Burn Down the House Chili

I have been smelling something on fire the past couple of days. The boyfriend didn't smell it, even when I made him stand in the exact same spot as me in the kitchen. You see, I'm a little bit of a "super-smeller", and have been even when I was a smoker. It smelled like either a wood stove burning, or a barbeque pit, but only in one corner of the kitchen.
I forgot about it on Monday after verifying that there was no fire, but on Tuesday I was determined to find out what it was. Were my neighbors grilling something delicious? Maybe it was a wood stove, although the temperatures have been in the 70's. I stood in that one spot in the kitchen, and smelled everything, including the bamboo cutting board. Then I looked up. Eureka! Mr. Greens had bought a bunch of dried chili and peppers from Fresh Pickins this weekend, and the smell was seeping out of their bags. They smelled peppery, but also like wood smoke. I grabbed the bag and ran into the other room, "I'm not crazy!" I yelled.We had chili tonight with these large dried peppers. I'm obviously not a pepper connoisseur, nor did I pick out the peppers. Mister made the chili with beef, diced tomatoes, bell pepper, dried peppers, beer, stock, red beans, kidney beans, and maybe a few secret ingredients. He was cooking by feel, but ended up being disappointed with his dish.I was not disappointed, and ate half of this bowl.Plus several pieces of cornbread. [Maybe 3 small pieces?]And....2 beers.














To rewind a bit, for breakfast I had steel cut oats with a teaspoon of brown sugar, walnuts, and raisins.
It was creamy and good. I added a dab of milk (maybe a tablespoon or two?) to help liquify it a bit. When I make a big batch and keep a few servings in the fridge, they tend to become rather gelatinous. Most of the milk seeped out of the container on the way to work.
Unfortunately I snacked on these a little bit:They really made my stomach hurt. I haven't had M&M's in awhile.
For lunch I had a sweet potato half (plain)
and black eyed peas. Oh yeah! I could've eaten about 3 servings of BEPs but I held back. A little bit later I munched on a few veggies from this tempting tray. Even had some hummus. Nice paprika dumpage.But I wasn't really hungry, so I stopped. I even brought out a pear and Zbar to be photographed but they didn't get eaten. I am not taking any victory laps for intuitive eating yet, I think it was the M&M's that killed my appetite for the rest of the day.
Right now I'm drinking a good decaf tea-Sweet Coconut thai chai. Sweet Dreams!

Pumpkin Oats

Tuesday:
For breakfast I had pumpkin oats, using a third cup of Libby's Pumpkin Pie filling. On top I sprinkled vanilla almond granola, raisins, and walnuts.
About halfway through I stopped eating. Something tasted like plastic. Maybe it was the expired pumpkin? The week old oats? For lunch I had a grilled ham and cheese with spinach.

On the side I had veggies and hummus: grape tomatoes, yellow and red bell pepper, carrots, and celery. Meh. I made this batch of hummus, and it didn't turn out so great. Mostly because we didn't have enough lemon juice. Lemon juice is very important apparently. I squeezed a lime into the mix, but that seemed to add more bitterness.

Snacks:
Later I had a Clif Z Bar. Peanut butter is not as good as Honey Graham in my opinion. This was chewy, and had a rather syrupy taste.
The difference between these and large Clif bars is these are more of an oat/granola bar, whereas Clifs feel more like a protein bar. I like that Z bars are all organic and have fewer calories. Of course, they're also smaller.

I also ate a really good banana, but I saved the Chobani for later.
I feel like the window for bananas is 2-3 days. Then they're too soft and mushy. If I had a fruit stand within walking or bike riding distance to my house I would buy fruit as needed, instead of weekly. Right now I'm feeling pressure to eat a lot of fruit that I just bought.

Dinner: We were both tired, so we made a simple meal using leftover roasted chicken: Pesto pasta.
It's definitely one of our go-to quick meals, along with chicken salad, and omelets. We use store bought pesto, whole wheat rotini, and chicken or shrimp. I tossed a few tomatoes in mine. They fell to the bottom, apparently.

After dinner I fell asleep. I have had the worst sinus headache since Sunday! Boyfriend has been fighting a cold or some sickness since then as well.

HMO

This morning I slept in the latest I have in recent history. I felt a little guilty about it since I have so much to do.
For breakfast I had another Hot Mess of Oatmeal (HMO). Contents: steel cut oatmeal topped with shredded coconut, raisins, a few salted cashews, and peanut butter chocolate chips. A tad rich, but I ate it all. You better believe it! I can't wait for cold weather when oatmeal is really appreciated.
After breakfast, and hanging out with my babies, I ran errands. I was on a quest to find Pumpkin brews for tomorrow. I had no luck whatsover. Ugh. I went to a local store (Calandro's), a major grocery store (Target), and Whole Foods. Not one of them had Pumking or Punkin' Ale.
I also swung by the fruit stand. By the time I got home I was worried about the temperature of all of the groceries, so I just put everything up instead of taking pictures.
I had a date, so I quickly scanned the cupboards for food. My coworker had given me a piece of boudin yesterday, so I decided to heat it up. Boudin is usually a spicy pork and rice dressing inside a thin sausage casing, of cajun origin. This link was from Lafayette - known for their boudin!It's usually eaten by squishing it out of it's casing. I know that it looks disgusting, but that's part of the charm.Haha!

I also ate most of a Spiced Pumpkin Pie Clif Bar, and then hopped on my bike to meet up with my friend Anne.
Anne and I usually meet on Saturdays at Highland for coffee. During the football season we have to be a little creative, since Highland is in the North Gates of LSU. And NO WAY are we going there on a game day. We've decided to try out a couple of other local and maybe not so local cafes. Tonight we went to PJ's. They're a chain based in New Orleans. I got a plain soy latte.PJ's is on the left in the above picture. I just really wanted to get those live oaks in the shot!

We sat outside, and our view was of the old Hilton hotel which is still in service. I watched some bellhops hackysack. It looked like fun.And down the street was the Mississippi River. (I couldn't really get a good picture because of the levee). And the Old State Capitol was to the left, which looks like an old russian castle.We had fun. Anne just bought a motorcycle. I'm jealous!After a couple of hours, we parted ways. I got on my bike and rode around a little while. It actually felt good outside. The temperature has dropped a little bit.
I had a tuna burger with sprouts and avocado when I got home. On the side I had a few grape tomatoes, a slice of cantaloupe, and a few Olive chips.
I've got to go do laundry. Ick!



*Interesting Link (no pun intended?) - Boudin Ratings Site

Samurai Sushi

This morning I woke up with the most horrible hangover. The thing is, I didn't drink anything last night. I don't know what happened, but I had a horrible headache and my stomach hurt. I took a huge Ibuprofen and went in to work anyway.
Breakfast made me a little more cheerful. It was a big bowl of steel cut oats with half a mashed banana, topped with coconut shreds, walnuts, raisins, and twisted peanut butter chips. I almost topped it with granola, but held back.
Those chips are Nestle Peanut Butter chocolate chip twists. I figured they might be good in banana bread someday, but they ended up catching my eye when I scrounged for oatmeal toppings.
At 11:00 I had a mini Larabar. Do you see the size of this thing? About two finger joints. That's small, but tasty and just enough for a small snack. I surprised myself by really liking the apple pie flavor. The thing is, I don't usually like apple flavored food, but I love real apples. And Larabars have real, unsweetened apples in them.
I know a lot of people feel the same way. We don't like fruit flavored candy or drinks, but like the real deal.
I worked out at noon, even though I was feeling sick. I almost didn't, but then right when I was going to leave for Starbucks one of my coworkers mentioned the gym, and I started to feel guilty, so I picked up my bag and left. It turned out to be all for the best. I love the gym on Fridays - no one is there.
Lunch was a carbon copy of yesterday's meal. A pita bread sandwich with hummus, sprouts, mushrooms, and spinach. Pita with only hummus:
Now stuffed:With FSTG Olive chips.I took their web site's suggestion and dipped the chips in hummus. Pretty darn good!
And Veggies:This was quite filling.
After several hours I broke into my stash and got a Zbar.
I liked it! It was almost cookie-like, and was excellent with coffee.
Dinner:
Tonight I decided on sushi, so we went to Kamado's. We haven't had sushi in ages, and that might be my favorite meal ever. First, I should apologize for the picture quality. If we ever go out to eat again, I'll do better. I promise.
For an appetizer I got spicy soup. It's similar to a hot and sour soup. I loved the mushrooms, zucchini, and shrimp in it. The vinegary, seafood and tomato broth is so tasty. It was HOT!

We ordered a salmon and avocado roll, a vegetable roll, a Negihama (yellowtail and scallion) roll, 2 pieces of mackerel sashimi, and a special roll: The Samurai.

The samurai has crawfish, crab, spicy mayo, eel sauce, tobiko, tempura flakes, tuna, and about a jillion other things I can't remember. Frankly I was hoping their website would post a full menu, but I shouldn't have counted on that.

We didn't finish all of our food. Usually we order a ton of rolls and scarf them all!
I think my favorite might be the vegetable, although it wasn't on point tonight. I love the crunchy pickled vegetables.
Tomorrow's a big day- shopping, cleaning, baking, etc. Also, LSU vs. Florida so I need to be off of the roads. Tailgating started tonight. People are cuh-razy.
Links Of Interest
Lower Depression Risk Linked to Mediterranean Diet
10 Foods Most Likely to Make You Sick
Study Finds Calorie Postings Don't Change Habits