The TCS New York City Marathon and Two Delicious Smoothies

The New York City Marathon has finally been ticked off my to-do list. My love affair with this particular race started when I first moved to the city for graduate school. At the time, I was only running sporadically – anyone who has ever entered into a graduate program for history can attest to the fact that there isn’t much time left for anything else. However, I began stalking the race. I read about it, watched it, cheered for it, I dreamed about it while sleeping, and daydreamed about it - particularly on my countless runs through Central Park. So when the opportunity finally presented itself for me to partake in the greatest marathon in the world, I jumped at the chance.

Unfortunately, 2014 was a tough year for me. It started with a surgery on the back of my knee to remove a bone spur. While preparing for a half ironman, I started having intense pain in my hip. As it turns out, I had a small tear in the cartilage of my left hip. By the time my hip was ready for running, there was only 7 weeks until the New York Marathon.

Despite everything, including record strength winds, I was feeling good when I finally toed the line on race day. The cannon went off. I felt the boom deep down in my stomach and I finally started to realize what I was undertaking.    

For anyone who has ever run in New York, the marathon is a special experience. For me, it was particularly emotional as this city is my home. The thousands of spectators cheering were amazing (it was great hearing countless people scream “Go Vegan!” as I ran by – my little form of activism!) The race went well, although looking back, I should have run the first half a little more conservatively. Either way, I’m proud of the accomplishment and grateful for my body. I am now taking an extended break from endurance training during which I will focus on new and exciting happenings in my life. I also want to thank everyone. The love and support I received was overwhelming.

During my training, I developed two different smoothies, both of which are not only nutrient dense, but also delicious. While I used these to help fuel my workouts and to recover from my long runs, they also make a great start to any morning, and I've also made the the Chocolate Cinn-a-bun smoothie for dessert on occasion as well!

 

The Long Run Red Beet Smoothie:

1 medium beet (raw or roasted)

1 handful raw pecans (1/6 cup) (for a nut free version, add more oats)

½ cup spinach

1 ripe pear

¼ cup old fashioned oats

1 tbsp flax seed

1 medjool dates

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-2 tsp cacao powder

½ tsp maca powder

1 cup plant-milk or water

1 handful of ice

Blend all ingredients until smooth. Top with shredded coconut and cacao nibs

Chocolate Cinn-a-bun Smoothie:

1 large frozen banana

¼ cup old fashioned oats

1 tbsp almond butter or 1 handful raw almonds

2 medjool dates

2 tbsp cacao powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp maca powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Blend all ingredients until smooth. 

I hope you all have a very happy and plant-based Thanksgiving. 

As always the information presented in this blog is for educational purposes only. It should not be considered as specific medical, nutritional, lifestyle, or other health-related advice.

Apple pie cookies (gluten free and with a raw option)

Some people claim that fall is pumpkin everything, and while I love pumpkin as much as the next person, for me, apple will always make the best fall time desserts!

Recently, I created these cookies to help my close friend celebrate finishing their US medical USMILE examations – a grueling two eight-hour day exam. While we are still awaiting the results of the exam, the cookies turned out to be amazing and since Halloween and Thanksgiving are both right around the corner, I've decided to share this tasty treat with you all. Apple Pie Cookies! These little pie-like patties are perfect to get you in the mood for fall and can be made raw or baked. I baked these.

Makes about 20 cookies

5- 6 red apples, cored (I used a mix of New York grown gala and honey crisp)

1 cup date paste*

½ cup raw almonds

½ cup raw cashews

½ cup old fashioned oats

1 cup raisins

1 handful of cacao nibs (optional)

½ teaspoon of Cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg and clove to taste

* making date paste is easy. Simply put 3-4 dates in a blender or food processor along with ½ cup of water (to start) blend until smooth and add more water incrementally until you have enough. I like to add a teaspoon of maple syrup to round out the flavor. It should be relatively think and very sweet. If you don’t have a high powered blender, soak the dates in the water for a few hours prior to blending to help soften them.

Blend the raw almonds and cashews together until they are roughly ground but not a complete powder. Some small pieces of nuts are ideal. Add the roughly ground nuts and the oats to a mixing bowl.

Now core the apples, and using a food processor with a shredder, shred three and a half of the apples. Set these in the large mixing bowl and now using the slicing attachment, slice the remaining apples so that you have shredded apples as well as sliced apples.

Add the sliced apples to the mixing bowl with the nuts and oats. Add in the raisins and cacao nibs (if using) along with the spices. Add the date paste on top and using your hands, mix all of the ingredients well.

(Raw option): Using your hands, create small cookie sized patties and place them onto your dehydrator’s food trays.  Put into the dehydrator and set to 115° and dehydrate for 15 hours until the cookies are firm.

(Bake option): Using your hands, create small cookie sized patties and place them onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Have the oven preheated to 250°. Place the trays into the oven and cook for 45 minutes, checking the cookies to make sure they don’t burn about half way through. 

As always the information presented in this blog is for educational purposes only. It should not be considered as specific medical, nutritional, lifestyle, or other health-related advice.

Black & White Plant Strong Smoothie

Okay everyone, there are three days left in my Navitas Naturals Giveaway! This is one you don’t want to miss! Just based off the entries alone everyone seems excited but to get you even more stoked I spent the past week perfecting a smoothie recipe using Navitas’ products! As my friend Adam Sobel (the master behind the Cinnamon Snail) would say, “this will definitely make you eat your wig!” It’s a healthy variation of the classic ice cream shake: the Black & White Plant Strong Smoothie!

This is a calorie-dense, alkaline-forming smoothie designed to offer a large protein and antioxidant boost to help fill you up and repair your body after an intense workout. I can tell you in all truth, I leave for my marathon training runs drooling about the Black & White reward awaiting me when I get back!

Here is what you will need. Place them into the blender in this order:

      5 cubes of ice

     ¼ cup raw almonds*

     ¼ cup raw cashews*

     2 dates or sweetener of choice to taste

     1 tablespoon Navitas Naturals Goji berries

     3 tablespoon Navitas Naturals Hemp Seeds

     2 tablespoon Navitas Naturals Cacao powder

     1 teaspoon Navitas Naturals Maca powder

     2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

     1 cup cold water

     ¼ cup almond milk

Blend until smooth and creamy     

Now don’t forget to sign up to win a free box of Navitas Naturals goodies by entering here. 

Happy Columbus Day Everyone,

cheers,

*To increase the nutrition absorption of the nuts soak them in warm water for at least 2 hours. If you do not have a high power blender substitute the nuts for 3 tablespoons of almond butter.

Superfood Smoothology

Since I’ve been getting tons of questions about smoothies, I thought I’d finally do a post on them. Smoothies are great on any occasion. Many people prefer to make a large smoothie for breakfast, others use them for a mid-day boost, but I love them as a way to help speed recover and restore energy levels after a hard workout.

Initially, I figured I would just blog the recipes of a few of my favorite combinations; but then I realized that most of my smoothies are made on the fly with whatever goodies I can get my paws onto. As such, instead of sharing a few rigid recipes, I thought I’d share the basic building blocks to the perfect superfood smoothie and leave it to your own imaginations to do the rest. And so here is my basic guide to creating the perfect blend.

Base: 

Water

Green Tea (excellent way to boost antioxidants) 

Almond Milk,

Sunflower Seed Milk (high in Omega 3s)

Rice Milk

Apple Juice

Orange Juice

Berries: (I often use frozen berries) (Antioxidants)

Blueberries

Strawberries

Goji Berries (dried) 

Mulberries  (dried)

Acai Berry Pulp (frozen)

Cherries

Fruit:

Bananas (I often freeze bananas)  

Pineapple

Apple

Mango

Pear

Greens and Veggies:

Kale

Spinach

Collards

Arugula

Beet Greens

Beets

Celery

Carrots

Wheatgrass powder (practically tasteless, navitas)

Nuts: (Proteins and Fats) 

Almonds,

Cashews

Walnuts

Brazilian nuts

Pine nuts

Powders/Spices: 

Vega One and Vega Protein

Sunwarrior

Hemp Powder

Hemp Protein by Nutiva

Pomegranate Powder (made by navitas)  

Amal Powder (Dried Indian Goose Berries. Very, Very High in antioxidants and Vit C.)

Maca Powder (excellent post exercise, helps relax the body)

Raw Cacao (very high source of antioxidants and magnesium which helps relieve cramping)

Cinnamon

Cloves (One of the highest sources of antioxidants)

Ginger (excellent for recovery)

Turmeric (Indian spice, helps fight cancer, helps blood circulation for recovery, must take with black pepper to metabolize) 

Oils: (I only use these on weeks were I've trained really hard and never more than half a teaspoon)

Coconut oil

Hemp Oil

Flax Oil

Olive Oil

Seeds:

Chia Seeds (Add a spoonful of chia to every smoothie to add Omega 3s and fiber to keep blood sugar from spiking from the fruit and sweetners)

Hemp Seeds/Powder (excellent source of protein)

Flax Seeds

Sunflower Seeds

Sweeteners:

Dates

Date Sugar

Dried Figs

Lucuma Powder (navitas)

Sweet Palm Coconut Sugar

maple syrup 

Stevia (use sparingly)

Agave (use sparingly)

You may have noticed that I didn't include any algae. I don't use spirulina (except for the small amount found in Vega). While many believe it is a superfood because it is 60% protein, it has recently been found to breakdown muscles rather than rebuild them, and is has also been linked to liver cancer. Instead, I use to take small amounts of Chlorela when I felt I need the extra push but the payoff didn't seem worth the price, as I replaced it with Kale, which is much cheaper and can be found local!

More on Spirulina can be found here:

 http://nutritionfacts.org/video/blue-green-algae-spirulina/

Now go get out the Vitamix (or any other blender you may have) and mix and match to your hearts stomachs content.