Friend, food and futon

Okay, I have some catching up to you. Rather than do a post for each day I will summarise and just highlight the interesting things. Well, the things I *think* are interesting to my readers, whoever you are...this post is for you C-A.

on Friday last week, I had the pleasure of hosting my dear friend, K-Dub, for the evening. We have not seen each other in a while and had a lot of catching up to do. We met at my place at 5pm and headed out for a walk up Mosquito Creek and then headed over to Kokoro sushi on Lonsdale....a place K-Dub and I always go to together and that K-Dub went to frequently when she lived in North Van. I did not branch out from my usual order of miso, avocado roll, salmon and tuna sashimi (I declined the spicy red sauce as they wanted to charge me a dollar for it and it's pretty spicy so I only use literally a 1/4 teaspoon worth) and Gom-ae (steamed spinach with sesame sauce).
K-dub split the avocado roll with me and also ordered yam roll, edamame which we also split although I'm pretty sure I ate way more than half..oops, and vegetable gyoza.
We ate well and caught up on the past few months.
On the way home, I wanted to go to London Drugs to see if they had anything on sale. And by anything, I mean FOOD. K-Dub and I perused the aisles slowly...you have to do this or you may miss a great deal or a very interesting food. We spent more time in some sections over others, namely chocolate, tea, cereal and crackers. I ended up purchasing a new cereal that K-Dub pointed out called Crunchy Maple Sunrise. It was on sale and it sounded like it would be mightily yummy whether eaten as directed for breakfast or as a snack at any time of day. It contained a variety of grains, although no wheat, and of particular importance was the inclusion of quinoa as this is a grain that is very high in protein. Also the maple was key. Mmmmm maple.
I also bought a big tub of almonds as they were on sale for $10 for a kg and I was planning to make Tamari almonds under K-Dubs direction later that night. Tamari is a sort of soy sauce made without wheat. I prefer it to soy sauce but it generally costs more although you don't use a lot at a time as it's so salty. Here is K-dub's recipe:


Tamari Almonds
1-2 cups raw almonds
2-3 tbsp tamari sauce

spread the almonds in a large flatbased frying pan on a low-med heat. Toast lightly for 15-20 mins until roasted. They will turn a little darker. Turn them over halfway through cooking.
while the pan is still hot, turn off the heat and add the tamari sauce. It will sizzle and get sticky so quickly stir the nuts until coated fully then leave to cool.

So simple and delicious. There is one problem though. Once you start you can stop.

Once they were made, we chatted some more and set up the futon. Just before I went to bed I prepared some overnight oatmeal for us. K-Dub had not had this before and agreed to try it. We ate it on waking and even though she's not keen on dates, she ate it and gave it the thumbs up before setting out on her 12 hour car journey home.

Sushi Surprise

After Thursday night's overindulgence, I needed Fridays food to be a bit healthier.

Breakfast
Apple and green tea with honey

A small breakfast, likely because I was still going on calories from Thurs night. I was still thinking about the chocolate fountain too.

Lunch
Sushi

Several of my co-workers headed out to the nearby sushi restaurant, Genji, for a quick lunch. I was about to leave the building when I was called upon to assist as a first aider as someone playing badminton had twisted their ankle. After ice and a tensor bandage were applied, I hoped I still had time to eat with my co-workers who had gone ahead not knowing where on earth I had disappeared to. I raced over there and luckily, I know what I want to eat so don't have to waste time deliberating over a menu. I chose miso soup, avocado roll and split an order of tuna and salmon sashimi with Ms MJ. It was all good, it always is there. Their avocado is always perfect and my co-workers and I determined that they were particularly buttery. I wonder who their supplier is? another co-worker ordered the bento box and each day there is a "surprise" component. Today it was hard to tell what it might be. It looked somewhat like a deep fried sea urchin about the size of a ping pong ball. Ms MJ was brave enough to try and it and passed some on to me too. It turned out to be a deep fried ball of mashed sweet potato and yam. It was really rather good and I would order it again. I have never even noticed it on the menu before so I was really happy to have tasted something new.

Dinner
Leftover chicken curry (yes, again)
I went for a workout after work. It was a stellar workout and I sweated out at least half of Thursdays list in the process. I didn't get home 'til close to 8pm and was very happy to know that I had one more portion of my curry left that I heated up right away and tucked into. I know I have eaten this meal 3 times in the past 3 days but it was really delicious AND I hate wasting food. I rarely cook a meal that just serves one.It's so much more satisfying to make a big pan full of food, isn't it? I lead a very busy life and so leftovers are essential and they always prompt curiosity and questions from those around me and I love talking about food so that works for me!

Today I have felt very inspired as a result of the event I was at last night. Matt Hill and Stephanie Tait were guest speakers at the event. They are the founders of www.runforoneplanet.com. They ran all around North America for one year, covering 11000 miles which means they ran a marathon every day for a year. Yes you read that correctly. They are from Vancouver and did a lot of their run training in North Van. I was lucky enough to chat with them before their presentation and WOW were they inspiring! The goal of their mammoth task was to raise awareness about being environmentally kind and helping our abused planet. I am inspired to do something big, bigger than I am, but I am not sure what yet. I think I will start small for now, I already do a lot of green things but I could do better and will. This weekend I am starting my vegetable garden and I'll ponder about bigger things as I dig and sow my seeds.

Pre-race pig out

Tomorrow I am competing in the North shore Spring Triathlon. Therefore eating today had a specific purpose...fuel me through a good, fast race. For this to happen I must not eat any of my allergens (wheat, dairy, eggs, sulphites) and also get a good balance of protein, carbs and fat. Off the menu was anything too rich, too salty or too processed. I also needed to reduce fiber intake and anyone who has done any kind of race before will know why!

Breakfast
Cornflakes and Rice Milk
I don't usually eat a lot of cereal, not for any particular reason, but I had this in my cupboard and I am currently on a quest to eat through some staples to make room for some new foods. These particular cornflakes are Nature's Path and were good and crunchy. I prefer the french translation of their name though "Flocons de Mais". Sounds more glamorous. Due to my dairy intolerance I drink and use various types of milk substitutes, mainly rice milk or almond milk. I usually buy whichever one is on sale for 2 for $5 or whatever. I actually don't miss milk at all as the substitutes are really good and they are slightly sweet so perfect for cereal.

Lunch
Sushi

En route to pick up our race day packages, my co Tri-competitor and good friend MJ hit up Gen sushi on Lonsdale for one of our favourite meals. We both indulge in this treat at least once a week, sometimes together, sometimes separate, at various establishments around town. We are very spoiled to have so many to choose from here and they are all good and mostly very cheap. Today we decided to share some rolls so we could eat more of a variety. I do have my favourites but branched out today. We chose to start with tuna and salmon sashimi. This is raw fish and we ordered it with spicy sauce on the side. I love this dish as it is so clean and simple and of course, tastes delicious. Before moving to Canada I had really not eaten sushi and had zero desire to eat raw fish but just try and stop me now, I'm "hooked" haha!
The slices were pretty thick but we devoured them fast. MMmmmmMMMM. We chose 3 rolls to share. Avocado roll which is my absolute favourite roll. The avocado was particularly soft today, just the way I like it. We also chose Yam Roll which had tempura batter on it but it was such as small amount that I ate it anyway and hoped the allergy gods were being nice today. Usually a small amount does not cause a problem. Our final roll was one neither of us had tried before, mango roll. We enquired as to what was in it as you never really know from restaurant to restaurant what the choose to put in. This one contained mango, cucumber and imitation crab. It was a huge roll and was covered in a bright mango sauce and topped with salmon roe. It was really good and the mango sauce was very fresh and tasty and did not seem to have been sweetened at all..au naturel. We were both suitably stuffed and then headed off to pick up our race numbers for tomorrows race.


Dinner
Pan fried chicken breast with caramelised onions and cranberries
Served with sauteed zucchini and oven roasted herbed baby potatoes
Drizzled with honey garlic balsamic reduction

I've been waiting to try this recipe from Clean Eating for a while. I went to the store to get all the ingredients and got to work. The original recipe did not have any potatoes but I wanted to add some starch to boost my energy intake. I quartered the potatoes and mixed them with olive oil, dried thyme and rosemary and salt and pepper. Wrapped them in a foil package and baked in the oven for 45 mins.
While they were cooking I started on the onions which also take at least 30 mins to caramelise properly. I also put the balsamic drizzle on to reduce down. This was also an addition to the original recipe. It's really simple and goes well with fish, chicken and also as a salad dressing when cooled.

Balsamic Drizzle
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2-3 tbsp honey
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 tbsp olive oil

put all ingredients in a small, heavy based pan and whisk together. Bring to the boil and then reduce heat and simmer 15-20 mins until it thickens.

Once the onions were caramelized, I added some organic dried cranberries. These are expensive but the sulphite level in non-organic dried fruit is so high that I get a reaction from it. I then pan fried the chicken and the zucchini and then assembled everything on the plate. It looked good but was a quite labour intensive meal. The balsamic reduction and onions both need regular stirring and then I had to keep and eye on the chicken to make sure it didn't burn. But, it was so yummy and all the flavours went well together. The sweetness of the balsamic reduction off set the tartness of the cranberries and complimented the onions which weren't quite as caramelised as I would like but I got impatient waiting and caved. As I stood over the stove stirring and sauteeing, my thoughts went to tomorrows race and I started to think about how it will all be over by this time tomorrow. I'm sure I will be smiling whatever happens in the race.

Chocolate
Today's chocolate of choice is Lindt Intense Mint. It's a dark chocolate and I put it in the fridge as usual. I prefer the texture change and I tend to eat less when it's chilled. So far I have eaten 2 squares but I'm looking longingly at the fridge door knowing what is just behind it is beckoning to my taste buds and can only add to my race day energy, right?

My final food thoughts of the day revolve around breakfast tomorrow. I need to eat a good breakfast but not too much that I will be too full, especially important seeing as the swim is first up. I will leave home at 7:30 am but the race does not start til 9:10am. I'm leaning towards oatmeal with honey and banana...carbs all the way, baby!