Good morning! How’s your week going? I hope you’re all feeling rested and recovered from Halloween and looking forward to a great month ahead. It’s the first What I Ate Wednesday link-up of November, and I couldn’t be more excited. I love October, but I also dig November because:

*The weather continues to cool, making it perfect for boots and sweaters and coats and scarves and OMG I love it all!

*Thanksgiving, despite its barbaric roots, is actually my favorite US holiday. Aside from my love of root vegetables and turkey, it certainly helps that it’s at the start of the season, when my fa-la-la-la-la stores have not yet been depleted.

*It’s my birthday month.

I celebrated the end of October by taking a little escape out to the ‘burbs last weekend to have a belated 85th birthday lunch with my grandfather and to see my parents and sister. Saturday, my mom and I went to yoga and then saw a play and walked around in the gorgeous weather. I definitely clocked some quality Eli time too. I love this silly dog so much.

Here are some of the food highlights.

Lunch Friday: A green salad and salmon; prosecco to drink because once in a while you need a glass of wine at lunch.

Dinner Friday: (unpictured) oysters to start and prosecco to drink; trout with escarole and cherry tomatoes as my main dish.

Breakfast Saturday morning: Savory oatmeal. I cooked in grated zucchini, egg white, chia seeds, turmeric, ginger, garlic powder, paprika, and red pepper flakes and topped my bowl with goat cheese

Post-yoga Snack: Plain Greek yogurt with cocoa powder and raspberries (unpictured)

Lunch Saturday: More salmon at a Hells Kitchen restaurant Crispin’s. This had garlic sautéed spinach and caramelized tomatoes. Yum!

Wine with Lunch: A glass of this red blend from Red Hook winery. I loved this so much I asked the server to let me take a picture of the label.

Snack Saturday: An apple, chopped and microwaved with pumpkin pie spice and topped with a teaspoon of cinnamon

Dinner Saturday Night: Random stuff I’d been cooking, incorporated into salad. So…arugula with kabocha, roasted eggplant, apple cider vinegar, and a Dr. Praeger’s veggie burger, topped with Ithaca lemon garlic hummus and balsamic glaze.

Bedtime Snack: Vanilla skyr with berries.

What’s your favorite month? Do you have a favorite holiday?  
To see more WIAW, check out founder Jenn’s blog Peas & Crayons or visit hosts Laura and Arman‘s blogs.