All posts by Nichole

oooo bean eaters, i believe we will eat some beans tonight

09/16/2010 Nichole 4 Comments

The downside to having a Verizon MiFi card is that it has a pretty small monthly data allowance. And when you go over that allowance? They come to your house and take all the money you’d carefully stashed under your mattress. I tell you this to say: I’m woefully close to exceeding the bandwidth limit this month. Hence the quietude around here.

I’m only breaking my radio silence — and typing on my cell phone — to tell you about tonight’s dinner. It was bean griddle cakes, and it was marvelous. The original recipe is from Mark Bittman’s “how to cook everything.” It was just Pete and me eating tonight, so I cut the recipe in half. And it still made far more bean pancakes than we could eat. (And yes. They’re basically pancakes made out of beans. But trust me on this: delicious.)

The Bittman recipe calls for whatever beans you’d like to use. Here’s what we had:

black bean griddle cakes
1 can black beans, drained
1/2 cup 2% milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon corn oil
1/2 cup flour
Taco seasoning to taste

Use a stick blender to mash beans. Add everything else and blend some more. Cook in skillet over medium-high heat, just like pancakes. When small bubbles form on top, flip ’em and cook a few more minutes. Serve with shredded cheese and salsa.

My internet machine resets next Wednesday. I hope to see you again then. In the meantine, go make yourself some bean pancakes!

menu plan Monday

I shouldn’t operate a shopping cart while taking cold medicine

09/13/2010 Nichole 5 Comments

Strange things tend to happen when I go to the grocery store with a cold. Things like this: I bought Hamburger Helper this week. Not that there’s anything wrong with Hamburger Helper. My mom made it a lot when I was growing up. My mom was also a single mother who worked full time and didn’t especially like to cook, though, and I’m a stay-at-home mom who usually does enjoy cooking. But there I was, sniffly and tired, dragging two small people around the store, and there was the HH on the shelf, looking all easy and on sale. And before I knew it, I was planning to have boxed beef stroganoff tonight for dinner. That kind of seems appropriate, though, as the only meal I’m actually making from scratch this week will be Wednesday night’s omelets.

Monday: Hamburger Helper beef stroganoff.: It’s from their whole wheat line. I’m hoping it’ll be delicious.
Tuesday: Enchilada soup.: The mix I’m using calls for shredded chicken, but I’m leaving it out.
Wednesday: Omelets.: If the cold hasn’t gone away, I probably won’t be going to church on Wednesday night. Omelets are quick enough to make beforehand if I do go, though.
Thursday: Wild rice soup.: This is from the same company as the enchilada soup mix.
Friday: In-laws’ house, probably.

Homeschool

A hectic start to a simple week

09/11/2010 Nichole 3 Comments

The kids and I were lounging on my bed reading this week’s Five in a Row title (“Gramma’s Walk”) on Monday when our once-leisurely morning took a turn for the chaotic. Rockford was leaving for a business trip, and we’d planned to drop him off at the airport in the afternoon. Except that once he checked his itinerary, he realized he’d been wrong about when his plane was leaving. A good deal of rushing around later, and we got him to the airport on time. Then we went home, made a picnic lunch, drove to the park, discovered there was some sort of festival going on at the park, tried to go to a different park, got lost, finally got there, had lunch, played, encountered a pack of wild rude girls, had tantrums and came back home. Phew.

This, friends, is not my idea of a Good Way to Start One’s Week. Happily, things did improve and settle down a bit. My mom came over on Tuesday to stay for a few days, and that’s pretty much like having an in-house nanny. And that’s a big win in my book!

Monday

I’m trying to do some cooking lessons with Poppy, and this week we decided to talk about eggs. We talked about their nutritional value and all of the great things you can do with them, then we made some fried eggs for Poppy and omelets for me and Pete.

Additional work: Handwriting, Spanish, “Doctor Dolittle.”

Tuesday

Health, handwriting, Spanish and “Doctor Dolittle.”

Wednesday

Handwriting, Spanish, ballet and “Doctor Dolittle.”

Thursday

Spanish, and we finished “Doctor Dolittle.” Poppy was pretty upset that the book had ended.

Friday

We talked about simplicity and realism in art, and I helped Poppy make a sketch of a rose in a vase to paint. And when I say “help,” I mean I flipped the paper over and sketched it for her after she’d drawn a giant black squiggle. I usually let her do her own interpretation of whatever we’re doing, art-wise, but I wanted to emphasize the “realism” part of the effort.

Additional work: Spanish, handwriting and a new read-aloud: “My Father’s Dragon.”

I’m experimenting with a nearly year-round schedule this year. We’re doing three weeks of school followed by a week off from August through June. Next week is our first break, during which I’m going to be gathering materials and putting things together for our second three-week session.