Cooking for Happiness: Veggie Breakfast Burritos!

I was hankering for some "brinner" (breakfast for dinner) tonight along with a craving for a burrito from my favorite burrito place...but I resisted the urge to buy the dinner I couldn't afford and here's what I came up with in its place; nothing fancy, all with stuff I had...minus the cheese--had to go to CVS for the cheese...

Veggie breakfast burritos!

So nom. And good for you!

You'll need:

Veggies: tomato, onion, garlic, and anything else you have around. Kale is always good.

1 can black beans 

Olive oil

2 eggs 

Mini corn tortillas

Shredded cheese of your choice 

Makes two burritos and leftover beans and veggies for lunch tomorrow!

Let's get started!

First, chop up all your veggies. For me, this started with two cloves of garlic, 1 tomato and half a huge onion. I added some regular mushrooms (about 6 of various sizes) I had in the fridge and tore up some kale into bite sized pieces (2 big leaves). When I'm cooking, I like to chop everything that needs to be chopped or prepped before I actually turn the heat on under the skillet--it makes for everything to go a little smoother once the heat is going! 

Make sure you're using a large saucepan for this with room enough for all your veggies and your beans! After prepping your veggies, throw some olive oil in the skillet, throwing the garlic in as the pan heats up. Add your onions first, let them cook til they start to get translucent. Since onions cook slower than everything else we're cooking today (lol check out my instructor voice), letting them cook first for a bit is crucial! Once your onions are looking good, get the rest of your veggies in there (minus the kale!!) and stir everything around in there. Add a few pinches of salt and some squirts of sriracha (be careful with that stuff...). Meanwhile, drain your beans of the excess liquid that's often at the top of the can and add them to those veggies. Let cook until all bubbly and delicious. Use your judgement. 

Scramble up some yolks for your scrambled eggs and just before you make your eggs, add in your kale--just sortof let it sit on top of the beans and veggies boiling away, let it steam for a moment, then fold it in to the rest of the mixture (you want your kale to be as fresh as possible, that's how we get all the superpowers from it). I popped the tortillas in the toaster oven to warm them a tiny bit while I finished up scrambling my eggs. 

Assembly time! Put all that shit (beans & veggie mixture and half of your scrambled egg) in a tortilla, add cheese, roll up, EAT.  

Really don't even need the eggs, these are so protein-packed with the kale and beans, but it holds everything together like the rice does in a burrito, and makes the dish more "brinner"-appropriate.

Cook for yourself, you'll smile and your wallet will thank you. 

 :) 

A few things:

1. "A few things" is a new section of the life of lu blog. Its purpose is to share in numbered form, a few thoughts with the internet concisely (and hopefully wittily on occasion!).

2. Is anyone out there a Norah Jones fan? I watched this hulu exclusive concert with her this morning...and I'm digging her new style: musically and aesthetically speaking.

image courtesy of pinterest.com

3. Everyone should have a friend they write to. And I don't mean texting. I mean write me a long ass email that I have to be focused to read, and ask me thought provoking questions that I'll take a solid hour responding to. Pen pals are great--get one.  I've got a pen pal. She's my friend who now lives in pennsylvania. Shout out to Val, if you're reading this ;)

4. I've been watching and following along with Tara Stiles' 7 Week Bliss In. It's week two and I can say I've done a lot of the eating components and not as much of the moving...time to find that balance she was talking about last video!

5. Look at this lovely illustration to the right: A Mouse Father Christmas, by Astrid Walford (1949) . Thank you, Pinterest, for your bountiful pleasures.

That's all.

L

Moving Mindfully

I've been making myself ready to move into a new place at the end of this week for some time now...ok, so MOST of the preparation thus far has been mental--which unfortunately leaves lots of packing, organizing and cleaning up and painting of the new place to be done. However, against any odds, this time next week I'll be settling into my new room in a two bedroom across town with a dear new friend/co-worker. This week crept up on me and it seems that all of a sudden, I have so much to do!

I'm definitely one to anticipate big events or changes, and this has certainly applied to moving this week. While having excitement for the future is definitely positive, I've always struggled with balancing this anticipation so that it doesn't turn into total anxiety and negativity. I'm meditating on that this week; trying to find the ease in doing the necessary preparation so that I can move pretty seamlessly later in the week.

In the meantime, I've got some posts coming up, so stay tuned.

Also look for photos of new place to come next weekend as I'm settling in!

That moment you realize you're a grown-up...

This realization has been coming over and over with some milestones I've been hitting in the past few weeks--and it happened again tonight, as I walked the backroads to downtown for my first grown-up dinner date.

I was one half of one of those (kinda nervous and very smiley) couples on one of their first dates that I've been watching my entire life while out to dinner with my parents. I was the grown-up some kid was watching--when did THAT happen? Cause last I checked, I was 12.

It happened the other day--when I got a raise at my job. Only grown-ups get raises.

Grocery shopping, cleaning, rent, listening to Morning Edition in the car on the way to work...

I'd say there's probably a moment each day lately when I've heard myself think, "...just like a grown-up!"

Do we ever really feel the age we are? I feel as if I've been waiting my whole life to be this age, doing these things, living this life--and now that I'm doing it, I can't really believe it. Though it sometimes seems like things are constantly changing, and we often grasp with lame fingers at the past, I guess change can slip by us too. Sometimes, I find myself ahead a few pages from where I thought I left off, so it's all that much more important to remind myself to live in this moment and this life and BE the grown-up.

But there are certainly still days like this:

Election Anxieties

Well, I voted! For Obama, duh. Tomorrow is a big day and will change all of our lives in some way, no matter how disconnected we seem from the actual work the President does. Just think of what's at stake:  the ability for our loved ones to marry who they choose, equal pay & benefits for women, focus on education...the list goes on. The losses are terrifying should Romney win--so PLEASE VOTE. It's important to continue to build upon the foundation President Obama has worked so hard on for us. 

Oh Sandy, baby...

After all the hype and preparation, Sandy certainly did her damage. Thankfully, we were left pretty unscathed at my parents' & sisters' in Connecticut with only a few trees and branches down.  My thoughts and energy goes out to those thousands who have not been so fortunate in this most recent natural disaster. Janie (my sister) and I made the most of the power-free moments over the course of the storm. Here are a few photos I took during of our sister time while Sandy was making her way through the East Coast. Enjoy!

Benefit of gas stove: tomato soup and rice.

Coffee is necessity.

Lights. Lights. Lights. 

Nothing like a candle-lit game of Bananagrams!