Veggie and Bean Chili. Vegan. GF.

Veggie and Bean Chili. Vegan. GF.
Veggie and Bean Chili. Vegan. GF.

The countdown is on folks.  December is here and we’re in the homestretch of 2015.   Kinda crazy to think about.  Hope you got a leg up on your holiday gift list yesterday during Cyber Monday.  Still no one is giving me a wish list here so I did pick up a few gifts online that I wanted to get.  I think we’ve finally hit the age/time when my kids just want gift cards and my husband and I really don’t need or want anything specific.

To be honest, every year at this time, post-Thanksgiving, I go into burnout mode.  I’m tired of food prep, cooking and even eating.  It’s been non-stop working on jobs and getting ready for Thanksgiving.  Yesterday I took a really easy approach to this chili and it turned out great.  It came together, minus cooking the rice, in 5 minutes.  Yes!  I hope you enjoy this one as much as we did.  Plus, I think everyone needs a break from Thanksgiving leftovers at this point and rainy/chilly days always make me crave a nice big bowl of chili.

Ingredients:

Olive oil
1/2 of a yellow onion, finely diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 large cans (28 oz each) of fire roasted tomatoes, crushed
1 small can of tomato paste
1-2 dashes of liquid smoke
2 cans of red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
4 carrots, grated
1 small zucchini, grated
2 teaspoons of chili powder
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Into a large pot or Dutch oven, add a drizzle of olive oil and turn the heat up to a moderately hot level.  Add your onions and cook for a 4 minutes, stirring often.  Add the garlic and stir for one minute.  Then add the remaining ingredients.  Stir and bring that to a boil.  Then reduce the heat and cover to simmer.

I served this over leftover Jasmine rice, but this is optional.  Top with fresh cilantro leaves or sliced jalapeΓ±os.

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Getting holiday ready despite the monsoon of rain here.
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fitness_update
I happily slept last night and made it past 3a.  I purposely didn’t set my watch to wake me and was thinking I may take a rest day after 3 days straight of running a marathon/post runs.  I wanted to see how I felt.  I woke at 5 and felt pretty good.  I headed to the gym because it was quite rainy and I didn’t feel like battling that on tired legs.  So off to the gym I went.

Sunday: 4 mile shakeout (day after my trail marathon)
Monday: 8 treadmill miles/strength training
Tuesday: 10 treadmill miles/easy swim just focusing on upper body and using a leg float to rest my legs
Wednesday: Planned rest day.
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Wishing you a lovely start to December.

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— Knead to Cook

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