First and foremost, I can't believe that it's fall! Okay so it's not officially fall until later this month, but the weather has cooled down, kids are back in school (hooray!), football is starting up again (Go Colts!), and most importantly, pumpkin spice lattes are back at Starbucks. If that last one doesn't constitute fall, I don't know what does!
Yum, right?
Even though I'm sad that in a short time Adam and I are going to have to put the grill into hibernation for the winter, I am looking forward to cooking comfort food dishes again as the weather gets colder. I recently treated myself to a subscription to Food Network's magazine and so far I'm pretty happy with all the really great recipes they print. Sure, I could probably find most of them online anyway, but there's something really appetizing about seeing it in front of you on a colorful, glossy magazine page. I decided pretty quickly that I want to try my hand at some butternut squash soup. I've had it twice, once at a holiday party a few years ago and as a butternut squash/pumpkin hybrid at a friend's wedding last fall. I'll admit I liked the holiday party version better, but I think I wasn't crazy about the squash/pumpkin combo, even though I enjoy both of those flavors separately. Most of the recipes I've found involve the squash, salt, pepper, sage, onion, and heavy cream, so I'm going to try out one or two and report back.
Don't you love this in the little mini pumpkin "bowls"?
There will also be a lot of pasta, chili, and definitely slow cooking. My biggest challenge will naturally be cooking comfort food that's also healthy and low-carb for our diet. I haven't posted much about that since I started the blog, but things are going well. We originally started trying to shape up just before Halloween last year, and since then I've lost close to 20lbs, but it's definitely coming off slowly. I lost 10lbs pretty quickly, then gradually took off another 5, plateaued at that weight for a very long time, and then finally broke through and lost another 4 in just the past couple of weeks. So I'm now down to the lowest weight I've been since as far back as I can remember, and I'm really excited about that! While I'm still about 25lbs from my original weight goal, I'm very happy with how I look and feel currently and would be perfectly fine with getting married at this size. That being said, my "wedding weight goal" is to lose maybe 10lbs more, or one dress size, whichever happens first. I've had a lot of luck in losing inches rather than pounds, and I think that's helped the most toward achieving long term maintenance. Being obsessed with an arbitrary number on a scale is not healthy or productive! Anyway, I'll keep you all posted as things progress.
Speaking of wedding planning, Adam and I spent a couple weekends searching for the perfect venue and I believe we found it! I'm both excited and relieved, as I think that it is the most stressful part of the planning process (at least so far!). Nothing is in writing yet, but as soon as we come up with the money for the deposit, we fully plan on making it official. I can't wait until the wedding, so here's your preview:
Valle Vista Golf Course, Greenwood, Indiana
The outdoor veranda will be the setting for the ceremony...
Indoor ballroom for the reception...
And pretty scenery for pictures.
Gorgeous, right? I'm really happy with our decision and now that we have this figured out, I can't wait to move onto the rest of the planning.
So anyway, comments are open and I would love some recipe ideas and suggestions and welcome any thoughts, tips, etc. on the wedding planning process!
