Hello! And another big THANK YOU going out to all of you who took the time to fill out the reader survey yesterday. I will share some of the results later, but for now I will start with something that actually surprised me.
The majority of you all love What I Ate Wednesdays!
I have been curious to see whether WIAW posts are something you all enjoy reading. According to click history, a lot of you like reading them, so I have kept them up almost every week.
I have been wondering, however, how often I should feature them.
Do you like seeing them on a weekly basis? Just every now and then? Or would you prefer me to just drop the entire day of eat recaps and include more food into my every day posts?
Feel free to let me know your preferences in the comments section!
For now, I will continue to play and link up with the best of ’em. Thanks for hosting another week, Jenn!
What I Ate Wednesday Tuesday
My Tuesday was filled with a lot of (unintentional) fall inspired eats.
Breakfast started with something new Scott brought home that I had to try: pumpkin spice oatmeal.
Quaker Oat Instant Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal topped with pumpkin.
I don’t usually eat instant oatmeal, but I couldn’t resist this specific flavor. It was pretty good, friends.
I felt full and happy for the remainder of the morning, then cut up a golden delicious apple for a snack right before lunchtime.
I had a 1 p.m. appointment to check out a new gym in our area (more on that coming soon!) so I figured I should eat lunch before I left.
Without much time to prepare anything, I heated up leftover butternut squash soup. It’s perfect soup weather!
Trader Joe’s Butternut Squash Soup topped in pumpkin seeds.
I got home from running errands a few hours later and dove into a box of flavored brown rice crackers and hummus. I was hungry.
Sea Salt & Black Pepper Triscuits with Sabra Roasted Red Pepper Hummus.
I also had the last one of my chocolate chip banana muffins.
I worked on the computer for the rest of the afternoon and took Roadie for a walk around 7:30 p.m. As soon as we got outside, I went right back in and put on my winter coat for the first time this season.
It was so cold and windy! Seriously? Not ready.
I wanted to create a workout to do right there in the living room when we got back inside. I originally wanted to run a couple of miles outside, but I wasn’t feeling the motivation to fight the wind. Not that day.
Instead, I combined cardio and fat burning moves into a 20 minute plyometric workout. I’ll be sure to share the details this afternoon!
I actually completed the workout in my living room while I started cooking dinner. (Ha!) Multi-tasting at it’s finest, no?
I cooked the peas and boiled the noodles while I was throwing myself around the room, all the while checking on them in-between circuits. As soon as I finished the workout, I heated up pre-cooked chicken and turkey bacon and threw everything together.
Ronzoni Garden Delight rotinni noodles, peas, chicken, and turkey bacon, tossed in (extra virgin oil oil) “butter” spray and parmesan cheese.
Mine was the bigger plate, obviously.
Scott had a late lunch and wasn’t too hungry. I was.
It was great dinner and took all of twenty minutes to put together!
We spent the remainder of our evening catching up on The Voice. I’m already loving the talent and judging panel this season!
Scott also may have suggested ice cream and he ever so kindly scooped me a generous serving of rainbow sherbet for dessert.
Yum!
So there you have it… another entire day of my unfiltered eats. This is just one of the many examples you can find exploring the “WIAW” tag on the right hand sidebar if you’re ever curious to see what another full day of meals and snacks looks like for me.
If you liked this WIAW post, head on over to Peas & Crayons to check out plenty others, or even link your own!
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Question of the Morning
• What are your favorite ingredients and (healthier) sauces for pasta?
I am in need of some new pasta inspiration. Scott likes me to make noodles a couple of times a week, and I don’t want to get tired of regular old marinara too quickly. I will probably try a pesto again soon, but would love to hear what you like to eat at home!

I like that these are fall inspired eats…. concluded with Rainbow Sherbert haha. I just found the most epic pumpkin beer bread recipe. It is blowing my mind right now. I haven’t had nearly enough pumpkin this fall. No idea why.
Ha, right? One of my childhood staples for sure. And, I’m sorry… pumpkin beer bread? YUM!
Hi Heather,
I usually love reading your blog but today I was really disappointed to see you post affiliate links for a box of Triscuits and hummus. I truly do understand that this blog is part of your job and that you put a lot of hard work into it but that just came across as overkill and a little greedy to me. I’m so sorry for how negative this sounds but I really do enjoy your blog and that just didn’t seem to “fit” with how you usually present yourself.
Agreed. Every link is an affiliate link. Gotta pay the bills somehow I guess…
I totally see where you are coming from. I actually went to search the Quaker Oat website for this exact oatmeal to link there and it doesn’t exist. When that happens, I google search it and the best picture I could find that wasn’t someone else’s blog was off of Amazon. I am an affiliate with Amazon, so it make sense to use my direct link. I couldn’t find the Trader Joe’s soup either, so I just linked to a page about the nutritional info on it. I try not to overkill affiliate links. I’m sorry if you feel I do and I’ll keep that in mind for the future.
I have mentioned those two items on my blog so many times that I don’t even think I should link them anymore. I decided to include an affiliate link through Target for these two items because it shows where you can get them. I honestly don’t even make enough off of those types of clicks to deem it “affiliate”, so it would probably be in my best interest not to link them to anything anymore. Sorry to disappoint. Thank you for your input!
I don’t mind WIAW, and I kind of prefer it to those who blog every meal (though that’s definitely less of the trend these days).
Thanks! I’ll keep that in mind. Happy Hump Day!
I love your WIAW posts and want to keep seeing them every week!
As far as pasta goes, I love making a peanut sauce to put on mine! Soba noodles are a great vehicle for this! 😉 My peanut sauce usually has peanut butter, rice vinegar, garlic, tamari, and sriracha!
Thanks Annie! Yum, I’ve never cooked with soba noodles. Thanks for the suggestion!
LOOOOVE your WIAW posts!! Keep em coming!! For pasta sauce i will saute onions and garlic..and then add the jenni o italian spicy turkey sausage (remove the casing)..let that cook up and add your favorite jar of pasta sauce. By adding different jars of pasta sauce it always changes the flavor!
Thanks Jacquelyn! That pasta sounds delicious! I also love Jennie-O turkey products.
I love that Ronzini pasta too! My favorite pasta dish is baked chicken, spinach, feta cheese, fresh tomatoes and olive oil on top. I never get sick of it!
I turn to it a lot! That dish sounds yummy!
That Chocolate Chip muffin looks delicious.
I love adding pesto to pasta if I don’t have any sauce on hand it’s sooo good.
Thanks, ha, it looked better the other day when I shared the recipe though! 😉 Love pesto!
Pumpkin or butternut squash purée stirred into pasta makes a great sauce! 🙂 goes well with sage! There are lots of recipes online!
YUM! I seriously have no idea why I have never made pumpkin or butternut squash sauce. Thanks for the reminder!
BOO for winter coats! 🙁 It is supposed to be almost 80 here in Omaha this weekend!! I hope you are getting some of the warm weather in Michigan too!
Oh man… 80 sounds heavenly! Let’s trade! 😉
I really like your WIAW posts. I have been doing them weekly as well, and I think they are great at sharing food/recipe creations and how they fit into your normal day. I say keep! 🙂
Thank you Lauren! You’re the best. <3
Perfect Fall eats! It is so cold windy and now POURING here too! I don’t own boots for the rain…only sneakers….let’s just say, my shoes, socks and feet were soaked all day! Very bad!
Put hummus on pasta!
Oh man, I hope it stops raining! Cold and rainy is not fun. I got these rain boots as a Christmas gift the year we moved up to MI! You can find similar ones for a great price at TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and SteinMart!
That’s a pretty photo of your butternut squash soup! Love the fall leaves. Great job on multi-tasking girlfriend! That’s awesome you did your workout while making dinner. Speaking of which, your dinner looks FAB! Yum.
Thanks! Well… I usually take my food pics outside for better lighting and the leaves were covering my “food spot”. I rolled with it. 😉
I am excited for the workout! Seriously, coats are a no-no! I sometimes make pasta with an avocado cream sauce or a walnut sauce and it just tastes unbelievable!
Just posted it! https://lifeinleggings.com/work-it-out-wio/20-min-plyometric-circuit-workout/ Great sauce suggestion, thanks!
I make a butternut squash and cheese sauce! It is so yummy! I think it is from cooking light magazine? check their website 🙂 It is so good and much healthier than a regular cheese sauce. Plus I add peas and cooked chicken!
I have been having pumpkin spice oatmeal too! But I made mine – super easy. Just add pumpkin spice and cinnamon to the uncooked oats. Add milk/water and microwave. I add a microwave a banana and add it to my oats too! Super easy, cheap, and then you know exactly what is in it.
I’ve been loving the pumpkin soup from TJ’s. Haven’t tried the butternut squash yet – I will have to do that next.
A few weeks ago I made a pistachio sauce for my butternut squash it was out of this world. I kinda make shifted the recipe and can’t find it right now but I will let you know as soon as I find it and or post it!!
I love your fall themed day. I need to incorporate more squash in my fall. I’ve only been roasting it lately. Soup sounds perfect.
Also, the rainbow sherbet at the end of the day. So delicious. I love the mix of fall and colors.
I am somtimes so lazy with sauces for pasta, I just crumble feta and pesto throughout and call it a day.
Pumpkin on pumpkin for breakfast sounds pretty epic.
feta + pesto! YUMMM. Thanks for the idea 🙂