Monday Eats

I've decided to keep a photo log of everything I eat. It's pretty easy to do with my iPhone, although the pictures aren't the best quality. I really have to learn how to use my digital camera.

For breakfast I ate a bowl of pumpkin oat bran with soy milk, topped with granola and almond butter. 

Mixed nuts for a mid-morning snack.

Pork, applesauce and roasted veggie leftovers for lunch.

Also some cheese and crackers.

After lunch I had two pieces of Halloween candy. Dang. I have to be careful about that stuff!

And an apple. A honey crisp. Tasty!

After work I went for a run around the neighborhood. Very short, about 10/15 minutes. I had a headache, so no music, just the light rain. 

Dinner was butternut squash pizza with spinach, pecans and caramelized onions. This is one of my all time favorite dishes! 

Mr. Z had a slice, but then decided to polish off his leftover pizza from this weekend (he prefers the pepperoni to the squash).

For dessert, Mr. Z made us fruit smoothies. What a treat! This beauty was made of an old strawberry fruit popsicle, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple coconut juice, flax, wheat germ and vanilla yogurt. 

Very, very tasty!

I spent last week in our nation's capital, Washington D.C. It's a beautiful city that encourages lots and lots of walking....which I did. I was in town for a conference, but in my free time I got to see some of the many splendid sites.

Starting with the National Cathedral.

A magnificent feat of architecture and beauty.

The food at the conference wasn't to bad. This is my dessert plate Wednesday night. Dave Barry spoke after the meal. He was fantastic!

On Thursday night, my in-laws (stay with me here - my husband's brother's wife's parents) took me out for some yummy sushi and more site seeing. It was really cool to see the monuments at night.

Then on Friday evening I went to the National Zoo. One of their famous giant pandas was napping. 

There was a recent addition to the zoo!

She was so cute!

As our conference was winding down, another was setting up. See anything wrong with this phrasing? Yikes!

Today I went to visit Pixie. I got to take this little fella for a walk. His name is Munchie and he is a mini. 

It's a peace pumpkin! I love this time of year!

 

Finished Mexican Hot Chocolate Cake

Picture as promised (taken by neighbor Chris):


And you can see birthday girl Molly in the background!

More Cooking

Yesterday I could not tear myself away from the kitchen!

I made two versions of granola (same base, different add ins).

Dried fruit and nut for me:

And cherry chocolate chip for Mr. Z:

And I also made cashew caramel corn. So delicious! Mr. Z doesn't usually like caramel corn, but he can't keep his hand out of this homemade tastiness. 

I also made roasted sweet potatoes and green beans with caramelized onions to eat with leftovers. Now on to the grind of the week, no hours upon hours of cooking here. Dang.

Fire it up!

It snowed today. Craziness huh?! But it turned out to be the perfect fall (winter!) day to cook some yummy comfort food and put in a fire. 

I started the day with a peanut butter, banana, chocolate shake. Really! For some reason I was craving a carnation instant breakfast this morning.  But after a summer of green monsters, I couldn't let it go at just that. So I added a frozen banana, a tablespoon of ground flaxseed, a tablespoon of peanut butter, some milk and some yogurt. It was pretty tasty! 

This is our week to pick up the CSA vegetables. Aren't they beautiful? I'm very excited about the butternut squash and sweet potatoes - two of my favorite veggies. 

I made roasted veggies with the following: parsnips, carrots, eggplant, fennel, red onion and red pepper. Before.

After. SO GOOD!

The roasted veggies paired well with this homemade mac and cheese. 

Then, after dinner, Mr. Z surprised me with a load of wood (notice the carrying case Mom?).

In a blink of an eye we went from this:

To this:

C-O-Z-Y! What a wonderful day for a first snow.

My Brother, the Artist

This past week a piece of my brother's art was auctioned off for charity. His butterfly captured the highest bid of the evening at $7,000. I'm so proud of him I can hardly stand it! 

Here are some pictures I took of it (it was stationed on the river in Green Bay for the summer) with my iPhone:

Isn't it beautiful? 

Sweet Sunday

Today I made curried vegetable soup with romanesco (an Italian cauliflower), cauliflower, leeks and pumpkin. 

Then I made some tasty white bread in the bread maker. 

I ate the soup with sour cream and hot sauce. 

Finally, I made cherry, chocolate chip, oatmeal cookies. 

I love Sundays filled with cooking!