Singing for a smaller me

First things first, go over to Jack Sh*t's blog and read his post on the Stages of Dieting. It's ridiculously insightful and really drives home the getting healthy process. He says he doesn't know if it was appropriate to equate it with the stages of grief, but I think it's all too apropos.

Next.

In the grand traditions of Meatless Mondays past and Meatless Mondays to come, I spent a good chunk of time scouring the Weight Watchers App for Vegetarian recipes.

(Rant time, sorry)
Tell me, what part of vegetarian eating includes fish? Because Weight Watchers, in all its glory, includes tuna recipes in the Vegetarian recipe section. What?!? HULK SMASH!! Grr.
(End Rant. Moving on.)

Depending on mood, ingredients on hand, and finding a recipe that doesn't sound disgusting each week is something of a crapshoot.

This week I settled on Lentil and Black Bean Chili. I have to give credit to Shrinking Girl since I likely would have passed this recipe up if she hadn't written about her lentil taco filling last week or the week before. Here it is:

Lentil and Black Bean Chili
POINTS® Value: 5
Servings: 8
Preparation Time: 14 min
Cooking Time: 22 min
Level of Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup(s) Lentils, dried
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 large Red Onion, uncooked, chopped
1 large Sweet Red Pepper, chopped roughly
2 Tbsp Minced garlic
3 Tbsp Chili powder
2 tsp Dried oregano
1 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper
1 tsp Kosher salt
29 oz Canned diced tomatoes, undrained
31 oz Canned Black Beans, undrained
1/2 cup Cilantro, raw, chopped roughly

Instructions

1. Place lentils in a large sauce pan and cover with water by several inches; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until lentils are tender but retain a little bite, about 10 to 15 minutes; drain well and set aside.


2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.


3. Cook onion, pepper and garlic, stirring often, until vegetables are softened, about 10 minutes.


4. In a cup, combine chili powder, oregano, cumin, cayenne and salt; add to skillet and stir well to combine. Cook, stirring often, about 1 minute.


5. Add tomatoes and their juice, and beans to skillet; stir well to combine. Cover skillet and simmer so flavors can blend, about 5 to 10 minutes. Fold in lentils and cilantro; serve.

Yields about 1 cup per serving.

My modifications:

• I'm the only one who eats these vegetarian dishes so I halfed the recipe. I mean, 8 servings is one heck of a lot of chili for one person.


• When I came home from food shopping I realized I only had large sized cans of diced tomatos. I wasn't about to open one up just to use half of it, so I pulled out my canned organic tomato sauce from Trader Joe's and used that instead. I couldn't tell the difference, although I had to deal with the whole tomato sauce popping thing all over my stove and shirt. Grr.

Result: Yummy tasty goodness, and just enough left overs that I won't get sick of it by week's end (unlike last week's Cuban Black Beans and Rice of which I threw half away). It's a little on the spicy side (which I seriously love) so you might want to decrease the cayenne and chili powder.

And finally, just to prove to you how random I am:

Five Things You May Not Know About Me (but may have been able to infer):

1. I'm a little goth girl at heart.


2. I love vintage clothing and want to be a freaking pin-up. But do NOT mistake my love of vintage clothing and the 50's household to mean that I am - by any means - a stay at home kind of gal.


3. I <3 rockabilly. A lot.


4. I'm a city girl at heart. Hustle and bustle are what it's all about, baby.


5. I rarely step out of the house without hair and make-up done.

Okay, that's it for today's installment of Zan is a random, crazy loon. See ya later folks.

Picture from: www.nataliedee.com