February Food Challenge - Week 3

by Rachel

This week felt more hectic - like by the time I got around to dinner, I wasn't feeling so into cooking. But we've managed to get through it. I modified some dinners to be different than what I had planned in my meal plan, but I'm really happy with how it all turned out - and glad that I don't have to feel 100% into it every day.

This week's meh of the week was the WF Collard Wraps. Paul is just really not into having fruit as an ingredient in non-sweet recipes. I think it might have been better with a really sweet orange - but the one that I had tasted a little like grapefruit?

This week's YAY of the week was Friday night's dinner with our friends Shacky and Vanessa. I just made a spread of different things to put in your bowl, and different kinds of sauce, and we all got to make our own bowl of food. The recipe I found on Post Punk Kitchen for the tofu was amazing and I've decided to make tofu with braggs and curry powder every time forever. I also have decided that I LOVE anything that has peanut butter in it...

February Food Challenge - Week 2

by Rachel

This week was great! We did have dinner out twice, and had some alcohol, but it was all in good fun, and we made a concerted effort to keep it GF and vegan.

February Food Challenge - Week 1

by Rachel


I was a little nervous going into this first week. I didn't have a meal plan set up on Day 1, and I didn't want to get too complex with the recipes.

I looked at the meal plan from YumUniverse, the meal plan from the Health Starts Here, and also took a look at the meal plan from Thrive (Brendan Brazier's book). I ended up cobbling together a list of breakfasts and dinners, and assumed that all lunches would be leftover dinners (I usually make more than enough for dinner, precisely so I have lunch the next day). Then I wrote all the ingredients into my shopping list and it felt really good to have it all home and put away, ready for the week!

Since we are already plant-based, this week wasn't that much of a problem. The gluten-free piece of this wasn't too hard to incorporate, especially with all the great recipes available online!

I think the highlight of the week was YumUniverse's Creamy Ranch Dressing - I made it twice, because we loved it, and Paul was putting it on everything!

The *meh* of the week was buckwheat almond chocolate coconut bars. I modified the recipe by using buckwheat instead of quinoa, and I added coconut, but I don't think that was the problem. I liked the bars, but Paul did not like the texture of it. I'm not sure if I could describe it accurately, but let's say it was more baked oatmeal than cake. In any case, I have a lot of frozen bars for quick snacks!

February is our food challenge month

by Rachel

Paul and I have decided to recommit ourselves to being plant-strong. There are several food challenges going on in February, so we're on board with both!

San Diego Trail Marathon - Race Recap

by Rachel

When Paul and I drove up to the start line, I had a hard time getting out of the car - it was in the 30s outside! Freezing cold, I went to check in for the race - and then sat in the warm car for the next 30 minutes until it was time for the course talk. We always like getting to the start of a race early, so we can get over the stress of rushing and driving there.

By the end of the race, it would be in the 80s - such a big temperature change in just a few hours!