Fall Recipe Collection

Good morning!

Are you guys lucky enough to have a long weekend this weekend like I do?  I love Columbus Day weekend — smack in the middle of fall and there are usually lots of fun activities and so many autumn things to do.  And there’s nothing like a Monday off!!

In the spirit of one of my favorite fall weekends, I figured today would be a good day to post a collection of some of my favorite fall recipes.

Enjoy!

Tuscan Pumpkin White Bean Soup

Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

Apple Topped Pork Chops

Sweet Potato Quesadillas

German Apple Cake

Roasted Butternut Squash and Spinach Salad

Four Ingredient No Bake Pumpkin Pie

Butternut Squash with Goat Cheese, Sage, and Roasted Pecans

Pumpkin Pecan Muffins

 

It’s kind of exciting that I’ve been blogging long enough now to even have a recipe round-up, isn’t it?

What’s your favorite fall recipe?

Off to continue the long weekend!  Hope you are doing the same!

Sweet Potato Quesadillas

I love me some sweet potatoes.

If I can’t substitute a side salad for french fries at a restaurant, I always ask if they have sweet potato fries instead.  I love them way more than regular fries.  At home I like to make sweet potato wedges by baking them in the oven with a little sea salt and tossed in extra virgin olive oil for a yummy little snack.  Plus, they are so versatile!  I mean, you can really have them roasted, mashed, steamed, baked, or grilled.  You can use as a side, add them to soups, grill and put on a salad, and more.

They’re healthy too!

I love sweet potatoes year round, but they are especially delicious in the fall, don’t you think?  On Friday night, Tim and I decided to try them in a new way – quesadilla style.

Makes two quesadillas with small-medium tortillas, or three quesadillas with large tortillas

Ingredients

• 4 multi-grain tortillas
• 2 sweet potatoes
• Chopped kale
• 1 can of black beans
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1.5 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
• Cooking oil

Directions

1. First you need to bake the sweet potatoes.  Put them in the oven at 400 degrees until tender when poked with a fork. Sometimes to cut back on the time needed in the oven we’ll poke holes in the skin and microwave for about five minutes, then stick in the oven for about 15 minutes or so.
2. Mash the sweet potatoes in a food processor with the yogurt.
3. Set out the rest of the ingredients.
4. Make your dillas!

I have a quesadilla maker (thanks, Shannon!) so making the dillas consists of spraying the quesadilla maker with cooking oil, spreading the mashed sweet potato all over one tortilla, placing the tortilla with the potato on the maker, arranging the chopped kale, adding the black beans, sprinkling the shredded mozzarella, and covering with the second tortilla.  Then cooking until the dilla looks crispy but not burned.

And most importantly, eating!  Nom, nom, nom.

Pairs well with Shipyard Pumpkin Ales.

Just saying.

What’s your favorite way to eat sweet potatoes?

Off to the gym!

A Fun Weekend + Weekly Workouts

As usual, the weekend went by way too fast.  Wah.

Friday night Tim and I stayed in and made sweet potato quesadillas for dinner.  And munched on kale chips.  And drank pumpkin beers – Shipyards for me, Dogfish Punkin Ales for him.  It was a much-needed couch and tv night.  On Saturday I headed to the gym for a workout, then ran a bunch of errands (CVS, bank, and picked up my number for the Brian Honan 5k).  In the afternoon, Miss Slesh came over to see our apartment and then we had a lunch date at The Gaff on Moody Street and did a little shopping.  Saturday night was dinner out with some of Tim’s friends from home at the BBC in Framingham.  Don’t judge me for going out to eat twice in the same day.  Then Sunday was the 5k + 5k after party, a bunch of cooking for the week, blogging, and cleaning.

All in all, a fun weekend!

 

Sadly, it’s over, so let’s talk weekly workouts and goals.

Weekly Workouts

Last Week’s Workouts

• Sunday:  Off
• Monday:  Ashley’s Cutz class, then took a 45 minute Hip Hop Cardio class
• Tuesday:  Two A Day!  Liz’s Kickboxing, then I taught my Circuit class with this bench themed workout
• Wednesday:  Off
• Thursday:  Taught my Circuit class
• Friday:  Off
• Saturday:  20 minute 60/60 H.I.I.T cardio (5 minute warmup, 6 rounds of 60 seconds on/ 60 seconds off, 3 minute cooldown) on the elliptical + an upper body superset workout that I repeated from Best Body Bootcamp.

This Week’s Workouts

• Sunday:  Ran a 5k (more on this later!)
• Monday:  Hoping to make it to Ashley’s Cutz, then subbing for Monique’s Dynamax bootcamp class.  If I can’t make it for 5:30, I’ll do some machine work or maybe Kim’s Upper Body Express class.  TBD!
• Tuesday:  Two A Day!  Christine is teaching Kickboxing this week, then I’m teaching Circuit
• Wednesday:  Off
• Thursday:  Teaching Circuit, then attending a Lululemon event in the city that consists of CBC Kickboxing + a run + yoga
• Friday:  Off
• Saturday:  Cutz at CBC, or Yoga, or a barre class — TBD

This week my healthy goal is to prep as many things ahead of time that will ease some stress!  ie pre-cooked meals, pre-written blog posts, pre-ironed work outfits, etc.

How was your weekend?  What’s the workout agenda this week looking like?  How about healthy goals?

Catch you guys later — lots of recipes coming your way this week!!