Vegan Night

Tofu. What can I say about tofu? I like to use it occasionally, if only that using a tasteless mass with a bizarre texture challenges my inner chef to make something tasty and delicious. High in protein and low in fat, it is a healthy ingredient and it makes a nice light meal if prepared well. So tofu! Woot!

I usually go to Asian cuisine when preparing tofu because you can put a lot of richness and flavor into the sauce. I considered making pho again, but I'm better than that, so I decided to make a spicy stir fry with it. I had bought some salsify, also known as oyster root, and I thinly shaved it with a peeler to make a tagliatelle-like "pasta" to serve as a starch in the meal. The rest of the ingredients were garlic, ginger, lemongrass, carrots, snow peas, veggie stock, coconut milk, cilantro, sriracha, chili paste, and a magical tablespoon of cashew butter. To be honest, I was just throwing stuff in the pan, so I'm not even sure of the recipe, but with the tofu and salsify as the main ingredients, I had calories to spare, so it didn't really matter.

By the way, I have to give Marcus Samuelsson credit for the idea of using salsify as pasta. I saw him do that once, and I now use that as my primary preparation for the product. It cooks nicely, and has a good flavor and texture to it when cooked. I'm not even sure how to prepare it with traditional means, if there is such a thing as a "traditional" salsify preparation.

In workout news, today was Saturday so it meant a long day at the gym. I couldn't get there until around noon, which is a horrible time because that is lunch time and I'm hungry, and therefore low on energy. I started with a 5-4-3-2-1 interval speed workout, ramping up from 7:30 per mile for the 5 minute interval all the way up to a 6:30 pace for the final minute. That pretty much took everything I had in me, but I still managed to struggle through some chest, back, and abdominal workouts before I had to quit and grab some lunch. Lesson learned, again, make sure you're properly fueled before you work out. You'd think I'd know that by now...