#232 Matt Frazier stopped in Lincoln!

On my List of 1,001 Awesome Things To Do Before....list, #232 is to attend a book tour/signing by an author that I love.  I did that!  I intend to do it any time I get the chance, but I think this is the first.  No, not true.  I met Isa Moskowitz at a bake sale in Omaha and she signed my Vegan Cookies cookbook, but that was a few years back, way before I had The List.  Plus, its on the list to meet her again (maybe when she gets her vegan restaurant open?!?)

Matt Frazier writes a blog that I read regularly called The No Meat Athlete and his book, Run on Plants and Discover Your Fittest, Fastest, Happiest Self just came out a few weeks ago.  On his book tour, he made a stop at the Lincoln Running Company and Willa and I made sure we could make it!  Matt is an ultramarathon runner who just happens also to be vegan.  He spoke about his training, what he eats, what he wears, goal setting, strength training...all kinds of good stuff!  He was very informative.  I haven't read the whole book yet, but I did just try out one of his recipes (for buffalo hummus) and it was so good.  I don't know why I hadn't thought to put buffalo sauce in hummus before but it was genius.  I am very excited to try the rest of the recipes.  Aside from recipes, there are also training plans for various distances in the book.  A great read for anyone who is thinking of getting into distance running or anyone looking to replace some meat with some healthier options in their diets.  He doesn't get in your face at all about the ethics of a vegan diet, as some vegan writers do.  He makes some good points, for sure, but he also acknowledges that even just a reduction in red meat consumption can make huge positive impacts on your health and your training.  If you're curious, you should check it out!  I'll loan my copy out after I try a few more recipes:)

Juicing!!

Oh boy!  It finally happened!  I got a juicer!  I know, I whined about it a lot.  Maybe not a lot on the blog, but a lot in my personal, real life.  And then one day I came home and Brad had bought me one!  He goes to great lengths to NOT listen to me whine:)  Not only did he buy me a juicer, he pretty much bought the best one that is available for non-commercial use.

That's the guy!  You can stick anything in there and it will liquefy it!  Well, we actually discussed what would happen if you put meat, a sock, or pop tarts in it.  Maybe you shouldn't juice some things.  

I gave myself a few days of testing out the machine, then I did a 2 day juice fast.  Just to see if I could and if I liked the results.  I tried to do mostly veggie juices, but once in awhile you just have to throw in a green apple and a pear.  And don't get confused by the photo, its best not to juice bananas or avocados.  I bought those for smoothies.  The combo of veggies I liked the best were carrots, cucumber, celery, kale, jalapeno, cilantro, garlic, tomato and sweet potato.  But I felt like as long as I had garlic and something spicy, I could throw any other veggie in there and it would be drinkable.  The 2 day fast was awesome.  It really surprised me that I had so much energy when I wasn't eating solid food, but I guess that just proves how much energy we expend on digesting and processing our food.  By the end of the 2nd day, I was pretty hungry so I had a smoothie instead of juice but I felt great and can't wait to do it again.  Hopefully for longer.  And not that my goal was to lose any weight but my summer shorts definitely fit better after the 2 days!  

How pretty is the juice when you add a beet and a polka dot straw??

  

Growing things again

Willa and I started off the planting this spring!  I am so horribly bad at growing things, for a number of reasons.  Mostly, I forget to water them.  And sometimes its not so much forgetting, as just being kind of lazy.  My hopes for our new home, and all its space to grow things, is that I will improve each year.  Last year's garden was small, and not everything worked out, but it was an ok start.  We had lots of basil and lettuce and squash.  I thought maybe this year we would plant more garden space, but when I got really honest with myself, I realized that I better take another stab at my little garden.  So after today, my little plot of garden soil is planted.  Tomatoes, basil, Brussels sprouts, bell peppers, spinach, lettuce, carrots, kale and peas.  We'll see how it goes.  I'd like to do a few more tomato plants and some cucumbers, maybe a few more types of herbs but first I want to make sure that what I planted today lives.  No sense in killing even more veggies.  Willa picked out the pretty pink flowers that we potted.  She is quite good with plants.  Maybe my plant-killing-genes skipped a generation...

In unrelated news, today was Easter (pictures to follow).  The church service at Southpointe Christian was beautiful.  Powerful sermon, great music.  If you don't know, Brad plays drums with the music team at our church.  Willa was very well behaved, which hasn't happened since she was a tiny infant who couldn't walk or talk.  Maybe I have unrealistic expectations for her, but I don't take her to the nursery, nor do I bring along all kinds of toys and distractions.  I expect that she should be able to sit, fairly quietly and draw or look at a book, or maybe even listen.  I'll give her credit for trying, but some weeks she is just a bit more challenging in church than I would like.  Last week was one of those weeks.  Right after the first round of songs (when it was quiet) she asked me loudly if I needed to go to the bathroom.  Kind of embarrassing.  Then, as the communion tray was being passed (also a relatively quiet time) she asked me if the communion wine was "the kind of beer that daddy likes?"  Hmmm.  Thanks Willa.  And that is why we generally sit in the very back row.

BRAD ATE CAULIFLOWER!!

This is a huge deal in our house.  Let's think about this for a second.  I am a vegetarian.  Who loves vegetables.  And weird grains.  And nut milks and a multitude of soy bean products.  Brad likes...jerky.  And beer.  The list of vegetables that he will willingly eat include corn and occasionally peas.  Grocery shopping for our family is a fun challenge.  (Willa likes grapes, yogurt and plain hot dog buns if you were wondering.)  So the other night when I finally got around to trying the cauliflower crust pizza that I saw on Pinterest, I figured either I would ruin it and no one would eat it, or it would be awesome and I would love it but Brad would hate it.  Either way, I had to try it.  The verdict is that it was really, really good.  And Brad ate it.  And he claimed to like it!  I'll post the recipe, as it was from Pinterest and then I'll walk through my alterations to the recipe.
Cauliflower Crust Pizza

Serves 2; Adapted from Your Lighter Side.

ingredients:

1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/2 tsp garlic salt
olive oil (optional)

pizza sauce, shredded cheese and your choice of toppings*

directions:

To "Rice" the Cauliflower:
Take 1 large head of fresh cauliflower, remove stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. (If you don't have a food processor, you can grate the whole head with a cheese grater). Place the riced cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes. There is no need to add water, as the natural moisture in the cauliflower is enough to cook itself.

One large head should produce approximately 3 cups of riced cauliflower. The remainder can be used to make additional pizza crusts immediately, or can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.

To Make the Pizza Crust:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup cauliflower, egg and mozzarella. Add oregano, crushed garlic and garlic salt, stir. Transfer to the cookie sheet, and using your hands, pat out into a 9" round. Optional: Brush olive oil over top of mixture to help with browning.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven. To the crust, add sauce, toppings and cheese. Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (approximately 3-4 minutes).

Enjoy!

*Note that toppings need to be precooked since you are only broiling for a few minutes.

Ok, I don't own a food processor, which I realize more and more every day is dumb.  I just need to bite the bullet and go buy one, as a ton of my recipes call for them.  Sometimes I avoid making things that would probably be so good, just because I don't own one.  I also don't own a cheese grater.  So I put most of a small head of organic cauliflower in my magic bullet and blended it for quite awhile.  Admittedly, this took some time but I think it would be much quicker with the food processor.  Once I had blended about a cup of cauliflower and microwaved it for about 6 minutes, I added in the egg, cheese, oregano and garlic.  Spread it on my trusty Pampered Chef pizza stone and brushed it with olive oil.  This amount of mixture made a very small pizza.  It truly only does serve 2, and at that, I would make sure to have some sides if you're hungry.  I think I only baked the crust for about 12 minutes before the edges started to look pretty crispy.  I topped the crust with parmesan cheese, one large tomato, sliced, and lots of basil.  Stuck it under the broiler for a couple of minutes.  Oh wow.  It was good.  Brad even said that he wouldn't have guessed there was any cauliflower in the pizza if I hadn't told him.  I will say that the crust was a little bit more delicate than normal, but maybe that means I just didn't quite cook it long enough.  I don't know that I would ever use another store bought pizza crust again after trying it this way.  Picky eaters definitely earn bragging rights for trying this one!!!

Loads of Vitamin C

We recently harvested the last of the 2011 inaugural garden.  They were some mighty tasty carrots.  Kinda funny shaped, but delish.

Let food be thy medicine

Hippocrates is pretty old school, but "Let food be thy medicine" has long been one of my favorite quotes.  I just spent the last hour and a half watching a new documentary called Forks Over Knives and I would love for each and every person that I care about in my life to also watch it.  The film gives a very in-depth and science based explanation as to why our cultures' current diet is killing us.  Sounds dramatic, but it really is.  I urge you, if you have a Netflix account, watch this film.  Its not action packed, or funny, or visually entertaining but we all need to hear these statistics.  Normally, when I read about plant-based diets, I am doing so to learn more about the welfare of the animals or the impact on our environment that meat production has, this film took a different approach.  If you are a dude, or someone of the opinion that you need tons of protein, there is even an interview with a vegan MMA fighter, a professional triathlete, and a whole fire station full of Texas firefighters who have all adopted a vegan lifestyle. 

So...go.  Watch.  Then call me and we can discuss:)