It’s been a pretty swell summer: a move to the country, two trips to Chicago, one trip to Switzerland, our first houseguest, and even a couple side trips to London. But now, summer’s over and there are no big travel plans out on the immediate horizon. I’m a little relieved.

I’ve been looking forward to having a good stretch of time here in the new place. I feel like nesting. And resting. And getting back into my routines, like my daily food blogging, plus a few new routines that I’d like to adopt:

• Morning stretching and strength training – I’m trying to do about 20-minutes of exercise every morning, focussing on stretching and strength exercises, plus a bit of warm-up skipping for fun. So far, it’s been going okay, but I can tell my plan needs some structure if I’m going to see results. I’m thinking I’ll alternate days with yoga and strength. For yoga, I’m doing the ashtanga series I’m familiar with. For strength, I’ve been mostly doing sit-ups, push-ups, burpees, that sorta thing, but I’d like to work in the monkey bar gym. We’ll see where this goes. One is better than zero!
• Studying – I’ve just started taking a Human Nutrition short course through the Open University, the UK’s big online uni. In a few more weeks I’ll start Human Biology. I’m excited about each but studying is weird. And by weird I mean hard. I’m interested in the material though and I think it’ll make me a better blogger/writer/learner/eater/liver/etc.
• Rambling – Now that I live in the country, I want to take advantage of all it has to offer. And that means lots of walking and rambling in the hills, forests and fields of England. I bought a pack while I was in Chicago and really need to get out and use it before winter comes.
• Getting free – One of the big goals of living in the country is to be financially independent in the next two years. I’ve got a long way to go with my own projects but with consistent work, I’m pretty sure I’ll get there (and even if I don’t, I’ll have a fun time trying). I haven’t quite worked out how to turn self employment into a routine yet. But in the spirit of just getting started, Tim and I designated Wednesdays as the day where we work on our small business. We’ve only had one such Wednesday, but it helped us get started, and that little spark was enough to get us motivated about doing even more work. We just gotta keep those sparks firing. And hey, tomorrow is Wednesday again! Bring on the fire.
• Walking the dog – we don’t have a dog yet but we’re planning to get one as soon as we get permission from the landlord and find the right pooch for us at one of the rescue shelters.

Some old routines I plan to keep around:

• Cooking and eating
• Walking
• Taking pictures
• Reading for pleasure (in bed, right before sleep)

So, a new house, a new routine, a new pet, and probably a few new recipes as we take advantage of the weekly organic box. Here comes one now… check out tonight’s Leek and Potato Soup at the bottom of this post!

Food and Exercise Log | Tuesday, Sep 8, 2009

Yoga and Stuff

Some skipping. Some sun salutations A and B. Some burpees. Some wall-sits. What a hodge podge! Need some structure.

Breakfast

Buckwheat crepes with blackberries and cream

Recipe: Buckwheat crepes (not the vegan version)

Lunch

Cornmeal Crusted Tofu with Salad and Fried Potatoes

This chili-crusted tofu is the bomb – another hit from Veganomicon.

Recipe: Chile Cornmeal-Crusted Tofu

Snack

Vegan chocolate and beetroot cake with blackberries and coffee

The blackberries were foraged from the farm. Love it!

Recipe: Vegan Chocolate Beetroot Cake [Limes & Lycophene]

Walk

About an hour’s walk around the farm with Tim.

Dinner

Leek and potato soup with three bean salad and french bread

The soup was was so good – simple ingredients, easy to make (see recipe below). Thanks to Tim for putting this together. Sensational!

Recipe: Leek and Potato Soup from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.

The salad also came from the Bittman book. I did a non-broiled version of his Broiled Three Bean Salad. Word of advice: it’s way better broiled.