OK- Day 1 was no problem, but the ugly truth of vegan, gluten free eating reared its ugly head first thing in the morning. Buckwheat pancakes. Trader Joe's. Microwave. Picture if you will the bastard stepchild of sawdust and some sort of epoxy... Nuff said.
To boot, I was starving my butt off about 1 hour later. Oh well. Moving along to lunch, I got Trader Joe's prepackaged meal #2 of the day.
A pleasant surprise, the corn and black bean gluten free enchiladas actually tasted like...well, enchiladas. I gave a little boost with some Tapatio and chipotle salsa. Hearty, filling and entirely satisfying. Or so I thought...
Stamina check- Ten easy miles. By mile five I was basically starving and bonking at the same time. Energy-wise I was totally tapped. Managed to cruise home, but the energy level was NOT high. Could have been more to do with the rigorous training schedule than the food, so I'll wait to pass judgement.
A few extra servings of nuts and a decaf soy latte (not a fan) got me to dinner, which was a veggie stuffed chili relleno. Fantastic. Essentially a bean and corn stuffed pepper with texurized vegetable protein. Our first "fake meat" of the experiment. With all of the spices and sauce, this was basically indistinguishable from ground turkey. Not half bad, but Allie keeps calling it TVP, and that weirds me out, sounds too much like TP, PVC, PCP or LSD for my dining comfort. I'm not at all sure how this differs in any way from tofu, but I'm sure I'll find out over the next three weeks...
The urge for something sweet was pretty intense tonight. We made do with a rather delicious asian pear from the farmer's market. I don't think I ever realized how much sugar I ate in the day. I feel like I could knock back a pint of caramel swirl icecream and chase it with a few dozen pixie sticks. I haven't had one of those in at least a decade. Weird huh?
Veggie Stuffed Chili Relleno - Yum!
ReplyDelete-4 poblano peppers, sliced vertically down one side (I also think sweet red peppers would be good here)
-1 medium sweet onion, diced
-2 garlic cloves, minced
-2 cups cooked pinto beans
-1 cup TVP or other ground meat substitute
-1 cup corn kernals
-1 cup dark leafy greens
-1 tbsp chili powder
-1 tsp cumin
-3 tbsp tomato paste
-1 chipotle pepper in adobo, diced
-Salt and pepper
-1 cup enchilada sauce
Place peppers in a shallow pan of salted water and cook, covered over medium-high heat for 5 minutes until bright green. Remove from water, let cool and then remove all seeds and membranes (keep peppers intact).
Saute onion in a splash of olive oil over medium heat until soft, add garlic and saute for another minute or two. Then add the rest of the ingridients, lower the heat and cook for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
In a glass baking dish, pour a thin layer of enchilada sauce in bottom. Stuff peppers and place in dish. Cover with additional sauce, cover and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.
At the end of the 20 minutes uncover, lightly sprinkle soy cheese on top and place under the broiler until cheese is bubbly and brown.
Serve over a bed of brown rice with a dollop of guacamole, baked corn strips (cut up a few corn tortillas, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and place under the broiler until crisp) and some salsa.