Trying some news things
#1 thing we are trying to do is convince Brian to let Olivia go on a sleepover. He has never let her do this. M<
Matthew has only been on a
handful of sleepovers, and all with a friend we have known for about 15 years, before either of us had kids. Olivia is pulling out all the stops, even doing her brother's dishes for no more
compensation than him telling Dad she
deserves a sleepover.
I
am also planning to get
up ands
exercise before heading out to
VBS next week. I read recently that it's better for your metabolism to exercise before you eat, so I am going to try that. That will be my biggest sacrifice of lazy comfort for my fitness goals since deciding I need to
exercise on my period.
Wish us both
luck!
Let the purging begin
It's that time again- past that time, actually. The annual purging of the kids' rooms, including the living room toybox and bookshelves. The boys' room is sheduled for tomorrow, with Olivia sometime next week. So far I have half a bag each of giveaway, book giveaway, and garbage. It's not fun to do but it does feel good afterward.
Why I love legumes
I do I do I do. Many of those close to me have mentioned that they have never met anyone who loves legumes like I do, and I'm not even a vegetarian ( though that love came in handy when Olivia decided to jump on the meat free bandwagon. There is always something for her to eat!) And I buy my beans dry. Sometimes when I tell people this they look at me like I am doing
something mysterious and
difficult. I'm not. If you can read English or in most bags' cases, Spanish, you can prepare dried beans.
Beans are very, very good for you. This article in
healthcastle outlines some of the many health benefits of beans:
http://www.healthcastle.com/beans_benefits.shtmlThey are dirt cheap, giving lie to the concept that "It costs more to eat healthy". Maybe if you are comparing organic broccoli to $1 hamburgers, but compare the burgers to the beans. You can get days of low fat, high fibre protein for that $1.
My basic format:
Put some beans in your
crockpot. No more than 1/3 full. Put in enough water to cover twice again. Cook all day at low. If I am making
frijoles, I will add cumin and chopped
jalapeno at the beginning of the cooking. Never salt your beans at the beginning of cooking, it will make them tough and increase the cooking time.
For my
frijoles: Add garlic and salt to the beans in the crock pot. Mash with a bean masher or stick blender. That's it. Really.
For my hummus: prepare garbanzos as above. Drain, reserving cooking water. Add 1/2 head garlic, juice of two lemons, half a bunch either parsley or cilantro and salt. Puree in food
processor, adding cooking water a
TBL at a time if needed.
