Italian Chickpea Salad

All day I was in the kitchen making food for my marathon fundraiser; a meditation and restorative yoga class followed by a vegan dinner. I didn't even know what the temperature outside was until 5pm when I left to head to my yoga studio for the class. I dropped stuff, made a few messes, but ultimately, it was a meditative experience in itself cooking these dishes. All I could think of was the beautiful people who were going to eat the food and meet each other and bliss out during my class. It was such a great class and I raised a good amount of money for my fundraiser.


So, like it's last Monday and I just finished an 8 mile run. I'm feeling great, a little sore in my left IT band area but nothing awful. I had new shorts on and a new tank top, my run was great, everything was wonderful. That night there were crazy thunderstorms so my strength training in Central Park was cancelled. I do some strength workouts at home including leg lifts with a 5 lb weight. I wake up and I can't walk. I still can't walk right and I can't sit on my left side. I'm in so much pain that I can't do my long run this weekend; I'm sidelined it again: the most frustrating position to be in when training for a marathon. Earlier I cried and I wanted to scream but....it is what it is so I'm making the best of it. I'm going to bike this weekend and work on upper body strength. Eat right and rest. That's all you can do with an injury so that it doesn't turn into worse later on closer to the marathon. Thanks to the beautiful people who came to my meditation class tonight, I'm that much closer to reaching my fundraising goal.

We worked on happiness tonight in class, I talked alot about finding happiness within oneself and I guided people into a yoga nidra meditation with positive thoughts, good vibes and realizing how it's so important to love yourself. I can't wait to do more classes so click on the link above that says my classes so you know when they are coming up; new yorkers, I want to see you there!

Tonight I made italian bean salad, tofu veggie spring rolls and raw chocolate cake. I already blogged the cake and spring roll recipes and shared them a billion times so here is the Italian bean salad. All recipes were vegan and gluten-free.

2 cans of chickpeas, drained and washed
2 organic sweet peppers
1 cup of organic cherry tomatoes
1/2 of an organic cucumber
2 tbsp of dried basil

Dressing
1/4 cup of olive oil
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1 tsp of red pepper
1 tbsp of sea salt and pepper
1 tbsp of powder garlic

Drain the chickpeas and wash. Set aside. If you bought chickpeas in the bulk aisle, soak overnight, rinse and cook until soft. While the chickpeas are cooking, cut up the pepper and cucumber into small pieces. Cut the cherry toms in half or quarters. Combine the chickpeas and veggies in a big bowl and sprinkle on the basil. Pour in all the dressing ingredients and mix well.

Note: for the spring rolls that I mentioned above, I baked the tofu. I drained the tofu block and cut it into strips, added spices and then baked at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Don't overbake, just keep in the oven until slightly brown.

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