Broccoli Cheese Soup

Not your mama's broccoli cheese soup....

More like a broccoli lover's soup! I LOVE the bright green color.

I followed this recipe. It's not vegan, but it's very delicious! I can't remember the last time I bought cheese to cook with, so I think I'm doing well at lessening my impact on the environment, my body, and animals. Sometimes cheese is just delicious.... especially when paired with broccoli!

Served with a slice of Ezekiel bread. It's so good, and eating something this vibrant makes you feel good.

Nutrition facts:

Not bad for a cheesy soup. I got 5 servings out of this recipe.. I can't wait for lunch tomorrow!

And for dessert....

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies! Only one, though..  for now ;) They are very good; I definitely recommend them. Dillon and I had fun baking last night!

On the marathon front I'm doing well - feeling confident and excited! Today was a cross train day, and Dillon and I went on an hour long walk in the snow. It was a nice change; Plus we went out to breakfast at Dunn Brothers, which was awesome. I love coffee and a muffin in the morning!

Dillon and I plan on relaxing for the rest of the evening, which sounds great to me! I hope you enjoyed your weekend!

~Kasey

Good Day!

Its nice to start out the week with a good day!

I had a great run and lifting session this morning.

I was able to keep my eating well under control - I wasn't very hungry very much.

Work was pretty mellow.

I ate a BUNCH of fruit! 2 bananas, 3 clementines, 2 apples.... yum!

I got my iPhone!!! My wonderful hubby picked it up from our apartment office and set it all up for me.

The one little snag in the day was that I lost my car key - hopefully I'll find it at work tomorrow. Good thing is that we only like about 2 blocks from work, so Dillon was able to bring me my spare really quickly!

And I made a fabulous dinner!

A delicious strifry! Photo taken from my iPhone.. not bad, eh?

Serving it up!

Served over 1 cup of brown rice. So satisfying.

Dillon found this cool thing you can do with WolframAlpha. Just add your ingredients with "+" signs in between them, and you get this:

Nutrition facts! This made 3 servings, so 442 calories per serving... and you get all the great vitamin values and such.

Dillon always discovers cool things like this - I should really listen to him more!

Well with that, I'm going to go have him teach me more about my new phone!

Au revior!

~Kasey

"Cheese" Sauce

Happy Monday, All!

I had the day off today! I did some shopping, had lunch with a friend, worked on my resume while drinking coffee at Starbucks, and cooked. All in all a good day. I'm sad its almost over, as I now work 7 days in a row. Bleh - oh well. I'm sure it won't be that bad.

On to my yummy supper! We bought a couple of russet potatoes yesterday on a whim, so I decided to make baked potatoes for supper tonight. I just wasn't sure how I wanted to serve them.

Awhile back I made some delicious cheesy pasta sauce and remembered thinking that it would be good on other things. Things like baked potatoes and roasted broccoli.

Cheesy Sauce from Vegan Yum-Yum
(I halved this today, but made the full amount when I used it as a pasta sauce.)

1 Cup Soymilk
1/3 Cup Raw, Unsalted Cashews
1/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast
3 Tbsp Low-Sodium Tamari or Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Earth Balance Margarine
1 Tbsp Tahini
1 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
2 tsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp Paprika
1 Pinch Nutmeg
2-4 Cloves of Garlic, optional
Black pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Then either heat it on the stove in a saucepan if using it as a topping, or combine in a skillet with cooked pasta.

Easy as that!

It thickens up pretty nicely while being heated. Make sure to stir quite often so it doesn't burn.

Mmmm, a delicious and simple supper. It's a really good cheesy sauce, without all the fat and cholesterol that comes with real cheese. I topped my potato with some vegan sour cream and ground pepper, as well. The broccoli was roasted in the oven like we always do - with olive oil, salt, and pepper at 375° for about 10 minutes. Yum! A hearty and warm meal was just what we were hungry for - especially since it's barely above 0° outside!

I think the sauce would also go well over rice or quinoa. I'll test that out by using the leftovers in a quinoa bowl tomorrow for lunch. I hope I won't be disappointed!

I'm off to enjoy the last few hours of my day off. Tomorrow morning it's supposed to be about -20° real air temp when I get up. We'll see if I'm motivated enough to hit the gym, or if I'll just stay cozy in bed.

Goodnight!

~Kasey

9 Miles!

This morning I ran about 9 miles in 1:40:00! While not super fast, it's still pretty awesome if you ask me.

The half marathon isn't until May, so I think I'll be very ready for it! I think I'm really going to focus on speed during the week, and then on the weekends get 8-12 mile runs in most of the time. I don't like following a particular plan; I think it kind of takes the fun out of running. I want to run when, where, and for how long I want to run at that time! So I think this flexible plan should work very well for me.

To prepare for my long run today, I devoured this last night -

Mac and Chreese with roasted broccoli! You've probably seen this before :) We were supposed to have this on Thursday, but we went to Granite City for dinner that night instead. Whoops!

Last night we also went to Dairy Queen for Blizzards. Not very healthy of me, but it's been so long since we've had actual ice cream - it was a nice treat. Treats in moderation, right?

We turned in early last night after watching an episode of The Wire (it's so good!) so we could be rested for our day.

Right now I'm sipping this to recover from my run -

1 cup of unsweetened soymilk, 1 cup of frozen blueberries, and 1 frozen banana. Yum!

Well I need to go get ready for the day! Our plan today is to get some errands done (recycling, pharmacy, etc..), go eat Indian food, and then probably head to JL Beers to enjoy some brew while watching football. Go Packers!!

I think it's going to be a wonderful day. I hope yours is, too :)

~Kasey

Roasted Veggies

Hello Everyone!

We made it more than halfway through the work week! Yay :) I can definitely feel that mid-week slump setting in. School started back up yesterday, and I'm so glad I just get to focus on work now. It's so nice to not have to worry about school work. I just do my job and come home with nothing I have to work on or stress about. It's a nice feeling!

To fight off my mid-week fatigue, I made a bunch of roasted veggies for dinner! I cut them up this morning, so the only prep I'd have to do after work was season them. Our favorite combo of seasoning is olive oil, salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast. Simple and delicious.

Dillon and I absolutely love roasted broccoli, and we decided to give brussel sprouts another try. This time I cut them into smaller pieces so they were able to cook better.

I roasted them at 375 ° for 15-20 minutes.

Mmmmm, veggie perfection. We were loving the brussel sprouts this time.

While they were cooking, I made burgers to go along with them.

I pan grilled one of Amy's American veggie burgers (my fave!) and served it over Ezekiel bread with ketchup, kale, nutritional yeast, and onion. I made Dillon a turkey burger with the same fixings.

This very satisfying meal was made, eaten, and cleaned up in less than 40 minutes. Success!!

Well I'm off to watch Law and Order SVU - it's one of the only shows I try to catch each week. I'm amazed that there have been soooooo many seasons of it, and yet it is still so interesting and entertaining. 

~Kasey