Monday, October 26, 2009

Grilled Vegetable Salad and Running

No picture, as the grilled vegetable salad was inhaled by the large crowd that I made this for.
But do give this one a try.

1 Red pepper, 1 yellow pepper, 1 hatch chili pepper (jalapeno or other), 2 zucchini, 2 yellow squash, 2 roma tomatoes, 1 large onion.

Char the peppers and then put them in a brown paper bag for a few minutes. This will make them sweat and it will be easy to remove the skin.

Next grill the other veggies. Helpful hint, I start grilling the onion when I first put the peppers on. The onion takes a little longer. Something else I found, grilling the onion whole vs. slicing it, keeps the onion moist and has a much better taste. I sprinkle some salt on the veggies (not the peppers) before grilling and a tiny drizzle of olive oil on the tomatoes only.

Grab yourself a nice looking serving bowl. Dice up all the veggies. Take a handful of fresh cilantro chop it up and mix that in. Now drizzle some evoo and a tiny splash of balsamic. Mix together and serve. I think you will have some happy customers when you serve this. My dad who isn't much of a vegetable guy, had 3 servings.

Well, the family has left, it was a busy 8 days.
I was able to sneak in a few workouts but did not get in a run. But, I did play a lot. Lot's of chasing, sprinting and wrestling with all the kids. My oldest nephew (16) is 6'4. All he wants to do is wrestle. I have to honestly say that he is very close to taking me down. Even though he was disappointed, I told him he was just a few years away from beating my ass, if he takes the time to learn about leverage........hehehe ;-)

My son who will be 11 in a few days, can not seem to get enough of running/sprinting. He is super super fast for his small and very light body. He was almost able to keep up with his tall cousin. This past Sunday we attended a soccer game at the local university. I didn't see much of the game as he and I ran around throwing the football and kicking the soccer ball on the beautiful grass on the side field. You see, real grass is a treat for us. In Florida mostly everything is St. Augustine Grass. So when we have the opportunity to play barefoot on real grass, it makes us happy. We played hard for over an hour. When I was playing with him I realized how poor my posture is when I run/sprint.
I carry to much tension, I don't keep my body straight and I DON'T SMILE!
As I watched my son, I noticed that 99% of the time he smiles when he runs. In the book Born to Run. The author mentions this. If you check out the pictures of the Tarahumara, they seem to be always smiling.....even after clocking 50 miles.
After looking at some pics from the weekend, I saw the one below that my daughter took of her brother running in the yard. Notice his posture, but more importantly the smile as he is running. (and he is barefoot)

Have a great day and if you're running.........SMILE!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

try smiling ALL the time... it really can change your mood. when you wake up in the morning, look at that face in the mirror and smile at it -- it will smile back! geo

Anonymous said...

Living in Orlando, FL, I know exactly what you mean about the grass. It really is a shame.

Yummy said...

I agree! I make this same thing all the time for large family gatherings. I usually use lime juice instead of balsamic. The veggie haters devour it!

Marc said...

Thanks George!!! It's true...smiling is oh so important.

Nick,
Thanks for stopping by! I feel the same way....luckily I live right next to a golf course where I sneak on early morning for some running..

Yummy,
I will try it with lime juice next time.....it's really a great dish and it looks beautiful too.

Marc

Dan said...

Marc

That salad sounds excellent and real simple. I think I will make it tomorrow night for dinner. It will be a nice treat after an ESE day, which I am doing tomorrow.

Quick question. Any reason for just oiling the tomato? when grilling?

Dan

Marc said...

Dan,
ESE is good stuff. I really like Brad P.

Oiling the tomato really brings out the flavor of it. The reason I don't oil the other veggies before grilling is that they stay firm that way. If you grill them with oil, they get mushy quickly.....tasty, but mushy. When the veggies stay firm the salad just works better.
Give both ways a try and see which one you like. By the way you don't necessarily need a grill, you can do it on the stove in a cast iron pan too.
Thanks Dan.

Marc

Ian Simon said...

Hi Marc,

I've been reading your blog for a while now, and realised recently that you're based in Naples. I'm going to be visiting Naples next week - over from the UK for a final training spell before racing the Ironman70.3 triathlon championships at Clearwater in mid-November.

It'd be great if you fancied meeting up - I've got very interested in the primal diet, and trying to match that to racing endurance sports - be nice to be able to discuss, as its still fairly rare in the UK.

Let me know if you're available to meet. I tried to email, but it got bounced back - my email is ian.simon at mail.com