Super Sore & Loving Soup

Wowzers Workout

This morning I woke up before the alarm went off. I seriously think I am traumatized from the alarm incident yesterday! I wasn't sure if I'd be able to pull of my morning workout because my legs are incredibly sore from Monday's weights. I decided to at least do the warm up and see how they felt afterward. I figured that if nothing else, I would just do cardio. I did the warm up from Low Impact Circuit (LIC), weights, then the Cardio Premix from LIC. Once I got moving, my quads loosened up, and I was able to crank out the workout. Today was supersets of 3 sets of 8 reps:

SS#1

Quads - Static Lunges

Hamstrings - Stiff Leg Dead Lifts

SS#2

Shoulders - Arnold Press

Biceps - Alternating Bicep Curls

SS#3

Back - DB Pullover

Chest - Incline DB Flyes

I did reward my hard work with an Epsom salt bath after work. I used to do that frequently when I was dancing, especially near performance time. I should bring this back into my routine. I have decided that of all the leg exercises, I really like static lunges the best (other than calves).

What's your favorite leg exercise?

Soup du Jour - Curried Kabocha

The weather has turned cold again here, so soup is sounding pretty good as a dinner option. The other day I roasted up some kabocha that I have been adding to my lunch salads. I really wanted a creamy soup tonight, so I decided to go with what I had ready to go - kabocha. I decided to add the lime juice after reading a recent blog post by Anna @ Newlywed, Newly Veg for her Tropical Butternut Squash Soup recipe. Gotta love new ideas from fellow bloggers!

Curried Kabocha Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 roasted kabocha squash, cubed

2 carrots, diced

1 small (or 1/2 larger) white onion, diced

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 can cannellini beans, rinsed, drained

1/2 can lite coconut milk

1 lime (juice and zest)

32 oz. low-sodium vegetable broth

To taste: sea salt, black pepper, curry powder, ground coriander, red pepper, turmeric, cinnamon

Directions:

In large pot, saute onions, carrots, and garlic until onions are translucent. Add in beans, kabocha, broth, and spices. Bring to a simmer and let cook until carrots are soft.

In small batches, pure in food processor or blender. Return to pot and stir in coconut milk and additional broth if needed. Bring to a simmer again and re-season if necessary. Let reduce to desired consistency adding in the lime juice and zest at the end.

[Sorry, no pics, it pretty much looked like every other squash soup...LOL]

I would normally have served with a side salad, but was low on lettuce and spinach. Instead I decided to put together a Curried Broccoli Carrot Salad. The measurements are completely approximate as I just sort of tossed this together ad-hoc.

Curried Broccoli Carrot Salad

Ingredients:

Rice wine vinegar (use to thin, so amount will vary depending on your desired consistency)

1 tsp red curry paste

1 tsp tahini

1 tbsp creamy peanut butter (heated in microwave to thin)

sea salt and curry powder to taste

2 carrots shredded

1 1/2 cups broccoli

handful white raisins

Directions:

In medium mixing bowl, blend all ingredients up to carrots. Stir in remaining ingredients.

This was actually really quite tasty, especially for a throw-together starter!