New Vega Product & Mystery Squash

I’m so relieved the long weekend is here and today was a wonderfully relaxing day. Except for my 8-mile run this morning in the heat. Since I’m on a month countdown until another half marathon, I ordered a new flavor of Vega Complete Whole Food Health Optimizer to assist with my training – berry flavor.

I tried the chocolate flavor while training for my half marathon and while it really helped with recovery from long runs, I had luke warm feelings about the gritty, not-so-chocolaty flavor. But the berry flavor is much better! Much, much better!

The green powder does not look too berry-like, but it has a strong, sweet berry smell and it almost tastes like a dessert by itself. That surprised me because I’m usually more of a chocolate gal over berry flavor. I blended half a serving with Vitamineral Green, spinach, frozen banana, carrot, and sprouted mung beans for a pre-run breakfast smoothie.

And got a pretty standard looking green monster that tasted sweeter and fruitier than my usual hemp protein smoothies.

A 15-30 serving jug of Vegan Whole Food Health Optimizer, depending on serving size, is over $50, not cheap! And not something I can afford on a regular basis. But for me it’s worth it when I’m training hard and/or stressing lots on a tight schedule just because of the packed nutrition profile with three types of vegan protein powders and tons of nutrients. It seems to help with stress food cravings, energy, and recovery after longs runs which was important today since I showered and dashed out the door after my long run to visit my grandma in her care home again. Thankfully she was in a better, more relaxed mood today, she seemed much cheerier which made me happy.

After the 2-hour visit, I loaded up at Trader Joe’s for the week and came home to prepare something new for dinner – the mystery squash I got from a co-worker’s garden. It looks like an unripe pumpkin.

But more like a spaghetti squash inside.

Not sure what to do with it, I chopped it into wedges, tossed with coconut oil and salt, then baked for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

And served with a huge salad with homemade lemon tahini dressing that was outrageously tangy.

The squash had a spaghetti squash texture with noodle-like strands and tasted a lot like a spaghetti squash. It was good with coconut oil and salt having a buttery flavor, but the texture was nothing like a butternut or acorn squash.

So what kind of squash is it?

After dinner we plunked down to watch the original Fright Night movie with this crazy guy.

Who was thrilled to have us home for a relaxed evening of petting him.

And throwing his puff ball toy.

Ah, 3 day weekends are great! How’s your weekend going so far?