Home Fries

So finally we’re supposed to have a sunny day today. Let’s hope that the weather holds up for no real reason but to let me keep a smile on my face. It will be nice to pump out a mid-week long run in the sunshine! I’ve got 9 miles on the agenda for today.

Last night I weightlifted and during one of my exercises I busted my lower back. I was doing decline bench press, of all things! The combination of not engaging my abs, trying to lift to heavy without a spotter, and over extending meant bad news for my lower back so I had to cut my workout short. Luckily it was more of a fleeting pain that went away after dinner… or maybe the deliciousness of dinner masked it.

I was craving potatoes last night so I made cleanse-friendly home fries with a side of cabbage that I roasted in the oven at 400F with olive oil, salt, pepper, and dried basil. The whole meal was in dire need of protein and I wish I would have heated up some beans to go with it all. Oh well.

The potatoes were the star of the show. It was the best compliment a girl could get when I asked Matt if he wanted ketchup for his home fries and he said “No, these don’t need it.”

Home Fries

Ingredients:

4 T olive oil
2 Russet potatoes, sliced ¼” thick
1 sweet onion, sliced
1 T dried chives
salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Add in the onion, potatoes, and chives. Cover the skillet and leave the veggies to cook for about 8-10 minutes or until the onions are just beginning to caramelize.

Uncover and stir. Cook uncovered for the remaining 5-10 minutes until the potatoes are cooked through. Season with salt and pepper to taste and enjoy without ketchup.

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Apparently I ate next to nothing yesterday which is explains why I was ravenous for most of the day. And this is another reason why I think I should start planning my meals more often.

Daily Intake — 1348 cal: 32% fat/61% carbs/7% protein

day 50: vegan colcannon

The last couple of days have been so beautiful here that it’s tough to drag my butt to the gym. Especially on leg day, like today. Especially when my arch-nemesis is at the gym doing chin-ups like an soldier and making me feel weak. But I did manage my workout (although I might have gone a bit easy on the HIIT– I only did 10 intervals).

My weightlifting yesterday and today was pretty consistent with last week. Next week, though, I’m going to start increasing my weights again, decreasing my reps, and adding on another set. Basically I’ll be doing about 4 or 5 sets of 4 to 6 reps. I could really use a spotter, if anyone’s interested

I decided to make colcannon for dinner tonight since Matt and I have other stuff going on tomorrow night. And, ya know, I thought heck I might as well has yet another serving of cabbage today.

Umm… why isn’t cabbage in mashed potatoes all the time? I’ve never made this dish before, but it was phenomenal! I even veganized it by swapping butter for heart healthy olive oil and milk or cream for some starchy water that I boiled the potatoes in. If you haven’t made plans for your St. Patrick’s day dinner you might want to think of adding colcannon to the mix:

Vegan Colcannon

Ingredients:

• 4 starchy potatoes, peeled & chopped
• 1/4 head of red cabbage
• 2 leeks, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400F

Boil the potatoes until tender and drain, but reserve some of the water they were boiled in. Mash the potatoes, adding about 2 tbsp olive oil and enough of the starchy water to get the desired consistency. Add nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.

In a separate pot blanch the cabbage in boiling water until just tender. Rinse in cold water, drain, and transfer to a baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste. Put under the broiler in the oven until the cabbage begins to crisp, stirring occasionally. Add to the potatoes.

Meanwhile, sautee the leeks and garlic in a separate pan with about a tbsp of olive oil until tender. Add to the potatoes.

Mix everything together, and voila!

That’s chicken tikka on the side there. Not exactly Irish, but what the heck. There are Indian people in Ireland too I suppose.

Tonight I was a bit ambitious in the kitchen. I baked some bread too! That’s 2 different type of bread in 3 days. Not too shabby. None of which I can eat, of course, because of my cleansing diet but I’ll probably give this bread away. This is another recipe from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Pain a L’Ancienne. If you don’t know what that is (and I didn’t) it’s basically french bread but instead of proofing at room temperature you proof it in the fridge.

The dough was really soft like a ciabatta dough, but I like working with this type of rustic dough. I think they turned out really good!

Day 15: still the same

Okay, so I had no progress this week. I actually took a step backward: +0.3% body fat, +0.8lb Boo

So I failed on my goals to lose 1lb and 0.5% body fat. Looking back at my caloric intake, I was eating 1900 cal per day instead of 1700 as I had planned. I did eat more vegetables and less fruit but it didn’t seem to help very much.

I feel a bit like Melissa on last night’s Biggest Loser. What did I do wrong?

This week I plan to be more strict about my calorie intake — this is going to take a bit more planning than I’m used to (primarily because I’m not used to planning). Also I’m restricting myself to 1 tbsp per day of peanut butter. This sounds like a lot, but I eat A LOT of peanut butter. I probably don’t need all that fat.

In other news…

Last night for dinner I made my famous potato leek soup. Famous to me and my husband, at least. …And I’m giving up the recipe:

Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 leeks chopped (white part only)
• 1/2 a red onion chopped
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 2 new potatoes cubed
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves

(Yesterday I also added a can of white kidney beans, which I don’t normally add– the taste honestly didn’t change much)

Directions

Heat the oil in over medium high heat in a large saucepan.
Add the leeks, onions, and garlic and cook until the leeks are soft and the onions are transparent.
Add the potatoes and add just enough water to cover them. Stir in the salt, pepper, turmeric, thyme, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Reduce to low heat to simmer for 40 minutes. (If adding beans, I added them after 20-25 minutes.)
Using an immersion blender blend the soup to a smooth consistency, adding more water if necessary. (I like my soup really thick, so I never have to add extra water.)