Snap Soup!

In a pinch? or just tired and don't feel like waiting an hour for dinner? A simple way to add nutrition and volume to a meal is to take a can of healthy soup and add your favorite veg to it! I started with half an onion and 3 stalks of celery, slice and dice and sweat in a pot. Let them get as soft as you like. I add dill and garlic powder which are great for adding to whatever soup you have. Dill was  spice my grandmother used a lot when she made soups when I was young so it bring back memories and definitely turns a canned soup into a home made comfort. Add the can of soup and additional water, maybe half a can? cover and put on medium heat. This helps "beef" up a soup without adding serious calories or time.
Being a vegetarian, I LOVE Amy's Organic soups and the Lentil is perfect for the protein. Its also a little bland to me on its own so the dill and garlic help it out.

LOVE IT! Perfect after getting back from walking the dog in the woods on a wet Olympia day.

Luna Protein Plus

FYI, I love butter fingers and conveniently, Luna makes a protein bar that tastes like them! they are the peanut butter protein variety. Its awesome.
I also recommend the Pepper mint flavor from Luna, Iced Oatmeal and Chai Spice.

I love Luna not only because they taste good but almost all their products are 70% organic and have appropriate proportions of protein carbs and fat.

Spring Rolls!

A good friend and I decided to make Spring Rolls! the awesome thing about them is you can put whatever you want in them. We used rice noodles carrots cucumber and shrimp. I made a rice wine and sweet chili dipping sauce. The main tip I have is to not over soak the wraps when they are too gooey, they are just that, too gooey. And take the time to wrap em up good, it makes eating them much more fun. 

other things I have put in them are cooked buckwheat soba noodles, napa cabbage, brown rice, wild rice, mushrooms, sprouts, tofu, and even a little bit of greek yogurt. The sky is the limit. 

Another way to make spring rolls is to use lightly steamed cabbage leaves as the wrap or collard leaves. I found that stripping a portion of the major vein int he center of the leaf helps it fold better. This is great for raw eating as well. 

When I was in Brazil, using cabbage, chard, collard or kale leaves was a great way to reinvent a pot of cooked veggies and tofu from the night before, just wrap it up and you're good to go!

Recovery...

I have been training for a marathon with the encouragement of a friend who has been training as well. We have agreed to push each other through this never ending training we have never done before. Running has always been apart of my life since i was 10 years old. I remember coming in from running my first mile, so happy to run 2 laps around our half mile loop by our house non stop, to conquering a half marathon in high school, to tackling the track training for college soccer, to now training to dominate a full marathon at the age of 23. My next plan will be to continue the distance runs and add a and within a year do a half iron man, but baby steps. Moving to fast is the first ticket to injury.

Proper eating is essential to getting the results you want. This weekend I ate like a horse 16 miles on Saturday, and a 20 mile bike ride on Sunday resulted in total destruction in the kitchen, a loaf of home made buckwheat whole wheat bread and a dense bean soup with wheat berries.

I started with a whole onion, and 3 or 4 stalks of celery, 2 carrots, and some olive oil. I let those soften and onion get translucent. I added each of those veggies in 3 minute intervals from each other to let them get their time. I added a shit load of garlic because its amazing. Sure i probably get less dates because of my addiction and have been told that my food is too garlic but hey, maybe ill just marry a guy who loves garlic and then everyone can just suck it and we can go off into the sunset smelling like hummus.

Rant over.

After those veggies and garlic get super soft, I add 4 or 5 leaves of chopped collard greens, one can of crushed tomatoes (with juice) and about 8 to 10 cups water. I never measure water when I make soup. I always put in a little more than what I picture the soup when its finished so that it can reduce. At that point I added about 4 serving of tofu (you can add chicken or whatever you like). Celery salt, a few tablespoons of soy sauce, pepper, basil, sage (or poultry seasoning) and a bit of dill. I added dried beans after that, I added dried adzuki and black but whatever you want is what you should do.

I also added wheat berries when the beans went in (not many maybe a half cup?) no i didn't measure but you can add any grain or rice.

the only tips I can offer are, use a big pot and ingredients add up especially if you don't follow a strict recipe (or one at all....)


I let this cook for a bit until the beans were soft. This soup will last a few days and will thicken so if you reheat it it will most likely need a little bit more water or not... a good whole wheat tortilla or corn is good for dipping.

This soup made the couch riding cozy and amazing Saturday and Sunday night.
I will post the bread recipe that I ate with it (drizzled with rosemary olive oil and rubbed with garlic, of course).