Too much soup?!

What do you think?

I think you guys know by now how much I enjoy a fall day of cooking and today was no exception. I had a 14 miler on deck (yep, back to training...California International Marathon in December!), but I ended up listening to my legs and scaled it back to a 10.5 miler. Definitely didn't do enough stretching/sticking post-Chicago.

Met Selin to cause some trouble at Sports Basement, but I only stuck to the necessary items:

(source)

Headlamp to, you know, see (Tuesday's run was not only a rough return to weekday running, but it was also a super dark one).

(source)

And arm warmers. I have a really hard time controlling my temperature when I run and I really really hate having to tie anything around my waist. These will do. Successful morning :)

The rain finally started pouring down when I got home (thank goodness) and it was perfect for the afternoon of cooking I had planned. I've wanted to make a big batch of soup for awhile now and I picked up some lentils the other day at Whole Foods.

So colorful!

Paired with a few other ingredients,

I made that soup happen.

Veggiful Lentil Soup

1 onion, chopped

1 leek, chopped

3 stalks celery, sliced

1 large carrot, sliced and halved

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 tbsp thyme

5 slices turkey bacon, chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

10 c chicken broth

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tbsp hot pepper paste

1 1/2 c green lentils

1 1/2 c red lentils

parmesan rind

2 c broccoli rabe, chopped

Place lentils in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside as you prepare the rest of the soup.

Heat olive oil in a stockpot and brown bacon bits.

Add onions, leeks and celery; cook until softened. Add carrot and pepper paste and cook for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and thyme and cook for another 3-5 minutes.

Stir in lentils and pour in broth. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add parmesan rind and broccoli rabe and let simmer for another 20-30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

I thought this was a pretty good soup...not my favorite, but I'm sure it would be better with some homemade chicken stock. Maybe swap out the turkey bacon (which honestly doesn't have much flavor in my opinion) for some chunks of nice smokey keilbasa?

For dessert, I sliced into a dragon fruit for the first time

I'm obsessed with anything dragon fruit flavored and I love the way dragon fruit looks.

Plus, how can you not love a fruit that doubles as a bowl?

Sadly, I'm not really that into the taste. It definitely doesn't taste like artificial dragon fruit flavor. In fact, I think it tastes a lot like water :[

Luckily I had some red bean mochi to snack on. I don't know why but I LOVE LOVE LOVE anything made with glutinous rice. I guess it's not a texture most people enjoy, but there's just something about that chewy, sticky, gummy texture that I can't get enough of!

Nomnomnom.

As all this cooking and snacking took place, I also felt compelled to watch the Giants/Phillies game. Let it be known I usually don't watch baseball, but for some reason I've been following since I went to my first Giants game last month. What can I say? This city is glowing with orange and it's hard not to get caught up in it!

I planned on baking some blondies for book club tomorrow based on this recipe by Smitten Kitchen. It was incredibly easy and I ended up adding some 62% cacao dark chocolate chunks and 1/4 c bourbon to the mix. Also, since I don't have any brownie tins, I turned these into mini muffins.

They smelled SOOOO good as they baked and I was on the edge of my seat waiting for them to finish while watching this:

(source)

The minute they won, I heard yelps and screams outside and lots of honking and celebrating. I love this city :)

I might even love it as much as I love snacking on these nuggets:

Yum. Not quite what I expected, but not bad. I was hoping for a slight bourbon taste, but I guess it all burned off? Maybe I should have done half without the bourbon and half with just to compare. Ah well. These puppies are all packed and ready for tomorrow!

How would you spend a rainy fall afternoon?