Cooking for the Week AND W9D1

So, last night I didn't run as planned since Jon had to work late (we carpool) and my shoes were at home. This normally wouldn't be a problem if we could run together(ish), but since he's started PT with Chris, Chris has put him on a 3-mile limit, which would be fine if he weren't awesome and capable of running 9-minute miles. In short, I don't like running in the dark at night.

Insteaaaad, we stayed in a cooked up enough food for the week. On the menu: Curried Butternut Squash Soup, Turkey Kielbasa and Cabbage, Impromptu Potato Salad, and roasted veggies. Oh, and some random dill-seasoned red potatoes that we roasted to snack on during this endeavor.

The Curried Butternut Squash Soup is one of my personal favorites and at 2 points per cup, it's almost unbeatable. Here's the scoop, like with most of my recipes, the veggie measurements are approximate... (Also, I have a photo of the mixture before it's blended. Since we didn't eat it that night, I don't have any of it being served as a purée.

5 cups of peeled, cubed butternut squash
1 medium onion, cubed (size isn't a big deal here since the whole mixture gets blended later)
2-3 chopped stalks of celery
5 cloves of garlic, diced
2 tbsp curry powder
5 cups water + 5 bouillon cubes (or 5 cups broth)
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt, Garlic Salt, & Pepper to taste
*My recipe made around 10 cups of soup

Using your soup pot, first, you sauté the onions and garlic in the oil. Once they're ready, add the celery and the curry seasoning. After a minute or two, once the curry smell is really beginning to come out, start adding the water/bouillon cubes or broth as well as the raw squash. Bring the mixture up to a boil and then let it simmer for 25 minutes (or until the squash is tender). Then, little by little, purée the mixture in a blender. Serve with a dollop of Greek Yogurt (or sour cream).


Turkey Kielbasa and Cabbage, serves 4

1 turkey kielbasa (or regular kielbasa if you aren't as stringent about fat content) cut into circles, then halved
1/2 head of lettuce, roughly chopped
1 medium onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, diced
2 carrots, cut the same as the kielbasa (I forgot these in this rendition and it was still good, but they add a bit of sweetness to the recipe)
2 tbsp olive oil
A dash of red pepper flakes
Salt & Pepper to taste

In a big pan, sauté the onions, oil, and garlic. If you're going to add carrots that have to cook, add them towards the beginning. Once that's ready (and the carrots are getting soft), add the meat to heat up and cabbage to cook down. Add your salt/pepper/red pepper flakes to taste. Once the cabbage is cooked down, it's ready to serve. (4 points/serving too!)

We heated them both up for dinner tonight and they were really good. It's so nice to be able to come home after work/a run/both and not have to worry about making something healthy for dinner.

Speaking of which, tonight's run was decent. I waited until Jon got off work and we both changed and headed over to the bike path. After our joint warm-up walk, he sprinted (I exaggerate a little, but if you're me, a 9-minuter is sprinting) off and I kept my steady 11-minute mile pace. I kept waiting for my usual "stride" to set in after 10 minutes, but as of late it hasn't happened. Thus, the run ended up being an internal struggle the whole way. I made it for the whole 40 minutes, which included a measured 3 mile portion that I was able to complete in roughly 33 minutes. I'm glad because that means I'm right on track for my 36 minute 5k goal on May 1st. I hadn't run since last Wednesday (oops... has it really been that long?) and it felt good to get back into it after a lapse in exercise.

I'm seriously considering getting one of the Garmin GPS watches as a "You've completed C25K present to myself" (i.e. allowing myself to spend my birthday money instead of keeping it for groceries and other miscellaneous and frivolous expenses). It's be really nice to know my exact pace as it's happening and to be able to measure exactly how far I've gone. The only bummer is that someone told me that the fun online mapping and whatnot features aren't mac compatible and that's all I own. I guess I'll have to do some research.

Anyways, I'll add photos tomorrow of the food and such. It's bedtime for bonzo. Night!