Raw Zucchini "Pasta"

By: Matt Frazier

Don’t you just love when one of the words in a recipe title is in quotation marks, almost as a disclaimer?

30-Day Challenge Week 1

Well, the first week of our 30-Day Challenge is over, and I want to know who’s still with us!  Some people started early, and some are still signing up (really), so not everyone is at the one-week point.  But how’s it going anyway?

Mine and Erin’s are going swimmingly.  Our vegan, high-raw meals from Thrive

this week were chickpea curry pizza, which made enough to have leftovers literally three times, and raw zucchini, shredded with a vegetable peeler to resemble pasta, topped with a raw sun dried tomato sauce.  I saw a zucchini “pasta” meal like this on a blog a few months ago and thought “No way could I ever do raw if I have to eat like that,” but we found it to be a really nice, fresh change of pace!

I’ve been doing my foam rolling and stretching too, as promised.  It’s really nice to have this challenge of doing it on every non-workout day, because even when I just do a little bit, I feel great afterward.  So much less overwhelming than feeling like I need to go through the whole routine, which always resulted in not doing it at all.

Here’s the zucchini “pasta” recipe, from Thrive.

Raw Zucchini Pasta Recipe

That’s it! Simple, huh? You might want to use a little less water if you like a thicker sauce. Also, if you aren’t into raw, you can saute the zucchini with a little coconut oil over medium heat for a few minutes. We tried this once, but found that we liked it better totally raw. Also, you can heat the sauce over low heat for a few minutes. We did just enough so that it would be warm on the plate.

18-Mile Run

I have an 18-miler scheduled for today. I’m in the midst of a really high-mileage part of my Boston-qualifying training program, where I have long runs of 17, 18, and 20 miles in consecutive weeks. And this is even less than prescribed; I modified it just a bit because of the toll taken on my legs by the 5K I ran a few weeks ago.

I’m a little concerned about boredom during this run– in comparison to the beautiful 17-miler I did at Hilton Head last weekend with Erin following me on the bike, the flat, straight trail I’m going to today is mind-numbingly boring. Luckily, I read the blog Westford Mommy (by a fellow hopeful BQ-er) this morning and got the idea to download some podcasts to listen to during the long run. I downloaded the one she recommended; we’ll see if that helps. I can’t imagine it hurting; the only way the run might be more boring is if I were to, say, bring along a small patch of grass to water and feed and watch it grow, or maybe a little section of drywall that I could paint and watch dry while I run.

Ok, have a great Monday! And don’t worry, foodies, we’re only eating vegan/high-raw three days a week. Yesterday was an off day, and we made the best grilled pizza (no quotes there, just pizza) that I’ve ever had, loaded with fresh garden veggies. So I’ve got that one to post later today or tomorrow, plus my surprise is still coming!