When I first heard Paula Deen had been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes…well, I’m not going to lie. I wasn’t surprised. At all. Come on, now.

But I was sad. You guys, I really LIKE Paula Deen. I’ve always watched her shows, and drooled, and wished I could eat what she’s preparing. But I know butter better.

Really. Diabetes is no joke and it made me feel bad for Paula.

Then I started getting more information.

Such as:

1) She was diagnosed three years ago, but wanted to wait to reveal it to the public. This, on it’s own, is completely fine, because truly, it is her personal business.  No one, no matter how famous, owes the general public any disclosure regarding any health issues.

2) She has a deal with pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk and is the spokesperson for their new site Diabetes in a New Light. It was also revealed she takes their drug, Victoza, to treat her diabetes. Okay. She waits three years to reveal her disease, and chooses to when it’s lucrative? Now I’m getting a little annoyed. But again, I can’t judge her for making some money. Well, I can judge her a little. Okay, I’m judging her.

3) Then I’m watching her on The Today Show and oh. my. gosh. Trainwreck. She’s avoiding any reference to the way she eats bringing on the Type 2 Diabetes. She points at race. She points at age. She points at genetics. And yes, all those things can factor in…BUUUUUUT. We all know that being overweight is a MAJOR factor. And Paula, honey, your butter eating ways have caught up with you.

4) It is also convenient that she chose to reveal within weeks of her son, Bobby, debuting his new show Not My Mama’s Meals, a show about lightening up Paula’s delicious artery nightmares recipes. I mean, she even got a plug in for him while being interviewed by Al Roker.

So while I have tremendous sympathy for Paula Deen, and I fully commend her on coming clean on her diagnosis, I wish it were under different circumstances.

With more honesty. With less skirting around the issues.

I sincerely hope that Paula’s health improves and her struggles touch others in a positive way.

And when and if she launches a show on healthy Southern cooking? Oh my gosh, girlfriend, you’ll be filling up my DVR.

What do you think of Paula Deen’s announcement and the resulting fallout? Tell us in the comments!

Photo credit: xtheowl/flickr

I’ve been up since 7 am.

Dogs out. Make coffee. Kids breakfast. My breakfast.  Make husband’s lunch. Playtime for kiddos while I organize/clean garage. Nap for the babe. Five loads of laundry (three year old had an accident last night), washed, dried, folded, put away. Beds made. Load the kids in the car. Haircut for the boy. Lunch. Groceries. Home. Groceries away. Nap number two for the babe. Play outside (Okay, the kiddo played, I scooped dog poop. Yay.) Make dinner. Feed children and myself. Bath time. Kids in jammies. Read same book to the boy…five times.  Reheat dinner for husband. Put the babe to bed. Put the boy to bed. Do the dinner dishes. Put the babe to bed AGAIN.

And here I am. This is the first time I’ve sat down for more than 10 minutes. It’s almost 10:30 pm.

Whew. To say I’m scattered and exhausted is most definitely an understatement.

I’m sure days like this are the norm for many of you. Am I right? Days where you go go GO and when you finally stop, you can’t remember what you’ve done.

As I sit here, pounding away at my keyboard, I feel my lower back aching. I know why it’s hurting – I have zero core strength. I used to do pilates to keep my core, thus my back, in check.

I used to run. I used to spend hours immersed in books. There are so many things I USED to do. I can hardly remember what free time is like. In fact, I wonder what the hell I did with myself before I had children.

Scratch that. I SLEPT.

The lack of ‘me’ time in my life is reaching critical mass. I have a mile long to do list. My personal blog is stagnant. My DVR is bursting at the seams with unwatched shows. I’m living vicariously through Pinterest.

I know I must carve out some time to take care of myself. My body is telling me. It’s hurting. It’s breaking down.

I need exercise. Sleep. Showers that last longer than 2 minutes. Maybe exercise is going to have to be a quick circuit of planks, crunches and push ups while the kiddo is at preschool and the babe (hopefully) naps, with a walk thrown in here and there. Sleep? Go to bed earlier, I suppose. But that means forfeiting the shower.

Ummm.

Seriously, can someone give me a few more hours in the day?

And also? If you have this time juggle figured out, clue a girl in, okay?

When baby #2 was about 6 months old and I was still holding on to all of the pregnancy weight and still eating like I was pregnant, I decided to take matters into my own hands and I joined a gym, hired a personal trainer and committed myself to exercising as much as possible.  I became a gym rat, practically going every day.  Over the next few months, the weight fell off, my body changed in positive ways, and I definitely liked what I saw in the mirror.

I continued going to the gym for the next year, on a regular basis, because it had become part of my routine.

Then I got pregnant with #3, battled horrible morning sickness, broke my toe (and had to wear that uncomfortable black boot) and exercising took a back seat for a while.  When I was finally in the clear to exercise again, I had lost all of my cardiovascular fitness and was basically starting from the beginning.  And 5 months pregnant.

After baby #3 was born, well actually, months after he was born, *The Sisterhood* came into my life.  At that time, with three kids 5 years and younger, a husband who was unemployed, and all of life’s stresses, I was not in the right frame of mind to commit to exercising. 

I *faked* it if you will. 

Ya’ll know what I am talking about.  I said I would exercise, but then would find every reason not to, or I would let any kind of schedule conflict override going to the gym, or I would find any ole excuse in the book NOT to exercise.  Does this sound familiar to any of you?

Then, The Sisterhood started with the fitness challenges and because I was a writer, of course I had to participate, right?!  However, I still felt like I was faking it.  I did the fitness challenges, I did whatever exercises were called for that day yada yada yada, but my heart wasn’t into it and my brain was certainly not participating.  I did the bare minimum in order to say that I was “doing the challenge”.

Enter the Virtual 5K challenge that we hosted back in the Fall of 2009. My newborn was now a year old, my husband was working again, and I had finally reached a point to where I was ready to tackle fitness again.  That Virtual 5K challenge sent me back into the world of loving exercise, planning my day around my fitness activities, striving to achieve goals that I had once only dreamed about. 

Yesterday when I was doing my run + strength workout ( a combination of running on the treadmill with good ole basic weight exercises like squats, push-ups, chin-ups, ab work, tricep dips, lunges, etc) and sweat was pouring off my body and I would have to pause every once in a while to catch my breath, I gave a lot of thought to this thing called fitness and exercise.

I thought:  I want this workout to count.  To mean something.  I want to push my body even further.  I want this to be a GREAT workout.

It was.  I don’t have a lot of time for me in the day.  My workout time is FOR ME and FOR ME ONLY.  I have made it a priority in my life and I schedule all the things I have to do in a given day around my workout time.  No, I don’t workout EVERY single day, but 4-5 days will have a workout for me.  I want my workouts to feel good, like I pushed the envelope, like I am reaching for new heights and achieving new goals.

Sure, I have days where I don’t want to go, or where I am tired and yes, I have even been known to skip a workout- GASP.  But that just happens here or there.  I no longer fake it it.  I am in it for the win- the prize being ME.

I have a goal:  to complete my third half marathon on Feb 20th, 2011 and to register for my first triathlon. 

My question to you is this:  Are YOU faking it?  Doing the bare minimum or participating with your entire being?  Is there anything holding you back from reaching for the stars?  Do you have a fitness goal in mind for the next few months? 

The Power of One, this is some powerful stuff.  What are YOU doing to achieve YOUR fitness goals?

I was so honored and humbled to be “spotlighted” last week.  Tiffany’s words turned me into a bawling mess.  To have such kind words said about little ole me, to be recognized in such a way- well wow, I am still speechless.  Thank you so much Tiffany- I love you!

So now it’s my turn.  I found this to be much harder than it would appear.  I want to spotlight all of you, but had to choose just ONE person.  That one person is Mary.

Pull up a chair and let me tell you about Mary.

• She is 64 years old and she WON the title of Ultimate Shrinkvivor.  That already makes her a bad-ass in my book sorry for cussing, Mary!  Seriously, folks, SHE WON the whole darn thing.  How awesome is that? 
• She has 6 children, 19 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren.
• She has been married to her best friend for 42 years.
• She started Weight Watchers back in April.
• The first challenge you joined was the 21 Day Challenge (remember that, everyone?!).
• I’m not exactly sure of how much weight she has lost so far but at a minimum, 15 lbs (and probably more).  Since April.  She’s a rockstar.
• She has kicked butt in our fitness challenges, challenging herself to move her body, walk away the pounds, and shred her muscles a la Jillian Michaels.   
• I am still getting to know her but I already know these things- she is kind, warm-hearted, sweet, dedicated and she is working so hard to lose the weight. 
• I am SO stinkin’ proud of her success so far.
• A little birdie told me that she has inspired her entire family to join her team on our next teams challenge- could this be true?!

The last sentence of her FIRST post about Shrinking Jeans was this:  Now maybe by not lurking and by joining in, I can be an inspiration too some day.

Mary, I have to say that “some day” has arrived as you are an inspiration to me and to many others as well.

Now it’s your turn to Spotlight the next Sister, Mary! Send your submission to us at
support@shrinkingjeans.net by Friday :).

I like to run.  Well, it’s more like wogging (walk+jogging) but whatevs.  I get the job (ie mileage) done.

Prior to October 2009, I was vehemently OPPOSED to running.  I mean, it hurt, I sweated a lot, my breathing sucked, and did I mention that it hurt?  Why would I want to willingly and knowingly put my body through that?

Now I know that the reason it hurt is because I was pushing my body too hard, too fast and oh yeah, it wasn’t used to moving that way.  DOH!

Enter the Sisterhood Virtual 5K of 2009.  A group of my wonderful, brilliant, awesome sisters had this wonderful idea of training and running a 5K, virtually.  That meant we chose a training plan and committed to doing the plan on our own.  We chose a weekend (Nov 7, 2009) for everyone to run their individual 5K’s at home, asked everyone to take pictures and then we shared the experiences.

Although at that time running was NOT my choice of exercise, I joined the 5K Virtual movement I was forced to do it because everyone else was doing it.  Isn’t peer pressure the BEST?!

Little did I know that participating in that Virtual 5K challenge would lead me to where I am today- willingly and knowingly choosing running as a form of exercise, I’m about to run my SECOND half marathon in 2.5 weeks, and unbeknownst to us here at Shrinking Jeans, we’ve inspired a whole new group of newbies to embrace running.  That little-bitty 5K that a bunch of us committed to in 2009 yielded spectacular results.

How awesome is that?!  So guess what?

It’s time to do it again- woot woot!

The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans is hosting our 2nd Annual Sisterhood Virtual 5K.

Here are the pertinent details:

• Training will begin on Monday, November 1st. Yeah that’s in just a few days- wheee!!!!  There’s no better time to start a training program than right now, right?  Don’t worry though, if you are reading this AFTER November 1st- you can STILL join us.
• We will be following the Couch to 5K training plan (C25K).  It is a 9 week training plan that has been embraced by hundreds/thousands/millions of folks around the world.  It is wonderful for the beginner runner/walker.  Although I have been running for a year, I will be using this program to increase/better my pace : ).
• You do not have to already be a runner to do the training program.  In fact, C25K was developed for new runners, as in folks that have never run before.  Your “runs” are broken down in minutes- as in, jog for 1 minute, walk for 90 seconds.  Lather, rinse, and repeat.  Eventually, over 9 weeks, you will build up to jogging 3 miles (or wogging for me, ha ha).  Really, YOU can do this.
• We here at the Sisterhood will be there to support you along the way.  Pinky promise.
• All of us participating will run a 5K VIRTUALLY on January 8th, 2010.  Why January 8th, you ask?  First off, because it’s 9 weeks after November 1st!  Secondly, because we want to support some of our other running sisters who will be taking on the big kahuna of races (some are doing a half marathon- 13.1 miles, others are doing a FULL marathon- 26.2 miles) at Walt Disneyworld on January 8th.  As in all that we do, we want to encourage and support you guys (our new runners) and we want to encourage and support our “old” runners.
• Grab the “I run with the Sisterhood” button, copy and paste to your blog and BLOG about your training!
• In the very near future, we will be offering NEW Sisterhood shirts through Cafe Press.  Once those are finalized, we will announce it and then you can buy one : ).
• One more thing, I can already hear a few of you saying to yourself- I’m NOT a runner, I’m too big to run, my knees hurt, I don’t exercise yada yada yada.  There are so many excuses to give yourself- heck, I had a MILLION reasons why I couldn’t run.  Finally, I shut off the voices in my head and just did it.  I am by no means a fast runner, and it’s taken me a while to get where I am and truthfully, if I had not had the support of the Sisterhood back in the hard months, I might not be a runner now.  If you start off walking and end up walking the entire 5K, then that’s fine- at least you are moving and exercising.  We are PROUD of all of you, regardless of your level of running/wogging/walking.
• Because we love you so much, we have collected a Round-up of Running posts which includes links to Couch 2 5 K, where to get started with running, finding the right pair of running shoes, and MORE!

So tell me, will you be joining us for the Sisterhood Virtual 5K on January 8th, 2011?! Come join our discussion on the ‘hood!

Let’s have a little fun with today’s Thursday Three.

Do you ever wish you had more money in your pocket/in the bank?  To spend on things that just might not be in your budget?  Yes, I said BUDGET.  Ever since I became a SAHM, we have lived by a budget.  It took some getting used to in the beginning the hubs and I used to argue over that darn thing, but now, five years later, it’s not really a big deal anymore and it’s easy to live by.

Except when I want big ticket items that aren’t in the budget.  Or when times are tight.  Or when we paid for two house mortgages for 1.5 years (we only lived in one of those houses) and my husband was in-between jobs.   During those times, we really had to follow that budget and certain luxuries were forgotten/pushed to the side.  During those times, it was most important to pay our bills, have clothes for the kids and buy groceries. 

We are back to one house mortgage and the hubs has a good job but we still live by that budget.  My husband has an accounting/finance/IT background and was only too happy to put one together for us. 

Built into our budget, we have all the normal things-  mortgage, insurance, household bills (like gas, electricity, phone, etc), groceries, and the like.  We also have a budget for clothing, Xmas, birthdays, car-related expenses, family vacation and kids’ college funds.  At the end of every year, we re-visit our budget and tweak areas that need more money allocated to it and possibly some areas that don’t need as much money allocated to it.  Did I mention that my husband ENJOYS finance and accounting?!!!!

Am I rambling too much?   

Anyhoo, I want to dream a little bit.  I want to throw the budget way of thinking to the wayside for today and DREAM.  What if money were no object and I could have ANYTHING my heart desired?  What would those things be?

I will share what those things would be for me…..

1. I have made it no secret that I want to start doing triathlons.  However, I do not have a bike.  I need a bike in order to do a triathlon.  I am fairly certain I will enjoy doing triathlons.  I want this bike…..or, well, ANY bike, ha ha. 
2. I would love to be able to pay for ALL of YOU to go to Fitbloggin, so that I could meet each and every one of you face to face.  And give you a hug.  And laugh til my sides hurt.

   

3. Last but not least……I want to take a trip to New York City with my BFF.  I’m thinking 6 nights at the St. Regis New York or some other swanky hotel, sight seeing tours to all the touristy attractions, a Broadway show or two, dinner out every night, and the best- an unlimited Visa card for the shopping spree to end all shopping sprees.  Sighhhhh, this sounds so nice to me right now.

(Image Source:  Photobucket)

So, will you dream with me?  If money were no object, what three things would you want?  It can be fitness/health related or not, it can be for you or for others, it can be ANYTHING.  Write a post on your personal blog and leave the link in the comments section OR leave your three directly in the comments.

Have fun with this one!

Back in the day, like WAAAAYYYYYY back in the day, prior to marriage and during my mid-20′s, I considered myself a Latin dancing superstar not really- in my head I danced way better than I did in real life. 

Regardless, my girlfriends and I would regularly visit our favorite salsa dancing club and tear up the dance floor FOR HOURS.  I would always return home from those evenings, soaked with sweat and the next morning I would wake up with sore butt muscles, sore hips and sore calves.  Some mornings it literally felt like my entire body had been run over by a Mack truck.

I loved it.  Obviously.  I kept doing it over and over, every weekend!

Some brilliant genius has taken the Latin moves of the dance floor and turned it into a fitness class called Zumba I wish I had thought of this- I could be a millionaire now!.  A few months ago, I finally attended a Zumba class at my gym.  I shimmied what God gave me, my heart rate skyrocketed, and I made a complete fool of myself as I bee-bopped to Spanish tunes, some hip hop, and all kinds of international tunes. 

The next morning, my entire body hurt.  All over. 

Don’t let anyone tell you that Zumba isn’t a real workout, because it is.  I can’t remember how many calories I burned, but I do know that I worked up a great sweat, my heart beat fast, I worked my entire body and most importantly, I laughed my ass at while looking at myself in the gym mirrors dancing.

It was so much fun.

You may be thinking to yourself:  I don’t have rhythm, my body can’t learn those moves, I look ridiculous.  THROW those thoughts away.  The point of Zumba is to have fun and to get moving, your entire body moving.  It doesn’t matter if you are doing the steps in the correct order and it doesn’t matter if you can’t gyrate your hips like the instructor.  The only thing that matters is that you enjoy yourself and MOVE.

So get going- go Zumba!

Click here to see what Zumba looks like (scroll down and click “play” on the video)

Thursday Three this week is actually going to be Thursday Thirteen. Why? I want to, that’s why.

Okay, fine. Cause three is too few, and thirty is too many. So I’m doing thirteen lovely bullet points chock full of fabulous information.

Today’s topic? Cooking tips and tricks! Are you ready?

Here we go!

• Slightly frozen chicken is much easier to cut than thawed. This goes for most meat!
• You can freeze whole chunks of ginger, and grate it frozen into any recipe calling for ginger. Much better than ginger powder, any day! And cheaper too! Just throw the ginger root into a freezer safe bag and make sure you press all the air out while sealing.
• Don’t like to chop onions? Pop them in the freezer for ten minutes before chopping. No more crying! And easier than wearing swim goggles.
• If you cut lemons and limes halfway open and then nuke them for 20-30 seconds, you will get twice the amount of juice out of them!
• Recipe calls for buttermilk but you don’t have any on hand? Add one tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice to one cup of milk.
• Did you end up buying a fattier package of ground beef than you wanted? If you’re making a recipe that calls for it to be fried and crumbled up, cook as normal, drain as much fat as possible, then place in a colander over the sink. Pour boiling water over the meat to wash off any excess fat.
• Substitute panko, extra crisp Japanese breadcrumbs, for ordinary bread or cracker crumbs. Doing so can reduce the crust’s fat, calories, and sodium by half.
• Puree vegetables to add body to a dish. For example, mash some of the beans in a chili or the potatoes in a chowder. This is also an excellent way to hide extra veggies in a dish. Just a few nights ago, I sauteed and pureed red pepper, zucchini and onion, then added them to my marinara sauce.
• Reduce the fat in home baked goodies by substituting applesauce, pureed prunes, pumpkin, mashed bananas, or yogurt for up to half of the butter, oil or shortening. It works! Obviously prune puree would discolor a yellow cake but does well for chocolate cake and brownies. The end result is moist and fat content is reduced.
• You can revive wilted greens by submerging them in a bath of cold water for 30-60 minutes, which replenishes the water in the leaves and allows them to regain their crispness!
• Not sure if your boiled eggs are done? Place an egg on the counter and spin it, then stop it. Let go. If it stays still, it is done. If it starts spinning again, the egg is not yet hard boiled.
• Did you over salt your soup or stew? Don’t throw it out – simply throw a couple of chunks of peeled potato into the pot, cook until just translucent, then fish out with a slotted spoon. The potato will absorb some of the excess salt.
• Hate to open a can of stock, tomato paste or a bottle of wine for a recipe knowing you only need a small bit and the rest will go to waste (maybe not the wine, at least not in this house)?  Pour the remainder into an ice cube tray, freeze, then remove and place in a labeled freezer bag. Next time a recipe calls for stock, simply pop out cube and defrost!

I know that you all have some great tips! I’m sure of it! So come on, share, directly in the comments, or blog and link up.

Cause you know, sharing is caring. For reals.

A winner has been chosen- DebraCC, send me your address info! All questions will be handed over to Dimity and Sarah and their responses will be posted in the very near future.  – Lisa

This should come as no surprise- I like to run.

I have two non-fiction books that I regularly read, that I pick up all of the time.  The first one is Jeff Galloway’s Book on Running- it taught me HOW to run.

The other is Run Like a Mother, which has KEPT me running.

I have not read the book in its entirety.  In fact, one of the things I like BEST about it is that I can pick it up at any time, skim the Contents page of different chapters and read just the chapters that apply to my interest at that moment in time.

The book is written by two runner moms- women, who just like me, decided to embark on their own running journey years ago.  Sarah is the competitor mom, the one who is always racing against herself, trying to improve her times, her distance, her everything.  Dimity (whom I identify with quite well), just wants to finish the race.

Each chapter touches on various topics of interest to runner moms:  motivation, mental toughness, injuries, how to keep the spouse happy when you are taking so much time away to run, managing the offspring, pregnancy, racing, nutrition, strength training and MORE!

Both Sarah and Dimity write from their viewpoint on most every chapter- it is very interesting to read.  Even better, their writing is like they are sitting right there in front of you, having a conversation and sharing a cup of coffee.

I absolutely ADORE and LOVE this book.  I read it while on the cycle at the gym.  I read it before bed, with just a lamp lighting the words.  I bookmark pages that are of extreme interest to me.

Just the other day, I was at the gym chatting with a friend of mine who is returning to the running world after taking a long break.  She can’t decide if she is ready to commit to running (and believe me, it is a commitment).  I told her- if you decide to go for it (meaning, register for that half marathon), then you have to do it for YOU and no one else.  I run for ME and ME only and I think that is why I enjoy it so much. I started running because my Shrinking Jeans Sisters challenged me to do it….now, I physically and mentally NEED to run. Then, I told her to read this book!

I bought this book with my own money.  No review copy was given to me.  That is how much I like it.

And now, because I like it so much and because I have been emailing back and forth with Sarah and Dimity (the authors), we have ONE copy to giveaway to you.  In addition, they have agreed to answer any and all questions that ya’ll might have.  How cool is that?!

To enter:

• First entry MUST be a question for Sarah and Dimity (the authors).  They agreed to answer our questions, so that means we have to have questions for them.  It can be anything- motherhood, about themselves, how do they do it, races they done, best and worst blah blah blah- you guys get the picture.  Just ask away!
• Get another entry by Tweeting about the giveaway and using @shrinkingjeans in the Tweet.
• Get an extra entry by becoming a fan of Run Like a Mother on Facebook (and leaving us a comment telling us so!)
• Contest ends Wednesday, September 1st at 11:59pm PST.  Winner will be chosen via random.org.

One other small note….this book isn’t just for runner moms.  I think it is relevant to any woman, mom or now, runner or not.  If you are on a journey to health and fitness, then you will enjoy this book.

Disclosure:  I did not receive a copy of this book for review- I bought my own. No monetary compensation was provided. Of course, as always, the opinions expressed are our own.

Yes, I know. Beans aren’t really a fruit.  And I’m not just talking about BEANS today. I’m talking about legumes.

But doesn’t that just take you back? Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart…

Okay, now that you’ve had your fill of childhood limericks, let’s talk legumes, shall we?

Today I’m going to talk about the redheaded stepchild of protein. As a rule, beans kind of get pushed to the side as a vegetarian option or doused in a sweet sauce and served with barbecue. But honestly? They deserve center stage, for several reasons:

1) Beans are a nutritional superstar – high in fiber and protein and low in fat.

2) Beans are super, duper inexpensive. If you buy them in a can, they’ll cost a tad more, but it’s negligible in comparison with meat.

3) Beans are versatile. They’re an easy fit in any cuisine. EVEN DESSERT – check out this awesome black bean brownie recipe!

Right now, you’re maybe saying, yeah, Heather. Great. Beans. But the only recipe popping to mind is baked beans or 5 bean salad.

Don’t fret, I’ve got a couple flavorful and fun bean recipes coming up. First off? Chickpeas (a.k.a. garbanzo beans). Chickpeas are delicious and buttery, and usually take center stage in hummus. They’re also very widely used in Indian cuisine. Yesterday, I noticed a Tweet from @ReneeJRoss about a curry dish she made – we are both currently doing a cleanse using the Clean Program – and I was so excited to try this super easy recipe for a high protein, gluten and dairy free meal! (Thanks again, Renee!)

East Meets West Curry

You’ll need:

1 can chickpeas, partially (but not completely) drained

1 zucchini, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp curry powder (or more/less according to your taste)

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a wok or large frying pan. Saute the onions and garlic till translucent, then add the zucchini. Cook, stirring often, till soft.  Add partially drained chickpeas (the liquid will help create a bit of a sauce) and the curry powder. Heat through and allow liquid to reduce a bit. Serve of your choice of grain (I chose quinoa).

The second recipe I’d like to share today is a wonderful salad. Not only do I eat it as is, I also throw it in a whole wheat wrap with some shredded cheddar and avocado. Yum!

Corn, Black Bean and Edamame Salad

1 bag frozen corn

1 bag frozen, shelled edamame, prepared according to package instructions

1 can black beans, drained

1 red bell pepper, diced

Handful of cilantro, roughly chopped

1 clove garlic, grated through mircoplane or finely diced

Juice of one lime

Small palmful of cumin

2 Tbsp olive oil

Sea salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl, combine the corn, edamame, black beans, red pepper and cilantro. In a separate bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients with a whisk, then add to the corn mixture. Refrigerate to allow for corn to thaw and for the flavors to meld.

So, I guess what I’m saying is give beans a chance! Now, I want to know: do you have any fantastic bean recipes? Link below!