Monday Nutrition Tip of the Week: Delectable Spicy Black Bean Soup

No school today, so we slept in till the kids got up.

At 6 a.m.

When does that thing happen when they start liking sleep and we have to beg them to get out of bed?

No matter. It was a nice morning anyway. Six a.m. is still an hour later than we usually get up, and we still got P90X2 Core, followed by a leisurely breakfast of a veggie omelet with toast and peanut butter. Yum.

I've been cooking my way through the P90X2 nutrition guide, and it hasn't disappointed yet. Last night was Fiesta Chicken, and the night before that was Spicy Black Bean Soup, which I served with a side of chicken and veggie quesadillas. The soup was tremendous. It reminded me a lot of tortilla soup, except with black beans.

I wasn't sure what Drew would think of this soup considering it's "spicy," but by the time I looked up to see how he was doing it was gone. I was hoping to get a few lunch leftovers out of this one, but no dice! Only one leftover serving to be had.

Fix this as a main dish or an appetizer for a great Mexican meal.

Spicy Black Bean Soup
- 2 tsp. olive oil
- 1 medium onion
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 tsp. chili powder
- 1 tsp. cumin
- 1 4.5-oz. can diced green chiles
- 2 15.5-oz. cans black beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 large ribs celery, chopped
- 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 1 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup chopped cilantro leaves
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
- 4 whole sprigs cilantro

1. Heat olive oil in a large stockpot; saute onion, garlic, cumin, and chili powder until edges of onion begin to brown.
2. Add next 7 ingredients and simmer covered for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove 1 cup of soup mixture and puree in a blender or food processor.
4. Return mixture to pot and continue to simmer for an additional 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Ladle into bowls and serve hot; garnish each serving with cilantro and a lime wedge.

*********

Workout of the Day

P90X2 Core

This is our final week in the "foundation" phase. Next week we move on to new workouts that seem to be more like P90X classic. I have really enjoyed the foundation phase. At first pass they seem to be sort of easy, but that's only because you don't know the moves well enough to really work at them. Each week we've been able to work a little harder and finished up a little more exhausted.

I think P90X2, coupled with some extra conditioning, will prepare us for our next big adventure, which I will reveal later this week...TO BE CONTINUED!