FIT Foodie Fridays

So I've been slacking on the blog. Things have gotten pretty busy at work. From here until the holidays will be busy pretty much. I apologize in advance for the lack luster posts you may see. I also know I skipped last week's FIT Foodie Friday post because I've just been losing track of myself, and I had nothing to post. This one is a bit long, but here it is!

FOOD:

At my job we have the option to participate in this wellness program to get a rebate back on our health insurance payment. I enrolled and thought nothing else of it. They sent us out these "good carb" cookbooks and I thought it was going to be wack, so I put it to the side. One day I was home bored, and read through it. Some of the recipes aren't that bad at all. While most are generic and I have better versions, there were a few I wanted to try.

I went ahead with the Black Bean Soup. I went out and picked up a bag of black beans all hyped to do this. And then realized I didn't have everything, so I made a few tweaks. It came out very well and the Mister liked it!

I didn't realize I needed that many black beans. I only picked up 1 bag, which was only 2 cups of beans. I made adjustments to everything else to accommodate for that. It does make a lot of soup! Next time I will half the recipe since I'm only cooking for 2. I also messed up by not soaking the beans overnight. I let them soak for about 5 hours and some were still a little tough, but not inedible. I used 6 cups of water, but I probably could have used less. I didn't measure the bouillon, I just used one cube of beef flavor. I probably could have gotten away with 2 or 1 1/2, but I didn't want it to be too salty. I let it simmer, stirring very little.

Once it was close to the hour and a half mark, I started prepping my other ingredients. I omitted the green pepper since neither I or the hubs were thrilled about it. I took a medium sized onion and chopped it in the food processor and got about 2 cups. I ignored the bottle salsa (how is this healthy?) and threw a whole tomato and 4 cloves of garlic in the food processor in place of that. I threw it all into the pot and mixed that up. I didn't have cumin, and wasn't sure what to substitute for it, so no cumin. I don't measure my spices, I just throw them in there. I used chili powder and cayenne for a little extra kick. After the next 30 mins of simmer time, I used my stick blender to mash up some beans instead of pouring it out and blending it. Less time, less things to clean up. (I also didn't trust myself to work with hot liquids and not burn myself.) One last final simmer, and then done!

I did not garnish with sour cream and the onion/pepper. We're not fancy in this here house. Plus I didn't want to add any extra calories. It tasted delicious, just low on salt. Just a sprinkle of sea salt brought it to where it needed to be. As I said before, it makes a lot of soup! I ate for lunch and dinner a few times before I was sick of it. And there's still a big lot of it in the fridge. Such a waste because I didn't think it was going to freeze well. Maybe next time I'll use jalapenos and add some shredded cheddar on top. Maybe some crumbled bacon? Shredded beef? The ideas are endless. I may even mix the types of beans.


FITNESS:

I've been trying different videos out. I still haven't really pushed myself in the gym either because I'm such a chicken shit and I feel like everyone is watching and judging me. :-\ Wack, I know! I'm working on it. The video of the moment right now is Jillian Michaels: 6 Week Six-Packand it is brutal! I never understood how much work she makes you do, but I am a believer! I'm on level 1 and still can't make it through the whole circuit 2x. I get to the warm up and first circuit, but then crash. I am getting there! I also do the Fitness Blender videos from time to time. I just have to be more diligent.

Until next time,
- L