Lan Su Chinese Garden

I'm back in Portland for my second week of my family rotation and this Sunday I took the expert guidance of my  Portlander friend Rachael for some food and afternoon activity. We went to high school together and it's been great seeing her more regularly this month. 

We went to Porque No for lunch, where the guacamole was fresh and the beans and rice bowl was everything I could want. My favorite part was the variety of fresh salsas. It's not a vegan mexican place, but they know exactly what you mean if you say "no dairy." 

Rachael pointed us in the direction of the Lan Su Chinese Garden. It was having a free day, and since adult admission is regularly $9.50, that's quite a deal. The lines were long, but moved quickly enough. 

The brochure claims this garden is considered the most authentic Chinese garden outside of China. I have no idea who the Chinese garden authenticators are, but it's pretty cool I guess. Much of the materials were imported from China as well.

It's supposed to be a nature-focused respite from the city, but on a free day I think that was a little lost, it was a little too crowded to be restful. Very beautiful though. You can feel these rock mosaics under your feet - it's supposed to help you engage all your senses. 

There's also a tea house. You can order it tea-ceremony style, or just an individual pot. I got the Wild Black, and it was a very smooth classic black tea. 

I had a great day, and then sat down and learned some things as well.

Yesterday was the first day in a new clinic, and it was interesting, but today's my day off. I'm about to go run, and then food truck for lunch?

Have you ever been to a Chinese Garden?

Gosh I Missed You.

During this weekend between rotations, I'm taking the opportunity to visit some favorite college friends that I no longer get to see nearly often enough.

Yesterday I stopped to see my beautiful college suitemate Candida - she's a middle school teacher. Getting the young ones excited about science. I got to briefly see her teach and catch up a bit. I miss you!

Another couple hours in traffic brought me to Santa Barbara. I got to catch up with my friend Bri - she's 32 weeks pregnant and gorgeous. I forgot to snap a picture, but I'll be back up in a couple weeks for the baby shower.

The beach was enjoyed. Volleyball was played. 

I'm staying with college roomie Christina. Rocking the super-cute zinc lips - no sunburn up in here. I pulled a rookie sunscreen move though and somehow burnt a tiny part of the front of my shoulders. You would think at age 23 I could successfully cover all my skin with sunscreen. You'd be wrong. 

A late lunch of vegetable fajitas at Little Alex's. I didn't finish all the tortilla or beans and rice but I definitely vanished all those veggies.

Followed by iced coffee. With my name spelled "Cary." I don't think any barista has ever spelled it right.

And some downtown shopping. I found a professional-looking dress that feels like a sweatshirt. That's like preparing for my rotation on Monday right?

It's so nice to see so many people I love so much. Hope you're all having a great weekend. 

Build Your Own Triathlon. Have Some Freaking Fun.

Doing only one type of exercise gets boring. Both for my brain and my muscles. So today, to counteract taking the last couple finals of my week (only 2 left), I did something fun.

(Besides eating these awesome overnight oats.)

Overnight mix: 1/2 cup oats, 1/4 cup yogurt, 4 oz. milk. Topped in the morning with strawbs and bananas.

So, something fun. 

I built in my own triathlon. Let's clarify, I'm not a triathlete really, and I'll save my swimming background for a different post, but I own a bike now, and as a student I get free access to the university pool, so sometimes I think I ought to take advantage of that.

I realized with the bike commute and morning run, I could swim after my finals and make it a triathlete day, so I looked up distances for a sprint triathlon:

Swim: 750 m (0.47 miles, 15 laps in 25 m pool)

Run: 5k (3.1 miles)

Bike: 20k (12.4 miles)

I added a few miles to my bike commute to make the distance, and I didn't do it all in a row, which made it pretty manageable. My day looked like this (sorry for the cell pics - I don't try to carry my camera on the bike with everything else):

5 am: Run my 5k loop, about 30 mins. 

6:30 am: Bike commute - 3.5 miles

8:30 am: Finals - Preventative Medicine and Biochemistry

9:30 am: Swim 1500 meters, about 40 mins.

(I doubled the race distance, 750 crawl without stopping, then 750 of drills and other strokes.)

Fancy hair. Adorable google lines. I heart swimming. 

11 am: Bike commute to lunch - 2 miles

Zipped up and hauled on the bike.

11:45 am: Seis de Mayo lunch with friends! I got a veggie burrito.

1 pm: Bike home with some extra mileage - 7 miles

I'm a little tired, but running very high on endorphins, and that's a lovely way to end a long week of finals.

And so, this calls for a big dinner. I actually don't know what I'm going to cook, but it's going to be awesome.

Mexican Meal: Spiced Black Beans, Veganomicon Potato Enchiladas

Let's talk about vegan enchiladas. As regular readers may know, I pretty much love the Veganomicon, and have never been disappointed when I follow one of their recipes. 

No surprise: these Potato Enchiladas were awesome.

If you don't own the book, I'll refer you to this post from another food blog, because it seems silly to type it all again. 

Here are my notes: 

The original recipe: Potato Kale Enchiladas with Roasted Chile Sauce

Our version: Potato Spinach Enchiladas (with Enchilada Sauce from a can...still delicious.)

1. The reviews I've read of this recipe say the sauce really makes it awesome and I have no doubt that's true, but these were awesome with a canned enchilada sauce as well, so you know they're good. 

2. The recipe is written for about 12-14 enchiladas, but we used the following:

  a. 2.5 pounds potato (about 2 large)

  b. 1 pound spinach

  c. All the spices etc. were multiplied 1.5 times. 

  d. Total yield: 20 enchiladas, using medium-size corn tortillas. 

        (2 enormous trays, 1 pan was 9x13, one was even bigger)

3. When I tasted the filling before assembly, I was concerned there was a little too much lime, but it turned out great once we put it with the sauce and tortillas. 

4. We used up one 28 oz. can enchilada sauce, but some people thought we should have used more. Personally, I like the top of my enchiladas with a little crisp, but not everyone does, so amp up the sauce if you're in that camp. 

5. We topped one tray with cheese when we took off the foil for the last 10 mins. This made a crispy cheese topping, but add it even later if you just want it melty. (Just my thoughts on that - I didn't actually eat any with the cheese). 

6. There were 6 of us and we had about 8 leftover enchiladas - about 2 a person is a great serving. 

7. Nutrition - (without cheese) 147 calories per enchilada. 

We served this meal with: 

   - Evan's awesome guacamole

   - Chips

   - Spiced Mexican Black Beans - this recipe from Food.com. It was great, we just subbed vegetable broth for chicken, only used about 1/4 of a jalapeno, and no cheese. 

   - More cheese for the omnis (AKA everybody except me). 

Thanks to all of you who were willing to try this vegan enchilada experiment.

A Play-By-Ear Vacation Day

Thanks very much to all of you who welcomed me to my Spring Break. Yesterday was very much a play-it-by-ear kind of vacation day, which is sometimes the best kind.

I mentioned a couple nights ago that I was going to make something from Veganomicon for dinner. I made the Tempeh Shepherdess Pie. The light was terrible in my kitchen by the time I finished, but since I cook big meals and eat a lot of leftovers, I had some for lunch yesterday. I made a half recipe in an 8x8 pan, which works out to about 6 me-sized servings, and the recipe calls for mushrooms, which I rather despise, so I subbed broccoli. I also used a sweet potato instead of regular for the topping. 

I've never made a shepherd's pie before, vegan or otherwise, but it turned out delicious.

After lunch we decided it was a perfect overcast day for some walking, and went to Kimberly Crest, a historic house in the area. It was built in 1897, and it's a popular place for weddings and things in the area. We just had a good time running around the gardens. 

After our little walk we warmed up with some tea and coffee. Boyfriend gave up coffee and black tea for Lent (way to go!), so coffee with cinnamon and nutmeg for me, green tea for him.

It was about snack time, so we stopped at Trader Joe's and I bought an apple. There's a frozen yogurt place across the parking lot, so boyfriend got vanilla with peanut butter cups and reese's pieces.

It was also the perfect overcast day for a movie. We saw The Adjustment Bureau. I thought it was a good mix of humor and adventure and it definitely held my attention. There are few people more charismatic than Matt Damon. 

The theater. 

Post-movie we were hungry for dinner. We wanted Mexican, but I always want a place with black beans and while there are a lot of good taco-stand style Mexican places in the area, it took us a little while to find an actual restaurant like we wanted. Zabella's is very highly rated on Yelp, but they only have refried beans, and it's a walk-up counter. We ended up at Cuca's #6. They had black beans (though apparently they don't always) but they DO use chicken broth in their rice and enchilada sauce, so I got a fajita burrito (not on the menu, but it's just the fajita veggies) with no rice and extra pico de gallo. The chips were warm and thick like restaurant chips should be, and it was a good meal. I saved half for leftovers. Boyfriend got enchiladas with beans and rice.

After dinner we got The Fighter from Redbox. Those ARE Oscar-winning performances, wow. I really liked it. 

Now we're about to go running together; it's another great overcast day. Happy Sunday!