Vegan Italiano!

Hello hello! And happy Friday to everybody. I'm gratefully looking forward to the upcoming three day weekend that's stretched out ahead of me. The promise of barbecue with good company and berry picking has gotten me through what seems like a really long week. :)

So...I did miss a post last night, and there was a good reason why. This reason is called Portobello. Evidently it is not just a type of mushroom anymore...




:) So. Now you know what I did last night. I was having a sort of rough day and Jay was awesome enough to take my super subtle hints that I wouldn't be able to stand after work even to make dinner because I was so tired, and he took me to some of the most amazing vegan food.

We definitely indulged. First I got a drink...

*all pictures taken via Jay's I-phone...I forgot the camera oops!

You may be wondering at this point, why there is a straw in my beer. That is because my beer is not my beer. It is my kombucha! I have been informed that kombucha may be a good source of probiotics, and since I have adopted a mostly vegan diet of late, I am decidedly a bit lacking (no yogurt etc). Does anyone know the specifics about what probiotics do and what good sources are? Luckily, there are plenty of alternative methods of incorporating probiotics into one's diet that do not involve yogurt. Perhaps a blog post on that later.

Jay had a beer

I thought the stopper was cool! Jay was all excited because he's apparently not seen this one outside of the actual brewery.


I got a little dressed up for me. I decided this was the best kombucha I'd ever had. So good.

This was our mushroom paté with tiny pickles, mustard, and baguette. This was definitely my favorite part of the meal. As much as I hesitate to idealize meat taste and texture, I feel it would be unwise to deny the obvious resemblance both in texture and in flavor that this had to really gourmet meat loaf. Amazing!

I must find out where I can get these little pickles! I don't even like pickles but these made for a great accent on the paté.

And this is what I ordered as a main: Vegan Lasagna. 100% true story.

The lasagna had a "cheese" made with cashew butter and tomato sausage that tasted so good. I cannot even begin to describe how much better it was than "real" lasagna. I wish I had paid more attention to the menu to see what else was in it.

Jay had gnocchi with tomatos and zucchini. That was also great, but I liked mine better :).

All in all a successful night out with awesome eats!

And now for running updates!

Yesterday was my rest day. I didn't have any pain in my legs yesterday, but as I mentioned, I felt a little off and was having trouble keeping my head above water. I think maybe I got used to feeling those endorphins in the morning and wasn't expecting to end up at work groggy.

This morning I woke up on the right side of the bed. It was supposed to be my second rest day, but I was really craving to get back out there before my muscles forget everything and I'm screwed Saturday morning, so I convinced Jay to ride in the rain on flat tires while I ran. It went by pretty fast this way, I mostly laughed the whole way at seeing him half drowned by the rain, trying to balance with my slow pace and on flat tires. For those of you that know Jay, you know he HATES the rain and prefers not to be in it. It's a good thing we live in Portland where we get ~76 days of sun a year ;).

Anyway, he was a sport.

The run was a little tough, I did feel a little pressure (now that he was there and definitely going faster than I could) to step up my game and run faster. However, this did not work exactly. Pretty much immediately I was gasping for breath. Not good. I recently spoke with my sister and she gave me a tip which I think will be valuable. She said that I should find a pace in which I could comfortably converse with someone and step it down a notch from there. Essentially go really slow and I will be able to cover more distance. This seems like key for a beginning runner. So that will be my experiment for the next few days. I think it will definitely be a challenge to go slow, but I'll give it a try!

Well, good night for tonight!