Good evening!  Hope everyone had a marvelous Monday and a wonderful weekend!

Sunday for me started with a 3.1 mile run at 7:30 am – it was already 70 degrees and for some reason or another I was riding the struggle bus.  Even with all the walking I did (on a 3 mile run, really?!?) I still managed to finish the 5k in under 30 minutes so I was okay with that.

When I got home from the run Noah was up and had started on breakfast. It turned out real yummy, we had double blueberry pancakes (chopped in the batter, then whole berries sprinkled on while cooking), bacon, fruit salad, and fresh squeezed OJ. So besides chilaquiles (recipe coming soon!), blueberry pancakes are probably my favorite breakfast food! I just love the pop of the fresh blueberries in the sweet fluffy pancakes. So good!

It was very tasty and held me over until about 3 pm when I had a light veggie snack of cucumbers and sugar snap pea pods – I also really love sugar snap pea pods. So sweet and crunchy and delicious!

I didn’t want to eat too much since my parents were on their way to Lansing to have dinner with us. We ended up at Longhorn Steakhouse since a new one just opened in Lansing a couple months ago and none of us had tried it yet.  The inside of the restaurant was nice and the food was decent too.  I had the spinach and feta chicken with steamed broccoli on the side.  The chicken was super moist and juicy with lots of good flavor. And doesn’t feta make everything better?

After dinner we headed to East Lansing so I could run an errand for a friend then we headed to MSU to get some delicious ice cream at the MSU Dairy Store.  I had the Death by Chocolate which was delicously divine! Dark chocolate ice cream, chocolate covered almonds, Oreos, and chocolate covered toffee pieces.

Tonight for dinner I made Zucchini Corn Chowder.  Noah said it was one of the best soups I’ve ever made, but we ate right after he got home from the gym so I’m sure the fact that he was super hungry didn’t have anything to do with his assessment of the soup.  It did come together pretty quickly and easily and was tasty.

Zucchini Corn Chowder

Ingredients

1 Tbs butter

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 large onion, diced

1/2 bell pepper, diced

4 ribs celery, diced (I use the pieces with the leaves too for extra flavor)

2 small-medium carrots, diced

1 clove garlic, minced (I used my garlic press – one of my favorite kitchen tools!)

2 medium zucchinis, chopped into 1/2″ cubes

16 oz frozen corn, thawed and divided

2 1/4 C low-fat milk, divided

1/2 tsp dried ground thyme (or 1 tsp fresh thyme, minced)

fresh ground black pepper

salt

Optional Garnishes:

fresh chives or green onions, chopped

grated cheese (I used cheddar)

bacon, cooked and crumbled

Directions

Heat butter and olive oil in a dutch oven or other heavy bottomed large sauce pot over medium heat.

Add the onion, carrots, celery, and peppers. Saute for 5 minutes or so, until the veggies are tender. Add the minced garlic and zucchini.  Cook for 5 or so more minutes, stirring occasionally so the garlic doesn’t burn, until the zucchini is just starting to soften.

Set aside 1 C of corn. Put the remaining corn in a blender with 1 C of milk. Blend until smooth.  Add the rest of the milk, salt, pepper, and thyme.  Blend until just combined.

Pour the corn and milk mixture and the remaining corn in the pot with the veggies. Stir together and cook an additional 5 minutes until heated through.  That’s it, it’s just that easy! Top with fresh chopped chives or green onions, cheese, and/or bacon. Enjoy!