Healthy Butternut Squash Pasta

Ya'll, this recipe is sooo good!  It's healthy and tasty and makes my mouth water for more!  It's not too hard to whip up and once again, I tend to double the recipe so we have enough leftovers!  It's perfect this time of year!  We brought it to our Friendsgiving!  It got cold before we ate, which was a disappointment, but we continued to eat the leftovers through the first week in December!

I think the most difficult part is getting the butternut squash ready to cook.  You can go the easy route and purchase pre-cut butternut squash at the grocery, but it's kinda fun to know you cut the thing up yourself!  If you want to make this by cutting up your butternut squash, here's how I do that:
-Wash the squash
-Cut off about 1/4 of an inch from the bottom and the top of the squash. (make sure the bottom is level so the squash will sit flat on the cutting board)
-Take a vegetable peeler and peel that squash (I used a potato peeler and it worked wonderfully)

-Stand the squash up on it's bottom and cut longways so you have two pieces
-Use a spoon and scoop out the seeds and the pulp

 -lay the squash halves down and cut into slices and then cubes

 Ingredients:

- 1 pound rotini pasta (we used multi-colored pasta)
- 1 butternut squash - small
- 1 bunch spinach - fresh, stemmed and rough chopped
- 2 cloves garlic - chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 8 ounces mushrooms - sliced
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon lemon pepper
- 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese - grated

Directions:
-Quarter, seed and peel squash and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.
-Boil pasta until al dente, reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Drain pasta.

-In a large skillet, sauté the squash in the olive oil until almost tender, approximately 20 minutes.

-Sprinkle with salt and stir occasionally.
-Add spinach, garlic, mushroom with the squash and continue cooking over medium heat, stirring occasionally until any liquid is evaporated. (It says to add the spinach fresh, stemmed and rough chopped, but I literally just added the spinach!  It cooks down in with the squash, so it's perfect!)

-Add pasta and 1/2 cup of pasta water.

-Season with lemon juice, lemon pepper, salt and pepper.
-Remove from heat.
-Place in a large serving bowl and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

10Ks and Half Marathons

Well, our races have come and gone and I just wanted to update everyone on our success.

The 10K was the City of Oaks-Old Reliable 10K held November 3 just hours after the time change!  Thank goodness it was a "fall back" because it was an early morning.  This 6.2 miles was the longest distance I've ever run.  My max training was 5.2 miles, so I had an extra mile to go.  The race was great!  My goal was to finish in under 75 minutes without walking and I achieved that goal!  I did stop to get water at all three water stations and at the first station, I tried to continue drinking water as I ran.  BAD IDEA!  I inhaled the water the wrong way and had a coughing fit.  I thought I was going to have to stop the race, but I survived.  So, the other times I pulled off to the side, drank my water and continued running!  My chip time was 1:09:55 (70 minutes) with a 11:15 pace.  Whoo hoo!
Kevin did well too!  He actually crossed the finish line and then ran an additional mile...he was still training for his half-marathon the following weekend and needed to run 7 miles that day.  His chip time was 58:57 at a 9:30 pace!  Awesome!

All smiles as I came up to the finish!

The following weekend was the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in Savannah, GA.

We drove down on Friday morning- 5 hours.  Not too bad!  We took one of Kevin's co-workers down with us, so there was plenty of time to chat on the way there.  As soon as we arrived in Savannah, we booked it to the Convention Center to grab Kevin's race packet and check out the Expo.  We dropped the co-worker off at his hotel and hopped over to the Savannah Civic Center so Kevin could drop off some work equipment.  At this point, without lunch, I was a bit hangry and I just wanted us to be able to enjoy Savannah and not have to do work stuff.  As soon as Kevin was back in the car, we drove over to Tybee Island to check out their lighthouse.  We were able to climb it and tour the buildings on the lighthouse grounds.

We returned to Savannah, checked into our hotel and walked over to Churchill's Pub for an early dinner.  The Shepard's pie, bangers and mash and Pimm's cup were AMAZING! I'm getting ready for London!!

Then it was back to the hotel to crash for an early morning wake-up call!

Race day Kevin was up around 4am.  I didn't get up until about 5:30am and got ready quickly so we could walk over to the Hyatt hotel, where a team member had reserved a conference room for the FARA (Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance) team to eat breakfast and get ready for the race.  The Hyatt was literally at the START line, so it was the perfect location.  About 3 blocks into our walk over to the Hyatt, we realized that Kevin didn't have safety pins for his race bib, so I walked back to the room to grab them and met everyone over at breakfast!  The energy in the room was great and it was the perfect spot to watch the sun rise over the Savannah River!

The race started at 7:00am and Jennifer (Kevin's buddy, Cameron's wife) and I were waiting patiently to take our first photos of Kevin and Cameron as wave after wave of runners came by.  They were in coral 13 and after 17 corals had gone by, we knew we'd missed them.

So, we proceeded on to stop 2 (around 5 mile mark).  We all spotted each other and Jennifer and I got some photos of the guys.  Stop 3 was just up the street from stop 2 and only mile marker 6.5.  Kevin never saw us, but Cameron found us as he ran by!  Our final stop was at the finish line...13.1 miles in!  The finish was CRAZY, so we were a bit back in the crowd, but we saw them come in and then walked down past the finish and found them as they were grabbing food and random things within the barriers.  

Kevin came in with a chip time of 02:07:56.  VERY IMPRESSIVE!  Especially with an average pace of 9:46.  And I know he was MUCH faster on miles throughout because I saw his splits and some were a 9 minute mile pace!  I was so proud!

Then we all met up at letter F (for FARA)!  And took Team FARA group photos!  Thank you to everyone who donated to Kevin and the race for Alison!  Alison was there and it was great to meet her and to help out for the cause!  We need to cure this disease and your support meant so much!

After team photos, Kevin and I walked the 31 blocks back to the hotel and he showered while I rested for a bit.  Then it was off to lunch at Vinnie Van GoGo's for some fresh pizza and beer.  It was only noon, but it felt like dinnertime with the early wake-up call.

Delicious pizza!!!

After we ate, we walked to the trolley company and hopped on Old Town Trolley Tours to ride around town.  It was nice to just sit and ride and we were able to get off and on the Trolley at any point.  We ended up back on Bay street and walked back to the hotel to rest a bit before our team dinner at Skyler's.  We were exhausted, so it was another early night for us!

Just riding the trolley!

The afternoon was spent on a bench in one of the squares and back on the trolley.

Savannah is where they filmed Forrest Gump!

We walked back to our hotel and rested a bit before enjoying dinner at Moon River Brewing.

Monday we were planning on going to the Visitor's Center to walk around, but we packed up and got on the road so we could get home earlier.  I studied in the car while Kevin drove and listened to a podcast.  As soon as we got home, it was time for a late lunch and then all night studying for me!

Thanks again for the donations!  I'm so overwhelmed by the support and the money Kevin raised to just get out there and run!  I'm so thankful that I married a man who cares so much about others and has such a big heart for these types of things!  And I'm so thankful for you guys who wanted to support him in his mission!  Kevin ran a great race for Team FARA and we plan to run for FARA from here on out, every race we do will be Team Mustangs for Alison!  We may be running in an 8K on Thanksgiving Day!  Turkey Trotting! :)

Chicken Tetrazzini

This recipe is one I grew up on!  My mama cooked it frequently and it was a dish I just LOVED!  I made it for Kevin once when we first started dated, to impress him, of course.  And I actually forgot about it until I was going through all of my recipes while watching the Emmys one night a month ago and found it!  It's too good to just sit in a recipe box forgotten, so I decided to whip it up for my love!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup of half and half, or milk
1 package of spaghetti (small)
1 small can mushrooms
2 cups cooked chicken
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Aluminum foil
Optional: Mrs. Dash and thyme

Directions:
Cook chicken and cut into pieces.

Cook spaghetti and drain.

Melt butter in a skillet, add flour, mixing until smooth.

Add chicken broth and half and half (or milk) and stir until smooth sauce. (low to medium heat works well to heat it up slowly until it's thicker)

Add salt, pepper (optional Mrs. Dash and thyme)

Add chicken chunks and mushrooms

In a casserole dish, put a layer of spaghetti.  Add half of sauce and half of Parmesan cheese.  Put another layer of spaghetti and rest of sauce.

Top with Parmesan.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Serve with your favorite vegetable and enjoy!  Yummy!