Weekly Round Up: Seasonal

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  Our food this week was a mix of seasonal fare and old favorites.

Eats, Seasonal

The boys had food duty for Boy Scout camp last weekend, which means that they brought home all of the leftover ingredients.  Assorted condiments, half a bag of cheese, and a bag of apples.

The condiments will get used in due course, the cheese is long gone, and I dropped everything to put the apples into a nice big batch of apple crisp.  I feel like the recipe that I used was nothing special/a bit heavy of the cinnamon so I won't share it but the hubs and I tore into it like nobody's business and it hit the spot.  I think that what I really want is more of an apple crisp bar so I just need to remember that for the next time I have an apple dessert craving.

The other seasonal treat that I helped myself to was my annual bottle of Pumpking.  I'm not the biggest fan of pumpkin beers in general but this is an exception.  The only thing is that I really do just want one of these and not a pack so Trader Joe's policy of selling individual beers is much appreciated in this situation.

I keep seeing everyone on the internets making soup so I got in on the game.  The goal was to make soup, any soup.  I went with a baked potato soup that I made on Sunday afternoon and had a little taste before packing it up for next week's lunches.  I think it's a bit thick for my liking, so again I'll hold the recipe source and I'll thin it out when I reheat it.

Eats, Old Favorites

For lunches I went on a soy curl salad wrap spree.  I started with a buffalo ranch salad mix and once that was gone I made a batch of Cheap Lazy Vegan's Caesar dressing.  The only thing was that I didn't have any lemon juice so I used just a touch more vinegar plus water to make up the difference and it turned out fine.

 

When my turn to make dinner rolled around, I got a flank steak and portobello mushrooms for the hubs to grill while I made mashed potatoes.

 

We had mandatory burger night on Saturday for the first time in forever.  I'm not sure how burgers fell off our weekly menu, maybe because we were on a spree of Friday nights at the drive in burger place?  It's a mystery but they're back now baby.

On Sunday we had a situation where four people were getting home at four different times, so I made up a big pot of barbacoa beef and cilantro lime rice.  The family made it up into burritos and I did a burrito bowl.  Pictured: the rice, the beef, roasted sweet potatoes, coleslaw mix, and guac.

And finally, for breakfast on Sunday I had a really old favorite, so old that I don't believe that I've had it since my single girl days: a Trader Joe's almond croissant.  I made a point of doing my workout first thing and then letting this bake up while I had my shower afterwards and it was incredibly satisfying.  This is one that you really have to plan ahead for because you have to take the dough out to rise overnight.

Workouts

I'm headed into week 6 of 6 of Caroline Girvan's Iron series.  Yes on the one hand I want to get done so that I can then start working on every other series that she's ever done but on the other hand I will be sad to see the end of it.

Last week I skipped Sunday's workout because I was traveling, but then I realized that instead of skipping I should have just done the workout the next day instead of "it's Monday so I have to do Monday's workout".  On Friday I doubled up and did the scheduled full body workout and then followed it up with Sunday's missed workout in place of the cardio finisher that I usually do so I am now caught up and on track to get the complete Iron experience.

My tentative plan once I finish is to take a few days off and then do the two week Beastmode series (yes I'm picking programs based on their names, that's how you're supposed to do it right?????), maybe pick up a few of the one week long series after that, and then do a longer program.  I've picked up that the Girvanators are in a bit of an uproar since it's been a while since she's posted any new workouts, and I'm just like "it's all good, stay on your break, I've got two years worth of backlog to get through".

Watching

I finished season 1 of Hatufim (the Israeli show that was the basis for Homeland) and OMG that was one hella cliffhanger at the end.  I think it's a guarantee that anyone who has seen season 1 is signing up to watch season 2.

Reading

I feel like I've written these exact words before but I'll write them again: there is nothing like a simple little thriller to get your reading mojo back.  I'd been in a slump for a few weeks when Stay Awake by Megan Goldin came up on my radar and by page 2 my slump was over.  Liv is a writer in New York who finds herself in a taxi one night with no memory of how she got there.  The taxi drops her off at her apartment but there are other people living there.  She reaches into her pocket for her phone and finds a bloody knife...

It's not always so simple to find the perfect simple little thriller but once I've got it it's like finding the perfect little black dress.  Right now I'm just reading a chapter or two a night to make it last but I feel like I'm going to get to the point where I'll get hooked and binge the rest down in one huge gulp.

Your turn: tell me about all of the seasonal goodies that you're enjoying right now!  And of course everything else that's going on in your world.