Am i ... *gulp* ... Injury prone?

I've always gotten the common aches and pains from running - knees hurt, back hurts, sore muscles - but lately, it's been more. First it was the stress fracture in my foot, now it's a constant pain in my hip for the last two weeks. It's really hard to stay motivated when everything hurts.

The thing that has been keeping me moving though, is the half marathon training group I signed up for. I knew there was a reason to signed up for it! The people are really great and the Tuesday speed work kicks my butt, but my hip has been keeping me from pushing too hard. Hopefully, the insert I bought yesterday will help out with that because I'm not ready to accept the idea that my body can't handle running anymore.

Let's move on from the thought of that and I'll tell you about a couple recent recipes I've tried - butternut squash soup and diet cherry cola chocolate cake.

Butternut Squash Soup

Needed:
-butternut squash
-3 cups vegetable broth
-onion, chopped
-garlic, chopped
-thyme

Topping:
-sour cream
-green onions, chopped
-squash seeds (from the butternut squash)

1. Preheat the oven to 400, cut the squash in half, long ways, and roast in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until the squash is fork-tender.

2. Scoop out the meat of the squash and put in food processor with broth, onion, garlic and thyme. Mix until well blended. Put in to bowls and top with a dollop of sour cream, a pinch of green onions and a little handful of the roasted squash seeds.

To make the roasted squash seeds, before putting the squash in the oven, scrape out the seeds and set aside. Then while the squash is roasting:

1. Rinse the seeds really well to get all the extra guts off.

2. Bring a pot of salted water to boil, add the seeds, lower the temp and let them simmer for 10 min.

3. Drain them, then pat them dry as much as possible between two papertowels. They become really sticky and will stick to the paper towel, but not a big deal, just peel them off.

4. Add the seeds to a bowl, drizzle olive oil and salt over the top and stir it around so they're all coated.

5. Lay them on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake at 325°. There's not a set amount of time for how long, you just have to watch them closely. They burn from the inside, so on the outside they look perfectly fine, but the inside they're a crisp. We checked ours every 5 minutes for about 20-25 minutes and kinda moved them around on the baking sheet each time we checked.

They are addictive.

Then, for dessert, check out the diet cherry cola chocolate cake.

All you need is cake mix and 12 ounces of diet cherry cola. Mix them together, pour in a pan and bake as directed on the box for the size pan you use. Delish! And slightly less guilt since there's no oil or eggs.