Tasty Tuesday – Pre-Race Pasta

I’m running a marathon on Sunday! Surprisingly, I’m quite calm. Despite what you may think based on my post yesterday about fear of pain in racing, I’ve come a long way since that tough long run and those doubts. I feel confident in my ability to pull out a strong marathon on Sunday. My training has been incredible, my legs are stronger than ever thanks to my 21 Day Fix workouts, and I’ve had my mental battles but I’ve conquered them. Though I don’t expect the marathon to be easy, I feel ready to race hard.

In honor of my big race, I decided to share with you the recipe for my pre-race fuel of choice. I’m a traditionalist when it comes to my pre-race and pre-long run fuel of choice: pasta. What exactly I mix in with my pasta has changed over the years, but there’s a pretty simple formula. This isn’t fancy – I don’t make my own sauce. It’s just simple, easy and good. Since I will be out of town for the marathon this weekend, I will eat pasta at a restaurant, but if I’m in town, I will eat this the night before the race. I usually eat this before my longest long runs as well.

If you really need detailed recipes when cooking, I apologize in advance for the vagueness of this recipe as it’s totally customizable for you!

Pre-Race Pasta

Ingredients

• 1 box/bag of pasta of choice. My favorite: Trader Joe’s brown rice pasta, though I have been known to go with traditional white flour pasta
• 1 jar of pasta sauce of choice. My favorite: Trader Joe’s organic tomato basil marinara.
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 onion, chopped
• Chopped veggies of choice: mushrooms, red peppers, chopped fresh spinach, artichokes, zucchini are all winners in my book
• Protein of choice: lately I’ve been loving organic chicken sausage that I get at Costco but in the past I have used Carla Lee’s Nut Balls which are a vegan alternative to meat balls made out of nuts
• Optional: Cheese of choice. I like to sprinkle fresh parmesan or a little goat cheese on top of the pasta at the end
• Olive oil
• Dash of Italian seasoning and salt and pepper

Directions: 

• Cook pasta according to directions on the box/bag.
• Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium/high heat. Add the garlic, onion and the veggies and sprinkle with the Italian seasoning and salt and pepper. Sauté for about 3-4 minutes.
• Add the protein of choice and cook through (if you’re using the Nut Balls, I liked to heat them in a sauce pan with the sauce separately as they tend to fall apart).
• Add the pasta sauce (you may not need the entire jar, depends on how saucy you like it and whether or not you’re using the entire box of pasta) reduce heat to low and let it come to a gentle boil.
• Combine the pasta and the sauce and serve. Top with a little bit of your cheese of choice (recent obsession is goat cheese).

What do you eat the night before a race? Marathoners, do you carbo-load? If so, when do you start?