This recipe is quick and easy for those days when you “just don’t have time” to cook. In a matter of about 15-20 minutes with prep time you can have a healthy and nutritious dinner on the table that the whole family will enjoy. If you enjoy a little heat add the chilies or chili flakes. This dish is great as leftovers and works really well in a wrap for lunches.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 bell peppers, sliced
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 cups shredded purple or green cabbage
2-3 Thai chilies or 1/4-2 tsp chili flakes (optional)
2 garlic cloves, minced
8 oz tempeh, diced
3 T reduced sodium soy sauce
1 t sesame oil
1.5 T hoisin sauce (found in the International foods section of most grocery stores)
1/2 t black pepper
Directions:
Heat the oil in wok over medium-high heat.
Add the onion, cabbage and bell pepper and immediately toss with the oil to coat. Cook for 5 minutes then stir in the chilies, garlic and tempeh.
Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, hoisin and black pepper. Toss to coat. Cook for 5-7 minutes or until veggies are tender.
Serve with quinoa, rice or noodles.
How far along are you: 38 Weeks! (Well really 38 weeks 3 days now)
How big is the baby:
Your baby has really plumped up. She weighs about 6.8 pounds and she’s over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). She has a firm grasp, which you’ll soon be able to test when you hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.
Wondering what color your baby’s eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If she’s born with brown eyes, they’ll likely stay brown. If she’s born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she’s 9 months old. That’s because a child’s irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after she’s born, but they usually won’t get “lighter” or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.) (source)
Baby’s Gender: We both are on the fence.
Baby’s Name: We have a name for a boy or a girl. Choosing a boys name was easy for us and was decided upon months ago but the girls name has been a little more challenging but we finally decided on one.
Weight Gained: 28 lbs
Clothes: Mostly just wearing dresses as they are the most comfortable.
How are you feeling: I am feeling pretty good. I have been napping in the afternoons which has been nice and I’m still getting out for my walks. Wednesday I had some cramping, low back pain and Braxton Hicks contractions and had Neil convinced it was almost time but of course here I am writing this so obviously it wasn’t time. I am also feeling pretty great that I AM OFFICIALLY A WAHM/SAHM!
What do you miss: I miss having more clothes to wear. I miss running.
How are you sleeping: Sleeping is going okay. I have been waking up around 3am and am wide awake. I have been either getting up and doing something like working on blog posts, organizing the nursery or I lay in bed and put Netflix on my phone.
Workouts: This week I went swimming and for some waddles.
This week our CSA was a little less greens heavy and a little more veggie heavy which I am happy about. I love my greens but due to the heat last week they didn’t last very long which meant rather than getting cooked up or put in a salad they were juiced.
This weeks share:
Red Bibb Lettuce
Dino Kale
Spinach
Kohlrabi
I haven’t experimented with kohlrabi that much but in the past we have had it raw in salads, cooked up in stir fries and in this root vegetable curry dish.
Snap Peas
Garlic Scapes
I love to make pesto with garlic scapes and I plan on making a nice big batch tomorrow.
I am a huge fan of summer squash. I like to keep it simple and just saute or roast with a little olive oil, salt and pepper but sometimes I like to get a little more creative and make dishes like my recipe for my Italian Almond Tart
Morning green juices have become a regular thing around our house for the past few weeks, we have one about 4-5 mornings out of the week. We finally have lots of local greens and our CSA to fuel our green juice habit. My favorite green juice this week was filled with collards, carrots, cucumber, lemon and apple.
I know that having a baby is hard work on the body and that breastfeeding and sleeping are going to be two of my top priorities once this baby arrives however I do want to set some postnatal running goals.
I would love to get back to walking regularly as soon as it feels right (and my midwives give me the okay), starting with short walks at first and then as I feel up to get going longer. I eventually would like to get back to running, even if that means starting out with a combo of walk/jogging.
I was curious to find out when other FitFluential moms had decided to get back to running post-pregnancy and to my surprise there was quite the range of answers:
“I was a slacker, I didn’t start running again until she was 6 months old and I could put her in the stroller to go running. My advice: don’t put too much pressure on yourself, your body is entirely different now. Do the best you can and be happy with the results!”
“I didn’t get back to running straight away because it didn’t feel right for me. I did other cardio, yoga and lifted but didn’t push myself because there were so many changes after baby. Find what works for you, your baby and family and do what you can when you feel you can.”
“With both of my boys, I started back at about 6-8 weeks after birth (both were uncomplicated deliveries). I had no stamina and was super slow, but I just tried to listen to my body and take it easy. If you are breastfeeding, nurse right before you go. Full boobs are not fun to have during running. Make sure you hydrate well as nursing + running can really dehydrate you. Even if you aren’t nursing, make sure you have a super supportive bra.”
“I started running at 6 weeks when I got the go ahead from the doctor but I was walking as early as the first week. Little bits here and there. I used a bjorn to bring E along.”
“While I totally have the desire to be running regularly and my body would certainly tolerate it.. I have a little boy who doesn’t sleep well at night (11 weeks old).. so sleeping and making sure I eat enough (so hungry while breastfeeding!) are much more important to me now than getting regular with running. I know it’ll happen in time though!”
“I started back at 4 weeks bc it felt right. I was super slow and did run walk intervals. I just listened to my body. I ran a 1/2 marathon at 6 months pp. Definitely agree with Erika … Nurse or pump before running! And drink LOTS of water of youre bfing.”
The reason I was curious about what others have done is because I would like to start “training” (I use that term loosely) for the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon in November. You’re probably now shaking your head and saying what is she thinking!? Well if you have been following Running With Tongs since last Fall you’ll know that Neil and I signed up for the Disney Half Marathon last January but due to his head injury a few months before we decided to defer to the Wine and Dine Half this Fall. At the time we deferred I wasn’t/didn’t know that I was pregnant, had I known we may have decided not to defer and just eat the cost of admission we had already paid. Anyways we did defer and are planning to visit Disney with my parents aka the race night babysitters and run (well I’ll be wogging) the Disney Wine and Dine Half.
That being said, I am comfortable with not being able to finish the race in the allotted 3.5 hours. I also know that I may even decide that I need to back-out all together once this baby arrives but I figure we are going, Neil is running and I already paid I might as well plan to at least try. Since I am not sure when this baby will arrive (i.e. early, “on time”, or past my due date) I haven’t settled on a training plan. I am debating between doing a modified Jeff Galloway Plan since I know I won’t have 18 weeks to complete it or doing the 12 week Hal Higdon Walking/Wogging Plan. I know I sound over ambitious and maybe even a little crazy but I figure I might as well try.
As I was saying in my Garden Cocktail post yesterday Neil and I decided to recreate our amazing dinner from Friday night. The best part of our meal was the Vegan Club Burger towering with tempeh, tomato, avocado, sprouts, aioli and pistou. My version is a little different than Kismet’s but it was just as good…might I even say better?
Serves 2
Ingredients:
8oz marinated tempeh, sliced into for squares (marinate below)
Tomato, thinly sliced
Red Onion, thinly sliced
Lettuce, thinly sliced
1/2 Avocado, thinly sliced
2-3 Burger buns (enough for 3 layers), lightly toasted
Parsley Mayo (recipe below)
Tempeh Marinate:
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
Whisk together and toss with the tempeh. Allow to marinate for 30 minutes to over night.
Parsley Mayo:
2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon garlic olive oil (or regular)
1/2 tablespoon jalapeno, minced
2 heaping tablespoons of vegenaise
Use a mortar and pestle to combine the parsley, garlic, salt, pepper and nutritional yeast. Add the olive oil and work together to combine. Mix in the vegenaise. Note: if you do not have a mortar and pestle use a mini food processor.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Place tempeh on a parchment lined baking and drizzle any extra marinate over the tempeh. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on the pan for 5 minutes.
Spread a dollop of mayo on the bottom bun top with lettuce, tomato, tempeh, another layer of bun, spread with a dollop of mayo, lettuce, onion, tomato, tempeh, avocado and top with the bun cover that has been spread with a dollop of mayo.
On Friday night Neil and I went for our traditional post midwife date night dinner. This week we decided to dine at Kismet Kitchens in Montpelier, a restaurant we used to love to visit for brunch back when we lived in Montpelier. We had an amazing dinner of Veg Carpacio and Vegan Tempeh Club Burgers and Neil tried their Garden Martini (fresh squeezed vegetable juice and gin with a salt and pepper rim).
Well we absolutely loved our meals and Neil loved his drink so much so that we decided recreate our meal at home for Saturday night dinner. Since any good date night in starts with a cocktail we decided to make our own version of the Garden Martini.
Makes 2 Cocktails
Juice Mix:
1 bunch parsley
2-3 large tomatoes
3 celery stalks
4 kale stalks (stems and leaves)
1/4 jalapeno
Juice everything above in your juicer and then comes cocktail time!
2 1/2 oz vodka or gin
1/2 oz dry vermouth
wedges of lemon
salt and pepper for the rim of the glass
celery sticks and jalapeno slices, for garnish
Alcoholic Version: Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, add about 1 cup of the veggie juice, the vodka or gin, vermouth and a squeeze of lemon. Shake and then using the strainer pour into a salt and pepper rimmed, ice filled glass and garnish with celery sticks, jalapeno slices and a wedge of lemon.
Non-alcoholic Version: If you don’t drink alcohol or are pregnant like me you would fill a shaker with ice add 1 and 1/2 cups of the veggie juice a squeeze of lemon and shake. Then pour into a salt and pepper rimmed glass that is filled with ice and garnish with a celery stick, wedge of lemon and slice of jalapeno.
