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Formerly The Raw Project - Running on a Healthy Vegan Diet

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New Vega Product & Mystery Squash

September 3, 2011 by christine

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?

Filed Under: General, Product Reviews Tagged With: smoothie, spaghetti squash, vega

Comments

  1. Averie @ Love Veggies and Yoga says

    September 4, 2011 at 3:43 am

    THanks for the review and your thoughts about the Vega. I was *just* sent a few packets for review and I’ve actually had them in the past, too. I agree w/ you about the chocolate. I like the berry or the vanilla chai the best.

    And your kitty….so cute!

    The mystery squash. Sounds great. Anything in coconut oil tends to be pretty tasty :)

    • christine says

      September 4, 2011 at 6:42 am

      That’s great on the Vega products, I need to try to get some sent to me! :-) Vanilla Chai sounds perfect, I’ll try that flavor next.

  2. JL goes Vegan says

    September 4, 2011 at 3:55 am

    I’m so glad you’re relaxing! I have yet to try a Vega shake that I really like, but I’ll keep trying!

    My weekend is totally chill: easy workouts, blogging, bulk cooking. Perfect!

    • christine says

      September 4, 2011 at 6:50 am

      I really do notice a recovery and energy difference using Vega in my smoothies over plain protein powder, it’s worth trying especially during training.

      Sounds like a perfect weekend to me, enjoy it!

  3. sarah (sarah learns) says

    September 4, 2011 at 5:18 am

    i do love 3 day weekends too! :) mine is going well – yesterday was a lazy day, but today we have big plans to go to the taste of madison. i can’t wait!!

    i want to steal your cat! so cute.

    • christine says

      September 4, 2011 at 6:51 am

      Sounds awesome today! Hopefully we’ll get out for a little hiking.

  4. kalli says

    September 4, 2011 at 11:59 am

    i love that protein powder

  5. Errign says

    September 5, 2011 at 9:13 am

    Love long weekends. mine has been pretty productive AND relaxing which is perfect!

  6. Linette says

    September 17, 2013 at 3:53 pm

    Did you identify the mystery squash? I acquired one that looks exactly as you described inside and out but I have not been able to identify what type of squash it is!

    • christine says

      September 18, 2013 at 7:40 pm

      I think it was a young green pumpkin because if the light color and flavor inside.

Trackbacks

  1. Running & Sauteed Salad - The Raw Project says:
    September 24, 2011 at 8:37 pm

    […] I’m so happy the weekend is finally here, but still counting down the days until things settle at work finally next weekend after a major project deadline. It’s been madness for over 6 weeks now with so much going on at work and in my personal life that I’m craving more downtime. This morning I woke up early to start the day with my final tapered 6-mile run before my half marathon next weekend and had my usual pre-run Vega smoothie. […]

  2. Getting Through It - The Raw Project says:
    October 1, 2011 at 7:28 pm

    […] not expecting to break any records, but to just get through it. I picked up another tub of Vega Complete Whole Health Optimizer in berry flavor for my last month of training because I had such good luck with it training for my […]

Hello! I'm Christine, an IT Professional in Northern California. I'm also passionate about a healthy, plant based lifestyle, running, fitness, and being eco-friendly. 40 (ack!), married, with furkids. Read More…

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