by Sam Tackeff | Nov 30, 2014 | Meal Planning
Well, hello! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I stayed in New England, where my aunt managed to pack 45 people into her house (we held a coup last year to stop going to the large function facility, but I don’t think that anyone was expecting everyone to show up in the house!) I held back from taking leftovers, except the leftovers of the cheese plate, because, well, cheese.
This year I didn’t sign up for a Turkey trot, but managed my very own little Turkey trot (to coffee), and back, because our office had free t-shirts on the line to any of us who completed a 5k, and I am highly motivated by free things. While in the fitness spirit, I managed to score a few Black Friday deals (mostly on cycling/running/fitness gear), and am looking forward to the goodies coming my way.
My winter training plan was challenging this week – base line testing in swimming, cycling, and running. While running theoretically is my best sport of the three, I’ve been focused on really slow distance running, and that, ahem, shows in my pace. Looking forward to speeding up a little bit as I push forward in three sports! I missed two of the seven workouts (because of the holiday gym schedule, and my general lack of preparation), but this week I’m hoping to jump in 100%.
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Week of November 30th
After my house got a deep clean this weekend, I also did the same for the refrigerator – I did my best today to toss all of the old condiments, jars with mysterious contents, and find more appropriate containers for things that I’d managed to eat half of. Things to use up in my kitchen: after the purge, little was left – cabbage, fennel, celery, beets, onion, mint. Some miso butter, bacon, parmesan, a hot dog, and some milk.
Saturday: Trader Joe’s Make Your Own Meal! I generally try to make us a meal that we both share, but some nights it works best for us to head to the store and get our own meals. Devon got franks and beans, and I got a frozen wild salmon entree. I made myself a side of fennel salad.
Sunday: monkfish with miso butter, mashed potatoes, fennel salad Monkfish is a meaty (odd looking) fish, that stands up well to bold flavors – in this case, the leftover miso butter that has been sitting in my fridge for weeks. (Half white miso paste, half butter). One kitchen mistake was to mash my baby potatoes with my immersion blender, and they ended up a tad gluey.
Monday: fresh ham steak, cabbage and onions, green beans. I’m still not 100% sure how I’m going to cook the pork – possibly a sear and roast job – but it’s defrosting right now in my fridge, from my CSA haul.
Tuesday: chicken sausage chili. This was supposed to be turkey chili, but I forgot to buy the ground turkey at the grocery store, and happen to have a few chicken sausage links that needed to be used. I’ll likely spice the meat with cumin, dump in a jar of salsa, and a can of tomatoes, and add any extra vegetable that I can find in my freezer.
Wednesday: köfte (Turkish meatballs) with mashed cauliflower and tomato salad. These spicy little meatballs are one of my favorite foods.
Thursday: A holiday party! The party itself isn’t dinner, but I’ll be out until around 10:00 pm. Emergency eggs if I end up needing dinner, but most likely, I’ll be too stuffed.
Friday: out!
What are you eating this week?
–– Sam
by Sam Tackeff | Nov 23, 2014 | Meal Planning
I got back in the pool today. It’s been a while, my arms were feeling it. My strokes were terrible, and I was *very* slow. But I got in the pool today! I got in about 1500 yards, warm up, a 10×100 set, and a cool down – to test my baseline 100 meters before I dive headfirst into my winter training plan. Next summer my triathlons are going to get kicked up a notch!
The weekend was low key. A dinner party with old friends, some headway with Jo Nesbø’s ‘The Bat’ – the first in the Harry Hole series. Reading my way through two gorgeous new cookbooks: Aarti Parti: An American Kitchen with an Indian Soul, and Persiana: Recipes from the Middle East and Beyond. There’s not much I like more in life than curling up on my couch with a mug of coffee and a new cookbook. Many bookmarks in each so far.
I picked up a few new products at Trader Joe’s worth mentioning – a honey trio sampler, the Sicilian single varietal extra virgin olive oil collection, uncured turkey cranberry apple sausages, pumpkin pie mochi, and a jar of sambal matah, an Indonesian condiment with shallots, lemongrass, and peppers. I served it tonight with the chicken – that red shmear – and it was hot, punchy, and good! What can I say? I’m a sucker for new Trader Joe’s products (and by sucker I mean… they are almost always great.) Do you have any current Trader Joe’s favorites I can’t miss?
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Week of November 22nd
Thanksgiving week! Boy, am I looking forward to all of the eating. We’ll see if I manage to get a Turkey Trot in there, too. Things to use up in my kitchen: pretty much the same as last week – polenta, eggplant, onion, turkey cranberry sausage (cook for breakfasts), feta, goat cheese, eggs, sweet potatoes, cabbage, a whole mess of herbs, a little bit of applesauce, and bacon.
Saturday: a dinner party! We headed out to my friend Kevin’s house to have a little dinner party with him and his girlfriend, and another couple. I’ve known Kevin now for almost 18 years! It was all very civilized. We ate mushroom turnovers (yep, I brought Trader Joe’s to a dinner party), a garlicky kale salad, a winter fennel salad that I made, and butternut squash risotto. Dessert was apple crumble, coffee, and scotch.
Sunday: rotisserie chicken with mashed potatoes I know that I’m going to need to eat more green vegetables, but I got in a massive fill at the party last night, and all I wanted was Whole Foods hot bar.
Monday: rotisserie chicken and christmas lima stew. When one has a rotisserie chicken for dinner, there are leftovers. Fortunately, I had a crockpot of christmas lima’s going in some broth this afternoon – a perfect vehicle for leftover chicken.
Tuesday: pork tenderloin, brussels sprouts, and sweet potato. These two sweet potatoes have been sitting in my house for weeks, and I’ve set out some pork from my meat share to defrost in the fridge. I also have a dearth of bacon, so it might be pork on pork to jazz up this dinner.
Wednesday: egg night. At least I think that’s what’s going to happen. I try to make one night a week egg night, because it’s super easy, and also because I always have a few dozen eggs in the house that need eating.
Thursday: Thanksgiving Linner! We used to go to an antiseptic banquet hall for Thanksgiving every year, until a good part of the family staged a coup. Now we’ll be heading to my aunt’s house, and I know it’s going to be good.
Friday: out! Or more likely…a large pile of greens and some restorative broth.
What are you eating this week?
–– Sam
by Sam Tackeff | Nov 15, 2014 | Meal Planning
Happy Saturday! It took me a week to recuperate from my little race-cation, and I’m ready to start eating a larger percentage of real home cooked food in my diet again. Next week I’m starting an off-season triathlon training plan (which should be interesting, because I don’t really stick to training plans during race season), and my goal is to be as prepared as possible so I can fit in work, life, and other things without losing my mind.
Given that I’m starting the off-season, naturally, I registered for the Cambridge Yulefest next month. It’s a 5k in Cambridge, and you get sweet winter hats, and good beer at the finish. People dress up, it’s festive. I haven’t done a 5k for a few months, so it’ll be interesting to see if my off-season training actually speeds me up a little bit.
Today started several hours later than planned – I’ve been sleeping like a small child since my big race, clearly my body needs it. We made a fruitful trip to Guitar Center, and got a lot of work done around the house. I spent some time on some freelance projects. We watched How We Got to Now – Sound on PBS, and had some take out sushi.
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Week of November 15th
My week is full of evening activities, so the focus for dinners is things I can prep in advance, or make very quickly. Things to use up in my kitchen: polenta, eggplant, onion, italian sausage (cook for lunches), feta, eggs, wild rice, sweet potatoes, beef stock, cabbage, and bacon.
I’m also planning on making a pot of applesauce, to make use of some sad apples on my countertop, and eating my way through the pumpkin butter. I’ll stew the eggplant to make a punjabi eggplant curry for my lunches. There’s about one slice of kringle left, but I don’t think that’ll make it through until tomorrow.
Saturday: Japanese takeout. Our typical order at a restaurant that specializes in rolls includes a snow mountain maki (tempura shrimp topped with crab, avocado, and mango), a trio of spicy rolls (tuna, salmon, and california), and a volcano roll (california with spicy mayo).
Sunday: bratwurst with cabbage and sauerkraut. I haven’t quite figured out what else to do with the massive cabbage sitting in my fridge. It’s been there for a month.
Monday: working late (dinner out). We’ll be each fending for ourselves on Monday, because I have some later evening engagements.
Tuesday: Eggs with feta. We have a band recording at the house, so I like making some late night breakfast for dinner. This concept is still just as exciting as an adult.
Wednesday: spicy chicken sausage, roasted sweet potato, and sautéed greens with garlic. This is another one of the use the freezer meals, because my meat share arrives, and I’ll need some more space! (I get a once monthly meat share from Walden Local Meat).
Thursday: wild rice bowls with cabbage and bacon. Another late night because of the WCAB Board meeting. I haven’t quite pieced together how to actually make this meal, but it sounds like it’d work.
Friday: out! Likely our regular date night restaurant. I usually order one of three things – chicken piccata, a lamb burger, or crab cakes.
And that’s a wrap! What are you eating this week?
–– Sam
PS: there it is. Last bite of almond Kringle. Didn’t even make it through the writing of this post.
by Sam Tackeff | Aug 22, 2014 | Challenge, Fitness, Meal Planning
After my first triathlon this summer, I decided to try giving up music while running outdoors. During the triathlon, where headsets are prohibited by the USATF, I managed to get through nearly two hours of swimming, biking, and running, without it, and found myself really enjoying the quiet time. Without music you can listen keenly to your body and your surroundings. I find that I’m slower, but I think that really it’ll help me continue to build up my fitness, and more importantly, my mental fortitude. When you have nothing to listen to other than your thoughts, you have to make a conscious effort to fill your head with positivity in order to keep going strong. Last weekend I went for my longest run of marathon training so far, 13.1 miles on the coast, with nary a song nor podcast to keep me company. I did, however, have this view:
Now, about that positivity. I wouldn’t exactly say that marathon training is going smoothly, but it hasn’t been abject failure. My long runs have all been *excellent* learning opportunities – specifically what NOT to do when running. 10 miles without food? Bad idea. You will be tired and crabby. Forget your water bottle? Good thing you brought some cash. Thank you kind people of Starbucks. Chafing under your left arm? Next time, there’s body glide. Yeah, I don’t quite know how that happened either. Fortunately, I’ve been tweaking as I go along, and each part of this adventure has me itching to continue. That’s really my ultimate goal with this marathon training: work hard toward something new, and have fun doing it.
I’ve also been doing it my own way: plenty of cross training in the mix, and as many new ways to challenge my body and mind as possible. Last Wednesday I woke up before dawn to head out to Harvard Stadium for a full tour with November Project. Stadiums are a challenging mental exercise. You head up the big steps, down the little ones, and work your way up and down, again and again, until you’ve worked your way around 37 sections. It has that hamster wheel feel to it, although working out with hundreds of other people at once makes it a spectacularly fun form of torture. My “carrot” was a 6 month old piglet named Phoebe, who was waiting to play at the last section of the day if you got your best time. My kind of motivation, and you bet I got to play with her!
Another major piece of this marathon adventure has been fueling my body with delicious (and nutritious) foods. Here’s some brutal truth about endurance training: many people gain weight while training for a marathon. I did not want to do this! A large part of training is learning how to effectively feed yourself on long activities, as well as during your every day life. It’s easy to get into the habit of rewarding yourself with food post workout, but I’ve long tried to avoid this, because usually it’s a hard habit to kick when you reduce your milage and energy expenditure. Instead, I’ve been rewarding myself with home cooked dinners and packed lunches. Yep, very wholesome of me. Here are a few of the best last week, re-shared from over on my Instagram.
Breakfast for Dinner. Cooked up some ground beef and onions with salt, garlic powder, and cumin. Added chopped potatoes, browned for a few minutes then added some chicken stock and covered the pan so the potatoes would cook through. Added a few extra eggs, and dinner is served!
Seafood Mixed Grill. King salmon, monkfish, and sea scallops, and beautiful dry farmed tomatoes I picked up at Formaggio Kitchen.
Zucchini Noodles with Meat Sauce. I shred, and then salt zucchini generously in a colander for 20-30 minutes. Give them a good rinse, and I usually try to wring out all the excess liquid. Usually I’ll pat with paper towels. If you have time, you can put them in the fridge for an hour to further the drying. And then just cook for 1-2 minutes in a good hot pan, and I’ll season and coat with a little olive oil. Topped with meat sauce made with Rao’s marinara.
Dinner, Island Style. Pork chops, seasoned with salt, allspice, and garlic powder. Cooked in a little coconut oil on medium high, about 7 minutes on each side. Salad: cabbage, mango, and mint, with a dressing of lime, fish sauce, a little coconut oil for sweetness, and water.
Crispy salted chicken leg with a carrot, tomato, cucumber and avocado salad with cumin dressing. Quick tip: to cut lots of cherry tomatoes, put away the knife, and take out your kitchen scissors!
What’s on your table this week?
Are you training for any particular events this fall?
by Sam Tackeff | Jul 7, 2014 | Meal Planning
Okay, I recognize the fact that this “recipe” has two ingredients. But some of my favorite recipes are really that simple, and in the summertime I’m not inclined to do anything that feels too much like cooking. One of my current summer goals is to make full use of my glorious Vitamix – so I’ve been doing a whole bunch of green juices and smoothies lately. Typically I try to go for all vegetable varieties, but as a post workout snack, I’ll stick some fruit into the mix. Here was yesterday’s sweet-tart combination:
Blueberry-Orange Smoothie
1 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries (wild organic from Maine, if possible)
1 cup orange juice
Put blueberries in a blender, add a cup of orange juice, and blend until smooth. {To this, you could add some plain yogurt, or a frozen banana, or an ounce of gin, or some frozen spinach if you are feeling virtuous, but frankly, it’s quite refreshing on it’s own.}
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For the holiday weekend we drove up to Montreal, but I was excited to get home, because waiting for me was my brand new bicycle, Beyoncé! I haven’t had my own two wheels in several years, so I spent a few hours on Sunday evening taking her around and practicing starting and stopping. The seat height is about 6 inches taller than I’m used to, but the bike rides like a dream. My first ride was a 12 mile leisurely (read: very very slow) trip. I tried to avoid pedestrians, birds, and squirrels, and made it safely home in one piece… Once I get my training wheels off, I’ll be using her for longer distances, maybe some commuting, and dare I say it, triathlons?
The other part of my Sunday was spent food shopping. I made my way to the store (three actually, none of which had real full fat buttermilk?!) to stock up for this week’s meals. I’ve been reading my way through Diana Henry’s new book A Change of Appetite, and dreaming of all the vegetal foods that we’ll be eating to make up for our gastronomic excess this week in Canada.
Per usual, I start out with a list that changes on a whim based on what’s looking good at the store. (Forgive the spelling mistakes…”buratta”?? I should know better.) Wild sockeye steaks were on sale for 9.99, so that’s coming up for Monday night, nectarines were as hard as rocks, so they got replaced by cherries, and while I had the full intention of actually cooking something last night, I ended up with chopped up leftovers tossed in salad for dinner.
Happy Monday everyone! What will you be cooking up this week?
by Sam Tackeff | May 3, 2014 | Fitness, Meal Planning
Last week I neglected to meal plan, which pretty much meant that most of our meals were odd combinations from the pantry, or take out. And truthfully, with a dead microwave, freezer meals take longer than they used to, so we ate a few extra meals out than normal. I still managed some good home cooked dinners – the lamb chops, baby potatoes, and salad; grilled chicken + broccoli; and roasted chicken with tomatoes were standouts – but I do wish that I had just sketched out a few extra ideas before the week had started! I really do feel for people who are trying to meal plan but can’t quite get into the habit – sometimes it’s hard for me to do, and it’s one of my favorite weekly activities!
In fitness: I’ve been ramping up my active time these past two weeks – CrossFit, indoor cycling, lots of walking, and a little bit of running – and I’ve been trying to get outdoors as often as possible now that we’re experiencing some real spring weather! A few weeks ago my Jawbone UP died, and I finally got a replacement, and have been working my way back up to a daily ten thousand step goal. On weekdays this is usually the walk to and from work, and a brief walk at lunch. Weekends are tougher – I have to resist the urge to melt into the couch. Today I walked around Fresh Pond for the first time this season (pictured above), and got my fix of cute puppies and a beautiful view. To work up some motivation, I signed up for a spring DietBet to help get into optimum racing shape, and registered for the B.A.A. 10k for an easy goal to work towards!
Week of Saturday, May 3rd
Cook Smarts was having another “favorites week” and everything looked good to me! Four meals (listed below) with Cook Smarts, and the rest are pantry meals/out. This afternoon I shopped at two stores: Trader Joe’s and the new Wegman’s in Chestnut Hill. For non East-coasters, Wegman’s is a chain of supermarkets with a cult following, and they’ve just opened their first location in the Boston area. Think Trader Joe’s meets Whole Foods meets Costco – bonus points for lots of organic produce and meats, a phenomenal hot bar, and a closing time of midnight.
Saturday: Spinach salad, with cheeseburger and egg. I went to a blogger lunch at a steakhouse this afternoon, and a surprise burger came out after we’d had dessert. Everyone else went in for photos, but nobody was eating it – clearly the blog crew is different than my CrossFit people – that meat would have been GONE… So with glee I had it wrapped up, and took it home to make dinner with leftovers!
Sunday: Eggs, basil pesto sausage, and salad. I like having eggs in my back pocket as an any night of the week meal. The sausage is smoked chicken and turkey from Trader Joe’s – a favorite of mine.
Monday: Cook Smarts Meal #1. Thai tacos with mango salsa. For me this will be Thai Taco Salad – featuring marinated beef, mango cucumber salsa, and a Vietnamese nuoc nam sauce with lime and fish sauce (I love Red Boat). Green beans on the side.
Tuesday: Cook Smarts Meal #2. Shrimp vermicelli bowl with cucumber, mint, and carrots. I make a version of this Vietnamese salad every few weeks, but I wouldn’t have sprung for shrimp on my own – but somehow with it “on the meal plan” I felt justified this time around.
Wednesday: Cook Smarts Meal #3. Pesto pasta with peas and fennel salad. Easy comfort food, and noodles are an excellent vehicle for pesto. For this meal I sprung for a fancy pasta from Formaggio kitchen, but will gladly make this with zucchini noodles once they are plentiful and in season. Cook Smarts had paired this with a strawberry fennel arugula salad, but I can’t bring myself to purchase out of season strawberries, so plain fennel salad it is!
Thursday: Cook Smarts Meal #4. Chicken with honey lemon butter and roasted potatoes. This was a winter favorite, but it’s spring time! I dropped the parsnips because I’m tired of roots now that spring has sprung, but the original recipe with parsnips was definitely delicious!
Friday: out.
What’s on your table this week?
–– Sam
