The weather this weekend wouldn’t be considered anything special in Southern California, or even in the East Bay. But out by the ocean, it’s almost ALWAYS cold and foggy, so to have temperatures in the upper 70s felt completely amazing.

We started Saturday morning with a run by the beach (6.03 miles at 9:47 min/mile). It felt so nice to be running in the sun. I’m sure you’re dying to see an awkward cell phone picture of Mike and me at the turnaround in the park, and I’m happy to provide that for you:

After the run we hit up our new favorite coffee spot in the Outer Sunset (Trouble Coffee on Judah).

I got an iced chai and Mike got a latte, and they were fabulous as always.

They have a pretty awesome assortment of baked goods, including one seriously phenomenal cookie that’s thick and chewy and full of chocolate chips and CARAMEL CORN!

Yes, I absolutely will be attempting to re-create that very soon.

After a minor freak out about still having a few pounds of baby weight to lose (I realize it’s normal to not have lost it all after 6 weeks… I was just having a moment), Mike and I decided that we’re going to be making a more serious attempt to eat a LOT more fruits and vegetables. This dinner was a perfect first step.

I have no idea why this is called Dragon Sauce, but it’s apparently from a vegan restaurant in Montreal. It’s sweet and a little nutty, and goes perfectly with vegetables. For these bowls I just cooked quinoa in some vegetable broth, then topped it with red cabbage, shredded beets, carrots, cherry tomatoes, chopped fresh spinach, edamame, and avocado. Obviously you can use whatever vegetables you like and have on hand. Simple, colorful, and healthy!

Recipe:

(adapted from Jessica Lettuce Tomato)

1 1/2 cups quinoa
3 cups vegetable broth
pinch salt

1 beet, shredded
1 medium carrot, cut into thin coins
2 cups fresh spinach, chopped
1/2 cup thinly sliced red cabbage
1 cup edamame
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 avocado, thinly sliced
sesame seeds

Dragon Sauce
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup tahini
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp water
2 medium cloves garlic

Bring the vegetable broth and a pinch of salt to a boil in a medium saucepan. Stir in the quinoa and simmer, covered for about 15 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed. Remove lid and fluff with a fork.

To make the sauce, combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

For each bowl, place quinoa in the bottom, top with vegetables, then drizzle with sauce and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

This is one of those “throw whatever’s left in the fridge together and hope it’s edible” meals that I’ve been making pretty much weekly for at least a year. It never seemed like enough of a recipe to put on the blog, but since it’s reasonably healthy and is one of my favorite things, I guess now is a decent time to share it. And also I’m still not to the point where I’m okay with just blatantly talking about my life… I feel like I need to give you a recipe even though what I really want to tell you about is running 25 miles on the Leif Erickson trail.

At a little over 11 miles long, I had to do some sections of the trail a couple times to total 25 miles. Mike and I started out with my dad, who ran the first 6 with us then turned back and came to meet us later.

The weather was cold and cloudy but it never rained on us and we actually got to see the sun a couple times!

I LOVE this trail. And I’m feeling a lot more confident about my 50K (in 3 weeks. Dear lord.) now that I’ve done a 25 mile training run. I know the terrain will be a whole lot harder, but this was definitely a mental boost.

Sunday morning, sadly, we were back on the road to California. The drive was pretty uneventful…just endless cold pizza and energy drinks, and a really pretty stop at a Scenic View Point. I never stop at those, but the valley was just so pretty I had to.

And that is the last snow I hope to see for a really long time.

After the drive all I wanted was vegetables and lots of them. So I chopped up pretty much everything that was in the fridge, made my favorite simple dressing, and devoured it before collapsing into bed (WHY is driving so tiring?!)

This dressing is pretty spicy, but you can scale down the chili garlic sauce. You can also use just about any vegetable you want, but I’m listing my most frequently used mix.

Recipe:

dressing
4 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp chili garlic sauce (look near sambal oelek and sriracha in the Asian section)
2 tbsp warm water

1 heart of romaine, thinly sliced
2 roma tomatoes, diced
2 small carrots, chopped
1/4 red onion, chopped
3 tbsp chopped green onion
3 Persian cucumbers (or 1/2 an English cucumber), seeded and diced

Whisk the dressing ingredients until smooth.
Toss with the vegetables.

Yesterday was just one of those days. I knew there was pretty much nothing in the cupboards, but I was too lazy to stop at the store, leaving me with no choice but to try and throw some stuff together that was edible. Just before starting dinner I baked a loaf of Vegan Pumpkin Bread, so even if my experiment flopped, I wouldn’t starve.

I started with Japanese eggplants, which are just like regular eggplants except the skin is a lot thinner and there aren’t as many seeds. I actually like them a lot better than the regular kind, plus they are perfect for cutting up into little canoes, filling with stuff, and baking.

Once upon a time I was afraid to use oil, or pretty much any added fat. I thought I was a culinary genius at the time (look! no fat on this chicken! It’s so healthy!) when everyone around me must have been completely disgusted (Oh good, Cate baked some more rubbery, flavorless fat-free scones again. Oh joy, more dried out flavorless boneless-skinless chicken breasts). Sorry everyone, I’ve realized the error of my ways. Here’s proof:

Drizzling oil over the top helps keep the filling moist as it bakes and makes those beautiful little crusty parts on top that are so irresistable. Plus isn’t olive oil good for your heart or something?

I made a really simple mint and cabbage salad to go on the side: just slice some cabbage really thinly, toss with some chopped fresh mint, sprinkle with salt, and dress with olive oil and lemon juice. It’s best when it stands for about 15 minutes before you eat it.

And in other news, our reflective running stuff and headlamps have taken up permanent residence on the hook next to the front door. I guess it’s time to fully acknowledge that every single weekday run will now be in the dark. I was trying to figure out why this was such a hard concept for me to get used to and then it hit me: I have never had a full-time job before. This growing up and becoming a real adult stuff is kind of a pain sometimes.

Oh and because we were on the topic of leftovers recently, I wanted to show you two awesome things you can do with leftover millet (because this recipe calls for a cup and a half cooked millet, but it’s nice to cook up a bunch in the rice cooker and stretch it out over a few days):

1. Fried rice-style millet

Just make fried rice the way you normally would, but with millet instead.

2. Pizza millet

Heat up some cooked millet with some pizza sauce, then top with grated mozzarella.

It was while eating item #2 this afternoon that I realized I have a bit of a fork problem:

For the record, using a fork to juice lemons might seem like a good idea at the time, but the fork is the one that suffers.

Recipe:

4 tbsp olive oil, divided
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 Japanese eggplants
1 1/2 cups cooked millet
1 8-oz package tempeh, cut into 1 x 1 x 1 cm cubes
about 3 tbsp lemon juice
5 Tbsp tahini
a few pinches sea salt
chopped parsley for garnish

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Cut the stem and leaf part off the end of the eggplant and cut each one in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds so you end up with a canoe shape. Arrange in a baking dish (I used a 9″ cake pan)

Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a wide skillet and add the garlic. Cook for about 2 minutes, or until the garlic just begins to turn golden (don’t let it brown!) then add the tempeh and saute until golden brown.

Toss the millet, tempeh, lemon juice, tahini, and salt together in a large bowl. Taste and adjust seasonings, then pile into and on top of the eggplant halves. Drizzle evenly with 2 tbsp olive oil then bake for about 30 minutes, or until the eggplants are tender and the filling is golden.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle with a little chopped parsley to serve.

It’s a good thing this was a simple dinner because I had a really busy afternoon. I had a bunch of kids stay in my classroom working on a lab…then I had to go buy Halloween candy at Target…then I came come home and instead of going on a run like I planned, I ate a big bowl of cereal and felt sorry for myself for pretty much no reason in particular. (And I know, the run would have boosted my mood a LOT more than slumping on the couch did…) So lame, but sometimes there are days that just kind of deteriorate like that. When that happens, I’m really glad I have an aresnal of quick dinners that don’t require much effort.

This only takes slightly longer than it takes pasta to boil. I love fusili in particular because it has all those little spots to absorb sauce. And the sauce is awesome because it just takes a few pulses in a mini food processor and has the perfect combination of nutty and bright flavors. It’s a nice change from a typical cream sauce (and it’s vegan!)

Recipe:

8 ounces dried fusili pasta
4 tbsp tahini
4 tbsp lemon juice
4 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
a few pinches salt and pepper
one large bunch spinach, stems removed and roughly chopped

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta according to package directions.

While the pasta is boiling, pulse the tahini, lemon juice, and garlic in a mini food processor until smooth.

After the pasta has cooked, turn the heat to low and put the drained pasta back into the pan. Stir in the spinach, mixing until it wilts. Stir in the tahini sauce and a few pinches of salt and pepper and mix well.

This comes from a recipe that isn’t new. In fact, I’ve seen it on so many food blogs I lost count long ago. I’ve made it a handful of times as well, but it always seemed there was something missing. Then today, on my run it occurred to me: crunch and green. Yes, the original recipe calls for cilantro, but I needed more. And the original recipe has red onion, which provides a little crunch, but not enough. So here, just for you, is a new (and I think, improved, although if you disagree I won’t take offense) version of the ever-popular Warm Butternut and Chickpea salad with tahini.

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but chickpeas are so insanely easy to cook up in the slow cooker (I just cover them with a few inches of water, a teaspoon of salt, and cook on high for 3-4 hours), I never buy cans anymore. I timed it so they were ready just as I was making the salad, so the heat from the squash (fresh out of the oven) and the chickpeas (fresh out of the crockpot) helped the spinach wilt nicely. I know that wilted spinach doesn’t sound appealing under most circumstances, but here I think it’s ideal.

Recipe:
(adapted from Orangette)

Salad:
1 2-lb butternut squash
1 medium garlic clove, smashed and broken into a few pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp. olive oil
Salt
2 cups cooked chickpeas (drained) or 1 15 ounce can, drained and rinsed
1/4 of a medium red onion, thinly sliced
3 handfuls roughly chopped spinach
3 tbsp pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds), toasted in a skillet

Dressing:
3 tbsp tahini
3 tbsp warm water
3 tbsp lemon juice
pinch salt
1 clove garlic, finely minced
2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425.

Peel the squash and scoop out the seeds. Cut into bite-sized (1″) pieces. Toss with olive oil, garlic, nutmeg, allspice, and salt.
Spread onto a parchment or Silpat-lined baking sheet and bake 15-20 minutes, or until squash is tender.
While squash is roasting, whisk all the dressing ingredients together, taste, and adjust seasonings if necessary.
When the squash is done, discard the garlic pieces, and put the squash, chickpeas, spinach, and onion in a large bowl.
Add the dressing and toss well, then serve sprinkled with pepitas.

I make hummus all the time. I just love having it in the fridge as an easy snack, and it’s rare that I don’t have all the ingredients on hand. Baba ghannouj, on the other had, is a little more “special occasion” to me. The ingredients are pretty similar, with smoky eggplant rather than garbanzo beans, but the process is slightly more complicated.

There’s the charring of the eggplant that has to come first, and that takes a little more effort than just opening a can of garbanzos.

Some people recommend roasting the eggplant in a hot oven, others suggest putting it under the broiler. I will stick with the burner on my gas oven, even if it makes a little bit of a mess. The most crucial thing is to make sure the skin gets very charred, and the whole eggplant is very soft. Once that’s accomplished, the rest is easy! Like hummus, you’ll want to play around with the amounts listed. Some people like a lot of lemon, others prefer more garlic. When I have fresh mint around, I love to chop up a few leaves and mix them in to add another layer of flavor.

Recipe:
1 large eggplant
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp olive oil
fresh mint (optional)

Place the eggplant over a gas burner and turn every few minutes until all the skin is black and charred and the entire eggplant is very soft. Place in a bowl and cover with a clean towel. When the eggplant is cool enough to handle, scrape off and discard the skin (I like to use a paring knife to scrape it off). Put the eggplant into the food processor (if there are a lot of large seeds, throw them out, but most of the time I don’t bother).

Peel the garlic and mash it up with the salt in a small mortar and pestle. Once you have a smooth paste, add it to the food processor with the remaining ingredients. Pulse until smooth, then taste and adjust seasonings.

Serve garnished with fresh mint

A simple bowl of hummus with some assorted crudites for dipping may not be the flashiest appetizer around, but it is so simple and satisfying.  Underneath the lemon zest and cilantro garnish, this hummus has just the right balance of flavors and a nice smooth texture.  Play around with the amounts of garlic, lemon, cumin, and coriander until you find a ratio that suits your tastes.