Rave Reviews for Lobster Ravioli

When Ryan was off being a wild man of nature on his hiking adventure last week, I took my time browsing around the grocery store. I can spend shockingly long amounts of time in grocery store aisles and without Ryan rushing me encouraging me along, I often stumble upon fun foodie finds.

Last week the lobster ravioli caught my eye. At less than $5 a pack, I figured this would be a great way to enjoy a dinner that tasted gourmet on a poor writer’s budget.

Lobster Ravioli

YUM

Before boiling the ravioli, I sauteed yellow squash, onion and portobello mushrooms to add to the marinara sauce I used to top the pasta.

Veggies!

I wanted to incorporate extra veggies into this meal since the only vegetables I seemed to ingest this weekend were the ones on my burger. Oops!

Ravioli Bowl

My Bowl

Ryan said this dinner was a great way to carbo-load before our run tomorrow. 🙂 (Anyone else remember that episode of The Office where Michael carbo-loads on fettuccine Alfredo for the 5K Rabies Awareness Run? Hilarious!)  Ryan is joining me and Sadie on our morning run as we resurrect Family Fun Run now that his hamstring injury is healed.

With big full bellies we’re poppin’ The Proposal in the DVD player to enjoy a movie and relax for the rest of the night. See you in the morning!

Machete and a Milkshake

At Home Excitement

I came home from work today to find Ryan sorting through his gear for an upcoming hike on the Appalachian Trail with two of his friends next week. He stopped off at an outdoor store on the way home from work and came home with lots of wilderness-y goodies… among them, a machete. Yes, a machete.

Apparently this machete was “cheaper than a knife,” (because that makes it a good substitute for a simple pocket knife, of course) and “really cool.”

As I was walking in the door Ryan was trying to be super suave and hook the machete on his belt loop. Well, in his Indiana Jones-like move, he dropped the machete (still it its “protective case”) and it landed on his big toe. Blood was everywhere! Fortunately after going through several paper towels, an ultra-masculine rainbow band-aid was able to stop the bleeding.

After all that excitement, it was time to show Sadie a good time. Off to the dog park we went for some trail hiking with the puppers.

"She's a Real Wild One, Wild One"

The weather was perfect and Sadie ran around like a mad dog. It was a good trip to the park!

Dinner

Dinner tonight was very tasty, but very boring… leftovers! I fixed myself a big bowl of leftover spaghetti squash, MorningStar Farms soy crumbles, sliced zucchini and marinara sauce and topped it all with Parmesan cheese.

Leftovers

Dinner was prepared in one of Ryan’s childhood bowls. We love these bowls because they are the perfect size for everything from yogurt to oatmeal to soup to pasta. Plus, it’s fun to eat out of nostalgic bowls!

Dessert was a million times more exciting: a homemade pumpkin milkshake!

The Goods for the Shakes

I combined the creamy vanilla ice cream, milk, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice in a bowl and blended it with my imersion blender until it was thick and liquified. (I did this because our real blender is packed so far back behind all of my Tupperware and would’ve been a pain to get out. Laziness at its best!)

Pumpkiny!

Blended Shake

I poured the shake into a big cup and topped it off with a brightly colored straw.

Sippin' on a Shake

I totally should have used two straws to be romantic… “One milkshake, two straws please!” This shake was far from romantic as I was the only one who used the straw. Ryan prefers to gulp his shakes. 😉

 

I love a good dessert. There’s nothing better!

 

Question: What’s your favorite kind of milkshake?

Cheese, Sausage and Squash… What Could Be Better?

…well, ice cream. 😉

But since I was planning dinner and not dessert, cheese, sausage and squash seemed like the makings for a delicious dish.

Before starting dinner, Ryan and I took Sadie on a walk around the lake.

Ryan and the Pup

Spooky lookin’ skies made us walk a little faster.

Menacing Skies

Despite our super-fast walking, we got caught in a downpour. Thankfully, in true Florida fashion, it was over within five minutes. We were able to hide out under a big tree that kept us mostly dry.

When we walked back to our apartment I noticed Grimace the Pumpkin’s smile has turned into a smirk with age. I still love you, Grimace!

Me, Sadie and Grimace

By the time we got home our tummies were a-grumblin’. It was tiiiiime for dinner.

I was motivated to use my acorn squash when I saw that this lil’ baby is the featured ingredient in the Blogger Secret Ingredient contest, currently hosted by Megan this week. I’m not a fancy-dancy chef or an expert photographer, so hopefully this un-glamorous dish will appeal to someone, likely a simpleton like myself. 🙂

Here are the supplies for tonight’s sausagey squash dinn-ah:

Sausage Acorn Squash Ingredients

To begin, I poked the acorn squash all over with a knife before microwaving it for five minutes (flipping it over at three minutes).

While the squash was a-cookin’, I combined sliced Aidell’s sun-dried tomato and mozzarella sausages, onion, garlic cloves and sliced mushroom in a pan coated with a bit of olive oil. I let the mixture cook until the onions were soft and slightly caramelized.

Onion, Mushrooms, Garlic

Sun-Dried Tomato and Mozzarella Sausage

Veggies and Sausage

I then added tomato basil marinara sauce over the mixture and let it simmer on low.

Sizzlin'

Once the squash was tender, I removed it from the microwave, cut it in half and removed the seeds before filling the squash-pockets with the sausage mixture.

Acorn Squash

Stuffed Squash

Since I can’t seem to eat anything tomato-based without cheese, I topped the filled squash with shredded cheese before placing it in the oven at 325 degrees. I let it bake for approximately eight minutes, until the cheese was ooey-gooey.

Sausage Squash with Cheese

Voila! Super easy sausage squash!

 

My Bowl o' Squizz-ash

 

Spectrum Sports Performance Personal Training

Last week at my friend Merri’s pumpkin carving party, she mentioned that her gym Spectrum Sports Performance is offering free personal training sessions to women this week. I’ve heard Merri rave about this gym since she joined, and her stories about the intense cardio sessions and creative weight circuits trainers have designed for her have always peaked my interest.

Picture from Spectrum Sports Performance

I jumped at the opportunity to give this gym a shot. (You guys know I love freebies!) Early tomorrow morning I am meeting with Rob who will be taking me through a cardio workout.

Check out Rob’s impressive bio:

Rob is a graduate of Hofstra University and brings a unique combination of passion and commitment to the SSP Team. After two years at the University of Louisville he transferred to Hofstra University where he was a 3 time All American kicker at the Division 1 Level. It was at Hofstra where Coach David Cohen called Rob, “The hardest worker he has ever coached.” His love of sports appears to only be surpassed by his passion for Health and Fitness and we’re confident this experience and enthusiasm will translate into great things for our clients.

In addition to his collegiate experience Rob has worked under Steve Saunders with fellow Performance Specialist Nate Caraway. at Power Train Sports one of the elite training programs in the northeast. It was at PTS that Rob gained valuable experience working with athletes at the Professional, Collegiate and High School levels. He has also coordinated and contributed to a number of Football, Soccer and Basketball training camps and is on the staff of FKS, a kicking school owned and operated by Tom Feely.

Before SSP Rob spent some time in the Cleveland Browns NFL training camp and currently is ranked in the top 5 of all active college kickers in 3 major categories including 1st in the nation in Kicks made per game. A graduate of Colonial High School he was a 4 year Letterman in Soccer and Football. He was named Captain of the Soccer team in 2001 and 2002 and lead the Grenadiers to their best record in school history in 2002.

They were kind enough to ask about my gym routine and are designing a cardio workout since Thursday is typically a cardio-only day for me, as I do total-body weights on Wednesdays.  Since I’ve never worked with a trainer before, I’m nervous and excited to see what they have in store!

I find myself falling into a workout routine lately and I think this is a great way to shock the old bod and try something new and challenging. If  I don’t post tomorrow morning, I may be passed out on the gym floor…

Question: Have you ever worked out with a personal trainer? Did you enjoy your experience?

Lovin’ on the Squash

Yep, I’m still lovin’ on spaghetti squash. Don’t get me wrong, I adore noodles, but this tasty squash is a phenomenal substitute for spaghetti and when I want to eat A LOT it’s a better option for me than buckets full o’ pasta.

I prepared the squash just like I did last time, and forked out the “spaghetti” strands to serve as my “pasta” base.

I placed the squash in a bowl and topped it with steamed broccoli and cauliflower florets, MorningStar Farms veggie crumbles and fresh mushrooms.

Veggie Topped Squash

I then topped my veggified bowl with tomato basil marinara sauce and swirled it around until it looked totally unappetizing to most, but awesomely delicious to me!

Nasty? I Think Not.

Of course no decent pasta dish is complete without ridiculous amounts of Parmesan cheese.

Parm Cheese For Me Please

This dinner was tasty!

After dinner I was craving something sweet and decided to fix myself a sweet cup of hot chocolate to enjoy while I blog.

Hot Cocoa

(Note: J. Crew catalogs make fantastic coasters.)

I hope everyone is enjoying their Tuesday night! Hump Day’s almost here. 🙂

Goat Cheese Gourmet

My lunchtime pizza, though made in the microwave, tasted muy gourmet and I owe it all to the strong flavor of goat cheese.

Pizza, Pizza!

I made the pizza using a Tam-x-cio’s wheat tortilla as the crust.

Tam-x-ico's Tortilla

I topped the tortilla with tomato basil marinara sauce, a heavy sprinkling of creamy goat cheese crumbles, chopped roasted brussels sprouts and fresh spinach.

Veggiefied Goat Cheese Pizza

I microwaved it for 45 seconds and had a tasty gourmet-tasting pizza in no time at all!

Tasty

Not too bad for a lunch made in the break room! 🙂

Question: What’s your favorite way to use goat cheese?