Wasabi & Quinoa Soups, Race Nerves & Spicy Salad

I’m glad the weekend is here, but this isn’t exactly a relaxing one while preparing for the half-marathon tomorrow which I’m pretty nervous about and not looking forward to leaving the house at 6 AM! I’ve been combing over many articles and books for last minute advice on eating, marathon manners, what to pack, etc. I’ve also been grazing today food-wise with mini, carb-intense meals per the Jeff Galloway Half-Marathon book. Thursday I made one of my fave comfort salads for dinner, a kale and sprout-loaded monster drenched in Kristen Suzanne’s Nacho Hemp Sauce.

So huge it made a great lunch Friday too. To me, the sauce tastes exactly like nacho cheese flavored chips, but stronger and fresh making a great “snack chip” salad. :-)

I’ve also been getting creative with the huge chunk of high protein tofu I bought for the week.

Hubby and I were having a lazy Friday evening in front of the TV watching a How It’s Made episode on sushi when it suddenly popped into my head I had this little beauty in the pantry.

It was a Whole Foods impulse buy for $8, but mixes with a little water to make quick wasabi paste.

To Google I went to find a vegan recipe merging tofu and wasabi and this is what I came up with, Wasabi Tofu Soup. Only I didn’t have fried tofu, snow peas … or mushrooms, so I concocted my own version using zucchini ribbons, celery and cauliflower.

The red cabbage turned the broth purple, but the soup was wonderful! The odd combo of flavors in the broth came together nicely with a little kick. It wasn’t bitter at all with I was worried about with the wasabi and wine. And it came together in under 30 minutes with tofu being ready to go. If you’re feeling daring, try this recipe!

Today we headed to the half-marathon expo to pick up race packets and further rattle our nerves about the race. :-)

I also learned that post-marathon treats include Chipotle burritos and beer … because that’s what everyone craves at 10 AM after running 13.1 miles, right? It was fun checking out the other runners and learning that I wasn’t the only one nervous about it. I’m glad that hubby and my two sisters will be running it with me.

For the pre-race dinner, I chopped up the last bit of tofu for a quinoa-marinara soup, my logic was it would be hydrating, provide good cards and protein for tomorrow.

I simmered tofu cubes, about a cup of quinoa, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach and more zucchini in a marinara tomato broth I whipped up in the Vita-Mix for about 30 minutes. My first time trying quinoa in a soup and it was great, cooked nicely in the broth, added great texture and made a very satisfying soup.