On Getting Healthy: Beats for your Beets

I went for a little run yesterday and another one today. It wasn't anything too serious; today's run included lots of stopping for some grass rolling (by Oscar, not myself). I found myself looking at marathon calendars today, to see if there are any races in August or September that I can sign up for, but I couldn't decide on one. I need a new running adventure to look forward to. I don't know why, but I'm not feeling that fit right now even though one month ago I completed my first ultra marathon. So this week I am going to eat a lot of veggies (watch out carrots!) and get some long runs in after work. Maybe join the folks at JackRabbit for a group run. I'll work on hydration and getting a lot of sleep (I don't know why I added this sleep bit because I tend to sleep a lot already). It's not a weight thing or how I look that is bothering me. It's how I'm feeling. I actually lose weight when I haven't been running regularly because I get lazy about eating and skip dinner, but when I'm running a lot I am very hungry (watch out chocolate croissants!). Skipping dinner isn't fun. And a girl needs to keep her curves.

With all of that said, here is a delicious, healthy and completely outrageous salad that I created this evening. It is so good that I had to eat two.

Pickled Beet and Sauteed Tofu Salad
I used "Organic Girl" mixed greens for this.

Pickled Beets (do this first)
One large beet cut into matchsticks
One gala apple cut into matchsticks
4 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
a chunk of fresh ginger (about 1 1/2 cubed inch or so) grated
liberal sprinkle of salt
Mix all these ingredients in a large bowl and set aside. Even though the beet is raw the vinegar will break it down and "cook it".

Sauteed Tofu
4-5 tablespoons of peanut butter
4-6 teaspoons of rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons of fish sauce
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
a squirt of sriracha sauce
Mix all these ingredients together in a large bowl until the peanut butter is creamy, adding a bit more vinegar to get a loose consistency. (You can taste this sauce and adjust any of the above to fit your tastes accordingly. Essentially it should be a peanut buttery-salty-sauce. With a little kick.)

Cut 12 oz of extra firm tofu into small cubes. Add it to the peanut butter sauce. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan and add the tofu. Let the tofu brown and develop a crunchy skin on it and then turn. Repeat until it's nice and brown. You may have to play with the heat a bit so you don't burn or over brown.

Serve together on top of the mixed greens. You can use a little bit of the pickling juice for a little dressing.

I drank kombucha with my dinner.

And some dinner music...if you see me playing very mean air drums while I am running down the street (and you're like, "Whoa! Is that woman some kind of famous musician?"), the chances are good that it is because I'm listening to this song. Beats for your beets!