Back To Running?

I haven't posted about running in a really long time and there's a good reason for that: I really haven't been running!  After accomplishing my goal of a 5K a few years ago, I added variety back into my workouts and only run when I feel like it.  I still really like running but I have been much more casual about it.  For example, last week I ran/walked twice.  Once for one mile and once for a mile and half.
But then one of our friends posted online about a 4 mile run/2 mile walk on November 28th.  This caught my eye because Kayleigh will be home for Thanksgiving.  I sent it to her and Bill to see if they would be interested.  I was thinking of the walk,  A 4 mile run would have been out of my league 3 years ago, let alone now!  But Bill sent me a text immediately saying we should do the run.  When I pointed out to him I actually had to train several months to just do 3 miles, he said, "You have a month. You can do it."  Really?!?

I wrote him off as being insane but the idea set in my head for a couple days.  This morning I decided to get on the treadmill and just see what 4 miles feels like.  I did a combination of running and walking (much more walking than running) and kept my speeds as high as I could.  My best run ever was at the 5K where I ran the whole thing and my time was 33:40 (I think).  Today with plenty of walking, I did 4 miles in 54:20.  That's about 14 miles per hour which actually isn't too bad for me.  When I was running all the time, I would go between 11 and 12 miles an hour with my best being 10.

Am I actually considering doing this?  We'll see.  I'd also like to point out that I don't run in bad weather and the Chicago area
at the end of November isn't really ideal!  But if I survived the humidity of August a few years ago, maybe (I said maybe!) I can handle November's cold.

Applesauce

A couple weeks ago, Bill and I went to a local orchard and picked our own apples.  We felt a little guilty about doing this when Kayleigh was away at college but quickly got over it and picked apples like our lives depended on it.  We go through a lot of apples in the fall.  We make apple crisp, apple pie, apple fritters, apple cake, etc.  But we might have got a little too excited about picking apples.  We ended up with almost 40 pounds!  We can only eat so many desserts and raw apples so I had to come up with another use.  I decided to try to make applesauce.  I knew the basic idea was just to cook the apples until they fall apart so I decided to take the main flavors from an apple pie and turn it into applesauce.  I knew I succeeded when my mom called me and said that it tastes just like pie!

Applesauce

4 pounds apples, peeled and cut into large chunks

1 lemon

1 cinnamon stick

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 cup water

Combine all ingredients in a large pot.  For the lemon, juice it into the pot then throw in the lemon peels.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 30 minutes.  Stir every now and then to make sure the apples are breaking down.  Remove the lemon and cinnamon stick.  Mash the apples using a potato masher.  Store in the fridge or freeze.

I know there are certain apples that are best for eating vs baking vs making applesauce but we really just like honey crisp so that is what we used.

Here we are at Garwood Orchards in LaPorte Indiana picking way too many apples.  Thank goodness it was cold or who knows how many we would have came home with!

Sadness

I'm not much of a crier.  Really I'm not.  I've even been called cold-hearted on more than one occasion.  But I'm so very sad tonight.

On August 22nd we left Kayleigh at college, 4 hours away.  It was a long silent trip home but along with my sadness, I was also excited for the journey she is starting on.  It was really strange for the next few days because I would be perfectly fine but then, out of the blue, something very normal and everyday would make me cry.  For example, for Kayleigh's entire life, she has gone grocery shopping with me every single weekend.  There are probably less than 10 weeks in her whole 18 years that I went without her.  So the day after we dropped her off, I waited for Bill to come back from his bike ride and then we went together.  I made it through the whole process fine until we were leaving the store.  I started crying as we walked to the car and didn't stop for about an hour.  Really, grocery shopping is what I'm going to cry about?!!  Ok.

Over the next few weeks, there have been some strange moments but overall it hasn't been too bad. Texting helps tremendously!

Today we had to put our beautiful Dottie to sleep.  After never showing any signs of illness, she quit eating a few days ago.  We took her to the vet yesterday and they ran blood tests which all came back fine.  Today, the doctor suggested trying an antibiotic.  Bill went at lunch to pick it up and as he was giving her some, she went limp and her mouth was hanging open.  I called our vet only to be told that the doctors were out for the rest of the day.  They sent us to a neighboring town but when we arrived, we saw that they weren't open.  I called our vet back and they sent us in the opposite direction to another hospital.  During this trip, Dot cuddled in Bill's arms looking very calm.  They took an x-ray and found that although all her tests were fine, she had fluid around her heart and lungs and some kind of growth in her abdomen.  The doctor couldn't believe that she looked so healthy on the outside with all that going on inside.  We didn't want to put her through the misery of an operation and feeding tube so we said our goodbyes.

I was holding it together really well considering until 7 PM. That's when we feed the cats their wet food.  I got up and fixed one bowl for Tiger.  When the cats hear their bowls, they both always come running and meow at us incessantly until we put the food down.  Tonight Tiger looked a little confused as he stood alone in our kitchen.

When anyone asks Bill how we are handling it without Kayleigh, he says "It's our new normal".  Looks like we have another new normal to get used too.

Oh, and just to fill in the gap between Kayleigh leaving and loosing Dot, my dad decided to spend 2 weeks in the hospital and our basement flooded.  I think that is enough for now, don't you?

Healthy Happy Vegan Kitchen - Cookbook Review

Our lives are a whirlwind of graduation, award ceremonies, resident hall registration with Kayleigh and planning for Bill's return to Tour of America's Dairyland.  On top of all this, we still have to work, do laundry, go to the dentist, etc. so I'm a little all over the place right now.  I knew I wasn't going to be creating any new recipes and probably wouldn't have much time to think about anything really.  So, when I received this book in the mail I thought a review was the best solution to a blog post as well as what we are eating for 2 weeks!

Healthy Happy Vegan Kitchen

I first heard of the author, Kathy Patalsky, when she was in a You Tube video with Eco-Vegan Gal last Christmas.  I started following her channel and shortly after that, she came out with this book.

Before jumping into the details, I'll give my overall opinion.  I tested a lot of recipes in this book and really liked pretty much everything we tried.  I think we will get quite a bit of use out of it.  Kathy's cooking style and taste seems similar to mine which is good but also means that I already created my own favorite versions of the meals included in this book.  But you can always find something new and in this case, there are two recipes that we have already repeated because we liked them so much the first time.  I've also replaced two of my old versions of recipes with hers as our new favorites. These alone make the book well worth the money!  There is nothing fancy here but there is plenty of really tasty "normal" kinds of foods that anyone would like.

One of my favorite things from the start was that this book stays open, no matter what page you open it too.  I hate having to prop cookbooks open.  It is so frustrating!

The book starts with a three part introduction which includes some background information, suggestions for kitchen items (tools and ingredients), and 10 wellness tips.  Nothing new here for me but I always enjoy reading these sections in books, if for nothing else, to be able to make sure I'm not missing out on anything new and exciting.

From there the book has 14 chapters of recipes and a final chapter of suggested menus.  I made something from just about every section.  Keep in mind that we are currently in late spring and the weather is finally warming up so that influenced which recipes we picked,  Plus, for most of the meals, Kayleigh was doing the majority of the cooking.  She had no problem following the recipes except for one night which was not the book's fault and I'll explain below.  Also, it was very rare that we were all home at the same time and everything warmed up well later in the evening or the next day.

Breakfast
Garden Veggie Frittata - I've seen a lot of recipes for vegan frittatas but never tried one before.  We had this the night that we ordered Kayleigh's open house invitations.  That process took 3 hours, no joke, so it was good that this was easy and could be eaten while sitting at a computer.  It also warmed up well the next day at work.





Easy Cheezy Hash Browns - The morning I made these, I was absolutely starving.  This was actually my third breakfast.  I love hash browns and nutritional yeast and these were definitely easier than frying hash browns but the taste was just OK.  Not bad, but not very memorable.




Pretty in Pink Lemonade Parfait - Really depends on your strawberries I think.  It was good but I think it would be better later in the season.  It's still a little too early for strawberries here.  I only have a picture of the pudding ingredients in the blender for some reason.





"Save the Day" Toast - This was breakfast number two on that same day.  Yum, yum, yum.  I wasn't able to keep my banana in long slices but it was still delicious.  Obviously, I made two!

Bakery
Maple Bar Baked Donuts - They are donuts and the picture in the book was so happy looking, we had to try these.  We might make the frosting again but we didn't find the donuts to be too thrilling.  Kayleigh  tried adding sprinkles to hers to perk it up but she could taste the bananas too much.   I was just kind of underwhelmed.




Sandwiches
Chipotle Tofu Sandwich - We had this on a night that I wasn't expecting Bill to be home.  Then it rained and he got to eat a big slab of tofu!  In his defense, he tried it and managed to eat about half.  That doesn't normally happen.  Kayleigh and I love tofu and both liked this but thought we should marinate the tofu first next time to get more flavor in it.




Burgers
Turmeric Hemp White Bean Burger Patties - Dinner this night was just me and Bill.  We both liked this.  The last thing we need are more burger recipes but we got one!






BBQ Peanut Burgers - I loved this.  I'm a big fan of BBQ anything so this made me happy.  I ended up putting extra sauce on mine but Bill ate his plain.







Veggie Sides

Roasted Beets with Ginger and Citrus - Bill heard that beets help you recover after a bike ride so he keeps asking for them. Therefore, I jumped on this recipe because I was getting tired of plain roasted beets.  These were pretty easy and a nice change.

Cakes Balls and Fritters

Green Island Fritters - Mine weren't really fritters because I baked them.  Bill and I thought they were OK.  These are Kayleigh's kind of thing but she had to work that night so I'll have to make these again sometime.  They were really crumbly but not in a bad way.  It mimicked the texture of fish fritters.

Salads
Maple-Mustard Raw Chard Salad - Another recipe that only Bill and I tried.  Bill was pleasantly surprised because he doesn't like chard.  It was somewhat bitter but went well with the rest of our meal.  I took the leftovers to work the next day and they were terrible.  Definitely much better when fresh.





Farmhouse Ranch Chickpea Peach Salad - I couldn't find any peaches so we used mangoes instead.  None of us are big on salads but we all really liked this.  Creamy dressing and chickpeas make a salad much better!







Blueberry Farro Spinach Salad - As I was preparing this post today, I came across this recipe and decided to add it to our dinner.  We were working in the yard and Kayleigh had a friend over so I was very distracted and completely forgot about the almonds.  They sound delicious but it was still really good without them.




Bowls
Cajun Tempeh Sweet Potato Bowl  - Here is the big winner in this cookbook for us.  This is also the recipe Kayleigh somewhat messed up just because she didn't read it all first.  She didn't realize two sauces needed to be made before making this recipe.  Luckily I got off work early and so we had time to get it all done and it ended up going faster than we thought.  We both loved this recipe.  Bill didn't eat until after 10 that night so he had the leftovers and really liked it as well.  Actually he liked it so much, a few days later he asked to have it again.  It was just as good the second time around.  Kayleigh and I had it on couscous, Bill on rice.

Appetizers, Sides, Snacks, and Party Platters

Pink Beet Walnut Dip - More beets so I had to try it.  I made pita chips to go with it and we liked it but I don't know that I'll make it again.  The texture bugged me a little.  By the way, we didn't think it tasted like beets or walnuts so that may be a plus for some people!

Entrees

Favorite Vegan Mac and Cheese - This recipe is well named because, after trying at least 10 million vegan mac and cheese recipes, this really is our favorite.  It is super creamy and warms up well the next day.






Lemon-Pepper Fettuccine Alfredo - Vegan fettuccine Alfredo is another thing I've tried over and over and this is the first version that I've liked.  Kayleigh also enjoyed it.  I want to make this again for Bill to try.  This warmed but surprisingly well at work. ( Yes, I forgot to take a picture until I was almost done with dinner!)




Spicy Peanut Soba Noodles with Veggies - Here's our big dud.  Kayleigh and I have a great fondness for peanut sauces but something was off with this one.  We ended up throwing it away and making something else.  I don't know if we did something wrong or it just wasn't too our taste but this was a giant no for us.  Plus I forgot to take a picture so it was a bad night all around.

Soups
Rainy Day Tomato Soup - I already had a favorite tomato soup.  This one is better!  I had a picture but it didn't look anything like in real life and, really, it is tomato soup.  Everyone knows what that looks like!

Desserts
Kathy's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies - These are now Kayleigh's favorite. This was the first thing I made and last night I revealed to her that I had froze a couple cookies.  She was ridiculously happy!  They didn't actually taste like chocolate chip cookies to me.  I'm not sure how I would describe them but they were good.




Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies - Ginger and molasses?  I have to try them!  Very good, as expected.

Peanut Butter Brownies - I knew I had messed this up somehow when the recipe said to "pour" the batter into the pan but I had to press mine like a pie crust!  I continued on though and they actually tasted good even though I don't think they were at all what they were supposed to be.  Still haven't figured out where I went wrong.






Drinks, Sips and Smoothies

Watermelon Frosty - I remember watching one of Kathy's videos where she talks about putting frozen watermelon in a smoothie.  My thought was "there is no way I'm buying a watermelon, chopping it up, and freezing it".  Then Kayleigh's friend stayed the night and she likes watermelon so I ended up buying one.  Since I had it, I figured I may as well freeze some of it and try this smoothie out.  Seriously?!?!  I've now bought two more watermelons and have had this almost every morning since.  I can't even describe the taste other than to say it is delicious and perfect for the warm weather.


For The Kids
This is the only section we didn't try anything from.  More evidence that my kid is now officially an adult.  I feel old.  Better go make more chocolate chip cookies to cheer me up!

Potato Salad

A few weeks ago I came up with several ideas for blog posts so I put the ideas on little post it notes and scattered them through my calendar.  Unfortunately, that did not motivate me to post.  Instead I kept moving the stickers forward until pretty soon, my calendar looked like this:

Despite all those ideas, I decided to post something else today.  Last week I had a terrible stomach thing which resulted in a day of resting and recuperating.  I wanted some kind of potato which usually means baked fries (that's on one of those post it notes for a future post!) but this time I wanted something different.  Maybe I should get sick more often because I threw this recipe together and I've been obsessed with it ever since.

This is what one pound of potatoes looks like.

It is super easy so I've been able to give in to my obsession and have it almost every day!  I even have time to make this in the morning before work.

Tastes better than it looks.  Not the most photogenic recipe!

I hate to call it potato salad because it is so much better than a normal potato salad but in the end, that is really the best name so I'm stuck with it.  I found that I like this better at room temperature than straight out of the refrigerator but both ways are good.  This serves one person if that person is me and it is lunch time!

Potato Salad

1 pound small Yukon gold potatoes (or your favorite - a few days ago I used a combination of all the left over potatoes in the bottom of our drawer).

Boil until a fork easily pierces them.  Usually about 20 minutes.

Mix together in a large bowl:

2 T Dijon mustard (I've also used sweet and spicy mustard which was delicious)

1 pickle spear, thinly sliced

2 T pickle juice

When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, slice them and add to the mustard mixture.  You want them to still be a little warm so they soak up the flavors better. Add salt and pepper to taste and then mix everything up.  If it seems too dry, add more pickle juice.  Let chill for at least 30 minutes.  

If this is too vinegary for you, add about a tablespoon of vegan mayonnaise.  Personally it is perfect for me without the mayo but I love mustard and pickles.

More Decluttering - People Actually Get Rid of Books?!?!

Because I like decluttering my house and I live with people who like to keep me busy by cluttering up the previously decluttered,  I spend a lot of time reading about organizing.  Lately a lot of people online have been talking about "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up".  I was tempted to buy it but there is so much online about it, I don't feel like I really need to.

I followed along as people on You Tube purged their clothes.  Easy - I do this on a regular basis anyway.  I even went through my daughter's clothes (with her help, I didn't just get rid of her clothes on my own!).  She was able to get rid of 75% of her pants!  We condensed all her stuff from 2 closets down to one and emptied 2 dresser drawers.

Then everyone online started doing their make up and jewelry collections.  I only have a couple pairs of earrings, 2 necklaces and one bracelet so that was unnecessary.  I also have only one basket that holds all my make up but, for a laugh, I went through it and actually found some things to get rid of.

Not sure why I was digging around these items everyday to get to the things I actually use.

But then it came to books.  I'm pretty sure you aren't allowed to get rid of books, ever.  Right?  That has to be a rule somewhere.  I love my books.  I love reading them, I love holding them, I love looking at them.  (I also talk about my love of books in my birthday post.)  We have bookcases in almost every room of our house.  In the family room I keep my old hardback books which I use as decoration (I have actually read all of them).  The other bookcases are hidden away in spare rooms and the basement.  I ran out of space quite a while ago and slowly started filling the computer room closet, hall closet and my bedroom closet.  I was considering buying more bookshelves but then I was forced to admit that I probably didn't need to keep all these books.

A couple weekends ago, I grabbed a bag and quickly looked through my books.  I was shocked that I was able to relatively quickly and painlessly come up with 4 bags of books that I didn't think I'd ever look at again.  Then I had my daughter go through her one bookcase and she came up with 4 more bags.  Hers was a little easier because she is 18 but still had books in there for 3rd graders.

My husband is not a reader but when he saw what I was doing, he immediately protested.  Turns out he likes having the books around, just to look at apparently!  I promised him that the bookshelves would still look quite full and that I wasn't touching any of the old, hardback books in the family room.

Then the question was what to do with the books.  We found a group called Better World Books.  They resell what books they can and donate others to libraries, schools and hospitals.  A portion of the money they raise goes to help various literacy programs.  I did some research and felt pretty good about them so that is where our 8 bags of once loved but no longer needed books went.

So far it seems that I have survived although I do have an urge to buy more books!

Spicy Tempeh Sandwich

This is going to be a quick and easy post for a quick and easy recipe.  I came home to a completely stressed out Kayleigh and we literally threw this together.  We all loved it and I've been craving it ever since!

Spicy Tempeh Sandwich

1 tablespoon oil
1 package of tempeh, sliced thin
1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
1/2 cup hot sauce similar to Frank's Red Hot (we used the Aldi version)
2 tablespoons vegan margarine

Heat the oil in a large skillet and cook the tempeh until it is lightly browned.  Add the peppers and cook another 1-2 minutes.  Stir in the margarine and hot sauce and cook until the tempeh and peppers are coated and everything is heated through.  Serve on hamburger buns.