Friday 17 January 2014

This week: a rainbow and some random reads

My daughter and I saw a rainbow yesterday. I know for a fact that I haven't seen in a rainbow in my son's entire lifetime (5 years). I am always saying to him when there's sunshine and rain, "perhaps we'll see a rainbow" and we always look around the sky and there has never been one. I was a little disappointed he wasn't there with me yesterday but took a photo to show him when I picked him up from school later that day.

It's all too easy to ignore the beauty of nature around us, especially at times like these when we have been having so many grey rainy days and everyone's a bit fed up with the weather. Yet, there I was, running back home in the sudden shower that had just started, pushing my daughter at top speed in her buggy, shopping bags swinging from the handles when I turned the corner onto our road and stopped in my tracks. The vast expanse of the rainbow stretched across the sky and the colours amidst the otherwise sea of grey were a sight to behold. Suddenly I barely noticed the rain any more and time seemed to almost slow down for a few moments. (My photo does it no justice!).

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On a completely unrelated note, I have a few links to share with you that I've enjoyed this week....

In line with my parenting goal for the year ahead, I read two articles of interest this week. One is a brief story of how one mother changed her bad habit of shouting at her children. The other a post from the end of last year offering 12 steps to stop yelling at your kids. This latter post is from the blog The Orange Rhino, a mother of four's blog tracking her progress as she committed to going 365 days without yelling (she is now into the second year), so there's a wealth of useful information and shared experiences to read on her site.

Onto food now and this guide to sugar is a very simple explanation of the various types/forms of sugar and sweeteners. I suppose I already knew it but as this concise list outlines, there are no good sugars out there!

I read The Crazy Kitchen's recipe for 'vegetable burgers' earlier this week and it stuck with me. It is an easy recipe, family-friendly and unlike a lot of veggie burger recipes (based on rice/beans/breadcrumbs), it contains some vegetables! I adapted the recipe, substituting the frozen mixed veg for some fresh veg I had at home (finely diced onion and mushrooms along with some grated courgette and carrot). I used pinto beans instead of baked beans, to avoid the salt and sugar they contain. The burgers turned out well. The consistency was good, they tasted nice and the whole family enjoyed them - a winner!

Let me know in the comments if you have read anything good this week or seen a recipe you plan on trying!

2 comments:

  1. "Suddenly I barely noticed the rain", these are the key words for me here. And they are true for all the dark and challenging days. When we stop and take time to focus on the rainbow (whatever form it may take) we're in that space where we barely notice the rain. Blessed space indeed.

    Would you post your veggie burger recipe? I'd love to try it. Thank you!!

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    Replies
    1. What great advice Maryse, thanks for your insight.

      For the veggie burgers, I followed the recipe linked (The Crazy Kitchen), just with my two substitutions (have edited the ingredients list below to show what I included):

      2 slices of wholemeal bread, toasted
      400g fresh vegetables (whatever you have to hand)
      400g can of beans, excess sauce drained (I used pinto)
      2 tsp Paprika
      1/2 tsp chilli powder
      1 tsp Garam Masala
      handful of fresh coriander, chopped
      1 egg, beaten
      3 tbsp plain flour (approx)
      Olive oil for frying

      Hope that helps and that you enjoy them if you try them!

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Thank you for reading. I'd love to have your comments and thoughts!