Day 27: 30 Day Picture Challenge

Day 27 - A picture of yourself and a family member.

A picture of my brother, grandma Howard and baby me!

Day 26: 30 Day Picture Challenge

Day 26 - A picture of something that means a lot to you.

My boyfriend gave me this necklace last Christmas.  It was the first piece of jewelry he bought for me.  I thought it was thoughtful, and I love it because he gave it to me. 

Busy… Busy… Busy…

When I get really busy, the first thing to go is blogging.  It’s been a little while since my last post.  It’s been rainy and gloomy in Oklahoma.  It’s so hard to wake up in the morning when it is so gloomy!  April Showers…

Our family pet, Ginger, also past this last weekend. 

Although it was sad, we were glad she didn’t suffer, and she lived a really long life.  We had her since I was about 14.  She was a good dog. 

I was walking home from junior high on Valentine’s Day, and she was in our backyard.  I thought my parent’s had gotten me a puppy for the holiday.  Turned out she was abandoned and had gotten into our backyard.  Long story short, I really got a puppy for Valentine’s Day, but my parent’s just didn’t know about it yet.  :)

Also in news… My parents went on a Mediterranean Cruise plus first class airfare!  I am so jealous!!  This is them:

LUCKY!!

Turkey Sloppy Joes

I know how hypocritical this is since I just talked about eating less poultry and less meat.  BUT, I was looking through the Cook This, Not That book the other night and found a recipe for turkey sloppy joes. 

I check out cookbooks from the library to get new recipe ideas, but these books are extremely popular.  You see them everywhere!

Here’s the recipe that I revised just a little:

1     tsp olive oil
1     lb lean ground turkey
1     medium onion, diced
1     medium green bell pepper, diced
2     cloves garlic, minced
1/2  c ketchup
1     Tbsp chili powder
2     tsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper, to taste
4     whole wheat hamburger buns, warmed

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil, onion, pepper, and garlic. Sauté, stirring occasionally, the onions are translucent.

Add the turkey sauté until cooked completely. 

Add the ketchup, chili powder, and Worcestershire. I also added several shakes of hot sauce.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer for at least 15 minutes. 

Serve with the buns. Makes 4 servings

It was pretty enjoyable!  Give it a try!

Day 25: 30 Day Picture Challenge

Day 25 - A picture of your day.

My days mostly consist of looking at these two faces…

They will stare at me and climb all over me until I pay attention to them.  Just like children…

Day 24: 30 Day Picture Challenge

Day 24 - A picture of something you wish you could change.

We are definitely dog people.  I adopted Louis from the Tulsa SPCA, and we adopted Jack from friends that were trying to find the homeless puppies a family.  I definitely recommend adopting dogs from shelters rather than buying them from breeders.  It is horrible to hear about the puppy mills and how those dogs are kept.  There is a lot of animal cruelty by breeders.  Plus, there are plenty of pets that need homes without having to breed more.  Too many animals get put down because the shelters cannot find homes for them all. 

My boyfriend received a brochure the other day about cutting back eating meat.  It talks about just cutting your meat consumption in half can spare hundreds of animals from a lifetime of suffering.  It is really sad to think about all the animal cruelty,and the pictures are horrible of the factory farms.  Because the pictures and facts are pretty horrific and literally make me sick to my stomach, I won’t divulge into all that information. 

The brochure gives some tips for changing your habits without completely changing to a vegetarian/vegan diet:

• Substitute marinara for meat sauce
• Eat bean burritos instead of beef or chicken tacos
• Although all factory faming involves cruel practices, you can spare more animals by avoiding eggs, chicken, turkey and pigs.
• Years of eating less meat and eggs will prevent more suffering than a brief stint on a vegan diet.
• You can order a free booklet for more ideas at OpposeCruelty.org/guide. 

Feel free to also check out the brochure and website here.

Black Bean Brownies

I saw Brittany from A Healthy Slice of Life make these Black Bean Brownies, and I wanted to give them a try.

Ingredients

• 1 (15.5 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease an 8x8 square baking dish.
2. Combine the black beans, eggs, oil, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla extract, and sugar in a blender; blend until smooth; pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top of the mixture.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the top is dry and the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 30 minutes.

I hardly ever use the blender.  So, I had to dig it out of the top cabinets, which means moving all the dog treats and liquor out of the way and finding something to use as a step stool.  After about ten minutes of trying to get out the blender, figuring out how to put it together and cursing myself, I dumped all the ingredients into it.  It will look a little something like this at first…

But then, it will turn into this…

 

Then, if you don’t use the blender a lot, you try to remove the glass pitcher from the base and everything will immediately start to leak everywhere!  Ugh!  Luckily, I realized what was happening and managed to get some of the batter into the pan.  (I may have scraped some of it off the counter… Don’t judge) Top it off with some chocolate chips, and it’s good to go.

 

30 Minutes later…

 

Well, it looks pretty normal.   The real taste test is my boyfriend.  I didn’t tell him they had black beans in them, but I did say they were a little different.  He tried one and immediately said they were a little dry.  I think this might be because I still haven’t figured out our oven.  It bakes everything super fast, and I have to adjust accordingly.

Anyways, I told him there were black beans in the brownies.  He just sort of laughed and said ok, whatever.  BUT, they were a little dry.  Not bad, but not amazing.  I know they weren’t that good because he only ate a really small brownie and usually he will eat half the pan.  So, maybe I will try them again and cook them for less time, but probably not.