Happy Monday, it’s snowing here….in a place that does not deal well with snow. I am from The North, we had snow, packed on roads and plowed up onto medians for 5 months of the year. Shovelling was a daily (and sometimes mulitple times) chore. We had block heaters in our cars and actual winter clothing, snow pants and big mittens, toques and earmuffs. I grew up in a climate that had an Actual Winter and it didn’t bother me. My sister and I used to walk to and from school (about a km and a half each way) every day. The only time that we were given a pass on going to school was when the thermometer outside of our dining room window showed -40 or colder. That happened about once/year. Any other day we walked. We put snowpants and winter jackets over our clothes, put on boots and mitts and braved the outdoors. And now? I hate the cold and I hate the snow. When Ray took our dog for a walk last night he didn’t even bother asking me if I wanted to go (granted I was cooking dinner, but still). I probably wouldn’t hate it as much if I had all the proper winter gear again….but since I’m always cold anyway (sitting here typing, my fingers may just shatter), going out into even colder doesn’t thrill me at all.
Yesterday I made Roasted Acorn & Butternut Soup. It turned out alright…..because those are fairly sweet squashes though (and even more once you roast them), it’s difficult to season the soup. We don’t like spicy and if you don’t season it properly it has the potential to become Pie Filling Soup. I did alright with it and I’m curious to taste it again today once the flavours have melded. I also made cheesy croutons out of large chunks of baguette, spread with some goat cheese and topped with a little sprinkle of marble and then broiled. Very delicious!
I’m still on my Low Sodium awareness, I do not want a repeat of last week. I’m convinced that the problem last week was something of a perfect storm of TOM, eating out and heart issue which caused the over-retention of sodium. But I’m not taking any chances. I’m being much more aware of sodium content (which is a good idea anyway) and buying sometimes more expensive but lower sodium products. I used low sodium organic chicken and veg broth for the soup last night and when I was buying canned salmon for my lunch I found a low sodium one….460mg per serving for the regular one and 85mg per serving for the low sodium one. More expensive but that’s a HUGE difference. The taste is slightly more bland but that’ll change as we get used to this.
Tonight I’m going to BodyCombat at 4:30pm. Ray is back on graveyard so he is sleeping now but will hopefully be cooking a small roast and some asparagus and red potatoes by the time I get home from Combat tonight. We’re eating out once this week, on a Friday night date with our friends. Given our recent record of eating out, I’ll take once/week as an acceptable reduction!
I haven’t posted a Love List lately….and while you might not care, I do and I liked framing my day in a grateful manner so I’m going to try to do consistently again.
Love List ~ November 21, 2011
This morning I am grateful for:
my kitten hat
silly kisses at 6:15am
an absence of morning commute mayhem
warm soup for lunch
Fitty vs Fatty 