Anasazi Beans … Good Stuff!

Tuesday started off very slowly for both of us. Neither Dan nor I slept well Monday night which meant we were both dragging all day. For some reason we both had difficulty falling and staying asleep. I found it very odd that this happened to both of us since we have nothing new going on that should be causing this. Apparently we have become almost one person after being together so long. ;-)  Do things like this happen to any of you?

Dan’s breakfast was a green smoothie that contained 2 frozen bananas, 4 kale leaves, 2 tablespoons wheat germ, 1 tablespoon freshly ground flaxseed, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger, a handful of walnuts, 2 cups homemade soymilk and a little stevia. This makes two big glasses that I serve in frozen glasses which I store in the freezer so they are always ready.

My breakfast was also a kale smoothie but mine included 1 frozen banana, 4 kale leaves, 1 cup soymilk and 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons wheat germ, 1 tablespoon freshly ground flaxseeds, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, and ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger. You may want to add stevia to yours I find the banana adds enough sweetness for me but Dan doesn’t think that it does.

Lunch was a big bowl of savory oatmeal. The oatmeal was flavored with nutritional yeast (to make it cheezy), cumin, paprika, and no-salt seasoning. I also added 2 tablespoons of wheat germ to the oats. I topped the oatmeal with broccoli, salsa and raw pumpkin seeds. The seeds were added because I like the texture.

I always have my two Brazil nut snack (for the selenium) with a piece of fruit (another orange) which I forgot to photograph. It looked exactly like the photograph above. How long have I been doing this? ;-)  You would think I would remember to photograph things by now but I don't always.  *rolls eyes*

I decided to make some anasazi beans today since they have been in my pantry for a while and I have continued to ignore them. Since I had never made this specific bean before I didn’t use the pressure cooker to prepare them. If any of you know how long they should be pressure cooked I would love to know. They seem to be a fairly quick cooking bean from what I saw. The texture is creamy and the flavor very mild yet pleasant. I ended up flavoring them with diced tomato, onion, garlic, cumin, oregano and cayenne. They became lunch for Wednesday. Now that I have overcome my new bean phobia I will be making these more often.

I also spent some time in the evening listening to a public webinar that was put on by Hawthorn University that I found interesting. There next webinar is April 5th but you can listen to the webinar archives. When I reviewed the topics they covered a few stood out to me. I will be listening to more of these when I have time. I wanted to mention it and provide the link since I know many of you will be interested and want to check out at least of the archived webinars.

After the webinar dinner was a huge salad (in a serving bowl). I sprinkled the mesclun greens with a little apple cider vinegar and then nutritional yeast for flavor. The salad also included artichoke quarters, grape tomatoes, yellow bell pepper and was finished with white chia seeds (for omega 3). This is one of my favorite salads. I like the cheeziness the nutritional yeast adds to the salad and the tang from the vinegar.

Happy thoughts:

The longer I write my happy thoughts the easier they become for me to appreciate in the moment. Here are my happy thoughts right now:

• I am very fortunate to be married to my best friend. How often do any of us find a person that we adore, that loves us back no matter what? Every day I am thankful to have Dan in my life. I love you sweetie!

• Thank goodness for the TRX Dan bought me for Christmas. It is getting much more use these days than I expected it too. If you have a friend with one you should see if they will demonstrate a workout for you so you can see what it is all about. I can’t wait to use mine outside which will be happening very soon with our gorgeous weather.

• There is no doubt in my mind that I have the best group of people reading my blog. You all give me a lot of motivation to continue to learn and share things with you. I am very fortunate to be in the company of somany other health and nutrition junkies. Thank you all for being there to provide me with inspiration when I am feeling less than healthy.

• I love having the time to read books, what DVDs and listen to webinars on health and nutrition. Learning is something that keeps me pumped.

• I am making a new soup today that is turning out really well and is healthy of course. I thought you might find it interesting to learn how I make up new recipes and what the process looks like. I love sharing things like that since my hope is that my blog makes eating healthy whole food seem possible.

• Who doesn’t love a glorious orange sunset? I almost missed it on Wednesday since I was in the kitchen making soup for dinner. However I came out of the kitchen just in time to see the beautiful blaze of orange and yellow in the sky.

Signing out:

Today has been another long one. I talked on the phone with two different friends, listened to another webinar (which I will tell you about tomorrow) and had things to do here. Sometimes I wonder how I manage to be this busy. Now it is time for me to unwind for the evening. I hope you had a fabulous Wednesday. Talk to you again tomorrow.