Bean Belly

Despite skipping the gym, I was still a bit rushed this morning. I ended up making banana oats on the stove top and packaging them in a small container- they were still luke warm when I arrived to work so no mircowaving was needed.

I topped my standard banana oatmeal/oatbran combo with a spoonful of Trader Joe’s sunflower seed butter. I’ve had SSB before but it was fun to switch up today’s breakfast with a different flavor! It tastes very similar to regular pb, only it does have a sunflower seed flavor and it’s a bit creamier. The SFS butter was actually an Isaac purchase. He made a double batch of Trash last night as a gift for his students. Due to the prevalence of food allergies among elementary school students nut butters are banned from his school so he couldn’t use regular PB as the recipe calls for. The SSB worked out great – you couldn’t even tell the difference.

A group of us at work delivered our company food donation to the CVA Food Bank today! I love that our office gives back to the community and am happy to coordinate the donations. The ultimate goal was to beat last year’s record of 94 lbs and we did- with a whopping 107 lbs of food!

Per our tradition, we all went out to lunch at Gus’s Bar and Grill after the food delivery. The ambiance left a lot to be desired as the place looked pretty desolate with an empty bar and only one other group eating but menu was pretty expansive with salads, sandwiches, pizza, and your traditional bar food.

I went with the Triple Bean Salad- A vegetarian’s delight. Three bean medley, chopped carrots, red onion, parmesan ribbons, fresh basil and oregano over a bed of mixed greens with a lemon-olive dressing.

The salad sounded delicious and had good potential, however it didn’t really live up to the description. It was a mix of kidney, white, and garbanzo beans, teeny tiny bits of carrots (they were so small and scarce you can’t even see them in the photo), parmesan, and romaine lettuce. I didn’t taste any red onion, basil or oregano, and the dressing (that I ordered on the side) seemed to be plain olive oil with herbs. I couldn’t taste even a hint of lemon. I ate the salad because I was hungry but I wasn’t at all impressed with the bland flavor. After eating it I was still wanting more because my taste buds weren’t quite unsatisfied. My boss ordered the a chicken sandwich, which he liked but thought was bland as well. Luckily, the lunch wasn’t a total loss, two of my co-workers ordered the gyros and throughly enjoyed them.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon of waiting for snow working and then headed to the gym for a quick workout before any real accumulation. I did 15 minutes on the mill and the liptical then Whittled my Middle for a good 15 minutes. After seeing Ange’s results I had to give her 30-day challenge a try. Today was day 3 for me and so far so good, only I have a bit of trouble doing the stability ball roll out – it’s a really hard move to complete for me. The girl in the video makes it look easy so I’m not sure, either I have a really weak core (very possible) or I’m not doing it correctly??

After that quick sweat sess I headed home to wrap up some presents and eat dinner. I made a dish from Whole Food’s Cooking demo I attended earlier this week. Much thanks to Jesse, the chef at Whole Food’s, for sharing this recipe!!

Black Eyed Peas, with Tomatoes and Greens (vegan)

• 2 15 oz. cans black eyed peas
  
• 1 28 oz. can roasted tomatoes
  
• 1 package of smoked tempeh (LightLife Fakin Bacon)
  
• 1 large onion (diced)
• 1 tbsp garlic
• 2 cups lacinato Kale (other greens would work as well)
  
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste
  

Saute up the onions, garlic and tempeh in olive oil until tempeh is crispy and onions are soft. Add in greens and simmer until soft. Add in black eyed peas and stewed tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a grain of some sort (I used couscous because it’s quick and easy). Enjoy.

This would be the perfect New Year’s dish as in the South it’s tradition to prepare a meal of collard greens, black-eyed peas and pork for good luck. The dish above combines all the components, only it’s vegan!! However, this doesn’t have to be a New Year’s dish, it can be made anytime- it’s super easy to throw together and tastes awesome, which is apparent by the fact that after the cooking demo on Monday night I promptly bought all the ingredients to make it!

I really like the smoked tempeh- it has the smokey flavor of real bacon, which works well with the beans and greens. I haven’t had much tempeh lately but I experimented with it a while back and found that if you’re looking for an unflavored variety, the Three Grain has a mellow flavor and less of a bitter aftertaste than some of the others. And just for kicks here’s another recipe I’ve tried that uses the smoked tempeh.

We’re actually getting snowed in as I type this- we already have about 5 inches of snow on the ground. So me and my belly full of beans are off to snuggle and watch a movie (The Hangover) with Isaac- which may or may not be very fun for him.

Hope you’re having a lovely Friday night as well.

- Brittany

Tagged as: Black eyed peas Tomatoes and greens (vegan), Oatmeal, smoke tempeh, sunflower seed butter