Slow cooker Southwest Black Bean Chili

Well, I made my first attempt at making an entirely ‘on-my-own’ recipe… not following a cookbook or anything! I have to say, it came out pretty darn well. I was going for Black Bean Chili, but as you’ll see from the pictures, it came out more like soup. I think I know what I need to omit now…

Why did I attempt to make up my own recipe? One, I’ve always wanted to be one of those people who “experiments” in the kitchen. I’m envious of those who can see what’s on hand in the kitchen and make a delicious meal from it (my boyfriend is one of those people, which is great for using up old food, but he always shows me up! ) Two, since our Market on the Move trip, we’ve had a ton of tomatoes to use and I wanted to see if I could use the majority of them instead of freezing them.

What makes this southwest? The addition of some spicy ingredients… And, of course, because it was made here in the hot, wonderful, dry Southwest!

So without further ado, here is my monster creation!

Slow cooker Southwest Black Bean Chili

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium sized yellow onion
• 2 medium sized yellow bell peppers, seeded and chopped (you could probably use whatever bell peppers you have on hand– yellow is what we had!)
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 28 ounces (ish) crushed tomatoes (I pureed about 28 ounces of all the tomatoes we had in a blender, but I know you can buy canned crushed tomatoes, and I believe they come in that size)
• 2 cans black beans (I used Eden Organic Black Beans)
• 1 cup water (you don’t need this if you use more tomatoes, like I did)
• 2 jalapenos (more if you want it hotter!) – seeded or not, it’s your call. I seeded one and kept the seeds in the other- spicy!
• salt
• black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, bell peppers, garlic, and cook until softened (about 5 minutes). Stir in the chili powder and cook about 30 seconds to a minute longer.
2. Transfer onion mixture into a 4-6 qt. slow cooker (ours is a 4 qt., I believe). Make sure that you don’t fill it past 3/4s full, otherwise it could bubble over.
3. Add the tomatoes, beans, water, and jalapenos. Only add the water if you want it to be more soup-like, otherwise leave it out for a thicker, chili-like recipe.
4. Season with salt and pepper, cover, and cook on Low for 6 to 8 hours.

Want to make it chunkier? You can add some store-bought or homemade soy chorizo, like I did the next day for lunch, or you can cook up some plain couscous or quinoa and throw that in there to soak up some of the more ‘soup-like’ aspects of the chili.

Again, the great thing about slow cooker recipes is that you do all the work in the morning (or the night before, if you’re pressed for time in the mornings), throw it in the slow cooker for the hours you’ll be at work (most slow cooker recipes are 8 hours or so), and then you have dinner waiting for you when you get home!

I really want to investigate using the slow cooker for breakfast foods, and I also heard a rumor that slow cookers can make bread… say what? Stay tuned, I’ll keep you posted!

Vegan Mac and Cheese

Good news and bad news! What, you want the bad news first? You sicko! Okay, here goes… our Molly puppy is sick!

For those who want to know more, keep reading below. Otherwise, skip to the cute picture of Molly and continue on to the good news!

Still here? Okay, well it turns out Molly got two kinds of worms from the Humane Society, and girardia, which is an intestinal infection, and we found out yesterday from our vet. Side note: our vet and the vet place we take Molly to really, really suck, and I can’t wait until we’re done giving her meds and getting her shots from them… then we’re going to a real vet!

Anyway, we started Molly’s meds yesterday: she gets powder meds on her food once a day for the worms and pill meds once every 12 hours for the girardia. She is so not a fan of taking the pill meds, so Blake and I have had to get very clever with how we break up the pills to get her to eat them… so far, we cut them up and mix them in with her dog food. Today she figured out what we were doing and wouldn’t eat them, so I gave her parts of the pills one at a time with a piece of kibble… she couldn’t eat the kibble without also swallowing the treat!

She should be done and clean this Saturday, which is good timing because that’s when she’s going on a road trip to meet her “grandparents”, my parents, in Tucson. And yes, we do refer to Molly as our baby!

So close yet so far...

Time for the good news: vegan mac and cheese! Yes, that’s the good news I made some yesterday from Chloe Coscarelli’s book Chloe’s Kitchen (if you are vegan/vegetarian and looking for a new cookbook, I highly recommend this one! Her instructions make sense, aren’t hard to follow, don’t require a lot of time or fancy equipment, and taste really really good. I’d say it’s on par if not better than Lindsay’s Happy Herbivore books!)

Without further ado, the recipe (credit here and here) with my changes.

Ingredients

• 1 pound/box quinoa elbow macaroni (again, going with the low carb thing on Blake’s doc’s recommendation)
• 1/4 cup vegan margarine (I use Earth Balance)
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 cups soy milk (you can also use almond or rice milk)
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast (I love Bob’s Red Mill, but you can also find nooch in the bulk bins of your Whole Foods/Sprouts/natural health store)
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• Handful of grape tomatoes (or basically whatever veggies you want– I’m trying to use up the tomatoes we got from Market on the Move!)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon agave (I used the light colored agave)
• 2 tablespoons bread crumbs (I used Panko)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil (not too much salt when cooking with quinoa– I’ve noticed it tastes a little crunchy if you heavily salt it)
3. Add macaroni and cook according to pasta directions (if you’re adding extra veggies to make this healthier, especially hearty veggies like broccoli, add them in in the last 5 minutes and cook until tender). Drain and return to pot.
4. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, make a roux by whisking the margarine and flour over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Add your soy milk, nutritional yeast, tomato paste, salt, garlic powder, and tomatoes (if using) to the saucepan and bring it to a boil, whisking frequently. Reduce heat to low and let simmer until sauce thickens. Adjust seasoning to taste, and stir in lemon juice and agave.
5. Toss the noodles with the sauce and transfer into the 9 x 13 pan.
6. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top of the pasta and bake for 30 minutes or until the top is browned lightly.

And that’s it! Yum, huh? I had never made a roux before, and that was definitely what I had the most trouble with:

Yup, all those explosion-y stains on the stove top are from the roux… it bubbles so watch out! That said, it was very, very easy to make, and it thickened up quickly. You definitely have to keep an eye on it!

The final product:

I would say 4/5 stars for this recipe, definitely. It’s good but it’s actually a little sweet for my taste… I would leave out the agave for sure, and definitely add some more veggies to it.

I ended up pairing it with some roasted asparagus… yes, I love asparagus!

I’m currently in the midst of making my own black bean chili slow cooker recipe, so I’ll let you know how that turns out tomorrow!

 

Market on the Move

Have you ever heard of Market on the Move? I hadn’t, until my Mom sent me a link about it and told me she and my Dad were going to check it out. At first I was skeptical… Market on the Move seems too good to be true. I mean, 60 lbs. of produce for only $10??? What was this, a cult?

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Before I go into how amazing Market on the Move is, let me assure you: it is not a cult! Just because it is hosted in church parking lots does not mean you get accosted by church goers trying to convince you to redeem your soul by going to church. It’s not like that at all.

What Market on the Move is is this:

“Market On The Move provides a farmers’ market atmosphere at various locations throughout Metro Phoenix and Tucson areas where partners and supporters of this program can come on a regular basis to pick up the free produce for distribution.”

Market on the Move is designed to save produce that would otherwise be thrown away in landfills and bring them to people in Phoenix and Tucson at very reduced prices, thereby giving people a chance to get cheap, affordable produce and save the environment at the same time.

According to the Market on the Move website, volunteers work to:

“Rescue about 30 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables; distribute over $45,000 worth of produce; provide over 23 million meals; help more than 460,000 families in need; and distribute fresh produce to more than 300 food banks and agencies across Arizona and throughout the United States.“

At the locations around the Valley, the ‘farmer’s market’ stations,  basically, you pay $10 and get a boxful of fruits/veggies (depending on what’s in season) and you save food from going to waste and crowding up landfills. Sounds awesome, right?

Lucky for us, we live literally a mile away from the closest MOM (you can find locations on the website I linked to above). When we got there, we paid our $10, signed in, and were given a box each. Blake and I decided to divide and conquer, since the lines were fairly long, so Blake went to one line and I went to another. There were three lines in total, and you queue up, wait your turn, pick your produce (you can only get a certain number of produce, for example only 3 bell peppers, only 10 carrots, etc.), and move along your merry way.

Word to the wise: Don’t ‘accidentally’ cut the line like I did. I got dirty looks like no other… it was an accident though. DON’T DO THIS. There is a method to the MOM madness!

This is what Blake and I ended up with:

My box, full of tomatoes!

Blake's box, full of corn and jalapenos.

We could have gotten a lot more, but we don’t know how to can and aren’t really super informed on how to freeze veggies without them getting funky so… we stayed way under 60 lbs. That said, we guess that we saved about $10-15 by getting the produce from MOM vs. going to Sprouts or the other farmer’s markets around the Valley.

MOM is basically like a CSA… only cooler Not hating on CSAs, but it’s really cool to be able to pick what produce and exactly how much of it you want…

Some people went crazy today and got a ton of tomatoes… I admit, I went a little overboard and got more than I normally would, but I think I’m going to puree the leftover tomatoes and add it to the pasta sauce we had earlier this week. Also… I loooove grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato, so you know, I might be eating a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches this week

MOM happens every other week, and you can be sure Blake and I will be there two weeks from now! If you live in Phoenix or Tucson, you have got to check MOM out!

10 Minute Pilates? Yes, please!

You probably already know two things about me from following this blog:

1. I like to work out
2. I’m pretty lazy when it comes to working out…

Maybe this is you, too, but I know that if someone gives me an excuse, any excuse no matter how ridiculous it is (it’s dark outside, it’s late, the dog is snoring, there’s ice cream in the fridge), I will jump on it and say “Okay, tomorrow I’ll go to the gym!”… which may or may not happen.

That said, since I have a ton of free time until my job starts, and since I spend the majority of my time in the family room (to keep an eye on the puppy while she sleeps/chews on her toys), I decided I didn’t want to spend all my time just sitting on the couch reading/Facebook-stalking/Tweeting.

However, I also didn’t want to do anything crazy….

Enter: 10 Minute Pilates!

I grew to hate this lady about 25 minutes in...

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The concept behind 10 Minute Pilates is simple: you can do anything for ten minutes, so for ten minutes you will work on (1) butt/legs (2) arms (abs)… and maybe stretching, but I didn’t get that far (look at the commitment!)

Anyway, I did do the hard parts (the first three) and I would say I got a pretty decent workout. For the arms part, you will need either 1 lb., 2 lb., or 3 lb. weights. The video focused mostly on triceps, but also did a lot with shoulders and chest, which I liked (chest press, lifting your weights above your head to work on your shoulders, etc.)

My favorite part about the legs/butt exercise was working on my butt… of course. Not only for butt-toning reasons, but also because it was the easiest to understand of all the moves. I thought the video moved way too fast in between poses, and the camera didn’t focus enough on form so much as it did of the instructor herself… note to camera-people: I don’t care about seeing the instructor’s face, I want to see her form!

I probably could have paused, stop, and rewound the scenes I needed to see again, but it wasn’t worth it because the videos didn’t show or explain enough about the form for me to understand it anyway. Sooo… that was a bummer.

That said, I did enjoy the ’10 minute’ aspect of this video series (I think there’s also 10 Minute Yoga too). When the moves got hard or I got tired, I told myself anyone can do this for 10 minutes… you lazy bum!… which helped me finish out the set. I only did half an hour because I had somewhere to be (plus the dog was demanding to be played with, and you don’t say no to Molly…), but I think I’ll try out a yoga video next time (probably later today!)

I also saw some kickboxing/dance/’Biggest Loser’ workout videos, which intrigued me, so we’ll see. On days when I know I’m not going to the gym, I think I’ll be trying these videos out!

Quinoa Pasta with TJ’s “Meat”balls!

Okay, lest you think the worst (that I’ve left the bf for someone named ‘TJ’ and he makes amazing meatballs), TJ stands for Trader Joe’s… and the ‘meat’balls are actually TJ’s “meatless meatballs” of deliciousness!!!!

Seriously, one of the best reasons to move back to Phoenix (there are few) is the fact that there is a Trader Joe’s less than 10 miles from where I live. Heck, even if the nearest TJ’s was 25 miles away, it’d still be better than Denver! Colorado doesn’t have any Trader Joe’s in the whole freaking state. Yes, I know, seriously… what the heck?? Whatever, Colorado…

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So anyway, that said, yesterday I made some freaking delicious quinoa pasta – Ancient Harvest Quinoa pasta to be exact! Ever since Blake came back with the recommendation from his doctor that he cut back on refined carbs (including wheat bread, wheat pasta, brown rice… things we thought were healthy), I’ve been trying to find things that both satiate us the way carbs do, yet are still healthy for us.

The best part about quinoa?

• It’s a ‘complete protein’: “Quinoa contains all 9 essential amino acids that are required by the body as building blocks for muscles.” (source)
• It’s a good source of magnesium: “Since low dietary levels of magnesium are associated with increased rates of hypertension, ischemic heart disease and heart arrhythmias, this ancient grain can offer yet another way to provide cardiovascular health for those concerned about atherosclerosis.” (source)
• It’s also high in iron and calcium, so all of that combined makes it an “excellent food for vegetarians and vegans.” (source)

So basically, it goes without saying that quinoa is what’s up. However, how does it cut it as a substitute for whole wheat pasta? Well, pretty darn well!

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PLUS

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PLUS

(pasta sauce of your choosing)

EQUALS

Awww yeah! (Hey, a little math at night won’t kill you ) And these pictures are actually from today’s leftovers because I was too hungry to get pics when they first come out… yeah, they hold up pretty well

The meatless meatballs were sooo good too! Blake loved them and said they were the best ‘fake’ meatballs he’s tried, which is high praise… I guess… I also steamed some frozen veggies and threw them in the mix, to get some extra fiber and texture in there too.

All in all, I’m basically in love with Ancient Harvest’s quinoa pasta. They have all different kinds too: elbow pasta, spaghetti, bowtie… and maybe more, but that’s just what I saw at Sprouts. Definitely worth it!

Black Bean and Spinach Enchiladas

For those of you who don’t know, I am a huge Real Simple magazine fan. Like, huge. It was “my thing” in high school… in fact, one of my best friends even swore I’d grow up to be the future Martha Stewart.

Unfortunately, due to either poor fine motor skills, or lack of talent, I have not become the next Martha Stewart… not even close. I can barely even hang pictures straight… and don’t ask anyone about my abilities in the kitchen! I mean, it gets done but… it’s not pretty.

Anyway, my lack of talent aside, I still love getting Real Simple magazines and perusing their recipes. So when I found this awesome Black Bean and Spinach Enchilada recipe in (what was I think) the February issue, I knew I had to try it! Even better? It utilizes our slow cooker!!!

I’d been dying to make some vegetarian meals with our slow cooker, so I knew this meal had to happen sooner or later. I ran it past Blake, he agreed that it looked delicious, and a few days later I had purchased the ingredients and given them to him to cook.

Yup, he cooks. And he is very, very good at it. Better than me, some would say (I would say…). Without further ado, the recipe (with our changes), pictures, and review!

Ingredients

• 1 can black beans (I bought the organic kind from Sprouts) (on sale!)
• 2 cups fresh chopped spinach (the recipe calls for frozen, but you have to defrost it anyway so…)
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
• salt and black pepper
• 3 cups of Blake’s homemade salsa (it’s basically an enchilada sauce recipe– RS calls for salsa, but I would highly recommend buying or making your own actual enchilada sauce!)
• 8 6-inch corn tortillas
• 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped (about 6 cups)
• 1 cup shredded carrots (or grated)
• 3 medium size tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Sliced scallions, for serving/garnish
• 1 ripe avocado, cut into pieces for serving/garnish

If you take a look at the RS recipe, there’s a lot we omitted or changed. The beauty of this recipe is that you can add or subtract basically anything you want, as long as you keep the beans/veggie/sauce theme going, and still have it taste delicious

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, mash half the beans. Add the spinach, corn, 1 cup of the cheese, the remaining beans (keep these ones whole), ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and mix to combine.
2. Spread 1 cup of enchilada sauce/salsa in the bottom of a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker (we used a 4 quart cooker). Dividing evenly, roll up the bean mixture in the tortillas (about ½ cup each) and place the rolls seam-side down in a single layer in the slow cooker. Top with the remaining salsa and cheese.
3. Cover and cook until heated through, on low for 2½ to 3 hours.
4. Before serving, toss the lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, and avocado in a large bowl with the lime juice, oil, and ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Serve with the enchiladas and sprinkle with the scallions.

And the final product…

That is one enchilada next to the romaine/tomato/carrot salad medley. HUGE!

We had about four leftovers between the two of us… they were that filling! They were even better today when I reheated one for lunch… and surprisingly, the salad kept overnight pretty well too!

The only thing I would change about this recipe is adding more spinach too it– 2 cups of fresh spinach isn’t enough, considering how it cooks down. Other than that, it was fabulous! Do you think it would be overkill to have it two nights in one week?

Tell me: Do you have a favorite slow cooker recipe? If you do, I’d love to try it out! I think I’m in love with using slow cookers now!

Also, I’ll leave you with this pic of Molly from yesterday when we took her to the park:

Also, regarding my Mile a Day: Going to the gym in about an hour to use the treadmill (holla at my Run 5k app!) and then tonight we’re taking Molly for a long walk around the park. Looks like it will be a multiple mile a day today!

We got a new dog!

You’ll notice I didn’t post yesterday and, if you follow me on Twitter (which you totally should), you’ll notice that I was exhausted all day… why? Well, we got a new puppy! Meet Molly:

She’s a 5 month old lab/pit bull mix, and she’s the sweetest dog ever! We got her on Friday, the 13th (a lucky day for her! And us . It’s funny… I went to pick up the boyfriend from work, and he was on the computer looking at dogs. We had already been denied the dog we wanted, a sweet Doberman/Lab mix that was already adopted, and he knew I was bummed about that.

Blake told me that our local animal shelter had gotten in some sweet German Shepherd mix puppies, and he wanted to check them out, at least “just to play with them.” I grumbled but acquiesced because he was so excited, but I was fully not intending on adopting any puppy that day.

When we got there, we did end up playing with the one German Shep puppy left, but then Blake saw Molly (named Sky at the time) and decided he really wanted to play with her instead. On Molly/Sky’s bio, it said that she was a “Pit Bull mix”, with no mention of her lab background. I was hesitant about adopting a pit bull mix, because Blake’s roommate had one and she wasn’t the most trainable dog but, once we were in the play room with Molly/Sky, I started to fall in love, especially when we discovered she’s much more lab than she is pit bull.

Long story short, I wasn’t convinced but Blake sold me and, in the last two days, I’ve fallen completely in love with her!

Upon doing some more research on pits, they’re actually totally trainable, really sweet dogs. They definitely get a bad rap, which is ridiculous. And honestly, within the past two days, we’ve discovered she’s basically 100% potty trained (no accidents thus far!), knows the sit and stay command, and is slowly but surely learning her name.

She’s a little bit of a chew puppy, but we have several Kong toys and a tug of war toy for her, with all intentions to get more. The kitties are hissing at her and not eating very much, but I have a feeling they’ll come around. They have to establish the pecking order with her

All right, we’re off to take ‘little’ Molly to the park and play frisbee! I promise I’ll be updating the blog with a LOT more pictures to come!

Couch to 5k and Mile a Day!

Short post today because I’m meeting my City of Phoenix “mentor” (he’s not really a mentor but he’s not a friend… yet… so I don’t know what to call him!) in an hour… hey, I said I’d be posting every day, but I didn’t commit to a length!

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you all that I have re-started my commitment to running… my ‘commitment’ has been very hit or miss, depending on my mood. When I was in boot camp, I was super committed, mostly because we had to run a mile every day to warm up. However, I did notice a big change not only in my cardiovascular range, but also in my shape. I know they say the best way to lose weight and tone up is to lift weights, but honestly, I saw just as big a change when I was running as I did when I was lifting weights.

Then again, it had to be running. After bootcamp, I went back to doing the elliptical and all my hard work (especially my cardio!) went away. When I moved back to Phoenix, when I first went hiking with my boyfriend, I noticed immediately that I was much more out of shape and out of breath than ever before.

I’m now doing weight lifting (light, not anything crazy… just for toning, and because I’m too lazy to do anything harder) and Zumba classes (those are so much fun! And cardio! Woo!), but I’ve also decided to add in running again.

Enter: Couch to 5k. If you’re interested in reading more about the program, and reading it from the perspective of someone who is really dedicated and much further along on it than I, check out This is My Everest‘s blog posts!

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I was so psyched and pumped reading This is My Everest’s blog updates about C25K, and I was like, ‘hey, I have that app! I’m going to get back to doing it!’

Okay, so turns out I don’t exactly have the Couch to 5k app… I actually have the ‘Run 5k’ app:

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Oh well, it’s kind of the same thing, I guess. Don’t worry, I bought it from the App store a long while ago when it was cheaper (I think .99?) so I didn’t actually spend 4 bucks on it. I like it too because it has a little ‘music’ button on the bottom that lets you listen and access ANY music source on your iPhone– be it iTunes, the radio, or Pandora. I can skip around on my music and not interrupt it!

Also, it’s really easy to use and it tracks the dates you use it, so you never get confused as to where you are. In fact, it told me the last time I used it was in February, 2011. I am soooooooo motivated… not!

So in conjunction with my Run 5k app, I’m also taking part of the Twitter challenge from Carlyn from Just Keep Sweating to complete a mile a day, #mileaday on Twitter. So far I’m two days in, and I think I’m doing pretty well.. then again, it’s only been two days… :-/

Between these two motivators (well, and this blog!), I hope to get in at least a mile every single day, be that from walking around, hiking, or running on the treadmill. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted!