pantry & freezer week - day 3

A quick post to recap day three of our pantry and freezer challenge - I have to be on the road before 7 tomorrow morning and don't plan on being home until late afternoon - going to be a full day!  Hopefully I will have some time to enjoy the 60* temps!

Breakfast was oatmeal as usual - but the addition of squash kept it new and exciting.  This squash was purchased at a fairly local pumpkin patch and was huge, which created a lot of puree to freeze and use at a later date.

In the oats::

• 1 whole frozen banana
• about 1/4 - 1/3 cup frozen squash puree (just broke off a few chunks)
• 1/4 cup steel cut oats
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup soy
• sprinkle cinnamon
• swirl of real maple syrup
• blob of peanut butter

Another winner!

Lunch was a big old salad using up a bunch of veggies and some spinach that was on its way out. For some added protein I grabbed a can of black beans from the pantry and whirled them in the food processor with a clove of garlic, bit of cumin, salt, pepper and a bit of water.  I then heated the puree on the stove to create refried beans...or warm black bean hummus??  Whatever it was, it sure tasted good. I am looking forward to having the rest spread on top of some fresh toast.  Yum.



After taking the photo I topped the salad with the last of a bag of tortilla chips from the pantry and a scoop of hummus (still left over from brunch).

Shortly after lunch I had to make my way up to Iowa City for my first session of Girls on the Run! On the way I snacked on my last battered grapefruit and a small peanut butter sandwhich (made with my absolute favorite peanut butter!) on some left over french bread that we pulled out of the freezer.

Girls on the Run was fun!  I wasn't too sure what to expect, but the girls had a blast (minus one who had a bit of an attitude) but at the end of our hour and 15 minutes together they were asking why we couldn't meet every day.  Cute.

I met up with Diana for a run afterwards as I was in her neighborhood.  We were supposed to do 10 x 400m speed workout, but I was not aware I would be doing a hill workout as well!  It is amazing how much the landscape changes within 30 miles.  So instead of the speed work, we hammered out 6.32 miles - through slush, puddles and mud.

My shoes got dirty.

So I bought new shoes.

Makes sense, right?  Actually, I was at least 100 mile over on my current pair of shoes so I needed to snag a new pair. So I walked into Running Wild sweaty, muddy, in my running tights, asked for my pair of shoes and was informed that since I was a coach for Girls on the Run I would get a 15% discount.  Score!

Dinner was prepared by the lovely husband using a few freezer items - blue cheese sliders that we whipped up a few months ago nestled in toasted french bread. I asked for some roasted carrots on the side, and Nic followed suit on how I prepared them the other day - whole, roasted right on the oven rack.  I like to call them lazy man roasted carrots.



Seriously, these burgers are my favorite burgers ever.  Seriously.

After dinner, I was left craving something sweet - so whipped up some 5 ingredient no-bake chocolate peanut butter oatmeal balls.  Totally hit the spot and were perfect!



In the mix::

• 1/2 cup oats
• 2 t brown sugar
• 2 t cocoa powder
• 2 T natural peanut butter
• enough water (about 4 teaspoons) to hold together

Shape into four balls and share with someone you like a lot.

Oh yeah - and Nic hit up the grocery store today.  Secretly, I was hoping we could make it the entire week without hitting up Hy-Vee, but alas.  He did good and stuck to our shop the perimeter of the store rule. 

In the cart::

• bananas
• honey crisp apples
• oatmeal bread
• spinach
• eggs

G'night!