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Christmas Dinner & Soup for Soggy Monday

Christmas Dinner
As I mentioned yesterday, our Christmas Dinner was similar to our Thanksgiving dinner. We enjoyed the meal so much, why not make it again, or most of it anyway. Plus, I really want to try to perfect the Wild Mushroom Green Bean Casserole.
 
 
 

So, it was the casserole along with Curried Pumpkin Risotto and Quorn Turk'y Roast topped with Chipotle Cranberry Relish. Some dishes are certainly worthy repeating in my book.

It was a nice, low-key Christmas for us topped off with a fabulous dinner, just the two of us (besides Maddie & Heath waiting under the table for food droppage of course).


Gym Day
Today was back to gray skies and lots of rain. Definitely the kind of day that makes you want to just stay inside in your PJs, even more so since we were both off work. We did manage to get out of our PJs into our workout clothes for the gym though. I started with 15 minutes on the elliptical then did trisets of 3x8 (unless noted) for shoulders, biceps, quads.

Barbell squats - warmup set of 10

TS#1
Shoulder press
EZ bar curls
Barbell squats

TS#2
Front raise
Cross-body curls
Alternating front lunges (with dumbbells)

TS#3
Lateral raise
Hammer curls
Plie squats with low-end pulse

I had intended on doing chest as well, but Jason was done with his workout a lot sooner than I was. So, I will just need to do that another day this week.

Soup for Soggy Day
We got home and immediately got back into our PJs. I did manage to be a little productive doing tons of laundry (washing/drying not folding though). I also made up some veggie burgers to stash in the freezer. I had thought I might make some seitan as well, but got lazy. Instead, I spent time on the couch looking through two new cookbooks I got: Happy Herbivore and The Blooming Platter.

Because of the weather, I decided soup sounded like the ideal dinner. Plus, I wanted something on the lighter side with tons of veggies. I had some kale and butternut squash, so I thought that would work well for a stew or soup.

Butternut Squash, Kale and Bean Soup
Ingredients:
1/2 white onion, diced
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 small butternut squash, diced

1 32oz container no-salt vegetable broth
1 can no-salt diced tomatoes, with liquid
1 bunch kale, cleaned and de-stemmed, rough chop
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chickpeas
To taste: salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, parsley, turmeric, basil, oregano, freshly grated nutmeg
2 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes

Directions:
In large pot, saute onions and garlic in small amount of olive oil for about 2-3 minutes then add in the squash and cook another 5 minutes.

Add in the broth, tomatoes, and spices and yeast flakes and allow to simmer approximately 20 minutes. Add in the kale and cover for about 5 minutes to help the kale start to cook down then add in the beans and allow to continue to until kale is soft and the squash is cooked through.
 

This turned out really well. I do think I prefer more of a stew rather than a soup. Next time I might add in some tomato paste to help thicken the soup. 

Daily To-Enjoy List:
  • Weight lifting
  • PJ day
  • Relaxing
  • Comforting dinner

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