Winter Cold Means Hot Soup! (and News About a Spinathon)

I have been delinquent in posting workouts lately despite my aforementioned New Year's resolution. Unfortunately, work has picked up, attendance in bootcamp is down and the winter cold has spread the flu to my house again.  So I've been slacking. I plan to post last Tuesday's workout later today and will also post the workouts I've done on my own. Yes, the winter cold also meant numbers were DOWN at the gym.  This may mean no more bootcamp in the winter!! Insert Sad Face. :( I will continue to post workouts I do on my own and this may mean more time to devote to Zuzka Light workouts.  I've been doing pretty well eating wise, we did head out to dinner Sunday night at The Brass Rail in Hoboken but by Tuesday I was back to healthy eating, lots of fruits, veggies, greek yogurt, lean proteins and a few whole grains for fuel. As for spin, numbers have been through the roof but this week with the New York cold no one wanted to get out of bed and I only had 5 people in class.  Thanks for coming guys!

On a positive fitness note, on February 2nd 2013, we'll be holding the 2nd Annual Spin-a-thon at Sky Club and a newly added Zumbathon!  Last year, we raised $700 and collected many canned goods for the Shelter. I am hoping with the addition of Zumba to raise over $1,000 and collect more donations.  We have 4 great instructors lined up for each 2 hour event and I am working on getting some awesome prizes. I have a list of places to call and am securing donations.  I've posted/sent the event to various websites and blogs across Hoboken and details can be found here.

As mentioned, the past few days in New York have been freezing.  I wore light grey tights to walk to the Path the other day and my legs turned purple through them it was so cold.  I decided it was time for soup after seeing Ina Garten's twitter post about how she made her hearty winter minestrone soup.  See her blog about it here. On Tuesday I went out and bought all the ingredients (sorta).  Then someone in the house got the flu and I got a late start Wednesday. I decided to modify the recipe to a crock pot.  She cooks it in a dutch oven, which normally I am a  big fan of but it seemed to long for post work and especially since someone would be home all day the soup could simmer away. It tasted great with a lil parm on top last night and I had leftovers for us both today. 

What I did
A little drizzle of olive oil
A layer of carrots
A layer of celery
A layer of butternut squash
Sprinkle of salt, pepper and thyme
As for the sorta, Ina's recipe calls for canned tomatoes, which I thought I had but no they were pureed but oh well, in they went!
Container of low salt organic, chicken broth
Cup of Water
Bay Leaf
Rinsed and Drained can of white beans and half-3/4 a can of garbanzo beans - rest of the can went in my salad for work.
Set to Low for 6-7 hours or until person at home answers the phone to turn it to warm. I am not sure who out there works for 5-6 hours or just 8 but call me if you do and tell me how you use the crockpot. I find I am gone from usually 9-7 or later, having worked from 10-6. So that's more like 10 hours a day.
When I got home, I cranked it up to high and added orzo, 2 tablespoons of pesto, a dash of white wine and lots 2 cups or more of spinach and let it sit for 40 minutes until the orzo cooked and the spinach wilted. I did have to stir it a few times.
Serve HOT with parmesan cheese.

We each ate a big bowl full and a little bit more.