Do you know what the Curse of the World Series is when your favorite team is in the series? I will tell you. It’s sleep deprivation. By one o’clock this afternoon I did not think I was going to make it through my day – and I didn’t even stay up for the whole game last night! I went to bed in the middle of the 8th inning and I was exhausted this afternoon.

Besides baseball, I had a fun filled weekend of cooking, hiking – and oh yeah, Red Sox baseball. It was a great weekend! I left a little early from the office on Friday to beat the traffic (it has been horrible these days) and when I got back to the house I had all the ingredients to make a hearty soup for dinner. My other half found this recipe for soup and we both really wanted to make it – and Friday was one of the first really cold days, so it was a perfect night for a hearty minestrone soup.

This immunity soup was pretty amazing, and I have not minded one bit eating it for the last four days! There was a lot of chopping involved. The kitchen smelled amazing as I sautéed all of the vegetables in our stock pot.

I love cabbage! I changed the recipe a bit (I cannot help myself – it is a serious issue). I only added four cups of chicken stock. I added a big can of whole tomatoes, and I fished out some of the tomatoes and chopped them up. I also added a small can of crushed tomatoes. Oh my goodness. Amazing!! I could not get enough of the final product. I had one and a half bowls, and we paired it with a slice of crusty sour dough bread from Whole Foods. I shaved some fresh parmesan cheese on top of the soup. Some basil would have been awesome, too – but our plant has kind of died. 😦

Final product:

So on Saturday I did not do any cooking. When we woke up on Saturday morning it was 54 chilly degrees in the house! I felt like I had been sleeping outside under a pile of blankets – and I know I am crazy, but I just love that feeling. To warm up I had oatmeal for breakfast and a mug of coffee. Then I started getting ready for the day hike we had planned. We climbed Mt. Wachusett on Saturday – and Saturday night I checked my Fitbit and it said I had climbed 87 flights of stairs. I felt accomplished.

On Sunday I really wanted something savory for breakfast. I made an egg, toasted a piece of sour dough bread and that was breakfast. I garnished everything with some cheddar cheese and hot sauce.

Sunday was a day of football and cleaning the house. After that we decided to make a homemade pizza for game four of the World Series. I had eggplant that I sliced and sautéed in a bit of olive oil. We sliced up some tomatoes, pepperoni and basil and made up quite the pizza.

Before the oven:

After the oven (about 11 minutes at 425 degrees)

This was the perfect dinner to have during a baseball game. I made it until about 11:30 last night, and the game was not over. We were in the lead when I started getting ready for bed and somehow I was able to fall asleep without knowing the outcome of the game. That is how much I needed to sleep last night. 5:20 AM came around all too quickly this morning.

Speaking of which, I’m signing off to get started in my evening routine. The number one priority in this routine tonight is packing my gym bag. If I need to drink coffee at 3:30 to get my butt to the gym tomorrow, that is just what will have to happen. I must get to the gym. Although I didn’t make it tonight, my fitbit is reading 13,512 and I have climbed 38 flights of stairs. I have banished the elevator when at all possible at work these days – that is part of my training. More on that later. Good night, everyone!