Friday Night Soup

I was still full from dinner last night when I woke up this morning! So I skipped breakfast, got some chores done around the house, then headed to the gym for a run and yoga.

Once at the gym I decided to run outdoors because I loathe treadmills. Well, the heat drove me inside after 30 minutes! But I did get a nice, sweaty 30 minute outdoor run in followed by another 10 minute run on the treadmill and 15 minutes of ab work.

I popped into the yoga studio only to discover our yoga instructor was out today so our class was replaced with a "stretch" class. Our sub was a competitive gymnast so she knows stretching! She lead us in an intense stretching routine, which was actually a refreshing change from traditional yoga.

I finally got hungry around 2:00 pm and felt like a fruity yogurt bowl. I mixed 0% Fage with a tablespoon of ground flax seed and about 1/4 cup of raw oats and topped it with a small banana, peach, raspberries, sliced almonds, and unsweetened shredded coconut.

Around 5 pm I started getting hungry again so I had a small cup of Cascadian Farms organic high fiber cereal.

Chris and I were planning on going out tonight but he was too tired and requested we stay home and get take-out instead. I couldn't think of any take-out that sounded appealing so I surveyed our nearly bare refrigerator and pantry and came up with this surprisingly tasty dinner -- root vegetable rotini soup and grilled cheese. I was able to use up the leftover vegetables that I roasted on Wednesday night. Waste not, want not!

Root Vegetable Rotini Soup

- 1 can Amy's Organic Light Butternut Squash soup

- 2 cups roasted vegetables (carrots, sweet potato, bell pepper, onion)

- whole grain pasta

- garbanzo beans

I used my awesome Vita Mix blender to prepare the soup! Yes, it blends so fast you can cook soup in it. I never knew you could love a blender. I blended the can of soup with about 1.5 cups of the vegetables for 4 minutes on high until it was hot and steamy. Then I added the remaining vegetables and blended on low for about 20 seconds to add texture to the soup. I split the soup between two bowls and stirred large handfuls of rotini pasta and garbanzo beans into each bowl, topped with cracked pepper.

I made us mini grilled cheese sandwiches on Arnold's 100 calorie whole grain sandwich thins to accompany the hearty root vegetable soup. It was a filling and delicious autumn dinner.

Thank goodness we're headed to the farmer's market tomorrow morning. My produce drawer has been whittled down to 1 peach and 1 roma tomato. Pathetic! That will be remedied soon.

Oh, I might have a scoop of ice cream later. I haven't decided yet. Have an awesome weekend everybody!