Lentil Pasta Sauce, and my First 10K Race

We're almost halfway through January and baby, it is cold outside. Easy comfort food is on the dinner menu these days. I have 47 pasta recipes pinned in my Pasta and Italian-ish recipes Pinterest folder, and decided to try one of them- the lentil bolognese from the beautiful vegan food blog, Rainbow Plant Life. 

The recipe uses pantry ingredients, and is fun to make. I followed the recipe closely, but skipped the wine. I did enjoy the resulting bolognese on some whole wheat spaghetti, but it does have a slight dal-on-pasta vibe for me. The rest of the family wasn't a big fan so I likely won't make it again. But it was refreshing to try something new for dinner, and I hope to keep working through my bookmarked recipes this year to find some keepers.

Lentil bolognese

My family's favorite three pasta dishes that I keep making on repeat:

1. Spinach lasagna
2. Stovetop mac and cheese (with tomato, like my grandma made and my mom makes)
3. Roasted vegetable pesto pasta salad

* * *

Watching: Project Runway season 17 (2019) on Netflix with my daughter. It is my first time watching this show and I must say it is very entertaining. My daughter is a mature 12 year old and while this isn't strictly a tween show at all, it has been fun watching it together. It is the starting point for many interesting conversations, which are difficult enough to have at this age. Yesterday's episode sparked conversations about body size and interpersonal drama, and what "kitschy" means, and when you call something kitschy, are you saying it is good or bad?  

(Mild spoilers ahead) This is the 2019 season, filmed right before the pandemic hit, and interestingly one of the contestants is named Kovid Kapoor. My husband and daughter were gobsmacked with this contestant's name. The fact is (a) Kovid (pronounced correctly with a soft D) is a beautiful name and not a common one, meaning intelligent (or similar?) in Sanskrit and (b) this show was filmed pre-pandemic and this guy was given this name 2-3 decades ago. With COVID-19, this name is sadly ruined. Also, interestingly, Kovid Kapoor had a fabric face mask as an accessory for one of his outfits- and face masks were almost unheard of in the US before the pandemic. Anyway, this all lead to some lively conversations about names and coincidences! 

Reading: My son, 7.5 years old, has always loved being read to, but has not wanted to read independently for fun. This changed recently when he got into the Dog Man and Cat Kid comic books by Dav Pilkey. I hope he will widen his reading horizons but for now I'm thankful for Pilkey's contribution to childhood literacy! We have started "snuggle reading" in the evenings- it means snuggling on the couch next to each other under fluffy throw blankets and reading together, him with his book and me with mine. I highly recommend this activity. He has also discovered the joys of snacking while reading and often brings along a little after-dinner snack like apple slices, a cheese stick or a handful of pretzels. 

In terms of blog reading, I'm doing some armchair travel and reading this epic Australian travel post by Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe- so vibrant and full of memories and anecdotes transporting me to beautiful places. 

And also this Marginalian post on sentimentality and mortality: The opening sentence got me in the feels- "How beautiful and unbearable that only one of each exists — each lover, each child, each dog; that this particular chance-constellation of atoms has never before existed and will never again recur in the history of the universe."

This year I'm doing some of the prompts from the POPSugar Reading Challenge for 2024. They often lead me to seek out interesting books that I would miss otherwise. Prompt #7 is A book about women's sports and/or by a woman athlete. I looked for a book about running and found this one at the library: Let Your Mind Run by Deena Kastor (published in 2018). It is a memoir of a professional runner, written simply and from the heart. Full of details of runs and races, I don't know that I would loved this book if I read it before my current interest in running, but it is the perfect book for me right now. I enjoyed the glimpse into a fascinating world of professional running and elite athletes- how their talent is discovered, how they train and live, how their careers unfold. Kastor spends a lot time talking about how raw talent can only take you so far and how mental training takes you much further. The subtitle of the book- "thinking my way into victory"- overstates it in my opinion, but clearly, mindset matters a lot. 

The message of this book really came home to me yesterday when I ran my first 10K race in a neighboring town. It was only the third(!) time in my life running 10 kilometers all at once, and the first two times were easy training runs in the last month. 

Subjectively, the race was kind of miserable. It was a crystal clear, sparkling, sunny morning, but extremely cold, with a sharp wind that stung my face and made my eyes tear up and my nose run constantly. I started too fast, quickly ran out of gas, and at mile 4.6 I was about ready to give up. I stumbled my way through the rest of the course, mentally berating myself for wanting to do this in the first place. But I made it somehow to the finish line where my running buddy K was waiting with a big smile and hug. 

Objectively, the race was fantastic, because after all that drama, negative thoughts, sniffling and crying, I finished it in under 1 hour 10 minutes with my best pace ever. Longest run, best pace (granted, the course was a pretty flat one which helped my time). My legs are toast but I am surprised and elated. 

I have a mild (and invisible) handicap when it comes to aerobic exercise like running- a genetic hemoglobin defect called beta thalassemia minor. It results in life-long chronic anemia that is unrelated to iron-deficiency anemia (which I also occasionally have as many women do.) This becomes a psychological barrier of sorts and I need to work on my mental training as much as my physical stamina. Anyway, I'm glad I read Deena Kastor's book and got the message that I clearly needed. 

Enjoy your week, and stay warm if you're in the severe winter weather blanketing the US!