Blisters, "Pizza," Pie, and Shirts!

By: Matt Frazier

A Small Leak Sinks a Great Ship

Well, I’m a little bummed out today.  I’m still sidelined, not by injury, but by that frickin’ blister on my foot!  I figured that four days off would take care of it, but when I went for an easy three-miler yesterday to test it out, it was still bothering me.  There’s no way I could run my scheduled 20 miles today.  So I’m skipping it, and hoping that come Wednesday, I’ll be all healed up for my track workout. Fortunately, my next scheduled long run is a shorter one, 13 miles, so I’ll do the 20 that day and not have missed too much.

In case you don’t have time to take lunch today and you’re looking for an appetite suppressant, read on.  What I’m calling a blister isn’t really a blister anymore.  I drained it and it’s healing; the area is just really tender still.  I’ll refrain from posting a picture.  Or maybe I’ll set up a “Premium Content” area, where you can pay to view it!

More Food In Quotes

I have another vegan Thrive meal for you today, this one a sunflower seed beet “pizza.”  Sounds weird, I know, but a lot of the Thrive meals do, and they all turn out to be good.  To my knowledge, this is the first time I’ve ever eaten fresh beets; I usually get them in a can but we found these babies at the farmers market.  I thought that the deep red color and juice was a by-product of the canning process, but it’s not.  Check out the crime scene in my kitchen!

According to Thrive, beets are alkaline-forming, so this meal is good for reducing stress.  (The cheese, white flour, and high temperature cooking of real pizza, tasty as they are, make it highly acid-forming and rough on the body.  This partly explains why I feel crappy after I eat it.)  Two hours after we ate the beet pizza, we found ourselves in Hawaiian shirts and bare feet, reggae music playing, margaritas in hand, and without a care in the world!  Ok, this is a lie.

Even though we weren’t transported to the islands, Erin and I still found this meal surprisingly enjoyable, and better than the chickpea curry pizza we had last time.  Nothing will replace real pizza in my heart, but for a vegan, low-temp-cooked meal packed with nutrition, this one’s not bad.  And it’s simple to make, since most of the work is done in by the food processor.  Here’s the recipe.

Sunflower Seed Beet Pizza Recipe (from Thrive)

Ingredients for the crust:

• 2 cups ground sunflower seeds
• 1 cup grated beet
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, hemp oil, or EFA blend (I used a combination of coconut and hemp)
• 1/2 tsp parsley
• sea salt to taste

Ingredients for the topping:

• 1 tomato, sliced
• 1/2 Spanish onion, diced
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 cup grated carrot
• 1/2 cup green onions

For the sauce, use the spicy sun dried tomato marinara from the zucchini pasta recipe.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a food processor, process the crust ingredients until the mixture starts to ball up.  Lightly oil a baking tray with coconut oil.  Spread the mixture on tray about 1/4 inch thick.  Spread sauce over crust and add toppings.  Bake for 45 minutes, or until desired crispness is reached.

I’m still working on getting the crust crispy.  I have been leaving the pizzas in the oven for up to a half hour longer than the recipe says, but without too much success.  Maybe this is just how it has to be if you insist on low-temperature baking.

Ok, so it’s not the nicest-looking food I’ve ever made.  To make up for that, check out this beautiful photo of the blueberry peach pie Erin made with farmers market produce over the weekend!  Of course (warning: sappy husband comment ahead), it’s not just the pie that makes the photo beautiful…

Erin got the recipe from the Food Network’s website.  We eat well enough that on the rare occasions when we do have dessert, we don’t really get concerned about how healthy it is.  But this one’s actually not too bad, since a lot of the sweetness comes from the fruit.  And I don’t think I need to tell you that it was delicious.

Shirts (finally)!

After having to say “not yet” one too many times to people at races asking me if No Meat Athlete shirts are for sale, I finally did the legwork necessary to get some made.  And I’m very happy with how they turned out!  They’re technical moisture wicking shirts, meaning you can wear them during races to show everyone that you’re a proud vegetarian athlete.  And since that’s such a great way to spread the word out about my site, I’ve decided to sell the first batch at cost.  In fact, once you account for setup fees, I’m actually losing a little money on each shirt, but it’s all good.  All I ask in return is that when people at races ask you where you got it (and they will), you put in a good word about my blog!

The shirts are made by Badger Sport (what, you were expecting Under Armour for 12 bucks?), and as I said, they’re technical moisture wicking shirts.  I wanted to make these available as soon as possible, so for now you can buy them by clicking the “Add to Cart” link in the sidebar. But soon enough I’ll get a “Shirts” page up with more photos and details.