Tag: New Year’s Resolution

  • EXPANDING VEGETABLES

    EXPANDING VEGETABLES

    A couple of days ago I went to our organic local market, Jimbos, to stock up on vegetables for the week. In my zeal, marketing without a list, and thinking about …oops it’s February already, (what about those New Years Resolutions I kind of made; eating lots of vegetables, losing a few pounds, and getting into better shape.)

    (Badly needed for lifting big canvases around the art studio.)

    Vegetable-Soup-Francesca-Filanc
    Vegetable Soup

    I arrived home late; the vegetables had somehow multiplied in the car as I drove home.

    My kitchen counter was covered! Exhausted, stuffing them in the refrigerator and thinking what in tarnation am I going to cook that will taste good and that I will enjoy eating for the next decade! I will have to invite an army over to eat or, freeze the food and will that even taste good?

    My sister, Wendy Woolf, became a vegetarian a few years ago. She is an amazing cook and always knows the right spice to add here and there to make the food even delectable to “a meat and potatoes person.” Check out Eat Well on Girls Gone Child.

    Vegetable-Dinner-Francesca-Filanc
    The End Results!

     

    The next day I was ready to tackle the veggies…Oh my they had quadrupled in my refrig! I cooked all afternoon and I had a ton of food! I called and texted my sister several times to see if she and her husband could come to dinner. No answer, so asked two other couples who were unavailable and ended up eating the seven course meal on a TV tray while watching Antique Roadshow on KPBS.

     

     

     

     Menu:

    Vegetable soup
    Black beans with quinoa
    Collard greens with bragg
    Steamed white rice in rice cooker
    Sautéed onions with mushrooms and garlic
    Baked sweet potatoes with skins on
    Chile rellenos using poblano chilies
    Rice pudding “Pete” style

     

    Stay tuned to next blog post for recipes.

    Bye for now,

    Rippin’ Lips,

    Francesca

  • NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS!

    NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS!

    Do you have your New Year’s Resolutions picked out yet?” my mother questioned two weeks ago in the middle of the hustle-bustle while trying to get myself organized for Christmas.

    To be honest with you, there have been years as an adult when I have totally rebelled. In all the years of my writing down resolutions, I don’t think I ever accomplished what I wrote down. Even if I did, such as losing 10 or 20 lbs., by the time the holidays rolled around again, the weight was back on due to overindulgence and it would be my first resolution all over again – the pattern repeated itself.

    My sister and I wrote resolutions from the time we could write and I vaguely remember dictating them to my mother before that time. Basically, our mother is and was super into them.

    As human beings, I do think we like the idea of “do-overs” and the New Year makes for a perfect opportunity to start anew.  Wipe the slate clean, become perfect . . . NOT!

    I was at the zoo today with part of my family. (I have very young grandchildren of varying ages and I was with the oldest who is almost 5 years old).

    Monkey at the Zoo
    World Famous San Diego Zoo

    At the zoo, I contemplated on how all  animals struggle to survive.  As human beings, we are really the same except that we have the biggest brain. So, we expect more of ourselves than just merely surviving and raising our young. We are supposed to grow and improve in some way with each passing year until we end up like little children again – which isn’t bad because in essence, they are the smartest of all humans! The little ones are constantly growing, changing, striving, and at the same time – living in the moment.

    After the zoo we went to a park for her to play with other children. Observe young children playing together. They get excited to be sliding down the slides and running after one another, around and around, smiling and laughing, playing together but separate. They don’t have the need yet to learn one another’s names. Each child is simply in her bliss – giggling and laughing in the moment!

    Here’s to living in the moment!

    Bye for now,

    Francesca