Chicago Marathon Val

A sneak peak:

Hello everyone! It’s a beautiful rainy day in the neighborhood here in Chicago.  At least it cooperated yesterday for my long run and Movies in the Park last night

I’m toying with the habit of posting the day after instead of the night of….. I think once I’m back at work this may be easier for my schedule.  So without further ado, yesterdays in all its glory:

Fresh tomatoes for breakfast!  I did a taste comparison…. the ones on the left are from my father in law’s garden, and the ones on the right are from our CSA.  Both are local and organic, and both tasted spectacular!  They both came out as winners I woke up dreaming of recipes, AGAIN.  So, despite the fact that it was about 7am, I began cooking for yesterday’s dinner!  I sliced up this guy….What a beauty of an eggplant!! Can you tell how big it is? (twss)…. it was pretty much as big as two eggplants that I would buy from the store.  I sprinkled them with a bit of salt for a few minutes to get out the bitterness while I prepared the sauce, and then dunked them in a bit of water/lemon juice and then in some panko to bread them.  Then I baked them at 350 for about 20 minutes, and broiled them for a few minutes at the end.

I made the sauce by making two separate sauces, and then throwing them together.  The tomato sauce was made from two large chopped onion, a handful of fresh oregano from my CSA that I love so dearly…My purple CSA garlic…. so pretty right? I used two cloves of garlic… 3 large tomatoes, 2 T. tomato paste, one packet Truvia, a splash EVOO, salt, pepper, and dried basil.  Then, I threw it all into the blender.To make the “creamy part of the sauce”:

- 1 c. water

- 1 c. nuts (I used a combo of macademia and cashews)

- 2 T. lemon juice

- 3 tsp. soy sauce

- 3 tsp. nutritional yeast

- garlic, S & P to taste.  A lot of garlic and salt seems to really pump up the flavor in this recipe

- Blend in a food processor until creamy!  This stuff makes an awesome cream or alfredo sauce that is super versatile and would be awesome on anything and everything!

However….. I made it even better by blending it with the blended tomato sauce. Wowza!!!!!!!!!!!! This sauce is to die for.  I literally had breakfast solely from eating many, many spoonfulls of this sauce.  Soooo good you must try it, I’m telling you!!

Layer the eggplant with the sauce… and here’s the final product!I snacked on a juice while I headed to an appointmentAnd here’s the simple arugula salad I made for dinnerAnd the Clif Blok that I took before and during my 8 miler.

I do love Clif Shots, but the Bloks aren’t my fave.  I think i just like the gel texture better than the more realistic “foody” texture of the bloks, oddly enough!  But the flavor was kinda fun…. it would be great if it was a gel

After meeting some running pals for the 8 miler, I ended the run at Grant Park so that I could meet Mike for Movies in the Park!! We had talked about going all summer, and finally got our act together.  Before the show started we dined out stacked eggplant with salad…. I had made us some dessert – vegan double chocolate chip cookies – but we both devoured those earlier in the day   They were very good though, I’ll be making more later this week to take to a weekend BBQ

We also feasted on the gorgeous view of the skyline

Wish you could have been there!  This would have been amazing to videotape.  The movie shown was “Tootsie” which was cute.  We didn’t stay for the whole thing since we had early bedtimes, but it was so much fun and we definitely plan to go more often next summer!

***

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!  Don’t forget to check out Fitness NYC for a fabulous fitness-related giveaway!!

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