I cannot begin to tell you how sad I was to leave Hawaii. I think I was also sad because of the reason. Certainly, I was sad to leave dear dear friends and beautiful place. But, I was also anxious about returning to work and returning to night shifts particularly. I hate to admit that I dread them so much. I love love love being a nurse, but I dread and despise nights shifts. Someday, I will not have to do them anymore and I can just be a morning person every day. Until then I get through them and with a lot of prayer and support from loved ones and colleages, try to enjoy my work even if the sun is down.

On the evening of our return, we wanted a super simple recipe that we could whip up in our jet-lagged, circadian confused state. We looked to Caldwell Esselstyn's "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease", a book we bought a few months ago that supports a plant based lifestyle and has a lot of recipes with 4 ingredients or less. This one only had three:

1 15 oz can black beans,

1 can diced tomatoes w green chilies,

1.5 cups of frozen or canned corn.

Yikes!! I can do that!! You basically throw it all in a pot and heat it up and serve it over quinoa or whatever grain you prefer. I doubled this so we could eat it two nights. I'll admit, it was a far from a mind-blowing culinary experience for my palette, but the whole meal took 20 minutes and was healthy and delicious. In classic Jill fashion, I did make a few small alterations. I added a quarter of a red onion chopped and sauteed before adding the other ingredients. Then, I added regular seasoning and some garlic salt. But that's it. If I add too much, it ruins the simplicity which is sort of the point. This can also be eaten with tasty tortilla chips. Mmmm....

Hopebench