Prep Day Sunday: 3 Bean Veggie Chili

I went to bed suuuper early last night. 10:30pm. I think this is late for some people, but it’s pretty early for me. It was awesome!

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I forgot to mention yesterday that sweet Jessica gave all the food bloggers treats at last night’s bloggie get-together at Guglhupf’s: Ellie Krieger’s Energy Bars. Jessica and I are both big Ellie fans! 🙂

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I ended up waking up before hubby’s mom, so I snacked on one of Jessica’s bars for a pre-breakfast while I worked on last night’s blog post. The bar was so tasty…I loved it! Thanks Jessica!

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A bit later, we had breakfast: an egg and cheese sandwich, hash brown, and OJ.

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Hubby and I went out to his aunt and uncle’s house to look at some of their old furniture. We swung by Whole Foods so I could get a veggie juice.

I got 4 veggie juice ingredients: apple, carrot, beet, and ginger.

I SO need a juicer! I grew up juicing thanks to health-food Dad, but I haven’t had a juicer of my own since…well…never. I only had juices with Dad.

I tweeted asking for recommendations and the big-time winner was Breville – specifically the Breville juicer plus. It’s on sale on Amazon for $150, but that’s still a big ticket item and one I’m not sure we can get with all the house stuff going on.

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We looked at the furniture but only came home with a night stand. The night stand has a neat story, though…hubby’s uncle purchased the night stand from hubby’s Dad.

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We got back to hubby’s mom’s house and had lunch: a nice veggie/bean soup with some toast.

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I think the toast was topped with eggs and veggies, but I can’t remember exactly.

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We road-tripped it home, checking the radio and twitter for updates on the Canada vs USA Olympic hockey game. I wish we wouldn’t have been in commute because it sounds like it was an amazing game. Congrats to Canada for winning!

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Hubby and I hit up Earthfare for groceries for the week and for dinner.

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I got the veggie burger and sweet potato fries. I couldn’t quite finish it all, but hubby helped.

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Sunday Prep Day: 3 Bean Veggie Chili

As you may remember from last week, I’m going to start using Sundays to officially prep for the work week ahead. I’m working on devising a schedule I can share with you guys, but for now, I’ll just share what I’m making.

I asked hubby if he had any preferences for lunch this week and he suggested chili. So, I decided to do a play on Ellie Krieger’s 3 Bean and Beef Chili and just made it without the beef (since I gave up meat for Lent).

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Bell pepper, organic onion, organic baby carrots.

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Organic kidney beans, organic pinto beans, organic small red beans (because they were out of black beans) and organic fire-roasted tomatoes.

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While the veggie chili cooked…

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I cleared out my spice rack. I guess this is bad to say, but several of my spices had expired! 😯 I tossed the expired spices, but kept the glass containers.

Spice/Herb Tidbit: Some grocery stores sell spices and herbs in bags, which is much cheaper than buying the stuff already bottled. So if you have a glass bottle, keep it, wash it out, and re-use it. It’s green and will save you money, too.

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Since I was multi-tasking it, the chili was done very quickly. I packed up 2 small containers to take to work and one large one for hubby to nosh on, since he works from home and doesn’t need his chili individually packed.

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Goodies to Review

I had a package waiting for me when I got home…

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Inside – the nicest sampler box I’ve seen – from Bertolli.

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This was my Foodbuzz Tastemaker sample of Bertolli’s two new sauces, Four Cheese Rosa and /Arrabbiata, which I’ll be sampling and reviewing later.

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The box even came with some recipes – 3 for each of the sauces. I saw a couple that sounded really good, but I’m not sure if I’ll try their recipes or just wing-it and make something up. We’ll see!

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Updates

You guys have been asking some really good questions on my Formspring! I wish I had the time to sit down and answer them all, but I don’t have a lot of time. And since I don’t want to half-way answer your questions, I’m trying to take my time and provide solid and detailed answers. Many questions require, IMO, a page or a post, so I’ll continue working on those.

In the meantime, check out the new Zumba page I made! I’ll be doing a Zumba 101 follow-up for those interested in checking Zumba out.

Have a great week everyone!

Reader question: What’s your favorite thing about Monday?

13 thoughts on “Prep Day Sunday: 3 Bean Veggie Chili”

  1. wow you packed in a lot of activity in your day!

    I love Ellie Krieger’s books. I have all 3 and have started DVR’ing her shows. I love her slightly laid-back approach to health and fitness. I’ve been rigidly following WW for a few years and am working to learn from healthy food bloggers as well as Ellie’s approach.

    I tried those energy bars and didn’t like them at all. Mine didn’t look like the one you tried. I think I over-pulverized the ingredients making it like a thick paste. Bleck! Didn’t feel like they were tasty at all LOL. I will ahve to try again and just rough chop the nuts and fruits and then mix in the powdered ingredients.

    As a working mom I tend to do a nice big meal on Sunday that can work for leftovers in the week. Then I end up making another 2 or so meals that can provide leftovers (for lunch or dinner). Somehow it all works out nicely 🙂 I’m so thankful I like to cook!

    Reply
    • I am DVR’ing her shows, too, but I’m wondering…where are the new episodes!? Have you heard anything about new ones coming out?

      I haven’t tried this Ellie recipe myself. I really like Ina’s granola bars, but I made several updates that I think really put them over the top – healthier and super tasty – here’s the recipe: https://thechiclife.com/2009/11/inas-homemade-granola-bars.html

      Sounds like you’re keeping your family well fed. Nice work! 🙂

      Reply
  2. I love the idea of a Sunday prep for the week. I am also totally digging your Zumba page, especially the song list. I am a big fan of downloading Zumba songs and it’s hard to know the names of them sometimes. Thanks for that list! ( Fuego is one of my favorites. 😛 )

    Reply
    • Glad you like it! It IS hard to figure out the names! Usually, I’ll try to remember a line of two from the song (usually the easy chorus parts) and then google that with the word “lyrics” – sometimes it pulls the right song name/artist up. Usually your zumba instructor will be very helpful telling you which songs they put on their playlist that day, too, if you like one you do in class. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Mmm that juice combo sounds AMAZING. I love the idea of my own juicer, too, but if the juice has beets in it… I actually like the idea of the professional kitchen/apron/hands getting dirty instead of mine!

    Reply

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