I will get to vacation in a moment. Let’s start with food! On Sundays my life is not complete unless I’ve prepared a few dishes for the week. I went to a different farmer’s market and then made a stop at Whole Foods which is uncommon. I tend to stick to my health food store and Trader Joe’s for groceries. I found some good stuff, though! 
(Great Whole Foods finds, including a vegan cupcake and vegan kaiser rolls!)
Before I could start thinking about what to make for the week, I needed to eat. I pulled together a quick salad.
Big A** Salad
From the farmer’s market: green leaf lettuce, basil, kirby cucumber, japanese breakfast radish, Plus: red beans, avocado, cold pressed flax seed oil, brown rice vinegar, himalayan salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and seseame seeds. 
Mmm Mmm.
Satiated, I was ready to do a little food prep. I started by trying my hand at creating my own veggie burger.
JL’s Pinto TVP Burger
Serves 5
- 1 can of pinto beans
- 1/2 cup of TVP
- 1/2 cup of vegetable stock
- 1 t liquid smoke
- 1/2 cup PureNRG gluten free bread crumbs
- 2.5 T ground flax, 3 T water, whisked (replaces the binding role of the egg)
- 1 yellow carrot, diced
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
In a bowl, combine TVP, vegetable stock and liquid smoke and let sit for at least 20 minutes
In a food processor, pulse beans (leave some chunk), add TVP mixture, carrots, bread crumbs, flax mixture, chili powder and cayenne pepper. Pulse until well combined but you want to see carrot chunks.
Make into patties and then refrigerate several hours, or over night. (or freeze for one hour)
(Rolled patties, ready to chill in the fridge for a few hours)
Oil a piece of foil. Grill the burgers on the foil, on high heat, eight minutes each side.
I used sesame oil on the grill and served the burger on a grilled vegan kaiser roll, with a slice of grilled onion, and a small amount of Miso Mayo.
(Pinto TVP burger on a vegan kaiser roll, grilled corn with earth balance and himalayan salt, and lemon & garlic olives from Whole Foods)
The burger was tasty! I will try them in the oven next time to compare to the grill.
I also prepped some of Lindsay’s go to Garlic-Saffron Quinoa and tried out Miss V’s Vegan Cookbook’s delicious Cashew Tamari dressing (I used Bragg’s Amino instead of tamari). I wanted to marinate tofu for the grill this week so I just started grabbing things.
JL’s Tofu Marinade
Diced garlic scapes
Maple Syrup
Sunflower Oil
Bragg’s Amino
Apple Cider Vinegar
Tumeric
S+P
No measurements, just eye-balled it.
Contented sigh. Food is prepped, let’s talk vacation!
VACATION: TRAINING
We made our annual trek to Lake Waramaug in Connecticut. My husband (db) and I refer to this as the vacation where it’s like you’re home but you don’t have the obligations of home (errands, cleaning up, etc) or the urge to check work email. We do what we love to do. We work out every morning (running or riding), 
we nap, we swim, we eat great food, we read, we enjoy a variety of adult beverages, we go to bed early, we go to bed late. We. Rest.
Hopkins Inn overlooks Lake Waramaug 
and is next to Hopkins Vineyard. Seriously, could there be a better vacation location for us? Road biking, road running and a vineyard, all right out the front door?
One year ago we were on Lake Waramaug for a long weekend. We had very specific intentions. Train our asses off. I was gearing up for my first Olympic distance triathlon and db for his first half-iron distance triathlon. On a Saturday morning we headed out for a long ride. I rode 31 miles and db doubled that. It was a hilly course and I rode harder than usual, trying to keep up with db. Sunday called for a 10k distance run. I headed out to run around the lake and realized that, in fact, to loop the lake and get back to the B&B it would be closer to eight miles. No problem, after the 31 mile ride on Saturday I was feeling like a stud. Until I got to mile six and had a knee “twinge” that was new and extremely uncomfortable. I had two more miles to get home and had no cell service so I couldn’t SOS db for a ride. I kept running. By the time I got to the base of the hill leading up to the B&B I was no longer running, because I was unable. I limped up the hill. I took ten days off from running and then decided to resume my training. I had my first Olympic distance tri to run in August, after all. And I did it. My goal was to complete a .9 mile swim, 26 mile ride and 10k run in under three hours. I finished in 2 hours and 56 minutes. Victory! However, I was unable to run pain-free for five months after the race. It was a tough, undiagnosable injury. Sigh.
A year later, last week, we returned to the scene of the crime. This is my first month all year that I’m flying without a training plan. I spent January – March building up for an April Half-Marathon. April and May building up for a June Half-Marathon. See, we finally figured out the problem with my knee. It was cycling! Was it fit? Was it the pedals? Don’t know. So I deemed 2010 the year of the half-marathon, to focus on running. I am now gearing up for one more half-marathon, in October, which will be my seventeenth half-marathon in six years. (I’m a relatively “new” runner, as you will see in my vegetarian to vegan story.) In the meantime, we recently started playing around with my bike. I moved to Look pedals—no change—and then to Speed Play pedals where we also made seat adjustments to accommodate the new pedal position. Success! I am now riding (and running) comfortably.
After the two half-marathons earlier this season, I decided to take a break in July; a break to me means not following a training plan and just working out because it’s good for me. But, as those of you who are athletes know, when you’re feeling good, you sure can start talking yourself into some nonsense. Tuesday morning I rode 16 miles. Wednesday I ran 4 miles. Thursday I rode 16 miles. Friday I ran 4.25 miles. During the Friday run, feeling good, I thought to myself “I’m running around the lake tomorrow.” I was psyched. I had to stop myself. What the hell was I thinking? This is my off month. Why on earth would I jump from four miles to eight miles, just because I felt good? Why risk an injury when I’m Not. Even. Training. For. Anything? I gave myself an imaginary slap in the head and got rid of that running notion. Instead, on Saturday, I rode a nice and easy farewell 12 miler lakeside. (Okay, on Sunday, back at home, I did run 6 miles…felt great!)
It was a long recovery but I am grateful that I am coming back around. Unfortunately db is experiencing his own sort of step back in training. 
(db watching the Tour de France in our apartment at the Inn)
This training business isn’t easy!
VACATION: FOOD
When I wasn’t riding, running, napping or reading I was enjoying a couple of my other favorite things. Eating and drinking. What can I say? I love a good (or average) bottle of wine. I work my tail off on the bike and on the roads so that I can enjoy good food (my post-40 body is not so forgiving). This is my first summer eating vegan. In the past we had a few restaurants around Lake Waramaug that we enjoyed and I could “make do” as a vegetarian. I checked out the websites of some of our old favorites, checking for vegan options, and it became clear that it would be tougher this year. Since we rented an apartment, 
(Entrace to the apartment at the Inn)
we had a refrigerator, oven and stove, toaster and microwave at our disposal. I prepared a few things in advance and we took our farmer’s market haul with us. 
We did decide to try three restaurants (lunch and two dinners). The first time out was less than stellar. We wanted to visit a diner that is vegetarian friendly and serves dinner once a week (Mexican food). I was sure I could do anything with a tortilla and beans. Apparently it’s a popular joint because they couldn’t seat us. We wandered into a nearby pizza parlor and shared a big greek salad (hold the feta)
and I ordered a pizza (hold the cheese). 
Blah. Not impressed.
The next day we went into town for massages (ahhhhh) and then to a one-time fave for lunch. I was happy that I mentioned to the server that I was vegan. She could confirm that the gazpacho was vegan and she would make sure they held the cheese on the salad. I had a good work out in the morning so I decided I wanted more food than just a soup and salad: I ordered the onion rings. The server turned around and said “You don’t want those, we make them with milk.” See, I wasn’t even going to mention being a vegan. I don’t want to be that person but I am so glad I did. I thanked her profusely. I ate a huge plate of french fries.
The next evening we went to Oliva Cafe, a real favorite of ours. I felt confident that I could eat well (not just a salad.) When our server took our order I began with “I am a vegan and that’s not a threat.” Thankfully he had a sense of humor. I let him know I was announcing it so that he cold protect me from any mis-orders I might make. I told him there were three things on the menu I would like and I just needed him to confirm they were all vegan, or could be prepared vegan. A cold carrot and dill soup, white beans and garlic and the grilled corn salad. YES! All vegan! I posted about this meal on FoodNuts! Check it out for some yummy food porn.
The lessons I learned from my three dining out attempts:
1) Don’t apologize for being vegan; let them know you need their help with the menu.
2) Don’t settle and pay a fortune for a salad at a nice restaurant. I can make a great salad at home; I don’t need to pay $18+ for a bed of lettuce with a a few pieces of fruit and veggies. If the restaurant isn’t already thinking about a diverse dining clientele then I’d like the chef to at least show some imagination.
3) Be flexible. Sometimes you just need to eat the salad because your husband is really happy with the burger.
Most of the time, we ate in the apartment or had picnics lakeside. 
(Bean salad on massaged collards)
(Green Monsters for two)
(spelt toast with Daiya vegan chesse, avocado and homemade humus)
(Cold corn soup and a black bean veggie burger)
It was a wonderful vacation…
…do you have vegan-vacation strategies?
