Creamy Brussels Sprout Slaw

This Salad is a great combination of sweet, tangy and fresh, and loaded with quality nutrition. Brussels sprouts are a great source of a number of vitamins and minerals, particularly Folate, Vitamin K and Vitamin C.  With the health fats from pecans and extra virgin olive oil, as well as the garlic, this is also a great heart healthy meal. Just remember to not go too overboard with the dressing, as it is fairly calorie dense, and dressings and sauces are where people tend to go overboard and end up consuming many more calories than they think they are.

Salad

1.5 lbs brussels sprouts, thinly sliced

1 large navel orange, flesh removed from skin

1 cup dried cranberries

1 1/4 cup chopped pecans

 

 

Wash brussels sprouts, cut off ends, cut from top to bottom and slice very finely with a sharp knife (or use a food processor with a shredding disc) and place in a large bowl. Peel orange, open into segments and remove skin from the flesh. Use your hands to break apart flesh into small pieces. Top with dried cranberries and chopped pecans. Mix well to combine.

 

 

Dressing

2 cloves garlic, chopped finely

Juice of 2 small lemons (or 1 regular sized)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil/avocado oil

1/2 cup tahini paste

3 tsp. miso

3 tsp. maple syrup

3/4 cup water

Prepare the dressing by whisking all ingredients in a mixing bowl (or combine using a food processor).

 

That's it! Pour the dressing over a portion of salad (be careful not to go overboard!) and enjoy! Also keep in mind that the base of this salad is Brussels Sprouts. Just saying.

 

Plant Based

With so many 'diets' out there these days, the understanding of each can easily get misconstrued through second hand (or third or fourth of fifth etc) interpretation. So many claim to be the ideal way of eating, but how can that be true for everyone? It's our opinion that you should eat the foods that make you feel and perform the best, that you enjoy the taste of, that fit your lifestyle from a 'time to prepare' standpoint and that you simply believe in. We believe in a plant based diet.

A Plant Based diet is one that focuses on getting the nutrition your body needs from plants (duh). While Julia is a "vegan" (because she uses no products whatsoever that are animal derived, in whole or part, including cosmetics, clothing, accessories, cleaning supplies etc) her diet is 'plant focused'. A 'vegan' diet doesn't necessarily mean a healthy diet. Coke, oreos, French fries etc, all vegan, but don't necessarily resemble plants, and certainly don't improve health and performance. A truly plant based diet focuses on whole, unprocessed plant foods. Fruit, vegetables, beans, grains etc. Our diet is largely fruits and vegetables, some grains (mostly those that are gluten free), nuts, seeds, & beans. We do use some nutritional supplements to get additional protein in our diet, typically adding plant protein powders to smoothies.

We focus on creating meals that fit certain criteria:
1. They need to taste amazing. This is left to Julia.
2. They need to provide a balance of macro and micronutrients.
3. They need to be realistic in terms of time for preparation. We're both busy and so the quicker we can whip 'em up, the better.

If you're not vegan, not a big deal. A lot of the meals we create can easily be accompanied by fish, chicken, beef, etc. We just urge you to buy free range, grass fed, wild caught, organic etc. Better for you, better for the animal, better for the world.

Bottom line is that you really can get everything your body needs from sources that are not animal derived. Just because we were brought up on milk, meat and potatoes, cheese and crackers, lunch meats and a plethora of other animal products that we're led to believe 'do our body good', doesn't necessarily mean we need to still believe this.

We urge you to do some self exploration. Try some different ways of eating. Cut out certain foods, adopt new ones, see what foods make you feel best and regain your health, energy and life!

Raw Rainbow Noodles with Spicy Almond Sauce

This is a fresh take on the traditional pad Thai recipe. Made with a combination of colourful raw veggies and a deliciously addictive almond butter sauce.

(serves 2-3)

Noodles

• 2 medium zucchinis
• 2 medium carrots
• 1 medium beet
• 1 long red pepper, sliced in thin rings
• 3-4 green onions, thinly sliced
• handful fresh cilantro

Peel zucchinis and slice them into thirds, then spiralize them into thin noodles. Repeat with carrots. Peel beet and slice in half before spiralizing. Transfer zucchini, carrot and beet to a large serving bowl. Top with red pepper, green onion and cilantro. Set aside while you prepare the sauce.


Sauce

• juice of 1 lime
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 inch piece ginger, chopped
• 1 Thai chili pepper
• 2 Tbsp. maple syrup or agave
• 2 Tbsp. tamari
• 2 Tbsp. melted coconut oil
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 3/4 cup water   

In a blender or food processor, blend all sauce ingredients. Sauce will thicken if kept in refrigerator before serving, so add 2-4 Tbsp. water to thin if necessary before adding to noodles. When ready to serve, pour sauce over vegetables and toss to combine well. Serve and enjoy!

 

Redemption Run

Well today was the first race of 5 races in 5 weeks for Brian (and at least 2 in 5 weeks for Julia). The half marathon was at 8:00AM and Julia's 5k wasn't until 8:45AM, so we took separate cars. The race site isn't too far from our place, but parking was fairly limited, so we both left early just to be sure. I was up shortly after 5AM (the usual wake up time lately) and Julia was up just before 6AM.

My morning routine was pretty much as it normally is. I had my espresso and standard morning smoothie. This morning I also had 2 bananas and a serious mug of beet juice. Beet juice is a source of organic nitrates (not to be confused with those used as preservatives, which should be avoided). The theory (lots of evidence showing promise, but you know how these things go) is that it helps increase blood flow and oxygen delivery to muscle. Sure, why not. I like the earthiness taste of beet juice anyways, so no big deal. It's just alarming sometimes (especially when dehydrated also) when you're pee is a deep blood red. ANYWAYS. I had the beet juice and bananas and a little bit of cytomax. Got to the race site and parked with ~15 - 20 minutes of time to spare. Well, not really to 'spare' as we still needed to pick up our race kits, bib number, timing chip etc and affix to our person. Everything went off without a hitch and I got to the start with time to spare. Time to pretend I was warming up, or something.

There were only 25 or so people in this half marathon (more in the 11k and 5k, but still a small race) which was kind of neat! I got right up to the front and was actually the first person across the timing mats at the start, that was a first! Anyways, the first kilometer was pretty quick and there were 4 guys ahead of me. One of which I wasn't terribly worried about. He was actually out front, but I had a feeling he wasn't all that experienced and would gas (he did). After about 3k I was in 4th and right behind third. We stayed like that for about another 3k and then I passed him at an aid station and he hung on behind me. The course is two laps of 9k or so with a bit extra at the beginning and end to get it up to 21.1km. On the second lap, we started to catch and pass the back of the pack 11k runners. Nice to not be so lonely out there! At around 13k I realized that I was actually starting to distance myself from the guy behind me a bit and so just tried to hold that pace (~4:20 - 4:25/km). Around 15k it started to hurt and I had definitely slowed, but so did he. I looked back at around 17km and he was probably about a minute behind, so as much as it sucked, I just kept reminding myself of how much fast he'd have to run than me over the last 4, 3, 2 and then 1km. He never caught me. Right at the end there is a small out and back and I saw that I had 260m on him with about 1.5k to go. That was plenty. I took it easy and grinded up the final climb and congratulated some of the 11k folks coming towards the end of their race. I enjoyed the last 250m or so into the finish line. I actually REALLY enjoy these small races. Everyone gets their moment crossing the line, instead of just being another person in a procession. Julia was waiting for me at the finish and snapped some pics. Too bad we couldn't get any of her in action!

I finished in 1:34:16... good enough for 3rd overall and not awful considering all of the training I've done this week in my lead up to Tremblant 70.3. I actually ran a bit faster last Saturday on a 21.4k training run, but that was flat, cooler and I was able to get some calories in during.

Julia kicked butt too! 23:52 for her 5k and was 2nd female out of 36, 9th overall out of 72! Not bad on a hilly course. She'll easily go under 22 minutes this year. EASILY!


See Julia's Race Result on Sportstats

See Brian's Race Result on Sportstats

We got home and Julia left to go to her Greco Lean and Fit Workout! WHAT A MACHINE!

The Naturally Driven Lifestyle

Julia and I are recommitted to having an online presence. Our website (naturallydriven.ca) is back up and running, and while there isn't much content on there at the moment, sty tuned because it will start filling up with awesome stuff soon.

Along with the website and this blog, we're on instagram and twitter and will be sharing all sorts of photos, recipes, information, articles and inspiration on the benefits of a plant based diet and what it means to be 'Naturally Driven'. So follow the links above and FOLLOW us on those social media platforms! Tweet at us and mention us in Instagram posts and we'll do our best to reply and share your content also!

I (Brian) will be the one (almost exclusively) contributing content to this blog. Julia's responsibility is creating insanely delicious, healthy, balanced, amazing vegan meals. My job is to eat them, write about them and share it all with the world!

On this blog, we'll also share stories about what we're doing with regards to being active. We both run (We're actually racing tomorrow!) and I also race triathlons and Julia is a member of a fitness club called Greco Lean and Fit (high intensity interval training) with the goal of just becoming a better overall athlete.

We also love to take on massive challenges...

If you scroll through the earlier posts on this blog, you'll see that we spent 4 months hiking the PCT, and while we didn't finish the trail in its entirety, we covered a massive chunk (3000km) and will definitely be back to take it on again. FROM THE BEGINNING!

Last year we did a relay (her and I) from Ottawa to Katrine (a small town in Muskoka). The total distance was 387km and we covered that in 4 days. It was all to raise money ($3700 in the end) for the Ottawa Mission in support of their Thanksgiving Season efforts.

Who knows what adventures are in store for us next! ;-)