I seem [...]]]> Hey hey-yo! How are you? How was your Wednesday? I can’t believe that one week from tomorrow is Thanksgiving!  I usually try to wake up early enough to catch some of the parade, then my mom and I make our famous sticky buns.  Do you have traditions you keep up every year?

I seem to have unleashed the oatmeal beast within me yesterday, because that was just what I wanted this morning.

In the bowl:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup pumpkin
• frozen berries
• frozen pineapple
• flaxy peanut butter
• cinnamon
• agave

The rest of the morning was spent preparing for an interview.  I went into the city an hour and a half early so, subway problems or not, there’d be no chance of being late.  I had so much spare time that I went into a deli to go over my notes and read some Canadian snail mail.  To secure a seat, I bought some fruit salad.

The interview went well, I think; I was given an assignment to complete for Friday, so I went straight home to get started.  I needed some brain fuel, so I made a quick salad:

Our house guest came into the kitchen while I was assembling it, took one look at the bowl, and said, “Are you really going to eat all of that salad?! You must have a really fast metabolism!”  It was a salad of great girth, I’ll give him that. But of course I ate every scrap

In the mix:

• spinach
• grape tomatoes
• 1 grapefruit
• 1/2 avocado
• leftover salmon
• dressing made with rice vinegar, sesame oil, sesame seeds & chili flakes

The Lindt store on 5th  was handing out holiday truffles on the street today, so I snatched one up and had it for dessert.

My body must have needed sleep because I nodded right off after lunch! Today is the fourth consecutive day I’ve gotten up significantly earlier than I’m used to, and the rest of the week will be no different.  Hopefully in the next few weeks there will be more early mornings and regular hours, if you catch my drift! When I woke up, I made some coffee and snacked on these Jalepeño Honey Mustard Pretzel Sticks from Kay’s Naturals.

These are my favorite of the Kay’s products I’ve tried; they’re satisfying, and didn’t leave me with horrible garlic breath the way the protein chips did.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent working.  When it was getting close to dinner time, I simmered and marinated some tempeh using the recipe for Hot Sauce-Glazed Tempeh from Veganomicon.

After about an hour, I plopped the tempeh onto the George Foreman, the apartment-dweller’s best friend.  Aren’t grill marks satisfying?

I proceded to make one of the best sandwiches on earth: The LVP Reuben.

A reuben sandwich is traditionally made with corned beef, Swiss cheese, saurkraut, and creamy salad dressing.  I don’t remember eating one even when I did eat meat, but my version is much more appealing to me.  It’s based on one of my all-time favorite sandwiches: grilled cheddar with Granny Smith apple slices on Peppridge Farm Cinnamon Raisin Swirl bread.  Tonight, I went a step further…

Grilled cheddar with Hot Sauce-Glazed Tempeh, Gala apple slices and baby spinach on Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel bread.  My tum is grumbling at the memory.  I also had a bowl of Sweet and Spicy Sweet Potato Leek Soup, garnished with cinnamon, nutmeg, shredded coconut and parsley.

Dinner for 1, at home, does not have to be boring.

Luckily I had the foresight to plan my dessert early in the day; I had two bananas sitting in the freezer and  waiting  to be processed into Chocolate Banana Soft Serve.  Three words: Move over, Stögo! I topped mine with roasted almonds and walnuts.

It was rich, creamy, and far better than anything packaged I’ve bought recently.  You better believe I licked up every last trace of “batter.”

I can’t wait to play around with this! There are so many options based on what’s in the pantry alone.

After dinner I finished my reading, and just as I was about to e-mail my notes to myself (I type everything out on my Blackberry… it’s an odd habit), the memo deleted itself.  I searched IT message boards, asked people I knew with Blackberries if there was any way to retrieve data that wasn’t backed up on a computer… nothing.  Seven hours of work has been LOST.   So… tomorrow will be another early morning.  It’s not the end of the world.

Bonne nuit

Although we both managed to be in bed early- before 11:30- I had a terrible time trying to sleep, I was so excited! I woke up at 1:30 and thought it was time to [...]]]> Good afternoon! Thanks to all of your wonderful support and comments, Ilana and I had a great race this morning.

Although we both managed to be in bed early- before 11:30- I had a terrible time trying to sleep, I was so excited! I woke up at 1:30 and thought it was time to go… I made the same mistake twice more at 4:30 and 6:30.  When it was finally time to get up, I was pretty tired! I still bounded up, walked Charley, and sat down to a pre-race breakfast.

I had a piece of whole wheat toast with peanut butter, cinnamon, a banana and honey with a cup of coffee.

Ilana had a bowl of Mueslix, Puffins, and a banana.

We were tired, but ready to race!

We packed all of our necessities and hopped on the subway.  We found the Museum of Natural History, and made our way to the starting line outside the front of the building… along with 25,000 other racers!

You can see that I decided to bring my camera after all… I ran with both my iPod and camera in my right hand, leaving my left free.  Hopefully I’ll have a new iPod for the next time!

We played around a little…

Stretched…

Then we got in line.  They were broken down by pace, so I decided to try and push myself and got into the 9-minute mile lane.  Worst case, I’d fall behind!

We listened to speeches by breast cancer survivors, Uma Thurman, Gabrielle Union, Gov. David Patterson, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Cyndi Lauper (among others), who sang the National Anthem.

I started off pretty fast.  Every article I’ve read about racing has said not to do this, but I couldn’t help myself.  I was excited! I ran past the first mile-marker and saw that I’d been running for 9 minutes and 30 seconds. Woohoo!

I started getting a stitch in the middle of my right ribcage during mile 2, but remembered what K said and inhaled through my nose, exhaling through my mouth.  It still hurt, but eventually went away.  I finished my second mile at 17:30, making that an 8-minute mile. What?!

Although I knew the end was in sight and that this was not the longest distance I’ve run, my legs started getting tired.  Adrenaline pushed me on, though, and I sailed through the finish line after 27:40, with an average pace of  8:55/ mile.  That is definitely a PR for me!

Ilana and I found each other, sweaty but victorious.

We headed over to the swag tents…

Found out some more about the Susan G. Komen Foundation…

Sampled Fuze (too sweet for my tastes)…

… and came home with POUNDS of swag.

We immediately broke into our samples of Dove milk chocolate… I’m not a huge milk chocolate fan, but this was a pretty sweet reward.

When we got back to the apartment, we were tired and hungry.  We decided to enjoy a celebratory lunch at Picnic!  We sat outside to dog people watch.

In honor of my dad and grandparents, who are in Nice eating the real deal, I enjoyed a slice of baguette with butter.

Ilana and I both ordered the same thing: quiche & salad.  I had the Alsatian Tarte, which was filled with potatoes, leeks, onions, and gruyère cheese. It was a great post-race treat!

When we got home, we fell into bed and slept for a couple hours.  As Ilana said, “That’s what Sundays are for!”  I agree.