Red and White Chili Delight

Evening 😀

Survived another Monday! Surprisingly, I woke up rather easily this morning around the five o’ clock hour.  

You see,  around 2:30 in the morning, I awoke to Niko coughing and hacking. At first I just rubbed her belly so she’d quit, but when she didn’t quit, I tried patting her on the back and giving her water. But she just wouldn’t quit. Finally, I woke up the husband, and he told me she’d been chewing on a bone all night, and he thought a piece of the bone might have been stuck in her throat. He suggested to feed her her favorite cookie to try and swallow it down. Luckily, she ate the cookie, and the piece of dog bone went down with it, but man that was scary 😦 I made sure to have no dog bones laying around while we were at work today – that could be a bad situation!

Anyway – woke up today and knew exactly what I needed:

A (rather disgusting looking) green monster. I’ve been kinda moody lately, and just overall not really myself. I also haven’t been having my daily wheatgrass and superfoods pre-breakfast like I usually do. I figured there could be a correlation. So this week I’m going to make a green monster before breakfast each morning, and see if that helps 😀 Ya never know!

Work was aight. I was busy, and it passed quickly.

Today was a rest day, so I came home, and hung out with the husband while we folded laundry and watched Ellen together. I love Ellen 😀 Jillian was on today, showing some crazy awesome moves. That reminds me – need to send Janetha my favorite exercise move for her mini guest post!

Then got started on making dinner. It was a pretty blustery cold day here in central Illinois, so naturally, chili was quite fitting.

I didn’t really follow a recipe while making this chili – just kinda threw stuff together. However, I had a feeling it’d turn out good, so I made sure to have a pen and post-it note ready. And I’m glad I did!

And it only took about a half hour to make!

So red and vibrant!

Nom! This chili was awesome!

And you can serve it with a piece of fresh corn bread!

Red and White Chili Delight

Ingredients:

1 T olive oil

1/2 onion

3/4 red bell pepper

2 small garlic cloves

1 t. chili powder

1 t. paprika

1 t. cumin

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup meatless ground (optional)

1 can of red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

Heat a large pot or deep pan to medium heat and coat with the olive oil. Place the onion, bell pepper, and garlic cloves in a food processer, and pulse just 2-3 times – no need to pulverize. Add the chili powder and paprika, and pulse twice more. Scoop the mixture into the pot and let simmer for 5-8 minutes. Stir in cumin and meatless ground, and simmer 2-3 additional minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, and simmer for 15 minutes.

Fresh Corn Bread

Ingredients:

1.5 c. cornmeal

1.5 T whole wheat flour

1 t. baking powder

2 T. of agave or maple syrup

1 egg

1/4 c. milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix together cornmeal, ww flour, and baking powder. In a separate bowl, beat an egg, and in that same bowl, mix in the milk and the agave nectar. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Bake for 15-20, checking after 15 with the tooth pick method.

And since I’m on a outrageously serious dessert kick, I had to have a lil somethin’ sweet while watching The Bachelor.

Enter, banana softserve!!

I hadn’t had this since summer, and had a serious hankering for it tonight.

And after putting 1.5 frozen bananas in the food processer and pulverizing for about 3 minutes, I added a handful of peanut butter m-n-m’s.

Oh yes, I went there. And it was fabulous.

Time to hit the hay and do it all again tomorrow! I hear we’re supposed to hit 28 degrees tomorrow! Holler! Never thought I’d be so pumped for it to be in the upper 20’s. Gotta love that Mid-West weather 😉

Hope you all have a fabulously terrific Tuesday!

When you’re not feeling your usual self for no apparent reason, what’s the first thing you pinpoint as the reason?