Skip to main content

Weights & Warming Vegan Chorizo & Black Bean Soup on Wednesday

Weights on Wednesday
I came pretty close to making today a rest day. But I really wanted to get in some weights and abs today and rest completely on Friday. I figured I could do trisets for biceps, shoulders, triceps and top it off with some ab work and it really wouldn't take too long to complete (and it'd give me some energy that I seem to be lacking). I did each as 3 sets of 8 reps.

TS#1
Dumbbell curls
Dumbbell shoulder press
Overhead triceps extension

TS#2
Hammer curls
Upright rows
Lying triceps extensions

TS#3
Cross-body curls
Lateral raises
Double-arm kickbacks

I did abs from Cathe's High Reps DVD, stretched for a few minutes, then called it done. I won't say this turned into a super awesome workout. My mind was wandering a bit. But I did feel fairly strong though and actually increased weights on the third triset. This also gave me a bit of an energy boost, always a plus.

Tomorrow I have a longish run scheduled that I hope to get up the gumption to take outside (another cold one tomorrow) then a total rest day on Friday. As you can imagine, I'm dreaming of Friday for more than one reason now.

Warming Wednesday Dinner
Thankfully we didn't get slammed with the ice and snow that so many got hit with. Today was sunny, but very cold. On my way in to work, the wind chill was 6 degrees. Yikes. But, like I said, we saw sunshine. Cold days call for warming dinners right? What's more warming than a soup?

We had some soy chorizo that either Jason or I had picked up randomly. Jason mentioned using that tonight, so I thought I'd try it out in a soup. We're starting to run low on fresh veggies, but I had bell peppers, onions, some frozen corn, and frozen black beans so I went with that for a Vegan Chorizo and Black Bean Soup.

Vegan Chorizo and Black Bean Soup
Ingredients:
Soy chorizo (I used Yves Veggie Chorizo)
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 white onion, diced
2-3 tbsp minced garlic
32 oz no-salt vegetable broth
5 oz frozen corn
1.5 cups black beans (or 1 can, rinsed and drained)
Jalapenos (fresh or pickled, minced, to taste)
To taste: sea salt, black pepper, chili powder, cumin, cilantro, red pepper

Directions:
In large pot, brown 1/2 package of the soy chorizo (the Yves brand comes in 2 links). Add in onions, bell peppers, and garlic and continue to cook until onions begin to soften.

Add in remaining ingredients and allow to simmer until flavors have melded and vegetables are cooked through.
 
 

Serve with baked tortillas or Vegan Chipotle Cornbread and sprinkle of Daiya Vegan Cheddar Cheese (optional). Today I went with the cornbread. It was a good excuse to heat up the kitchen. This soup turned out really good. What's great is that you can easily adjust the spiciness to your own liking. If you don't like super spicy foods, you could substitute diced green chilies instead of the jalapenos. But I'm a spicy kind of girl so jalapenos all the way. Do you like spicy foods?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Love in Photos

In honor of Valentine's Day - Love in Photos Husband Family and Furbabies Friends Even if you're not a fan of Valentine's Day - I hope you have a wonderful day and remember the loves in your life.

I Run to Feel Alive

Today is National Running Day . Guess what I did this morning? Cycling? Nope. Lifting? Nope. I bet you thought kickboxing right? Nope. Running? But of course! I actually sort of planned my running days this week just so I could participate this year. I didn't get to run last year and didn't even know about it the year before. But running has become such an integral part of my life and who I am, that I couldn't miss this year. Basically, I run to feel alive . It calms me, it helps me work through life, it's often a reason to get out of bed. No matter how tough a run is, it makes you feel ... period. My plan was to get in 5 miles (got in 5.5 actually). It was about 10 degrees warmer this morning and definitely more humid. That always makes for a tougher run. We decided to take a different route today. Well, it was really only a few streets over different, but still. The point is we took a different street. Sometimes that's good, sometimes not. I did realize th...

Vacation Day 2 - Running, Reading, Relaxing

Running This morning I woke up a bit before 7 am. Of course, we had gone to sleep by 9....on vacation no less. I had thought I might try for an outdoor run, but the temps were already a humid 83 degrees by 8 am. So, I took my run to the treadmill. I had the Food Network to keep me occupied for a pretty decent 5 mile run. Running and watching tv isn't so bad ;-) I did 3 miles, then 4 1:00 athletic intervals then finished up another mile to round it out to and even 5. After stretching and rolling (yep, brought my TriggerPoint kit ), we packed up the cooler with lunch and headed down to the beach. Not a bad way to start the day if you ask me. Beach Time & Stair Cardio We set up our little umbrella camp and proceeded to just relax. I was excited to start one of the books I brought along with me: Alice Sebold's The Almost Moon . I've read her memoir, Lucky , and her first work of fiction, The Lovely Bones . . We were out for a few hours before taking a break. ...