Wrong Side of the Bed

Today I woke up in an unnecessarily bitter mood.

Jordan had slept over and had trouble sleeping, and then woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and as the saying goes "misery loves company" so he took me along for a grumpy morning.

Once he was gone, I was faced with a mountain of dishes in the sink, and dishes I had previously washed piled up in the drying rack. Some of these were mine of course, but being in a grumpy mood, I washed them all while bantering madly to myself of how I always get stuck doing everything around the house, when I am the one that has the most to do! Geez I just took the trash and recycling out last night too, and cleaned the bathroom which looks like crap again because Sookie likes to throw litter!

I then took the feminist approach and assumed the boys were leaving all of the house work for me to do because I am the only girl and clearly they must think I am only good for domestic purposes.

After settling down from my pity-party, I comforted myself with a nice breakfast of left over
home-made cottage potatoes (aka homefries :P ) and my last egg, over-easy, with some ketchup and a cup or 3 of Pumpkin Spice coffee. I think its the cold, but I have been craving really "breakfasty" breakfasts lately.




After breakfast I headed out to Framingham to get some school work done and go to class. I brought an apple and nutrigrain bar as some brain food.


Despite my snacking I was definitely in need of some more substantial lunch when I got home. I mixed up some more left over Spaghetti + mixture of frozen veggies + Vegan Chili, and some extra spaghetti sauce, and then added some 50% reduced fat Cabot Cheddar Cheese (currently on sale at Shaws.)

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In the mix: Broccoli, Asparagus, Green Peppers, and carrots... I wish I had a few other colors in there, but the chili livened up the mix.
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Vegan Chili
(Its always frozen come photo-op time!)

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Nomnomnom. It was very good.

I may have snacked on a mini bag of popcorn with chocolate chips and raisins while watching "Charlie Bartlett" and cleaning the apartment (SEE!! AGAIN!)

Tonight I am heading to Gloucester so it I wait that long to eat I'll just go get to steal J.'s food, a rare and exciting treat :)


And just to confirm, I am no longer bitter, and am in a much better mood, and now off to take my Sports Nutrition Quiz!

Vegan Chili

It's hard for me to post recipes, as I tend to not use them...

I've had a week off before I go back to the grind of working two jobs, starting classes full time, and starting internship again, so I decided with my free time it might be a good idea to make some food and freeze it. Today I made one of my staples: Vegan Chili.

I love making chili and soup type of dishes because they really do not require a recipe at all, you just throw in whatever you have on hand. I pretty much always have dried beans, and canned tomato around, so I generally always have the basic ingredients. the recipe below is what I happened to use today, but definitely feel free to add/ take away anything you like, dislike or just don't feel like buying. This makes a really big batch, but its great for dividing up and freezing for the future.

Vegan Chili
2 large cans whole tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can pumpkin
1 onion (I used red today)
2 hot chili peppers
1 cup/can chickpeas
1 cup kidney beans
2 cup black beans
1 cup corn
1 cup peas
1/2 cup edamame
green and red bell peppers (I just used 1 whole bag of frozen chopped mixed peppers)
2 tb olive oil
garlic
oregano
chili powder
black pepper
red pepper
hot sauce

Prepare any beans by cooking them if they are dried.
chop any raw vegetables (be careful with the hot peppers, getting hot pepper juice underneath your nails is no fun. I usually wear gloves.)

heat oil in a large pot, add garlic and onion, and cook for about 5ish minutes.

Add all other ingredients to pot.

Simmer for an hour or longer. The longer you simmer it the softer all of the ingredients will be and more blended together.

Viola! Vegan Chili!

It makes a great meal on its own, or I personally love to use it as an extra chunky spaghetti sauce. It can be topped with low fat cheese or sour cream/ regular or nondairy versions, to add a little bit of creaminess to it and cool it down if you made it a bit to spicy.