It’s the coldest it’s been all year, but I refuse to turn on the heat.  Had Tony still been alive the heat would have been on since about September 1 – even if we had day time temps in the 70s.  Right now the house is at 55 degrees, but I have a sweater on, fuzzy socks and a hot cup of coffee so I am all set.  I may even start the wood burning stove today.  I am trying to remember if I even lit it last year but I don’t think I did.  It was too much of a reminder that Tony wasn’t here because that was his job to keep the fire going.  But it does heat our house, so it’s a cost effective feature to use when it gets cold outside.  I remember the first year we heated our house with it after we had a couple trees cut down, and our first gas bill in December was only $16.

Yep, more leftovers for me please!  With the beef kebobs that I posted the recipe for yesterday, I made this amazingly simple and delicious breakfast.  I basically just had to reheat the peppers and steak that were already cooked, but I started out sautéing mushrooms and cooked yukon potatoes, and then put a fried egg on top.  Um, full disclosure on this one – I don’t like runny eggs, but the yolk porn looks so good in pictures, so basically after this picture was taken,  I scrambled everything up together in my pan so the egg was cooked through Open-mouthed smile

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Five ounces of potatoes (3) three ounces of beef (3) fried egg (2) and 1/2 teaspoon of cilantro mint chutney that was leftover from class too – it’s basically just flavored olive oil, but it’s so good!  9 smart points total.

It was a gross day outside.  Just as I was about to get my walking shoes on, a thunderstorm came through.  I was happy I was taking the train because traffic can literally slow to a halt just because of a little rain.   And as I was looking at the traffic while watching youtube videos on the train, I was happy I made that decision.

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My lunch on the train – a low fat bologna wrap with spinach and mustard and a sprinkle of cheese, and these chips.  I also had a banana but I ate that later at work.  Lunch came in at 12 smart points.

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It was a small cooking class last night of 8 people, which I love having the small groups.  It just seems more intimate and it feels like you’ve just invited friends over to your house.  We made an oven roasted chicken thigh dish that baked on a bed of onions (ew).  The chicken looked amazing and I’ll recreate that portion, but it was sliced onions and literally covered the bottom of the cast iron skillet.

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But the dish I was most excited about was the butternut squash risotto.  I have to admit though, I never even tried a butternut squash before starting this blog in 2008.  If nothing else, this blog has kind of forced me out of my picky eating, and am so happy for that. 

I made this roasted butternut squash soup a couple years ago:

buttnernut squash soup

And I’ve had this recipe for a cheezy butternut squash pasta dish pinned for the longest time – I need to make this soon – how delicious does that look?!

cheezy butternut squash

Okay, not back to this recipe.  The only thing I am changing is the direction a smidge from the way recipe was written from The Chopping Block.  Chef Dionna felt that the risotto should toast a bit before the garlic was added, otherwise the garlic would have gotten possibly burned, and we all know that once garlic burns it’s just bitter and gross.  And when I recreate this at home, I will bring down the amount of onions to probably 1/4 cup – baby steps people – baby steps!  I also reduced that amount of butter to just two tablespoons.

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Sorry this picture isn’t better, but I was trying to be inconspicuous in front of the guests, but everyone gave this two big thumbs up.  I think it would be perfect for your Thanksgiving dinner. 

By the time I left work the temps were back down to about 45.  It was a bit of a chilly walk to the train station, but I didn’t mind at all.  Although I will stash a scarf and hat in my bag just in case next time.

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I was hungry by the time I got to the train station.  My only options were McDonald’s/Popeyes/Taco Bell.  A quick WW app search, and the three strip meal with mashed potatoes at Popeyes came in at 12 smart points (had they still had green beans, it would have been 9!) so I went over my points by 3 and ended up with 33 points for the day.

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I didn’t realize until this morning that I was so close to 20k steps yesterday!  If I had known I would have walked another 400 steps around my house Smile with tongue out

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I have the day off today.  I have some bananas that are on their last legs so I will probably make banana bread or muffins.  And maybe eat some vegetables today? Ha!

Hope you make it a great day!