Vegan Beef Wellington

Jon & I have really been into the show “Master Chef Junior”. The talent of those young kids is ridiculous! Along with being amazed at their skill, some of the challenges have also been inspiring. In one of the early episodes, the contestants had to take on Gordon Ramsey’s specialty, the Beef Wellington. They fared pretty well – their dish looked amazing – and I got to thinking it’d be a fun dish to create at home.

Now, usually there are recipes for Vegan _____ all over the internet. I was pretty surprised when the few recipes I could find just involved sticking a Field Roast into a puff pastry. A Beef Wellington has so many more layers of flavor than that! So I decided to come up with a recipe on my own eek!

I've never had actual Beef Wellington, but the omnivore in the household seems to like my creation. I thought the Wild Mushroom quarter loaf from Field Roast would play well with the rest of the flavors in the dish. I also made mushroom gravy to top off everything, but you could do a simple turkey-style gravy as well. I can’t say that this tastes exactly like Beef Wellington, but I can tell you the leftovers don’t last long at our house!

Ingredients
1 Wild Mushroom Field Roast Quarter Loaf
1 Sheet Aussie Bakery Puff Pastry
4 slices Peppered Tofurkey Slices
1 recipe Mushroom Duxelle (recipe below)
Mustard (for brushing)
Non-dairy milk (for brushing – I used almond)

This is a time-intensive recipe, but there are a few things you can do to cut down on the time, like making the mushroom duxelle ahead of time and leaving the puff pastry out to thaw while you catch up on your episodes of Scandal :)

Pre-heat your oven to 375 & make sure your puff pastry is thawed or is thawing. Pan-sear the quarter loaf in a thin layer of oil. While warm, brush with a layer of mustard and set aside.

Prepare the mushroom duxelle: Sauté 1/2c onions in oil until translucent. Add 1 tsp of minced garlic and 8oz of mushrooms. I prefer a mix of cremini and portabella. After the mushrooms have released their juices (about 5 minutes) add 1/4c red cooking wine. Continue to simmer for an additional 3-4 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a food processor or blender and process until the mixture becomes smooth. You should now have what looks like a mushroom paste. Transfer the past back to your sauté pan and cook the paste for 5-7 minutes until it has reduced. This may seem like a silly step, but it will cook off the extra moisture and prevent your Wellington from getting soggy during baking! Set the duxelle aside to cool.

Roll out the puff pastry into a thin layer. I usually use about 2/3 of the sheet (and make mini cinnamon rolls with the remaining sheet for dessert!). Layer first with the Tofurkey Slices and then the Mushroom Duxelle. Place the quarter loaf in the center and roll up tightly. Use non-dairy milk or water to seal the edges.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the puff pastry is golden brown. While the Wellington is baking is a great time to make your gravy.

Slice and serve with your choice of side – we’ve done mash potatoes, cheesy potatoes, as well as a hearty side of greens!

I did my best to explain my method, but I referenced this site a lot while I was making this for the first time. Great explanation of the technique!

Strength Training - Not to be Overlooked!

If any of you were following my goal to complete a half-marathon this year, you most likely know that I injured myself around week 12 of my 16 week training schedule. I had an inflamed patellar tendon ("patellar tendonitis") - a not so  uncommon injury to runners. Unfortunately most runners will experience 'runners knee' or 'jumpers knee' at some point in their career. It can be caused by things such as overuse, increasing mileage too quickly, or like my doctor pointed to - a lack of strength training.

I started with good intentions. I religiously woke up at 4:30 am to hit the gym with my hubby, who at the time was training for a body building competition. It was the middle of a Michigan winter, and too dangerous for me to run outside (hello, icy streets!). I would run 4 times a week, and do strength training 2-3 times a week, focusing on lower body one day and my upper body the next time around. And I would do abs! I would always work my abs. Well, my hubby's competition came and went, and with it so did my motivation to get my butt out of bed. I kept up the running, of course. I knew at some point my legs would have to carry my body 13.1 and then 15.5 miles to a finish line. Then, about a month after I had stopped strength training, my knee pain started. I had to take a full 2 weeks off from running, since I couldn't manage more than a walk without unbearable pain. I was frustrated not being able to run with the races so close & frustrated with myself for ignoring this critical piece of training.

Well, thankfully I was able to finish both races strong. I would be lying though if I told you I wasn't paranoid during the entire length of both races that my knee pain would come back at mile 9 and I would find myself walking to the finish line. My doctor confirmed this all could have been avoided if I just had kept up my simple strength training sessions. I decided I couldn't beat myself up about past decisions, and focused on eating healthy & slowly building my mileage back up. I also incorporated yoga-like stretching sessions to my workout routine - low impact exercises that wouldn't irritate my knee pain but would build up some strength into my muscles.

As my races were nearing, I started thinking about what I wanted to do next. I knew I had to put on some muscle (see my wake-up call post), but I also wanted to maintain my cardio level developed by all the running I had been doing. Talking to my fitfam online, a few people mentioned either Les Mills Pump or Combat as a supplement to my running. I settled on Les Mills Combat because it seemed to have the perfect cross-training mix. The 'cardio' days are a mixture of different martial arts style that take me back to my favorite kickboxing gyms I've worked out in the past. And the days focused on improving upper & lower body strength are perfect for runners, in my opinion. Lots of lunges &  lots of squats to scuplt sexy strong legs. Upper body strength is improved by focusing on simple moves using body weight, like pushups and burpees, or doing moves like overhead presses & tricep extensions with 5 to 10 pound weights.

Do not skip these workouts! Press Play!

I'm only 2 weeks into this program, but I can already feel an improvement in my strength. I stink at doing pushups. I hate them! Hate. Them. However, I can get through a set of 16 now without needing a break. And I feel more powerful during my runs, thanks to the hundreds of squats and lunges I've done by now.

I know it can be easy to overlook strength training. It's easy to pass it up for a cardio workout that will give you a higher calorie burn. In the wise words of Chalene Johnson though, let's remember that "Muscle Burns Fat!!" build up some lean muscle and your metabolism & body will both be thanking you! LM Combat can be a perfect fit to your workout regimen, especially if you are a runner. The 30-60 minute cardio routines are great for cross training days, and focus on pylometic training, and will help you in those last stages of your races. The 25-30 minute strength training DVDs I talked about above are a great second workout to do on days you have a run scheduled.

If you're a runner, please don't overlook strength or cross training. Whatever your fitness journey, I want you to be successful! I'm sharing these tips so you don't suffer the same setbacks I have. If you have any questions, or need any help, use me as a resource! I'd love to help!

I want YOU to make it across the finish line!

♥L

LM Combat: Day 6 Update

The past few days have been a bit busy for me between work & school, but I have been keeping up with my LM workouts! I can't stress enough how important it is to schedule your workouts at least a day in advanced. Otherwise, you'll keep pushing them back in the day until you're at a point you just want to sleep! I'm totally guilty of doing this in the past! For me what works best is dragging my butt out of bed earlier than normal and getting my workout done in the AM. Otherwise I just end up making too many excuses during the day & they don't get done!

Ok, I'm done with my speech. You came here to read how LM Combat is going, not to be lectured :)

On Thursday (day 4) a friend of mine came over and we busted our butt through HIIT: Plyo & Inner Warrior together. It's always more fun to workout with friends! I'm hoping a few more join us next time. Friday (day 5) was Combat 45, which was 45 minutes of punches & kicks. Pretty straight forward & simple to pick up on. Today (day 6) was Lower Body Lean Out. 30 minutes of lower body focus & my legs felt like jelly after! It's been awhile since I can remember doing so many lunges & squats in a week as I have this week! I am positive that all this leg work will be helpful for running & for sculpting some sexy legs! Wohoo!

I will admit that I have felt quite hungry during this 1st week. Of course, I'm only consuming around ~1200 calories as opposed to ~1800 that I will be eating the rest of the 60 days. The guidebook says you shouldn't feel uncomfortable hunger or cravings in the first week, but that you might feel a little "off". Well, I will admit that I've had to add in an extra snack these past few days because I have been starving! And I get cranky when I'm hungry, just ask my hubby :)

That being said, I'm definitely looking forward to bumping up my eating plan to 1800 calories. I'm taking time tomorrow while Jon is at work to plan out my meals for the next week. This program focuses on whole foods, eliminating sugary beverages, trans fats & refined carbs. I've got some great cookbooks I'm going to leaf through tomorrow (Karma Chow, Raw Food Real World, & Thrive) in order to build up my meal plan. Also, I hope I've kickstarted my metabolism enough to see some results on the scale this week! I'm normally not one to fixate on a number, but my 'number' has been stuck for over a year! My goal is positive change in my body composition, and to do that I need to lose some body fat.

Something that I've taken away from the workouts this week is that pain is temporary. These workouts aren't easy, but they ARE doable. It's funny what you can accomplish when you push yourself past your comfort zone. There are sometimes I want to quit. But I remind my self this is just 30, 45 or 60 minutes of my day and then I can have a break. The results are worth it!

Picture Source

Tomorrow is a rest day for LM Combat. I'll check back in with an update on my meal plan for week 2!

♥L

LM Combat: Day 2

I woke up today and my arms & shoulders are sore! A great sign that change is already happening :)

Day 2's workout(s) consisted of HIIT: Power and Inner Warrior. HIIT stands for "High Interval Intensity Training" and alternates between strength training and plyometrics to get your heart rate soaring! This workout reminded me a bit of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred workouts that I did with some friends a few months ago. If you like JM's workouts, you would like this!

This sweat is no joke.

The HIIT: Power workout also clued me in to how much I stink at doing burpees! Confession! I despise burpees. I usually avoid them if I'm doing an at-home DVD and use that time for a water break. But I want to change my mindset. I want to get better. So I'm adding something to my 60 day goals:


1. Lose 10-12 lbs (this is a combination of losing fat & putting on some muscle!)
2. Do 15 'real' push-ups in a row (I have zero upper body strength!)

3. Do 2 sets of 8 Burpees in a row! No cheats!

Inner Warrior is described in the fitness guide as a "Martial Arts-based strength and flexibility training to enhance your balance, coordination, and strength". I was thinking yoga. Les Mills was thinking "I'm going to make your legs shake until you want to cry".The last 6-7 minutes of the program was pure stretching however and that felt great!

I've ordered a heart rate monitor to get a true read on how many calories I am burning during these sessions. It should arrive later this week & is supposed to hook up with my Nike Sportswatch. I also have a friend coming over Thursday to workout with me. Working out is always more fun with a buddy. So grab someone - your mom, your brother, your spouse, or your neighbor - and get out!

♥L

LM Combat: Day 1!

Hey All!

Today I woke up nice & early to make sure I got my workout in for the day. I had some evening plans & I don't want to be screwing up on Day 1! The workout today was "Combat 30: Kickstart". I LOVED IT!

It may be hard to compare programs already, but LM Combat reminds me of Turbo Fire, just less coordination required. Turbo Fire is more choreographed, where as LM Combat is pure punches & kicks. It definitely got my heart rate up this morning! I feel like the routines will be easier to learn as well, and then I can really add intensity to kick it up a notch.

As far as eating, I'm on the 1200 calorie plan for this week. Normal caloric intake will be 1800 cals after week 1. I was a little nervous about getting hungry...1200 calories is a bit low for me. I made a point to eat every 3 hours and didn't feel hungry until dinner. Whenever I got the urge to snack, I just got up from my desk to get some more water.

There is a whole page of the nutrition guide dedicated to "The Wonder of H2O" with some ways to 'dress up' your water. I added a squirt of lime and some crushed up mint leaves to my ice water today. Someone at work asked me if it was a Mojito! Not quite, but still yummy.

Sure it's a mojito. Minus the alcohol & sugar! :-)

On deck for tomorrow is 2 workouts - my first HIIT workout of LM Combat as well as a stretching session, "Inner Warrior". Check back tomorrow to see how it goes.

I'll leave you with this motivational thought:

Commit to be Fit!

Get out there and get it done! Have a great night!
♥L

Les Mills Combat: The Battle Begins Monday!

I think everytime I get a package from Beachbody in the mail its like Christmas for me. No, really, it is! I guess I just get excited to start something new, especially when it comes to working out, so I was happy to get my Les Mills Combat package in the mail this week!

I ordered the "Ultimate Warrior" package which came with 4 additional workouts above what you would get in the base package. It also comes with training gloves, and a bonus workout because I ordered through a Beachbody coach (me - haha).

I had decided to give myself a week off from working out after my last race. There is no real rationale behind this other than the fact my body was super tired. So I used this past week to take a lot of walks, do some stretching, and get prepped for LM Combat!

I went over the workout schedule and decided that Sunday will be my day off from LM Combat. I still want to keep my running up as well, so I will be running 3 days a week, most likely Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday. Lastly, I went over the meal plan so I could get things prepped for the week.

Instead of giving several recipes for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & Snacks, the LM Combat nutrition guide defines portion sizes for food groups like starches, legumes, veggies, fruits, proteins & fat. The nutrition guide also lays out how many servings of each you need to eat for the day as well as a estimated calorie goal you should hit by eating the correct amount of each food group. This is a different approach than other Beachbody programs I've done, but I think it will give me more flexibility. The nutrition guide did include some sample recipes to give you some ideas.

Here is my mix:

Week 1 is a 7-day "Metabolic Jump-Start" where you eat a lower-calorie diet than for the remainder of the program. I took some time to organize my meal plan for the week. I believe that I mentioned this before, but I often repeat meals & snacks. Because I work & go to school, I'm short on time and it is just easier for me to cook in bulk & repeat meals!

Here is a snapshot of my Week 1 eating plan. I alternate between the two days to fill out the week:
Day 1
Breakfast - Tofu Scramble w/an orange
Snack 1 - Shakeology
Lunch - Brown Rice Bowl
Snack 2 - Ricecake w/Tofurkey slices and Strawberries
Dinner - Spicy Tomato & Lentil Soup

Day 2
Breakfast - Quinoa & Broccoli pilaf w/Toast & an orange
Snack 1 - Shakeology
Lunch - Avocado, Tempeh & Almond Salad
Snack 2 - Ricecake w/Tofurkey slices and Strawberries
Dinner - Southwestern Chick'n Salad

I think that is it for now. I will check in tomorrow with a report on how the first workout goes!

♥L

Know your Numbers! My Wake-Up Call.

A few weeks ago we had a health fair a few local gyms came to work as part of our on-site health fair. One of the gyms that came offered free body composition testing & I decided to check it out. Turns out this simple test that takes about 5 minutes was my big wake-up call! Body composition testing is simple & painless. You stand on what looks to be a scale with hand-grips coming off the side and the scale runs some numbers. One of the reps from the gym sat down with me to explain my results after they printed off. The print-out tells you how much of your weight is comprised of water, muscle, and fat. My BMI is in the normal range, but my percentage of body fat or PBF is 37%. The normal range for me would be in the 18%-28% range.

EEK.

I immediately thought "Dang, I haven't been doing good." but I want to stress that it is important to turn that negative thought into a positive one. "I know my numbers, now what am I going to do to change them?"

Ever since I had success with The Ultimate Reset last year, the scale has been stagnant, and now I think I understand why! Training for 2 long-distance running races definitely helped keep up my cardio level, but I have been slacking on strength training. In fact, my laziness in this aspect of physical conditioning is probably what led to some of my knee/soreness issues during training. The gym rep commended my training, but pointed out that running does zero for muscle building.

Ok. So I get it, I need to put on some muscle. What's a girl to do? Enter Les Mills Combat. It's one of the newer programs offered by Beachbody and appeals to me for a few reasons. 1 - It keeps up my cardio conditioning with HIIT workouts 2 - It combines aspects of several types of martial arts for a kickboxing-esque workout and 3 - The "Ultimate Warrior" package offers additional strength training specific workouts (upper and lower body). Perfect!

The timing of this revelation is great. I decided after my 25K that I was going to take a break from long distance running because it really has been taking a toll on my body. So I have been searching for a new workout to start now that my races are complete.

Here are my goals over the next 60 days:
1. Lose 10-12 lbs (this is a combination of losing fat & putting on some muscle!)
2. Do 15 'real' push-ups in a row (I have zero upper body strength!)

I'll be blogging along the way. One specific challenge I face is adapting my vegan diet to this workout program. A nutrition guide comes with the program and  aims for 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat for my daily mix, but doesn't outline many vegan options. I will just need to get creative! At the end of 60 days I'll report back my results.

My take-away for you is that if you find the scale is stuck, or you're getting bored with you same ole' workout routine, switch it up! Also, it is important to know your numbers! The body composition test I did was free because of the health fair, but normally costs about $15. That's pretty cheap to get some great insight into what's going on in your body! If you need an idea for a new workout program or want some more information on body composition testing, please feel free to message me - LauraLou.Fink@gmail.com