Some healthful cooking

Occasionally I crave vegetables and this Vegetable Tian recipe looked easy enough to try. Unfortunately mine came out somewhat bland (not that yellow squash or zucchini have that much flavor to begin with...), so I'm going to have to experiment with this one some more--adding more seasoning and definitely cooking longer to get the veggies to brown more.


These paleo-ish pancakes sounded super gross and are an unattractive green color--but were really quite tasty. I used kale, not spinach, and I snuck in maybe about 1/4 cup of flour because I thought my batter looked too wet (maybe because I didn't have 1/4 cup of shredded coconut on hand as is called for in the recipe).

Paleo Pancakes (from a CF Facebook page):
4 eggs
2c tightly packed spinach
1/2c almonds or almond meal
1/4c shredded coconut
Dash of salt n pepper

Combine ingredients in a food processor and grill mixture like pancakes.

Savory version: add roasted garlic and rosemary for a tasty bread for sandwiches (remember those)

Breakfast version: add 1tbs honey, 1tbs cinnamon and 1tsp of nutmeg. Grill with coconut oil. Add syrup if you're feeling saucy.

Shamrock Run and More Eats

Morning started off with the 15k Shamrock Run--I took my time and overall felt it was "easy"at a 10:13 minute/mile pace. I was never out of breath and only vaguely sore toward the end, so this means I should have pushed myself to run a bit faster. This was the first time I didn't have any nerves about an official run, usually I feel quite a bit anxious and jittery--it may be because I had practiced this run already the weekend before.

And, only in Portland is it conceivable and true that I could leave a wool peacoat (just H&M, but still) by a tree before the start of the race and return to find it still there afterwards. Granted, it probably helped that there were non-stop crowds milling around everywhere.

Had breakfast afterwards with gym buddies at 'The Original' downtown; which was tastier than I expected. It's definitely trying too hard to be hipster cool, but I don't know if it was because I'd just been running for 90 minutes or what, but this Bacon Cornmeal Waffle with Fried Chicken was the most delicious meal I've had in awhile at a Portland restaurant:


I'm now off to hot pot shortly with some work colleagues (one with a Chinese wife who I hope will explain the ins-and-outs to me), I've never done hot pot before.

Mast Brothers Chocolate

Bean to bar chocolate from Mast Brothers, found a whole slew of these at Cork on Alberta Street. Heard about this chocolate through the radio show From Scratch.

Hello Alberta Street

Took a random detour to Alberta Street today to be yet-again disappointed by Portland Mexican food. Tried a burrito at La Bonita--let's just say it's on par with Chipotle. I actually don't mind Chipotle for what it is, it's just nothing special or memorable.

I did have a nice orange macaroon and vanilla latte at Barista down the street, but Portland rarely messes up things like that.

Sloths drink tea in Portland and have friends:

The pugs of Habromania, Poppie (in the pink) is awesome:


Educational offerings:

NyanCat proudly on display:

Uwajimaya grocery success

Stopped into the Japanese grocery store today on a lark and ended up with 2 new-to-me things that I really like: Okinawan Sweet Potatoes and Sukoyaka 8 Grain Rice Mix.

The sweet potatoes have a fun purple color to them, and taste less sweet than yellow sweet potatoes. Apparently they're some kind of Hawaiian staple food. I turned them into chips and also made a mashed version with coconut beverage and cinnamon.


The rice grain mix had a nice crunch and flavor to it, really tasty stuff. It's a mix of various whole grain rices, barley, and rye berries. It's good on its own, or add a little flavor like I did with some pesto sauce. Yum.

February Workouts