Oh, I have missed you, blog and blog readers! I have been so busy at work and then I went on vacation and now I am back at work and sort of on a detox 🙂 Not that I ate badly, but I did let myself eat whatever I wanted while on vacation and it was fun.

Sunday I started getting back on track with eating and exercise. I went for a great three mile walk with my mom. Then I had an apple with peanut butter for a snack:

On Sunday I made a vegetable soup. I made a soup like this a couple of weeks ago after a trip to Wilson Farms and it was a big hit. So Sunday I decided to try and make another one. I don’t have a recipe, but here are the basic ingredients:

leek

shallot

eggplant

zucchini

summer squash

garlic

spinach

[small[ can of crushed tomato

olive oil

low sodium chicken broth (I use Pacific organic brand)

pepper

I basically chop all of the vegetables, sauté the leek first, then add the shallot and then the other vegetables. I cook the leek and shallot for a few minutes on their own before I add the other vegetables. I sauté the vegetables for at least ten minutes together. Then I added the tomato, and soon after I added the broth. I also cook up some pasta on the side, and I keep the pasta separately and add it only when I am about to serve or eat a bowl of this great stuff.

Sometimes we add hot sauce to the soup!

Yum:

This photo shows a lot of pasta – but trust me there is a ton of vegetables in the soup! I sort of messed up the proportion for my lunch serving today 🙂 It still tasted good!

Food for Monday (i.e. first day back at work after an amazing nine days away from the office)

Breakfast:
coffee with 1% milk, a Luna Lemon Zest bar

AM Snack at 10:30: Fage 0% with strawberry

Lunch: a lovely, brisk walk and vegetable soup with pasta and a small piece of rosemary bread

PM Snack: Monster trail mix (I bought a bag of this for vacation [found at Target] and I have fallen in like with it! It tastes great and a small handful really takes away my afternoon urge to snack!)

After work: Trip to the gym where I did 38 minutes on the elliptical

Dinner: vegetable soup, bread, a glass of milk and a sprinkle of low fat mozzarella cheese + hot sauce (great combo!)

After dinner snack: Chobani Greek yogurt with PB2 mixed in.

I definitely feel good and feel like I’m back on track with healthy eating and exercise. Tomorrow I will talk more about my wonderful vacation and life in general. Until then, it’s good to be back. Good night!