Dinner Guests

Monday morning!

In yoga class yesterday morning the teacher kept saying “welcome to the beginning of your week” and things of that nature and my inner dialogue kept responding “Sunday’s the end of MY week”.  I donno but somehow I am more mentally prepared on Monday morning to face the week.

And Sunday is all about the recreation, leisure, and socializing.  Which is why I decided that yesterday was a good time to make some new friends.

I have been reading Kath Eats Real Food for several months now and enjoy that we share a love for running, kale chips, and all things winter squash so I figured it was time to take the next step and, ummm, eat some winter squash together!

Lucky for me, Kath and her husband Matt were down with the idea of a Sunday dinner at our place.  They biked over and two bottles of wine, two bottles of beer, three apple turnovers, and a bowl of chili later, voila, we have friends!

Now on to that chili

Remember that heirloom pumpkin I bought at the Lewiburg Farmer’s Market a few weeks ago?  Here, I’ll give you some hints

I peeled it and chopped it up and put it in a pot with chopped onion, 2 bell peppers, and  a bit of olive oil.

To this I added pinto and black beans that had been soaking in the fridge for two days.  I think I need to turn the temp up on the refrigerator because some of the water froze with some beans in it!

Soaking beans for two days or so is the only way to go in my humble opinion.  I started doing this long soak when we lived in Peru because people there are very energy conscience (usually as a necessity due to poverty) and this really cuts down cooking time and leaves you with a very soft bean.  It certainly takes a bit of forethought but if you are like my household and eat beans nearly every day than you just get in the habit of always having your next batch soaking.

Back to the chili.  Into the pot went canned tomatoes and tomato paste, chopped summer squash, tvp, chipotle pepper powder, jalapenos, and cumin.  Towards the end I added salt to taste.

Honestly, it turned out good but not even close to outstanding.  The pumpkin pretty much fell apart so it didn’t add much in the way of texture and it’s flavor was very subtle.  And it needed three times as much jalapeno!  It was spicy at first but after sitting a few hours it was way too mellow.

Sorry but by the time we ate outside it was way too dark to get a decent picture with my point-and-shoot but Kath has some gorgeous pictures here, including some of the delicious whole wheat apple turnovers that Matt made for dessert.

Mission Get Moving went fantastic last week!  I was SO active and felt strong through it all.  It was fun to take so many classes at the gym but I will not be buying a membership once my free trial is over on Tuesday.  It’s too far away (I have to drive!) and I am not really a gym girl right now, I want to run outside while it’s nice and I have a great home gym with weights and bands.

(O.k, it’s an awful picture, like a craigslist “for sale” ad or something, but I promise you, that is all you need for an AWESOME at-home workout)

Mission Get Moving

Week 6 (September 20-27)

• 4 runs (1 60 minutes, speed work)
• 4 yoga sessions
• Pilates class
• 2 exercise dvd workouts (I miss my dvd’s, they were abandoned for Gold’s last week!)
• Zumba!

Have a fabulous Monday!