Not much talk of exercise on this blog lately, which is funny because I'm doing all sorts of things with cross-training and strength while getting in a steady 25-30 miles a week. I ran a frigid 10-miler with my friend Ariana on Sunday. Gusts of 30MPH blew against us for probably 3/4 of the way.

I'll have a running post for you tomorrow -- promise.

Today, we'll eat cake.


Technically I'm calling this recipe a chocolate loaf because I baked it in -- you guessed it -- a loaf pan. It's really just a nice, dense chocolate cake that you can slice and top with peanut butter or whatever else you like to spread on sweet breads.

CHOCOLATE LOAF
vegan recipe, don't skip the coconut milk

What you'll need . . .

• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1 cup unbleached white flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup organic sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 can full fat coconut milk
• 6 tablespoons Earth Balance
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method . . . 

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan, 9" x 5", with Earth Balance and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients -- flours, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. On the stove, heat a small pot over medium-low heat and melt the Earth Balance and coconut milk together. Let cool until warm, not hot.
4. Pour the wet mixture -- including the vanilla extract -- into the dry and mix until incorporated fully.
5. Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 45 to 55 minutes. Until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out mostly clean.
6. Let cool a while before removing from loaf pan and placing onto a drying rack.
7. Let cool entirely before slicing. Or not. It will just fall apart more if you don't wait.

I bet Elvis would have enjoyed this "bread" with some honey-glazed bacon on top.

I enjoyed mine straight out of the oven (no, I didn't wait for it to cool -- but do as I say, not as I do!) with peanut butter and sliced banana. I'm going to toast some later and spread some coconut butter on it. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Prediction: Incredible.

You can read about why we switched Ada from hemp milk to organic whole milk on Writing Chapter Three. Even if you don't have kids, you might be surprised at the not-so-friendly ingredient that's hiding in your favorite organic products.

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Red Curry

One of our favorite at-home meals is red curry tofu. Tastes close to what you get out at Thai restaurants and is relatively easy to make. We were especially excited to make curry this weekend because we made our own coconut milk. And I highly recommend making your own because it's just so much fun!

I ran into an issue during my METHOD days where someone insisted that absolutely no red curry is vegan. Ever. Under any circumstance. What happened? I had posted a photo of some thai butternut squash soup on Flickr and another member kept commenting on how it has fish in it and bashing me for my apparent ignorance. Aren't people nice?

Needless to say, I was a little upset. I know for a FACT that the Thai Kitchen red curry paste I use is vegan. See? It says so on the label . . .


So, rest assured that this recipe is indeed vegan. And this isn't the only vegan red curry paste around. What we can learn from my Flickr mishap is that you should carefully read the label, though. There definitely are curry pastes which contain fish sauce, etc.

COCONUT RED CURRY WITH TOFU AND VEGGIES

What you'll need . . .

• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1/2 large white onion, chopped
• 1 large head of broccoli, chopped
• 1 block tofu, drained and cubed
• 14 ounces coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon (or more, depending) red curry paste
• Olive oil
• Fresh basil

Method . . .

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the red curry paste and coconut milk until well combined. Set aside.
2. In a medium pan, heat a good amount (a few tablespoons) of olive oil until hot (when you flick a small amount of water onto the oil, it should sizzle). Add your drained (very important to get as much moisture out as possible) and cubed tofu, and cook until well browned on all sides.
3. In another, larger pan over medium-high heat, add your oil and onions. Cook until glassy.
4. Then add in the broccoli and red pepper. Cook until softened, but still a bit crunchy.
5. Add the coconut curry mix to your veggie pan. Cook for a few minutes, until bubbly.
6. Add the tofu to the veggie/curry pan . . . then cook covered over low heat for another 15 to 30 minutes.
7. Serve (should make two large servings) and add basil as desired.

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Eat Your Colors

I've always read that my dinner should be as colorful as the rainbow. Color means nutrients. Good choices. Health. So, imagine my surprise when -- unplanned -- dinner ended up in all shades of white/brown tonight.


Thing is, white doesn't need to be so bad. Especially when you consider the variety of stuff on this plate.

Brown rice is a great grain to accompany any meal.


Our favorite Baked Tofu -- cooked in the oven extra long tonight -- for an entire hour. Don't forget to flip a few times.


And something new! Roasted napa cabbage with onions. Absolutely delicious.

ROASTED NAPA WITH ONIONS

What you'll need . . . 

• 1 head (is it called a head?) of napa cabbage 
• 1 medium cooking onion 
• 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil (or other favorite oil, we used this stir-fry variety) 
• 1 teaspoon chili oil 
• 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes 
• Salt and pepper to taste 

Method . . . 

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Find a rimmed baking sheet. 
2. Chop the napa into chunks and the onions, too. There's no right way. Then place atop the cooking sheet. 
3. Mix together the oils, pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Pour mixture over the napa and onions. 
4. Then toss around to coat well. Bake in oven for 15 minutes. Then stir. Bake for another 15 minutes. Stir again. 
5. And continue a bit longer until cabbage is browned to your liking. Serve warm and enjoy!

Ada's been eating solids for, well, a solid week now. Surprisingly, her plate was more colorful than ours was tonight. Check out what she's eating over on Writing Chapter Three.

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Good Question: Miles or Minutes

Kimberly asks: "I am a relatively new runner and looking at training plans for my first 10K. I notice that some plans go by minutes while others go by miles. What's the difference between training with miles and minutes?"


I've always been slightly confused about why some training plans have you running a specific distance versus a specific time. To add to the confusion, the training plan I'm following at the moment has BOTH miles AND minutes prescribed. Easy runs, mostly in the 3 to 5 mile range, are written out by distance. While tempo and long run workouts are written out in time.

Why?!?!

Well, I'll be honest. I don't really know. I'm not a coach. I'm not even what I'd consider a competitive or fantastic runner. I can't exactly speak to why some plans go with minutes while other go with miles. I can, however, share the benefits I see through my experience with each type of training because I have prepared for races using both methods. So, I hope this answer is at least somewhat informative to you all.

I've been participating in road races for over 10 years now. And I found it helpful to train by time, particularly when I was a beginner. Especially for increasing long runs when my longest run ever was like 3 miles. I'm sure there are more technical reasons than this one, but even just mentally, increasing my time by 10 minutes sounded a lot easier than increasing my distance by a mile, for example. I used this method when I was preparing for my first 10K -- completing a few 60 minute runs before race day -- and I imagine that my pace was faster than 10-minute miles.

In other words, I was running 60 minutes, but likely going farther than a 10K. So, the approach prepared me well.

On the flip side, years and years later, I often don't run with a watch. As a result, I've been training by miles more and more. Mapping out routes and sticking to them is easy because it's simple to remember my two favorite 4-milers and 5-milers and my three best 8-milers. When I trained for my most recent half marathon, I depended on distance. I didn't want to dwell on my pace because coming back from pregnancy has been hard on my times. Instead, I felt the most accomplished by number of miles run and chose to ignore the speed at which those miles were completed.

But then there are those times I'm between plans and just running to run. So, I do neither.

Overall, I think I toggle between the two depending on my mood. A sort of "whatever works" scenario. If I'm feeling motivated by running 13 miles, I'll map out a route. During marathon training, if I had a 20 mile run ahead of me, I'd break it down by hours and live half-hour at a time until I reached around 3 hours total. Even with training for shorter distance races, I find I can win the mental game by training miles OR minutes day by day.


I try my best not to get hung up on either of the two and, instead, to train my best for how I'm feeling. I may not break the sound barrier, but with keeping a positive attitude -- thereby actually completing runs versus dreading them -- I've consistently improved my race times. Again, I'm not incredibly competitive, though, so you may find the following resources a bit more helpful.

Nike: Training Tip: Minutes versus Miles
Runners World: Minutes vs. Miles
COMPRESSPORT: Run Training: Measure by Miles or by Minutes?

How do YOU train? Miles or minutes? Or BOTH? I'd love for you guys/gals to weigh in.


Pssst: Check out a great sugar-free peanut butter cookie dough recipe today on Writing Chapter Three!

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TEST POST

I'm having one of those technology challenged days. Like, I drafted this awesome post about why garlic is good for you . . . in a Word document. And somehow I didn't save it. Yeah. Like a boss. So, that will be coming tomorrow.

But I wanted to say hi tonight. Hi! Here are some things that are coming up next week. In photos.


More important: What are you doing for the holiday? We have a lot of catching up to do. Gardening, cleaning, cleaning some more, and resting. It's been a tough sleep week.

Now, speaking of sleep, you can read about Ada's current sleep situation over on Writing Chapter Three. It's always changing. That's for sure!

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of these posts or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be the first to know what the (never home)makers are up to. And we’ll love you forever!