Still enjoying the fall!

Been quite busy lately, so I have a few things to catch you all up on. First I'm still running and enjoying it

 This is a bike trail along a few main roads close to my work. I ran 5 km that day and took me a little over 32 minutes. It was such a beautiful day!  Last Monday I was sick and Tuesday I still wasn't feeling the greatest but Wednesday I was feeling better so I went for the run and I shouldn't have cause I didn't feel so great again after, so I decided to take a break the rest of the week to give my body time to rest. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be ok for my run.

Last weekend I also got busy in the kitchen. A friend at work told me about this recipe so I had to try it out and I must say it's really good. It's butternut squash mac and "cheese".

Looks like mac and cheese but there is no cheese in it. I got a butternut squash, took the skin off and de-seeded it, and cut it up into bite size pieces and boiled it until soft (you can roast them as well till soft). I drained the water, put the butternut squash in my vitamix blender and added a dab of butter and a big splash of almond milk (can use milk of choice). I pureed it till it was a good consistency, not to thick or to liquidy. Add it to the cooked pasta, which I cooked up shelled brown rice pasta and add some pepper, a touch of nutmeg and to have a cheesier taste add in some nutritional yeast. Not only is nutritional yeast healthy for us it does have that cheesy taste. I didn't add enough but you should add a good 1/4 cup or so. It doesn't taste like mac and cheese but it is really good!

I also met up with a good friend at the Keg. We were long overdo to get together and catch up. Here's the supper I had

It was so good!!  We went to do a bit of shopping since she needed new winter boots and than went next door to Chapters and checked out a few cookbooks we were interested in. It was a fun night!

On Friday I had the day off so I did my house cleaning and the stove was in need of cleaning as well so got that done to. Since I couldn't go running and it was a beautiful fall day, I went out for a nice walk

I found this trail around this time last year. It's close to my place and although it's very small it's still a great opportunity for me to be surrounded by nature. Especially with the colors of the leaves, and the sound of the crunching leaves at my feet when walking. If I had the choice I would always walk or run in a trail, but now a days it's hard to feel safe when you go into trails alone cause you never know who's around, and I rather stay safe. This is a great way for me to still enjoy a trail but feel safer cause it's surrounded by houses.

I haven't done bento box lunches in a while so thought that this week should be, and I'm quite excited about lunch now. I have a nice variety of things, which also includes options for breakfast as well. I boiled 6 eggs to enjoy with some oatmeal, which the oatmeal is from Stoked Oats. Two posts ago, for the army run, I posted a picture of all the food we got after our race, well one packet is stoked oats and it was really good! It's all natural, it's gluten free oats, and it has natural ingredients in them. No added sugar or anything. I looked online and saw that the health food store at the mall sells it, so when I went to see my hubby play hockey yesterday I stopped in to get some, along with a few other things (barley, nori sheets, and Made Good granola). I bought two kinds, one is mulberry, currant, apple and cinnamon oatmeal, and the other is almond and dark chocolate. I also have an avocado, to enjoy a toast smothered in 1/4 of the avocado with a boiled egg which I tend to add cucumber as well with a bit of salt and pepper. I also have some ham that I can also enjoy for breakfast, or Greek yogurt with some of that granola I bought.

Here are my options for my bento box lunches. Today I made a tuna salad

So I thinly cut up some celery, with leafy tops, broccoli, and red onion. In herbs I have some basil, and yes that's the flours, which I found out are edible. I tried one and it's sweeter and milder than the basil leaf. You can leave them on your plant which helps them grow faster, or you can cut them off to slow down the growing process, so I cut one off cause my herbs are growing like crazy! I also have some parsley and chives which I also minced up. I added two cans of water packed tuna, removing most of the water, added some pepper and just a touch of salt, and a bit of smoked paprika. I then added quite a bit of Dijon mustard, and some mayo. If your not a fan of mustard you can add more mayo. I mixed it all with a fork.

I also bought some whole wheat naan bread so I can top the tuna salad on that, or I do have ham or left over chicken as well. I have carrots, celery, cucumbers, red peppers, and broccoli, which I can enjoy with some humus or on their own. I also made a potato salad, and I have regular salad as well. So quite a few options for lunches this week. I can't wait!

So I told you about my herb garden. I have moved it indoors cause it's to cold out there, I actually saw a bit of snow this morning coming down but doesn't look like it's going to stick, which I'm ok with.

So yes it's growing really well indoors so far. Last year and the year before I brought them to the basement and connected two lights to act like the sun but I think it was to cool down there and dark. Yes I had the lights for them but I don't think they were big enough nor created enough heat for the herbs so they didn't last. So now that it's by the side window and patio door I hope they will do better indoors. It's nice having them close to the kitchen as well, makes it easier to grab some when needed.

I am also officially signed up for the half marathon in May, the Ottawa race! This will help motivate me to keep training. I am feeling 100% better so tomorrow I should be fine to run again and I really can't wait!

Fall

Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the comfort it brings, with weather being a bit cooler, you get to wear a comfy sweater, and can bundle up under a blanket while reading a book. I absolutely love the colors it brings outside as well

If I can find a path like this one to run along, I'm so happy! I also do like walking and hiking, especially if it's with someone else so you can talk, and enjoy the beauty. Summer tends to be way to hot to exercise outside, and winter way to cold which is why I love the fall as well. Spring can be pretty great as well but it's messier cause you have snow that's melting.

I have been getting out there more often to run and I'm really enjoying every minute of it. I plan to go out for a run today. Thanks to a compress work schedule I had Friday off. I spent the morning cleaning the house and than went out for a 7 km run. It was my best time in a very long time and felt great!  Today I just plan to run 5 km. Can't over do it or else I will cause an injury. It's also the long weekend so have today off for Thanksgiving. We celebrated last night with my dad, brother, sister in law, nieces and nephews. My dad cooked the turkey, my brother brought salad and pumpkin pie, and I brought the potato dish. We did make a stop to so hubby can get a few beers and also grabbed a new wine to try out and it was really good. I decided to make something different and it worked out cause everyone really liked it.

I did forget to take a photo, but I did a mix of butternut squash and sweet potatoes. I grabbed one butternut squash, took the peel off and the seeds out and cut the squash into bite size pieces. I peeled 3 medium size sweet potatoes and cut those in bite size pieces as well. I added some coconut oil and baked it in the over at 400 for 12 minutes. I gave them a toss and put them back in for 14 minutes. While that was in the oven I took 3 small onions and cut them into small pieces, and grabbed a few mushrooms and cut those into small pieces as well and cooked them in a pan on medium low heat until they were cooked up nicely. Towards the end of the cooking process I added 3 minced garlic cloves and added some fresh herbs from my garden which is now moved into the house cause herbs don't like to cold weather. I grabbed some rosemary, and minced that up, and added it in. In an oven safe pot I added all the potatoes and squash, added a splash of almond milk, some pepper, and mashed them up. I evened it out to add the onion/mushroom mix on top and than sprinkled some fresh minced chives on top. Once we got to my dad's I put it in the oven at 200 until we were ready to eat, which was about an hour later.

Supper was delicious!! I did a gravy with the pan drippings from the turkey. My dad had garlic butter so used that with some flour to create a rue and than added the juice of the turkey and I ended up having to add a splash of water. I added a bit of salt and some pepper and some Worcestershire sauce to add some color, but it was still missing some flavor so I looked to see what my dad had in his cupboard and found some Epicure turkey gravy so I added 2 tsp of that and it was perfect at that point.  We got to play some cards, and had a lot of laughs. Such a great night with family.

I  hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving!