Drive Electric Event and Hemp Tofu

I think I’m mostly recovered from the weekend, woo! Saturday I crammed in an early 8-mile run on a treadmill at the gym. Crazy, right? But it wasn’t horrible because I updated my playlists. I actually like doing at least one long half-marathon training run on a treadmill because I can force myself to stick to a target pace for better distance training. And it was another weekend of triple-digit heat and running outside even early on those days sucks a lot out of me.

I had to get it done Saturday because I spent all day yesterday volunteering for our local Drive Electric event in Folsom displaying my car, setting up, and being an event photographer.

It’s a fun event where electric vehicle drivers can chat with people interested in buying or leasing an electric vehicle, answer questions, and gush about how much more fun EVs are to drive while saving tons on gas. But it was hot yesterday and I was wiped after spending hours in the sun.

There were dealers and car representatives there too offering test drives on new models and displaying future models we hope to see more of soon – like this Nissan e-NV200 electric cargo van.

It has about an 100 mile range on battery and perfect for businesses.

Also this sweet blue Fiat 500e.

This Zero Electric Motorcycle.

And the Kia Soul EV!

Seriously considering it when my lease is up, it’s a tall vehicle with a small footprint, just my style. And it has a fast charging option making it possible for more road trips.

The BMW i3 was also a big draw, lots of test drives.

Nice, maybe a little too nice for me.

And there were a few Toyota Rav4 EVs for test drives.

This year the event was in front of the Folsom Whole Foods, so, of course, I had a huge salad for lunch.

And snacked on these Beanitos Black Bean chips – yum!

I also grabbed dinner to bring home after the event because I noticed the Folsom Whole Foods had a product I have not been able to find at our local store – Living Harvest Tempt Hemp Tofu.

The package was a pain to get into even with scissors, a lot like tempeh sealed packaging except the hemp tofu breaks apart easily.

The “tofu” is interesting, it’s like a combo of tofu and tempeh texture-wise with visible hemp seeds in it. And it crumbles and breaks apart much easier.

By itself the flavor was interesting. I’m a fan of hemp seeds and using them in a ton of recipes and I love the concept of this product for the protein and nutritional value. But this hemp tofu had a bitter flavor to me. I sauteed it with broccoli and asparagus in a little water, soy sauce, and a little sriracha sauce.

And that improved the flavor, but it was still not awesome.

Something about the slightly bitter bite and oddly mushy and gritty texture did not do much for me, I’d much prefer tofu of tempeh in this dish. But I bought two packages, the other is the Mexican Chorizo flavor that I will try again with and report back.

Follow up on Shadow – he’s hanging in there and I think just had a bad intestinal spell that seems to have settled down. Still very skinny, but eating a lot and energetic. We will be taking him to the vet soon for a follow up.