Plan Jan 28- Feb 3

Spring semester is finally upon us. Here are the big lessons so far:

1. Snow sucks. sure, I like getting the occasional day off of work, and yeah, every once in a while the mandatory weekend in can be lovely, but why does it have to take so long to melt??? My running trail is out of commission for the time being, which means I am relegated to indoor cardio workouts and stealth neighborhood running.

2. Shopping and prep-cooking on Mondays isn't going to work this semester, so I've shifted my day 1 of planning (on which I grocery shop and do any prep-work or pre-cooking for the week) to Thursdays. We'll see how that works.

3.  I don't have time for lunch on Mondays and Wednesdays. I teach from 12-5. So, I'm going to have to play with how I eat lunches those days.  1130, when my office hours start, is too early for lunch, 5pm is too close to dinner. So, this week, I am going to try eating my lunch for breakfast, then having my breakfast smoothie for lunch- as I can take that to class with me.  Which will be funny, because my noon class students had a class with me earlier in the morning last semester and frequently saw me drinking my green smoothies.  Yesterday one of them commented that class this semester was later, so I will have had a chance to have my breakfast before.  Hahahaha. I guess I'll show them.

This weekend, I'm attending a cookbook club get-together that my friend, Cari, organized.  Of course, though, it's not a vegan book they've selected.  Everyone is to cook a recipe from the new Smitten Kitchen cookbook. My biggest issues with this book is that Deb Perelman is a FORMER vegetarian and that even though she said in an interview that she though that meat should really be only eaten once or twice a week, from an overview of her recipe index of the book, most seems to be meat-centered.  My friend sent me some recipes to look over, and it's going to be tough to veganize. In addition, I don't know if that's the purpose of the cookbook club.  I was under the impression that the purpose was to cook everything verbatim to the recipe to try out several at once.  I am impossible at following recipes verbatim. Sigh. But, I am going to make Spicy peanuts (a party snack, that should be pretty easy to tweak- I just will sub in Earth Balance for butter) and Wild Rice Gratin with Kale, Caramelized Onions, and baby Swiss (a vegetarian dish that I will have to veganize by subbing in EB for butter, Daiya for the Swiss, and veg broth for the chicken). Fortunately, my friend also chose to veganize one of the salad recipes, so there will be more than one thing I can eat there. In reality though, I'm probably just more anxious about socializing with strangers than I am about the food.....

Thursday
Run 4
Journey to handstand: headstand 2
Breakfast: sweet potato & baked tofu
Lunch: leftover buffalo chickpea sliders
Dinner: chickpea Buddha bowl

Friday
Run 8
Journey to handstand: handstand
Breakfast: blueberry bars 
Lunch: leftover Buddha bowl
Dinner: mushroom stroganoff

Saturday
Journey to handstand: kick ups
Breakfast: bagels & vegan cream cheese
Lunch: leftover mushroom stroganoff
Dinner: curried tofu avocado wraps

Sunday
Journey to handstand: misc prep
Breakfast: mango & pineapple
Lunch: leftover curried tofu avocado wraps
Dinner: cookbook club (wild rice gratin and spicy peanuts)

Monday
Walk
Journey to handstand: crow
Breakfast: club leftovers
Lunch: green smoothie
Dinner: hippie loaf with mash potatoes

Tuesday
Run 4
Journey to handstand: tripod
Breakfast: mango & pineapple
Lunch: leftover hippie loaf with mash potatoes
Dinner: firecracker Buddha bowl

Wednesday
Walk
Journey to handstand: headstand 1
Breakfast: leftover firecracker Buddha bowl
Lunch: green smoothie
Dinner: quick black bean burgers