Imposters!

Hello friends!  Back from vacation are we?  Yea yea yea…. tell me something I don’t know

This morning started with me playing the meanest mental trick ever on myself haha… so my phone alarm goes off at 7:10am and I roll over thinking to myself “who set their alarm so early on my day off grrrr!?!?!” until I quickly realized that this was no day off… yea, take that Steph.  The PITS.

Anywho, work has been super productive this morning so that is actually feelin’ real nice I must say.  I have some projects to work on before returning to training next week and I think they will keep me occupied to say the least for the remainder of the week!

Lunch eats consisted of imposter pics leftovers… is someone still savoring vacation here or what?

Coconut Pumpkin Soup

Tarragon Dijon Potatoes w/ Oikos

Oh. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

On tonight’s agenda

• workout central!  cardio + ab ripper X is in order
• dinner! look for a new easy peasy creation featuring cannellini beans
• quality tv!  i.e. gossip girl, ya know ;)

Alright friends, back to the grind (or to the salt mine as my Dad always says??) haha… have a great one!

Coconut Pumpkin Soup!

Ahhh Sundays… you tease me so!  I get to enjoy all the joy you have to offer, yet always remember that I must go back to work for a full week *gasp!* tomorrow

You win some you lose some as they say, right friends?

Well today was a definite win in my book!  We spent the day working around the house and the weather was amazing here, almost 70 degrees?!  The Christmas tree is lookin’ mighty fine too, however not yet ready for the “big reveal”… soon friends, soon

Onto tonight’s dinner, featuring:

This is a recipe that I got from one of my mom’s magazines however ya’ll know my style and I made some changes before even starting + as I went along (per usual )

Starting players:

• 2 carrots, peeled & chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tblsp olive oil
• 1 15 oz. can pumpkin
• 1 14 oz. can light coconut milk
• 1 14 oz. can vegetable broth
• 2 tblsp brown sugar
• 1 fresh jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
• salt & pepper
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
• parsley to garnish

First I finely chopped the onion, green pepper and carrot.

Then I sauteed these guys in olive oil over medium heat for a few minutes until tender.  I ended up adding 1 clove minced garlic towards the end (yea yea yea )

Meanwhile I combined the pumpkin, coconut milk, broth, brown sugar, jalapeno, ginger, salt & pepper in a large bowl.

Then added this to a saucepan along with the cooked veggie mixture, bringing to a boil.

Upon tasting I just really thought it needed a lil’ “kick“ if you will — so there I went adding in things that weren’t called for, story of my life (always outta line right  )

About 1/4 tsp of curry powder and a few shakes of crushed red pepper flakes later, this bad johnny was kicked up to a whole ‘notha level!  I then let it simmer away for about 40 minutes uncovered….

… and voila!  Oh friends, I wish you could see how thick & delicious this soup was, and the flavor was so fabulous *le sigh*  Winner winner soup-time dinner?!

And to make it even better, the whole pot only had about 650 calories total… split that into 4 generous servings (approx. 165 per serving) and you are working with some pretty impressive stats in exchange for such a flavor punch! (KO?!)

We also had some peppercorn pork tenderloin to finish up (best $5.99 spent evah haha) with my new fave TJ’s find!

Oh yeaaaaaaaaaaa

Eaten on our newly festive table of course!

And now I am stuffed and t-i-r-e-dddddd!!!  Time to cozy up in front of the fireplace & Xmas tree for some serious tv time…. it’s been a busy day and gotta rest up for a full week ahead!  I’m kind of ready to get back into the normal swing of things (i.e. regular workouts!) for a bit… call me crazy?! 

Hope you friends have a lovely Sunday evening and see you tomorrow (put your Monday happy hats on?)