Sprouts and Rain for the Weekend List

January 24, 2016 by christine

Wow, Sunday got here quick! Busy weeks fly by and nice, long runs outside help balance out the stress. We got a break in the rain last Sunday for a 7-mile run in the morning, perfect before being inside the rest of the day working on projects during the rain.

I got in a little hill training for this run, but want to get in more aggressive hill training before a half marathon in March to see if that improves my time. Miko and Smokey have been getting aggressive nap time on the couch with all the wind and rain outside.

When Smokey tucks into her favorite blanket, she won’t budge all day!

I took the pups on a nice, long walk yesterday during another break in the rain and Miko did not appreciate the wind.

But look, there’s actually water in our wetland preserve now after all the rain! That area has been dried up for years with the drought, so this was nice to see.

But I enjoy these long walks too as a time to take in fresh air and listen to podcasts. I’ve been listening to The Bearded Vegans for entertaining commentary on eating out, trying new vegan products, and ethical issues lately. They had a great rant on vegans questioning other vegans online that stemmed from a VegNews post about vegan options at Taco Bell getting tons of comments accusing the beans of having animal products and assuming VegNews didn’t already research that before posting. It gets old when fellow vegans question dining out choices, products, etc. and I’ve been noticing it more on Instagram posts lately too. There’s nothing good about publicly making the vegan lifestyle look difficult and full of judgement from other vegans! It’s important for vegans to be positive and supportive and be a good role model for how much easier and better the lifestyle keeps getting.

I also like the No Meat Athlete Radio podcast, great tips for winter running, diet, and race training. The winter running episode was great with tips on dressing for cold weather running without too many layers, basically plan to be cold for the first 10-15 minutes of the run to be comfortable for the rest of it. If you’re warm for the start of the run, you’ll be too hot and sweating during.

I might be addicted to Grocery Outlet now because it’s so easy to stop by after the gym on weekends. Here are some more recent vegan finds for cheap.

I love that the inventory keeps changing in the vegan, health foods isle and it’s a new adventure every week. Just wow on the selection of cheap healthier snack foods, I know where to go before our Superbowl party!

That Silk Vanilla Yogurt is surprisingly good! Not sure what I was expecting since it’s been years since I’ve had dairy yogurt, but the Silk stuff was tangy, thick, creamy, and had a pleasant sweet vanilla flavor.

Hubby and I also went to Baagan for lunch this week where I got this tasty and messy quinoa wrap with avocado in a rice wrapper.

Delicious. And hubby got the “meatball” burger made with beans and veggies and loaded with cashew spread.

And we headed to our favorite Thai place for vegan spicy cashew nut tofu stir fry.

Which just never gets old! I like that they mix up the veggie blend in the dish based on what’s in season.

I also grew sprouts this week and would like to always have home grown sprouts on hand, they’re so much cheaper and have a longer shelf life than store bought. Plus I found our stash of seeds after a pantry clean out. These are radish sprouts and have a slightly spicy flavor, perfect for savory salads with a little kick.

Of course there have been a lot of oil free stir fries this week, they’re my go to after a busy week day. Here’s a curry, potato, broccoli stir fry with rice.

Tamari tofu and kale oil free stir fry.

Ginger miso oil free stir fry.

And a huge salad with kale, radish sprouts, cultured cabbage, ginger avocado dressing, and with Mary’s Organic Super Seed Crackers broken up and added to the salad for a fun texture.