Millions of Peaches and South Indian Pumpkin Soup

Ok, I couldn’t resist. Last night, during our cool down at Boot Camp, our teacher played the song Peaches by the Presidents of the United States of America. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since and I also craved peaches since hearing the song. All I had to satisfy my craving was a can of Dole All Natural peaches in the pantry, so I packed that up for lunch today. The band’s name is perfect for voting day, even though we’re not voting for President today, but for Senate, Governor, etc.

Breakfast was Kashi Island Vanilla with coffee.

It was my rest day from exercise, so we walked to the nearest school and voted. I had to register again because I haven’t voted since we got married. The name change thing seems to always come up, even a year and two months after I have been married!

Karma liked my “I voted” sticker.

Dinner tonight was a new recipe! South Indian Pumpkin Soup.

South Indian Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1  can pumpkin puree
• 2 cups reduced-sodium vegetable broth or stock
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1″ ginger, peeled and minced
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 cup reduced-fat coconut milk
• toasted pumpkin seeds for garnish (optional)

Instructions:

1) In a heavy saucepan, heat oil over medium-low heat. Stir in garlic, ginger and curry powder and cook for 1 minute, until fragrant.

2) Add vegetable stock/broth and coconut milk and turn heat to medium. Stir in pumpkin puree and orange juice, breaking up any clumps with a long-handled spoon.

3) Stir soup occasionally until heated through, about 5 minutes. Take soup off the heat and stir in salt, nutmeg and red pepper; taste for seasoning. Garnish bowls of soup with toasted pumpkin seeds (optional).

Nutritional content (per serving):

Calories: 34, Total fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 0mg, Sodium: 146mg, Carbs: 6g, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 3g, Protein: 2g

The littlest things excite me. At work today, we got our YMCA Wellness at Work gym towel, water bottle and gym bag. You see, I bought a Gaiam bag that held my yoga mat and was the perfect size. Well, I never used it (because I wanted to see what my free Y bag would be like), so I will have to return that bag and keep this YMCA one. The Y one ended up being a great size and of really nice quality.

Off to watch the election results for a little bit. Hope you all voted!

Pumpkin Smoothie

Oh man! My muscles are aching. My back is especially hurting, but I am not sure if it’s from Boot Camp or from raking over the weekend. I get really bad back aches from raking this time of year.

Breakfast today was coffee and Island Vanilla Kashi cereal.

Lunch was more quinoa leftovers (I wasn’t sick of them yet) and baby carrots. After eating the baby carrots, I was so full. I didn’t end up eating the apple. I’ll save it for tomorrow as a snack or dessert. I did want some dark chocolate though, so I opted for that instead as my dessert today.

I wasn’t that hungry for dinner and didn’t really crave anything in particular, except pumpkin. I decided I have been craving a pumpkin latte, but I am too cheap to buy one. So, I settled for a Pumpkin smoothie topped with cinnamon.

Pumpkin Smoothie

As you saw in the photo above, I combined Trader Joe’s Organic canned pumpkin (about 1/2 cup), a fresh banana (other recipes recommend frozen, but this tasted good and I had a fresh to use up), skim milk, Trader Joe’s Organic Non-fat plain yogurt, pumpkin pie spice, a bit of ginger, vanilla extract and honey. Ginger and honey weren’t pictured, because I decided to add them after blending the first set of ingredients together. I never used to taste everything I made, but realize how important it is now. The honey was a nice addition to sweeten it up a bit. Yum!

I also snacked on some pita chips with hummus and then had about half of Craig’s whole wheat tortilla with cheese, salsa and steak strips.

Other bloggers show themselves eating with their spouses at dinner time. I know how important that is, but Craig and I rarely eat the same thing for dinner. I often eat healthier food and he doesn’t always like olives, mushrooms, etc. When we do eat the same food, it’s usually frozen pizza, mac and cheese and burritos (not so healthy choices). Do you always eat the same meal as your spouse? Who cooks in your house?

Because my muscles are aching, I was looking forward to a rest day when I got home from work. I did want to do something sort of active and instead of a walk, I opted to do Wii EA Active for 15 minutes. I like EA Active when I want to do a bit of exercising but don’t want to go to the gym (great for snowy or really cold days).

I did the following exercises. I didn’t complete the volleyball set, but I started it.

If you haven’t done EA Active before, you exercise with a Wiimote and a Nunchuck. The other tools are the Wiimote holder strap (which you wear on your thigh and tighten with a velcro strap) and a resistance band.

My only issue seems to be that the strap always want to fall off of my thigh!

When we first got this game, what struck me as being really impressive was the demonstrations of exercises. I don’t use them much anymore, but if I ever forget how to do a certain exercise, I can refer back to the demo.

Now dance!

I am watching Biggest Loser as I type, but I may turn it off and opt for reading a few magazines and the addictive Larsson book. I am way behind on my magazine reading! I think I have only paid for one subscription (Health) and the rest were free–Fitness, Glamour, People StyleWatch and my mom gives me Good Housekeeping to read. They all seem to pile up at once! I need to bring more to the gym to read while biking or walking.

Pumpkin Spice-Chocolate Chip Muffins

I forgot to post the recipe for the Pumpkin Spice-Chocolate Chip Muffins from The Spice Kitchen.

From The Spice Kitchen: Everyday Cooking with Organic Spices

Pumpkin Spice-Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used wheat)
1 teaspoon plus 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease 18 standard-size muffin cups or line them with 18 paper cups. Sift the flour, 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon, allspice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large mixing bowl. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk 1 1/4 cups of the sugar together with the pumpkin, oil, eggs and vanilla. Stir the chocolate chips into the pumpkin mixture. Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture and mix until the batter just comes together. Stir the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and the remaining 1 teaspoon of cinnamon together in a small bowl.

Spoon 1/3 cup of the batter into each of the prepare muffin cups. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture evenly over the top of each muffin. Bake the muffins until a toothpick inserted in the center of one or two muffins comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the muffins from the oven and allow them to cool for 5 minutes before removing them from the pan. If not serving the muffins hot, place the muffins on a rack to cool.

Makes 18 muffins.

Enjoy!