Food for Runners: G-a-r-l-i-c

Last time, we told you all about B-a-n-a-n-a-s -- one of Stephen's favorite foods. Today? Garlic, which is perhaps my favorite food of all. I can't think of many dishes we don't include it in. And it's another white food that's oh-so good for you.

Plus, it's a great grocery item you can buy on the cheap each week to enhance your diet.


Garlic "contains many flavonoid anti-oxidants like carotene beta, zea-xanthin, and vitamins like vitamin-C. Vitamin C helps body develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful, pro-inflammatory free radicals." (Nutrition-and-you.com)

Just "one clove a day can lower cholesterol by about nine per cent [and] other research has also linked the pungent bulbs to an uptick in carb metabolism, meaning food gets converted to energy more efficiently." (Runnersworld.com)


Here are some of our favorite garlic-infused recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner:

Madalene and Ross's Wild Garlic and Goat Cheese Frittata
Our Garlic-Basil French Toast w/ Avocado Butter
Deseree's Chili-Garlic Edamame
Jessica's Roasted Garlic Hummus
Lizzie's Roasted Tomato-Garlic Soup
Our Pumpkin garlic knots (or other varieties)
Heidi's Garlic Soba Noodles
Ashley's Rosemary-Garlic Grilled Corn
Amanda's Lemon-Garlic Kale Pasta
SeriousEats: Braised Eggplant with Tofu in Garlic Sauce
Katie's Grilled Garlic Asparagus Drizzled with Balsamic
Our Crusty Garlic Tuscan Herb Loaf
Emily's Garlic and Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Diana's Rosemary-Garlic Farro with Chickpeas
Heather's Garlic Sauteed Kale and Mushroom Baguette


As I mentioned above, I toss garlic into most dishes we make at dinner. Sauteed with a little olive oil, garlic goes well with pasta, tofu, roasted vegetables, and even eggs!

What's your favorite garlic dish? Please leave a link in the comments below to add to the recipe inspiration!



If you hop onto neverhomemaker.com, you'll notice some wild design changes. I'd love your feedback on these. We're still working out the kinks with comments and some spacing issues. Overall, I'm hoping the new design makes navigating all our content easier.

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Technical Difficulties

I'm having one of those technology challenged days. Like, I drafted this awesome post about why garlic is good for you . . . in a Word document. And somehow I didn't save it. Yeah. Like a boss. So, that will be coming tomorrow.

But I wanted to say hi tonight. Hi! Here are some things that are coming up next week. In photos.


More important: What are you doing for the holiday? We have a lot of catching up to do. Gardening, cleaning, cleaning some more, and resting. It's been a tough sleep week.

Now, speaking of sleep, you can read about Ada's current sleep situation over on Writing Chapter Three. It's always changing. That's for sure!

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Eat Your Colors?

I've always read that my dinner should be as colorful as the rainbow. Color means nutrients. Good choices. Health. So, imagine my surprise when -- unplanned -- dinner ended up in all shades of white/brown tonight.


Thing is, white doesn't need to be so bad. Especially when you consider the variety of stuff on this plate.

Brown rice is a great grain to accompany any meal.


Our favorite Baked Tofu -- cooked in the oven extra long tonight -- for an entire hour. Don't forget to flip a few times.


And something new! Roasted napa cabbage with onions. Absolutely delicious.

ROASTED NAPA WITH ONIONS

What you'll need . . . 

• 1 head (is it called a head?) of napa cabbage 
• 1 medium cooking onion 
• 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil (or other favorite oil, we used this stir-fry variety) 
• 1 teaspoon chili oil 
• 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes 
• Salt and pepper to taste 

Method . . . 

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Find a rimmed baking sheet. 
2. Chop the napa into chunks and the onions, too. There's no right way. Then place atop the cooking sheet. 
3. Mix together the oils, pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Pour mixture over the napa and onions. 
4. Then toss around to coat well. Bake in oven for 15 minutes. Then stir. Bake for another 15 minutes. Stir again. 
5. And continue a bit longer until cabbage is browned to your liking. Serve warm and enjoy!

Ada's been eating solids for, well, a solid week now. Surprisingly, her plate was more colorful than ours was tonight. Check out what she's eating over on Writing Chapter Three.

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Good Question: Miles or Minutes

Kimberly asks: "I am a relatively new runner and looking at training plans for my first 10K. I notice that some plans go by minutes while others go by miles. What's the difference between training with miles and minutes?"


I've always been slightly confused about why some training plans have you running a specific distance versus a specific time. To add to the confusion, the training plan I'm following at the moment has BOTH miles AND minutes prescribed. Easy runs, mostly in the 3 to 5 mile range, are written out by distance. While tempo and long run workouts are written out in time.

Why?!?!

Well, I'll be honest. I don't really know. I'm not a coach. I'm not even what I'd consider a competitive or fantastic runner. I can't exactly speak to why some plans go with minutes while other go with miles. I can, however, share the benefits I see through my experience with each type of training because I have prepared for races using both methods. So, I hope this answer is at least somewhat informative to you all.

I've been participating in road races for over 10 years now. And I found it helpful to train by time, particularly when I was a beginner. Especially for increasing long runs when my longest run ever was like 3 miles. I'm sure there are more technical reasons than this one, but even just mentally, increasing my time by 10 minutes sounded a lot easier than increasing my distance by a mile, for example. I used this method when I was preparing for my first 10K -- completing a few 60 minute runs before race day -- and I imagine that my pace was faster than 10-minute miles.

In other words, I was running 60 minutes, but likely going farther than a 10K. So, the approach prepared me well.

On the flip side, years and years later, I often don't run with a watch. As a result, I've been training by miles more and more. Mapping out routes and sticking to them is easy because it's simple to remember my two favorite 4-milers and 5-milers and my three best 8-milers. When I trained for my most recent half marathon, I depended on distance. I didn't want to dwell on my pace because coming back from pregnancy has been hard on my times. Instead, I felt the most accomplished by number of miles run and chose to ignore the speed at which those miles were completed.

But then there are those times I'm between plans and just running to run. So, I do neither.

Overall, I think I toggle between the two depending on my mood. A sort of "whatever works" scenario. If I'm feeling motivated by running 13 miles, I'll map out a route. During marathon training, if I had a 20 mile run ahead of me, I'd break it down by hours and live half-hour at a time until I reached around 3 hours total. Even with training for shorter distance races, I find I can win the mental game by training miles OR minutes day by day.


I try my best not to get hung up on either of the two and, instead, to train my best for how I'm feeling. I may not break the sound barrier, but with keeping a positive attitude -- thereby actually completing runs versus dreading them -- I've consistently improved my race times. Again, I'm not incredibly competitive, though, so you may find the following resources a bit more helpful.

Nike: Training Tip: Minutes versus Miles
Runners World: Minutes vs. Miles
COMPRESSPORT: Run Training: Measure by Miles or by Minutes?

How do YOU train? Miles or minutes? Or BOTH? I'd love for you guys/gals to weigh in.


Pssst: Check out a great sugar-free peanut butter cookie dough recipe today on Writing Chapter Three!

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Vegan Stuffed Eggplant

VEGAN STUFFED EGGPLANT

What you'll need . . .

• 2 medium eggplants 
• 3 cloves garlic, minced 
• 1 small cooking onion, chopped 
• 4 cups chopped red Swiss chard 
• 1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed 
• 2 portabella mushrooms, washed and chopped 
• 1 teaspoon tumeric 
• Salt and pepper to taste 
• 1 cup tomato puree 
• Several tablespoons olive oil

Method . . . 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil, spritz with some olive oil, and set aside.
2. Cut off the stem of each eggplant, then cut in half. Scoop out a good amount of the meat. Then rub the inside with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set aside. 
3. In a large pan over medium-high heat, toss in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Then add the garlic and onions and cook until glassy. Add in the tumeric and cook for a couple minutes. 
4. Toss in the mushrooms and swiss chard (I didn't include stems, but that's just my personal preference) and cook until wilted. Then turn off heat and toss in the kidney beans. 
5. Stuff each eggplant with a portion of the mixture until all of it is used up. Then place in the oven for 15 minutes. 
6. Take out of the oven and spoon tomato puree atop each -- as much as you'd like. I also sprinkled ours with some nutritional yeast and more salt and pepper. A bit of olive oil, too. 
7. Return to oven and cook for another 15 minutes or until the eggplant is softened, but not mushy.

Here's a close-up of the stuffing. It's delicious!


Of course, you can stuff the eggplants with anything you want! I'm really into stuffing veggies lately -- if you missed 'em, I posted a recipe for Quinoa Stuffed Portabellas. It's just another great way to make a cheap meal as nutritious as possible.

What's your favorite stuffed recipe? I'd love some suggestions!


Today on Writing Chapter Three is more information about my decision to be a Stay-At-Home Mom. Mostly budget stuff, but there's a lot more to write on the topic. If you've ever considered being a SAHM but don't think it's possible, I hope this post helps!

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