Cold, Rainy, and Fully Satisfied

Well, sorry for the lack of update yesterday, but honestly, my day wasn’t all that exciting.

I woke up and went on a 7 mile run, which possibly wasn’t the greatest idea after running a trail half-marathon the day before. But my running buddy was doing her 10-12 mile training run, and I felt bad leaving her high and dry, so I told her I would just go until I couldn’t anymore. “Until I couldn’t anymore” ended up being further than I expected, and an hour and 8 minutes had passed before we passed Panera, and I gave up for the day. The route was trails and hills as well, so I felt pretty darn proud of myself. And I definitely stopped at Panera, to get myself something I’ve been craving for awhile – a bagel with real cream cheese. I opted for a Whole Grain bagel, with Honey Walnut Cream Cheese, and an orange juice, which I sipped on the walk home.

The rest of the day, though, I laid around – at 12:30 my brother came home and found me in bed with my covers pulled up to my chin!

Today has been a bit more productive, though. Most of the time, I cook very simply, as I’m sure has been highlighted on this blog. Sandwiches, salads, very easy things. But today, it’s rainy and cold. And I wanted to actually cook something warm and comforting, not just throw something together.

As I picked up an acorn squash the other day at the Farmers Market, I decided to put together a recipe I saw on Meghann’s blog the other day – Acorn Squash Chili – although like she did, I made my own changes to the recipe.

Making the chili really was an all-day event – I didn’t have any canned kidney beans on hand, so I began to soak about 2/3 c. dried red beans this morning. I was aiming to eat around 7 tonight, so at around 5:30, I chopped open my acorn squash and roasted the seeds with a little salt for ~10 minutes at 375.

When those were finished, I put the squash in a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes, until I could poke through it with a fork.

I had no bulgur or rice, so I searched through my cabinets and found a package of Trader Joe’s Harvest Grains. Half a package, and ten minutes later, and I had my grain.

I rinsed out my pot (this marathon cooking event involved a LOT of washing dishes – I only have one pout!) and put my beans on the stove – I boiled them in about 2 cups of water, and then simmered them until they were tender (a little more than an hour). Then, I put together half a package of Trader Joe’s Corn Bread (my absolute favorite prepared corn bread), because as Meghann said, “It’s a sin to have chili without corn bread”, to which I absolutely concur! When the squash came out of the oven, I put the corn bread in (I made muffins instead of a “bread” – I don’t have an 8×8 pain either).

When the beans were done, I was finally able to start with the chili, which I made pretty much according to the original recipe (although I used grape tomatoes instead of plum). And I was rewarded with this pot of deliciousness:

I topped it with a bit of Oikos and the squash seeds, and put some corn bread on the side (which I pretty much ate crumbled throughout the chili). Consensus – perfect  for a cold and rainy day :) And so filling, too – I’m guilty of scarfing my food occasionally, but this is something that’s so much nicer to just savor.

When I eat this again (and I definitely will be) I think I’ll leave off the squash seeds. They’re really good on their own, but in the chili, they add an odd chew that I wasn’t such a fan of.

I might just need another corn muffin before bed… :D