Hot and Cold

Have I ever mentioned how much I just love autumn? Sadly it’s still about 95 degrees outside here (and will remain so for at least the next two months), but I still take the time to honor the seasons with the beginning of my soup making!

I love cooking soup for myself. In fact, it might just be my favorite thing to make. I love the preparation, the chopping of the vegetables, the stirring on the stove. I love that you eat it with bread, another one of my favorite things, and that is always warms me up (I’m always cold). I bought my first butternut squash of the season last week with the intention of making one of my favorite bowls of soup—Chunky Lentil Soup. I really love this soup. It’s actually more of a stew now that I think about it. It’s chock full of good-for-you-things like lentils, butternut squash and tomatoes. And so easy to make. I pulled this dinner together in 30 minutes. Call me Rachel Ray.

I also had a slice of the whole wheat foccacia that I made at school last month and froze with some light laughing cow smeared on top. Perfecto.

After I ate dinner I looked at the clock and realized what a total dork I was because it was only 5:45. My body is used to having to eat at 5:00 every night for school and now that I don’t have school at night anymore I will have to train it to wait a little while! Not tonight I guess! So……..I went on a gelato excursion to Whole Foods and look what I came back with!

One glorious scoop of mint and one of dark chocolate. Amazing. Amazing! What’s even MORE amazing was that they have all the ingredients listed under the type of gelato and the only ingredients for these were “sugar, mint (or chocolate), guar gum and skim milk”. THAT’S IT! No heavy cream, no egg yolks…it’s practically a health food!! 😉

This afternoon I snacked on a half cup of cottage cheese with some canned peaches (in juice), strawberries and a spoonful of flax:

Tomorrow is my first day of Cost Control and Wine class. It might take my body a little while to get used to this new schedule because I have to wake up at 6 am and won’t be home until 1:00 for lunch. There will definitely be a hefty mid-morning snack included in my days!

Have a super relaxing Sunday evening y’all….see you bright and early in the a.m.!

EDITED TO ADD:

Hi everyone—I just got word that my very close friend Wendy’s boyfriend’s family (catch that?!) was involved in a huge tragedy up in Alaska last month. Her boyfriend’s father and brother went camping about 20 miles from Juneau and never returned….almost 5,000 miles of search and rescue have been done over the past couple weeks but no one has found anything. Here is the website for the search with news and updates. Wendy has not lost hope yet and neither have I. She is asking for all thoughts and prayers to be with Brian and Brandon wherever they are. Wendy is one of my best friends and my sorority sister. She lives in Alaska.