Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Training Totals - August 2010

Better month for me!
  • Bike: 77 miles
  • Run: 80.23 miles
  • Swim: 5,100 meters
Two races this month:

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Lentils and Bacon

I'm trying out some new recipes.  We usually make pasta as a side dish, but that doesn't work with being gluten free.  The pantry was a little empty, but I had all the ingredients for this recipe.

This was really good.  I liked the smokieness of the bacon with the lentils and a little crisp from the carrot.  I served with pork chops.

Lentils and Bacon

1 cup lentils
4 cups water
6 pieces of bacon
1 onion
1 carrot
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
salt
pepper

Rinse and wash lentils.  Cook in hot water - about 20 minutes - until lentils are tender but not mushy.  Drain lentils and put back in pan.

Cut bacon and cook until crispy.  Remove bacon from pan and drain most of grease.  In remaining grease, cook onions and carrots.

Mix bacon, onions, and carrots with lentils.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add vinegar at he end (can add a little more if you'd like more tangy).

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Allergy Testing

I went in for a visit to an allergist today so that I could be allergy tested.  It's been about 8 years since the last one and I thought I had developed new allergies.  5 minutes of torture later, it was clear that I had.


Based on the extent of nut allergies, he recommended that I eliminate all nuts and carry an epi-pen all the time.  Fun stuff.

He also recommended the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network website as a good source of info on food allergies.  It's already been helpful!  For example, I learned that most people with peanut allergies can still eat food cooked in peanut oil, which is pretty cool.  That means I can still go to Five Guys and Chickfila!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Thesis/Dissertation Assistanship Award

Found out today that I received a Thesis/Dissertation Assistantship Award from the VCU Graduate School!  It covers about half of my stipend and my tuition through May.  There is also the expectation that I will graduate at the end.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Conference Presentations

My research work was presented at the ATS Conference in May of this year.  The abstract for that talk is available here.  Reference:

R Natarajan, JI Drake, HJ Bogaard, PM Fawcett, B Clifton, Y Gao, and NF Voelkel. The Molecular Signature of the Right Heart Failure Program in Chronic Severe Pulmonary Hypertension. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 181;2010:A6586.

In other news, the paper has now been rejected from Nature Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigation, and Circulation Research.  We actually got reviewed by Circulation Research and got comments back, which was a nice change.

Next up: American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (aka blue journal)

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Gluten Free Food Reviews - August 2010

I haven't done this in awhile because I tend to stick with a lot of the foods that I know are good rather than trying new things.  But, a few things I've tried recently that I like:

DeBoles Corn Pasta - this was a lot less gummy than the rice pasta and tasted almost exactly like wheat pasta!  It was even good reheated, which I cannot say for rice pasta.

Bob's Red Mill Mixes - I've made the pizza crust and the cornbread, both of which are very tasty.  They offer a lot of mixes and flour so you can do your own baking.

Annie's Gluten Free Rice Pasta and Cheddar - replacement for the Kraft Mac and Cheese.  It turns out better when you don't cook the the noodles as long as the box suggests.


Sticks Kebob Shop is a restaurant in Richmond and Charlottesville that is gluten free.  They even use gluten free soy sauce! 

Noodles & Company has a few gluten free options.  Stick with the rice noodles and avoid the chicken.  You can ask for the rice noodles in other dishes.