I’ve stressed a lot recently that presentation impacts taste by leaps and bounds. That’s why fancy restaurants serve small portions of perfectly curated food with tasteful drizzles of sauce, why cafés dress up smoothie bowls with fun patterns and bright colors, and why I and so many others like to eat out of upcycled coconut bowls. People even make careers out of just taking pictures of food! So far this summer, I’ve spent all my time in the Appalachians of North Carolina and Kentucky. Don’t get me wrong, I love the mountains for all the backpacking opportunities and beautiful vistas, but I miss the beach. I miss listening to Jimmy Buffett and falling asleep under the hot sun. I miss swimming in the ocean with friends, SCUBA diving on coral reefs, and taking long walks and runs on the shoreline. I miss going out at night, having the entire beach to myself, and listening to the waves crashing down while stargazing (what a meditative experience that is). The closest I can come to visiting the beach right now, though, is making a beach-themed meal and listening to a lot of Jimmy Buffett and the Zac Brown Band. So, at the grocery store earlier this week, I bought a pineapple and two coconuts on a whim. Thus, a pineapple boat was born. This recipe combines some of my favorite ingredients (raisins, peanuts, pineapple, and tempeh) for a healthy dish with the perfect combination of salty and sweet. I love how it brings together whole grains, fruit, proteins, and vegetables for a well-rounded meal that leaves nothing for the wanting. It’s easy to make adjustments to this recipe; I was originally going to lightly fry some rice with turmeric, but decided to work with what we had in the pantry instead (quinoa). Cashews are also a tasty substitution for the peanuts, and carrots are a good addition to up the veggie content of the dish. When I initially made this, I did not marinate the tempeh or soak the raisins. While you can absolutely skip these steps and still get good results, I find that the marination virtually doubles the tempeh’s savory taste and that soaking the raisins to expand them highlights their flavor and adds some juicy texture to the dish. Enjoy! Pineapple Quinoa Boats
Serves 4 Active Time: 30 minutes Total Time: 2 ½ hours Ingredients: For the marinated tempeh:
Instructions:
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Back in November, my mom was driving me home from a wild, 12.4 mile Spartan race that I did not train nearly enough for, but thoroughly enjoyed. I had about overcome my eating disorder, and the race reminded me how much I missed a regular, rigorous exercise routine. Sitting in the passenger seat, I browsed through Duke’s club sports on my phone. Clicking through the Duke Triathlon pages, I found their exercise schedule and was delighted to see that there was a training plan for every single day of the week and that they even had a few highly experienced coaches (i.e. world class athletes). I was hooked. Later that night, I discovered that their dream trip (a mostly funded trip Duke Club Sports puts on for each division every 3-4 years) was to compete in a half Ironman in the Patagonian region of Argentina in March! OK, so I was more than hooked. I was readily offering myself up for sacrifice and showed up at practice two days later. Originally, I wasn’t supposed to come on the dream trip. All of the spots had already been filled by members who had been practicing since September. About a month into training, I realized how counterintuitive it was to train for a half Ironman and not even compete in one, so I offered to pay my way. Then, about a week before the trip, someone dropped out and I got grant money anyways. The world works in strange and serendipitous ways, but it teaches you to take those leaps of faith. Flying into Bariloche was stunning. The browns and greens and imposing mountains were not like anything you get in the U.S. And our Airbnb? We lived in a huge, old house built in the 1940s (most likely by Nazi refugees, no joke; Bariloche was a mecca for them) that had a view of the mountains and forest, and a short walk down the drive led us to a lake, a short walk up the drive led us to a hiking trail. After the race, we took full advantage of the town and landscape around us. The Food OK, let’s start this section off with a disclaimer. I was vegan on this trip, except for when it came to dessert. Due to its Swiss and German influences, Bariloche is the chocolate capital of Argentina, and there was so much to try. Ironman even gave us chocolate finishers’ medals produced by the local chocolate company RapaNui in addition to our metal hardware. My favorite treats were Havanna’s Havannets, cookies topped with cones of dulce de leche and dipped in chocolate. They’re sinful. I liked them better than their traditional South American cousins, alfajores, which are sandwich cookies held together by dulce de leche and dipped in chocolate. And then I also had chocolate fondue in the finishers’ tent after the race and dulce de leche ice cream on top of Belgian waffles at Rapanui...Was there more chocolate involved? Probably. There was just so much, I can’t keep track of it all. I also had (possibly my first?) empanadas after a group “recovery” ride we did later in the week. It was too long to really be considered recovery, and we were all quite hungry, so we stopped at a small shop on the side of the road and filled up on these tasty hand pies. Argentina is famous for its beef and steak, but obviously I had none of that. It’s also famous for mate, which I have had and loved in the past but did not have a chance to drink on this trip. Mate is a kind of tea that is even more integral to Argentine culture than sweet tea is to the South. It is typically drunk from small gourds (yes, gourds) through silver straws. Families and friends pass mate around while enjoying conversation and relaxing. It can be consumed hot or cold, so is good for any time of the year. On our boat tour, we saw many, many families carrying bags full of mate thermoses on board. The Hiking We had planned on doing some overnight backpacking while we were in Patagonia, but the parks were closed due to unpredictable high winds. What a bummer; I mean, check out these hikes. We did, however, have the aforementioned trail by our house, and several of us drove to a longer day trail in the Nahuel Huapi National Park that afforded us views of a hanging glacier and waterfalls, not to mention several species of birds (beautiful woodpeckers!). The weather was crazy in March. It rained pretty much every day, and we saw so many rainbows that it was abnormal not to see at least two on any given day. On the longer day hike, we started off bundled up in jackets, stripped down as we sweated on an upward climb, bundled up again as it started to snow, and stripped down again on our way back. Honestly, what mood swings Mother Nature was having that day. The Boat Tour Probably my least favorite activity of the trip and not worth the money in my opinion. It involved a lot of sitting, and it was also pretty cloudy on the day we went. We did get to walk around the pretty forest of Victoria Island and explore the beaches and forests of Los Arrayanes National Park, and we learned a little history about the area on the boat, but I would have rather spent my time hiking. The Cycling And, of course, I would be remiss not to mention the cycling. The busy road connecting Bariloche to other coastal towns is NOT ideal for road cyclists, except for when it was closed for the race; the traffic is fast and heavy, and the fumes are hard to breathe. Many locals ride their bikes on the curbs, but there is virtually no shoulder for road bikes. We took some roads into the mountains on our recovery ride, where the traffic was far better and the scenery even more gorgeous. This was the most beautiful ride of my life, and that’s saying something because Vermont was pretty darn beautiful. The Swimming We were in Argentina at the beginning of their fall, and while the waters weren’t unbearable...they were pretty darn cold. As in, wear a wetsuit cold. But the lake by our house had crystal clear water, and the exhilaration of diving in for a chilly swim was not to miss. That's about it for now! Feel free to contact me if you are planning a trip to Argentina and want some tips...I highly recommend Bariloche as a destination, and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to visit.
We can learn so much by nourishing our mind-body connections. When we exercise, we're not simply reaping physical benefits, but we're also elevating ourselves mentally and learning life lessons in the process. Here are a few lessons that I have learned over the past few years that particularly stand out:
3. Practicing yoga has taught me that people really aren’t paying attention to you as much as you think they are. Even instructors with hundreds of hours of yoga under their belts occasionally fall out of poses. They have days when their bodies aren’t as flexible as they usually are, and they have days when they find it difficult to focus. My fellow yoga practitioners and I fall out of poses all the time. Through yoga, we have learned humility. We have learned how to not judge others when they fall, and we have learned how to not judge ourselves. We have also learned how to get back up again after we fall. These lessons in non-judgement and resilience extend to life outside of yoga as well; we judge less harshly the mistakes our peers make, recognizing that at any given moment, they are at a different place in life than we are. My favorite yoga instructor likes to remind us to “come from a place of power, not pride.” He emphasizes that we should not stretch into the full expressions of poses until we have their foundations fully developed. Even if everyone else is in full expression, we must have the power to release judgement and objectively assess where we are in our practice. Have the power to be confident in and satisfied with yourself, and do not stress over how people perceive you. 4. Find friends that challenge you, share your passions, and excite you. Before joining the Duke triathlon club in November, I didn’t have a group of athletic friends to hold me accountable, inspire me, and bond with me. When I began to train with them every day, laughter re-entered my life, and I felt like I had people who cared about me. My recovery from my eating disorder is 99% attributable to finding the tri club. We travelled together to Bariloche, Argentina, over spring break, where we competed in a half Ironman. I was astounded to learn how spontaneous the team was; I have met very few people in my life who would want to swim in a lake so cold that it takes your breath away for the fun of it, but lo and behold, that’s what six of us did the week after the race. As is natural for triathletes, we shared a common inflated ambition and drooled over cool races together. While we need to surround ourselves with a variety of personalities to ensure balance, it is integral to find a group with whom we can relate on a deep, spiritual level. This group doesn’t have to be athletic in nature, but it should be one that meets regularly and reliably, and it should be one that pushes you to your limits. Last Saturday was my first day working at the farmers market here in Whitesburg, Kentucky, and it was idyllic. Though it is still early in the season and produce is nowhere near peak production, the farmers filled their stalls with heaps of fresh fruits, veggies, baked goods, and specialty items. I was put to work bagging sweet potato slips (which we were giving away for free!) beside a couple who were selling huge, gorgeous stalks of rhubarb. Those stalks called to me for hours, and I ended up buying eight. I had no idea what I would do with them; I had never cooked with rhubarb before and hardly knew what it tastes like! It turns out that rhubarb is tart when raw (but apparently tastes great salted!) and sweeter when cooked with sugar or a sweet fruit like strawberry. You can use the entire stalk of rhubarb, even the green section, but do NOT eat the leaves; they are poisonous! I took my eight stalks of rhubarb, a bunch each of kale and bok choy, a bundle of green onions, a pound of potatoes, and a basket of peas home and haphazardly stuffed them all on a shelf in the fridge. The produce lasted me all week! As it was my first time cooking with rhubarb, I searched for a simple recipe in case I completely screwed up or hated the taste. A few days later, after flipping through my cookbooks and delving into the internet, I found two easy vegan rhubarb recipes: a strawberry rhubarb compote and strawberry rhubarb muffins. The compote has minimal added sugar and is perfect for topping pancakes, waffles, or a vegan french toast. It also paired very nicely with the muffins and functioned as a sweetener for a hearty bowl of oats. So versatile! What’s more, the sugar in the compote is unrefined (I used bourbon-infused honey for my second batch!). As for the muffins, they are awesome as they are, with a spread of jam or compote, and as an addition to oatmeal. With a low sugar content and a well-rounded set of ingredients that help balance blood sugar levels, these muffins are great snacks any time of the day. I modified this original recipe of Rachel Conners (the Bakerita). Enjoy! Strawberry Rhubarb Compote Serves 4 Ingredients:
Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins Makes 12 muffins Ingredients:
Instructions:
Strawberries from the farmers market made these muffins taste even more fresh and delectable! I love how strawberries and rhubarb, two spring produce items, pair so well! Additionally, the almonds added the perfect amount of texture and crunch to the muffins. I would slice your own almonds, as slivered almonds might be too soft to capture this texture! I just finished a three-week stint as a cook/housekeeper at Sunnybank Inn Retreat Center and Hostel in Hot Springs, North Carolina. It’s a small, historic Victorian house that was originally built in 1840 and has passed through a few different families’ hands since. In the early 20th century, Jane Gentry, who is famous for providing scores of Appalachian ballads to collector Cecil Sharpe, owned the inn. The current owner and the man who now famously runs the establishment, Elmer Hall, bought Sunnybank from the Gentry family in 1978 and has been there ever since. The hostel is mostly for Appalachian Trail thru-hikers; my parents stayed here when they hiked in 1989, and they loved it so much that they have been coming back at least once a year, every year, for the past twenty-nine years. Elmer’s all-vegetarian cooking is what made them (and many others!) become vegetarian, and several of his habits (like religiously ringing a dinner bell) have seeped into our family dynamic. We have even modeled some of our furniture after the inn’s, including an old wood stove that heats our house in the winter. It’s a special place; my mom usually spends her birthday weekend here, and it is in prime location for autumn hikes, about 45 minutes away from Max Patch Bald. There are great porches for relaxing and reading, and my parents have also liked to give out “trail magic” (Rice Krispies, sodas, etc.) to AT hikers as they pass through the area. I’ve been grandfathered into the Sunnybank family, and I felt at home the three weeks I worked at the inn. It was wonderful to work in a place where I had to ask where the recycling was, not if there was recycling; where the compost was, not if there was compost. But it was more than home; it was a space for learning. Here are some of the lessons I took away:
1. For some people, a vegan diet can be too restricting. Not in the sense that there aren’t enough options for vegans (when I became vegan, my eyes were opened to more combinations than I ever thought possible!), but in the sense that it can be a conduit for perpetuating eating disorders. The first weekend at Elmer’s, I was not vegan. I had the best homemade tiramisu known to mankind. It had, like, eight layers. I ate a cheesy, buttery spanakopita. I snuck some feta into my salad. At this point in my life, after only being vegan for a little more than a year, not allowing myself flexibility would do more harm than good to my long-term vegan goals. I would resent the fact that I couldn’t taste Elmer’s famous cooking, for instance. Those few days of eating rich food that I did not prepare myself also forced me to kick the habit of calorie counting, at least for a little while. The other 99.9% of my life, when I am vegan, I have more of an ability to count, judge, and restrict. As I delve further and further into veganism, I have less of a desire to go back at all. For instance, I used to eat local eggs, and I still would, but I really just don’t crave them anymore! Someday, I probably will be full-time vegan, no strings attached. But right now, I’m flexible. And if you are too, that’s OK. 2. Put away the phone. We don’t allow phone use in the commons room, kitchen, or dining room. What a difference it makes. We were in tune to each other rather than the outside world. We didn’t have to listen to people shouting into their phones, we didn’t have to listen to a blaring TV, we didn’t have to wish that people would make eye contact with us rather than take Snapchat selfies. Most mornings, I left my phone upstairs and was away from it all day. So I had conversations with hikers about the trail, their aspirations after finishing, their passions. I connected particularly with a British couple (trail names Moo and Nugget), one of whom is vegan, who have been WOOFing and travelling together for three years. I had some of the most humorous and heartwarming conversations with my co-worker, Matt, as we washed mountains of dishes each night. Connect by disconnecting. 3. Be aware of what’s happening in the outside world by taking small steps each day. Elmer doesn’t use the internet to learn about current events. He reads the newspaper and listens to NPR in the morning as he cooks breakfast. If you’re addicted to your phone and reading online news is part of your problem, taking these two steps will help you get off your device while remaining competent about the world. And once you gain that competence, you can become a better voter and a more active citizen. 4. Come back frequently to the places and people you love. My first day was spent preparing for a huge birthday party for Sean, a former staff member who turned forty. He hiked the AT and worked at the inn about ten years ago, but still visits every few weeks (he lives in nearby Asheville). The same weekend, Rip, a pianist we met when we visited last fall, was also staying at the inn. He’s been coming back for twenty years or so. There’s a strong cohort of people who frequently visit, and it’s become a haven for people with similar values. 5. Slow down. I tend to think that people are always waiting on me. Waiting on me to work, waiting on me to engage with them, waiting on me to stop taking time for myself. So I’m always rushing. I even frantically rush to yoga because I’m so worried about disrupting class and bothering the instructors! But I slowed down at Sunnybank. I passed crosswords back and forth with Matt one day for over three hours. And it felt so good. It may not be the most immediately productive way of passing time, but slowing down allows us to appreciate life and rest for the busier moments. Just giving myself permission not to care about making other people wait sometimes (honestly, other people need to slow down too!) lifted a huge weight off my chest. So read that extra chapter. Take a little longer of a walk. The world can wait. Veggie burgers are among the easiest vegan recipes and, if made with real vegetables and not overly-processed soy products, are usually excellent sources of complete proteins and nutrients. If you work out in the afternoon, they are great ways to get your carbs in while still sneaking in some vegetables that are in a more easily digestible form (salads just aren’t the best pre-workout snack!). Make sure to check the nutrition labels of burgers you buy at the grocery store. Some burgers, like MorningStar’s Garden Veggie Burgers, contain egg and calcium caseinate, textured vegetable protein (TVP), autolyzed yeast extract (a hidden source of gluten and MSG), and ambiguous “natural flavors.” Highly processed soy, indicated by ingredients like TVP, soy protein isolate, and soy protein concentrate, not only lack the nutritional benefits of unprocessed soy, but also carry the risk of being produced with hexane. The exact effects of hexane consumption are unknown, but the chemical is unregulated and may cause headaches, fatigue, blurred vision, etc. I wouldn’t worry too much about hexane, but I would rather reap the nutritional benefits of unprocessed soy! Cheap burgers especially aren’t made with whole, nutritious ingredients. I wouldn’t even call Boca burgers veggie burgers with this list of ingredients: Water, Soy Protein Concentrate, Wheat Gluten, contains less than 2% of Methylcellulose, Salt, Caramel Color, Dried Onions, Yeast Extract, Sesame Oil, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Natural and Artificial Flavor (Non-Meat), Disodium Guanylate, Disodium Inosinate They’re about as veggie as a pepperoni pizza with a thin layer of tomato sauce. These burgers tend to attract people with their low calorie count (70 per patty), but remember that they have such a low calorie count because they are devoid of nutritious vegetables you need to fuel your body! You’re going to experience better taste and health with brands like Amy’s and Dr. Praeger’s. You can find either or both of these brands at most well-rounded grocery stores. Veggie burgers at restaurants are tricky to evaluate. Many fast food restaurants serve name brand burgers. While Denny’s serves Amy’s brand veggie burgers, Burger King serves MorningStar (non-vegan). Most chain restaurants’ burgers’ nutrition facts are posted online. However, smaller restaurants are often not required or expected to provide nutritional information. Don’t be afraid to ask your server what is in the burgers. If they can’t tell you, this probably isn’t the best sign! If you are vegan, make sure that the burger and the bun do not contain egg (a common binding agent and often brushed on buns for that glossy finish). And then you can just make your own patties. Doing so is your best bet of being able to chow down on a nutritious, safe, and delicious burger. There is a lot more room for play when making your own burgers. You can make beet burgers, black bean burgers, thai peanut burgers, kale burgers, mushroom burgers, lentil burgers, walnut burgers...and as the title of this post suggests, falafel burgers! I adapted this recipe from the cookbook Isa Does It. These burgers taste just like falafels. But they’re not deep-fried and err on the lighter end of falafeldom. Of course, they have different toppings than your usual burger to fit in with the Mediterranean theme; hummus takes the place of ketchup and cucumber takes the place of pickle. While Isa gives some great recipes for both a miso tahini dressing and a tahini hummus, we’ll keep it simple and let you decide how much work you want to put in (if you buy your hummus, I highly suggest Hope’s Thai Coconut Curry Hummus!). And while the recipe originally calls for them to be served on pita buns, I like them on toasted naan. Really, you can use whatever you have on hand. As you can see, I also had a little fun with the shapes of the burgers! If you want perfectly round burgers, pancakes, biscuits, cookies, you name it, then a cookie cutter is your friend. Shuffling through our big baskets of cookie cutters, I found a large heart shape and thought, why not? Thus, heart-shaped veggie burgers. And now for the recipe:
Ingredients:
Directions:
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