Monthly Archives: November 2011

A Vegetarian Thanksgiving.

November 27, 2011 – 16:50

Much to my surprise, there were lots of people out exercising in Eugene the morning of Thanksgiving. I’m used to seeing people running here and there, and when I go to Spencer’s Butte there are usually some cars in the parking lot. But on Thanksgiving, I think everyone was out in the morning getting some exercise before eating anticipated huge meals a few hours later.

I thought about running the local Turkey Trot race. As far as I can remember, I have never run a race on Thanksgiving. However, I decided that it would be more fun to get some exercise with Sonny and my parents, so we decided to hike Spencer’s Butte.

We got to the parking lot around 9:30 and it was almost full. I have never seen so many cars in that parking lot before. Rather than deal with the crowds, we drove to another trail head that is part of the same trail system as Spencer’s Butte. That parking lot was also full. We tried one more spot (Mt. Baldy), and luckily no one else was there.

We got in a nice two mile hike to start out our day of cooking and hanging out.

After hiking we started cooking. I thought it would be fun to do a vegetarian Thanksgiving, so a couple weeks ago I asked my parents and Sonny if they would mind. They were all okay with it! So I started planning.

I made a list of all the dishes I wanted to make and the ingredients for each dish I needed to get at the store.

I made a grocery list and printed a few recipes that I got from blogs.

Everyone helped cook our Thanksgiving meal. It was really fun! And it made my day a lot less stressful to have help. Here are all the things we cooked:

Holiday Salad with Cranberry Orange Vinaigrette
The salad dressing is so good! I have lots leftover so I have been eating it on salads everyday.

Mashed cauliflower
I didn’t follow a recipe. I just steamed a head of cauliflower, put it in the food processor, added a little bit of Earth Balance, almond milk, garlic, salt and pepper. I learned that a clove of garlic is too much for one head of mashed cauliflower! I think all you need is 1/2 or 1/4 of a clove.

Sweet & Sour Brussels Sprouts
Loved this recipe! I cut the brussels sprouts up more than just halving them because I thought my dad might like them better if they didn’t resemble a brussel sprout. I also added pecans.

Baked Maple Mustard Tempeh
I think this is my favorite tempeh recipe I have made! I got the recipe from the Clean Food cookbook. Delicious. I’m making this again in a few days.

Honey Glazed Carrots
Sonny made these and I’m not sure where he got the recipe. They were really good though!

Cranberry, Apricot, Pecan Wild Rice Pilaf
This is the first time I have cooked wild rice and I really liked it. Sonny wasn’t too sure about all the dried fruit in this dish, but he ended up liking it.

Roasted Squash with Fennel and Asparagus
This recipe was also from Clean Food. The asparagus was a great compliment to the squash.

Garlic Bread
Sonny makes really good garlic bread. He mixes Earth Balance, lots of garlic, and basil and then spreads the mixture on the bread.

All the food!

My parents and Sonny.

My plate!

Me and Sonny.

Sonny made this pumpkin pie. I really don’t like pumpkin pie that much. I think it’s the consistency that I don’t like. This pie was good though, for a pumpkin pie.

We had a fun and laid back Thanksgiving. I wish my brother and SIL could have been here, but I’m excited to see them around Christmas.

Our vegetarian Thanksgiving was a success! The food was great, so I don’t think anyone missed having a turkey (at least they didn’t miss it too much). It was really nice we didn’t have to deal with a turkey. It saved us money, and didn’t take up the entire oven for 4 hours.

It’s fun having a blog because you can look back on past holiday’s! This is my post from Thanksgiving last year.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

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EWEB Run to Stay Warm – Recap

November 21, 2011 – 07:30

Yesterday I ran the EWEB Run to Stay Warm 10K. This was my first time participating in this race. There is also a 5K and a half marathon. Proceeds from this race go towards the EWEB Customer Care Program which helps customer’s who are having a hard time paying their electric bills. Great cause!

I would have loved to run the half marathon, and I thought about trying to train for it a couple months ago, but I decided I didn’t have enough time to make it happen. With my injuries this past year, I didn’t want to push it.

Running the 10K was the perfect end to my month of heart rate monitor training. I have been running 5-6 miles for the last couple weeks, so I knew I would be able to run the distance. But I had no idea how fast I would be able to run.

My plan was to see how I felt running the first mile at about an 8 minute per mile pace. If that felt good, then I would try to PR. I actually felt a lot better than I thought I would during the first mile and ended up running it in 7:51.

I don’t have much to report about the race. I tried to hold my pace around 7:45 and I planned to increase my pace for the last 2 miles.

Here are the splits from my watch.

7:51 – mile 1
7:43 – mile 2
7:42 – mile 3
7:37 – mile 4
7:07 – mile 5
7:10 – mile 6
1:39 – .25 miles
Summary - 46:53 – 6.25 miles – 7:30 average pace

Official time: 46:51 – 2nd in my age group!

I look kind of miserable in this photo.

My parents are in town! Can you tell they are from California? I think my dad has like 10 layers on.

It’s so great that they like to come to my races :)

Sonny came to watch too!

My friend Lauren and her manfriend ran the half marathon and were both super speedy!

If you raced this weekend, how was it? This race was great. There were lots of people running, and even though it was really cold, I’m glad I ran! I will definitely do this race again.

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7 things about my vacation

November 20, 2011 – 22:21

1. 9 days of yoga
One of the best things about my vacation was having the time to do yoga everyday. While I’m sure I could find the time to do this when I’m working, it wouldn’t be as easy. And it’s also not realistic for me to take a yoga class everyday because of the cost. But for one week I made it work. And let me tell you, it was so worth it! I found a new yoga studio that I love (Willow Tree), and found that my favorite part of everyday this past week was the yoga class I went to. I can’t believe it, but my yoga practice really improved by taking a class everyday this week. My flexibility improved and I think my strength did too (mostly my core strength). I really wish I could do yoga everyday, all the time. Yoga everyday is not going to happen for me right now, but I’m going to try to go to a class 2 to 3 times every week rather than just once a week.

2. Workouts
It was great to have loads of time everyday to workout. Most days I got in two different workouts, one was yoga of course. And I was able to do a lot of workouts in the morning! I have to be at work at 7am, so I don’t do many morning workouts during the week, except for swimming.

3. Packing
Between workout clothes and food, it is ridiculous the amount of things I pack to bring to work everyday.  I usually pack most of the items at night. I hate the process. Some people hate emptying the dishwasher, I hate packing up all my stuff to workout and eat the next day. I should do a post showing everything I take to work. This will happen sometime soon. It was so nice I didn’t have to go through this process for an entire week!

4. Cooking
This is kind of related to the last item. But more specifically, I loved being able to eat breakfast and lunch at home. It’s a lot easier than trying to pack everything and eat at work. I would love to work from home for this reason. I also had more time to make dinner.

5. Reading
I love to read but I just don’t feel like I ever have time for it. I enjoyed working out in the morning, and then coming home and reading for a few hours. Awesome.

6. Hanging with Max
I hate that Max spends so much time outside by himself during the week. It was nice to hand out with him a little more than usual this week.

7. Stress free
I guess this one is kind of obvious, but it was AMAZING getting a break from work. My job is kind of stressful sometimes. This fall was really busy for me, and the environment in the office is pretty stressful at times, so it was really good for me to get out of there for an entire week. I think I ended up working for about 1.5 hours during the week, which is 1.5 hours more than I had planned on working. But it wasn’t too bad.  I’m not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. But luckily I only have to work 3 days this week!

I’m sure it sounds like I was lazy all week. And I guess in a way I was, but I was pretty productive too. I’m going to try to take a week off every year just to relax and do lots of things I love. As much as I enjoy traveling, it was also great to spend this week at home. Very therapeutic. I would highly recommend doing something like this. Take a few days off just for you. We spend so much time working, and running from one thing to the next that I think slowing down for a few days, or a week is very healthy.

Since I can’t post without including a photo, and I spent lots of time with Max this week, here is a photo of Max and me from a hike a few weeks ago. Can I please go hiking tomorrow rather than go to work???

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