8/3/11

Growing Sprouts

                            What you'll need:                                    

 


To get started you'll need a jar, some cheese cloth, whatever you want to sprout (lentils, legumes, beans, wheat, etc) and a rubber band.

Step One:
 put seeds/beans in glass jar

Step 2: cut out a piece of cheesecloth and cover jar, using your rubber band to seal it. 

Step 3:
Add water to jar and soak for about 8 hours 

Step 4:
strain water from jar and prop up so the sprouts don't retain excess moisture (this can cause mildewwww)

Step 5:  Rinse your sprouts about every 6-8 hours (or every 4 hours if you're using chic peas- these take forever to sprout so you want to make sure they stay really clean throughout the long process).  After you rinse your sprouts remember to prop up your jar to remove excess moisture!


After 2-3 days, enjoy your sprouts!

tips: a little goes a long way so don't overfill your jar.  start out with a thin layer of seeds/beans.  do research on what you want to sprout- some items take longer than others and you need to be more careful with those to prevent mildew.  If your sprouts smell funky, don't eat them.  duh. :)

7/30/11

food and hulu


It feels like everyone I know is out of town right now so I've been spending a lot of time with my dog, watching episodes of Degrassi High on Hulu and trying out new recipes.  I'll get to the hulu in a sec, but let me tell you about my experience thus far with cooking.  I have never really cooked, unless you count pre-made patties that you throw on the George Foreman or bowls of cereal (I'm an expert at cereal).  I suck at following directions.  Not all directions- I'm excellent at microwaving tv dinners.  In fact I follow those directions maybe a little too closely, like to the second.  But when I have a recipe that yields 12 veggie burgers and I only have the ingredients for 2, the directions go out the window after the first equation involving a fraction.  Of all the valuable life lessons my mother imparted on me during my childhood, cooking was certainly not one of them.  We had a wooden carved pig that hung on our kitchen wall with the quote "never trust a skinny cook" printed on it.  My mom, a size 4 for most of my childhood years, was definitely not to be trusted. 

Given my background, I was pleased at how this (solitary) veggie burger turned out.  True to form, I did not follow the recipe but I did use the ingredients and roughly the cook time. 

Ingredients:
toasted bread crumbs
cooked lentils
egg
salt
pepper
chopped onion

I just threw in what I thought looked good (please don't ask for a calorie count) and I ground this all up in my mini food processor and put it in some oil on a pan on the stove (is this called frying?  see, i'm a culinary idiot).  I paired it with an arugula, goat cheese, almond and dried fruit salad.  My favorite.  I have to say that it's the second best veggie burger I've ever had. 

Now back to the hulu.  I'm obsessed with Degrassi- not the new ones, but the ones that came out in the mid to late 80s.  Caitlin is my favorite.  Please comment if you have any idea what I'm talking about.

7/22/11

double trouble


So, here are my 2 final outfits for the 30 for 30 challenge.  I'm so happy to be done!  One thing this time around has taught me is that no matter how much I want to blog,  real life priorities/desires frequently get in the way.  Part of me wanted to be completely dedicated to this challenge, but other parts of me were more excited about running, books and planning my vacations.  I'd like to try to incorporate some of that other "stuff" into future posts.  I feel a little one-dimensional on here and, after all, the title of this blog IS Multiple Factors.  :)

Happy shopping, everyone!

7/20/11

Yes! Paris.




Guess what? I am technically done with my 30 days as of yesterday, just still behind in my posts.  I have no money though so I'm not rushing out to Target or anything.  My birthday is on Monday and I'm hoping the birthday fairy finds my mailbox by then and I can afford my upcoming shopping trip.  (I just found out that my mom is actually the running shoe fairy when she told me she would treat me at the Nike outlet this weekend).

The shorts in this post are my absolute favorites.  So much so that I'm sure all my friends are really sick of seeing them.  I haven't been posting much of my casual/weekend outfits this time around.  I try to stick within my 30 pieces (though sometimes I have to wear athletic shoes) and it ends up being these shorts and one of the few t-shirts (like this one) I included.  I will never retire these shorts though.  They are the most comfortable things I own!

7/18/11

Cold front



The other day a cold front came in and it was actually nice enough out to wear jeans and a summer scarf.  I bought this scarf in Mexico on my honeymoon and am so happy I finally got to wear it!  The cold front is gone now and this post is making me nostalgic.  This is the hottest summer I can ever recall!

7/17/11

A familiar look



Okay, so this is almost exactly the same outfit I wore in a previous post, minus a different color cami.  I'm sorry.  My creativity seems to be stunted these last few days of the challenge.  How about everyone else?  Are you almost done?  My friend Jenee also took the challenge and she speed through and is already finished while I still have 4 more outfits to post.  She better not go shopping without me!  

7/16/11

It's the humidity



Thanks to the wonderful humidity here in Georgia, occasionally I get really BIG hair.  And when I get big hair I like to wear things with poofy shoulders so I don't look like a shaved poodle or something. 

I'm 2 outfits behind somehow.  What I mean is that I have the pictures all ready, but no posts to go along with them.  This photo was actually from two days ago (so if you saw me on the street today, no, I'm not cheating, you'll see photos of this outfit on Monday- assuming I don't slack off between now and then.)  I still have a shirt and a pair of shorts (is that all?) that haven't made it into my mix and with only 3 outfits left to go- and not much desire to wear said shorts and shirt- you may not see them.  I'm sure you're crying about it now.  It's okay, really. 

Do you ever get the desire to just throw out all of your clothing and start from scratch?  If I had $3,000 to spare I might just do that after this challenge is over.  I'm so sick of it all!