Chickpea Crockpot Pie with Biscuit Topping

Just made a new vegan recipe today in the crockpot.  It turned out very nicely, although my prep time took a good bit longer than the 10 minutes noted in the recipe!!  New recipes always take longer to make, as I keep re-reading the ingredients and directions to make sure I'm not missing anything.  Still, that doesn't stop me from making some often-times disastrous mistakes!

If you are interested, here is the link to the recipe:  Chickpea Crockpot Pie with Biscuit Topping.  I changed a few things, as usual - no celery (Fred is not a fan), and subbed frozen corn for the green peas.  Probably could have added frozen green beans, but I didn't have any.  Oh, well.

Banned Book Week September 22-28

September 22-28 is the American Library Association's Annual Banned Book week.  Join me and others in challenging our immensely important right to intellectual freedom to read what we choose to read.

To quote the ALA website:   "The American Library Association promotes the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one's opinions even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular, and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those viewpoints to all who wish to read them."

So, what are some titles that have been banned or challenged at one time or another?  How about:

Here are some lists to help you choose your next "banned" book to read:

100 Most Frequently Challenged Books 1990-1999

100 Most Frequently Challenged Books 2000-2009

According to my reading records, I have read 30 books from the Banned Book Lists.  I would have to say there was only one title I could not finish - "Naked Lunch".   Also, of these books, there were only seven that I rated below a "4" on a scale of 1-5, with a rating of  "5" meaning "It was amazing!".  

Happy Reading!!

Recent New Recipes

This past week I tried several new recipes.  Some were keepers, some were not so hot, or were not worth the long preparation time.

The non-keeper of the week was for Red Quinoa and Sweet Potato Croquettes.  I had made another flop of a recipe with red quinoa previously, and had frozen the leftover quinoa, so I thought this would be a great way to use the leftovers.  Well, these little "burgers" were lacking in flavor, and took WAY too long to prepare, even though my quinoa was already cooked.

The first keeper recipe was Polenta and Beans from FitSugar.

This was very tasty, even though my polenta rounds didn't get as crispy as these in the author's picture. I really liked that this recipe came together very quickly.

The second keeper recipe was a conglomeration of several recipes for Spanakoritzo - Greek Spinach with Rice.  My recipe was closest to the one on this website:  White Hot Oven.  The changes I made were that I used white basmati rice instead of long grain white rice; added a green onion, chopped, added 1/2 tsp dried dill weed, and used a 5.6 oz package of organic baby spinach; did not use any lemon juice. This was delicious!  If you wanted to lower the carb content, you could use half as much rice as called for.  

The last new recipe was for Key Lime Ice "Cream" from this website:  Laura's Gluten Free Pantry.  As usual, I made a few changes - for one of the cans of coconut milk, I used Lite Coconut Milk.  Since I couldn't find Key Limes, I used 2 large regular limes.  Now, Fred didn't like this as much as I did - only because he's not a fan of tart things.  I thought it was fabulous!

September is National Yoga Month

The month of September is National Yoga Month!  Yah!!!  If you've never tried yoga, maybe this is the month for you.

Yoga has become very popular in Northwest Arkansas, and I'm happy to be a part of this movement.  It has now been about a year since I first tried yoga, and was hooked immediately.  So much so, that I started taking classes towards my Yoga Alliance 200-Hr RYT designation.  After becoming "certified" in Yoga and Indoor Cycling through Fitour, I chose YogaFit as my training source for continued yoga study.  YogaFit allows me to spread my training out over time, which allows me to practice what I learn at each training, building proficiency, and not forcing my body to do things that, at age 53, may be more challenging than to a 20-something body.  Another benefit of taking longer to achieve the 200-Hr designation is I can spread out the cost of training.  Since starting with YogaFit in January 2013, I have now completed four of the eleven classes required for the 200-Hr RYT designation.

If you are looking to try yoga, the Bella Vista POA offers classes at Branchwood, Riordan Hall, and Metfield (beginning Sept 10!).  You can go to the Bella Vista POA website under "Recreation", then click on the clubhouse you are interested in to find classes and times.   There are also a number of studios and gyms in Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale, and Fayetteville where you can practice yoga.

One can always practice at home too!  The beauty of home practice is you choose the time.  There a tons of free yoga classes on the Internet and on YouTube in particular.  One of my favorites on YouTube is  Dr. Melissa West.  She has beginner, intermediate, and advanced classes and all kinds in between.  A neat iPhone app I found is Yogify.  This app has several free classes, and you can choose to buy more at a reasonable cost.

Bottom line, the key to maintaining a regular practice is finding a time, a location, a price, and a style that you enjoy.

Peace and Namaste'
Carrie