1,000 miles

I was on vacation this past week. I didn't have any vacation type trips planned for the year, so I figured I might as well use the paid days I have while I can. I planned to clean the house, finish some projects I've been meaning to do... that sort of thing. But my main goal was to ride up to 1,000 miles on my bike (my goal for the year.) I had about 200 miles to go and 9 days to do it in. It seemed very do-able. I have friends who have ridden over 3,000 miles this year, so it can't be that hard right? I ended up pushing myself and doing 30+ miles a couple of days, which made me quite sore and tired and very unmotivated to cook dinner let alone clean the bathroom. The hard work really paid off because I only had 17.3 miles to go on my ride today, which was the last day of my vacation. It had rained at least a couple inches the day before. I don't like riding in the rain, I will if I have to, but I didn't... which was ok, I needed the break. So I went to my usual starting point to find that the road was very flooded. Being a scenic road through a flood plain that sort of thing happens. I thought maybe I could ride through the lower areas, but when I saw a group of ducks swimming over the road I thought better of it. At 8:30 in the morning it was very quiet and there was a bit of a fog hanging in the valley that made everything look so serene. I wish I had a camera with me. I imagined that this is what the world would look like if humans no longer existed. But anyway, I got onto a road that wasn't flooded and had one of the most pleasurable solo rides in my life. I was in no hurry I just rode along enjoying the view. Every rider or runner I saw seemed as happy as I was. When I reached 17.3 miles I felt like thrusting my arms in the air and yelling... but I probably would have gotten hit by a car. At that moment I was passing by a church and I thought to myself, "This is what church should be like...."

Balsamic grilled veggies over Couscous

I came home from work today and thought to myself... what shall I do with the huge load of veggies I got yesterday from our CSA. Itching to try out a new recipe I opened up The Garden of Vegan cookbook by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. I decided to try the balsamic grilled veggies with couscous.
Recipe:
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 eggplant, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 Tbs olive oil
1 cup veg. stock
1 cup couscous
1- 14oz. can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs tomato paste
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp dry basil
2 Tbs capers (optional)

Confusingly, the veggies are roasted and not grilled as the title suggests, but whatever... So I had most of these ingredients on hand, but I made a few substitutions. I don't keep canned tomatoes around because I'm sensitive to high acid red tomatoes. I did however have fresh low acid yellow tomatoes so I diced up 4 medium ones. I also omitted the tomato paste. Rather than dry basil I used fresh. Also, something I've never understood is that the ratio of liquid to couscous is always equal in recipes. Maybe it's just the kind I'm buying, but 2 cups liquid to 1 cup couscous seems to produce better results. To give the meal more substance I added a can of white beans. Oh, and I didn't have any capers...

--- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In foil lined pan, lay out pepper, zucchini, eggplant and onion. Drizzle with oil and stir. Roast 15-20 minutes, or until veggies are browned. (My veggies were well cooked before they browned!) In small saucepan heat vegetable broth until boiling. Remove from heat, add couscous, stir and let rest. Fluff couscous to prevent sticking. In large pan stir together tomato, vinegar, sweetener, basil, (beans) and roasted veggies. Cook 5-8 minutes. Serve over couscous.

Thoughts... Good, but the sweetener was a bit off-putting. I really don't know why it was added. I would this again, but I would make a few more changes. I think some mushrooms would be a nice addition. Re-hydrate a 1/2 cup dry mushrooms in 2 cups water and you'll have your couscous cooking liquid too.