The Last Supper

Happy Friday! Weee!! Usually the weeks pass by at the speed of light for me, but for some reason this one seemed to take its time. That’s really OK by me though. It’s passing by too fast! 🙂

Yesterday when I got home for the day, I was reminded that there are more things that are guaranteed in life besides death and taxes.

For example, Illinoisans are guaranteed construction, corn…and giant breaded tenderloin…

And then they’re also guaranteed the day the thermostat switches from “off” to “heat.”

Yesterday was that day, my friends. Twas a sad day.

Have you had to turn on your heat yet? Or have you already had it turned on for a while now?

After shaking my fist in defiance, I retreated to the kitchen, stewing about what would make the-day-we-turned-on-the-heat a little better…

And by stewing, I mean I opened a pumpkin beer for Shane and I to try.

Favorite pumpkin beer alert!!! This one is from Trader Joe’s, and sadly, I only had this one in my fridge. My friend Destiny sent it home with me to try out. Winner winner! Although the husband said it was too pumpkiny and spicey. I say BLASPHEMY!

Thankfully, a coworker saved the day by bringing in the most delicious smelling organic green peppers into the office.

These pepper taunted me the whole day. Each time I’d turn around, I smell the fresh, spicy green pepper smell 🙂 I simply had to put these to use in the kitchen last night.

The Last Summer Supper

Stuffed peppers, no matter what’s in them, turn out great, don’t you think?! They’re pretty much the easiest recipe or un recipe ever! For these, I just cooked some brown rice, and then added in taco seasoning to the rice during the last 5 minutes. After hollowing and boiling the pepper, I stuffed it with the seasoned rice, some black beans, a chopped tomato, and salsa and popped ‘em in the oven! During the last 5 minutes of baking, I topped the peppers off with the spiciest cheese ever and called it good.

But it was more than good!

        

Stuffed peppers must be eaten in a bowl, too. Because once you cut open the first little pepper door, there’s no stopping the delicious mess that’s going to spill out.

And with that, summer, I bid you farewell.

Bring on the pumpkin scented candles, scarves, boots and hoodies!

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Today’s mission: find a Halloween costume! We are so behind!! What are you all being for Halloween??

Have a great Friday, guys!!

His and Hers Stuffed Peppers

 

After doing a little housework and taking Niko on a mini walk, I finally got my booty out the door for a long run. Let me tell you that this part was even hard. I contemplated not even going as my lack o’ motivation was something fierce. I even called up a fellow runner friend to see if she wanted to meet me. However, seeing as I gave her..ohh about 10 minutes notice, she had other plans, and I had no other choice but to go it solo. So I had started out my run planning on running a steady eight miles, but then about one mile in I decided to make it a 10K instead. I kept pretty good pace the first five miles. Every mile was under 9:30. I ventured through ISU’s campus, and even got in a little potty break and drink break! I lucked out because I saw someone leave the College of Business building – I thought all the buildings were locked on Sundays! Good thing this one wasn’t, because my bladder was about to explode :S I headed back home and miles 3,4, and 5 passed quickly. However after mile 5, I noticed I wasn’t in too great of shape. Either because of the cold, the alcohol consumed, iPod dying after mile two (what?!) or whathaveyou, my heart rate was pretty high the whole run, and I was getting mad cramps during mile 6. It got so bad in the last .2 miles that I was almost walking. I’m pretty sure I looked like a damn fool those last 2 tenths of a mile! I was pretty much hobbling while saying to myself, “don’t stop, just keep run-ning, just keep run-ning – a la Dori from Finding Nemo;)” It was the hardest .2 miles I’ve ever run! I ended up finishing 6.22 miles in 59 minutes.

 

I’d be lying if I said it felt great when I was done. I pretty much collapsed on the couch directly after stretching. All I wanted to do was take a nap…but that wasn’t in today’s to-do list unfortunately…

 

I jumped in the shower and got ready for the day! First stop was meeting my girl Heidi at our favorite store:

 

 

I didn’t buy anything, but she wanted me to help her pick out some boots. No avail there, but we did have fun looking at baby clothes (for her, not me;)) and catching up 🙂 From there I had to go to Petco to return the bed I tried to get Ceeb and Nik to like…however had no avail there! I had hopes for Clarabelle, but she quickly became disinterested. I picked out a different one and made the exchange. I think this one is going to be a success:

 

I also got Niko a winter sweater. Isn’t it cute?!

 

 

 

She’s such a model. Sashay, Niko! She loooves it! Almost as much as I do, haha. She gets so cold in the winter though, so it really does help. After picking up a prescription, grocery shopping, and stopping by the dry cleaners, I was finally home and ready to tackle the rest of my cleaning. The only thing left to do now is laundry. However…this might just have to wait until tomorrow. It’s so easy to put laundry off, isn’t it?! I think it’s because it will always be there…waiting for you to return to it, haha.

 

I made an awesome dinner tonight for Shane and I. We contemplated getting carry out Indian food, but then decided to make use of the just-bought groceries. On the menu tonight:

 

His and Hers Stuffed Peppers

 

 

 

This was my first attempt and making a vegetarian and non vegetarian version of the same meal, since I’ve started the transition to becoming a veg. I won’t deprive Shane of his meat just because I made the decision to stop eating animals, so I browned some meat in a pan while boiling some pasta shells in a pot.

 

 

 

Then I added cheese to the shells, and split them up – adding half into the pan of meat. To both, I added some chopped onions and red kidney beans, salt, and cayenne.

 

 

I’m pretty sure these were the best stuffed peppers I’ve ever made – Shane cosigned. To make it more like mac n cheese, I put the peppers in a bowl, added the mixture into the pepper, then spread another portion around the pepper. Shane chose the red pepper, so my bowl was very yellow:

 

 

 

 

 

Mmmm – so good. The cayenne pepper seriously made this meal. It added the perfect hint of spiciness.

 

Shane’s portion – with a little extra cheese and some greenery on the side:

 

 

 

      

Da Bears are playing, so I gotta go watch me some FOOTBALL!!!

 

PS – 6 days until my 10K and until I get to see my BFF, Destiny 😀

 

Tomorrow morning, I’m making a post on the RAN house. I’ve gotten several emails asking for a house tour, so today after my massive cleaning spree I got a little photo taking happy, and will be giving you a virtual house tour tomorrow!

Good Mood Monday after a Squash and Pepper Dinner

Get ready to fake it until you make it! At least that’s what I’m doing today. Since Mondays get such a bad rap, I’m forcing cheerfulness upon myself. One of the ways I do this, is to count what I’m thankful for today:

• my coffee, as always
• that even though I’ve been slacking in the going-to-church dept., God still lets me and loves when I pray
• my staycation this past weekend, which is allowing me to be extra relaxed today
• almost having the laundry done!

One thing I’m looking forward to is having dinner with my parents tonight! I haven’t seen them in a couple weeks (which is a long time for me!) and it will be nice to hang out.

Workout slackage

Well, I guess you could call it purposeful slackage. I decided to skip my workout this morning. Partly because I’m so sore, and partly because it was an elliptical workout, and I have an easier time skipping non-run workouts. No biggie 🙂 Tomorrow’s a run day, so I’ll get it then 😉

Dinna

Last night’s dinner turned out to be AWESOME! I made stuffed peppers and butternut squash. Since I didn’t post play-by-play of how I made them, I’ll just post the couple pictures that I did take.

I stuffed the peppers with brown rice, lean ground beef (was going to do mine with turkey, but got lazy,) tomato sauce, jalapeno peppers, and onion. When they only had 15 minutes in the oven to go, I topped them each with habenero cheese.

They turned out SO good.

The squash was good, too, but didn’t turn out like spaghetti. I think I either roasted it too long or added too much water, but it just didn’t want to make noodles when I scraped it with a fork. Noodle form or not, it still turned out yummy! 😀

I hope everyone has a great day today. Try to be cheerful today even though it’s Monday. Try to spread your cheerfulness around to as many grumpy people as possible!

Question: What’s one way you pull yourself out of a foul mood?