Ode to Shells & Cheese

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Today was rough, but I wanted to start by sharing some good news…I ran in Whole Food to get one ingredient I lacked for last night’s dinner.  Amazingly enough, I arrived at checkout with just my one item…miracle.  While waiting, a chapstick display caught my eye.  Any other chapstick addicts out there?  I recently ran out of my favorite Nanak’s Lip Smoothee, which is no longer available in Nashville.  I asked the cashier about the lip balm, and she proceeded to start raving about it.  Out of her excitement for the product, she told me to take one as a free sample.  My lips were overjoyed.

My Freebie

I’m liking this lip balm, and the cashier’s act of kindness totally made my morning.  Afterwards, the day got slightly crazy.  

Long story short, Chris and I are trying to sell our house as we’re moving to Colorado.  We had two last minute showings yesterday.  Showings are difficult because we have two dogs…who shed…a lot.  So, I am constantly running around, broom in hand, trying to keep our house spotless.  When the real estate agents call, either Chris or I have to get the dogs out of the house for an hour.  I had so much I needed go get done before going into work yesterday, but found myself loading up the pooches and driving around aimlessly not once, but twice.  At least I got a few errands done, and Radley & Einstein love a good car ride.

Einstein & Baby Boo Rad

Usually, I work out first thing in the AM.  Not the case with yesterday’s madness – don’t like missing my morning workout window.  The original plan consisted of a fun cardio circuit using all sorts of machines and then maybe running a few sprints up my gym’s parking garage ramp (love doing that!).  Instead, I only had 30 minutes and ended up running intervals on the treadmill.  I warmed up for 5 minutes at 4 mph, and then increased the speed every minute until I was running 9 mph (6.40 pace per mile).  I repeated this 4 times, cooled down for 2 minutes, and raced home to have lunch with Chris.  Not the exact workout I wanted to do, but I definitely got a good sweat on.  In fact, I had to roll down the windows on my way home, and it was in the 30′s yesterday.  Love a good sweat session!

Luckily my first client wasn’t until 4 PM yesterday.  Between our house showings and work, I did manage to get dinner made.  It’s not a 100% new recipe as I’ve made it before, but I changed the sauce for a new twist.

I started out by chopping 3 yellow summer squash with my beloved mandolin, added some salt to the mix, and set aside.

Bowl 'o squash noodles

I then made a raw cheese sauce based on a recipe from Country Life Vegetarian Cookbook.  I blended the following ingredients in my Vita-Mix.

1 1/2 cups raw cashews

1 cup water

1 TBSP Naturally Nutty Peanut Butter (substituted for Tahini)

3 TBSP Nutritional Yeast

2 TBSP lemon juice

2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1 1/4 tsp salt

pinch cayenne

pinch turmeric

I then added the sauce to my noodles, and voila…raw mac & cheese.

Look how creamy!

Work was great.  Both my clients were non-talkers, and I find I can really get more in tune with their bodies if they don’t talk to me during the session.  I was totally in my massage therapy zone and really worked out some of their knots.  My job is so satisfying.  I love helping people.  After work, I drove  home hankering for a hunk of cheese.  My plate consisted of some steamed broccoli, a wild salmon burger and my raw creation.

My dinner plate prior to the addition of Annie's Kethcup

After dinner, the plan was to write this post, and catch up on everyone’s blogs that I had neglected throughout the day.  Does anyone else get stressed when their Google Reader is exploding with new entries?  Turns out our Internet was down.  Ugh, I was so frustrated and decided to just go to bed.  I needed to to catch up on sleep anyway.  

So, after a busy day, some good food, and plenty of sleep, I am now ready to face the world…with moisturized lips.  OK, off to sort through my Google Reader.  Can’t wait to see what everyone is up to.  Have a great Thursday!

Tagged as: Exercise, Recipes