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Lucky New Year's Stew, Leg Day & Christmas Decorations Down

First Stew of 2011
As promised, here are the recipes from our New Year's Dinner. Like I said yesterday, we don't normally make it a point to get in all the "lucky" dishes like black-eyed peas and cabbage. However, it was the perfect opportunity for me to use my new crockpot (correctly). I also made a Vegan Chiptole Cornbread to go along with this hearty Lucky New Year's Stew.

Lucky New Year's Stew
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups black-eyed peas soaked overnight
1 yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1-2 sweet potatoes, diced
32 oz no-salt vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 not-beef bouilon cube
To taste: salt, pepper, chili powder, liquid smoke, red pepper, garlic, parsley, basil
1 bunch kale, roughly chopped

Directions:
Put all ingredients minus the kale in the crockpot and cook on low for approximately 5 hours. Add in the kale and cook an additional 30 minutes on high or hour on low.
 
Vegan Chipotle Cornbread
Ingredients:
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar free applesauce
1  cup soy or almond milk
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp agave nectar
1 tsp ground flax seed
To taste: sea salt, chipotle flakes or minced chipotle in adobo

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In large bowl, mix all ingredients until completely combined. Pour into prepared casserole dish or muffin tin.

Bake approximately 30 minutes or until golden brown.
 
 

This stew ended up being so good. The sweet potatoes really imparted a slight sweetness into the broth itself, but the kale and black-eyed peas balanced it out nicely. The textures were great. It was a great, hearty stew. It's one I'll make again, probably trying with black beans. The cornbread had a really nice texture, but was a little bland. I think it needed a little more agave and salt. 

Leg Day
Today started of at about 28 degrees. I was thinking about getting chores done then heading out for a run later on. However, Jason was feeling really cruddy today (he's had the same cold/allergy/crud) I've had. I ended up just opting for a leg workout instead. I went with three trisets of 3x8 unless noted then followed up with a few additional exercises.

TS#1
Squats
Alternating plie squats
Deadlifts

TS#2
Step ups
Static lunges
Calf raises - 3x10

TS#3
Alternating front lunges
Low-plan static lunges
Narrow stance squats

Weighted plie hops - 24
Firewalkers - 8
Weighted donkey kicks - 2x18
Weighted wall squats with stability ball - 12

I finished off legs (literally) with the high- and low-impact HIIT segments from Cathe's Intensity DVD. Shaky legs for sure. I stretched and rolled using my new TriggerPoint Therapy Kit before getting cleaned up for lunch.

Productive Sunday
After lunch, it was time to get serious (aka productive). In order to make the productive day more comfortable, I stayed comfy in some sweats. Yep, no makeup, no hair styling, no real clothes kind of Sunday.

We got all the Christmas decorations put away, which is really depressing. I always think the house looks so bare and empty once the decorations come down. I started two pots of beans (chickpeas and black beans). I also dusted, swept, and swiffered. I started pressing tofu to bake for a crockpot stew I'm going to try out tomorrow using the chickpeas and probably kabocha squash.

I may use some leftover black-eyed peas to throw together some veggie burgers and bake those at the same time I bake the tofu. But, I will admit that I'm slowly running out of steam. In fact, dinner may just be leftovers from last night. So, I'm going to post early today and maybe go sit and watch a movie with Jason. 

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