Spiced Roasted Chickpea Variations

When I started my diet change I bought a bag of spiced roasted chickpeas. They were okay but it wasn't amazing. A couple of months ago, I decided to give them a second chance. It was worth it. Usually I have a problem of struggling to make sure the chickpeas make the dinner table. Not sure that's a bad problem to have. There are endless variations too. We've only made savory variations but I imagine sweet variations might be a good option (cinnamon sugar, maybe?) I made a list of so-far untested (by me) variations to get you going on thinking of your own.

Stuffed Monsters

My cousin's angel of a daughter turns one in September. Seriously, this child is perfect. We went on vacation with them and her fussy is a normal child's good day. This is the who my mom and I made this quilt for last year (part one, part two.) So when my cousin asked if I would be willing to sew a couple of stuffed monsters for a Pink Monster themed birthday party, I was happy to. It helped that I was waiting for fabric for a quilt to arrive and I had nothing better to do with my time.

She asked for bright versions of yellow, purple, blue, and pink. She had a couple of requests in terms of what some looked like but otherwise I had artistic freedom. The dog-earred monsters were closely based off a commercial brand but the others are looser. My favorite is the cyclops and the sort of adipose-like ones. My cousin seems really pleased.

Philly Portobello Steak Sandwich

Starting off again with a recipe that should make both veggie lovers and people like my dad (who rose a fuss if a meal doesn't clearly contain MEAT, in all caps) happy. I say should because some people just can't be pleased. 

This is based off of Veggies Don't Bite's Philly Portobello Steak Sandwich, though I didn't change that much from the original recipe in all honesty.

DH had a mushroom craving so he really wanted this, especially since it was easy to un-veganize (he added provolone slices to his sandwich.) I never had a taste for the real cheese steak- never being a steak fan and not agreeing with cheese so I can't really compare to the real deal (I also don't like going into Philly so...)

We used Harris Teeter wheat rolls but I found them dry and not crusty enough to hold up. I think a whole wheat french loaf or some sort of hearty bread would be a better option. Next time I think I'll use a modified version of the Basic Bread from the Soup and Bread Cookbook.  Made a whole wheat oatmeal loaf variation the other day that had a fantastic crust.

An End to the Radio Silence

On Monday I had my 9 month follow up with my PCP and realized I've left this space vacant for pretty much that entire span. I didn't mean for 9-ish months to go by without posting anything new. Oops...
First things first, I finished my master's program this spring!

It would be nice if graduation robes had more defined sizing other than "<250lbs"

The last nine months saw weight loss in both DH and I (he's been averaging about a pound a week for the last year and a half- meaning his ideal weight is less than a year away!), severe drop in my cholesterol (125 points off my total, 85 off my triglycerides, and 105 off my LDL), an increase in fitness (the last time I was this in shape was when I was training as starting midfield- over a decade ago), and... an increase in Olive's weight. Her allergies got so bad that she was put on prednisone based pill so she puffed right up to a very unreasonable weight which refuses to go away with diet and exercise changes.

Still as scruffy as ever

Also because of the combination of new diet and exercise, none of my me-made clothes fit. In fact, I've replaced 95% of my wardrobe since the beginning of the year. It was jump started by AA losing my luggage over Christmas and doing some emergency shopping to not wear the same shirt and jeans for a week and a half (luggage eventually showed up.) Some of my patterns have a restricted size range so I need to replace those as I find time (first was my Smooth Sailing pattern, I miss those trousers a lot.) Part of this process of replacing my wardrobe is really looking at my career goals and how I want to be perceived. I mostly replaced my clothes with second hand clothes since:
A. I have no idea what kind of museum I will be in - or in what level of position (I've applied to everything from local farm museums to federal museums to private art collections)
B.  I have no idea what the climate with be like where we are living (applied to all four corners of the continental US)
C. A & B throws out most of my expectations a year ago.
D. My body is still changing and I'm getting used to a new shape (proportions changed a little.)
E. I'm still wrestling between how to blend my ideal with my reality (vintage and practical don't always got hand in hand, especially when reality is moldy books, grave wax, and chain grease.)
Because these will change as time goes on and I find out where I'll be working, garment sewing has been put on the back-burner. Instead, I've worked on more quilting and some small sewing projects, . Also, DH and my dad built me a fantastic sewing table. Pictures have to wait for that as they built it at my parents' house.

You'll meet these guys in a little bit

I promise I have some posts written already so there should be less radio silence, at least for a little while. At worst I can ramble about my decorating plans for our new house (we are getting a house, I'm very much done with our condo HOA, sharing walls, and multi-unit fire protection systems*) and review Olive's training gear (yes, she has gear.) Expect a good number of colorful meals, that are low cholesterol, low processed carb, and very filling (even meat-lover DH is okay with most of them.)

*There were quite a few 3-5am fire alarms this summer, some went on for hours. The fire department won't even come for the first 45 minutes, they're so done with it all.