Flew through the Day

I can't believe it's only 9pm. Whew, the day seemed to fly by!

This evening, I spend a good amount of time in the kitchen roasting up different veggies to use in meals throughout the week.  I find that if I have a bunch of things ready in advance, it's much easier for me to "throw something together" for lunch or dinner rather than eating out.  I have enough variety in my fridge this week for a nice variety of meals which is exciting. I munched on an apple while I did my cooking.

I had dinner in 2 parts tonight - I was pretty hungry.  First, I had a cup of roasted acorn squash along with some roasted beets and potatoes. Mmmm.  There's something about roasting vegetables that really enhances their flavor... and warms up my apartment!

 

Part 2 was a new recipe I made, inspired by this one. 
Puerto Rican Style Beans

• 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/3 chopped onion
• 1/2 cubanelle pepper, chopped
• 1/2c tomato sauce
• 3/4c water
• 1/2 baking potato, peeled plus 1 mini white potato (skin on) cut into ~1/4 in. pieces
• oregano
• 3 cloves garlic
  
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper
  

Chop onions, garlic, pepper and cilantro. Spray cooking spray inside a medium saucepan and saute the chopped ingredients about 2 minutes. Drain and rinse the beans and add to the saucepan with 3/4 cup of water. Add tomato sauce, potato, bay leaf, oregano, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer on low for about 20 minutes.

This was rich, creamy, and delicious!! I added some hot sauce and a sprinkle of cheese to the mix which made the dish that much better. Yum, it was sooo good!

My large appetite was a result of spending lots of quality time at the gym today. I was previewing a different gym than the one I normally go to and took advantage of some of the things they had. I did: 65 minutes on the elliptical plus a few minutes on a couple of new machines - the Arctex (sp) and another machine that replicates an ice skating motion.  I did arms for about 10 minutes: 3 x 15 bicep curls, tricep raises, and shoulder lifts plus 1 x 15 with a heavier weight of squat lifts.Then, it was off to the pool.  I swam for about 25 minutes = ~1300m or a little more than 3/4 of a mile. I haven't swam in a long time but it felt great! I took some time to enjoy the sauna and then headed home.

Earlier in the day I had a Japanese inspired rice bowl with the leftover sushi rice and seaweed from Friday plus a serving of adzuki beans mixed in. This plus a salad was great fuel for my long workout!

Breakfast was an egg white and 1 piece of toast with a pear... plus some nibbles and I shopped my way through the farmers market.

It appears that the long overdue rain has finally arrived and I'm hoping to head to bed early to start the week extra well-rested. Good night!