quick, think of something!

I haven't published a post here in about a week, mainly because I have nothing new to write about. No new meals, etc. Last time I wrote about a side dish that I was interested in because it would contain whole wheat pasta and vegetables together. The one that I chose consisted of whole wheat pasta with broccoli rabe, mushrooms, vegetable broth, some parmesan cheese, garlic, and onions. It was tasty enough. Oh, I also included a small amount of red pepper flakes for some heat. Next time, however, I would like to add some veggie sausage and possibly some pine nuts. That would give it a little more substance and protein too which would really make it a meal in a pot.
On a more interesting note, I am into week 5 of my cool running plan. Yesterday, I ran for 8 minutes straight! Twice! Next run day (which will be Saturday), I will run for 20 minutes straight. I guess this will either make or break me, preferably the former. I was pretty anxious about doing 8 minutes and that wasn't so difficult. Hopefully, 20 minutes will be the same. But I think it will be long and boring. Fortunately, the foot pain I was having earlier has pretty much disappeared, even with the increase in my running times. During every run, though, I always experience some joint pain somewhere on my body (mostly foot- or knee-related) which only lasts for much of the duration of the run and is pretty mild and therefore I think normal. I will report back on how I do on my 20-minute run on Saturday. To a certain degree, I am fairly excited about running for 20 minutes, in spite of my anxiety.
So getting back to the pasta and vegetables. One of the reasons I chose to do this dish was because of my husband who is on a new, Adkins-like diet. It's actually a Suzanne Somers diet. When I told him that I had made this dish, something I thought he could eat, he told me "no way!" Since we were having some sort of meat product that he was cooking on the grill, he was apparently forbidden by his diet to eat any type of whole grain pasta or rice or the like and it would have to wait until the next day. So he did eat it for lunch the next day and said he liked it, although he so loaded it down with shredded Parmesan cheese that I think he lost all the other ingredients in there somewhere. Oh well, that's my so-called life and I'm lovin' it!
I hope to make the pasta and broccoli rabe recipe again this weekend, maybe with a few minor adjustments, and this time I will take a picture of it and post it here.
Happy trails, everyone! Wish me luck on my 20-minute run!