Working Through the Forks Over Knives Program

Today was the last day of rain for a few days at least and thank goodness! It literally rained all day yesterday nonstop. Miko was not even interested in the backyard, but happy to cuddle in his favorite blanket.

I know we should be thankful for the rain and I am, this is the wettest year in a century or something like that for Northern California. So much water, our dams can barely hold it! After nearly a week of rain and dark clouds, I think I was feeling a bit gloomy. I got a lot done at home, but I am craving sunshine and no mud to start dabbling in trail running.

Hubby had a sweet surprise for me when I got home – a framed display from my first marathon!

He sweetly got me that frame as a gift, I just have been putting off setting it up so he took care of that too. So sweet! And now I need to figure out how to incorporate it with my running display in the home gym.

I am wrapping up the Forks Over Knives Rouxbe Cooking program this week which is exciting! Instead of creating my own recipes, I’ve been working through recipe assignments and yesterday was a “Tuna-less Tuna Salad” that used chickpeas and fresh made cashew sour cream that I had to make before hand. It’s been awhile since I’ve bought raw cashews since I’ve been using hemp seeds and avocado for a lot of my creamy recipes, so I forgot how pricey they can be!

This salad also used diced dill pickles and nori flakes for the tangy tuna-like flavor.

It was simple to through together and a hit, both hubby and I agreed we could just eat it with a spoon.

I made simple lettuce wraps with it to focus on the recipe.

And will be making this recipe again soon. Except maybe using hemp seed or avocado based “sour cream” to keep it a little cheaper and lighter.

So far I’ve been really impressed with the Rouxbe program and really benefited from the basic cooking lessons and knife skills – something often missing from following recipes. I’m an expert at dry and moist oil-free cooking methods now and using whole food based fats and sugars, the program focuses on not using refined sugars or oils at all.

I am still working through my homework leftovers and actually getting a little tired of leftovers, so I threw together a simple tofu stir fry for dinner tonight using purple sweet potato and red onion. It’s interesting looking, right?

The purple potato almost looked like sausage which freaked me out a bit. But it was delicious with a delicate sweet flavor that paired beautifully with tamari and a dash of sriracha.