Oh How I Love Butternut Squash

So once again -- I've been sick for the last week off and on. Not like I was before, but this time it was with headaches probably stemming from a combination of stress, runny nose and congestion :-/ I had "run 9 miles" on my calendar for about 5 days in a row with one headache after another. If you've ever tried to run with one, you know how impossible it is. If you're one of those who can push through the pounding that just gets worse and worse with every step, I highly respect you and want to know your secrets :-) Finally, yesterday I set out for a 6 mile run. I thought I was running my 3.5 mile route, but ended up running my 5 mile route which was going to be followed by a 3 mile route = a total of 8. I hadn't run in about 5-7 days, and I think my last run was about 7 so I didn't want to push my tired arches too hard, so I left it at 5. Becoming more body conscious in terms of preventing injury and preserving myself vs. pride and pushing to see how far I can make myself go has been an interesting transition. I think it comes with growing up maybe? Either way, you have to give into a little bit of that pride and use your brain a little more so I've come to find -- and believe me, my feet and knees thank me. :-)

Today I followed up that run with a 45 minute workout at the gym. I did a bunch of weights, working out everything from glutes, calves, hamstrings, biceps, triceps, and abs. They say not to work out everything all at once so you have other things to work out for the next day and so your muscles can heal properly (working out certain groups on certain days with time inbetween lets them heal rather than repetitive tearing of the muscle fibers), but tomorrow is my 9 mile run and I won't be doing any weights. Finally -- tackling my favorite task on my to-do list! :-)

Mom & Dad came into town this last weekend and it was so much fun getting to see them as always :-) They stocked my refrigerator and pantry prettttyyy well so that means time for new recipes! I've made a couple -- yesterday I made a butternut squash, pumpkin and apple soup that I devised from a recipe. I'm only listing the actual recipe for now because my recipe needs a bit of work and was mostly compiled of things that needed to be used (i.e. the open can of pumpkin in my frige).

Apple Butternut Squash Soup (from Clean Food by Terry Walters)
1 large butternut squash
1 large yellow onion chopped
2 Tbsp grapeseed oil
4 large apples, peeled, cored and quartered
4 cups vegetable stock
1 cup rice milk
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Sea salt to taste

Peel squash, cut in half and remove seeds. Cut into 2-inch pieces.

In large pot over medium heat, sauté onion in oil until soft (about 5 minutes). Add squash, apples, stock, rice milk, coconut milk and nutmeg. Cover, bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes or until squash is soft. Puree with handheld blender (or regular if you don't have handheld or food processor) and remove from heat to cool slightly. Season to taste with salt and serve.

Serves 6


I'm a huge fan of veggies. HUGE fan. Fresh, steamed, boiled, baked, broiled. Doesn't matter to me. One of my favorite things to do lately has been to slice turnips into circles and zucchini/summer squash long ways, toss in some asparagus and green beans, toss them in a little olive oil, sprinkle them with sea salt and multi-colored cracked pepper, then bake them in the oven for about 15 minutes on 375. Mmmm mmmm!! Of course, you can do any combo of this you want, or even throw in some others like brussle sprouts, sweet potatoes, etc. You really can not go wrong :-)

For lunch/dinner today at Skyviews, I decided to use my veggie combo, toss with a little whole wheat rotini pasta, and some turkey meat spaghetti sauce I made (my Momma's recipe--super easy and SO good!). I'm looking so forward to it!! :-)

With all that I have going on, I've been a little stressed. Not just with the never ending to do list for school, projects, tests, working out/running (which is actually my outlet of stress),  but I finally discovered that it is because I don't have much semblance of a routine. Sure I have school daily, but projects and tests and homework are all over the place, multiple in one week which is normal for college. What gets me is that no day in the week is the same, schedules seem to always conflict for group projects not to mention they're all due within a couple weeks of each other (there will be 2 times this semesterwhen this happens), and I feel like sometimes there is not enough time left in the day. This realization in itself has helped me tremendously. I no longer feel like "Why can't I handle this?!" becuase I've always been able to handle a large load with no or minimal stress. I've also come to terms with the fact that you can control what you can control, and you have to learn to accept the things that you can't and work with or around them.

Have a good night! :-)

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how i react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitudes."