Friday, February 13, 2009

Rice & Beans, Beans & Rice...HELP!

We've been eating a LOT of rice and beans, or quinoa and beans, or cous-cous and beans. It's such a healthy, delicious mean, and so easy to prepare or re-heat.

It's getting a little boring.

Last night, Dan baked a sweet potato, soaked black beans, and cooked some quinoa. We mixed it all together (yes, mushed up the sweet potato) with some curry. It was...okay. Something was definitely missing...ideas?

Today Dan goes to register for the trucking course. He'll be attending Pro Drive, which is owned by an old coffee-shop friend of his. It looks like a great program, and Dan is very excited. It's nice to see him looking forward to something work-related!

He will be going for his Class A license, which will allow him to drive the big tractor-trailers. When he gets a driving job, of course he'll have to start at the bottom, which may or may not include a couple of overnight trips a week. I am incredibly stressed out about this! I just keep thinking that, in the long run, he will most likely enjoy this job more than he has enjoyed working in the last 10 years, and that the schedule will settle down to be miles better than any retail schedule could be. I'm looking forward to the day that Saturday means Saturday.

His classes will be two full days a week and three half-days. My dad will be coming down for two of the half-days, and, once my mother has had a chance to recover from her three-week stay in Ohio, I'll be asking what availability she has for those five weeks. We also have a call into the day care center to see if Vi can come for one day a week for a while.

When he does start work again, it seems that Vi will be in day care full-time, which is very hard for me to stomach. While I LOVE the center whe attended, full-time just seems like too much for me. I had JUST gotten used to 3 days! Vi likes it there and will be totally happy to spend more time playing with her friends. (I'm afraid Dada and Mama are getting a little boring, too.)

4 comments:

Kristin said...

Things your beans might be missing: 1) pork fat; 2) salt; 3) glutamate. Smoked ham hock, salt pork, or bacon will solve all three. Bouillon cube (just say yes to MSG) will solve #2 and #3. Beef or chicken broth will solve #3. Other sources for glutamate (umami flavor): any sort of meat, tomato paste, red wine, mushrooms, soy sauce, and a few other high-glutamate foods that I'm not remembering right now. But really, there's a reason why lots of traditional food cultures combine beans with salted, fatty pieces of pig.

Unknown said...

Onion. Salt.

Unknown said...

You are prolific.

Critter's Mom said...

pro⋅lif⋅ic   /prəˈlɪfɪk/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [pruh-lif-ik] Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective 1. producing offspring, young, fruit, etc., abundantly; highly fruitful: a prolific pear tree.
2. producing in large quantities or with great frequency; highly productive: a prolific writer.
3. profusely productive or fruitful (often fol. by in or of): a bequest prolific of litigations.
4. characterized by abundant production: a prolific year for tomatoes.

(Are we producing a lot of beans? A lot of diapers? Oh...a lot of posts. Yah. Trying to.)