Holiday meals, Lentil pasta salad, How workouts are put together

Here we are, in that liminal space between Christmas and New Year's Eve, transitioning between two years. 

This year our family is enjoying a staycation during winter break. We are staying cozy at home (board games, Project Runway season 18), doing some fun things around town (ice skating, cocktails with neighbors) and catching up on to-dos that we never seem to have time for (getting the cars detailed, organizing closets, mending clothing). 

We vacationed in the Caribbean during Thanksgiving week- our first trip to that part of the world- and missed our usual Thanksgiving meal, so I made the same exact meal this Christmas Day. 

The plated meal, with an
apple cider-rum cocktail

This meal is fun and easy to make when there are two cooks in the kitchen. Usually for Thanksgiving, my sister is here to help. This year it was just our family of four and one guest, our new Australian friend. She's my new colleague who moved across the world to our town in early November, and stayed with us for a couple of weeks while she acquired an apartment and car. She quickly became integrated into our family; she's halfway in age between us and the kids, and the kids seem to think of her adorably as "one of them". We've had a lot of fun in this short period of time- shopping downtown and in thrift stores, doing our big cookie-baking marathon, going out for her first "American-sized" burrito, and hanging out over cozy homemade meals. She spent Christmas Day with us and we enjoyed cooking our favorite holiday meal together.  

Our Aussie friend had been telling us all about her Christmas traditions and how she has been making the traditional pavlova for her family's Christmas dessert. When she offered to make one for us, I knew it would be the highlight of our holiday. A pavlova is a thick meringue disk, tender on the inside and crispy on the outside, piled with whipped cream and lemon curd, and decorated with fresh fruit and a shower of powdered sugar. I've eaten a pavlova only once before when a former neighbor, an American woman who had lived in Britain for 10+ years, brought it over. 

I got to see this one being made from start to finish. Our Aussie friend came over the day before Christmas. She chose this recipe which calls for 6 egg whites for the pavlova; she reserved the yolks for lemon curd. Eggs and sugar have to be beaten to a stiff mixture. For the superfine sugar, I just took some granulated sugar and pulsed it in the food processor. We used the balloon whisk on the stand mixer. She's only ever made it with a hand mixer and thought the stand mixer was astonishingly fast and good at bringing the mixture together. There's nothing difficult about making the pavlova per se, but there are a few tricks, like having a very clean bowl, wiping the bowl and whisk down with vinegar to remove all traces of soap/oil, and adding sugar very slowly. I'm glad I watched it being made because the mixture has to be whipped until it is absolutely glossy and stiff. Then the mixture is spooned into a circle on parchment and baked at a low temperature for a long time. We left it in the oven overnight to cool. Next morning, I moved the baked pavlova carefully into a lidded cake container.

She made the lemon curd while the pavlova was baking and spooned it into a jar to be refrigerated overnight. Just before serving dessert on Christmas Day, we added whipped cream, and my daughter and two of her friends decorated it with berries. It is a stunning and light dessert. Very sweet, yes, but the lemon curd cuts through the sweetness. The tart berries add a wonderful contrast. I know I will make this again for a celebratory meal. Even the leftovers were fantastic with coffee the next day.

The pavlova, all dressed up

 

The pavlova just after baking

Santa cookies- how beautiful!- a
family tradition at my friend's house,
served to us at brunch

The kids assembled a 
gingerbread house on Christmas Day

* * *

The thing about big holiday meals is that you also have to plan and make all the regular meals while planning and prepping for the big holiday meal. I soaked and sprouted a big batch of brown lentils (masoor) to counteract all the heavier holiday fare. Then I steamed them lightly in the Instant Pot. Usually, I make Indian dishes- usal, salad, pulao, curry- with sprouted lentils, but this time I used them in a new-to-me way that worked very well- in a pesto pasta salad.

I had a box of mixed greens on hand, as well as cooked shell pasta. Plus a tub of pesto, so a big pasta salad sounded like just the thing to make. We took a big bowl of this to my friend's brunch, and it was great to eat leftovers for a quick dinner. 

Start with the dressing in a big bowl

• Pesto
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• salt, pepper, red pepper flakes

Add the other ingredients and toss together:

• Steamed sprouted lentils
• Cooked pasta
• Chopped mixed greens and spinach
• Diced bell pepper
• Mozzarella and parmesan

Lentil pesto pasta salad

Pasta salad with Quorn nuggets

* * *

Today's moment of fitness builds on all the previous ones to ask a basic question- how are workouts put together?

Let's remind ourselves of the 7 types of training- every exercise you can think of will fall into one or more of these seven categories, and together they all contribute towards fitness:

1. Cardio
   
2. Strength training
   
3. Core 
4. Flexibility
5. Plyometrics (jumping)
6. Speed, agility, quickness
7. Balance

Let's also remind ourselves of the weekly exercise recommendations for healthy adults:

• Cardio
• 150 minutes of moderate cardio
• OR 75 minutes of vigorous cardio
• OR a combination of moderate and vigorous
• Strength training
  
• Minimum of 2 sessions
• Balance training (for adults age 65+)
• 2 sessions

There are countless ways to put together workouts to meet these exercise requirements while covering different types of training. But here's a popular way I've seen it done. 

• Cardio is often done as its own thing, 2-4 times a week, 30-60 mins per session
• Depending on the person, this may be any form of cardio like jogging or walk-run intervals, running, biking, swimming, dance classes
• It can be outdoors or indoors
• The other types of training are bundled into workouts that are done 2-3 times a week in a gym or at home. These workouts may have 8-12 exercises which are doable in a 45-60 minute session, for instance,
  
• 2-3 compound strength exercises (those are squat, hinge, push, pull, press)
• 3-4 accessory strength exercises (focused on particular muscle groups like arms or legs)
• 1-2 core exercises
• 1 plyometric (jumping) exercise
• 1 balance exercise
• 1 agility exercise
• Flexibility is included in all of the above during warm ups and cool downs, and some folks like to add stretching in the morning or evening, or an occasional or regular yoga class.

Another common way that people do it is to do longer workouts 3 days a week, with 30 minutes of cardio followed by a 60-minute strength exercise routine. But you can see how training can be mixed and matched to fit each person's schedule and lifestyle.

My take home message today is that it is possible to touch on all types of fitness training by fitting it into our lives for an average of 5 hours or so per week. We're talking 5 out of the 168 hours in every week! That's not such a big commitment when you think about it. 

See you in the new year!