The bean theme continued today. Who knew it was possible to have so many beans so many different ways … all in one day?

Before the fountain of frijoles started up, however, I had my usual mid-morning snack at 10:30. I think the sugar cookie sleigh ride tea may have been flirting with my yogurt:

The yogurt included 1/2 cup yogurt (obv), 1/2 chopped apple, 1/3 chopped banana, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and 1 tbsp kashi golean crunch. Always the highlight of my morning :-).

The bean-fest began at lunchtime. Apparently, I’ve been bean-collecting lately without even realizing it! Here’s how it started:

I brought the green beans (for yesterday actually, but I didn’t get to them then). Vianni made the rice and beans top center, and I mixed in a bit of brown basmati that I brought from home today (I was thinking ahead this morning, clearly!:

The beans on the left are the beans I froze a few weeks ago when my coworker Belkis made them for me:

This is half of the portion I brought in yesterday for lunch (which I never ate). The other half is planned for tomorrow, along with the other half of the beans on the right, left over from the parents’ group with Inginia yesterday:

The item at the bottom of the plate put a temporary halt to the bean theme. Along with her beans, Vianni also brought me this deliciously seasoned meat:

Next up, I had one bite each of Myrna’s spaghetti and yucca:

And a rib that Deborah’s mom made:

A bit of sancocho that Mildred’s mom made (see the plantain and pumpkin pieces?!) and a bit of Inginia’s cabbage soup:

Plus some of Nitza’s chunky sabra hummus on pieces of the amazing Eli’s health loaf (and on a piece of lettuce):

Bean tally so far: (1) string beans, (2) Vianni’s red beans, (3) Belkis’ habichuelas, (4) Inginia’s gandules, (5) Nitza’s hummus (aka garbanzos).

Candy today was a slight improvement from yesterday. I still had 4 of my sugar-free mints, but I didn’t go as wild on the real candy jar. I had one mini chocolate lollipop, a mini tootsie roll, and a giant strawberry blowpop:

And an orange for my 4pm snack:

The beans came back en force for my dinner:

One piece of pumpkin kibbi (garbanzos again):

1/4 cup Belkis’ beans:

And 1/2 cup kale & date curry (lentils):

Phew, I think that just about covers it! Belkis’ beans were a repeat, so I consumed a total of seven different types of bean dishes today. How is that even possible?

I am home a bit earlier than expected because Gina had to reschedule the movie we were planning to see tonight, but I am thrilled about it :-). I think I will get to bed on time. Wild. Do you have a bedtime?

Don’t forget to check in with Mara at What’s for Dinner? for more info on this week’s Blogger Secret Ingredient (BSI) contest featuring oranges!

In other words, get ready for lots of candy and lots of beans. I can’t believe the day is finally done! Now I get to wake up tomorrow morning and do it all again. Except I’ll be replacing the class portion of the evening with a movie, haha. Not SO incredibly draining :-).

Mid-morning snack happened at 10:30 with my sugar cookie sleigh ride tea and some yogurt:

This was 1/2 cup plain yogurt with 1/3 banana, 1/2 chopped apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and 1 tbsp kashi golean crunch on top:

I put the Kashi on when I packed the lunch last night because I love how the soggy/chewy texture it gets from sitting in yogurt. Almost like oatmeal, which we all know is a major addiction of mine.

Kind of like candy. I bought myself these sugar-free mints hoping they would slow me down on the candy front because I’d actually rather eat real sugar than fake sugar. But it did not work because I had four of these today:

Which would not have been so bad had I not also discovered this candy tin in the 2nd floor kitchen at work during the parents’ group:

I think I ate about four candies from that? Ohhh, right, and two giant lollipops, once of which was another candy chicken:

I really love these chickens, though. It gets spicer as you go because of all the chili powder inside. I tried to capture the texture in that second picture. Can you tell? It makes me want to try grilling peaches with cayenne pepper or something. And, um, I’m pretty sure I also ate another chewy strawberry fang. So the sugar-free mints were not effective. They were a complete failure.

Someone brought these mini pumpkin muffins in from Whole Foods. I was tempted, but the first ingredient was sugar. In a pumpkin muffin? Come on, WF! And, errr, since we all know how opposed to sugar I am, I did not eat any of these.

Except that there were crumbs left in the muffin cups when the muffins were gone:

And since I have this compulsion about not letting anything go to waste and all …

Yeah, I might as well have just eaten a muffin. I know.

Then it was time for the parents’ group. I had packed a lunch (of course) since you never know, but I’ll just save it for later in the week (there’s a rumor afoot that Vianni’s bringing me more food tomorrow). But anyway, Inginia made the lunch for the parents’ group. I had about 1/3 of this bowl of the crispy rice from the side of the pot. Yes, it was white rice, but do you see how perfectly crispy it is???

I had two bowls like this for lunch:

I made a soup salad combo, so one side was for these amazing beans cooked in pork broth:

The other side was veggie soup (with the best shiitake mushrooms in it!):

I followed the bowls with another cup of steaming hot beans, mmmmm:

And (maybe 5 cheez-its and) a graham cracker:

My 4:30 pm snack was this orange:

And samples of manchego cheese and hot chocolate at 5:45 while on the way to class:

At about 6:45, I broke into my dinner: 1/2 cup of kale & date curry (still delicious!) and 1/2 piece of the pumpkin kibbi I made last night (both recipes are on the sidebar):

My last bite of the night came in the form of this apple around 7:15:

I left class at 8, got home at 9, blogged till 9:30, and now it is bedtime. I’m tired. Are you tired?