All cats are grey, and so is the sky

A quick 8Km today managed at about 5:10 pace. Not sure where I pulled that from, I just ran with out thinking and that is the pace my legs settled into. Still not 100%, my biggest issue at the moment is my calves, they are giving me some grief so I am keeping away from hills. I have a massage booked for next week, I know I should have done it earlier but time kept getting away from me. Last week was a 45 km week, I am hoping to put together 55 to 60 this week. Now, I have promised to post a few recipe's so here they are. Flukey Dahl So named because for years I have tried to perfect this and I never quite got it right, mine always came out too bland. So last night I was making red lentil soup, but was missing a few ingredients and just had to make do, the result, a fantastic flukey Dahl. It takes a while to cook, but only 10 minutes to prepare so you can relax until it's ready. 1 cup of red lentils 1 small brown onion 4 whole cloves 1/2 tsp of cumin seeds 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds 1/2 tsp coriander seeds 1/2 tsp ground garam masala 2 cloves of garlic Dried chilli flakes to taste 2 table spoons of tomato paste (that is one of those little packets) 1 Litre Vegetable stock 1 carrot chopped fairly roughly or 1 cup of chopped sweet potato (or a bit of both) Rinse the lentils until the water runs clear Roast the seeds and whole spices in a dry frypan until the seeds start to pop, then grind them with a mortar and pestle and add the chilli and garam masala. If you don't have a mortar and pestle go to the shop and buy one, Kidding, you can use ground spices and the mustard seeds are fine whole, just add them to the onion and garlic. Saute the onion and garlic with a little olive oil until the onion is soft, add the spices and cook for another 2 minutes, add tomato paste and cook for another minute. Add the lentils, vegetable stock and carrots/sweet potato. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and simmer covered for about an hour and a half, or until the lentils are completely broken down and the consistency is thicker than soup. Serving suggestions - Pour over toast (trust me, this is actually very good) With rice With Naan or Roti bread Brown Rice Salad I pinched this one from the back of a packet of Sunrice pre-cooked brown rice, but it is not total plagiarism because I have modified the preparation method and added some extra stuff. This will make enough for 2 lunches, or 1 side dish for dinner and then another serve for lunch. 1 packet of sunrice pre-cooked brown rice (or 2 cups of cooked brown rice) 1/3 cup semi sun dried tomatoes (get the low fat ones from the deli) 1/4 cup sliced kalamatta olives (in brine not oil) 2 tablespoons of pine nuts 1 tablespoon of sunflower seeds 1 tablespoon of currants Juice and rind of one lemon In a little olive oil gently warm though the tomatoes, olives and seeds/nuts, the idea is to get a bit of colour on the pine nuts, when the pine nuts are golden add the currants and cook for another minute, then add the rice. Keep cooking this for another minute stirring constantly, then add the lemon juice and rind. That's it, season to taste but go easy on the salt because of the olives and serve at room temp as a side dish. For lunch I re-heat in the microwave on low for about 60 seconds just to take the chill of the fridge off and stir in a tin of tuna. Personally I love the Safcol grilled tuna (in springwater). Now I thought this would be really bland and yuck, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was delicious. Hope you try these and they work out for you, they are both very filling and extremely nutritious, but most importantly very very yummy. Post a comment if you have any questions.