The Weather Forecast is a Liar

Today is Saturday, meaning that it's long run day, and my long run was scheduled to be 10 miles. I had gone to bed early, set my alarm for 5 am, and had planned to be at the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge at 7 am to take advantage of Summer Streets before most people would. Instead I woke up at 5 am to the sound of thunder and pouring rain. I gave it another hour, and it was more of the same. I realized the storm wouldn't let up for awhile and by the time it did, EVERYONE would be at Summer Streets (defeating the purpose of the street being open).

So yeah, I didn't run today, and the forecast predicted more thunderstorms later in the day. I figured that traveling to Brooklyn to run today (since 10 miles in my neighborhood isn't gonna happen) would be pointless if I was just going to get cut off by more storms. Well the forecast lied. It's beautiful outside.

The plus side is that I carbed up last night and had plenty of energy to clean my apartment all morning. It pretty much sparkles now.

And now onto the food. I had my ropa vieja for lunch for two days, and it seriously got better each time. That recipe is a keeper!

I never ended up making fish tacos because I never ended up buying tortillas...or any other taco supplies...so I made some roasted veggie pasta.

This is still one of my go-tos when I don't want to do any heavy cooking or cleaning (thank you aluminum foil-lined baking sheet), and it's always a crowd pleaser. Plus it's been far too long since I had roasted Brussels sprouts. That should be a crime.

What I really want to talk about is my night-before-a-long-run-carb-up-meal that I made last night...

The first time I made this was maybe a week ago. I was being lazy and flopping around my couch after my post-work run, and did NOT want to clean at all. Because I'm against buying microwave meals and canned soups (sodium, y'all), I didn't have any quick fixes. I peeled myself off the couch and explored the cupboards.

In situations such as this, I pretty much know that whatever I cook will involve pasta, so I pulled down some penne, then turned to the fridge where I found some tomatoes and zucchini. This was a good start. I boiled some water then heated some olive oil in a pan and added some halved grape tomatoes. I didn't really know what I intended to do with this yet. I added some diced zucchini to this and just let it go while adding the pasta to the water. Next came some minced garlic, and once that cooked down I deglazed with some white wine.

I'm pretty sure you can't really gone wrong in combining white wine and garlic. My apartment smelled amazing.

I couldn't just leave the sauce/mixture/thing just like that, so i added chunks of goat cheese that melted into the wine and created a creamy but light sauce. I finished it off with some lemon juice, salt, pepper, and parsley.

Honestly, I had no idea how this would all come together, but it's fantastic. It's so tangy, and if you crush the tomatoes into the sauce you get this great sweetness. My only word of advice would be to limit the amount of zucchini you put in it, because it will soak up moisture like crazy, leaving you with some dry pasta. I used yellow squash last night (picture above) and probably chopped up too much, because I didn't have much sauce. It was delicious regardless.

I made food today too, but it was a simple pan-seared tilapia with roasted veggies on the side, no big deal. I will mention however that my boss supplied me with tons of fresh herbs from her garden on Friday, so I am definitely looking forward to using those. I have fresh basil, thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage, and a Japanese one that I can't remember, and some mint! Yup, I'm set.

Until next time...