at room temperature for 24 hors-3 days. After that the radishes can be moved into your refrigerator for up to 10 days.

Apology

I really want to apologize to everyone. I haven’t been posting as much as I used to. I have to remedy that and I promise that I will. This has been due to two different factors. The first is that I have been moving. Sadly that means that I have not been able to cook while everything is packed up. On a brighter side it means that my kitchen is bigger and better. The stove is new and the refrigerator actually keeps things cold. There is also more space for ingredients. So nice.

The second reason is the fact that I have not had internet to use. But obviously I am having that fixed. So on that note I am going to be posting two new recipes today that I made in the past week. Please let me know what you think! And what you think of the new place!

Home Made Artichoke Pesto (Photos Updated!)

I loooooooooove pesto and miss it a great deal. So I took an old pesto recipe I had and made it vegan. Sad I forgot to put my memory card back into the camera through so I will have to remake it and post more pictures later. On the bright side Donna was filming me while I did it so there should be a movie of it soon too.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of artichoke hearts, drained

3 cloves of garlic

2 tbsp of Olive oil- to make it more of a sauce like consistency you can always add more

1/4 tsp or red pepper flakes

Bunch of fresh basil leaves

3 Tbsp of Nutritional Yeast- this should have a flake like look about it and be a creamy yellow. It is a great source of B-12

Take all of these ingredients and place them in your food processor. Blend well but stop before cream. There should be a good deal of texture left.

Now if you only use two table spoons of olive oil the mixture can be scooped out of the processor and shaped so that it can be used as a spread on crackers, bread or dehydrated veggie chips. Since this recipe is raw when not added to a cooked ingredient it is a perfect snack for a raw vegan. If you use more you can toss it in with a bunch of fresh pasta and mix.

Again I am so sorry about the photos and I will make it again as soon as I can and put pictures up!

Update on my herb garden!

Well as many of you know I started my own herb garden on my balcony. I just wanted to update on it with some pictures of how it is growing and doing now! I'm really excited about it and cant wait to have fresh herbs all of the time.

So anyway! Heres how it looked before: I know small and just starting to grow...but here is what its looking like now!
All grown up right? Well getting there anyway. The cilantro is taking over everything but the basil is coming up nicely and thats something I was worried about.