Food Fun

Ah, what a long, but good day. I had co-op so we went up to canton to work and pick it up. I really enjoy working coop, though I’m not really sure why. Its just a nice, semi-relaxing hour or so every few weeks I suppose. And its fun to see what everyone else is ordering/eating and what came in (and thus what we get to eat for the next month or so;). Sometimes I’ll see something that I didn’t order but that looks good, an then order it the next month (or the next time it comes up on sale/on the split list).

One of the folks who runs the co-op was telling me and another lady about Juice Plus+ and how great it is. She actually gave me a DVD about it by Dr Sears. I haven’t gotten around to watching it yet, but have searched about on-line a bit and am not impressed so far. There just doesn’t seem to be all that much science backing it up, and quite a bit that seems to indicate that any help its giving is probably most attributable to the placebo effect… but who knows :D

We also stopped by the Raisin Rack after coop and I picked up some other random stuff we’d been needing. For dinner I made Spicy Red Lentils with Spinach, out of Nutrition Action. Nutrition Action is a really neat little newsletter that comes, I think, once a month. Its put out by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, who are totally independent. There’s no advertising, and they don’t take any funding from any corporations, so they don’t have the big conflicts of interest that so many publications do. In any case, the lentils came out very good, which makes me want to try some of their other recipes now too :D Its also made me very excited to get my new cookbook… it looks like it should be showing up here around the middle of this week (Tuesday/Wednesday). I can’t wait!!

Eating Less Meat

So I just ordered How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. I’ve been trying to learn to cook more vegetarian recipes and thereby eat less meat. So far though, I’ve been pretty much stuck on about 4 recipes - spaghetti squash, black beans & rice,vegetarian stir fry,tostadas… So, after seeing this at borders yesterday I came home and read lots of reviews on amazon. Most of the complaints seem to be along the lines of ‘hes not a vegetarian and talks about meat’ - but since we aren’t either, it doesn’t really worry me. In anycase I’m excited to get it and start cooking 2 or 3 or 4 meals a week vegetarian, and saving meat/fish for the weekends and special occasions. I’ll post about how I like it when it comes!

Tae Kwon Do class last night was very good. We did the usual stuff and then take downs and how to get OUT of take downs at the end of class… and then left the mats down so that we could actually practice our fighting steps after class. I’m feeling slightly better than I had been about testing on the 9th, though its still more than just a bit nerve wracking. I’m excited to go again tonight though, and practice some more. Its just very hard to do so here at home what with Andros running around, and the simple lack of space…

We went up to Canton yesterday, so we stopped and got Grandpa a longer printer cable, which made him very happy. Now he can actually pull it all the way out and not have it get caught or anything. We also found out that my Aunt Carol was in the hospital and got her appendix removed! Which got us wondering how you get appendicitis anyways. I mean, is it like a virus/disease or does your appendix just randomly quit working properly?? Maybe I’ll look it up and figure that out sometime…

Thinking

Well, ok, try again. I just had a nice long well-thought out post and its gone now! Bah. Not a good start :( So, here goes, again!

I really wish I would have started writing last year about this time. So much has happend in the past year. I got married last august, my son was born in March, Kevin got in a motorcycle accident in June, and then his step-dad in a motorcycle accident in October (insane, I know). Our lives have changed so much, and I have basicly no record of it. It really makes me quite sad when I think about it. But, oh well. I suppose we all have regrets...

Kevin is basicly back to "normal" now, which is absolutely amazing. I was so worried for so long that I would never have him back... and he is now, mostly. His brain's still not quite where it was pre-accident, but its getting better, getting closer every day. And, at least he realizes it now, somewhat. Which, wasn't true just a couple months ago. Whether he's actually getting better or just hiding it well (which implies that he IS in fact better, I suppose?), I'm not entirely sure. But, either way at least it seems like I can talk to him and hold a decent conversation.

Physically hes probably 90% back. He actually went and ran today for the first time He ran about 1.5 miles in just over 11 minutes! Which is just awesome, especially since its what he'll have to run to pass the OPOT (Ohio Peace Officers Training), course in 8 months :D I really hope that it (the OPOT) goes well, and he ends up with a decent job doing something he likes. Even if we do have to move out and get our own place.

Andros is amazing. Theres no other way to say it. He's gotten so big, so fast its pretty hard to believe that 9 months have already gone by. It seems like he was just learning to roll over yesterday. And, now he's up crusing along the furniture, learning to stand unassisted, crawling around and opening cupboards and getting into just EVERYTHING!!

I'm trying to learn to cook more different things. Stir fry and pasta are good, but something different is always good, you know? So, I've been trying to make at least one or two new things every week. Its been pretty hit & miss, but lots of fun. I find that I'm making fewer and fewer things exactly as the recipe calls for them and modifying stuff more and more. Plus, now that I have deer and lamb to cook with its opened up a whole new area of cooking... I'm a huge fan of AllRecipes.com partially cause the recipes tend to be pretty good, and partially cause of the community's super helpful reviews... I have so many cook books that just sit on the shelf though, its really pretty sad.... probably should ebay them (along with a bunch of other stuff).

I'm also thinking about going back to school, possibly for something with computers. Both my Dad and Kevin keep telling me I should, so maybe I will. I just have to figure out how I'm going to do it with Andros. Online classes would be nice, but some part of me doesn't know how I'd really do with just online classes.

Anyhow, thats been our year in a nutshell.