Black Bean Espresso Chili

Four days to go…

Eat Vegetarian for a Month

I only have four days left in my month of eating vegetarian. It surprisingly has not been that difficult and I surprisingly have been craving more and more veggies as time is going on. Don’t get me wrong, I am looking forward to eating meat on Tuesday and already have lunch plans with Meredith to celebrate. And, well, full disclosure I am eating a piece of mushroom spinach pizza right now…but it does have vegetables on it…and I do have salad fixins for dinner!

Monday night I decided to make black bean chili using this vegetarian black bean espresso chili recipe. It was delicious, though ended up being a little sweet and I was hoping for a little more bite. Although I did omit the chipotle chili powder, so that may have had something to do with it. Heather was just impressed that when I made chili it involved more than just opening a can of chili…

vegetarian black bean espresso chili

Tuesday I went simple and foil steamed some zucchini and yellow squash with salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic. I ate them with some egg noodles on the side.

steamed some zucchini and yellow squash with salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic. I ate them with some egg noodles on the side

Wednesday night I met with my financial panther to go over some budgeting type things. I met him at his place and then we headed off to get some dinner. When we got to his car he got in a big white car…I was confused but not at all shock with him getting a new car. But it turned out that he did not get a new car and it was just a loaner while his was in the shop.


We ended up going to Red Robin and I figured I would just get a salad or something…but all of their salads had chicken in them! And I could have replaced any burger with a veggie burger but they were just Gardenburger brand ones that you get in a grocery store. So I got a vegetarian quesadilla, which was very tasty. The one thing I have noticed this past month is just how few vegetarian choices a lot of places have. It’s easy to eat veggie at home, but at some restaurants it is really hard due to lack of selection.

We did our budget things, while my financial panther hummed porn music… And surprisingly he did not judge me for my spending habits, but did judge me on the fact that I haven’t gotten an oil change in a while…

After leaving his place I headed to Mat’s…at midnight…because I was awake and in a car and he had just gotten off from work and asked if I wanted to watch a movie. We watched most of Surrogates…but it was kind of dumb and it was late so we didn’t finish it. I wasn’t hungry but while I was on my way Mat went to three different places to find a cheese pizza to make because the first two places either didn’t have pizza or only had meat pizza. And that was nice of him so I ate some.

Thursday night after work I headed off to watch Mat’s improv team. Chelsa and James joined me, so no photos this week! It was fun as always! Mat headed off with his family so Chelsa and James and I went off to get dinner. We picked Andies, a Greek restaurant that had the best selection of vegetarian meals I’ve seen yet this month.

I decided on an appetizer portion of the Vegetarian Potato Chop, which was mashed potatoes stuffed with vegetables. And it was pretty tasty!

Vegetarian Potato Chop

So, only four more days to go! While I am very excited to eat meat again I am hoping I can keep up these better eating habits and eat less meat…well, at least after the probably upcoming meat binge. 🙂

 

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Hi, I'm Val. I spent most of my 20s in a standstill, unable to pick which path in life I wanted to take. I wanted the nomadic life of a traveler but also wanted the husband, the condo, and the kitten. Unable to decide which life I wanted more, I did nothing. When I turned 30 I’d had enough of putting my life on hold and decided to start “choosing my figs.” So, I quit my job, bought a one-way ticket to Europe, and traveled for three years. Now I'm back in Chicago, decorating my apartment in all the teal, petting my cats, and planning my next adventure.

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3 Comments
  • Marlo
    August 6, 2010at10:03 pm

    Val, I don’t know if you’ve tried it yet but when you are back to being a carnivore I would suggest that you stop at Hot Doug’s. If you liked Super Dog, you’ll love this place! We stood in line for two hours today as the line to the place went out the door and around the corner. I was disappointed in the Duck Fat Fries but everything else was well worth the wait.

      • Marlo
        August 7, 2010at5:02 pm

        Sepia sounds great too! Don’t get me wrong, duck fat fries ARE good but so are their regular fries. We ordered regular and duck fat, and honestly neither I or the other three people in my party could tell the difference between the two. Hopefully your palate will be able to detect their highly touted flavor. 🙂

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