Your Lucky Day

It's a truly disgusting day in Iowa...cold, dreary, and wet. The fiance and I slept in. I moved my run to tonight, and now I'm sharing the couch and blanket with my kittens and some tea.

Since I'm such a debbie downer, you're probably wondering what all this could possibly have to do with it being your lucky day...well...here's your hint.

And you'll have to read all the way to the end for the explaination!

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Don't worry, it's pretty quick. My plan of going back to a few main dishes to feed me through the week worked really well. I made Chipotle Turkey Chili, Pasta Salad, Autumn Soup, and Cheesy Cauliflower. I only supplemented with some barbeque tofu during the week, which is really fast to make.

 Terribly messy picture of BBQ tofu, harvest soup, and cheesy cauliflower.

Much more vibrant pic of a tofu sandwich with onion, banana pepper, mustard. More pasta salad, and some broccoli.


That said, there were a couple days of ridiculous eating, but it was a choice. I went out to lunch with girls from work early in the week. We went to Vesuvius, a brick oven pizza joint focusing on local and sustainable foods. It's sooooo good.

Sorry for the crackberry pics...my pizza was roasted veggie.


On Thursday, I had a weight lifting class immediately followed by a hot date after work, so I ate a bar and apple with PB before the class, showered, and ate movie theatre popcorn while watching Resident Evil: Afterlife. It was good. The 3-D was important to the movie. Without the 3-D, it would've been my least favorite of the series. Yes, I'm a super nerd. Get over it.

We're getting into the last leg of produce season in Iowa. My porch tomato and pepper plants are spitting out their final offerings.

So, on Saturday morning, Missie, her baby Ethan, and I drove to a neighboring town to check out the huge farmer's market that they have.
The highlights:

On this trip, Ethan learned that pumpkins have a variety of shapes, sizes, and textures. And he REALLY likes pears.

The fiance thought I'd come home with the whole market, but I kept my purchases to a minimum. I bought some locally made marble rye bread because it's delicious and hard to find. No HFCS in it either! I also got some peaches, grape tomatoes, italian roasting peppers, enough jalapenos to freeze and keep for a whole year (do it! it works for everything!) for exactly $1 (take that, december pepper prices!), and an acorn squash.

Finally, I couldn't resist a treat. This market had a zillion food vendors with bbq, pizza, meats, cheeses, pastries, everything. Missie got some perogies (how were they!?) and I got 6 decadent cupcakes.

That was cookies & cream right before it hit my mouth. I also got a strawberry creme, caramel apple, and PBchocolate. The fiance and I are splitting them 50/50. Missie got to take two home as well. I can say that it was delicious and a great treat, but I kind of like homemade ones better. It wasn't special enough, ya know!?

So for the rest of today, I have to swing into work again for a couple hours, go for a long, wet, dreary run (oh, yaaaayyyyyy :( ) and the fiance and I are going to finish cooking this week's bulk meals. I just sampled one and it is deeeelicious. I can give you some clues:

1) One is vegan for me and covered in a blanket of cheese for him.
2) I've modified a delicious pizza recipe I've told you about into a casserole.
3) The third dish contains an ingredient I don't really like and never cook with. Any guesses?

I'll have a post detailing the eats and another one for the metabolism series up this week.

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So how is this dreary Sunday going to be your lucky day. Well, on Tuesday Tina at CarrotsNCake had a blogger bake sale to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma society that she and her husband are running their first marathon for. The bake sale was an amazing success, they made almost $2400 when it was over. I have been reading Tina's blog almost since its inception, and I have a lot of respect for her as a real woman, so I donated an item to her bake sale. It sold for an amazingly generous $50.00 to Shannon at The Daily Balance.

Here's the description:

Fall is my favorite season, so here are three autumn-inspired quickbreads for a treat or snack. All are low-fat, low-sugar, and high-fiber recipes and are made using all-natural ingredients. The three flavors are Pumpkin Custard, Gingerbread with powdered sugar topping, and Caramel Apple with granola topping. All contain eggs, dairy, and wheat. Caramel Apple contains almonds. Recipes and calorie/nutritional breakdown estimates are available upon request.


Because they are mini loaves, I have some extras to give away to one lucky reader.

If you'd like a set of the mini loaves, leave me a comment in the comments section telling me your favorite season and why. 

You can also post about it on your own blog and link back to me (please leave a comment if you do this so I'm sure to catch it) or post about it on facebook if you're my facebook friend. 

I'll pick a winner on Tuesday night at 5pm and they'll go in the mail Wednesday. READY-SET-Go!

Now, if you are related to me, getting married to me, or think you are Mary Tyler Moore you  are exempt from this giveaway because you'll be getting your own goodies from me soon. Love you!