If you participate in Friday Fill-ins, you know that Wife of a Sailor is currently Sleepless in San Diego. Plus, her poor pup is sick. Feel better, pooch! :(
However, I'm having a morning where I need a breather, a mommy time-out. Usually, those are when I do my Friday Fill-ins. Friday mornings can be a little crazy around here- the boys seem to sense the impending freedom of the weekend, and Hubby usually gets to work early so he can come home early. It seems the chaos happens mostly on Friday mornings.
So I've decided to do my own Friday Fill-in. Of course, my questions will be completely biased and directed toward whatever I feel like talking about, so there you have it.
1. What is special about today?
Today is my mom's birthday- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!! I sent her flowers. :)
2. Would you want to know the truth about everything, or are some things better left untold?
I used to think I wanted to know everything, but in light of recent knowledge, there are definitely some things I'd rather have never known.
3. Name one way your children can ruin your morning:
Dump a five pound box of sugar all over the kitchen, then play in it. I took a pic specifically for my blog, but alas, my piece of sh!t computer doesn't accept SD cards with a memory over 2 GB. Lame.
4. Who's crazier: Ronnie or Sammi?
They're both in need of intense psychotherapy. Wow. Just a pile of dysfunction.
5. What did you have for breakfast this morning?
P-BOs (peanut butter Cheerio bars... my own invention, and I think I need to work on the name). Yesterday I had a craving for Rice Krispie Treats, but only had Cheerios on hand, so I mixed them with melted marshmallows and some peanut butter (last minute addition, which I thought would taste good). So yummy! Hubby had about five this morning for breakfast, too, haha.
2/10/11
A vegetarian recipe for people who think vegetarian foods suck.
If you've read my blog lately, you know that I've been eating quasi-vegan for about a month now. I've come across some fantastic recipes (and some not-so-fantastic, yuck... poor Hubby got a mouthful of overly-lemony tabbouleh), and I'd like to share them with you. I've changed these just a little bit, so not copyright issues, I hope, ha. :)
Falafel (inspired by Bette of Allrecipes.com)
1/4 cup minced onion
1 (15 oz) can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 egg beaten
Olive oil
1. Place garbanzo beans, cilantro, garlic, cumin, coriander, salt, and baking soda in a food processor. Pulse until the mixture is coarsely pureed. Mix the bean mixture and onion in a large bowl. Stir in the flour and egg. Shape into 4 large patties and let sit for 15 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 (this takes about 15 minutes in my house, so I turn it on as soon as I'm done forming the patties).
3. Add olive oil to a large, oven-safe skillet, coating the bottom, and heat over medium high heat. Gently place patties in the skillet and cook until golden brown on each side, about 3 minutes per side.
4. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake an additional ten minutes.
Serve Wifey-style (with lettuce in a pita), or Hubby-style (as is, with ketchup, or in a hamburger bun with, you guessed it, ketchup).
"Cream" of Asparagus Soup (inspired by "The Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook" by Neal Barnard, M.D. and Robin Webb)
3 cups sliced asparagus
2 cups veggie broth
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 cups plain soy milk
Pinch of ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
Fresh ground pepper to taste
1. In a large stock pot, add the asparagus, broth, thyme, bay leaf and garlic. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Throw away the bay leaf, place it all in a blender, cover, and puree until smooth.
3. Heat the soy milk in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add the flour and whisk until blended. Stire in the pureed asparagus mixture and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the salt, lemon juice, and black pepper, and serve.
All the richness of a creamed soup, with no heavy cream. To make it non-vegan-friendly, I suppose you could replace the soy milk with cow's milk, but I haven't tried that.
There are my two recent faves. I hope you get a chance to try them. And if you have any favorite veggie/vegan recipes, leave me some love with them- I'm always looking for yummy stuff to cook!
Falafel (inspired by Bette of Allrecipes.com)
1/4 cup minced onion
1 (15 oz) can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 egg beaten
Olive oil
1. Place garbanzo beans, cilantro, garlic, cumin, coriander, salt, and baking soda in a food processor. Pulse until the mixture is coarsely pureed. Mix the bean mixture and onion in a large bowl. Stir in the flour and egg. Shape into 4 large patties and let sit for 15 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 (this takes about 15 minutes in my house, so I turn it on as soon as I'm done forming the patties).
3. Add olive oil to a large, oven-safe skillet, coating the bottom, and heat over medium high heat. Gently place patties in the skillet and cook until golden brown on each side, about 3 minutes per side.
4. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake an additional ten minutes.
Serve Wifey-style (with lettuce in a pita), or Hubby-style (as is, with ketchup, or in a hamburger bun with, you guessed it, ketchup).
"Cream" of Asparagus Soup (inspired by "The Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook" by Neal Barnard, M.D. and Robin Webb)
3 cups sliced asparagus
2 cups veggie broth
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 cups plain soy milk
Pinch of ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
Fresh ground pepper to taste
1. In a large stock pot, add the asparagus, broth, thyme, bay leaf and garlic. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Throw away the bay leaf, place it all in a blender, cover, and puree until smooth.
3. Heat the soy milk in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add the flour and whisk until blended. Stire in the pureed asparagus mixture and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the salt, lemon juice, and black pepper, and serve.
All the richness of a creamed soup, with no heavy cream. To make it non-vegan-friendly, I suppose you could replace the soy milk with cow's milk, but I haven't tried that.
There are my two recent faves. I hope you get a chance to try them. And if you have any favorite veggie/vegan recipes, leave me some love with them- I'm always looking for yummy stuff to cook!
2/9/11
I have a confession to make.
I can't do the vegan lifestyle. Just can't.
We still drink Silk instead of milk, and we definitely make a lot of vegan dishes, but I simply love cheese too much. And sometimes, you just need an egg for a recipe. So I guess I can't call myself vegan... more like "lacto-ovo-vegetarian", which is a friggin' mouthful, so I'll just say "meatless".
I'll admit, it's hard. Sometimes I think to myself, it would be so much easier to just throw some chicken on the grill! But knowing that I'm eating healthier is more important than ease.
I made falafel the other night. Omg, Hubby absolutely loved it! It would have been vegan without the egg, but the egg is really what held the patties together, so I couldn't omit that. But overall, it was pretty darn healthy and very tasty. Hubby liked his as a patty covered in ketchup, and I prefered mine in a pita with lettuce. I think either way, it was a homerun.
Last night, I made black bean tostadas, from the one and only Martha Stewart. Damn, that woman knows how to cook! It was all delicious, and it would have been vegan if I had omitted the cheese, but seriously, who has mexican food sans cheese? I believe it's the law to add some cheddar or monterey jack.
Overall, I think we're eating pretty well. This semi-vegan thing isn't too bad, and I noticed that when I indulge in something like KFC (had an intense craving for popcorn chicken the other day), it's way saltier and sugary than I remembered. It almost makes me sick to eat it. But my taste for chocolate has not changed whatsoever, ha.
We still drink Silk instead of milk, and we definitely make a lot of vegan dishes, but I simply love cheese too much. And sometimes, you just need an egg for a recipe. So I guess I can't call myself vegan... more like "lacto-ovo-vegetarian", which is a friggin' mouthful, so I'll just say "meatless".
I'll admit, it's hard. Sometimes I think to myself, it would be so much easier to just throw some chicken on the grill! But knowing that I'm eating healthier is more important than ease.
I made falafel the other night. Omg, Hubby absolutely loved it! It would have been vegan without the egg, but the egg is really what held the patties together, so I couldn't omit that. But overall, it was pretty darn healthy and very tasty. Hubby liked his as a patty covered in ketchup, and I prefered mine in a pita with lettuce. I think either way, it was a homerun.
Last night, I made black bean tostadas, from the one and only Martha Stewart. Damn, that woman knows how to cook! It was all delicious, and it would have been vegan if I had omitted the cheese, but seriously, who has mexican food sans cheese? I believe it's the law to add some cheddar or monterey jack.
Overall, I think we're eating pretty well. This semi-vegan thing isn't too bad, and I noticed that when I indulge in something like KFC (had an intense craving for popcorn chicken the other day), it's way saltier and sugary than I remembered. It almost makes me sick to eat it. But my taste for chocolate has not changed whatsoever, ha.
2/8/11
I skyped with my grandma today!
I know, most people are like, whatever, skyping's not a big deal, and it's just boring Granny. But hey, I'm excited about it. The boys got to see Great-Grandma, who LB kept calling Grandma's Mommy. And she got to see the boys. She hasn't seen LB since he was 16 months old, and has never even met JC. Of course, I send pics (like, tangible pics, totally old school), but it's still cool for her to see them smile and talk and walk around.
It got me thinking: why was I so excited about this? Then I remembered, she's in her 80s. She was born in, like, 1922 (give or take a year, I'm not 100% certain). Do you realize how much has happened since then? She's been through:
The Great Depression
World War II
Beatlemania
The Civil Rights Movement
The Korean War
The Vietnam War
And everything that has happened since I've been alive. When she was born, there were:
Party lines. You had to wait for your neighbors to get off the phone before placing a call.
Non-electric washing machines and no dryers. Ha, imagine people doing laundry with that!
No cell phones, internet, computers, automatic transmission, microwaves, television, etc. I don't think anyone could live without those things comfortably now.
So for her to "see" her grandchild and her great-grandchildren on a computer screen in real time... I see now why she was so stinking thrilled! She had a huge smile on her face and loved when the boys threw her kisses. Totally made my day.
It got me thinking: why was I so excited about this? Then I remembered, she's in her 80s. She was born in, like, 1922 (give or take a year, I'm not 100% certain). Do you realize how much has happened since then? She's been through:
The Great Depression
World War II
Beatlemania
The Civil Rights Movement
The Korean War
The Vietnam War
And everything that has happened since I've been alive. When she was born, there were:
Party lines. You had to wait for your neighbors to get off the phone before placing a call.
Non-electric washing machines and no dryers. Ha, imagine people doing laundry with that!
No cell phones, internet, computers, automatic transmission, microwaves, television, etc. I don't think anyone could live without those things comfortably now.
So for her to "see" her grandchild and her great-grandchildren on a computer screen in real time... I see now why she was so stinking thrilled! She had a huge smile on her face and loved when the boys threw her kisses. Totally made my day.
2/6/11
I have no title; my brain is shot.
I've drafted about five posts now, trying to think about what I want to say, but there has just been so much going on this weekend! Here's a quick overview:
Saturday-
Hubby left on a weekend-long dirtbiking trip. Brought the boys to the Kids Klub so I could work out and was told they were so well-behaved and adorable. Drove home in shock. :) Baked chocolate chip cookies. Put the boys in bed a little early, watched a girly movie, then stayed up way too late for SNL (which was great, btw).
Sunday-
Change LB's bedsheets yet again (the entire first week of PT, he woke up dry, now he's wetting the bed?). Going to possibly go to the park, then it's football time. Going to bring out the chips, dips, and soda, yum. Also, time to do some personal grooming (nails, eyebrows, etc). Hubby comes home around dark.
It doesn't seem like I've done a lot, but in between all that, I've been doing TONS of laundry (not having a dryer really makes it difficult to keep up), cleaning the house, wiping up spilled milk, getting LB to pee on the potty and not in his undies, and making sure the boys don't kill each other. Their new favorite game is LB headbutting JC. *sigh*
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go repeat all of the above.
Saturday-
Hubby left on a weekend-long dirtbiking trip. Brought the boys to the Kids Klub so I could work out and was told they were so well-behaved and adorable. Drove home in shock. :) Baked chocolate chip cookies. Put the boys in bed a little early, watched a girly movie, then stayed up way too late for SNL (which was great, btw).
Sunday-
Change LB's bedsheets yet again (the entire first week of PT, he woke up dry, now he's wetting the bed?). Going to possibly go to the park, then it's football time. Going to bring out the chips, dips, and soda, yum. Also, time to do some personal grooming (nails, eyebrows, etc). Hubby comes home around dark.
It doesn't seem like I've done a lot, but in between all that, I've been doing TONS of laundry (not having a dryer really makes it difficult to keep up), cleaning the house, wiping up spilled milk, getting LB to pee on the potty and not in his undies, and making sure the boys don't kill each other. Their new favorite game is LB headbutting JC. *sigh*
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go repeat all of the above.
2/4/11
Milspouse Friday Fill-in #29
1. Since most of the country has had nasty weather, what has your weather been like this week?
In the 60s & 70s, and sunny.
2. What is/are your best money saving tip(s)?
Just saying no. I have a bad habit of buying stuff I don't need, or saying "it's just a coffee". If I just say no to those little tiny indulgences, it really adds up. (Of course, there are days when I do indulge, but I try to keep it to a minimum.)
3. What was your favorite vehicle you’ve ever owned??
I have a special place in my heart for my first car, a 1980s Dodge Aries. It was almost as old as me and had a lot of... uh... character. :) My hood ornament was replaced by a WWE wrestler figurine, I had to use a crowbar on the starter to get it to start up sometimes, and the CV joints were so bad that it would jerk toward oncoming traffic when I would turn.
As far as safe cars, I'm in love with my new car, my Jetta Sportwagen TDI. LOVE it.
4. What is a question you’d like to see asked in a future fill-in? (Your question & blog just may appear one week!)
What is your morning beverage of choice and why?
5. Fill in the blank: You might be a MilSpouse if….
You might be a Milspouse if you & your husband do repeatbacks. "Honey, would you take out the trash?" "Taking out the trash, aye."
In the 60s & 70s, and sunny.
2. What is/are your best money saving tip(s)?
Just saying no. I have a bad habit of buying stuff I don't need, or saying "it's just a coffee". If I just say no to those little tiny indulgences, it really adds up. (Of course, there are days when I do indulge, but I try to keep it to a minimum.)
3. What was your favorite vehicle you’ve ever owned??
I have a special place in my heart for my first car, a 1980s Dodge Aries. It was almost as old as me and had a lot of... uh... character. :) My hood ornament was replaced by a WWE wrestler figurine, I had to use a crowbar on the starter to get it to start up sometimes, and the CV joints were so bad that it would jerk toward oncoming traffic when I would turn.
As far as safe cars, I'm in love with my new car, my Jetta Sportwagen TDI. LOVE it.
4. What is a question you’d like to see asked in a future fill-in? (Your question & blog just may appear one week!)
What is your morning beverage of choice and why?
5. Fill in the blank: You might be a MilSpouse if….
You might be a Milspouse if you & your husband do repeatbacks. "Honey, would you take out the trash?" "Taking out the trash, aye."
2/3/11
Jersey Shore can't come quicker.
It's Thursday! That means, I get to watch my totally ridiculous, shamefully trashy, but incredibly addictive favorite reality show. I'm talking about Jersey Shore.
Have you seen it? What do you think?
I imagine that unless you're from Jersey, or somewhere in the northeast, you would be repulsed by these people and wouldn't understand the fascination. Personally, I lived in New Jersey for 12 years, then New Hampshire for 12 years. I spent a little time at the Jersey shore, but not too much. However, the Jersey shore type people are all over the place. Guido Murphy's, anyone?? The Pyramid in Manchvegas??
I love the show because I can't stand it. Because it makes me cringe. And because it makes me laugh uncontrollably. I know these people, not individually, but I know exactly who these people are. The east coast is crawling with them. To quote 50, you can find them in da club.
It's kind of medication for my homesickness. When I watch the show, I feel as though I'm back on the east coast. It's my little slice of east coast pie that I can vicariously eat. Also, c'mon, it's a trainwreck, I can't not watch. And, you can't deny the impact Jersey Shore has had- I'll bet you know what GTL is, even if you hate the show.
So, here's to sleazy Jersey Shore!
Have you seen it? What do you think?
I imagine that unless you're from Jersey, or somewhere in the northeast, you would be repulsed by these people and wouldn't understand the fascination. Personally, I lived in New Jersey for 12 years, then New Hampshire for 12 years. I spent a little time at the Jersey shore, but not too much. However, the Jersey shore type people are all over the place. Guido Murphy's, anyone?? The Pyramid in Manchvegas??
I love the show because I can't stand it. Because it makes me cringe. And because it makes me laugh uncontrollably. I know these people, not individually, but I know exactly who these people are. The east coast is crawling with them. To quote 50, you can find them in da club.
It's kind of medication for my homesickness. When I watch the show, I feel as though I'm back on the east coast. It's my little slice of east coast pie that I can vicariously eat. Also, c'mon, it's a trainwreck, I can't not watch. And, you can't deny the impact Jersey Shore has had- I'll bet you know what GTL is, even if you hate the show.
So, here's to sleazy Jersey Shore!
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