Low… and behold!’s Blog Finding the “high” road.

Mornin’ ya’ll! I really enjoyed hearing about your city’s reaction to winter weather. I got a lot of different answers. Honestly, as much as I sometimes complain about Oklahoma sometimes, and especially Oklahoma weather, I do have to be grateful that we only get two or three winter storms per year. I would not make it in a place where snowfall was common.

Even more interesting than the weather discussion, however, was the pee discussion. Most of you girls are like me and pee 10+ times per day, but some of you were right on with the average of 4 times per day. Fascinating stuff I tell you Oh my, this is one classy blog.

Moving on. Last night after posting I got pretty busy in the kitchen! I made another recipe out of my Betty Crocker Vegetarian Cookbook that I got for Christmas – Indian Lentils and Rice, except I omitted the rice.

I think lentils are filling enough without combining them with rice. I topped my lentils with some nonfat greek yogurt and a bit of lettuce for garnish.

I only ended up eating about a third of that pita, it just wasn’t doing it for me for some reason. The lentils tasted fabulous though. And now I have some new leftovers to eat

I was still in the mood to cook, so I whipped up a quick bulgar salad after that to have on hand for lunches and snacks.

It doesn’t look very pretty because it’s so brown, but I plan to combine it with salad greens and then it will be perfect. It was fun just going by the seat of my pants instead of a recipe. And I think it came out pretty well!

Bulgar and Black Soybean Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup dry bulgar
• 4 cups water
• 1 can organic black soybeans (or regular black beans) – drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup red onion – chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon course ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup feta chese – sliced
• 2 tablespoons pitted Kalamata olives

Instructions:

Place the dried bulgar in a large sauce pan with 4 cups cold water. Bring to a boil on the stove. Reduce to a simmer and cook 15 minutes or until liquid is completely absorbed.

In a medium skillet, heat 1/2 tablespoon olive oil. Add garlic, beans, and spices (add salt to taste if desired) until beans are heated through. Remove from heat.

Combine the beans, bulgar and remaining ingredients in a large bowl and mix well until oil and vinegar are spread throughout the mixture.

Top with sliced feta and olives and chill overnight.

This makes a crap ton, so feel free half the recipe if you don’t want to be eating bulgar for a week after making it

Oh, and let me just say that I did not have a clue until last night that black soybeans even existed! I thought I had purchased regular old black beans, but when I pulled them out of the pantry I noticed I had something unfamiliar on my hands.

So, of course, I had to Google them. If you want to read more about them, you can do so here. Honestly, I prefer the taste of black beans to that of black soybeans, but I chose to work with what I had and I think they complimented the salad pretty well.

Hmmm, what else did I do last night? I think that’s about it. Definitely watched some TV.

Sometimes I wonder if the decision to get cable was a good one or not, since I feel like it tends to consume my life. But I have a feeling I’ll be pretty glad to have it if the weather gets bad. Nothing like curling up on the couch and watching trash when it’s icing outside

I did not make it to the gym this morning. I’m getting pretty good at making it twice a week, but two days in a row still hasn’t happened. Hopefully over time it will get easier and easier. I have nothing going on tonight though, so an evening workout will be fine.

Have a good day! Does today feel like Thursday to anyone else? I keep forgetting that’s it’s only Wednesday. Sigh…

Have you ever had black soybeans?