Death by butternut squash

I was far too tired to blog yesterday, so I’ll back up to yesterday morning.

Friday

I needed to do some mad yardwork, so I spent some time outdoors communing with nature…

…lovely, thorny, itchy nature.  (The scratches are way worse than what this picture conveys…and I like to milk small injuries for all they’re worth)  I should’ve taken some before-and-after pics, because HOO BOY our backyard is SO MUCH NEATER now that I’ve cut down most of the jungle that had taken over.

That morning I energized with Kashi waffles + almond butter + flax + bananas with skim + chai…

Then when I broke for lunch, I started with a pumpkin muffin appetizer because I just couldn’t stand the 6 minutes the microwave was asking me to wait…

(With a side of Lucky)

Lunch was corn, peas, and pasta with pesto…too much pasta.

I caught up on Twitter during my lunch break and was jealous of all the girls talking about their Cookie Fridays, so I scrounged up the rest of my caramel apple “cookies” from the fridge (they fell apart when I baked them and then congealed into a giant doughpile).

Looks kinda icky all stuck to the wax paper, doesn’t it?  Sorry ‘bout that.  It was delectable, I can assure you.  More yard work yielded more scratches and achy muscles, especially after the previous night’s Wii workout…squats and lunges and yardwork make my butt and legs ANGRY.

After I took a much-needed and much-appreciated shower, Mom and I ran some errands before I started to make dinner.  I tried something I’ve never done before – risotto!  I’ve never made this on my own, and I found a recipe for butternut squash risotto online (I think it was a Rachael Ray recipe).  Risotto is a tedious and labor-intensive dish…I didn’t realize it required 20 minutes of constant stirring!  I got an arm workout, that’s for sure.  Alongside the risotto, I did a repeat of the Quorn chicken I made earlier in the week – foil packet with apple cider, onion, and apple butter – and added some gorgonzola cheese on top.

The risotto was good, but I think I’ve been butternutted out lately.  This is the 3rd major dish I’ve made with butternut squash this week…I need to back away from the squash before I turn into one. 

I started writing the Saturday recap here, but it deserved its own post.  I tried to add pretty pictures to make it worth it…let’s see how a Windows Live gallery works – never tried it before!