Whole Foods: What’s in My Grocery Bag? (Nike Women’s Half Marathon Series)

As you can see in the photo above, Whole Foods hooked me up BIG TIME with a goodie bag full of nutritious foods to fuel my training for the San Francisco Nike Women’s Half Marathon.
There were six Larabars, a bag of kale, two tangelos, two bags of Peeled Snacks dried fruits, a tetrapack of Almond Milk (365 brand), a bag of walnuts (also 365 brand), a jar of Cucina Antica pasta sauce, a bag of Rhythm Kale Chips (my absolute favorite brand), a jar of Maranatha Almond Butter, and a bag of Go Raw Spirulina Chips.

This weekend, I made a soup with some of the ingredients Whole Foods provided for me (along with some of the foods I bought with a gift card they provided), as well as a post-race kale and egg dish! The soup I made was a butternut squash soup topped with a slice of gluten-free toast and blue cheese walnuts. I cut the toast in the shape of a heart because Andy and I met 2 years ago and we are pretty much celebrating every day over the next couple months.

Butternut Squash Soup with Blue Cheese Walnuts:

Soup:
(makes 3-4 servings)

Ingredients:
2 Tbs bacon fat
1 medium onion, chopped
1 shallot chopped
1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed
4 oz red wine
16oz chicken stock
6 ozs So Delicious Coconut Milk (Unsweetened)
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Topping:
1 1/2 cups walnuts, toasted
2 Tbs blue cheese

1 slice (per each serving) gluten-free bread, toasted

Directions:
1. Oven roast the butternut squash at until it is tender. Approximately 45 minutes at 375°. Set aside to cool.

2. Cook the onion and shallot in the bacon fat in a medium-sized pot until they are browned. Add the red wine and allow the onion and shallot to cook further and to caramelize.

3. Pour in half of the chicken stock and bring to a boil.

4. Reduce heat to low and add the cooked butternut squash. Cook together for about 5 minutes, then transfer the soup to a blender, and blend until smooth. Add the coconut milk to aid this process. When the mixture is smooth, return it to the pot, and mix in any remaining stock to attain desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

5. To make the topping, place the toasted walnuts in a food processor along with the blue cheese and lightly pulse 5 or 6 times to incorporate. Do not overmix, or you will end up with blue cheese and pecan spread. You want the nuts to still have a texture to them. Once you make the blue cheese walnuts, you can top the soup with them and serve with the toast.

Here’s a pretty common scene when Andy and I have dinner together. Our carbs mostly come from wine and fruit. My joke is that I am “fueled by the grape”!

We ate the soup with a salad and sausages, and had fruit for dessert.

On Sunday, I ran a the Urban Cow 5K here in Sacramento and I broke my personal record for the distance by 8 seconds. After the race, I ran another 5K as a cooldown (from the race location back to Andy’s then a loop around the local park), and then I came back to Andy’s house to take a big ol’ bubble bath and prepare my post-race meal: A kale, chicken, egg, onion, and bacon sauté. I can describe it as sort of a fried rice thing without the rice, but with bacon and kale instead. OK, I know that doesn’t make sense, so here’s a picture, and what I did to make it below that:

Kale Post Run POWER Breakfast:
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp crushed garlic
1/2 cup shredded chicken
3 cups kale
2 eggs, 2 egg whites
2 pieces cooked and chopped bacon
salt and pepper to taste

Sauté the onion in a little olive oil until browned, and add the garlic, then the kale and sauté until wilted. Add the eggs and stir the ingredients in the pan until the eggs are cooked through. Then add the chicken and the bacon and leave on heat long enough to warm the ingredients through. Salt and pepper to taste and serve. Just what I needed after a run!

So that’s a little bit on what I have been eating! Another recipe to come in a few days and more on the training as well!!

You can find Whole Foods on Facebook here and on twitter here. My local store is in Roseville on Facebook here. The Nike Women’s Series is on Facebook here.