Tag Archives: vegetables

Walking the walk…all 26.2 miles of it (part 2)

Posted on by — 2 Comments ↓

(this is a continuation of a prior entry – click here to read part 1)

Mile 12 – Mile 21

We stopped at a nutrition station that I had erroneously thought was a halfway marker (turns out it was more like mile 12). Stretching ensued, along with changing of socks and munching on the peanut butter sandwiches that I’d made for us before we left in the morning. I felt refreshed, and I hoped that things would improve. At this point, I strapped on my headphones, hoping that the sounds coming from my freshly loaded iPod would distract me from any further discomfort and get me walking on a rhythm. By the time we made it to the lunch area setup somewhere in mile 14, I was hobbling. The pain in my left leg was astonishing and nearly crippling. I limped my way to the medical tent, but they told me that they couldn’t dispense any medication. Fortunately, an angel of a walker overheard my plight and offered me as many as I would like from her bag of ibuprofen. I took three from her, thanking her profusely, and moved slowly and carefully up the hill through the lunch tent to grab a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

By now, my spirits were considerably lower. I was focusing on using my breathing to get me through, because the walking was so painful. About 45min to an hour after we left the lunch tent, the ibuprofen had kicked in and nearly completely removed the pain in my hip. The pain in my knee remained, but it was dulled slightly. I could walk, but I didn’t have much of a head of steam anymore.

Oddly, Heartbreak Hill and the other hills of Newton, MA, were no particular trouble; I think the change in gait that was needed to propel me up the hills was enough to give my hips and knees a rest from the repetitive stress of doing the same movement over and over again on the flat distances.

When we made it to the end of mile 21, we were astride Boston College, a former stomping ground of mine from my Masters degree days. And this is where I hit the wall.

Mile 21 through the finish

I sat down to stretch at the next-to-last nutrition station, on the side of the campus, and I realized that getting up was going to be a lot more difficult than I thought. DH was ready to continue walking, although by this time he was tired and not feeling 100% either. I paused for a moment. I could either stop right there, giving in to the fact that I didn’t think I could take another step, or I could ignore that feeling, will my feet to move and see what happens. I chose the latter option.

Once I started walking again, I realized that I was getting small blisters on my feet. They were nothing compared to what I’d endured in those bad sneakers during my training, but they were adding more annoyance to the journey. Add to this the fact that the ibuprofen was wearing off prematurely, and I was moving only based on sheer will. Since this is a walk that’s done on sidewalks (no roads are closed for the walk), we were required to stop at every red light that we came across. Early on, this was no big deal, but when you have only minor momentum and you’re five miles from the finish, every little stop is a small attempt at defeat, chipping away at your resolve and your ability to keep the head of steam going.

Every mile marker was an inspiration, begging us to keep moving. By the time we were coming into Kenmore Square, a mile away from the finish, we were both moving slowly…but still moving. Coming down Boylston Street didn’t give me nearly the victorious feeling I expected, until we were crossing Dartmouth Street from the Boston Public Library into the chute to the finish line. It was amazing. It was impossible. We had finished.

After the race, we sat on the grass and stretched for a while. Then, hoping we had enough left in us to get there, we limped our way back up Boylston Street for the block it took to get to Marathon Sports, where I bought the two of us “26.2” stickers for our cars. I so badly wanted to earn that sticker, ever since I first learned about the walk, and I was going to use whatever energy I had to get it.

We then gingerly made our way back to the car (parked in a garage a couple of blocks away), and I drove us home. We hadn’t really considered whether or not either of us would be able to drive after the race, and I was truly grateful that my LEFT leg was the one that was tweaked and that I drive an automatic transmission car. If I had a manual transmission, getting home would’ve been one tricky proposition.

We drove home, tired, incredibly sore, and very happy to have finished it. And that’s where we got to the part we hadn’t bargained on, the hill we hadn’t anticipated climbing: what happens AFTER you do a marathon.
Next up: Recovering from the marathon

Crock Pot Beef with Beets

Posted on by — 5 Comments ↓

Beets? No. BEETS? No…well, okay. Yes, beets. Really, beets? YES, I MADE SOMETHING WITH BEETS.

I’ve never been a fan. Beets always seemed too odd, too “that thing that comes in cans in a sliced form that looks no more appetizing than that cranberry gel everyone hauls out at Thanksgiving“. So, I’ve avoided beets. However, when beets showed up in my Week 2 CSA box, I realized that I was on the spot to make something beety happen. *Cue nail-biting*

Beets are a root vegetable, and what do I love to do with root vegetables? Say it with me: PUT THEM IN THE CROCK POT. So, yes, these beets went into the crock pot. And what was the verdict? Could’ve used even more beets! HA! What a surprise. Not only did the beets come out well, but the beef I paired them with came out even a little sweeter than usual, thanks to the yummy sweetness of the beets. And, even better, you can cook this dish for 8-10hrs or you can stretch it out longer if you need to (as I did, since we had to leave the crock pot on for closer to 11hrs).

Other things of note:

  • If you’re trying to find something to do with the beet greens, since you don’t necessarily want to waste them, just wash and dry them, then toss them in a skillet over medium heat and a small amount of olive oil for a few minutes to wilt them. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar and you have a great, crunchy, green accompaniment to your meal!
  • This dish pairs nicely with just about any starchy side; we had it with egg noodles one night and rice another night.

 

Crock Pot Beef with Beets

Beet-tastic!

 

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 8-10hrs on LOW

Serves: 4

 

Ingredients

1-1/2 lb stew beef, cut into chunks or bite-sized pieces

1 bunch of medium-small beets, greens removed

1-1/4 cups reduced sodium beef broth

1/4 cup red wine

2 Tb red wine vinegar

1 Tb cornstarch

water

2 tsp garlic powder

Non-stick cooking spray

 

Make it Happen

1. Spray the inside of a 4qt crock pot with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Wash the beets well and cut off the stems and roots. Chop the beets into quarters. Add the beets to the crock pot to make a bed for the beef.

3. Add the beef to the crock pot.

4. In a measuring cup or bowl, stir to combine the beef broth, red wine and red wine vinegar, then pour over the beef and beets. Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10hrs.

5. Just before serving, remove the beef and beets from the crock, leaving the liquid in the crock. Add the garlic powder to the crock and stir to combine.

6. In a small bowl, stir water into the cornstarch until the cornstarch has dissolved. Add the cornstarch/water mixture to the crock and stir to combine.

7. Put the liquid into a gravy boat and serve atop the beef and beets.

Adventures in CSA (week 3): New frontiers

Posted on by — 3 Comments ↓

This week should prove more of a challenge for me than the prior two weeks, for two reasons: 1) radishes, and 2) eggplant. I’ve never been a fan of radishes, and I’ve only ever really seen them deployed as extra color and crunch in salads. Eggplant’s never been a favorite of mine because the consistency hasn’t ever really worked for me. So, as DH pointed out, this will be our first “stretch” week: really branching out and trying stuff that neither of us have taken to. Still, I have to say that this is the most colorful week we’ve had yet, thanks in part to the gorgeous rainbow carrots. The picture below doesn’t really do them full justice, since I was trying to get everything in the shot, but the carrots range from a yummy light orange to a light yellow to a pale yellow that borders on white. I can’t WAIT to dig into those guys! (And the corn’s already been eaten. You bring corn into this house, and it’s gone in less than 24hrs.)

 

CSA Week 3

Ooh! Pretty colors...!

 

Contents of this week’s box:

  • Tomatoes
  • Eggplant
  • Italian Eggplant
  • Radishes
  • Green Peppers
  • White Onion
  • Macintosh Apples
  • Rainbow Carrots
  • Cucumbers
  • Acorn Squash
  • Corn
  • White Potatoes

I’m not entirely sure whether the potatoes will go the way of their predecessors (week 1: rosemary-garlic french fries; week 2: hash browns), but both are really winning formulas. The squash may get roasted, or turned into risotto, or roasted and then turned into risotto…it’s all pretty open right now.

And, as always, I’ll post the cost comparison after I’ve had the chance to go to the grocery store. I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen Italian eggplant or rainbow carrots at my grocery store, so this one may get a little tricky. Just as this gives me a chance to explore new foods, it also gives me an opportunity to test out the variety of what’s in my grocery store. They haven’t been beaten by the CSA on variety yet. Yet.

Of course, there’s always the question of quality. The CSA carrots have been quite good thus far (although the ones that my sister has shared from her CSA have been even sweeter), and the corn hasn’t been as good as the stuff from our local farmstand. Still, comparing CSA to CSA to farmstand (that has its own CSA) is really not the right comparison. Comparing the quality to the stuff from the grocery store, I can say that the tomatoes have been more flavorful, and that’s one area where flavor can be hard to come by in the grocery store varieties. The Macs have been as good as what we get from the orchard, and they are comparable to those from the grocery store (we’re lucky enough to have plenty of local orchards to supply our grocer).

In other words, what I’m seeing (and tasting) is a variably better product at a better price. So far. Whether or not all of that holds up as we go through the remaining 5 weeks, I’m not quite sure. But, so far I’ve been very pleased with what we’ve gotten, and I love picking up my box o’veggies every Friday afternoon. For a person who used to hate vegetables as a kid, I think that’s a pretty fantastic thing!