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Jun. 18th, 2014
Our lentil soup recipe (this makes about half of a big stock pot):
Sautee in a small amount of water or olive oil, all diced up small,
-half a big yellow onion
-about 6 cloves of garlic
-4 large carrots
-4 celery ribs
Then to that, add,
-either a can of tomato juice or a couple of liquified tomatoes (we use the magic bullet)
-3 or 4 chicken broth cubes and 1 or 2 beef cubes. This is your call. I'm sure vegetable broth would be fine, and obviously actual broth as opposed to cubes would also work.
-24 oz of dried lentils, which I usually get as 2 12 ounce bags
-a lot of water - I fill the stock pot until it's about 2 inches from the top
Cook that on low-medium heat, stirring now and then, until it's reduced a couple of inches and is noticeably thickened.
Really, it's unbelievably delicious, REALLY cheap, and very good for you. We like to serve it with optional parmesan cheese on top, and a big bowl of salted diced tomato and avocado that can be eaten on crackers. I think white wine is a nice touch if you're into that.
Isaac has this horrible joke book Frank got him a couple of birthdays ago, and he reads it out loud to us at the dining table sometimes. Today over tacos, random guesses at answers seemed to provide bizarre and potentially unsettling insights into my children's minds :p
Isaac: What has holes but can hold water?
Elise: Bubbles!
Isaac: What gets bigger as you take from it?
Aaron: Reading?
Isaac: What gets taken before you get it?
Jake: Innocence!
*blink blink*
I took Annie tonight, and we watched The Fault in Our Stars. Before we headed north, we went through Checkers and got cheese fries. I ate WAY too many cheese fries when I was pregnant with her, and she is aware of that and it's totally a vice and a joke of both of ours. She says very right-on things whenever she has any (which is probably twice a year), like "These are way, way too good." Basically, we get extremely excited whenever one of us reminds the other that cheese fries exist and are out there, available. May we never remember more frequently.
It was interesting seeing what was left in the movie and taken out, vs the book. Overall they did a great job, and she and I were actually the only two people in our whole theater, which was really nice on a few occassions. Twice I said something that made us both laugh a lot. One, "You're only 14 and I'm pretty sure we've already surpassed your lifetime quota of 'how many sex scenes you're supposed to watch with your parents'," and two, "oh my gosh I'm just so relieved I don't have to deal with seeing him in that suit." *sigh*
While we were out, Grant posted this on facebook:
Overheard:
Isaac (10): Ahhh!!! A big palmetto bug! Elise, come get it!!
Elise (7): *sigh* Where is it?... There, OK... I got it! You can come out!
Issac: Phew!
Hmm, I'm trying to think of significant things from the past week or so.
I've gotten a lot of (Weight Watchers) Activity Points. I try to accrue but not actually eat the Activity Points. I did about an hour of walking Sunday, swam laps Wednesday morning, and did jogging intervals today.
I also fell for the first time in quite awhile today, outside the grocery store, but it felt like my standard clumsy semi-annual fall, rather than the scary B-12 deficient falls I was experiencing weekly for a few months there. Off the curb and onto the parking lot. I happily realized I hadn't fallen down since January, as I looked at my skinned knee and bruised hand. It was definitely a "lost my footing/can't walk straight" thing, rather than a "my legs stopped working" thing, so...hooray?
I scored some really cheap wardrobe staples from Forever 21 plus, via mail order. Great long-enough, flattering tank tops in good colors for $4.80 apiece, and leggings for $10, with free shipping and a discount code applied on top even. Also a jumper/pantsuit thing that looks HORRIBLE, though. Maybe in another 20 or 30 pounds it will be ok - we'll see.
Also got about $300 in science equipment totally free through another homeschooling family on our email list! SO MUCH STUFF. A dissection kit and manual that Elise is far more excited about than I am, and huge cases of everything from chemicals and reactants (carefully inventoried) to a compass, iron filings, magnets, scales, microscope slides, safety goggles, rubber gloves, sterno, a big 1 1/2 volt battery, alligator clips - just so so much. We're still going through it all and trying to make plans for it.
The same family also gave us a ridiculously gorgeous silver plated candelabra, the greatest hits of Tchaikovsky, and an illustrated children's dictionary, while we were there. Because homeschoolers ;)
Sautee in a small amount of water or olive oil, all diced up small,
-half a big yellow onion
-about 6 cloves of garlic
-4 large carrots
-4 celery ribs
Then to that, add,
-either a can of tomato juice or a couple of liquified tomatoes (we use the magic bullet)
-3 or 4 chicken broth cubes and 1 or 2 beef cubes. This is your call. I'm sure vegetable broth would be fine, and obviously actual broth as opposed to cubes would also work.
-24 oz of dried lentils, which I usually get as 2 12 ounce bags
-a lot of water - I fill the stock pot until it's about 2 inches from the top
Cook that on low-medium heat, stirring now and then, until it's reduced a couple of inches and is noticeably thickened.
Really, it's unbelievably delicious, REALLY cheap, and very good for you. We like to serve it with optional parmesan cheese on top, and a big bowl of salted diced tomato and avocado that can be eaten on crackers. I think white wine is a nice touch if you're into that.
Isaac has this horrible joke book Frank got him a couple of birthdays ago, and he reads it out loud to us at the dining table sometimes. Today over tacos, random guesses at answers seemed to provide bizarre and potentially unsettling insights into my children's minds :p
Isaac: What has holes but can hold water?
Elise: Bubbles!
Isaac: What gets bigger as you take from it?
Aaron: Reading?
Isaac: What gets taken before you get it?
Jake: Innocence!
*blink blink*
I took Annie tonight, and we watched The Fault in Our Stars. Before we headed north, we went through Checkers and got cheese fries. I ate WAY too many cheese fries when I was pregnant with her, and she is aware of that and it's totally a vice and a joke of both of ours. She says very right-on things whenever she has any (which is probably twice a year), like "These are way, way too good." Basically, we get extremely excited whenever one of us reminds the other that cheese fries exist and are out there, available. May we never remember more frequently.
It was interesting seeing what was left in the movie and taken out, vs the book. Overall they did a great job, and she and I were actually the only two people in our whole theater, which was really nice on a few occassions. Twice I said something that made us both laugh a lot. One, "You're only 14 and I'm pretty sure we've already surpassed your lifetime quota of 'how many sex scenes you're supposed to watch with your parents'," and two, "oh my gosh I'm just so relieved I don't have to deal with seeing him in that suit." *sigh*
While we were out, Grant posted this on facebook:
Overheard:
Isaac (10): Ahhh!!! A big palmetto bug! Elise, come get it!!
Elise (7): *sigh* Where is it?... There, OK... I got it! You can come out!
Issac: Phew!
Hmm, I'm trying to think of significant things from the past week or so.
I've gotten a lot of (Weight Watchers) Activity Points. I try to accrue but not actually eat the Activity Points. I did about an hour of walking Sunday, swam laps Wednesday morning, and did jogging intervals today.
I also fell for the first time in quite awhile today, outside the grocery store, but it felt like my standard clumsy semi-annual fall, rather than the scary B-12 deficient falls I was experiencing weekly for a few months there. Off the curb and onto the parking lot. I happily realized I hadn't fallen down since January, as I looked at my skinned knee and bruised hand. It was definitely a "lost my footing/can't walk straight" thing, rather than a "my legs stopped working" thing, so...hooray?
I scored some really cheap wardrobe staples from Forever 21 plus, via mail order. Great long-enough, flattering tank tops in good colors for $4.80 apiece, and leggings for $10, with free shipping and a discount code applied on top even. Also a jumper/pantsuit thing that looks HORRIBLE, though. Maybe in another 20 or 30 pounds it will be ok - we'll see.
Also got about $300 in science equipment totally free through another homeschooling family on our email list! SO MUCH STUFF. A dissection kit and manual that Elise is far more excited about than I am, and huge cases of everything from chemicals and reactants (carefully inventoried) to a compass, iron filings, magnets, scales, microscope slides, safety goggles, rubber gloves, sterno, a big 1 1/2 volt battery, alligator clips - just so so much. We're still going through it all and trying to make plans for it.
The same family also gave us a ridiculously gorgeous silver plated candelabra, the greatest hits of Tchaikovsky, and an illustrated children's dictionary, while we were there. Because homeschoolers ;)