How does this tie in to anything in my life right now?  Well for starters, I really REALLY wish I could drop everything and go backpack around Cambodia again.  I feel like I’m in a little bit of a weird rut right now.  There are 12 teaching days left in this school year, and the kids are getting a little crazy.  I’ve also been slacking bigtime on meal planning lately, which means we’ve ended up a lot of repeats or non blog-worthy meals.

Last night it was this divine soba with eggplant and mango and the night before it was classic comfort food: tomato soup (made from leftover pizza sauce, is that weird?), grilled cheese sandwiches, and salad with homemade ranch dressing.

I’ve been baking here and there, but nothing new.  Just these, twice in a week.

Life kind of feels up in the air at the moment, so it’s nice to have familiar recipes to turn to.  It’s also nice to have cookies. And running.  I don’t know what has gotten into me lately, but I’m NOT complaining!

I’m not entirely sure how I’ve managed to string together these runs that are so much faster than normal.  I just know that when there’s a lot on my mind, I need to run, and I need to run fast. So I do.  I’m being super careful with my mileage, though, because I know the combination of increasing distance and speed at the same time pretty much guarantees injury, and I’d prefer to avoid that.

And finally there’s this little person, who makes every day better no matter how uncertain things seem.  Love her (even when she has black beans on her face).

First things first, my husband is an amazingly easy person to cook for.  Pretty much anything I set down in front of him, he’ll eat.  When he asks what’s for dinner and I tell him it’s lentils or chard or vegan or full of nutritional yeast, he generally replies with something along the lines of “cool, sounds good.”

But sometimes, there’s a comment a little like this.

“Um, Cate? I really appreciate that you cook amazing dinners every night.  But is there any way we could maybe have a dinner that doesn’t include kale?”

I have to admit, I did go a little overboard with kale recently.  So I planned a whole week of things I knew he’d love: sandwiches, spinach lasagna, loaded baked sweet potatoes, and curry.  The man LOVES him some curry.

He also loves chocolate chip cookies, and since Tuesday was national chocolate chip cookie day, I finally got around to trying Alton Brown’s “The Chewy”

I’m not sure if they were the best chocolate chip cookies ever, but they were VERY good.  I love that the recipe is written with ingredients by weight, because I’m fully obsessed with using my food scale.  I am ready to make another batch!

This curry recipe came from JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNER Heidi Swanson, but I decided to leave the potatoes in chunks, and I added a basic cucumber-ginger-lime raita on the side (I also served it all over quinoa).  Kale-free, Mike-pleasing, and delicious, plus it makes enough for plenty of leftovers for lunch!

(adapted from 101 cookbooks)

Anyway, we had a lot of meals out this weekend, so I was pretty excited to put together a week full of good, homemade dinners.

I pretty much consider Beth my food twin. We definitely have very similar taste, and when she posted this sandwich I knew I would make it. I just didn’t realize it would take me this long.

It’s not exactly the season for apples, but the Fujis at my favorite grocery store are still completely delicious (especially with melted cheddar cheese on sourdough).

I added some sauteed shallots (and Mike added a bunch of HP sauce) and it was fantastic. Thanks (as always) for the inspiration, Beth!

Except I don’t really go to potlucks. But if I did, I’d bring this always.  So full of vegetables, and the dressing is INSANE (in a good way).

It has been one heck of a week.  On Monday, I turned 28.  There was Chinese food, great friends and so much cake (funfetti with pink frosting, perfect for a 28 year old).

Alyssa and I decided the cake must be magic, because we both had AMAZING runs on Tuesday. She busted out some crazy fast mile repeats, and I did a 6 mile run with 4 tempo miles all under 7:00 min/mile!

We started a space unit at school, and this week the kids made Alka Seltzer rockets. I love my job.

Today I went for my second run of the week (I guess I’m going for quality, not quantity at the moment) and ended up doing 4.5 miles at 7:30 min/mile. It didn’t even feel that hard! I don’t know where this speed came from– or if it will stick around — but I like it.

I just made a few changes to this salad as it was originally written on Ashley’s beautiful blog. I served it over a bed of mixed sprouts, which was heavenly, and I left the sweetener out of the dressing. There are so many little tweaks you can make to personalize it!

Even though I started Saturday morning with a four hour math test, I grade this weekend A+++.  Perfect weather, good coffee, lots of time with Mike and Ellie, a run and brunch with good friends, and a lot of time in the kitchen; that’s pretty tough to beat.

We went to Hayes Valley on Saturday afternoon and got lattes at Ritual 

The people watching (and the DOG watching!) was fantastic and as always, the lattes were divine.  I’m not sure what Ellie was so focused on, but there was definitely a lot to look at.

Sunday morning started with a trip to the East Bay to meet up with a bunch of my favorite people for a run followed by brunch.

6 leisurely miles with Courtney felt a lot harder than it should have (and my right knee/hip were a little cranky) but it was soooo nice to run in the warm sun for a change.  I’m going to spend a lot of quality time with my foam roller this week, and within the next few weeks, I need to start a training plan for the San Francisco Marathon 2nd Half.  I’m hoping to smash my PR (1:39ish right now), but I haven’t picked a plan yet.  Anyone have suggestions?

I’m making the most of asparagus season, buying a bunch of it every week and roasting it to either eat plain or incorporate into our dinner.  I made this dish with whole-wheat orzo cooked like risotto (by adding a ladle of broth and stirring until it was absorbed), which is a little time-consuming but totally worth it.  A little lemon juice and zest, and a bunch of roasted asparagus make it perfect for Spring.

It’s great alongside my new favorite salad: lettuce, toasted almonds, red bell pepper, and goat cheese with a simple vinaigrette.

(adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)

This is my take on yet another amazing recipe from Plenty.  I roasted the mushrooms instead of marinating them (because even though I don’t consider myself a picky eater at all, I just can’t do raw mushrooms).  I also omitted the fava beans because I really don’t care for them (so maybe I am a little bit of a picky eater?)

I was all set to serve it as you see it above, but then Mike brought out some lettuce and it became abundantly clear that lettuce wraps were the way to go.

A brilliant move on his part.

I went for my first post-marathon run today, and given how shredded my quads felt on Sunday, it was surprisingly enjoyable.  I know this is when I’m most likely to get injured so I’m going to stick to the every other day plan for at least a week or two.  After all, I don’t have any races on the schedule until July, so there’s really no hurry.

Then I came home and Ellie helped me fold laundry.

I seriously had no idea it was possible to love a small human this much.

They were pretty nice to have when we ended up being a little late to our dinner reservation because our previously booked hotel moved us elsewhere, then sent us to the wrong hotel (all the way across town).

They were also quite delightful at 2:45 AM on Sunday morning…pre-race fueling at its finest. But they’re full of oats and bananas, so that definitely means they’re not the worst thing one could eat before running 26.2 miles. They’re light and fluffy and taste just like banana bread!

Speaking of 26.2 miles, I just signed up for my eighth marathon:

The day after Big Sur, my good friend Alyssa reminded me that it’s pretty much a scientific fact that a marathon on that course is about 20 minutes slower on any other course. Meaning I could possibly run 3:29 (which would be a 3 minute PR). December 2, I plan to do just that in Sacremento! I have run CIM once before, in 2007, and dropped my PR from 4:14 to 3:47, so I know it’s a great PR course.

The next few months I’m going to focus on building a really good base, hopefully running some fast shorter races, and staying injury free so I can train harder than I’ve ever trained before for this race. Bring.it.on.

I originally hoped to run this in under 4 hours, but realized that a tough course coupled with a pretty weak training cycle might not make that possible.  In retrospect, this is not the race to have any sort of goal time fore (especially when under-trained), and that might be why I didn’t enjoy it as much as I probably should have.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting to spend a bunch of time with Courtney, who I just don’t see enough!

We spent a couple hours at the expo (which wasn’t even that big, but I spent probably 40 minutes trying to pick a headband for the race) and then met up with some friends for dinner. I was in bed by 9:00 with my alarm set for TWO FORTY FIVE (definitely the earliest I’ve ever had to get up for a race) but I woke up every single hour. I wasn’t nervous about the race, I think I was just really paranoid about sleeping through my alarm.

When the alarm went off, I got up, got dressed, and Courtney and I walked the 0.7 miles to the shuttle buses. We got to the start an hour later, giving us almost two hours to wait around before the start. One definite perk of being on the early bus is that we were able to snag a bench and some hot chocolate, so it was actually kind of enjoyable.

Finally it was go time!

The first five miles were downhill through the redwoods and it was HEAVENLY! There was no wind (which I didn’t appreciate at the time) and my legs felt great. I kept the pace very conservative because I knew I had a LONG tough race ahead of me. (8:53, 8:54, 8:27, 8:31, 8:36)

I was originally planning on sticking with 9 minute miles for the first half, but that obviously didn’t quite happen. Around 6 miles I got my first taste of the wind, and it was not fun. Just before the first gust hit I was contemplating taking off my arm warmers because the sun was out, but that thought was VERY short-lived. The next 3 miles were in and out of the wind and fog. At mile 9, the course goes downhill only to be followed by two solid miles of climbing at Hurricane point. (8:29, 8:27, 8:38, 8:44)

The taiko drummers at the base of the hill were awesome, and definitely gave me a boost. The climbing wasn’t too bad – I run on hills ALL THE TIME in my neighborhood – but the headwind was pretty brutal. I tried to keep my head down and just power through it because I knew Bixby bridge would be my reward. The descent to the bridge was steep and I could tell my quads were not quite ready for the beating they would be taking the rest of the race.

I could hear the piano before I got to the bridge but because of the fog I couldn’t see anything. Once I hit the bridge, though, I immediately choked up. I’d seen the picture of runners on Bixby bridge so many times, and finally experiencing it, with the piano playing the song from Chariots of Fire, was a surprisingly emotional experience. After that, unfortunately, is where things really started to get tough. (7:35, 9:41, 9:16)

I’d been looking forward to the drummers and the bridge and after that, I didn’t feel like I had much to look forward to. The scenery was pretty but the clouds obscured a lot of it, and the headwind started really getting to me. It was just SO frustrating to be constantly running into 20+ mile an hour winds. I had my ipod in my SpiBelt and I was tempted to put music on and zone out, but for some reason I never did (I’ve never raced with music). The miles kept ticking by, and the hills and wind never let up. I was still feeling pretty good until around mile 22, when I completely hit the wall. (8:06, 7:45, 8:24, 8:15, 8:03, 8:24, 8:28, 8:42, 8:34, 9:28)

Mile 22 was my first mile over 9 minutes. That’s where the course climbs up into Carmel Highlands and that’s where my quads started SCREAMING. I tried to ignore the pain as much as possible, but between the wind and the achiness in my legs, I was having a really hard time. I started walking through the water stations and trying to stay focused on just putting one foot in front of the other. I kept running the hills until the last one at mile 25. At that point, by quads felt like they’d gone through a meat grinder and I had to walk for a few minutes. (9:05, 9:01, 9:31, 10:31)

Fortunately the walk break worked a little magic and I knew that with a little less than a mile to go, I’d have no problem meeting my sub-4 goal. Finally the flags came into view and the finish was right around the corner. I picked it up and crossed the line in 3:49:27 (8:46 min/mile). I immediately cried tears of relief that the hardest marathon I’ve ever done was over.

I know a lot of the reason I didn’t love this race is because I was under-trained. I know my attitude toward the wind could have been a lot better (I kept getting SO frustrated, but I should have just accepted it and moved on), and I know that if I’d put in a few more solid weeks of training, my legs wouldn’t have hurt so much after all those steep descents. But in the end, I finished strong, it was by far the most beautiful course I’ve ever run, and the volunteers and course entertainment were fantastic. I can see why so many people love this race, but I’m not sure I ever need to do it again.

Marathon #7, in the books. Now I just need to figure out my next race. And if it really is true that Big Sur is 20 minutes slower than a typical marathon, I think I’m ready to shoot for a 3:29!

Here, I added some red cabbage, sliced carrots, sauteed portobellos, blanched broccoli, avocado and fried tofu and tossed it all with a very simple miso and sesame oil dressing. Delicious!

In other news, we’re giving the state tests this week at school. I could rant for DAYS about my feelings on testing (and public education in general), but this is not the time or place. Instead, I’ll just say that no matter what our scores are, my kids this year have completely blown me away. I have students from Burma and the Philippines who’ve been in this country for just a couple years but can write a lab report with precise details and thoughtful conclusions. I have a student who asks the most awesome and insightful questions every single day. I have fantastic models of organic compounds built by the kids. I have their work all over my walls and I hear their thoughtful discussions every single day, and THAT is what shows how amazing they are , NOT a pick-the-best-answer-and-fill-in-the-bubble test.

I’ve been turning to kitchen therapy a lot this week. Not because work is stressing me out, but because I’m hardly running so I need somewhere to focus my energy. I bought some caperberries at the grocery store last week because I’d never seen them before and was curious.

They taste like a cross between a green olive and a caper (two flavors I love), but they have weird little grainy seeds inside so I think I’ll stick with either olives OR capers from now on. I did use them to make a pasta dish with roasted cauliflower, though, and THAT was pretty good.

Happy Friday!

So I’m running a marathon on Sunday,  my seventh!  I’m incredibly excited, even though I know there’s pretty much a 0.000032% chance that I’ll PR.  It’s okay, though.  I signed up way back in August when I had no idea what life with a baby would be like, and figured that it was a good goal to have for 7.5 months after having a baby.

On my 5ish mile run yesterday, my legs felt SO fresh and ready to run that it took some serious willpower not to just keep going.  I gotta save it all for the race, though.  I only did one 20-miler this training cycle, so there’s a pretty good chance I’ll crash and burn hard somewhere around mile 22 if I go out even a little bit too fast.

I’ve done a lot of runs on the treadmill lately but the weather has been better the past few days, so I’ve been running outside more.  It’s kind of nice to go from zoning out, staring at a TV playing the news at 5 AM to fresh air and great blue herons in the nice afternoon sun. I’ll take a little more of the latter.

We have a big bag of these little egg noodle nests in the cupboard, which I know are not the healthiest choice, but I love them.  They require a decent amount of oil to avoid turning into a giant yellow clump, so I don’t cook with them too often, but when I do, I try to add a lot of vegetables so there’s at least something  a little healthy going on. We’ve had a bunch of broccoli stalks sitting in the produce drawer for a couple weeks, and I’ve been promising Mike I’d use them and wooohoooo I actually did.  Finally.  I also roasted an eggplant, fried some tofu and sliced up a red pepper, so there was a pretty nice variety of flavors and textures.

Ellie and Mike impatiently watched my pre-dinner photo shoot.

Ellie REALLY wanted to try some of this, but she’s still doing mostly purees at this point.  They’re exciting purees, though! Red lentils with tomato and coriander, carrots with dill, and cauliflower with cumin – and she loves them all.  But she still was very intrigued by our food.