I was excited to be outdoors again today. It has been a chilly week and I’ve been a hermit. I get cold easily so when Chris said he was feeling cold (he usually runs hot), you can bet that I was freezing. Ok, not really freezing. That’s just the drama queen coming out of me.
I wore 3 layers today during my hike with Cher. A tank top, long sleeve and a hooded sweater. As we tackled each hill on our hike, the skies opened up and it started pouring. I miss Mexico already 😦
We continued with our hike until around 4 miles, it was still raining and so we decided to turn around, finish our hike and drive somewhere warm.
The rain stopped and the sun came up as soon as we got to our car. We couldn’t help but laugh. Oh well, we were soaked and wanted to be warm ASAP.
Enter –> Starbucks!
My first holiday drink this season. Peppermint Mocha soy latte with light whip cream.
What’s better than drinking a chocolate latte while it rains outside? Drinking a latte while looking at holiday kitchen gadget catalog 🙂 Ooohhhhs and aaahhhhhs!
Chris was working so I made plans to run errands all day long. It didn’t happen.
Instead, I stayed in and made soup….and baked….and read.
Spicy African Peanut Stew
(Adapted from Peas and Thank You)
Ingredients
- 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 3 sweet potatoes, cubed
- 1 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garam masala (add more if you like it spicy)
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 2 teaspoon minced garlic
- 2 tablespoon brown sugar
- dash of cinnamon
- 1 14 oz. can fire roasted tomatoes, in juice
- 1 can light coconut milk
- 2 cup vegetable stock
- 2 tablespoon natural peanut butter
- 1/2 cup red lentils, drained and rinsed
Optional toppings:
- cilantro, chopped peanuts, sour cream or plain yogurt (vegan, if desired)
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a crock pot and cook high for about 1 hour and then cook low for 3 hours.
I love all the different textures in the soup. Soft and sweet from the potatoes and then nutty from the lentils and chickpeas. That black stuff is not dirt. It’s from the fire roasted tomatoes.
Perfect hot bowl of soup for a rainy day like today.
Hope everyone is having a fun and relaxing weekend!
What are you cooking/baking this weekend?
Healthy Coconut 
I hateeeee being cold! Looks like a nice hike. Yayy for the bucks goodness. I made a similar soup recently and loved it! The pb does awesome things to the flavor
I love the peppermint mocha latte, its so good! I try to get it here and there, Starbucks adds up!
Glad you guys had a great weekend!
❤ xoxo
I know…Starbucks do add up and I’d rather make my own for my daily coffee. Now that I’ve had a recent taste of the latte, I can go ahead and try to recreate it 🙂
I have a hard time going out when it’s cold outside too. I was spoiled with 60 degree weather in my area for a really long time this fall, so this colder weather now makes it a lot harder to adapt to! I never seem to go to Starbucks, b/c I can’t ever seem to get their coffee to taste right (It’s too strong fro me.)- your latte looks good though.
Is the masala something you get from like Whole Foods? I’ve never hear of it before. I’m not a big spicy person, but your recipe looks really good!
What motivates me to get out when it’s really cold outside is to meet-up with friends. On cold mornings, I gather my friends to go hiking knowing if I didn’t have the hike to go to, I know I’ll be home sitting on the couch or sleeping in.
Yes, you can find garam masala at Wholefood’s. I didn’t purchase the regular size spice container, since I don’t use this spice regularly, I picked up the small spice (green) box for about $2-$3.
Oh my gosh, your recipes are the BEST!
Chickpeas = AMAZING!
Yummmm that soup recipe is the perfect reason not to run errands 😉 haha
i just had a peppermint mocha too, they are sooo good! your soup recipe looks awesome, definitely soup weather now!
a peppermint mocha and soup sound like the perfect way to thwart the cold weather.
this past weekend i ate homemade pizza, which was soo good. 🙂