(Mock) Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

I am trying to get back on the eating right and exercising bandwagon after the past 2 or 3 months of backslide in to consumption of processed and comfort food in staggering quantities. I had my reasons, but I can't live that type of lifestyle long term if I don't want my weight to balloon out of control (which I don't). The good news is that my recent indulgences have only tipped the scale about 2 lbs in the upward direction. The bad news is that I never did lose the 5 lbs that I typically shed during the summer months. (Yes, I have a summer weight and a winter weight while living here. I am not ashamed. Also, who doesn't lose any weight while training for a marathon? This girl.) So, right now, I sit at about 7 lbs above what I consider my optimal weight. It doesn't sound like much, but it is around 5% of my body weight.

I am always looking for healthy, but tasty, recipes. I found a winner for my breakfast smoothie this morning. The recipe is modified from one I found on the Lululemon blog. I am a huge fan of anything pumpkin pie inspired, so I loved it. E thought that it tasted a little like eggnog, which he liked. I served it alongside a sweet potato and red bell pepper egg white omelet. The whole breakfast came in at around 350 calories each, including our coffee.

(Mock) Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
1 cup cooked pumpkin or squash (this is where mine was mock, I used roasted acorn squash)
1 cup milk (we use 1% lactose free milk)
1 scoop of vanilla-flavored whey protein (we buy it from Costco)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
5-6 ice cubes

Blend the pumpkin/squash, milk, whey protein, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice well in the blender. Drop in the ice cubes one by one with the blender on the highest setting. Blend until smooth and frothy.

Total calorie count for the recipe is around 300, and it makes A LOT. We split it into two generous servings.

As an aside, I often use squash in place of pumpkin in recipes. I have found that butternut works better than acorn (more flavorful), but that any kind of squash is better than the kind of pumpkins the stores sell for jack-o-lanterns. Since I have to make a special trip to have any chance of finding a cooking pumpkin (and probably pay a premium for it) and I find that squashes are smaller and easier to work with than pumpkins anyway, I usually just opt for squash. You really can't tell the difference.

My Blog Sucks Lately

I was looking through some of my older posts on this blog the other day, and I decided that I have gotten much too lazy about posting pictures to go along with my words. Most of the reason for this is that blogger is SO slow uploading photos that I can't bear to wait for it. I should, though, because it really adds a lot to posts. So, here are a few of my favorite pictures that haven't made it on here before, mostly because I'm too lazy to ever write up trip reports. Let's be honest, half the time I'm too lazy to even write regular posts either.

Unhappy white-faced capuchin at Monteverde
(One of my favorites from our trip to Costa Rica)

Me finishing the Calgary Marathon

Finishing a Jasper-Banff-Canmore bike tour
(with the best group of people imaginable)

Grizzly bear in Jasper National Park

Ruling the Roost

E is in the midst of two weeks of field work, which means that Niki and I are home alone. Every time that I'm here for any length of time by myself, I realize that I really depend on E for motivation to do ANYTHING. I spent the weekend watching crappy TV shows, reading crappy novels, and eating crappy food. I was supposed to work today, but I didn't have to, and I decided to do some shopping that I should have done on the weekend instead. (In my defense, I HATE going anywhere in Saskatoon on the weekend. Saturdays are crazy busy and Sunday business hours are limited in the best cases.) Anyway, there was no work done today. There's always tomorrow, right?

I also did some cooking this afternoon so that I can avoid that whole crappy eating thing. I made fresh salsa (YUM!) and a yam-peanut-ginger-pineapple soup. I always forget just how much E eats until I make a giant pot of something, eat my dinner, and realize that I didn't even put a dent in the giant pot of something. So, I will basically be eating yam-peanut soup for the next few days. I am thinking about trying to freeze some, but I'm not sure if I have the freezer space right now.

The weather has been so beautiful here this fall. I feel guilty that I haven't been getting outside to take advantage of it, but I have just been feeling burnt out on biking and running lately. I ran a 10K last weekend in Banff on very little training. The race was fine, but every training run up until then was basically torture. I haven't been on a bike, except to commute to work, since we went to Canmore mountain biking about a month ago. I don't even remember the last time I was on my road bike. Truthfully, I just haven't been myself lately, and it's really starting to bum me out.

Obviously, I need to get out of this funk!

Sarah Michelle Gellar

I wish I didn't, but I just love TV. Well, everything except reality TV. I was actually glad when programming started going the way of all reality all the time. There are just fewer shows on now that I really want to watch.

Way back in the day, I was a Buffy fan. I didn't watch the series from the beginning because we never had cable TV when I lived at home. However, the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer coincided with my first year living in the dorms. The group of girls that lived on my floor all watched, so we had a ritual of getting together in someone's room for every new episode. It was difficult for me to make friends when I went away to school, but Buffy gave me a reason to spend time with some people and build friendships. Buffy is a great show, and it's become one of my favorites of all time, probably in part due to nostalgia for my undergrad days.

Sarah Michelle Gellar has been in a few movies, etc. since she played Buffy, but movies just are not the same as TV. So, I was really excited when I found out that she was going to have a new drama on TV this year. I've watched 3 episodes of "Ringer" so far, and I have to admit that I am pretty much hooked. It's definitely not as great as Buffy was, but it's just bad enough to be good. And SMG has not aged AT ALL in the past 10 years. The show is currently playing in a great time slot to be one of my favorite shows - 9PM on Friday nights. I typically don't like to go out on Fridays because I am exhausted from working/stressing all week. I like to sit at home, make some popcorn, drink some sparkling wine (my new favorite!), and watch mindless TV. I did so last night and it was awesome.