Weekend List w/ Another Half Done

It is nice to sit down and catch up after a busy morning. I ran the Urban Cow Half Marathon this morning for the 6th year in a row and hopefully I can keep that momentum going. But more on that shortly! Earlier this week I ran to Trader Joe’s to restock the kitchen after our vacation and to my horror, they were out of organic tempeh!

Maybe that’s a good thing, it’s becoming more popular as people discover it as a cheaper, healthier alternative to animal products. Right?

I have been heading to Whole Foods more for lunch last week since our kitchen was low on fresh stuff and tried a new flavor of KeVita Sparkling Probiotic drink – Mojita Lime Mint Coconut.

It was very good, like a milder mojito with a slightly creamy coconut flavor.

On busy nights, I’ve been sticking to simple dinners like this tofu Sriracha oil free stir fry.

And Tofurky eggplant oil free stir fry.

As well as plenty of salads like this simple and messy one with hummus dressing.

Hubby and I celebrated our dating anniversary yesterday with fun gifts, I came home from errands to find this sweet surprise.

That included earrings and new reading material – Running Eating Thinking, A Vegan Anthology.

Looking forward to diving into it tonight!

October is a great month for vegans in Sacramento because of the Sacramento Vegan Chef Challenge, a voting competition that local restaurants are encouraged to join creating a vegan menu to serve through the entire month. I hope to get to most of the restaurants this year, but we’ll see. We celebrated our anniversary last night at The Porch to try their vegan menu.

I like The Porch because it’s a classy, southern themed restaurant with quality and original versions of southern classics.

And they offered an impressive vegan menu for the challenge that hubby and I managed to try almost everything on.

The Porch Pickle Jar was a fun display of pickled veggies such as long pole beans, okra, tomatoes, and jalapenos.

It was very tasty and I’m not usually a fan of okra.

We also got the Green Veggie Bisque with an impressive variety of veggies blended with kicky chili oil.

It was as hearty as a potato stew with a nice texture and rich flavor.

And we tried the Crispy Fried Hominy too … hey, I was fueling for a half marathon!

Delicious and creative with the lime spritz, kind of vegan popcorn shrimp.

For the main dish I got the Soyrizo & Rice Tamale with vegan sour cream.

Delicious, great range of kicky flavor depth and textures. I would say it seemed a little small, but perfect size for the price leaving room to try other items on the menu.

Hubby got the Frito Pie bowl which was tasty and original.

It had a slightly sweet brown sugar flavor mixed in which was surprisingly good with corn chips and beans.

We had two options for dessert, but could only share one and went with the Banana Mocha Cake.

Just wow.

The layers of chocolate and banana cream were delicious with the gooey coconut and very vanilla ice cream. Thumbs up for everything we tried and it was a filling meal! Good thing because I needed energy for this morning. I left the house at 6 AM to make it to the Land Park area of Sacramento in time to run the Urban Cow Half Marathon and thankfully I had plenty of time to get through the outhouse lines before the race started because those are always crazy for this race. I drove myself since it was just me running this year and hubby met me at the finish line later. According to RunKeeper, I PR’d:

But not according to my chip time, I was just under 2 hours. Which is fine, I’ll take it. But I like RunKeeper’s results better. :-) That happened last year too, hmmm. It’s the 6th year in a row I’ve run this half and have made it an end-of-summer tradition. I like that it’s a nice little tour of Sacramento, popular, but not insanely crowded, and intense. And apparently very popular among female runners – well, half marathons are in general per an article I read yesterday and women out numbered men in this race 2-to-1. It’s the perfect distance for women to train in social groups and stay fit while not interfering with work and personal life. I can see that, I’ve been tossing the idea of training for a whole marathon in the near future, but not sure how I’d be able to balance the training with my work schedule and other areas of life. But I’ve got training for half marathons down to where I can still function and not feel overly tired after long runs.

Hubby arrived in time to snap a few pics of me heading to the finish line with my Team Veg shirt on.

Unlike previous years, I felt pretty good for the last mile and a half and had a strong running finish.

And happy to complete my 9th half marathon! But I’m ready to relax now … after going through the list!

This Raw Vegan Cheesecake recipe looks divine and simple.

So does this Vanilla Cappuccino Protein Pudding.

And this Vegan Pumpkin Frappucchino.

Swapping red meat for beans is a good thing.

Meat and chronic illness go hand-in-hand studies find.

Jon Stewart could be a vegan too.

Plant based diets lead to longer lives.

I can’t wait to get a pair of Pammies! Especially awesome that they’re made from recycled electronics.

Cowspiracy is making waves on Netflix.

Can a vegan diet boost productivity in the workplace?

Apparently driving to work is unhealthy for us and stressing us out.

Demand for vegan options is growing in restaurants.

Finally, more about the Sacramento Vegan Chef Challenge.