Black bean soup

I rely on my crock pot to make soup on the regular. Particularly in winter when the need, nay desire, for comforting yet relatively low calorific food stuffs is highest. I read somewhere that cold temperatures condition us to crave more calories, but the body doesn't care if those calories are obtained through ooey gooey mac n' cheese or a crisp apple! Personally I would really rather not eat apples or any other cold foods in this weather. Salads are more or less banned from the kitchen. Soup to the rescue!

To the recipe below I added a 1/4 cup of brown rice for thickener.

With diced tomato, yogurt, and a lime squeeze

Oh yeah- ran about 9.3 km on the treadmill this a.m., bringing the total to 4 runs this week. Plus a spinning class and one session on the elliptical (a break from the treadmill but kinda feels like a time waster). And one gorgeous night of skating under the stars!

Here's the recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/tsr-version-of-t-g-i-fridays-black-bean-soup-by-todd-wilbur-102274.