Last night, I was craving pumpkin. I wanted something comforting and warm, but light enough to fit the summery weather outside. This was the perfect end-of-summer-almost-into-fall dish

Simple, nutritious, and delicious – just how I like it

Early Fall Pumpkin Quinoa (vegan)

(makes 3 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1 C cooked quinoa (I used red; regular is fine)
• 1 baby bok choy, chopped
• 1 bunch asparagus, chopped
• Olive oil
• 3/4 tsp. garlic powder (divided)
• 3/4 C water
• 1 C pumpkin
• 3/4 tsp. coriander
• Salt & cracked pepper to taste

Instructions:

1) Start by cooking your quinoa as directed on the package.

2) While the quinoa is cooking, sauté your veggies! I sautéed the bok choy and asparagus on medium heat in a drizzle of olive oil and 1/4 tsp. of garlic powder.

Continue to sauté until the veggies are soft (only takes a few minutes).

3) Reduce the heat to low, then add in your cooked quinoa!

4) Mix it all up, then add in the water and the pumpkin.

5) Finally, add in the remaining garlic powder (1/2 tsp.) and the 3/4 tsp. coriander. Stir it all up and makes sure it’s heated through, then add salt and cracked pepper to taste.

Mmm. The coriander seriously made this dish. It might be my new favorite spice! Although… cumin will always have my heart

Enjoy! I love making big meals like this because I have leftovers to enjoy for quick lunches or dinners later this week Yum!

In other news, I’m continuing to get settled here in Chapel Hill! I absolutely love that everyone in my program is social and organizing all sorts of fun activities all the time. Plus, it’s awesome that a lot of them like to work out as much as I do. Having workout buddies is so key! Last night, I went to an AMAZING 90 minute power yoga class (so hard!) at Franklin Street Yoga with my classmate Libby, and this morning I went for another great combination trail/street run with the same girls from Saturday!

We did 4 miles, starting at 7 a.m. I love morning runs because I feel so accomplished the rest of the day

Speaking of running – I’m heading over to Charlotte this weekend for a sleepover party and 5k race with miss Caitlin! I’m excited I’ve actually only done two 5k’s before – they were my very first races in 2006 and 2007! It’s been all 5 milers, 10ks, 10 milers, and my half marathon since! My 5k PR from 2007 is 25:42 (an 8:17 pace). I’m hoping to blow that out of the water on Saturday

(Yep, totally keep all my old race bibs! Do you?)

Today is my day off from classes, so I’ll be spending the day doing some more unpacking, getting some homework and reading done, and getting my hair highlighted at the Aveda Institute! It’s a training school and super cheap. Here’s hoping they don’t make my hair orange

Have a good one!

My Food Science and Preparation class is going to be so much fun! We had our first class yesterday and I’m especially excited about the lab – seriously a million times cooler than chem and bio lab! Our professor seems cool, too.

Last night’s lab was all about the sensory evaluation of food, which translates to: taste testing! Heck yes

We each had little cups of things to try – pudding, apples, lemon slices, muffins, sugar water of varying sweetness, etc. (Excuse the ghetto photos – my DSLR was at home and my point and shoot doesn’t like being indoors!)

There were also cubes of cheddar cheese of varying sharpness, and applesauce seasoned with 4 different spices – cinnamon (yum!), cloves (blech! too intense), coriander (surprisingly good?!), and ginger (yum!).

We even had AMAZING chicken salad sandwiches (healthified, of course, with celery, grapes, and lots of delish fresh herbs! trying to get this recipe to share!) that came from one of the cafes at the UNC hospitals where our professor works (he’s the head of food services for all the UNC hospitals!).

Yum. Our professor is an RD but also went to culinary school, so this course should be a cool mix of the two. Future labs include learning knife skills, braising meats, and much more The class is during dinnertime and we get to eat the spoils of our labor – yum!

My professor was interested to hear about the blog and encouraged me to bring my DSLR next time to get some good photos – so expect some fun posts about this lab in the future

We got out of class a bit early, so a few of us decided to head out for a glass of wine – I’m really enjoying getting to know my classmates! I can already tell I will be making a lot of really good friends in this program.

Pretty ladies

I’m off to campus for another busy day! Thank you for all the awesome cereal and breakfast ideas in the comments of my last post – I can’t wait to try them out

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p.s. I finally made dedicated recipe pages for my:

• Blueberry Spelt Pancakes with Yogurt Maple Banana Topping
• Blueberry Apple Cinnamon Yogurt Bread

Enjoy

Well, it’s official. I’m in a cereal rut.

Every time I go to the grocery store, I tell myself I’m going to try a different kind of cereal. And then… there’s a billion kinds of cereal and I don’t feel like looking through them to see what’s not massively sugary and gross… so I just buy my favorites.

Oh, Kashi. How I love thee. My favorite bowl is about two parts Heart to Heart to one part Honey Sunshine. Topped with a sliced banana and berries.

Clearly I’ve gotten this down to a science.

Breakfast is the one meal where I can eat the exact same thing day in and day out. When I was living in Prague last year, their cereals were all really sugary and processed (plus, I couldn’t read any of the labels to find out what wasn’t), so I decided Banana Oatmeal was the way to go.

I literally had the same bowl of oatmeal, every single day, for almost the entire 9 months I was in Prague. Sometimes on the stovetop, sometimes in the microwave, but always:

• Oats
• Milk
• Cinnamon
• Sliced Banana
• Frozen blueberries, added in half way
• Yogurt and ground flaxseed, added in just before eating

I began to really look forward to my morning bowl of oats, although I found it didn’t really hold me over as well as my cereal creations. But it was comforting to have a bowl of something hot before heading out in the cold, gray weather.

But the second I came home – back to cereal it was.

I’ve tried to break free, and even had a few brief flings with almond butter breakfast bars, pancakes, scrambled egg muffins, green smoothies, and omelet(tes), but I always come crawling back to cereal.

I need your help. What’s your favorite kind of cereal? If I’m going to be obsessed, at least I can try some different kinds. And if you don’t like cereal – what’s your favorite breakfast? Are you in a breakfast rut? I need some new ideas!

…

I have a busy day ahead – heading out shortly for a run (it’s beautiful out!) and then off to school from about 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. Whew! First I have a lab/working session for Bio Statistics, and then from 3 to 8 is the first day of lecture and lab for my Food Science and Preparation course. I’m excited! We get to wear aprons during lab instead of lab coats

Have a great Monday!

I had such a great trail run this morning with my new friends and fellow masters students!

I love trail running and I’m so excited to know this trail is nearby! I’m also super excited to already have running buddies – that’s the hardest thing about moving to a new place as far as I’m concerned.

We ran 5.14 miles in about 54 minutes. It’s hard to run fast on a hilly and rocky trail – gotta watch your feet so you don’t fall!

Are you guys fans of trail running? I think running on a trail makes running SO much more entertaining. We had a blast maneuvering through the hilly, rocky terrain and chatting away the whole time.

After the run, I bonded with an old friend – my foam roller! If you’re a runner and you don’t own one of these, I’d really recommend getting one! Here’s a link to the one I have. It made SUCH a huge difference for me when I was training for my first half marathon in the spring. Really helps with soreness and muscle recovery!

Speaking of my half marathon, look what I finally got around to buying for my car!

13.1, baby!

After my run, I met up with a high school friend for lunch (so excited to have an old friend nearby!) and then headed to Franklin Street (the main drag in Chapel Hill) to meet a friend from DC who is in town!

Hi Kristen!

We walked around, chatted, and decided that the only solution for such a hot day was frozen yogurt. Duh.

I’m off to enjoy a rocking Saturday night by myself – Matt left this morning for a week-long work trip. Boo! I figure since I have no plans I should try to get some work done so I can play tomorrow However… I have a TV for the first time in 2 years. We just got it hooked up yesterday and I forgot how awesome TV is! This could be dangerous. I am so out of the loop and don’t know what most of the shows are. Also, why are commercials so much louder than the regular shows?!