Weekly Goal

Well, it's official...Becky and I suck at blogging. But we have an excuse - she's had sick kids and I've had a crazy time with work and life as of late.

But, we're getting back into the swing of things and so i'm posting a weekly goal for us. If you'd like, play along with us.

The goal for this week is to:

Do 10 pushups, a few times a day, every day.

The little things add up.

Recipe for the week

Simple Tomato Pasta Sauce

Saute in olive oil:
1 onion, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, minced

Add:
1 large can of crushed tomoatoes
1 small can of diced tomatoes
3/4 cup white wine (or water)
2 tbsp sugar
pepper (and salt if you want) to taste

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.

I learned this recipe from the family I worked with. It is SUPER easy, kid-tested (I saw the pickiest of picky eat this gladly), and tastes yummy. Plus, no meat!

Go enjoy a bowl of pasta with some yummy, easy sauce. NOW!

Goal of the Week!

Wow...Beck and I were slacking last week. She had her twinner's first birthday and her first Mom-iversary, so she had a good excuse. I just was crazy busy, so mine isn't so good. Oh well. That's life.

So, the goal of this week (even though it's a day late) is to:

Take time every day to hug and kiss the kiddos

Even though I try to spend time with Riley every day, i know she can always benefit from some extra lovin'. And I get a lot out of it, too.

Goal of the Week

This week our goal is to

AVOID MSG!

It's no good for the ole bod. MSG is in a lot of stuff so make sure you read your labels on food products and eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies instead. Look for restaurants that advertise the fact that they don't use it, if you're going out. You'll thank me.

Good luck!

Recipe of the Week - - Black Bean Soup

Here's our recipe this week.

I'm choosing this recipe because it is a staple dinner in my household and it was one Amy and I discovered in a magazine while she was so graciously letting me live with her a few years back (Man, we had fun, eh, sis??)that we made a lot. It is vegetarian, actually you could consider it vegan if you used vegetable broth. Anyway, it's absolutely delish, so healthy and good for you, and super easy to prepare. Makes for great leftovers, but does not freeze well (as I have learned the hard way...). Here goes.

BLACK BEAN SOUP

2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed really well
1 large can or 2 small cans diced tomatoes
1 medium onion
1 jalapeno pepper
4-5 (or more) celery stalks
2-3 (not small) carrots
garlic (whatever amount you like)
spices Cumin, Thyme, Bay Leaves
Vegetable (or chicken) broth
optional (not to me, though) brown rice, avocado, cilantro

Chop onion, celery, jalapeno, and carrots and saute them in your pot with garlic and a little olive oil for about 5 or so minutes, add the spices and cook for a couple more minutes As far as amounts on the spices, I kind of just eye it, but if I had to approximate, I would say a tsp or two of thyme and maybe 3 or 4 tsp cumin? (sound right amy??) and 2 bay leaves. Add the beans and tomatoes to that, mix it up and cover with broth (I usually just enough to cover what's in the pot). Bring to a boil for a minute or two, then simmer, stirring occasionally, until the veggies seem cooked enough, maybe 15 minutes. That's it.

Yummy additions: I usually throw in about 1/2 or more of already cooked brown rice once the soup is done to make it even more of a meal. Plus rice and beans together make a great vegetarian protein. Doing this even fills my bottomless-pit-of-a-hus up. It's so yummy. We always always serve it with sliced avocado and cilantro. Those two additions are what make this soup so good, to me anyway. TRY IT!

See, told you it was easy.


p.s. Amy, I know this is obviously a recipe you know so it's nothing new for you, but it is just so "us" that I had to use it for this week. Next time will be something new for you to try. :)

p.p.s. if the phrase "black bean" plays over and over in your head like it has for me just now, it starts to sound really weird...black bean, black bean, black bean, black bean, black bean...see??

Goal for the week

Laugh really hard at something that usually makes you mad or frustrated or annoyed.

Laugh, and let it roll.

Photo Friday - Cell phone self portraits

This is what we look like today, as captured from our cell phones.

I guess it's clear who needs to work on her cell phone technique. :)