Well, I have no pictures of our woodland adventures today because we were not there long enough to take any pictures. Within about 10 minutes I had two very cold, cranky girls on my hands that not even a backpack full of refined carbohydrates (pretzels, granola bars, kashi crackers) could turn around. It WAS cold though, the thermostat in the car read 18 on the way home. Oh well. We tried.

Interestingly enough though, Ava said she “couldn’t wait” to go cross country skiing when we got home. Zak brought his childhood cross country skis to the house yesterday and Ava’s been in love with the idea of cross country skiing ever since.

So off she went, cross driveway skiing immediately after bailing out on our homeschooling friends because it was too cold to play outside.

Maxine stuck to her “it’s too cold” guns and we stayed inside to watch Ava and her maiden voyage on cross country skis.

I have to say, she did pretty well for her first time, especially considering how cold she was barely an hour earlier.

With our schedule suddenly clear for the afternoon, I had no choice to but get started early with dinner.

On tonight’s menu? Something I haven’t made in what feels like ages: Enchiladas!

One of the reasons I haven’t made enchiladas in a while is my reluctance to use the canned enchilada sauce that I typically use. The ingredient list on the can always make me screw up my face and put the can back down to go find something else to make instead. Tonight was no exception… but with a perfectly ripe avocado giving me the evil eye and practically daring me to make it in to guacamole, I decided to find a way around my canned enchilada sauce dilemma.

After a bit of googling and looking at the label of the enchilada sauce can for clues, I went to work making my own enchilada sauce tonight. This is what I came up with:

1 6 oz can of tomato paste
1 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 cups of water (approx)
1 tsp agave nectar
2 tbsp chili powder (more or less to taste)
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp paprika

Add tomato paste, water and spices to pan on low heat, whisk until smooth. Add spices, canola, agave, and vinegar and continue whisking until simmering, remove from heat.

I took French in high school, but I’ve watched my fair share of Dora the Explorer and I’m fairly sure that “Enchilada” is Spanish for “make a big mess on your stove”. Either that or “use a bigger pan next time, you dope.”

I ladled enough enchilada sauce into the bottom of a baking dish and then added 5 handsome enchiladas to the pan. I filled each whole wheat tortilla with refried black beans, cooked (frozen) corn, whole black beans and pepper jack cheese, swaddled them like a newborn baby and laid them into the dish on top of the sauce. More sauce ladled over tortillas and then placed them into a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes.

This recipe made more sauce than I needed, but it worked out well because I had plenty to drown these suckers with, when normally I don’t have a drop to spare when using sauce from a can.

While my enchiladas were baking, I got to work on that avocado that was giving me dirty looks.

Homemade guac consisting of 1 fork smashed avocado, 1/2 a diced onion, the juice of one lemon, 1 glove minced garlic and salt.

Guacamole is Spanish for “creamy goodness”, right?

I meant to make rice, but I forgot – by the time I remembered I didn’t care anymore so I went wild and ate my enchilada with guac, salsa and no rice.

How do you say “This is the end of my post” in Spanish?

• Not Chili
• It’s Not Even December
• Whole Wheat* Pizza Crust

So what did we do with ourselves today you’re surely wondering?

Why we took up the offer of a fellow homeschooling mama to blow this pop stand in favor of the YMCA and burn off some energy this afternoon.

Not me, mind you. I burned off a bunch of energy at 6 AM with my new running friends. These kids though? Yeah. They’ve got a ton energy to burn and let’s call a spade a spade: They are driving me nuts.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love them – but let’s face it. It’s winter. They’re kids. Our new yard is small and sort of boring. We miss our friends. It was time to herd some sheep and get the flock out of this house for a little while.

After some time in the padded room, I decided to write a children’s book.

I’m going to call it: The Monkey and the Snorkeler Go Swimming

Is it possible we burned off a little too much energy? After I accepted my Children’s Lit award, we hit up Goodwill and the monkey fell asleep while we waited in the donation drop off line of 100 cars. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who had the idea to donate stuff today. It’s all about the tax breaks, baby. Well not for me it’s not! I just moved, peeps! I need to get this stuff out of my house! Here, you can have my receipt if you let me cut to the front of the line!

Oh great. Now she’s going to be raring to ring in the new year. Quick, someone set the clock ahead 3 hours! That’s the only way I’m going to stay up until “midnight”. I’m celebrating with my pillows and a little bit of drool tonight.

After sheep herding fun we came back to the sheep pen (do sheep live in pens? Or is that pigs? Bah. Details.) and I did my best to avoid cooking once again.

Not only am I not cooking, I’m not even making hummus! Blasphemy! Good thing Sabra hummus is so damn creamy and good. I’m jealous actually – what the heck do those Sabra scientists do to make it so flocking creamy?

I bought the roasted garlic variety (because you know, vampires) and holy garlic breath batman we loved this. In fact, “we” loved this so much “we” barely left me a tablespoon for faux-cooking tonight.

My sad little layer of hummus on my slice of toasted sesame Ezekiel bread.

Light on the hummus, heavy on the spinach. Isn’t that how that saying goes?

Wow. My last post of 2009. Do I know how to ring in the blog new year or what?

• Whensday?
• Thanksgiving is Officially Over
• Rest Day

So admittedly, I’ve been doing very little cooking in recent weeks, this last week in particular. I feel like I’m just now getting my bearings in this new kitchen. I’ve been busy finding a place for everything, trying to figure out what’s going to work, what’s not, what I need and what I don’t, what can be donated, thrown away or put into storage to be dug out as needed all while wondering where the hell all this crap came from in the first place.

This would be why I haven’t been writing much about new recipes or foods I’m trying lately – there are no new recipes or foods to speak of. I beg for forgiveness as I veer wildly off course for a short while here.

Ready to veer?

While packing and unpacking, Zak uncovered the fish bowl – the same fish bowl we used to house our monarch caterpillar this summer actually. Thinking back on how that ended and the fate of our poor little caterpillar, we probably should have seen this coming.

Take note, this is a bit of very obvious foreshadowing.

At one point after Christmas, a conversation went down between Zak and the girls that ended with the promise of some fish to fill the aforementioned fish bowl. I absolutely would have vetoed this decision had I been there to cast my vote. In my mind fish = a dirty fish bowl = one more thing I have to clean. The only way he got me to agree to fish before they walked out the door to the pet store was by signing an affidavit stating that I would never have to clean a fish bowl and that he and the girls would take care of everything.

Fine. Sign here and then you can go get your fish.

Did you know that at Petco fish come with a 15 day warranty? True story. Just bring back your dead fish and a sample of the water and they’ll scoop another one out of the tank for you, no questions asked.

(More foreshadowing.)

So on Sunday they got fish. Two fish to be exact, one for each of them. And then on Monday morning when I was on the phone with the phone company trying to figure out why our internet is still not working (this post would be brought to you by some neighbor we’ve yet to meet named “Ruth” who very fortunately has her wireless network wide open. Thank you Ruth for unknowingly keeping me sane until the phone company gets their act in gear) and at that exact same time as luck with have it (or unlucky, if you are a fish) Zak was on a work call – therefore leaving the girls relatively unattended with new fish and a brand new container of fish food.

Do you see where this is going? Let’s just say that on Tuesday, Goldie wasn’t looking too hot. She was spending an awful lot of time at the top of the fish bowl last night. I think we better just jump right to the punch here and reveal what we woke up to first thing this morning, shall we?

As Maxine pointed out in the video, we don’t have nets. So I went down to the kitchen to scrounge around and came back upstairs with the best thing I could to find to scoop out our poor little fish.

A 1/3 c measure.

Ava showed Maxine and suddenly it started to sink in.

Uh oh.

Oh no.

Oh no oh no oh no no no no no put the camera down you stupid woman and comfort your child!

What to do? What to do?? Wait! I know!

Who wants left over chocolate cheese cake for breakfast?!

OK – let’s not go there. Cheesecake for comfort! Are you sad? Here! Feel better! Eat something sweet!

Why is that the first thing that comes to mind? Although come to think of it, how many times did I whip out my boob to nurse this child when she was sad or hurt or frustrated or bored? Is it any wonder we use food to make ourselves feel better? It’s practically built in and ingrained into us from Day 1!

Comfort food musings aside, after putting the camera down and saying good bye, we skipped the visit to the fridge and headed for the couch instead to spend 20 minutes crying about fish and talking about what we believe happens after someone dies. These things happen. It’s OK to be sad and mourn the loss of our little friend. He was a good fish and he was probably sick before he even came home to us (back peddle! back peddle! I didn’t expect her to be so sad! Quick QUICK turn this ship around QUICK!) and he’s not sick or suffering anymore.

Why don’t these kids come with a manual? Did yours come with a manual? Check the index for me, is there a section on Dead Fish?

A few more tears and lots of hugs instead of rich desserts, I think we’ve all recovered from our fishy incident that greeted us with the rising sun this morning.

And no, we are not going to take Petco up on their offer for a replacement fish. Obviously. Goldie is in a better place now and therefore long gone. Instead we’ll allow what’s left of the fish food to last 50% longer than it would have otherwise.

Now… who wants cheesecake for dinner?

• One Armed Carrot Jokes
• Can't You Read the Signs?
• Whensday?

Dear Blog,

Hi. How are you? I am fine.

That’s a big fat liiiiieeeee I ammmm insssssaaaaannnneeeee!!!

*ahem*

My Dearest Blog, I’m terribly sorry that I’ve been neglecting you in recent days – please know that I am here and still love you. We’ll be moving into a new house together in just a few days so please hold tight and know that I still love to run, eat healthy food, write crazy posts and return library books late. My daily insanity will return when real life insanity subsides – I promise.

So Blog, the very least I can do is fill you in on some of things I’ve been up to when I’m not packing, carrying all our worldly possessions out to the car in boxes or wiping cobwebs from the basement out of my eyebrows.

First, we’re still doing our homeschooling thing.

Yesterday we hit a park that just so happens to be right down the street from our house. This would be the same park where I ran trails this fall and found a big wad of cash on the ground. Remember that, Blog? Good times.

We had a lesson on gravity, potential energy, kinetic energy and selected a sacrifice to be an example and show the rest how a catapult works.

Another lie. Well, really – a joke. They just played. They’re kindergartners and preschoolers for crying out loud.

Maxine actually did pretty well at the start of our trail walk, but before long was cranky and into the sling she went. I considered signing her up to be the next catapult sacrifice but we moved on to other things before the sign up sheet came around to us.

Right after I took this picture she cried “Don’t take my picture! Did you take my picture??”

No honey, I definitely did not take your picture.

I’m up for mother of the year, did you hear?

Our trail walk ended with a little ice skating booting in the woods – fun for kids and adults a like.

As far as food goes, all you’ve been missing out on Blog is lots of cinnamon raisin Ezekiel toast with almond butter and bananas and giant salads too. When the going gets tough, the tough make a salad.

I did buy a green Kombucha today though.

A 10 day course of antibiotics (thank you infected tooth) is my excuse to spend $3.49 on a bottle of this stuff thanks to it’s probiotic magic.

I also like the Multi-Green variety because of all the B vitamins it’s got from the blue green algae and other sea shrubbery. Given my quasi-vegan lifestyle I like to believe drinking seaweed helps out with some essential B vitamins I am otherwise missing out on.

I should probably be taking a supplement but I hate supplements. I’d rather get it from food. I’m happily living in the dark and hoping my b12 stores are holding strong. What can I say, Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt. Or wherever the hell the Nile river is.

That’s right I am HOMESKOOLING ! I am totaly kwalified to teatch these kids.

I can’t forget about the vegan-minded man in my life either! I had a little one-on-one time with my boyfriend Brendan today too.

This Whole Food Energy Bar came from Vega and was one of many that was sent a while ago. It’s been in hanging out in my stash of the bars and I snagged it as I ran out the door today to make my 174th trip to the new house in the last 13 days.

Oh Brendan, you still rock. Thanks for everything you’ve taught me, I still think about your advice daily!

Sorry about the glare on your face, bro.

I do like these bars and they definitely do a good job of quelling hunger pangs on the run.

I’ve been eating a ton of oranges lately too (just one today though), much like the rest of the produce loving world. It is winter after all.

So Blog, that’s what’s been happening around here. We are slipping ever closer to the brink of insanity as our moving day continues to inch ever closer.

Wait, what do you mean Friday is CHRISTMAS?? All I’m thinking about is Saturday!

And to all my fellow blogs out there in blogland that I know and love – I miss you and will be around again soon.

Yours truly,
Alison

• Sweet Tooth Fairy
• Our Sunday Best
• Like a School Girl

Today we celebrated the winter solstice with my mom and step dad at our house. After the laziest morning ever (read: I didn’t get in any exercise) I make a quick trip to Wegmans like a complete fool. I needed a few things for our little party and ended up fighting my way through what can only be described as the the biggest, craziest crowd of the year. The phrase “what the hell was I thinking” comes to mind.

A while ago I received a coupon in the mail from Foodbuzz to review the Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastries. It was my choice to opt in for this product review and although this isn’t something I would typically buy, I figured I’d go ahead this time knowing I’d probably use it for a party – and that’s exactly what I did.

The pastry sheets are simple sheets of dough that you can use for good or for evil… I mean, sweet or savory. I opted for the savory route today. I had no motivation to come up with any sort of original recipe and I therefore need to give major props to the recipe on the back of the box for helping me out today.

Spinach-Cheese Swirls? I’m fairly sure that’s my middle name.

I set the pastry sheets out to thaw for about 40 minutes, as directed.

I shredded some pepper jack cheese and mixed with a little parm, kosher salt and garlic salt.

When my sheets had thawed I brushed them with raw egg. (That’s a fun sentence to take out of context. Try it.)

I sprinkled the pastry sheet with the cheese mixture, topped the cheese with fresh spinach and then things really got rolling.

By the time I got to the second sheet I was feeling warmed up and ready to strike out on my own. I left the recipe on the back of the box behind and scrounged the fridge for ideas.

I smeared some spicy vegetarian re-fried beans on the second pastry sheet, topped it with a little pepper jack cheese and finally, some of the Pace Picante salsa that showed up earlier in the week also for our review.

Product placement at it’s finest.

I’ll be honest that I’m not crazy about the ingredient list of the pastry sheets – but for an occasional meal I’m not going to sweat enriched flour, monoglycerides, palm oil and high fructose corn syrup. No big deal here for a once and a while thing.

Now please note that the recipe said to cut the rolls into slices and bake them that way, but for a variety of reasons I decided to throw caution to the wind and cook them whole. Due to the fact that I used fresh spinach instead of thawed frozen spinach, I was afraid the fresh spinach leaves would get dragged out by the knife as I sliced through the uncooked roll.

I brushed the tops of the rolls with more egg and into the oven they went at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Pretty, no?

Well don’t get too excited because they weren’t cooked in the middle. I guess those people who wrote that recipe actually knew what they were talking about.

But never fear, I sliced them up and put them back in the oven for another 10 minutes and they puffed right up like they were supposed to. Crisis averted.

These turned out great – both the spinach and bean versions were awesome and we couldn’t decide which ones we liked better. We made a spinach roll and bean roll play tic tac toe to determine a winner but it was a Cats game so we still don’t know which roll was victorious.

The little health inspectors did their duties when my parents arrived with more snacks, plus dessert too.

We only made them ask 15 times if we could open presents before we finally caved.

American Girl dolls for Ava and Maxine. Huge hits. Huge.

Gotta love gifts for foodies. A Mandolin! Oh man, it’s gonna be a veggie blood bath here tomorrow – just you wait and see!

And a new salad plate too.

Plus gifts for new home owners – given I fried my last cordless drill with my mad picture hanging skillz.

The rule here is that you’ve got to have messy hair and a crazy look in your eye when you hold a drill. I’m taking my new drill with me to Wegmans next time I go – I’ll fit right in.

• Like a School Girl
• There’s Always a Silver Lining
• The Reasons I Had Kids

It’s not Thanksgiving, but that doesn’t mean I can’t give some thought to all the things I’m thankful for these days.

I’m thankful for kids that are too big to fit down the laundry chute.

I’m grateful that the little one who I worry COULD possibly fit down there played at the downstairs laundry chute location that is three feet off the floor.

I’d like to give thanks for salad and what a portable meal it can be. Thank you Gladware for making lunch possible at my new home away from home, while taking a little unpacking break before heading home to get ready for an evening out.

I’m appreciative for holiday office parties that give me the night off from having to figure out what I’m going to make for dinner.

I’m especially thankful for small companies and trendy young business owners who do a great job of throwing parties at crazy art galleries.

I’m also grateful for open bar and more specifically, white wine.

Mama could really use a drink. It’s been a long week.

I’d like to give thanks for grazing stations full of dishes for omnivores and herbivores alike.

I am grateful for art gallery tours and the opportunity to do a little snickering over awkward art.

Today I am the most grateful for the best nights sleep I’ve had in well over a week, as well the abundance of time and energy available for a run this morning.

I’d like to give a BIG THANKS and shout out to my memory for remembering everything I learned from winter running last year. Thank you, Brain, for not making me spend the whole winter getting it figured out again this year.

Two layers YO! One layer on the bottom to wick away moisture and sweat, a lighter layer on top to keep some heat in and some cold air out.

Keep your iPod toasty warm by wearing it inside your coat.

And don’t forget that even if it’s 20 degrees outside…

dry pavement is the biggest factor in what it takes to have an enjoyable its-almost-winter morning run.

Thank you Running for the healthy dose of feel good hormones and allowing me to get totally lost in my thoughts for a full 35 minutes and 21 seconds.

I’m also thankful we’re out of coffee because it meant the man of the house would make juice instead of a pot of caffeine.

And lastly, I’m thankful for juice delivery services that allow me to get upstairs and sit at my desk while I get caught up on my virtual life.

When I asked him what was in it, he said “Everything”. From the looks and tastes of it (and from what I observed going into the juicer as I stood there taking pictures) it would be Tomato Carrot Beet Garlic Ginger Juice this morning – and it was awesome.

Have you put garlic in your juicer yet? Get on it! You can thank me later.

• More Adventures With Three
• Whensday?
• There’s Always a Silver Lining

After what seems like the 100th day in a row of packing and hauling toys and household items to the new house, I found myself blanking once again when it was time to figure out what on earth I was going to make for dinner tonight. I think I made 6 trips back and forth between the cupboards and the fridge with one hand glued to my cheek due to pure puzzlement. I finally waved the white flag and made giant salads of green leaf lettuce, the last of the spinach that expired two days ago, grape tomatoes, carrots, red bell pepper slices, hemp seeds and Annie’s Goddess Dressing.

After a much needed run on the indoor track first thing this morning, followed by new house related tasks, I had a root canal this afternoon on a tooth that I injured when I was a kid. Oh the timing of these sorts of things. It’s like the tooth knew I needed one more thing on my plate right now (not to mention my debit card) and has been poised and ready, waiting to become infected until just the right moment.

My appointment was with a new dentist so I had to fill out some paperwork, including a brief medical history. One of the questions I had to answer was:

Have you lost more than 10 lbs in the last year?

I was about to check the YES box before hesitating for a moment as I thought about what I weighed last December and realized that no, I haven’t lost more than 10 lbs in the last year! Yes, I lost nearly 40 lbs in 2008 – but I had reached my happy weight by the summer of 2008 and at this time last year I weighed what I do today.

These two stories tie together because of what my fall back, fast, go-to meal is these days. If you were to visit Alison of Decembers past… say December 2006 or even December 2007, my fall back meal would have been a grilled cheese sandwich and baked french fries for my “vegetable”. Not that I’m above eating grilled cheese sandwiches and white potatoes, but I know that I’ve been able to maintain my weight loss because I majorly overhauled my approach to what I once believed was healthy eating. I had to form new habits and get them to stick.

So how do you make these habits stick? We can change just about anything if we truly believe that it’s worth the effort. Knowledge is power and educating yourself is the first step toward understanding why something is worth the effort, or as the case may sometimes be, to clear up a misconception you have that is holding you back from making any progress.

These musings are pretty timely considering I’ve got guest post up on Love Veggies and Yoga today about my journey to reaching my healthy weight. Head over to Averie’s blog if out if you missed reading two posts from me today or if you just want to see some groovy pictures of Mama Averie living large in Aruba!

After I put my salad together, I spent some time with a certain 5 year old girl who relentlessly requested I play War with her until I found my white flag again and begged for mercy!

Uh oh – here we go! Dueling Kings!

This means WAR kiddo.

But awww yeah Mom and The Fallback Salad cleaned up for this round!

I was in the mood for something sweet tonight and opted for the healthiest version of a cookie I can come up with. Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel Toast topped with almond butter and a little shaved Green and Black 70% Dark Chocolate.

Little shavings get melty pretty fast!

Did you know that shaving chocolate can be a great way to save calories?

One might say you save calories because shaving chocolate is a great way to make a little go a long way. But tonight as it turns out I ate the remainder of the 6 small blocks of chocolate I broke off to do the shaving and thus saved NO chocolate calories. It turns out that you save calories shaving chocolate because you only use a little bit and (note to self:) you don’t need to break off 6 squares of chocolate for a few little shavings. Or – for crying out loud woman – put the rest of the 5 blocks of chocolate back in the fridge!

Ah well. It’s water under the bridge now! At least I won War tonight. I’ve got that going for me.

• Whensday?
• There’s Always a Silver Lining
• Say What You Mean To Say

For the last week or so I feel like I’ve been walking around with my head in the clouds. I barely recognize my life right now. I’m so distracted it’s almost like I’ve got an innocent little crush on my new house. Moving to the new house seems more real now as our official Moving Day draws ever closer and our whole life revolves new house excitement.

It’s funny because as giddy as I am about the new house, I still love the house we live in now. We’re not moving because we’re unhappy here; we’re moving from the burbs to the city to make our homeschooling lives easier.

Still, I can’t help but feel a little guilty as I walk through the rooms of my current house daydreaming about what life will be like in the new house.

Fortunately we had something pretty easy on the agenda for today. I don’t know that I’m worth much in the way of brain power right now.

We hit up The George Eastman House (of Eastman Kodak fame) to tour of their annual Sweet Creations Gingerbread house exhibit with some friends today.

The Sweet Creations exhibit is a collection of Gingerbread creations made by local people and groups around the area.

Let the drooling begin.

A Gingerbread House after my own heart.

Why am I suddenly in the mood for something with frosting?

Chocolate Covered Pretzels are my Achilles heel – just in case you ever wanted to attempt to take me down.

See that crooked “T” in the “MARKET” of “PUBLIC MARKET” written in gummy letter font? I snapped this photo just as I had finished swatting a certain three year old and her snaky little tongue off that T. Who needs a flu vaccine when you can just lick a gummy letter that 500 grubby little hands have surely touched?

Grubby Hands? Observe.

Sugar Buzz? We have lift off.

Someone even made a Gluten Free Gingerbread House!

Looks like I’m not the only one that’s got a warm and fuzzy feelings toward a sweet little house.

OK gang, it’s time to buzz off.

We’re outta here.

We’ve got a lunch date with the new house!

We hit up a bagel shop on the way from the Gingerbread exhibit which just so happened right in between the museum and our new house. (Have I mentioned how I excited I am about living in the city!?) I snagged a veggie bagel sandwich and then we all went back to new house to have lunch together.

Everything Bagels are my other Achilles heel – just in case I haven’t given away enough secrets tonight.

I only ended up eating half of the bagel along with the last of the leftover black bean and salsa soup and I took the other half home for a snack later.

After lunch we did a little ice breaking.

And had a little fun that we won’t be able to have once the furniture arrives next week.

For some of us though, the ice breaking activities were just a little too intense and we decided it was time to call it a day.

We returned home to find a fun package from FoodBuzz and Pace waiting on our doorstep! Two bottles of Pace Picante salsa for us to try and review.

The timing of this package couldn’t have been better given my mental frailty. Someone scribble meal planning on my list of my New Years Resolutions please? (Just put it right there underneath “Always return library books on time”.)

I cracked the jar of medium salsa to complete a very simple bean burrito dinner.

A whole wheat tortilla, spicy vegetarian refried beans, corn, black beans and Pace Picante salsa.

Salsa makes anything taste good. I’m glad I’ve still got a bunch left in the jar to do something a little more creative with at some point in the near future. I predict that I will no longer be feeling like a school girl with her head in the clouds once I get back to the realities of moving and packing tomorrow.

• Pastry Drills
• There’s Always a Silver Lining
• The Reasons I Had Kids

We may or may not have shopped for produce at the little Wegmans in the Museum of Play today.

She may or may not be more gentle with the fake produce than the paid store cashiers can be with the real stuff.

This may or may not be the most ironic picture considering the girl eats practically NO vegetables. And has never eaten a banana in her entire life – except unknowingly in fruit smoothies.

We may or may not have broken the “Only 5 Items at a Time” shopping rule.

We may or may not have had a tea party by all ourselves.

A group lunch may or may not have followed the solo tea party.

I may or may not have made Black Bean and Salsa Soup with Quinoa while I made Black Bean Pancakes for dinner last night.

I may or may not have thought that I left my wallet at the gas station today.

I may or may not have driven 15 minutes to the gas station in the opposite direction of home before realizing my wallet was actually in the center console of the car.

I may or may not have my head screwed on properly.

It may or may not have been nearly 6 o’clock by the time we made it to the not-play Wegmans tonight for real produce that had to be paid for with real money.

I may or may not have scooped up this Annie’s Goddess Dressing that I had for the first time at a friend’s house last week.

This dressing may or may not totally rock. I may or may not have devoured a huge salad with green leaf lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, carrots, cukes and hemp seeds with Goddess dressing for dinner tonight.

I may or may not have totally forgotten that I made Averie’s version of this dressing early this fall with cashews, lemon juice and my food processor.

We may or may not have been interrupted playing Trouble tonight.

There may or may not be an older child here that I completely failed to take any pictures of today.

I may or may not be eating a cane shaped peppermint flavored piece of high fructose corn syrup right now.

It may or may not have been a long day.

• Whensday?
• There’s Always a Silver Lining
• Say What You Mean To Say

Why, hello.

This would be my view for much of our 4 hours in the woods today. Who wants to walk when you can be carried?

Despite lugging around 30 lbs of toddler, we had a great time with our homeschooling friends and our day outside!

We walked the trails at a local park and spent the day exploring the woods. We inspected animal tracks in the snow, listened to birds and best of all, waited for chickadees to come eat pumpkin seeds and walnuts out of our hands.

It turns out that some of the birds along these trails are pretty friendly and are use to crunchy granola hikers that come baring seeds and nuts in their backpacks. As soon as you stop walking the chickadees will start fluttering nearby. Chickadee just might be Latin for “stalker”. If you have a little something to offer these cute little stalker birds and hold very still, they will come and inspect the contents of your hand.

All the kids got to experience the magic of having a little bird steal a snack from their hands. Although multiple attempts were made, this was the only picture I managed to successfully capture of these speedy little birds!

The kids loved it and completely embraced it. There was much squealing, mostly from me as chickadees landed on my camera trigger finger, arm extended, waiting for just the right moment to CLICK!

On our way out of the woods we discovered the squirrels wanted in on some nut action too.

The squirrels were skittish but if you didn’t move too quickly or suddenly, they would come up and snatch a walnut.

And then scamper off to nibble on it just a few feet away.

Looking back, it was a pretty incredible day all around.

Something else that’s pretty incredible? Black bean pancakes for dinner.

Cindy of Sparkle a Day fame made bean pancakes last week. I remembered her bean pancakes this evening as my beans that spent the day soaking cooked on the stove and I considered what their fate might be.

I googled around to come up with a black bean pancake recipe and mine went a little something like this:

Approximately 3 c of cooked blacked beans (I cooked the entire 16 oz bag of beans and used about half of them – canned beans would certainly work, I would have used 2 15 oz cans if I’d have gone that route)
1 roasted red pepper (from a jar)
2 cloves of garlic
A couple tablespoons of hot sauce (use more or less to taste)
cumin, chili powder and cilantro
1 cup of water

Combine all ingredients in food processor and puree until smooth. In a separate bowl whisk together:

3/4 c flour
1 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp salt

Add bean mixture to flour mixture and stir until well combined. Heat up a frying pan and add a small amount of olive oil. Scoop about a half cup of batter into to pan and cook like pancakes. These do need to cook a little longer than pancakes – and I sort of expected them to bubble, but they didn’t. I flipped them when they started to look slightly cooked around the edges, which took about 4 to 5 minutes.

Bean pancakes and tossed salad for dinner.

Homemade guacamole and salsa for “syrup”!

These were awesome and a welcome change from my usual soup or bean burger route.

And yes, I totally color coordinated my condiments with the holiday season! Thanks for noticing.

• Greetings From the South Pole
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