250 Best Beans, Lentils and Tofu Recipes – a cookbook review

I love beans and lentils. Convincing my family to love beans and lentils? That’s another story.

We’ve all heard about the benefits of going “meatless”. From nutrition to money-saving and environmental benefits, the advantages of going “meatless” one night a week benefit everyone.

And, although my husband listens when I extol the virtues of a meat-free night once each week, I know he’s not keen on the idea. And you can probably guess what my kids think about it.

To support my argument in favour of meatless dinners, I need an arsenal of recipes that are delicious, easy and kid-friendly (because “delicious” alone doesn’t cut it for my kids).

And here it is folks, my new recipe arsenal:

Staying on track

Last week, Husband sent me an excited, adamant text message mid-way through the day stating that he was done with crappy eating and he was cleaning up his act.

I jumped on his band wagon, eager to enjoy a healthier lifestyle.

Brain Overload!

OhMyGosh! Can we say, “brain overload?”

Of late, I have been trudging through the World Wide Web, looking for tips and information on healthy eating for families who want to get back on track. And by back on track I mean, Mommy and Daddy want to lose some serious pounds before the family vacay, and kid #1 and kid #2 need to start eating enough healthy food to give them energy for all the fun activities we’ll be doing on said family vacay.

Now, we all know there is a TON of information out there and it would take eons to get through it all. Plus a good portion of the information probably isn’t great anyway. But WOW, it’s almost a full time job just sifting through some of it, trying to find what might work for me and my family.

One decision down, a lifetime of decisions left to go

Or at least, that’s how it feels.

We did finally settle on one thing that has been plaguing us for about two years now. And to lift the shroud of secrecy under which the Decisions Series posts have been written, I’ll let you know exactly what we decided.

“Strict” parental control really is (for me) sweet success

Recently, I have slipped a bit in the “controlling screen time department.” Generally speaking, my children get 1.5 hours of TV per day (At home, that is. What they do outside our home is basically out of my control.)

It breaks down something like this:

Spaghetti pie

Who doesn’t think spaghetti is always better left over? There’s something about anything in tomato sauce that has been sitting in a sealed container in the fridge overnight. The longer tomato sauce soaked pasta sits, the tastier it is.

Music is my life

Well, not exactly. I like music. I can sort of jingle out a tune on the piano and I played clarinet in the school band. I also started learning guitar when I first met the man who would become my husband (admittedly, it was mostly to impress him because he played guitar and he had a thing for chicks who played guitar).

But I digress. (Don’t I always?)

Stretching the meat budget

So, in the on-going effort to make the almighty dollar stretch ever further, I have started looking for ways to “increase my meat”.

Peanut Butter Banana Roll-Ups

Sometimes, life calls for E-Z. This was one of those weeks.

Try New Foods!

So, my eternally picky eater daughter ate and loved the dinner I cooked.

I made mango curry ground beef with white rice and mixed veggies. I also puréed some of the veggies and hid them in the sauce (just in case).