This one was one of my better loaves.  I have shared my pumpkin bread with quite a few friends/family and it has been generally well received.  However, one morning when I was visiting my sister and we or so I thought “we” were enjoying it she said “is this healthy bread?” I think that means “what happened to the good stuff?”  Anyway, for the health conscious out there, this is a great alternative.  When I make it, I usually take a piece for lunch with some peanut butter (I like Naturally More) and some granola sprinkled on top.  One other tip on this bread though…. it takes a good 3 hours to make — of course there is a lot of down time in between but it’s not the best idea to start making it at 10pm unless you’re a night owl (definitely not me!) 

I got up at 5 am this morning for my longest run since the marathon — six miles-ish…. I got separated from the group and don’t have a Garmin so I don’t know how long it really was.  It is great to be running more than 30 minutes again!  I already have my sights set on the next marathon and when I do, I will keep this in mind: Don’t Run Too Fast Too Early!  It really was some of the best advice I received for the last marathon.

After a little more shopping/running errands, I came home and worked on some internship stuff and then worked on dinner.  I love cooking but never feel like I have enough time during the week so it’s great to have some more time on a break.  I made walnut and feta stuffed zucchini and mushroom risotto.  My day nicknamed the zucchini “zucchini boats” and I have to say they kind of looked like them.  They were pretty easy to make and a nice change for a way to eat zucchini.  Overall a relatively healthy dish — zucchini, onions, bread crumbs, low fat feta cheese, walnuts, and an egg.  Although I have made my own mushroom risotto a couple times, this was only half homemade.  It started with a bag of frozen mushroom risotto from TJ’s and then I added about 15 or so fresh sliced mushrooms, grilled onions, and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese. 

Well, there it is… with a can of Dr. Brown’s diet cream soda, a special treat from the Fresh Market when we were out.  The more I get into running the more I try to cut back on soda so now it is down to about one a day and this one doesn’t even have phosporic acid.  

It’s a family tradition to get a Christmas tree during the Thanksgiving weekend and since we picked one out yesterday, we decorated tonight.  I am now officially ready for Christmas season!

I would say that this is my breakfast 80% of the time — I love the Arbonne vanilla protein shake.  It is part of their “figure 8″ weight loss line of products but I use it as a supplement because it has 20g of protein in one serving.  I blend it with skim milk, strawberries, and bananas — delicious! Most meat eaters don’t need to eat a whole lot of extra protein — did you know that we really only need about 0.8-1.0g/kg of protein each day?  But…. since I don’t eat meat, this is a great way for me to get in some extra protein to start off the day. 

After breakfast, it was onto the madness of black Friday mall shopping.  It was pretty packed in a few stores but overall not too bad.  I did come away with a few deals.  My mom and I had some more errands to run and I was starving so I picked up a box of my favorite Wheat n Oat Bran swirls cereal from Trader Joe’s to munch on in the car.  We ended up getting home for a late lunch which — oops! I forgot to take a picture of.  I was so hungry and this whole blog thing is new to me so it just slipped my mind.  I will be better as I get used to this blog thing.  Anyway, lunch was some leftovers from Thanksgiving — mashed sweet potatoes, bruschetta and a cranberry apple dish – no turkey here.

I’m still in the recovery phase of my marathon from 2 weeks ago so I just did a quick 5-5.5 mile run in the afternoon. 

These are my brand new shoes I got while I was out yesterday…. today will be the only day they are pretty enough to make the blog….. the old shoes had made it through all of the marathon training and it was time for them to retire.  It was cold and windy but at least not raining.  I have come to the conclusion that it is easier to run in the cold/wind/rain,etc when it is 5am because I am still half asleep and don’t realize how crazy it is to be running then! I snacked on some dry cereal while I finished up a paper in the afternoon and then dinner was veggie lasgna with a big salad.  Ok…. I didn’t take a picture of this either.  I was feeling guilty about forgetting lunch and thought that I could just start my blog a day later but then today I thought that if I don’t start it now, it will never happen!  There was also a small cup of cappucccino chip ice cream and a brownie later when my friend came by while she was in town.  Well, that was my day… lost of shopping, a little bit of running, and some great post-Thanksgiving food.  More pictures to come….