Sweet Potato & Black Bean Tacos

Wow, dinner tonight was delicious for being thrown together so quickly. I am completely stuffed but it was so good, I had to go back for more!

But before I get to it...

Afternoon snack + Workout

I had a chocolate chip z bar as my afternoon snack. I was feeling pretty hungry so I wasn't sure this would hold my hunger. But it did. Snack total was 130 calories, 4g fat, 3g fiber, 3g protein.

After being stuck in traffic for over an hour I was so close to driving home instead of going to the gym. The idea of catching up on my tv shows and relaxing on the couch was very appealing. However, I'm glad I made myself to go to the gym. I did a shorter, more intense run today. It was about 4 miles total. I did something today that I haven't done in almost year. I ran without my HRM. I forgot it at home. I kinda freaked out because I am so used to monitoring my heart rate during my runs. But I think by now I know how my zones feel so I felt pretty confident during my run. I need to learn to trust myself more.

I wasn't able to make it to yoga tonight but I'm okay with that because my arms/shoulders/upper back are extremely sore. You should have seen me changing into my workout clothes, it was painful!

Dinner tonight was so good. I had been craving sweet potatoes and black beans this afternoon so I knew that's what I wanted for dinner. My usual fix is a baked sweet potato topped with black beans or chili. I wanted to try something different tonight so I made sweet potato and black bean tacos.

I started off by peeling and cutting a big sweet potato into cubes. I threw them in the microwave for about 5 minutes to speed up the cooking process. In a skillet, I sautéed garlic in olive oil for a minute. Then I added the par-cooked sweet potatoes and seasoned it with salt, pepper, and red pepper. Once the potatoes were crusty, I added the black beans and cooked just until everything was heated through.

In a separate skillet, I warmed up a couple of corn tortillas. I like my corn tortillas to be crispy, but still foldable. To assemble: top the tortillas with the potato/bean mixture and salsa. And viola! Sweet potato and black bean tacos.

These were so so good! I started with two on my plate, but I had to go back for a third. As Rachel Ray would say, yum-o!

It is hard to say what the exact calorie count is for this meal because I didn't measure any of the ingredients. From experience, I'm guessing that my 3 tacos had about 1 cup of sweet potatoes and 1/2 cup of black beans,(plus a few tablespoons of salsa and tsp of oil). Based on this rough estimate, dinner totals were about 500 calories, 4g fat, 13g fiber, 12g protein.

Daily Total: 1421 calories, 38g fat, 41g fiber, 60g protein.