Yellow Peas +Spaghetti Squash

Lately it has been all about different types of squashes at my house. I love squash and can eat so much of it, it will make the average person sick. All I need is a bigger stomach to handle this wonderful vegetable! 

I had a bag of split yellow peas lying around the house, I don't even remember if I was the one who bought it or my mom. But I felt sorry for the sucker and decided to make it into something yummy. Therefore I thought of the wonderful spaghetti squash that I just purchases and al-ho dinner was served. 

First off, I chopped a bunch of veggies: tomatoes, onions, squash, cilantro and used canned corn. 

I let these simmer on the stove with tomato sauce and spices with the yellow peas. 

I then steamed the spaghetti squash for about 30 minutes and then "gutted it onto a plate" 

Topped it off with my sauce 

and my mom's guacamole....NOM NOM 

Ingredients:

sauce:

1 can of tomato sauce

1 cup of canned corn, 

1 small squash

1 handful of cilantro

1/2 onion

1 tomato 

1 cup of split yellow peas 

1/2 tsp of paprika 

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp of curry powder 

Directions:

Cook the peas according to directions. 

When they are soft add the remaining ingredients (chop your veggies)

and let simmer for about 20 minutes. 

Pour sauce on-top of spaghetti squash 

Halloween Happenings

WARNING! Scary pictures to follow

These are my favorite shoes, but Converse tend to give me bad blisters and I tend to hurt my little toe. It sucks so much because I think that they are so cute and like the style but I hate what it does to my feet. 

Have you ever noticed how embarrassing running pictures tend to be. Why can't we all look all perfect and sweat free like those models on Runners. Also, I always look tired, never strong. But it makes a good picture to laugh at every now and then. LOL 

I ate a victory pumpkin cookie when I got home 

And we started working on Thanksgiving decorations (on Halloween) because we love to get ahead of ourselves. 

next image is horrifying!

I love Halloween because its a reason to dress SCARY not slutty. I don't take it as an excuse to wear clothes that show off what my momma gave me, I take it as a day to dress as ridiculous as possible and not have a care in the world 

Therefore I present to you the "mad scientist"

and my sister was a zombie 

In the end, we went trick or treating and got a ton of candy. I was disappointed no one gave our dark chocolate this time, but oh well. Beggars can't be choosers. I don't "trick or treat" I just supervise as I feel I am too old to be freeloading off of people. However, I notice some adults are super greedy and run to houses trying to get candy. I also saw some teenagers who were on their scooters and skateboards trying to go to many houses as possible. I think that when people get to that stage, they ruin trick-or-treating for others. Its a holiday where you meet new people and partake in wholesome fun---it shouldn't be turned into a greed fest. 

Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients: (For the pumpkin version)

1/4 canned pumpkin

1/2 cup of oats

1/4 c flour

1 tbs of earth balance

1 mashed banana

1/2 c milk

3 tbs of agave

1/4 cup of coconut 

(For the chocolate version use 1 tbs agave, 2 tbs prepared chocolate powder)

Directions: Mix all the ingredients and drop onto a cookie sheet and bake for about 15 minutes 

Pumpkin version 

Chocolate version

But we know that the best desert is that which is mixed with cold ice cream....YUM! 

Sister's Lunches for this week

To update, This is what has been in my sisters' lunches these past few days. Some look like repeats as I am starting to run out of ideas. I want to make them some warm food now that the days are getting colder so I probably am going to implement some soup or warm meals. 

Granted, its not always the healthiest foods. Sometimes they tend to be a bit carb filled but our bodies run predominately on carbs so it doesn't worry me. Also, we have to remember they are elementary and middle school kids, they wont eat ALL the healthy stuff. I have to find things they like and go with it. 

Veggie pasta with peas, carrots, and cucumber

grapes, pears, HM granola bar 

Yogurt with fruit and granola 

mixed nuts 

AB and Jam sandwiches on HM bread, Yogurt

Peas and cucumbers

grapes, apples, pineapple 

Newtons for a treat 

Egg salad wraps

strawberries and oranges 

carrots

small PB and banana sandwich on HM bread

Granola

HB egg, carrots, cucumbers, crackers

Nuts

Cheese, cream cheese bread

pears, oranges, apples 

Pasta with Parmesan cheese

fruit salad

Green salad

HM granola bar 

Yogurt

Cucumbers, pears, pineapple, oranges

Apple and AB sandwich

Mixed nuts

HM granola bread 

Bagel with strawberry cream cheese, HM granola bar

Jicama, strawberries, grapes, apple 

Salad with lettuce, corn, carrots and sunflower seeds 

Mac and cheese

"Sandwich" made with graham crackers and PB

Jicama, grapes, peaches, carrots 

Packet granola 

"hot dog" with bread and banana "the meat" and pb and jelly "the ketchup and mustard"

crackers and cheese

oranges, cucumbers, carrots, grapes, pears

"lunchable" with crackers, cheese, HM Granola bread

HM Corn muffin with jam 

grapes, carrots, cucumbers, pears 

mixed nuts 

What I ate Wednesday!

Another day of not running. Funny how all the aches and pains start to appear when you don't run anymore. This is just temporary, I guess the fact that it looked so cold and gloomy didn't help my choice for running. However, today I got out of my LAZY GIRL vibe and got my butt inside for some HIIT training. It was successful and I felt awesome right after.

I have been trying to entertain the 4 year old in the house. She has been bugging me and wont leave me alone. I try to escape from her for a few minutes but she always find me because she wants to be with "her big sister". Pssh, I know she just wants to play with my stuff. I can't even read blogs anymore because she takes over the computer.

I will try not to bore you any further and here is what I ate today....

Overnight oats mixed with cocoa, cinnamon, almond milk, and lots of LOVE! 

I also had a bit of chopped up fruit to wash all that down.  

Then after some cardio me and my little sister (her plate is the mini one) ate some celery, pb and fruit salad. 

Lunch was a bunch of leftovers 

green smoothie made with banana, almond milk, flax seed, chia seed and spinach

zucchini noodles with lentils and Lima beans, and some veggies with chocolate hummus

I was still somewhat hungry so I also ate half of a small sweet potato. 

I also want to say that my air popper broke! SAD FACE

but THANK GOD for brown paper bags, they still make popcorn healthy. Plus, its actually cheaper and easier. I can just pop it in the microwave and be done with it. I don't have to worry about dirty dishes or having leftovers. 

I had a snack right before we ate dinner because I felt like I was going to eat my hand! 

1 Cup of popcorn, a persimmon, and a new to me product, Soy Pudding. It was awesome!

Dinner was a new to me food, MUNG BEANS. I made a curry/chili type thing. I really enjoyed it!

I ate it along with a wrap

and for dessert I had some of these (recycled pic)

One more snack for a hungry bunny

Apple with almond butter and cereal 

and some of this may or may have not been consumed throughout the evening 

I realized that I tend to eat the same things everyday: oatmeal, nut butter, apples, bananas, chocolate, cereal, and some soup or salad. Grant, all these foods are super healthy but I need to change it up every now and then. Let see if I can think of better things to eat for next WIAW. 

Happy eats everyone. 

Random Thoughts

I did not go for a real run today, I ran my way home from taking my sister to school and that was it. Its funny because I told myself that I would do some cardio at home. Some circuit training would be good, but nope. My body is just so used to running that anything else just seems like a pain in the butt. Isn't it funny how you can love one exercise and don't have the drive to do anything else. This can be a problem in the future, but lets pray nothing serious happens. 

How my cardio session went 

Oh, did I tell you that I went to Fresh and Easy the other day? I am too lazy to check to see if I did say anything. However, the thing is I really don't like that store because I feel that all their food is processed or picked out. You can't really chose you foods, everything is packaged or bagged "ready to go". I don't like that, I like going into the store and picking the exact apples that I want. I like going shopping and knowing what I am getting. Either way, I went because I needed some Wheat bran and didn't feel like driving all the way to Sprouts. 

This peanut butter will make everyone happy! 

I got this in my fortune cookie, makes me kinda sad because now I have to change everything!

Dinner 

I bought some soy yogurt. That doesn't happen too often 

I also made my own "canned pumpkin"

with roasted pumpkins 

a RARE occurance 

homemade cornbread, chile rellenos beans, pumpkin (notice it wasn't sweet potato) and lettuce with hummus

leftovers

I made a chocolate hummus. Turned out good

Spouts, how I love you!

No running!

This Saturday may be my last long run for a while. I felt every bit of it. It was so dark going outside it was pretty sad. I couldn't even take a decent picture. 

I sometimes wonder why I can't be a normal person and just sleep in on Saturday mornings. I haven't done that in the longest time ever. 

Proof that it was so dark, I stood under the porch light and still managed to take a bad picture. 

 Anyways, I ran 15 miles but unfortunately it took a toll on me. You know when you run and you feel exhausted before you even start? Well, that was me, I took off after eating a piece of homemade chocolate pumpkin bread with a small cutie tangerine and was off. I try not to look at my watch on long runs because it makes me depressed that I still have XX miles to go or have only ran XX miles. But I looked at the pace and it was super slow, like 10:15.

I told myself that it was okay because you are supposed to be running 90 seconds to 2 minutes slower on your long runs. But damn it! My pride didn't want to accept that. I naturally increased my pace throughout the run. Then 9 miles into the run, I felt it. My legs were heavy I started breathing hard. I was cold (?) it was just not pleasant at all. I wished I had just planned 10 but nope. I am also one of those people who competes with themselves and not finishing the 15 miles was not an option. I had to, I was five miles away from home anyway. Plus, it didn't matter if I went at a snail pace, I had just set my mind to finish.
So I did what any runner would do, I thought of what I wanted for breakfast the rest of the run, hoping that would motivate my lazy butt to get home faster.

I ended with a 9:20 pace and just sat down for about 10 minutes. Made breakfast for everyone and went under the blankets for 10 minutes and then got on with the day.
Usually the shower helps a lot, but for some reason it didn't that day. I was like a zombie the rest of the day....a very hungry one. I never understood why people say that running suppresses your appetite, it INCREASES mine. 

The 8 cups of water I sat down to immediately after the run. 

Breakfast

Oatmeal, sunflower seeds, chopped apple, applesauce, strawberries, soy milk, cinnamon, 

and some super sweet homemade pumpkin sauce. 

I am getting pretty good at making omelets, it didn't crack at all this time. 

Eating ice cream in the cold! 

makes kids super happy 

YUM!

'

Remember I said that I was making my sisters their Halloween costumes? Well, they hated them! This has never happened before. I was all excited bringing out the costume boxes and the look of disappointment and sorrow in their voice when they said, "awww, we have to wear that!"

made me soo sad. It was funny, because they get excited for random things, but not that! 

I even injured myself making these bad boys! 

Oh well, I guess not. 

Look at my sister's socks, arn't they cute?

We went shopping (You know, cuz I REALLY wanted to walk around) 

Isn't it amazing that Halloween hasn't passes but they already have the Christmas things out. 

Then we went to Veggie Grill. I am super pick with food. This place is great and all, but I am not liking the food. I love chili, but didn't like it. I didn't like their mock chicken sandwich, and I didn't like their barley soup. 

But I keep going, my friend really likes it so I just suck it up. I haven't said anything so he has no idea. 

recovery food (looks simple but it suits me)

Tofu, sweet potatoes, beans, and chili black beans. 

and a simple salad