"Disclaimer: I received Luvo entrees to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!"
 
I like having having healthy options available at my fingertips so I’m not  tempted to overindulge in fast food.  They are great to have on hand when you just aren’t inspired to cook or are in a hurry.  I recently was given some samples from Luvo.  If you aren’t familiar with them, they make meals that are wholesome and nutritious, local sourced where possible, with less sugar and sodium than typical frozen entrees.  They have breakfast items (like warm oatmeal with spiced apple), veggie & grain bowls, burritos, and a variety of entrees.

I received the following:

• Roasted Vegetable Lasagna with butternut squash, whole wheat noodles and kale
• Vegetable Bibimbap with brown jasmine rice, zucchini & carrots
• Spinach Ricotta Ravioli with turkey bolognese
• Quinoa & Vegetable Enchiladas with mole sauce & brown jasmine rice

I reviewed some other Luvo entrees earlier this year, you  can read my review here.  I was super impressed with the quality and freshness of their products, so I jumped at the chance to try more flavors!

One of the cool things about Luvo (there are several!) is the way it cooks.  It’s not sitting in a plastic tray that may or may not have BPA in it.  It comes in a paper pouch that steams. It cooks a little longer than a traditional entrée (7 minutes or so), but gets thoroughly cooked so you don’t have cold spots.  They call their technology “steamazing”. Here’s a video showing how beautifully it cooks in the bag.

The first one I tried was the Quinoa. & Vegetable Enchiladas with mole sauce & brown jasmine rice. I’m a sucker for “Mexican” flavored meals, so that is right up my alley.  It’s gluten free and vegetarian.
There is a moderately spicy enchilada/mole sauce on it.  The quinoa makes it quite filling. This is a good amount of protein for a meatless entrée.

Nutritional facts – 370 calories, 8 g fat, 13 g protein

Next was the Spinach Ricotta ravioli. This felt very hearty, since there was a turkey Bolognese sauce.  It was creamy and tangy. Out of what I tried, this one was my favorite.

Nutritional facts – 300 calories, 8 g fat, 18 g protein

Vegetable Bibimbap  - say what? I can’t pronounce it, but I did like it. It is REALLY spicy in my opinion. Bibimbap is a Korean dish that technically means “mixed rice”.  Traditionally it is served with an egg and sliced meat. I do wish it had more protein via chickpeas or something.  These days I’m counting macros and need more protein!

Nutritional facts – 270 calories, 10 g fat, 6 g protein

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna with butternut squash, whole wheat noodles and kale – this one is a big hit and probably the “freshest” tasting one I tried. Big chunks of squash, the kale was flavorful and filling.  The colors were so vibrant, I just knew I was eating something good for me!

Nutritional facts – 250 calories, 5 g fat, 12 g protein

Luvo uses 100% recycled paperboard with 50% post-consumer waste. The meal comes in a pouch of unbleached paper made from 20% pre-consumer waste. The meal steams in the bag, and then you pour it out onto you plate.
 
Luvo isn’t available everywhere, but where I live, I had my choice of about a dozen local supermarkets that carry it. You don’t need to go to a speciality or high end supermarket.  You can find your closest location using their store locator.

I really enjoyed these entrees for something quick, healthy and delicious! I plan on stocking up on more.

Want to know more? Join us for #bibchat on Tuesday, November 1 at 6pm Central!

As I sit here on the eve of my knee surgery, I’m laser-focused on a speedy, strong recovery and getting back to running.  I have lots of thoughts going through my head on races I’d like to do in 2017.

Here’s a preview:

Two major things to note: 1) I am once again attempting a full marathon, which lately have been bringing me sidelining injuries – but I hear such good things about Chicago. and 2) You will notice lots of Ragnar and other relay races. It’s quickly becoming my hobby, my niche, and I’m loving it all. I enjoy all the new friendships that come out of the experience.

There will be many more halfs, 10ks and 5ks to come.  I want to pick up a few new states, so aiming for Oregon and New York.

Looking forward to the adventures ahead in 2017!

It’s Monday after the Ragnar Michigan relay, and the #ragnover is real! I’m reflecting on an epic racing weekend, and am feeling especially grateful that it all worked out so smoothly, as our team had an unusual way of coming together.

Most of you know I’m originally from Michigan, and have a fondness for both Ragnar Races and Northern Michigan.  (Read about my previous Ragnars Ragnar Del Sol 2015, Ragnar Trail McDowell 2015, Ragnar Del Sol 2016). When it was announced this spring that there would be a race from Muskegon MI to Traverse City, MI (my happy place), I just about fell over.  I immediately posted on twitter about it with giddy excitement. Some of my Midwest twitter friends were interested right off the bat.  I had also been talking to my friend Jenn Voss, who is originally from MI but lives in IL about doing a Ragnar together for over a year. She was interested too!

Ok, now what? That’s nowhere near what we need for a team.  The easiest thing to do would have been to just try to join an existing team, but I never seem to take the easy way! So I posted on a few facebook pages (Michigan Running Club and Ragnar Michigan ) about having openings, and suddenly I was a team captain! Say what?  I live in Arizona, how is this going to work?

It was all luck, fate and magic after that. I found a group of dedicated, organized runners who once they committed, were in it until the end.  It takes a village, though. Shoutouts go out to several members who pitched in to organize team calls, get magnets, headbands, a place for us to stay the night before, arranged for us to get our volunteer commitment reduced, and an app for us to all stay in communication.  All in all, we got runners from 4 states (MI, IL, WI and AZ) - some friends, some strangers, to work together as a team. Awesome! Our team name was “UnRelay-Ted”. 11 ladies and one brave gent.

I flew in Thursday night and got picked up by one of my teammates Toby.  We drove to Muskegon where the race started and were sharing a rental house on the lake the night before. Toby and I were the first to arrive. It was totally like being in an episode of the Real World on MTV where 7 strangers share a house, and arrive at different times and you’re wondering what they are going to be like. Crazy!  We had been communicating for months over email, facebook and group calls so I felt a little like I knew some of them already.

Our official start time was 6:30 am. We started at Pere Marquette State Park which was right on the beach at Lake Michigan – but it was raining, really windy and pitch dark so we couldn’t see a thing of the great scenery around us. Such a shame!

I have been dealing with a torn meniscus going into this race, and was extremely worried about how this was all going to go down. I prepared my teammates for the walking I would inevitably have to do. I took the last 6 weeks off from running to give it a chance to improve and am scheduled to have surgery on 10/14. I got cleared to walk the race from my doctor.

When it was finally my turn to run ( I was runner #6), I was nervous. It was still raining, but thankfully not windy at the time. It was only 3.2 miles. I had decided I would just try to run a bit and see how it felt.  It actually felt great, I really missed running. I was slow and cautious, and kept waiting for something bad to happen. I took some walk breaks to take pictures.  We were in the cute town of Montague, running around a lake.  Nice!

Things were vibing pretty well in Van 1, everyone was pretty much on pace except for one of our runners with a calf issue had to walk during leg 1. We made the transition to van 2 and headed off in search of lunch. Found a golf course that was closing for the season and was running out of food. They managed to scrape together enough to make us two pizzas. We had another long wait until it was our turn to run again, so we got our tats on and just chilled out with the other teams.

My second leg was around 930 pm and was 4.3 miles.  However, it was raining pretty hard and I ended up on a very lonely dark wooded road by myself.  I was pretty sure I was going the right way, but my mind started playing tricks with me, and I was praying no wildlife was out and about and hungry…My knee still felt amazingly good so I just ran with it (literally). We handed off to van 2 and drove 40 miles to the next big exchange. We slept (not really) in the van for about 3 hours. Talk about uncomfortable! And everyone had wet shoes and clothes so you can imagine how it was starting to smell in the van. Gross. I was able to get cleaned up and was trying to mentally prepare for round 3 which was around 930 am.

This leg was 8.8 miles. My teammate Toby and I had already agreed that it was too many miles for my gimpy knee. We agreed to trade out at 4 miles.  So I started out the hilly route and wouldn’t you know it? That familiar ache came back. Within ¾ mile it was uncomfortable enough that I couldn’t run and just accepted I would walk the rest.  There was a ridiculously large hill, I guess I wouldn’t have been running up it anyway! Toby took over and he still had 5 miles of hilly terrain ahead of him. Bless him for helping me out! Poor guy had already ran like 16 miles.

With that, we were done! We just had to head to the finish line and wait for van 2 to finish. We had a little time to shower and nap in between.  Finish line festivities didn’t disappoint, it was at the lakefront, the beer garden had local North Peak brews, and we all got to relax a bit together. 

I loved the scenery during this race, we went through some adorable lakeside towns that I had never seen before. State parks I’ve never seen before. The trees weren’t as colorful as I had hoped, but no biggie. The race was really well organized, especially for an inaugural event. I wish I had been able to get to know the people in van 2 better, that’s the one bummer about being split up. I’m thankful for so much here – good teamwork, beautiful scenery, my knee for holding out as long as it did, and the Ragnar spirit that keeps us all going! Can’t wait to do it again next year!