I have just returned from Iowa! Did ya miss me? Did ya happen to see a 5 month pregnant woman running through the Atlanta airport last night in an effort to catch her connecting flight back to New York on time?

If you did, let’s just pretend that wasn’t me.

No, instead let’s chat about Iowa! I was invited to speak at a conference called Women Blazing Trails for the non-profit group, Iowa Women in Natural Resources at the Springbrook Conservation Center in Guthrie Center, Iowa.

I was one of the presenters at their conference, but I also got to be a conference attendee. Over the course of the last two days I learned a lot about the women who work in natural resources and conservation, plus some cool outdoor survival skills (including how to start a fire with an aluminum can and a bar of chocolate! Really!)

I also thoroughly enjoyed the Bird Banding presentation.

Obviously.

(Be sure to notice the American Goldfinch in my hand, K?)

My presentation was on Healthy Living and I was pleased with how it went.  I must give a huge THANKS to all my fabulous new friends at IWINR and how incredibly warm and welcoming they were despite any stupid faces I surely made during our time together.

Among other things, my talk about living a healthier life included a few of our favorite things to eat around here.  Green smoothies, kale chips and banana whip – plus one recipe I realized I haven’t shared on the blog yet -

Black Bean Brownies!

Much like White Bean Blondies, black bean brownies are a treat with a sneaky helping of extra fiber, protein, B vitamins and iron to go along with a dose of chocolate and sugar.

(That is of course when you’re not using your chocolate to keep yourself warm out in the woods with a gang of American Goldfinches who laugh hysterically every time you bug your eyes out. Birds are real suckers for cheap jokes.)

To make Black Bean Brownies you’ll need:

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed (or about 1 cup of prepared, dried black beans)
1/2 c of water
1 c flour
1/4 c cocoa powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 c canola oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c sugar (or sweetener of choice)
1/2 c chocolate chips or 1/2 c chopped walnuts (optional)

If you puree those beans up nice and smooth in your blender or food processor,

I promise they’ll go completely unnoticed by your children, picky adults and any small birds you might be feeding.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Puree beans and water in food processor or blender until smooth. In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Stir in bean puree with dry ingredients, eggs and wet ingredients and mix well. Once well combined, fold in chocolate chips or nuts if you’re including them.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes in a greased 8 x 8 pan. They’re done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out completely clean.

Now go make some brownies and if you ever find yourself in Iowa, look for a Goldfinch with the Band ID LK59001, say Hi! to all of the amazing women who make up Iowa Women in Natural Resources and try to avoid the Atlanta airport if you can.

Avocado!

That’s right. We’re putting avocado in the blender this morning ’cause we’re making a chocolate avocado smoothie for breakfast.

Aren’t you excited?! I’m excited too.

See, I’ve never used avocado in a smoothie before because avocados usually don’t make it past salads, bean burritos or stay-at-home burrito bowls around here.

But today, half an avocado is going into the blender with one banana, a good pour of almond milk and a couple teaspoons of cocoa powder. Maybe some spinach too if you feel like it.

Once you puree up your banana, avocado and milk of choice, but before you add the cocoa powder, I highly suggest taking a sample of it at this stage so you can roll your eyes back into your head and moan over how creamy and rich and delicious this is already.

Things that taste this good are not supposed to be good for you.

But it is! It is good for you! Healthy fats, potassium, vitamin E, magnesium, folic acid. The list of nutrients is so long I’m starting to daydream and doodle (artichoke) hearts on my paper here.

In the case that you’re not satisfied with all the awesomeness that an avocado has to offer, throw a handful of spinach in too. Just because you can.

Sweet, rich chocolate avocado goodness for breakfast.

Aren’t you excited?! I’m excited too.

(I’m also hungry.)

Don’t concern yourself too much about the fat content of an avocado, fat can totally be your best friend if you let it be. Healthy fat is always looking for new friends.

Don’t be scared away by the calories either because this isn’t even that scary! Half an avocado only has about 150 calories in it. 150 plus about 100 calories from the banana, this ENTIRE smoothie clocks in at under 300 calories even with the almond milk, cocoa powder and spinach.

But if avocado, banana, chocolate and (optional) spinach aren’t your thing, it’s OK.

You and your pajama clad self can always put strawberries, banana and milk into your blender this morning instead. That works too.

This week, the girls and I found ourselves in front of a Vitamix blender demonstration at Wegmans.

As I slurped down the scary delicious “Carrot Cake Sorbet” sample that Vitamix Demo Man handed me, I immediately began wishing I had an extra $500 bucks laying around to buy this miracle machine that did something amazing with a couple of carrots and some ice.

(I’m still wishing for that $500, by the way. Just in case anyone out there is feeling generous.)

Before we walked away from the demonstration, I asked Vitamix Man what went into this fabulous carrot sorbet that he’d whipped up. He looked at me as if I’d just asked him for his ATM pin number, but then reluctantly gave up the goods and rattled off “carrots, ice, agave, almonds, cinnamon and vanilla”.

And this is when wheels in my head began turning. Suddenly, I had three questions that needed answering, pronto:

1. What would happen if I tried to make this miracle carrot concoction in my wimpy little blender at home?

2. Maybe the food processor would be better?

3. What might it take to get Vitamix Man to drive by my house and “accidentally” drop a Vitamix blender off the back of the Vitamix truck?

I immediately decided the answer to #1 was going to be “make a big, wet, chunky carrot mess, that’s what”.

And given that Vita-dude was so stingy with his pin number, I had a good feeling that #3 was not going to come easy.

This was when I decided to get down to business with #2.

(Question #2, that is.)

And now I’m here to tell you, I think I came up with something that in some way resembles the fabulous Vitamix Carrot Cake Sorbet I had on Tuesday, with no new Vitamix blender in my kitchen to speak of.

Except I made mine with frozen bananas instead of frozen water. And since on the main ingredients in “sorbet” is water, I don’t think we can call this sorbet.

Therefore, I think we should call it Sorbanana.

(that sort of sounds like a personal problem, buddy)

OK then, it’s decided. Carrot Cake Sorbanana. I like it.

So! Here we go. Start with some shredded carrot. I opted for my shredder attachment on the food processor.

It was my hope that shredding the carrot would give the carrots a head start at making a “carrot puree” happen sooner rather than later.

Next, lug out your bowl of frozen, sliced bananas a la banana whip.

Before I loaded in the frozen banana (probably the equivalent of 2 bananas), I replaced the shredder attachment with the blade and let it have a go at the shredded carrot to chop it up a bit more.

NOW the bananas can go in,

and let’er rip.

Once your bananas and carrots are looking smooth, throw in a handful of sliced almond, a dash of cinnamon and a splash of vanilla extract. You can skip the agave nectar or any sweeteners because the bananas are sweet enough.

Let your non-Vitamix machine whir and whir and whir for a while longer. Scrape down the sides as needed, and then whir some more.

Eventually, you will be presented with a fabulous orange-ish, banana-ish concoction that sort of resembles a cold carrot cake treat,

and most definitely resembles a super tasty, healthy snack.

Works for me! Take that stingy Vitamix Man! Who needs your pin number anyway. Hmph.

It was another egg and everything bagel kind of weekend here.

(That means it was a good weekend.)

But now it’s Monday, and we’re moving on to better and bluer breakfasts.

These little wild blueberries from Woodstock Farms are my current favorite small blue thing.

I pop about a half cup of them into a dish and let them thaw in the fridge over night.

Or, if you forgot about them last night like I did, an hour on the counter at room temperature works too.

For some reason, I am really digging these mini bluebs way more than big ones right now. All I can tell you is that they are simply the perfect, perfect size for decorating a bowl of oats and chia seeds soaked overnight in a half cup vanilla yogurt and a half cup or so of almond milk.

Hey! Chia seeds are my favorite small black thing!

They are even better after an early morning date with my new friend Summer Sanders and her prenatal workout!

A note to my pregnant friends out there, (present and future!) I really like this DVD. For a workout in my basement when I not feeling like hauling myself to the gym or out in the cold? It’s a decent workout!

(The Prenatal Vinyasa Flow at yogadownload is my other favorite at home workout right now.)

But back to that blue breakfast. A breakfast for everyone, whether you’re gestating or not.

Oats topped with blueberries, half a banana and ground flax seeds with a small drizzle of almond butter and a half cup of coffee today.

Not a calorie light breakfast by any means for those with weight loss on the brain right now, but it’s a breakfast that will hold you over! And if super foods are what you want? Super foods are what we’ve got.

Bagels are super too of course. Just a different kind of super.

(And flax seeds are my favorite small brown thing. I’ll stop now.)

I get these “Your Pregnancy This Week” emails that list a myriad of facts and tidbits about the wee babe growing inside my uterus, along with any other timely pregnancy notes. You know, like “you’re probably busting out of your bra by now” or “your baby is the size of a tarantula”. Stuff like that.

The Week 18 email mentioned that I’m probably feeling an increase in appetite now.

Well, I hadn’t noticed, but now that you’ve planted the hunger seed, I think I AM feeling hungrier than usual. Thanks for the idea!

In fact, now I’m positively starving.

I made a big pot of my most favorite black bean and salsa soup with quinoa on Monday night. We had it kicked before the end of the day on Tuesday. Considering I was largely to blame for how quickly it disappeared, I started to think that this week’s pregnancy email was probably on to something.

So in an effort to make a huge pot of something/anything to quell the ravenous hunger my email told me I was feeling, I hauled out a bunch of the same ingredients I used on Monday.

Coconut oil. Garlic. Onions. Quinoa. Black beans. Let’s make a bunch of chili this time, k? Lots and lots of chili.

Begin with the standard “saute garlic and onions until soft in a couple tablespoons of oil” (olive and coconut are my usuals), two cans of tomatoes, a large can of rinsed and drained black beans and 2 cups or so of water brought to a boil. For chili seasonings I used cumin (1 tsp) and chili powder (a dash) with a little salt.

Once it’s boiling, it’s time for quinoa.

My only complaint about quinoa is that I lose about 5% of my 1 cup of down the drain when I rinse it.

Maybe I should be complaining about my strainer instead of the quinoa.

In case you were wondering, here’s the scene behind me and my wet quinoa. For posterity.

One person in this picture preceded every sentence today with “Mom, I want to ask you something.” The sentence that then followed that statement was not necessarily a request or even a question.

For instance, “Mom, I want to ask you something. I need something to eat.”

Or “Mom, I want to ask you something. I think you should name the baby Tarantula.”

Stuff like that.

Moving on, once your quinoa has been rinsed, add it to the pot and cover and allow to gently boil for about 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

When your quinoa is soft and translucent, your chili is ready.

Unless of course you choose to throw in a half bag of frozen corn at the last minute like I did. Once the soup begins to boil again, your frozen veggies are done. NOW it’s ready. And it’s also time to eat.

Finally! I can’t believe I made me wait so long!

Topped with some shredded pepper jack cheese after I took that photo. Devoured before I took this next one.

Six cups of chili left, that ought to last us, right?

Through tomorrow, at least.

Dear Everything Bagel,

I know you aren’t the best thing in the world to eat, but you’ve really got a hold on me right now, so I’m rolling with it. Like a bagel would roll down a hill, you might say.

I justified you today with an early morning two mile walk to the bagel shop and then a two mile walk home. Kids at Granny’s for the weekend, husband at home in bed – just you, me, fetus and Jillian Michaels on a sunny Sunday morning? There are worse things.

Sure it was 13 degrees out, we can do it! You stay plenty warm and comfy with lots layers, especially once you get moving.

Like some long underwear, a turtle neck, down coat, wool socks, hat, gloves and scarf.

I don’t know how you managed to wear just that skimpy paper bag, E.B. I’m still impressed.

(P.S., if I might get serious for a moment (boo!) I’m suddenly reminded of a visual lecture I recently watched on the single best thing you can do for your health.)

As much as I love you Everything Bagel, when you are dressed in cream cheese leggings and an over medium egg skirt, you are even more irresistible.

Irresistible I say! You and this open faced egg sandwich of sorts is simply my most favorite, FAVORITE thing to eat right now. I think I’m going have you over for breakfast on days of the week that start with the letter “S”, although I could easily devour you on days of the week that end in the letter “Y”.

That’s all. Thanks again for the fabulous post-walk breakfast today, Everything Bagel. See you next Saturday. Maybe Sunday again too.

Yours,

Everything Alison

–

Dear Vegetables,

See you at lunch.

All My Love,

A

The most exciting thing to report on around here would be the fact that I’ve been eating breakfast cookies all week. After Linda left a comment on an old post, I was reminded how much I use to love this odd yet fabulous oatmeal concoction.

It’s been a long time! Good thinking, Linda.

I went to my favorite active yoga class for the first time in nearly five months on Monday night, and I don’t think the instructor recognized me.  I wanted to go up to her and say “hi, remember me?” but then I thought she might take one look at my swollen stomach and remind me of the importance of not doing yoga right after you’ve apparently been stuffing yourself for hours on end at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.

I had salad for dinner!  Honest!

In short, there are definitely more interesting things going on around the world (wide web) than there are around here.

For instance, I can’t believe I’ve been juicing romaine like some kind of goodie two shoes.

Marijuana juice, anyone?

Duuude <cough cough>, you’ve GOT to drink this.

I can already hear the pot grower who’s being hauled away by FBI agents after they busted the huge crop of pot plants in their basement:

“I was going to juice it!  Honest!”

Sure, buddy. Cuff’em.

Next!

Seven Foods You Should Never Eat

Nothing new under the sun for any health conscious foodie who’s been around the block, but I enjoyed skimming the list anyway. Never hurts to be reminded of all the reasons to mostly avoid the foods they mention.  A good read for anyone who’s starting to pay more attention to what put they in their mouth.

And if you didn’t click any of those links, at least click this one and just look at the picture!

Wedding ring found on carrot after 16 years.

If it was the husband who’d found his ring, this never would have made the news. The wife totally would have busted him on secretly buying a second ring 16 years ago and trying to pretend he’d never lost it in the first place. He’d be in the dog house for months and she’d be buying herself a diamond anniversary band and making him take her out to dinner after she’d half-forgiven him.

What a way to ruin a perfectly incredible story about a carrot growing through a long lost ring, eh? You’re welcome. And to think I was thrilled when I found a lost part to my juicer in our compost pile.

It’s possible that we’ve been eating out a bit more than usual these days.

It’s also possible that anybody else’s cooking is a lot more appealing to me right now than my own.

This is how the girls and I ended up in a bagel shop for lunch one day last week. (and the week before that. and the week before that.) I had a bagel sandwich stuffed to the brim with every vegetable they had, plus a small bowl of their tomato soup that was pretty good.

My only observation/complaint was that the soup was a little greasy. That and the fact that the girls picked the table closest to the bathroom.

At least I was finally motivated to cook something! I couldn’t wait to recreate a similar (less greasy) version of this tomato soup at home. I was also motivated to stop saying “where do you want to sit?” when we go out to eat. I’ll pick our seat from now on, ladies. You guys stick to picking your noses.

So this is how I ended up making a simple tomato soup on a Sunday afternoon.

Simple ingredients!

1 large onion, diced. Two cloves of garlic, sliced. Vegetables sauteed in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until soft.

Two 28 oz cans of fire roasted Muir Glen tomatoes, opened and dumped straight in. Classy.

I made myself resist the urge to throw in a lot of other ingredients here. Let’s keep this simple!  Simple Tomato Soup.

But… but… what about just a little corn? Or some beans? Wouldn’t kale be great?!

No!  Not this time!  Just onions, garlic, tomatoes. Simply seasoned with salt, pepper and a dash Tabasco for just a little kick.

(Plus a teaspoon of white sugar to help with acidity of the tomatoes.)

And what goes better with tomato soup than a grilled cheese sandwich?

Nothing. Unless you’ve got a bagel sandwich for me with lettuce, tomato, onions, roasted red peppers, cucumbers and a seat far, far away from the Ladies Room? Then we’ll talk.

Today’s grilled cheese sandwich was actually a grilled cheese garlic hummus and pickle sandwich.

Garlic in the sandwich and garlic in the soup too? My breath just might smell like the Men’s Room after this.

Put your sandwich together and let it get all melty while your soup simmers a bit longer,

mmmm hmmmm, just like that.

Once your soup is ready, you have the option to blend it perfectly smooth like the tomato soup folks at Campbell’s,

or you can leave it slightly chunky like people at the bagel place did.

I went the chunky route and blended 3/4 of the soup smooth, leaving the last quarter of it in the pot to be stirred in with the tomato puree.

This made eight, 1 cup servings. That’s a lot! It will last us well into the week though and should save us a trip to the bagel shop until the end of the week at the very least.

My calculations tell me this soup only has only 85 calories per serving! Not too shabby. And not too greasy either.

Tomato and grilled cheese on a Sunday afternoon.

Should I mention that I had the seat closest to the bathroom directly off my kitchen today?

Nah. Let’s just be glad we’ve got lots of soup to eat and no one is picking their nose.

Let’s say you laid down on the couch this afternoon, kids busy and frolicking to and fro, and you decide to close your eyes for “just a minute”.

Then let’s say you woke up some unknown amount of time later, living room dark, kids off entertaining themselves some place else, and suddenly you realize you’ve got about a half hour before your hungry husband would be home from work and ready for dinner.

In other words, let’s say you needed to throw something together for dinner fast.

And let’s also say that it’s a good thing you didn’t add “meal planning” to list of things to improve upon in 2012.  That resolution would be an utter fail.

Instead, let’s just be thankful for Beans, Beans The Magical Fruit.

The more you eat, the more you… well, you know.

A diced onion sauteed in olive oil until soft, a can of spicy refried beans added to the mix to heat through.  Bean concoction cooked tonight in my new cast iron skillet from Santa!  My latest library book Your Vegetarian Pregnancy reminded me that cooking with cast iron is a great way to increase the amount of iron in your diet.

(P.S., cooking with cast iron is a great way to get more iron into your kids too, especially breastfed babies who have started solid foods!)

Bean burritos are kinda sorta my latest obsession, so it’s really no wonder why I was able to throw this together so quickly tonight.  I’ve had weeks and weeks of practice.

And if that picture were in the newspaper, the caption beneath it might read:

“Hungry, pregnant wife waits impatiently for her husband to return from changing his clothes and wonders what on earth is taking so long.”

Refried beans, corn, salsa, diced avocado and greek yogurt all swaddled up into a soft whole wheat tortilla.

Those beans look so warm and cozy wrapped up like that. Doesn’t this picture make you sleepy?  No?  Is that just me?

16 weeks pregnant (tomorrow). I think I’m starting to feel the baby move, but these early flutters are so easy to confuse with the digestive process sometimes I wonder if it’s just dinner that I’m feeling move around.

January One started with a four mile walk. A walk sprinkled with the tiniest bit of running. I had intended to run the entire way today, but running for very long is proving to be too uncomfortable these days. “Mostly walking” it is then.

The kids spent the whole day in their pajamas.  Maxine took her legs out of her brand new footie pajamas long enough to get her toenails painted pink and air dried, and then back into the footed footies her feet went. I put all the Christmas decorations away while he kept the kids busy, and then together over the course of the day got the house back into to it’s pre-Christmas state.

(i.e., still a little messy)

I had over easy eggs on toast for breakfast. A hummus wrap stuffed with red lead lettuce for lunch. A big salad with a piece of baked halibut for dinner. I’m jonesing hard for something sweet thanks to a Christmas cookie habit I seemed to have picked up over the course of the last three weeks. The only thing that’s keeping me from making those Cookies in a Jar from my Mother in Law is the fact that we are out of butter.

(Note to self: do not buy butter until sugar withdrawal period is complete.)

I recently heard someone say that going for a walk “isn’t fun”. I thought about that today and decided it’s sort of true. Then I thought of something I’ve heard myself say to the girls more than once; not everything in life is going to be fun.

There are definitely ways to make being active MORE fun if you find it boring and would like it to be more stimulating. An audio player seems like the most obvious fun factor suggestion anybody might make. Either that or walking or running with someone who’s company you enjoy.

Music and podcasts can be great of course, but audio books are a nice change of pace too. They’re free if you get books on CD from your library (assuming you return them on time, no promises here) and load them onto your iPod. One year I ran almost every run while being read to. That summer started with The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Some of my other favorites that year were The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden.

What if we just stop expecting exercise to be fun? I think it’s the Buddhists that say expectations are at the root of all our suffering. I’m no Buddhist, but it seems to me that little piece of wisdom is spot on.

So until you’re a champ at letting go of expectations, I suggest going for a run or a walk while listening to Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassen. That dude is one funny writer.

Welcome 2012! Hope yours was happy.