Category: training

CX and Frisbee

Vegan Month of Food Logo
What a day! Two Cyclocross races in Longmont and a disc dog play day in Broomfield. Needless to say, I didn’t cook except to microwave some falafel. Vitamin Cottage has been stocking these yummy tortas for awhile, but I don’t think they sold well. They seem to be on sale at every store that has them, and near their expiration date. They’re a pastry like, cracker made in Spain.

Falafel and Tortas

[I’m not sure why, but now the camera on my phone isn’t working so the only way I can take photos is with Photo Booth on my Mac which only does very low resolution. Hopefully I can find a loaner camera for the rest of Vegan Mofo.]

My favorite dessert

Vegan Month of Food Logo

This is my favorite dessert and post workout recovery snack. It has a good carb:protein ration and takes about 1 minute to prepare!

  1. Pour frozen blueberries into bowl
  2. Spoon Whole Soy Co yogurt over blueberries
  3. Sprinkle with diced, raw organic almonds (in the bulk section at Vitamin Cottage)

Blueberry, yogurt, almond parfait

If you have time, and you really want to make this special, set the bowl with frozen blueberries on the counter for 5-10 minutes before adding yogurt.

Any flavor of Whole Soy Co. yogurt is good. I usually choose vanilla. In the USA, the only good vegan yogurt I’ve found is Whole Soy Co. It has a great, creamy texture, not at all gelatinous. Of the others I’ve tried, only Silk is even edible. But comparing Silk to Whole Soy Co. is like comparing lemon Jello® to Ciao Bella lemon sorbet.

You can try other fruit too. Frozen cherries are the best, but they seem to have been unavailable for several months. Toasted pecans are a good alternative to almonds and especially yummy with cherries.

Spicy pinto bean breakfast

So my morning went like this:

  • Coffee
  • Apple Pie Lara Bar (I don’t often eat Lara Bars, but Vitamin Cottage had them on sale a few weeks ago, thus they’ve appeared twice in two days.)
  • Get road bike ready to go
  • Dress
  • Take Bonnie for a 30 min ride around the neighborhood with the mountain bike (exercise for her, warm-up for me)
  • 4 x 4 min/2 min intervals on road bike, planned 6 x, but power dropped significantly on #4
  • 8 min Crossfit AMRAP 7 back squats, 7 chest-to-bar (w/ assistance band for me)
  • Spicy pinto beans on toast

Spicy pinto beans on toast

The spicy pinto beans were not all that spicy, but it’s a more interesting title. I had some pinto beans leftover from yesterday that I’d simmered for a few hours with 1/2 c. beer, 1 veggie boullion cube and a few cherry tomatoes. This morning I added about 1/4 c. red sauce leftover from a tamale dinner I’d made for friends a few weeks ago. I simmered that over very low heat for about 15 min then poured over toast. A corn tortilla would probably be more appropriate, but I didn’t have any. And pinto beans over toast always reminds me of one of my favorite childhood meals; pinto beans over toast with ketchup!

This is the recipe I use for red sauce. It’s the “Classic New Mexico Red Chile Sauce” in Hot and Spicy Meatless by Dave Dewitt, Mary Jane Wilson and Melissa T. Stock. I’ve had it about 15 years and it’s one of my favorite cookbooks. Not all recipes are vegan, but most that are not can easily be made so, especially now that we have Daiya.

10-12 dried whole New Mexican red chiles
1 large onion chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
3 c. water

Toast chiles in 250° F oven for 10-15 min. Crumble chiles into sauce pan. I usually use a big stovetop wok. Add other ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer 20-30 min. Puree in blender until smooth. Simple, yummy, perfect red sauce!