Friday Feast – Bean and Tuna Salad

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It’s Friday evening and you want to make something quick, yet healthy. So you look through your pantry and fridge and try to figure something out. If you’re like me and go shopping on the weekend, you might have a limited source of ingredients. If I haven’t planned ahead, Friday meals can be a bit “scrounged.” So here’s what I came up with tonight.

Bean and Tuna Salad with Sweet Potato, Broccoli and Kale

It actually didn’t take long at all. I grabbed a can of pinto beans and kidney beans (no salt added), two cans of tuna (in water), and a can of diced tomato with green chili for a bit of a kick. Rinsed and mixed, and then I used about 1/4 greek yogurt to hold it together. You can also season with any spices that you wish. For the veggie side I peeled and shredded a sweet potato in my cuisinart. To cook it I just put it in the microwave for a few minutes. I cooked the broccoli and kale in coconut oil on the stove – just until it turned bright green. Throw it on a plate and I have a quick and healthy meal!

Macronutrient breakdown

 

What kind of healthy meal have you put together quickly?

Is your bike clean?

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One component of triathlon or cycling that often gets neglected is cleaning your bike after a ride. When your bike is out on the roads with all the dirt, dust, and grime, it’s inevitable that the “gunk” gets caught in the moving parts. That stuff collects in the bike’s moving parts and the bike performance suffers and you can wear through the parts more quickly. If you find your bike isn’t shifting as smoothly as it should, or you start to hear some squeaks, the first thing to do is make sure it is clean and properly lubricated. My bike was in need of a little TLC after several rides so here is how I quickly cleaned it up.

cleaning with bucket and rag

I removed the front tire and then set my bike up on a workbench for easy access since I don’t have a stand. My cleaning solution was a couple drops of dish soap and a little warm water in a bucket. Then I wiped down the frame, brakes, derailleurs, cranks, rims with the damp rag. I had a dry cloth to get any excess water off if needed.

rear cassette

To get in between the cassette cogs, I used the edge of a damp rag. For more thorough cleaning a toothbrush could be used. But for my quick session, the cloth was good enough. I tried to make sure I got ride of as much visible grime as possible.

The moving parts then need to get lubricated (a dry chain is a bad thing!), so I propped up the rear tire which allowed me to spin the cranks to move the chain.

propped rear wheel

Eventually I will need to do a more thorough cleaning, which can require a bit more time and attention,and even some disassembly to get into the tight spots. But for now this will suffice and my bike is clean and ready for my next ride.

How often do you clean your bike?

Friday Feast – Tempeh and Sweet Potato Salad

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Tonight’s feast was a very easy and quick dinner that I made. Since it’s the end of the week, I didn’t have a lot of food, but I had a few items that made for a tasty meal.

tempeh and sweet potato salad

Spinach salad with tempeh and sweet potato

I built the meal around the protein. I had tempeh so I decided to use that. I chopped up about a third of the package and heated it up in a pan with just a little bit of olive oil. I also had a sweet potato so I peeled and sliced it, and then just microwaved it for quick cooking. I filled my salad bowl with the last of my baby spinach, chopped half the green pepper, tossed in some pecans. I added a little balsamic vinaigrette and topped with fresh shredded parmesean cheese. The result was a delicious and healthy meal!

macronutrient distribution

 

What was your Friday Feast?

Looking forward

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Every so often I will post a quote that I find motivating, encouraging, or just rings true to me. On Thursday of this past week, I tweeted a quote from Steve Prefontaine, aka “Pre.”

It ended up be retweeted many times – more often than usual, so it must have resonated with a lot of people. It was even quoted in an athlete’s blog, as something that resonated with her as she reviewed her ironman training for the week. For me the quote is a reminder that, although you need to be aware of the good things you have done and the achievements you make, it’s important to acknowledge them, learn from them, but keep the vision forward.

In the realm of racing and training, we need to understand our race results and our training results from breakthrough workouts. But if we continually look at them and think “wow, look at what I did,” we are missing the true picture. We should look at our results and think “that was great, now what can I do next that is even better?”

Learn from your accomplishments and certainly be proud of them, but keep the vision forward to achieve bigger and better things.