I didn't do much outside the house this weekend other than go grocery shopping and to a wonderful church service. Jose is pretty miserable with a head cold so I decided to provide some TLC through cooking. He is the main cook these days, now that he's retired and I'm in work mode. But I wanted to make some comfort food for him and try a couple new recipes in the process. Saturday I baked banana bread (doubled the recipe) and sent one loaf to Matthew's best friend's family. I also tried a new recipe for chicken noodle soup Quick and Easy Chicken Noodle Soup. He really loved it and there was plenty to put into individual portions for this week's lunches for him. I had been wanting to try a new pinto bean recipe, so I found this one: Terry's Texas Pinto Beans. This was my first experience using "real pinto beans" meaning the hard dried ones you buy in a bag instead of cooked ones in the can. I had soaked them all day Saturday but they still took some extra hours cooking. I made brown rice in the rice cooker and grilled a turkey sausage to go with it. I've portioned it out for my lunches this week. A tasty, high protein, high fiber meal. My sister and her kids stopped by unexpectedly yesterday during my nap (hey, I had to make up for that lost hour of sleep since we moved the clocks ahead!). They were around during dinner time so I made some quick tacos and then patty melts for Jose and I. It felt good to spend that time in the kitchen. I'm grateful to my son, Joe, for doing all the dishes. There were a lot of them after Saturday night's cooking.
On the reading front, I finished John Grisham's newest book, The Associate. It really was a pageturner! I will admit to being a bit disappointed in the ending. I wanted to know more about the identity of the "bad guys". I also started and finished (late last night) Gardenias for Breakfast. I really enjoyed this book. The journey across the U.S. and points of interest were fun and I'm always up for reading a book about relationships among mothers and daughters. The references to faith inspired me to remember that God is in the small details of our lives and we need to remember to think of him there too. I'd recommend it if you enjoy Christian fiction. It was a really quick read too!
So tomorrow it's back to work. A busy week with parent conferences for "at risk" students and more district assessments. I'm grateful that I've had this opportunity to relax this weekend.
2 comments:
Not a bad weekend! Hope Jose is feeling better, I hate head colds. And I will have to check out that book. I can't believe I am acytually reading the Twilight series. It would never have been a set of books I woulod have picked up but my sister gave them to me and told me they weren't just for tweens. LOL I don't even like vampire anything..........but they are an easy fun read. Have a great week Maria and so sorry it's taken me this long to come and visit.
Sounds like a good weekend, but you stayed busy cooking! You definitely deserved a couple of naps :) Those recipes both sound good. The chicken noodle soup sounds a lot like the one I make, which is a quick and easy one from Rachael Ray. I want to try some beans soon. I used to buy a Zatarains seasoning mix for white beans that we really liked, but they apparently don't make it any more. I need to do more bean dishes, and more meatless stuff. I'm so impressed with your healthy eating and stuff you're doing Maria, you're being so disciplined and dedicated! We've been cheating a lot, I'm afraid :)
I bought a rice cooker a couple of months back, the smallest one on the market, I think, but have only done white rice in it. I want to try brown rice. Good idea to do that and beans and grill some turkey sausages. We've been eating chicken sausages, cut up in a pan with onions and peppers and done on a sub/hoagie type roll. Good, but lots of bread (albeit wheat).
I am going to try to read The Associate sooner than later. I hate to hear that about the ending though, but looking forward to a good "page-turner", as you called it! And I just checked online, and my county library has the Gardenias book, although I'll have to get them to get it from a distant branch. After I catch up later this year on a bunch of TBR books I have purchased and have here, I'm planning on a big library trip. I'll have to have this one added to my list, thanks for the recommendation :)
Ok, my comment is probably longer than your post, time to stop! Have a great day :)
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