Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Tempeh Japanese Curry

Last night, I tried my hand at my usual curry recipe, but instead of beef chunks, I decided to try out tempeh.

Now, my curry recipe isn't anything spectacular. Just chop up some onions and potatoes (and tempeh) and use this amazing Japanese curry mix that I not only grew up with but won my work's chili cookoff my second month on the job.


Even though the box advertises curry with meat, as far as I understand, there are no animal products in the mix. The ingredients list wheat flour, palm oil, canola oil, salt, sugar, curry powder, spices, caramel color, and fancy shmancy scientific sounding names that, after looking them up, are definitely not based in dead animals. This is especially good news for me, since I just cannot get enough of this curry!

The only real bad thing about this curry is that its percent daily value of sodium is 34%. But hey, that's to be expected when you use prepackaged sauce.

As far as the tempeh goes, I had no idea what to expect. Certainly not this.


I had no idea what to make of this when I saw it. I shrugged, chopped it up, and threw it in the skillet like I used to with beef.


It sort of looks like tofu in there, doesn't it? If it weren't for the cobblestone pattern, I would have expected tempeh to taste almost exactly like tofu. Good thing I didn't, because I would have sworn of tempeh forever.

Now, to eat the curry like the Japanese do: with steamed rice! If only I had pickled vegetables on hand.


Delicious! I could come to accept tempeh in my curry from now on. I'm sort of curious how tofu would hold up, too. I suspect I will be making another batch of curry here in the next month or two (it's my favorite, after all!), so I'll give tofu a try then.



Tonight was also another RBRC adventure! Last week, to prevent injury, I did a jog/walk with Charlotte for the 3K; today, with the Bolder Boulder five days away, I decided to run the 5K. Now, with another weight loss stagnation looming (and with 2 lbs left to go for my May goal weight!), I decided to change something up with my routine. Instead of an easy 5K run, I decided to take it up a notch in terms of speed.

I finished the run with a 10:21 pace, which isn't bad, but I would still like for it to be faster. Still, I can't complain, since I was getting much too used to an 11:00+ pace. During my run tonight, I came up with a list of reasons why I can and cannot run faster than I have been.

I CAN RUN FASTER BECAUSE...
  • I'm 15 lbs lighter than when I ran my fastest mile at 8:13, and when my easy runs were a 10:30 pace.
  • I'm eating a lot healthier now than ever in my entire life.
  • I'm running more than I used to, and I've been running longer than when I ran my fastest paces. I have run 2 half marathons in the past three months. When I ran my fastest, I was working towards the half marathon distance.
  • It's in me. At one of the half marathons I ran, I reached the mile 1 marker with a time that indicated that I could PR if I was running a 5K, easily.
 I CAN'T RUN FASTER BECAUSE...
  • I haven't been.
Moral of this story? It's time to challenge myself during my runs and just start running faster. That's the only way I'm going to do it. I haven't done intervals in a long time; it's time to start that back up again. When I go out for my "easy" runs, I will definitely up the pace. My long runs are the only runs that will be at an easy, manageable pace. Everything else? Well, I'm never going to get faster by just increasing my distance!

For dinner after the run, I decided to try the roasted vegetable pizza.


It's basically salad on a pizza crust, and it was very yummy! Dark green leaves, tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, onions, and goat cheese. Amazing. It might be my regular eat at RBRC. I ate half, and the other half is waiting for me for lunch tomorrow!

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