Friday, April 22, 2011

Mexican Spiced Black Bean Soup

(I thought it would be nice for the post title and picture to match for a change.  ;-)   )

I hate to whine but darn it hurts when you break a toe. I tried to put on shoes Thursday morning and when that was painful I knew going for a walk was out. Darn it! I get antsy when I can’t exercise. *ugh* Needless to say I was moving more slowly than normal all day which annoyed me like you would not believe. I decided it was time for an attitude adjustment and started reading “The 21 Day Consciousness Cleanse” which has been good for me.

Dan had his usual green smoothie for breakfast.


My breakfast was savory oatmeal which included: oats, water, wheat germ freshly ground flaxseeds, cumin, oregano, no-salt seasoning, broccoli, black beans, artichoke hearts and tons of cilantro. I really do never get tired of savory oatmeal. If I were single this would be a frequent dinner for me in the winter time.


After my huge late breakfast lunch was a simple bowl of chopped walnuts, prunes, apple, cinnamon and fresh lemon juice.

I turned the leftover black beans into a pot of soup for dinner by adding: onion, garlic, diced tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, water, oregano, chili powder, cumin, cocoa powder, cinnamon, paprika, bulgur, carrots, peas, green beans. I cook everything but the carrots, peas and green beans for about 30 – 45 minutes to allow the flavors to marry and correct the seasoning as necessary. The remaining veggies are added the last 5 minutes or cooking just to heat through. I finished the soup with fresh lime juice. It would also have been good with fresh cilantro but I used it all in my breakfast.

Happy thoughts:

• I am enjoying doing the work in “The 21-Day Consciousness Cleanse” and will tell you more about that in a day or two. I have been surprised by my emotional reaction to the book so far. It has been a good experience to this point. I want to do another day or two before I tell you about it.

• My toe is starting to heal which means it doesn’t hurt much to walk on it but wearing shoes is another story completely, more about that tomorrow. Overall I am happy that my toe getting better but I can’t imagine how those of you that did this wore shoes and went to work. Clearly you are tougher than I am. ;-) I am happy that I have had the ability to go barefoot for a few days while the swelling was dissipating.

• Friday we had a chance to get together with our friend Louis for dinner which is always good.  We don't see Louis as much since he moved to the Delaware shore and talking on the phone is good but not the same.

• We ran into Brittany Friday night and she told us how much loved the homemade marshmallows we made for her anniversary which was very sweet. I enjoy doing things like that so it was good to hear that she liked them that much. Besides who doesn’t like getting hugs right? ;-)

• Will was back at work Friday evening which was a surprise. As always we enjoyed seeing him and liked what he made for us for dinner…details tomorrow. No surprise we had a nice evening out and stayed out later than usual.

Signing out:

It is much later here than I usually put a post up which means that I am rushing which I bet you guessed due to my brevity. Dan will be going to the office tomorrow so we need to get some rest soon. I plan to spend my day experimenting with whole wheat pasta dough and my gnocchi paddle to make malloreddus for Easter. Doesn’t that sound like fun? I decided that since it is a national holiday we can splurge a little which I am sure my parents will be happy to hear.

I hope your weekend started off well. Talk to you again tomorrow. Good night!

6 comments:

  1. Ouch sorry to hear about your toe - sounds painful. I wish you a speedy recovery

    Love the black bean soup and flavours - I've been meaning to use up some of the black beans in the cupboard - would be a great way.

    So happy to hear you are doing a "consciousness cleanse". A sure sign that times are changing as more spirituality (not religion) is permeating the mainstream! Makes me happy :)

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  2. Black bean soup looks great. I have tried savory oatmeal on a couple of occasions and just can't get into it. . . wish I could! I love savory twists on other grain dishes, so it's weird.

    So sorry about your toe--and that my reading is so erratic these days that I missed it! I am sure I wouldn't be able to wear shoes, either. I think most people just wear a sock with a plastic bag over the foot with the broken toe!

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  3. Your food looks fantastic. I found you through the Rice Diet. So how did that go? I usually never last a day on a diet. Still, I'm always tempted to start one. I heard Dr. Norm Shealy speaking about this one, and it was the first I ever heard of it. Both my husband and I are lacto-vegetarian.

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  4. Possum,

    Thanks the toe is still hurting almost a week later. It is okay as long as I don't try to wear shoes (even sandals) and then it is extremely painful. I am looking forward to it healing soon.

    I don't cook a lot of black beans but am trying to add then into my bean rotation more often. They are particularly good with sweet potatoes.

    It is a good book you should check it out. I like it much more than I expected to.

    hope you had a nice weekend,
    Ali

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  5. Ricki,

    You sound like Dan with the savory oatmeal...he can't get into either. Did you try adding nutritional yeast and salsa to the versions you tried? I think those two are key to my enjoying it.

    Thanks I had no idea a broken toe would be this painful. I tend to be a bit stubborn which is why I continue to try to wear shoes. Good thing I have the ability to stay home and barefoot most of the time LOL.

    hope you had a nice weekend,
    Ali

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  6. Thursday's Child,

    The Rice Diet was something that I read because a friend of mine was talking about trying it so I wanted to understand it. I knew if I did it for a few days my friend would get a good idea of what it would be like to be on the diet. I thought it was too low in calories (800-1200 per day) and didn't include enough veggies. Can't say I understand why there would ever be a limit on veggies. No one ever got fat eating too much plain broccoli. I didn't think the diet was well balanced. However to be fair about 25 years ago I knew someone that lost over 50 pounds on the diet so I suppose it works for a lot of people. I hope that helped.

    Ali

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