Pesto Spaghetti (Squash, that is) and Andrew Parker: Found!

Aaah, to be able to get a fulfilling sleep in. I don't know why this is, but it seems like no matter how much rest I get, it's simply not enough. I went to bed before Conan last night (that's around 11:30, I think?) and rose to head to the Sunrise Yoga class this morning which starts at 6:30. I was so proud of myself. I got up and out of bed, dressed and ready to go. I had breakfast: Strawberry Awake with warm milk. (I discovered the delectability of warm milk on cereal in India last year since that's the only way they really serve it. It's like oatmeal, kind of: mushy cereal. You just have to try it!)

Anyhow, I was too proud of myself too quickly. I was ready before 6 and since it only takes about ten minutes to get to the rec center, I decided to heat up the car (we had another freezing morning today) and wait inside while it warmed. I no sooner got back in the house and reclined then I passed out. Literally. Again! It was awful. I woke up and it was 6:40, so I turned off the car and came back inside. Once back inside, I thought I might as well rest a few more minutes before showering and heading to school to teach and, lo and behold, I fell asleep until exactly 8.

Thank God for Fi! He jumped in the car and raced me to school just in time to stop my students from leaving the room (class is supposed to start at 8 and I arrived at about 8:11). Needless to say, not the best way to start off my morning. My other class finished watching X-Men today and we talked metaphors and then it was all over! Just like that.

Fi came back at that point and we went to the rec for real. I think I mentioned that I wanted to run 3 miles yesterday but I think I forgot to mention that I did it! Yay for me! Today I didn't want to run, but had missed all the yoga/pilates/kickboxing...etc. classes and had no other options. I ran 2 miles to bring my three day tally to a whopping 7 miles. This is great because we just sort of decided to run a 5k next Saturday and we haven't done this in quite some time. Not since the Fourth of July, I think! Oh, and when I stopped into the women's locker room, I momentarily thought I'd lost my mind and went into the wrong place because this was staring me in the face:

Weird, right?

Anyhow, we lost a dear friend of ours for a while. His name is Andrew Parker and he's in the graduate program here at Mizzou, too. We love Andrew. He's tall and thin with good bone structure in his face. He's dark haired and quite witty. Kind and totally quirky. Just our style. He deleted all his online social-networking profiles (Facebook, Myspace) and since I lost my cell a while back I didn't even have his number! Really, he'd been MIA for a while and we worried about him, yet couldn't force him to keep in touch or reply to us. Luckily, Fi ran into him the other day and they have been chatting and catching up. I was so happy to hear that Fi made plans for us to have lunch together today and it really was wonderful to see he'd been found. We ate pizza (I know! Right after those two miles, right???) and I limited myself to one piece of pepperoni. It is tasty, though, so I understood why A.P. opted for lunch there (www.shakespearespizza.com-they deliver all over the country and they, too, are quirky and kind). I took a pic of them on Fi's phone (which he has to send me so I can put it up on here, of course) and it really did brighten up my day to see he's doing well. I was worried for a while there. Also, it made me feel like we were right in assuming we were good friends with him when he told us he'd deleted most of the numbers in his phone since he didn't think he'd really keep in touch or talk to many of the people in there, but he kept us. Whew! Unrequited love is a bitch, isn't it? Good to know we don't have to feel that on this account.

Once home, Fi and I ran lines for his play. Turns out no one has their lines memorized and their director is none too happy. Hopefully, Fi blows them out of the water tonight with his memorization skills! Then we made dinner. Pesto Spaghetti Squash with EXVOO, garlic, Chicken, Broc, and Maters!

A few weeks ago, I'd taken my friend Stephanie's advice and froze homemade pesto in ice cube trays, I asked my friend Liz how to deal with spaghetti squash and tonight for dinner, that's what we had! It was a pretty successful experiment. Shall I elaborate?

1 spaghetti squash (baked in the oven for two hours on 375)

1 cube of homemade frozen pesto

1 breast of chicken, cubed

1 roma tomato

broccoli (as much as you like, I'm kind of obsessed)

1 clove garlic

1/3 cup EXVOO

pinch of Parmesan (I didn't put any in the pesto when I made it, though it normally should have parm. I was just out at the time!)

1. Bake squash, but be wary. Those suckers do not cut easily when you're preparing to put them in there. I softened the skin of mine by heating it in the microwave for a bit.

2. While squash is cooling, heat EXVOO and brown the garlic.

3. Add chicken until slightly brown. A good way to tell whether chicken is still raw or not is to poke at it with the spoon you're mixing with. If it's mushy, it's raw. If it feels more solid, it's cooked through.

4. Throw in pesto and broc. The pesto melts much faster than anything else I've ever frozen and the broc was already cooked as I made some for my lunch today before remembering we were having lunch with A.P.

5. Add the chopped 'mater (we don't like ours super mushy, but if you do...add it in when you toss the broccoli in) Cook consistently on medium throughout.

6. While the sauce is cooking, scoop out the innards of the spaghetti squash (most of the seeds are on top so they're easy to just get rid of by peeling off that layer-you do NOT lose much of the squash at all.)

7. Add in as much of the squash as you want (subbing it for whatever pasta you'd use if you were having pesto pasta, instead) and mix it all up together. At this point you can add in some Parm. cheese if you want (we had some fat free so I thought a little kick might be good) and Voila! You have a tasty, healthy dinner that your Fi (if you have one) or hubby or...whoever...will love!

I need to start taking pics with the camera and not my cellie. This doesn't do it justice.

Unfortunately, Fi had to head out soon after dinner, but I was glad to just get to have dinner together! Lately we've been so so busy we haven't been able to sit down together for dinnerand I've been sending it with him. Tonight, though, he opted to go a little late (his character doesn't appear until near the end of the first act) so we ate together, he spent a little Q.T. time with Byzy (Bizzy-the shepherd, sleeping on his feet) and Bogey (the Eskimo...alpha male in the family) then whisked away to practice.

Sometimes I think they might love him just as much as I do! :)

Tonight, it's reading for me (comps are literally just around the corner!) and back to the rec in the morning for round two of trying to hit up Sunrise Yoga! Also, I'm subbing a class tomorrow at noon for a girl in our department that I've only met once in person. It kind of works, though, her entire class is centered around technology, how we communicate and interact now and society's reliance on  social networking...etc...for it's interpersonal relationships. Should be fun!

Oh, P.S.-Fi and I are going back and forth and all over the place with Honeymoon ideas! We've talked about every place imaginable (Peru, Argentina, New Mexico, a cruise, Hawaii...etc.) Our criteria is sort of simple: we want to be able to DO stuff on our trip-see, learn, experience, adventure-yet still have a day off on the beach if we want or come back to the beach later in the day and relax. However! We have a really low salary and are saving our butts off, but most likely will not be able to afford a Lifestyle's of the Rich and Famous 'moon. Any suggestions!?! We're completely open to them!

Thanks!

xoxo