Random Snacking

While grocery shopping after school today (I hadn't had lunch and my tummy was growling) I happened to be in the canned goods isle. There I saw canned soy beans, not too exciting, but then... a thought! What if I made my own soy nuts? Different flavors? Homemade? How can it go wrong. So, promptly, I purchased two cans to do my worst with.

Asian Soy Nuts (Awkward sounding name, perhaps I should rename them)

2 cans soy beans, drained and rinsed
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp dry ginger
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp onion powder

Mix all in bowl. Spread out on foil lined sheet pan in single layer. Bake at 250*F for approximately 3 hours. I kept checking mine every 30 mins to stir them.

They come out nice and crunchy lightly salty for a perfect snack. Yay random thoughts, this one was good. :)

Progress

All I have to say is:

HECK YEAH!

I haven't been able to wear these jeans in over 8 months! Thank you South Beach Diet :)

The renaissance fair

Instead of a birthday gift, Eric gave me a trip to the renaissance fair. We enjoyed a beautiful day watching acrobats, jugglers, hypnotists... and eating fair food. We especially enjoyed one eatery called the Parrot Tea Room. This was our meal:

Us... waiting 10 minutes till someone noticed us and seated us

Waitress: do you need a minute?
Us: yes
....... 10 minutes passes
Waitress: your food will be out shortly, sorry for the wait.
Us: we haven't ordered
Waitress: oh, ok.

So we order, and we decided to get some of their specially brewed tea.

Waitress: do you want cream or sugar with that?
Us: cream, no sugar
..... waitress brings us sugar (there is a thing of warm old cream still on the table)
Us: um, no sugar, cream.
Waitress: oh, ok. is that your cream? no? ok, I'll take it away
.... waitress brings us sugar
Us: um, cream
Waitress: oh, yea, it's hectic here
.... waitress brings us cream

It continued like that... it was painful. But really really funny while it was happening.

The royal court

South Beach Diet phase 3.5

The tea room

Tea with cream, no sugar

The acrobats

A traveling ent... they had living trees in the Renaissance period, right?

fishing and other oddities

Eric and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather we have been enjoying by going fishing this morning. We went to West Point lake. I should say, Eric fishes, I sit in a chair and read Agatha Christie novels. Either way, it was an enjoyable morning.

We stopped on the way home in a little antique store. Cute, the store had been there since 1903. The antiques left a little to be desired though, as most were a little odd. And creepy.

um, ok weird... even creepier up close

not sure how this is antique, but butt ugly and bizarre works fine

Well that's a put-off if I ever tasted one....

Since starting the South Beach diet, lots of old "normal" things are treats to Eric and I. Like lattes. But, I don't like to spend money. So off to Wally World we went, got a beautiful, albeit inexpensive, espresso maker, and now I can make my non-fat soy or iced milk lattes. Yay!

I was so excited to try the machine when I got home. I bought some Starbucks french roast to use as my coffee, and got the machine out of the box.

I proceeded to make Eric and I iced lattes, with a little Truvia in it to sweeten it up. Eric finished mowing the lawn just as I finished the drinks. I handed one to him... we both took a drink. Then, we both got the odd look on our face. Like the machine or coffee was funny. Not completely gross, just off. I thought maybe it was the sweetener, you know how some of them can taste. Well, no, it wasn't that... then Eric says, "How old is the milk?" ( We rarely drink milk in our house) Me, "We just bought it... didn't we?"

So we went to look at the expiration date:

Today is April 2nd... by the way. With Eric gagging after smelling the milk and pouring it down the drain, it kind of put me off of lattes for a little while. Sigh.