Life is A Journey...Come Follow Our's: June 2012

Deliciousness

After a busy day of walking the trails and climbing the statues at Crystal Bridges (the new American Art Museum in town that is all the rage across the art community) we needed a good dinner. I decided to try something new tonight and could not wait to blog about it. It was THAT amazing!

Coconut Rice with Black Beans Plantains and Mango Salsa from Herbivoracious.com. This blog has tons of great vegetarian recipes but this one is hands down the best!

http://herbivoracious.com/2011/06/coconut-rice-with-black-beans-plantains-and-mango-salsa-recipe.html

So what was so great about this dish? First of all, the sauce. You pureed mango, red onion, cilantro, garlic, and a little (or a lot if that's what you prefer) jalapeno. The sauce had SO much flavor it was to die for. Then you cook the rice in coconut milk. Holy moly...I don't even like rice but I could have finished off the whole pot! The beans...well, they were just beans...nothing special about them. To top it all off, you fried plantains in coconut oil (anything fried has to be good, right???). AMAZING! Try it...I promise you won't be disappointed.

Quinn with his friends Nicole and Greer at Crystal Bridges

Walmart - It's Not All That Bad

Have you ever stopped to think about how amazing summer really is? Okay, maybe it's just because I'm a teacher - my schedule is light, my responsibilities are on my time and not on someone else's set schedule, the sun shines, the air is warm, and you get to eat more ice cream :)

This week has been no exception to awesome weeks. Quinn and I have done something fun everyday this week including spending 2 and a half hours at Walmart, when we were supposed to be at the botanical garden, getting new tires put on my car. I have to admit though, if you're going to be stuck somewhere with a 2 year old waiting on car repairs, Walmart is the place to do it. In 2 and a half hours, we didn't even make it to the toy aisle, we were so busy.

We started in Crafts where we found fabric with letters, animals, and all colors. We did scavenger hunts for different colors, animals, and letters, stacked the rolls of fabric like blocks, knocked them down, and put them all away.

We headed down each row of the craft aisle until we found the felt and foam aisle. Guess what they had there??? ABCs!!!! So we spelled words, organized the alphabet, matched letters, and then put them all away again.

Did you know Walmart has a GREAT book section? Okay, well maybe not great by an adult's standard, but to a kid - the books are all reachable, they make a lot of noise, and have LOTS of pictures.

Next came the dog food aisle where we counted puppies on bags of kibble and played with dog toys. Have you ever noticed how similar they are to baby toys? They squeak, squish, and are good to chew on.

Up next, after passing a million balloons (which of course we had to stop and check out), came the garden center. Now, the Walmart Garden Center can rival any splash park if you get your timing right. They have hoses that leak from overhead, they have hoses that need to be rolled up, flowers that need to be smelled, and PUDDLES!

Two and a half hours later...it was time to say "goodbye" to our faithful friends at Walmart and drive home on our new tires.

Tanyard Creek - Fun in Nature

Tanyard Creek is a beautiful nature area at the opposite end of our lake. There is a waterfall which means there's water which means it's the perfect place to go throw rocks! This morning we met our friend Michelle and her daughter Nicole for a fun outing. We walked from one good rock throwing spot to the next covering a bit more than a mile and a half (yes...Quinn walked most of it).