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Starring: Ryan Van Duzer – http://ryanvanduzer.com/

Is it any wonder that I spent New Year’s Eve scouring the web for yummy recipes that would use up the veggies-on-the-edge-of-forever in my fridge and not send me to the market, thus sending 2012 into a budget deficit?

Committed to creating a hearty breakfast or brunch that would send us to the hospital (post Football game of course) and see us through the visit with enough yummy in our belly that we did not succumb to the hospital cafeteria, I opted for VeganPiggy‘s Vegan Breakfast Burritos To Die For.

Since I had 6 packs of Tofu that I bought on sale for 59 cents in addition to all the veggies on hand this seemed like a winner. After swapping the carrots for broccolini, sautéing a few heirloom tomatoes in what I had left of shallots I had the happy experiment of omitting the salsa and using up what was left of Basiltops Vegan Pesto Habanero. We buy this at the Farmer’s Market in Santa Monica but you can get yours at their online store.

Did it work? I’ll say. MeatatarianMan Dave happily helped himself to seconds and confirmed that this was a do-again. Yay! A kitchen victory so early in the year.

But wait! There’s more. The all important Eagles game ended (Let’s not go there), kids confirmed they would not be home and there was the emotionally exhausting hospital visit. No way did I want to cook. I just wanted to sit in a dinner and be served copious cups of coffee (say that 3 times fast). Hubby had other ideas, he wanted to go home. Ugh. What to feed upon? I threw the left over breakfast burrito innards into a big bowl of wild rice that I had forgotten to serve last night and added artichoke hearts, more tomatoes and the few mushrooms I had on hand.  No photos, but trust me – it looked great and tasted great too.

Dave liked this so much that he didn’t ask for the Kelbasa he missed out on at breakfast and chose not to add the diced chicken breast I had set aside for him. Another win!

But reality has finally hit home. I can not always get out there to do my mid-week rides and I am losing out on those brief 20 milers. Which makes my Saturday training ride a little more grueling on my muscles then it needs to be.  To make it worse, the weight was piling on as much as the guilt.

The solution was to place my forever old bike, Belle, on the trainer. Now Belle has a soft spot in my heart. She’s a hand me down and almost as old as I am. Certainly 40 at the very least. The gears are stuck and can only shift from 3rd to 4th. But she took me through California coastal rides and across the desert in my late teens. You know, during those times when you just rode and rode because you could.

So on to the trainer goes the bike. Took a minute to realize I was going to need a climb block or I would be riding with the back end higher than the front and all the blood rushing to my head.

The pièce de résistance was an addition of a flat screen TV with built-in DVD player (keep in mind this is all outside my bedroom doors on the patio). Now with that snazzy addition I can cycle to my new training DVD, Train to Endure! (Part 4) Mental Agony! Cycling the Bay Area Back roads (CA2)

I don’t know about you, but I think I’m stylin’

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www.CyclingVideosOnline.com provides virtual reality indoor videos for spinning and cycling training.Take a virtual ride through the Western US and discover the beautiful diversity this region has!
Keep your legs spinning and the sweat dripping. These are high intensity workouts that go the distance!  

In our family hoagie, there is also a meal prep issue. At one time we had 3 different types of vegetarians in the house, plus two confirmed “Meatatarians“. There’s the no salt/sodium requirement for my mother, my own diabetes and my husbands love and never ending search of the perfect Philly Cheesesteak.  It can boggle the menu making mind.

Factor that in with the fact that I never really know who will be at the dinner table (Football practice, dates, work, going to friends, friends dropping by) and that my mother won’t allow extra food in her fridge for the next day and you have a whole new algorithm of size and quantity to deal with.

Today was designed to be left over day. With only one self sufficient son at home and my husband and I enjoying the calm that hoped for, there was no cooking planned, just help yourself to the odds and ends in the fridge and I’ll make up for it tomorrow.

Of course, this was all before the early morning texts came in from my Mom’s caregivers, and the new flurry of activity started in again. Mom wasn’t feeling well, mom wasn’t eating and mom wanted pasta… today.

Did I mention this was Christmas day? Day of the closed market?

So I set to work, wondering all the while what I could make that worked with what I had on hand and could also be made to satisfy one and all. Today became the day Baked Pesto Shells were born.

Here’s the down and dirty basics:

• Whole wheat pasta shells cooked
• Homemade pesto sans salt (I keep it in the freezer most of the time)
• Sliced mushrooms (Why? Because they needed to be used)
• Chopped leftover chicken breasts from last night (note to self – omit when vegetarian daughters are home)

Put the whole mess into a 9″ x 13″ baking dish, top with a little bit of parmesan cheese if the Philly husband insists and bake for about 35 – 45 minutes.

Viola! You have dinner that everyone will embrace and you are once again the coolest thing since sliced bread.

The 5k Memorial Run For A Cure will be held at McCarthy Park in California on Saturday, September 24th at 8am

Register for this event

Your membership or contribution to LACBC will be matched during the Jim Swarzman Memorial Membership Drive, thanks to our friends at AdventureCORPS!

When Jim Swarzman was killed by a hit-and-run driver in early April while cycling with his fiancee and a friend down in Encinitas, we were all devastated. Jim was a gifted ultra-distance racer, a great friend of LACBC, and a staunch supporter of bicycle advocacy. His killer later turned himself in, was found guilty, and is now awaiting sentencing. Many of you have already sent your condolences to Jim’s family, or honored him by contributing in his name to LACBC, and we thank you for that.

Now, for a short time, AdventureCORPS will generously match all memberships and contributions to LACBC in Jim’s honor, up to $10,000. So when you join, renew, or donate, LACBC will receive twice the amount you give. We ask that you please encourage your friends to become members now – whether they are new or long-time cyclists, whether you knew Jim personally or have been touched by hearing about his story. Big thanks to AdventureCORPS for making this possible and honoring Jim’s memory in this meaningful way!

Your contribution will have TWICE the impact in helping us create safer streets for all cyclists!

Join, renew, or donate today!

Its not new, either. The original idea of painting bikes white reportedly goes back to Amsterdam in the 1960s as an anarchist project to liberate two-wheel transport—white bikes were free, help yourself and then leave it for someone else.

Sadly, the bikes I stumbled across had a less artistic meaning. They are ghost bikes.

Does your community have another way of recognizing our fallen cyclists?