Thursday, October 13, 2011

Some New Staples

So the detox went really well, I carried it out for about 2 weeks with adding caffeine and some alcohol the second week....

With the detox diet I did always comes some good recipes.  Two soups and one warm salad in particular became a staple.  I pumped up my vegetarian chili with some chipoltle chilis in adobo sauce, I fell in love with miso soup and found a new way to do collard greens.

Smoky 3-Bean Chili

1 onion diced
1 stalk of celery chopped
10 baby carrots chopped (this was all I had)
5 cloves of garlic diced
2 green peppers chopped ( I had 1 green and 1 poblano)

Use some olive oil and saute this mixture with medium heat for about 5-7 min until softened.

Add this to a crockpot or just large pot on stove then add the following to the pot.

1 can black beans (or soak dry overnight)
1 can kidney beans
1 can chickpeas
2 chipotled peppers in adobo (add a smoky flavor - can find in Mexican section of most grocery stores) or just do 1 jalepeno chopped.
2 cans of whole tomatoes (break them up with wooden spoon before)
Maybe 1/2-3/4 cup of chicken broth.
Sprinkle in some cumin, chili powder and cayenne pepper.

I let it go on high for an hour or 2 and then low for 4-6 hours in crockpot or just on low for 8 hours.  The longer the better, you can also just do it overnight.

When I serve I use sliced avocado for topping, crumpled rice or corn chips and maybe dollop of 0% greek yogurt and then of course hot sauce (cause nothing is hot enough for me)....I also added some quinoa to the chili.

 

Mellow Barley Veggie Miso Soup

Bring 5 cups of water to a boil.

Add in the following:
1 chopped leek
1 onion chopped
1 scallion chopped

1 stick kombu (sea vegetable) (about 4")
Let simmer for 10 minutes or so.

Add in the following:
1 baby bok choy (white part only for now)
1/2 cup to 1 cup of chopped green cabbage.

Let simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Use soup broth in a ramekin or small bowl and add 3 tspn of white mellow miso, 3 tspn of barley miso and stir until the paste loosens up.

Add to the pot and simmer (DO NOT BOIL OR IT WILL DESTROY THE ENZYMES IN THE MISO)

Add greens of bok chop until bright green.


This is really good for you after "fasting" while sleeping with your digestion, or lunch or dinner :)

So yummy.

Warm Collard Green Salad with Brown Rice Vinegar (adapted from the Jai Seed/Rich Roll cookbook)

1 yellow squash - sliced
char the squash over high heat (no oil) and flip, place in a boil.

Add 1tspn of olive oil and saute some mushrooms and garlic, place over squash.

Add 1 tspn of olive oil and saute some collard greens until translucent, place over mushrooms.

Add some brown rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar, seas salt and pepper.

I ate it with some homemade gazpacho that you can find from one of my previous recipes here.  Easy and delicious.



Friday, October 7, 2011

World Series of Triathlons - Kona

In light of what will be occurring this Saturday, October 8th, I decided to instead devote a post to the Ironman Hawaii aka Kona aka the World Championships!  My love for the sport started in 8th grade, although I would never even "tri" a triathlon until I turned 31 unless you count a couple duathlons that were on a mountain bike....

Doesn't matter, I was enamored with this big race since 1989 when my Aunt Noreen and Uncle Glenn were married in NJ and  shortly after moved to Hawaii and would pursue the dream of competing in Kona....They both got in - my aunt in 1991 and my uncle in 1992.  I still remember being in high school and telling friends that my aunt and uncle were in the biggest race - I don't think anyone cared but I was so excited!  I was crushing over Mark Allen! 
The Iron War of Mark Allen and Dave Scott - 1989
I loved going to my grandparent's house and seeing that finishing post of my aunt coming in posted on the fridge.  She had quite a struggle but she finished and was an "IRONMAN."  My uncle finished in 10 hours and some change which I can't even fathom - but I think it is freaking awesome!

For any of you that don't know, the World Championships Ironman is mainly qualified racers from the other WTC-sanctioned (Ironman branded) events as well as some lucky little bastards that get in through the 200 lottery slots.  The race consists of 2.4 miles swim in the Pacific...(yes, kids, this water is clear unlike the Jersey lakes and cranberry bogs we need to sift through out here),  156 mile bike  past some lava fields (no joke), and last but not least, just a short little marathon. 

This was the IM Hawaii World Championships 1992....(I hijacked some of the pictures when my uncle was in it - such an amazing event)....I was so excited to find these pictures from almost 20 years ago!

Start of the race!

Swimmers getting ready to start!

This was from a post card

Setting up the bike pre-race!

Transition area

Finishing up - looking strong!


This is it now...



So yes, the outfits, may have changed, the bikes upgraded a little, but the emotions are the same.  


Among the hottest pros are Chrissie Wellington (course record of 8 hours and 54 min....), Andy Potts, Miranda Carfrae, etc...but what about those age groupers?  What about those incredibly dedicated peeps that hold down a full-time job and have trained for an additional 20-25 hours a week on top of that competing with the best of the best in the hopes of winning, placing and/or finishing this intense race.  And let's not forget those people that have handicaps such as amputees, blind, etc that finish the race way faster than I can ever even hope to.  These are the people that encourage me to run that extra mile when I feel like stopping!
 
So is Hawaii Ironman part of my hopes and dreams? YOU BETCHA! Maybe it won't happen till I am 75 and qualified by doing IM Brazil (I hear you have a better chance), or maybe one year I enter the lottery (not the $$$ one, the ironman one - all though the first would be nice too) and get in, OR maybe I just take a short vacation and watch the event unfold in-person and cheer and hold signs for all those amazing athletes.

The race will not be airing till November, but you can track tomorrow some of my favorite blogging friends.  If you get a chance, visit some of these blog links and read what some of these cool kids do in their "spare" time and how hard they work to get where they are! 

Tatiana  - What it is
Beth W - California Training
James - Blood Sweat and Beers
Hailey  - Hailey in Training
Beth S - Trial of Miles; Miles of Trials
Sonja  - GoSonja
Marni - http://trimarni.blogspot.com/

 Good luck to all those RACING tomorrow!!

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