Back to Square One

Good Morning, Everyone! Although I am suuuper nervous about my test tonight, I am so glad it is Thursday. One more day until the weekend!

On the way home from work last night, Mike and I stopped by Trader Joe's for a few things we needed for the weekend and to check out the prices of wine and champagne for an engagement party we throwing. That place, is seriously the best place ever. You know how pumpkin obsessed I have been since the beginning of fall? Well, TJ's just upped my ante.

I resisted the temptation to buy pumpkin cream cheese, because there is already some plain cream cheese at my house that I should not be eating. Throw pumpkin cream cheese in the mix and I will be screwed. Instead, I just filled my free hands with other pumpkin items. I picked up some pumpkin puree and pumpkin ice cream, along with brussells sprouts (for a kick ass recipe I am trying tonight) and spicy jalapeno chicken sausage for Saturday's tailgate. 

Once we got home, I quickly changed and grabbed Franklin for a run before the sun went down. My run was awful. Franklin was tripping me, I got tired so quickly, and barely made it 2.5 miles in 28 minutes. I couldn't believe how different my run could feel after only 2.5 weeks of not running. It really isn't worth it to take any kind of time off, but what do you do when life just gets in the way. I try to make running a priority, but sometimes it just doesn't happen. 

By the time we made it back to the house, it was pretty dark outside. Mike told me he would run with me tonight after my test since it will be very dark, because I really want to go. I guess we will see how I feel after the test. Hopefully, I will be in an amazing mood because I passed. Otherwise, I may go to bed and cry myself to sleep. ;)

When I got home, we made a quick dinner out of the leftover ground turkey that we had on Tuesday. I just browned the meat and added some taco seasonings to throw into tortillas. We added some pinto beans, cheese, hot sauce and chopped tomatoes and it was an excellent quick meal.

After dinner, we watched some TV while I put my calories in my phone app from the day. As it turned out, I had a bunch of calories left over, so this happened...

 Oh yeah...

...and it was fabulous!

RECIPE

On Monday night, I was freezing cold and really wanted some tomato soup. I don't buy canned soups very often because of their extremely high salt stats, but I wasn't sure I could come up with one from scratch. When I got home and saw that I had most of the ingredients needed, I figured I would give it a whirl. I am very glad I did, because it was really good!

Tomato Soup
1 large can of whole peeled tomatoes (28 oz maybe?)
1 small can of fire roasted chopped tomatoes (14.5 oz)
4 cups of Chicken Broth or Vegetable Broth
1 stalk celery - chopped
2 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 medium onion - chopped)
2 tsp Italian seasoning blend (or you could use thyme, basil, etc)
2 tbsp olive oil
Black Pepper

Heat the oil in the bottom of a large heavy soup pot. Add the celery and onion and saute until soft. Add in the garlic and seasonings. Add the chicken broth and both cans of tomatoes. Let the mixture come to a boil and then reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 10 minutes or so. Transfer mixture to a blender and puree. Return to pot and re-heat. Serve with bread or grilled cheese!

We have tons of leftovers and have been eating it for lunches all week.

Have a great Thursday everyone!

Yesterday's Stats:
Breakfast - Dry cereal (frosted mini wheat) and a banana
Lunch - 1/2 peanut butter sandwich with 2% cottage cheese and grapes
Dinner - 2 ground turkey tacos on whole wheat tortillas with pinto beans, cheese, tomatoes and hot sauce
Dessert - PUMPKIN ICE CREAM!

Calories (+) 306 :) 
Sodium (+) 494 :)
Protein (-) 19 :(