Still in progress

After getting back from a weekend at home, I made myself a ridiculously ambitious to-do list.

Mondays already suck, this was overkill.

Moody monday coffee.

After the caffeine hit my brain I was feeling energetic and began to tackle my list with a carpe-diem-style vigor.  Bring it.

Breakfast went from the above, to the below in ~30 minutes.

Butternut banana oat cakes

Texture-wise it still needs perfecting, so for now no recipe, but I’ll get it up soon.  It held me over for hours.  Crazy talk, right?

When lunch time rolled around I had alittle of this, and a little of that.

This = Cedar’s zesty lemon hummus

That = Mary’s Gone Crackers

This = Cedar’s roasted red pepper hummus

That = 100% whole wheat bread

This = grapes

That = Numi Ginger Sun Lemon Decaf Green tea

This = home-made cashew butter

That = Ezekiel 7 grain sprouted bread

Errand filled days are obviously snack filled days.  Before I knew it the clock said 5 pm.  Holy %^$# where did the day go??

Check out my new toy from my parental units.  I’m still getting used to the funny voice over, but I totally love it.  It’s so easy to run with.  Anyone else have an iPod shuffle?  Does it make you want to talk in robot voice after?  No?  Me either… 😉

My run was fantastico!  That’s what happens when I get new toys that relate to exercise.  I get really pumped and I feel like my feet have wings.  It can be anything from a new sports bra to socks to an iPod, but something about the newness of things makes me FLY.  Proof: my 3 1/2 mile run took 26 minutes.

Anyone else have similar exercise enthusiasm with new fitness gear?

I was ready for dinner when I got home, so I set to work…

Hack hack hack.

Whoomp scoop there it is.

Peeling the skin is definitely not necessary, but I was in a (rare) state of patience so I did.  Back before my blogging days, I roasted butternut squash with the skin on and ate it, too.  I’m not sure there’s a right or wrong way.  Just a random thing I’ve noticed in my squash eating habits.

Then I rubbed the outside with melted Tropical Traditions Gold Label coconut oil and cinnamon.

I’m pretty sure I could have left the coconut oil un-melted before rubbing it down, but I thought I’d make a bigger mess that way.

I placed them in the oven on 400 degrees.  After 10 minutes I flipped them over and after another 10 minutes they looked like this.

Delicious.

For the rest of dinner, I recalled a recent post of Gena’s in which she made quinoa in a rice cooker.  Well shoot.  I have quinoa.  I have a rice cooker.

I put this in the cooker before my run, and didn’t give it a second thought until it beeped indicating it was done as I was prepping the squash.  Brilliant!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quinoa plus briefly blended chickpeas makes a delicious filling for squash.

Don’t you think?

Cinnamon coconut rubbed squash with creamy chickpea quinoa stuffing.

The only thing missing was some greenery.  Good thing I had leftover Sumi salad from Whole Foods.

Whole Foods puts WAY too much dressing on their salads, so to make the dish more proportionate I added plain romaine lettuce.

It’s shake and bake and I helped and serve.

 

 

 

Now that’s a meal!

Salad, squash, satisfied.

As for that to-do list?  Well, much like my breakfast recipe, it’s still a work in progress…

Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.