what I eat while running

If you read Where in the World Am I? then you know that I'm running again, with goals and everything. I'm running a 10K in May and the Hyderabad Half Marathon in August. I have a training plan for the running, but despite all the nutritional articles I love to read I still feel like I'm not quite there with an eating plan. I know I eat too much sugar and salt. I know I need to eat more proteins and vegetables. I'm working on it.

Muffin doesn't eat any vegetables right now so it's been easy to slack off on preparing them. To inspire her and to force me, I am offering her one veggie per day, whether it's pepper slices on a pizza, chunky tomato sauce, carrot sticks, or steamed broccoli. She can say "No," and I won't force her but I'm making myself eat them. She watches me carefully and she tries a bite or two but she rarely asks for more. I know it's just a toddler phase but I can't use that excuse. Much like I read in Hungry Monkey, Muffin loves picking out the vegetables at the store and she loves to help prepare them, but she doesn't want to eat them.

I'm taking advantage of having a housekeeper to help prepare food. Surprisingly it's a lot of work to come up with meal plans and shopping lists and decide which foods I want my housekeeper to make and which I'll do myself. She washes the fruits and vegetables and I have her cut up the fruit so it's easier for me to make smoothies. She prepares meat rubs and marinades, then I pop the meat in the oven or onto the grill for cooking at dinner time.

In order to eat properly before and after running and to make sure Muffin is having wholesome meals as well, I've starting planning out my eating and running schedules a few days in advance. I don't stick to it strictly but it's a nice reminder of what leftovers are in the fridge and which meals needs to be prepared. It reminds me when I need to eat in order to be ready for a run and I plan certain snacks and meals to eat while Muffin is sleeping because I don't want to share every single bite that I eat. It sounds like a lot of work and it might even sound silly but if I don't do this I sit around eating chocolate all day behind Muffin's back and then I'm crabby and don't have the energy to make a healthy dinner so we end up eating macaroni and cheese.

I follow Anja's Food 4 Thought, the blog of a woman training for marathons in Saudi Arabia, for healthy, gluten-free, runner-friendly recipes and for inspiration for running in hot weather. All the recipes look yummy but I keep making the same chocolate-carrot muffins (another veggie for Muffin!) and apricot-pecan cake over and over again. They are great post-running treats with a glass of milk.

Speaking of hot weather, coconut water is my new best friend. I've heard it's a trendy, expensive sports drink in the United States. Here, I can walk about a quarter of a mile to a guy who sells coconuts on the side of the road, chops it open with a machete for you, and gives you a straw -- for about twenty-five cents per coconut. Despite that, I prefer the convenience of a little plastic bottle -- for about fifty cents -- that I can put in my gym bag to drink as soon as I hop off the treadmill.

Knowing the right things to eat and actually eating them are two different issues. I'm integrating small changes into my daily routine. One step at a time, just like running.
 

*I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you click on the Hungry Monkey link and ultimately decide to buy it, I will receive a few cents. I was not paid for this post; the book was purchased by me for personal reading.

At the Steak House

Yes, you heard me correctly. Steak in Hyderabad. Tender, juicy, perfectly seasoned grilled tenderloin. Decent, and even passable, steak is difficult to find here. Hindus and Muslims don't eat a lot of beef and the cows aren't raised for eating purposes. The few times we've bought beef to roast or grill ourselves it's been tough and no amount of pounding or marinating has made it tender enough to be enjoyable. And for some reason I always think of buying a steak for Friday night dinner, but you can't buy beef on Fridays (all the Muslim butcher shops are closed).

Since we arrived our driver has been pointing out Chef Inam's Steak House to me every time we pass it and one night Mike and our neighbor stopped there on the way home from work to pick up some take-away. Mike met Chef Inam, tried the steak, and has been insisting we get back there right away. Inam lived in the United States and took culinary classes at Johnson and Whales (Yay Rhode Island!) and has brought his American steak-grilling skills back to India. On Friday night I packed up Muffin, we went to pick up Mike at work, and we went at Chef Inam's for a steak.

This is not a steak house like you'll find in the United States and I can see why so many expats get their steak for take-away. It's a little hole-in-the-wall with a couple tables and plastic chairs. Inam grills on the street in front of the facade. There's a cooler full of sodas and water. It's a dive. But we pulled out our hand sanitizer and ate there anyway.

It was worth it. Mike got a French-style peppercorn-encrusted steak and I had what Inam calls his Boston steak, covered with herbs and English mustard. They were perfectly cooked (rare for Mike, medium rare for me), tender, and deliciously seasoned.

We took Muffin outside to watch the grilling. She was fascinated. We even gave her a few bits of meat to chew on. She loved it until she got a peppercorn. She was getting tired by then, so instead of her spitting-out yucky face, she screamed. Luckily the place was getting full of men talking and laughing loudly so no one else could hear her. We paid the bill and made a quick getaway.

Speaking of the bill, the steaks were about five or six dollars each and the serving was big enough to fill Mike and for me to eat half and bring the rest home.

Don't let Muffin's reaction deter you from Chef Inam's Steak House. She's just a baby. And we're the stupid parents who gave her spicy peppercorns, then stopped to take a picture of it.

Cross-posted from Where in the World Am I?

mary's pizza shack, walnut creek, ca

Mary's Pizza Shack in Walnut Creek, California, out in the East Bay, was the first stop on the pizza safari that was part of our Cali vacation. We lived in Walnut Creek for about 18 months and I don't think this restaurant was here when we lived there. If it was, it didn't turn up on my gluten-free radar and it's not the sort of restaurant we'd usually go to. The only reason we went now was so I could try the gluten-free pizza.

If you've been out running errands and you're crashing and need a place for a casual gluten-free lunch, Mary's will do. But there's definitely better pizza out there. I ordered the cheese and pepperoni. The crust was thin and a little soggy in the center, but crisp at edges. The taste wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. The crusts are made off-site, supplied by local gluten-free bakeries. The pizza was also on the expensive side. The gluten-free pizza only comes in a 12-inch size and it costs about $17, before you start adding toppings. However, I did take leftovers home and was able to get two more lunches out of my pizza.

Even though the address for Mary's is on a main road, Oak Grove Road, you can't see it from the street. It's in the same shopping center as the Nob Hill grocery store. There are several other locations through NorCal. It has the feel of a family-style chain restaurant, which isn't really my taste, but I know it works for a lot of people. If I had no other options, I'd consider one of their pizzas for takeout, since reheating it in the oven at home would help to crisp up the soggy crust.

*I was not compensated for this post in any way. Items were purchased by me for personal consumption.

lunch in a box forums

I've been a long-time reader of the Lunch in a Box blog. It's more than just bento blogging. It's practical food packing advice for kid and grown-up lunches. Time-saving tips. Food recommendations--what works best as leftovers and how to care for them for optimum freshness.

Now Biggie and fans have a place to chat: the Lunch in a Box forums. I've had so much fun the last few weeks "meeting" food bloggers and the lunch-packing obsessed. Check it out if you're looking for fun new ways to pack lunch for your kid or yourself, or if you're just a foodie like me.

stuffed grape leaves (dolma)

Stuffed grape leaves are one of those foods I never got around to trying until recently when Mike and I were starving for a quick dinner, came across a Mediterranean cafe, and it was the only menu item that appeared to be gluten-free. I was hooked. And according to Mike, who eats them all the time, the ones at that restaurant weren't even very good.

Where do I go to figure out these ingredients and make stuffed grape leaves on my own? What's in the stuffing? Where do I get grape leaves? First stop, Moosewood. Mollie Katzen has a recipe for a rice pilaf that she uses for stuffing grape leaves, artichokes, and eggplant. (It's also great on its own.) You can buy grape leaves in a jar (I found them at both Whole Foods and Safeway).

Mollie Katzen's Greek Pilaf
1 1/2 cups raw brown rice (long- or short-grained)
2 1/4 cups water
1 to 2 Tbs olive oil
1 1/2 cups mince onion
1 small stalk celery, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup lightly toasted sunflower seeds or pine nuts
black pepper, to taste
4 to 5 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs lemon juice
1/4 cup freshly minced parsley
1 Tbs dried mint (or 3 Tbs fresh, minced)

1. Place rice and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer until tender (about 40 minutes).

2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a small skillet. Add onion, celery, and salt, and saute until the vegetables are tender (5 to 8 minutes). Add sunflower seeds or pine nuts, black pepper, and garlic. Saute for 5 minutes.

3. Stir the sauteed mixture into the cooked rice along with lemon juice and herbs. Mix well.

This rice pilaf is so totally delicious on its own, it's hard not to eat it before you've rolled it all up into the grape leaves. We aren't huge onion fans, so I use about half of what the recipe calls for. Also, Mike has an irrational hatred of celery so I leave it out entirely. I've used pine nuts and haven't tried sunflower seeds yet. I always add salt and pepper to taste at the end when I mix in the herbs rather than saute it with the onion mixture.

I've had trouble with rolling the leaves, but Mike figured it out quickly, so I like to put him to work doing this. Lay out a leaf on your work surface. The leaves should be between 3 and 4 inches wide. Place a spoonful of rice pilaf near the stem end. Fold in the side and roll toward the tip. You can heat these up in the oven for about 20 minutes to warm through (the way I like them) or eat them cold and slimy (the way Mike likes them). I mix a little plain yogurt* with lemon juice for dipping. You can also make a quick tahini-lemon dip that's also tasty with them.

These are also great to make ahead and keep in the fridge for a few days. For storage I drizzled a little olive oil over them to keep them moist.

*For vegan or dairy-free, omit the yogurt sauce.

pierogi part 2

The pierogi were a success! (See also pierogi part 1.)

We used the Homade Pasta recipe in Bette Hagman's The Gluten-Free Gourmet Revised Edition. This is the basic recipe. For making pierogi or raviolli, triple it. We found that we got about 3 dozen pierogi.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup Tapioca Flour
1/3 cup Cornstarch
2 Tb Potato Starch
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
1 Tb Xanthan Gum
2 large Eggs
1 Tb Vegetable Oil

Combine flours, salt, and xanthan gum. Beat eggs lightly and add oil. Pour egg mixture into flour mixture and stir. This will feel much like pastry dough. Work together into a firm ball. Knead a minute or two.

The recipe in the book and online give further instructions depending on the different kinds of pastas you could make. For the purpose of making pierogi, you'll want to work with small handfuls of dough. Roll it out, with just the minimum amount of flour necessary to keep it from sticking. Too much flour will toughen the dough and keep it from being as sticky as it needs to be. Roll it out to about 1/8 of an inch. Use a biscuit cutter or glass or jar lip to cut circles about 4 inches in diameter. Keep rolling dough until you've made as many circles as it will yield.

Use your fingertips to wet the edges of each circle. Let the water sit for few minutes, making a nice, sticky edge. (By the time you get to the last circle, the first one should be just sticky enough. Spoon some filling into the center of each circle. Fold the circle in half, pinching and crimping the edges until they are sealed tight.

Any that you are cooking right away, set aside. Any that you will be freezing, place on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer until they are dry. Once they're no longer sticky you can put them in freezer bags.

To cook, place pierogi in a large pot of salted boiling water for 10 to 15 minutes (and hope you sealed them tightly enough!). Remove with a slotted spoon. Serve with hot melted butter.

Our three different fillings were delicious. The potato and cheese tasted just like I remember them from the pre-gf days. The squash ones were a little like pumpkin empanadas. And the rice and sausage were like... something yummy stuffed with rice and sausage.

pierogi part 1

My mom and I are going to make gluten-free pierogi! (We hope Babci doesn't mind us using an untraditional recipe. I'm sure she'd want me to be eating pierogi in any form that I can.)

We went back and forth through cookbooks, wondering if we should use a gf ravioli recipe for the dough or if we should use a more traditional pierogi recipe and substitute a gf flour mix. My mom couldn't remember the exact recipe her grandmother used off the top of her head, except to know that the recipes we were finding did not use any potato in the dough and she knows Babci used potato. We decided to use one of the pasta recipes in Bette Hagman's Gluten-Free Gourmet Revised Edition. It at least uses potato starch. (And if our pierogi are a tad lighter and healthier than the old-fashioned kind, then I guess we can just eat more of them!)

This morning we worked on fillings. We will make some with a traditional potato-cheese filling. I boiled and mashed a pound of potatoes and mixed in some farmers' cheese to taste. I also added a small bit of sauteed onions and a dash of pepper. (The cheese was salty enough; I didn't want to add more.)

We will also make some with untraditional fillings. While looking for pierogi recipes in The Joy of Cooking I found a winter squash ravioli stuffing. Yum! I had two small delicata squashes, so I baked them and mashed them. I added a small amount of the farmers' cheese and dashes of salt, pepper, and nutmeg. You don't want your pierogi filling to be too moist and mushy so I may need to add some flour or starch to thicken up the otherwise watery squash.

And off the cuff we're thinking of dicing some Aidell's mango sausage and mixing it up with some rice and melty sharp cheddar cheese.

Pierogi can easily take a whole weekend to make, especially if you're making the tradional seemingly thousands of them (enough to freeze and reheat 3 meals a day all winter long, plus have a huge feast of them at Christmas time). We made the potato and squash fillings this morning and will prepare the sausage and rice filling just before we start on the dough (the sausage is pre-cooked). Rolling out the dough and making all those little circles takes forever, and then it takes forever again to fill them and seal them. (That's why you have an army of children work on them, assembly-line style.)

This evening my kitchen will be a pierogi factory, with just my mom and I as the workers. I remember this being quite exhausting as a child. If you don't see Part 2 appear in a few days, send for help.

(P.S. By "traditional" I mean what my babci would have done, or my memory of what she did. Your babci may have completely different recipes and techniques.)

squash, rice, veggies & tofu: convenient and in one pan

I read on the back of my Imagine Creamy Butternut Squash Soup carton that it should be poured over rice for a delicious side dish. I started thinking that if it can be poured over rice, then it can be poured over rice + other stuff to make a curry-like concoction.

First I quartered and cooked 2 purple potatoes in a small saucepan until soft. (I was cooking just for me tonight, so a small saucepan was plenty.) When cooked I let them sit in a strainer for a few minutes in the sink. In the same small saucepan I mixed in some soup, leftover rice, and cubed tofu. I added some garum masala, salt, fresh ground black pepper, a pinch of crushed red pepper and a dash of cumin. (All the spices were "to taste" and I added more of some things as the cooking went on.) I kept this on medium on the stovetop for a little bit. Then I put the potatoes back in and added some red pepper slices and string beans (both from farmers' market this morning). When it started simmering I turned the burner down to low. I just let it sit and kept tasting until everything seemed hot enough. I wanted the peppers and beans to be warm but crisp.


I don't know a lot about Indian spices and cooking. It didn't taste complete and I'm not sure what else I should have done. It was pretty tasty but something definitely seemed to be missing.

I'm not a huge soup fan, but I started eating some of the Imagine soups last winter when Mike was away from home and I was lonely and just wanted easy, fast, warm food. The gluten-free ones say so right on the back of the carton. You have to watch out for cartons and cans of soup. Often wheat flour is used as a thickener. What's so stupid is at my Safeway they don't have the Imagine soups on the same shelf as all the other soups. You have to go down the health food/gourmet aisle. Why must they segregate the foods like that?

(Sorry for the poor photography. I am without the good camera for a bit.)

steak salad

1. Make a green salad with your favorite veggies.
2. Top with slices of cold steak leftover from the restaurant the night before.

Isn't that easy?

People who've known me forever might be saying, "Stephanie and steak?" I don't really like red meat and I average about one serving a year. But the menu changed at our favorite steakhouse and their totally delicious chicken dish isn't on it anymore. I'm not a huge fan of fish either. So I found the least steak-tasting steak dish I could find, and it was pretty good. Skewers with onions and red peppers. And it was actually even better on my salad the next night. Maybe I can increase to 3 or 4 servings of red meat a year.

Has anyone else found that the gluten-free diet leaves you craving foods you didn't usually like or eat before? I remember a few weeks into the diet realizing that I wanted to eat a lot more meat than usual. My body definitely felt a void. In the last few years I've expanded to Thai food, Indian food, and some sushi. I eat tofu and broccoli, more because they're good for me than because I like them, but that's part of what it means to be a healthy adult. I'm still a picky eater (still hate eggs!) but I've come a long way from the kid who'd only eat mac 'n' cheese.

cleaning-out-the-fridge stirfry

Today is grocery shopping day (although I'm putting it off until tomorrow) so last night was eat from the fridge night. Sometimes these forced creativity exercises are more successful than others. Last night's was a success!

Stirfry is theoritcally the sort of dish you can throw almost anything into, but we have some favorites that we always use. We didn't have all those favorites on hand last night though so I had to improvise.

I diced some super-frim tofu and sliced some red pepper. I stirfried the tofu with garlic in peanut oil. I added the red pepper slices toward the end just to warm them up. Meanwhile Mike heated up Monday night's leftover rice in the microwave. We took 2 big bowls and filled them with the rice, tofu, and red peppers, and mixed in the last of the Chinese peanut sauce. Voila! A quick, filling, delicious dinner of leftovers.

felafel

In an amazing burst of energy yesterday I decided to take my first crack at making felafel. It's so easy, I don't know why I didn't try it sooner! I could make the batter whilst feeling energetic, then fry the patties later for a quick hot meal. We were both feeling pretty exhausted by dinner time and took turns frying, but the spicy little patties did wonders for our congestion!

I used the recipe in Moosewood, halving it and using one 15-oz. can of chickpeas and Bob's Red Mill GF Baking Flour for the small amount of flour called for. I probably could have used any of the flours I have on hand, like potato flour, or my gf bread crumbs also.

So, chickpeas, fresh garlic, cumin, tumeric, salt, onion or scallions, parsley, water, lemon juice, cayenne. For the quick version, throw it all in a food processor. For the longer version, mince and mash everything by hand. (I opted for the quick version.) Then mix in the flour. At this point you can put it in an air-tight container and store it in the fridge for a few days. When you're ready to cook, heat up some oil in a deep skillet and drop spoonfuls of the batter, flattening them out a little when they hit the oil. Cook for a few minutes on each side, until crispy on the outside and hot on the inside.

Taste-wise, these turned out fantastically. I need to work on my batter consistency and frying time though. They were a little too crispy on the outside and a tad gooey on the inside. I think I should have used more flour and slightly less-hot oil.

We had these in combination with the leftover tabouli from the night before and a bit of plain yogurt* and a hummus I'd bought at Safeway that turned out to be not as good as the fresh stuff we buy at farmers' market. (I was desperate and I took a chance. We bought the good stuff at farmers' market this morning and as much as we're trying to be economical with our grocery budget these days, sometimes you have to know when to just toss something out and move on.) Mike also had pita with his. (I didn't have the energy to try making my own pitas yesterday, although the hot air on the balcony would have been great for dough-rising.)

Oh, and the yogurt turned out to be vanilla! I wondered why my meal was oddly sweet. I thought it was my cold, or the weird-tasting hummus. Why do they use the same color container for vanilla and plain?

We have a small amount of batter left that I'm thinking will be a nice hot lunch for me one day soon. Maybe after I've bought some plain yogurt.

*For vegan, omit the yogurt on the side.