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Archive for November 13th, 2009

13 Exercises for Friday the 13th

Nov 13

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Happy Friday the 13th FitFeat friends!  Any superstitious readers out there?  In honor of Friday the 13th, I did this crazy workout this morning:

Today’s Feat:  Shari’s “13 for the 13th” Workout

Warmup on treadmill, 5 minutes

  1. Smith-squats (tabata style, 4 min)
  2. Seated Row (tabata style, 4 min)
  3. Leg Extensions (tabata style, 4 min)
  4. DB Upright Row (tabata style, 4 min)
  5. Leg Curls on FitBall (tabata style, 4 min — I was crying by the 3rd minute on these)
  6. DB Chest Flyes 1 set of 15 reps
  7. High StepUps 15 left, 15 right
  8. KB Side Lateral Swings 15 right, 15 left
  9. Band SideSteps 25 right, 25 left
  10. KB Biceps Curls 20 right, 20 left
  11. KB Ab Twist (in boat position) 30 reps
  12. Triceps Dips 15 reps
  13. Explosive Lunges 20 reps

OK, I officially have squiggle arms and squiggle legs…  ;)

Yesterday’s Feat

A beautiful (and tough) 3.6 mile hilly run with a training client 

Yesterday’s Eats

I had my standard pre-run meal Coconut Cream Pie Larabar with coffee about an hour beforehand.  I’m now officially out of this flavor in my Larabar stash and will have to wait until they go on sale again.  :( I refuse to pay more than $1 per bar if I can avoid it. 

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After our run, my client was telling me about these wonderful breakfast burritos she picks up on occasion, and it inspired me to come home and make a Breakfast Wrap:  whole wheat tortilla, leftover roasted potato bites, one HB egg, a bit of avocado and a drizzle of salsa.  It was SO good!  And it hit the spot after a fast-paced hilly run.  Perfect!

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It did such a good job of filling me up, that when lunchtime rolled around all I really wanted was a green smoothie!  And Brendan Brazier snuck into the picture too…

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I don’t often like to have two Larabars in one day, but a Lemon Bar sounded too good to resist.

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I spent some time late afternoon putting together dinner:  Heavenly Ginger Curry Squash Soup, for which I posted the recipe earlier today.  As mentioned in that post, I had to make myself eat a large salad to tame the hungry beast inside before I devoured my soup.  I KNEW I wouldn’t have leftovers if I started with it, it was that yummy.  My salad included spinach, dulse, sundried tomatoes, carrots, nutritional yeast and 1/2 tbsp of Goddess dressing. 

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And then the main event.  I am already dreaming of lunchtime today when I can have some more of this delicious meal!  Behold the best soup ever:

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And I didn’t figure the evening could get any better, but it DID!!!  MSP surprised me with dark chocolate covered cacao nibs!!!  WAHOOO!  (Thanks MSP!  You’re the best ever!)  Wow these are delightful.  Good thing these come in small bags… Not something I’d want to stay stocked up on because I had a hard time putting them down last night.

I’m looking forward to tonight when I get to catch up with some girlfriends over wine & apps tonight!  In the meantime, there is a LOT to accomplish so I better get crackin’!  Have a FANTASTIC Friday! 

See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Heavenly Ginger Curry Squash Soup

Nov 13

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes | 7 Comments

I have been wanting to make a butternut squash soup for some time and just haven’t done it.  I finally took the plunge because I happened upon a recipe where I had most of the ingredients and had the right things that I wanted to substitute in it.

You know I love Amy’s Organic Soups. But after a recent disappointment with her Butternut Squash soup, I wondered whether squash soup was just not supposed to be flavorful.

Oh, was I ever wrong.

Friends, let me tell you this soup is to die for.  I had a few tastes while it was in its final cooking stages and it was so good I knew I had better fill up on a huge salad before dishing this one because I may have just gone and eaten the whole thing otherwise!

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The original recipe from Allrecipes.com called for a 2 lb butternut squash, but mine was only 1.25 pound.  I happened to have a leftover plain mashed sweet potato in the fridge so I used that to round out the lack of squash.  It also called for two pears, and I only had one.  So I used one pear and one apple.  Additionally I did not want to use butter or half-and-half, so I substituted Earth Balance (vegan butter) and MimicCreme in place of the half-and-half.   Thank you Allrecipes.com for the inspiration from which I have adapted the following.

The Ingredients:

  • 1-1/4 lb butternut squash (cut in half, seeds removed, baked facedown for 40 minutes at 375 , then soft pulp scooped out & set aside)
  • 1 small-med sweet potato (peeled, cut into chunks then boiled till soft, about 20 minutes)
  • 2 tbsp Earth Balance vegan butter spread
  • 1/2 onion
  • 2 cloves minced garlic (I used a canned pre-minced version)
  • 2 tsp minced ginger (again, I used a canned pre-minced version)
  • 1 tbsp curry powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 cans of chicken or vegetable broth (14 oz cans) + 6 oz water
  • 1 firm pear, peeled & diced
  • 1 gala apple, peeled & diced
  • 1/2 cup MimicCreme

The Preparation:

1.) Once the sweet potato and squash are prepared and set aside, melt the earth balance in your soup pot over medium.  Add onion, garlic, ginger, curry powder and salt.  Cook until onion is soft.  Mine took about 8 minutes.

2.) Add the broth and water to the pot and bring to a boil.

3.) Add in the pear, apple, sweet potato and squash.  Simmer for 30 minutes (until pear and apple are soft).

4.) Blend in batches until smooth and creamy.  Return to pot, stir in the MimicCreme, and reheat.  Simmer until ready to serve.

5.) Try not to eat it straight out of the soup pot face-first.  It will taunt you with its delicious aroma.

Enjoy!!

Action shots:  ;)  img 712

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