Bowling

Moment of the Week

Nate give's bowling his thumbs up/wink/click!

softer edges

I was looking through photos for some reason or another a few days ago, and came across this one.  I took this July 2010 in New Mexico at the grave of Billy the Kid.  Jackie and Cody were visiting and it was one of the only tourist options we had. (we did go walk through Carlsbad Caverns tho)  The grave wasn't too far from where we lived.  And this lizard was one of the only 'wild' animals we ever saw during our life there.  Katie can attest to the fact that I hit 4 tarantulas with my car in one week during 2 small road trips we took while she was visiting.(and by small I mean 100 miles each way! LOL)  

Our new life up north includes daily sighting of deer and bunnies... and occasional sightings of turkeys and fox.    Its a relief and super fun for us. 

And if you ever think you might want to visit rest assured there are TONS of things for us to do here.  Caves, monuments, national parks, tourist traps.  LOTS to do and see!  

Moment of the Week

a hot mess

jeez we are just a mess over here.  I had a painful visit to the doc's yesterday... luckily we have chased down some answers to the scary questions that have been floating around for the past few months.  Thankfully I do not have breast cancer.  It has been stressful, and a bit painful, to get this great news.  But I still need to have surgery on one breast to remove a sinister milk duct.  Hopefully I can get this taken care of before Dave deploys. 

Along with me whining about my biopsy wound Nate has been burning up.  Nothing wrong with him, he just had a nice high fever the past couple of days.  I think it broke a few hours ago, and he is cool as a cucumber now.  Thank heavens.  

 Aside from the cancer scare and Nate's hot potato stint, thing have been really nice here.  The weather is wonderful, Dave is working short days during this class he is taking, and life is pretty great as a whole.  

Once we got word that Dave will be deploying and will miss our 10th wedding anniversary this coming winter(and the trip we were planning), Dave swooped in and bought me a new ring.  I got it early, and I love it so much!  

New life is sprouting up in my window sill.  MONTHS ago Nate pulled a leaf off my jade plant... fearing he would be in trouble I saw him hide it in another pot.... well a little while later I went to toss it and saw it was rooting!  I was so excited.  so here is the new plant sprouting off the old leaf.  It makes my day watching it grow.   Next week I get to water my shamrock plant!  I am so excited to wake it up.  It is my favorite plant and I have been missing it, but I know it needed a rest.  

Meatless May is going really well!  Wednesday we had Tortellini with Tomato-Cream Sauce.  It was incredible.  Dave scooped some of the sauce up with his bread and said,  "Is this dinner or desert?!"  It was really really wonderful!  Dave and I agreed that we didn't miss meat at all!!  And it was satisfying.  And it was a cinch to make! 

Tonight we had Black Bean Tortilla Pie.  It was really good!  Full of flavor and we didn't miss meat tonight either.  We served it up with homemade spanish rice.  

On the 1-10 scale both of us rate both of these meals at a 10 for satisfying and a 0 for missing meat.  YAY!  

Meatless May

I would like to explain that I am not trying to torture my family.

Years ago when we drove by the Cargill feedlots for the first time, my mouth dropped open and I got a sickening feeling in my tummy. We were already rare fast food eaters, but it was more than that. I wondered for hours how is that okay? I wasn't so much alarmed by the smell, though it wasn't pleasant, I was more hit over the head by, 'do I not care where our beef comes from?' The farms I grew up seeing were so classically farm like, and this didn't resemble any of them! This was like a field of mass production at an heartbreakingly scale.

We drove by those feedlots everytime we went to Target or Joann's during our time in NM. It always gave me a sick feeling. I had started grinding my own ground beef from top round hunks of meat, within a couple months of moving to New Mexico. Not because of those feedlots, just because I hate biting into the hard things that are in ground beef.(Ruins my dinner everytime!)

Then I saw the last 10 minutes of the man that made Food Inc, on Oprah talking about his documentary. Interesting. I looked it up on Netflix and you can watch it instantly.... So Dave and I watched it that night. That is when I really was hurt. Sad things, alarming facts. We started eating organics right after that.

Well, the moral of this really lengthly story is that one thing that I learned from Food Inc was that the average American eats 200lbs of meat every year. That factoid really hit me over the head, and that feedlot made sense. But not like 'oh yeah okay I get it'.... more like 'oh hell no!'

That comes to mind every time I plan my weekly menu. I have really started limiting our dinners to one chicken, one beef, one pork per week. So if you have been wondering throughout my rant if I'm turning us vegetarian, that would be another 'oh hell no!' But I really wanted to expand my meat free meals with real feedback from Dave, and I knew if I just tried new recipes out here and there he wouldn't be really paying attention, but just focusing on the next night's meaty dinner. You are thinking that I'm a nut...maybe, but when I presented my reason to Dave he gave me his guilty grin and told me I was right.

So as to not torture ourselves the rules are -no meat for dinner unless its bacon

-No tofu

-lunchmeats will be freely available for lunches.

So on our first night we actually had something that I had made before. My knockoff of a wrap I always ordered at Jason's Deli in Texas when we would go to the airport. If you ever happen upon a Jason's Deli you should try it! They have Henson's pop at the fountain, organic suckers at the checkout and lots of YUMMY stuff on their menu.

Grilled Portobello Wraps

I heat 1Tbsp Butter with a touch of Olive oil in a pan and then cook up sliced baby portobello mushrooms that have been hanging out in some Worcestershire sauce.

I get the veg chopped but don't mix them cause you want to put them in at different times.

After the mushrooms have their head start add the red onion... let it cook for a bit

Then add chopped green pepper and chopped(or grated) garlic.. let it cook for a few

Then fold in some baby spinach and let it wilt for a minute

Turn off the heat and stir in the diced tomatoes.

Heat a skillet, put some mushroom stuff in a tortilla shell or wrap... top it with cheese and sliced avocados(I forgot to buy an avocado...sad)

Just let it brown up nicely.

We enjoyed some sweet potato fries with our wraps....

On a scale of 1-10 Dave this meal satisfied him at a 10... a good start I think this meal will fit into our menu somewhat regularly.

Thank Heavens

The boys came home today from their man weekend.  They stayed at a hotel with a pool downtown, and Ive heard lots of talk about how much fun they had.  They swam like crazy, went to the Shriners Circus(you know I love the Shriners!), hung out at Cabelas, and most importantly Nate got a haircut!!  

Doesn't he look grown up?!!