It was inevitable 

Fall is here and almost gone.  Yes, it is true that although we have 4 distinct seasons, fall seems to be the most fleeting, the most dramatic and because routine starts again, the biggest risk of illness.  

Every year I try and try to stay healthy but every year it feels like Russian roulette.  The cold/flu hits and makes day to day life that much more difficult.  I have learned that during this time keeping to my usual activity level leads me to be more ill, and in the long run harder to recover so I stop...mostly.  I have been still trying to walk just to keep the legs moving but not bring up my heart rate while battling a fever.  

This week, trying to eat was a chore.  The thought of cooking left me lifeless and the attempts to eat was just truly unappetizing.  Soups have been the easiest for me to eat and while I wasn't truly inspired for the final result, it did give me moments of enjoyment to cut up and photography some of the ingredients.  

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I have been playing around with coffee as both a rub and marinade.  I have used KCups and actual grounds in soups and other meet dishes. I have also read that instant coffee works well but honestly, we just don't keep the stuff in the house although I am sure it would work just fine.  I have been loving the depth and richness it has given dishes and really, no over powering coffee taste at all.  In fact you wouldn't know if you weren't told that it is in the dishes.  

There is something about onions. You can find multiple website based articles telling you about the amazing health benefits of eating, cooking and even putting onions in your socks...yes this is a thing.  I believe that onions, along with garlic, probably have many medicinal qualities but I will keep them out of my socks and in soup.  

Making soup is the best way that I have found to clean out the fridge.  No two soups ever taste the same and somehow celery is always an ingredient.  Celery never seems to be fully eaten and there is always a stalk or more drying up in the crisper but in a soup it doesn't matter.  This year, our market seemed to have a plentiful bounty of celery which I insisted on buying every week.  This may account for my well stocked stalks.  

Somewhere I have read that the deeper pigmented vegetables are, the more nutrients they have.  Luckily, all of these veggies have needed to be used.  I also read the beet soup is actually used in some areas of the world as we use chicken noodle soup.  

​So there you have it, a blog that rambles and doesn't make much sense at all but really an small opportunity for me to feel slightly human, slightly productive and maybe a bit more inspired to actually eat the food.  

Although I know that my body needs the rest, not being able to run on some of the most gorgeous fall days we have seen in a while makes my skin crawl.  I am hoping one more rest day will give me enough energy to kick it.  Cheers to beets, garlic and anything healthy...down the hatch they go!