Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Mixed herb falafels (Thankfulness #1)

Oh, it feels downright spooky to try to write a blog post without a theme, so I thought of a new one! Until Thanksgiving (or until I see something shiny and wander away from blogging), I will open each post with something I am thankful for. Maybe food related. Today's not really food related.

Thing I'm thankful for #1: that I'm still able to be mobile and active and generally pretty healthy at ~30 weeks pregnant.

Belly at 30ish weeks

(Yes, my bathroom mirror needs to be cleaned. I literally cannot reach it at this point.)

I was thinking about this today while I was biking home from work. People (mostly co-workers) have started asking me pretty often if I'm still biking. When anyone hears that I am still biking, the followup question is: when are you going to stop? The answer is: I guess when I have to. One of my only regrets from my pregnancy with the Emperor is that I stopped exercising almost completely at about 32 weeks-- and that is the exact point at which I started to really feel crappy/tired of being pregnant.

Comically, the biggest problem I'm having with biking right now is wind. Like, the wind blowing on me. (Not gas from my innards.) You would think that being larger, wind would bug me less... but maybe I've gotten wider. Like a big sail. So I catch more wind now! I normally bike all the way home in 6th gear with no trouble but today I was stuck in 5th and really pushing it because the wind was against me the whole way.

Speaking of wind: let's eat some beans! Tonight I decided to put together one of my favorite recipes out of one of my favorite cookbooks, Appetite for Reduction. You can tell I've loved the hell out of this cookbook:

A well loved cookbook

In general, the more a cookbook looks like it was hit by a filth comet, the more I like it.

I wanted to make the baked falafel out of AFR tonight. Usually I double the recipe, because I like these as leftovers a lot and they're sooooo freaking easy to make. Things kind of spiraled out of control in my kitchen this afternoon, though, the way that they often will. First I accidentally opened one can of chickpeas and one can of white beans instead of 2 chickpeas. Okay, no big deal. Just mash them together. Oh hey, I don't have any parsley in the fridge... cilantro? Nope, out of that too. Rosemary and sage and thyme? YES! So I just chopped those up and put in like a cup and a half instead of the 1c of parsley. Then I swapped out the hot sauce (out of it) and put in soy sauce for moisture instead. Garlic powder instead of minced garlic. You see what I mean? These are barely the same falafels that are in the book.

Mixed herb falafels

Still yummy, though. We had them with chopped vegetables (carrots, zucchini, and cauliflower) and leftover baba ganoush. The Emperor ate exactly one. He was dismayed to find a whole chickpea in it: "I don't LIKE chickpeas. I don't want this chickpea. I want mommy to take the chickpea out." I rolled my eyes and pulled the chickpea out for him, after which he ate the whole thing and said he liked it. Joke's on you kid, the whole thing is made out of chickpeas.

He also ate some vegetables, a little of this and a little of that. 3 or 4 sticks of zucchini, all while telling us, "I don't like zucchini. I'm not going to eat it. I don't like it." WHILE HE WAS CHEWING IT. He is kind of a nut sometimes.

Speaking of which, he took today's bonus picture:

Grey up close

10 comments:

sophia said...

well, today was crazy windy! biking in the wind feels terribly sisyphean so good for you for persevering :-)

Anonymous said...

Look out for the crazy pregnant lady sailing in the wind :) You look so adorable! If I saw you just now, would you get weirded out if I started to talk to your tummy in a baby voice? My sister hates when I do that when she's pregnant but I just cannot help it. I have a thing for pregnant bellies. Okay, that *does* sound weird...

jessy said...

my bathroom mirror beats yours and i have no excuse. i'm just too lazy to clean it, that's all! i think that's awesome you're still riding your bike. my mother still rode hers up until my due date (i was a week late) and loved it the most. that kicks booty and i can see how the wind would be a bother. i laughed out loud reading about The Emperor wanting you to pick out the chickpea and i laughed even harder when he said he didn't like zucchini while actually eating it. cracked me up. so hard! your post is a good reminder for me to think about what i'm thankful for. i love it. thank you!

coldandsleepy said...

Cara, I don't think *anyone* has ever talked to my pregnant belly other than me! And really, I'm just talking to myself out loud... which I do all the time anyway... I realized at the grocery store the other day that I was saying (out loud) pretty much exactly what I would say if the Emperor was with me. And I was there by myself.

Hi sophia! nice to see you on the internet!

Jessy, that's awesome that your mom rode up to her due date! I'm hoping to be able to do that this time around but trying to not get too attached to the idea. If there comes a point where I'm really not up to it, I'll try to let it go gracefully... not one of my strongest talents in life.

Richa said...

you and the emperor are super entertaining.. i always keep coming back for more.. congratulation on the pregnancy.. somehow happened to miss that in this whole month of reading.. and all the very best for the delivery!
my mom would say the same thing about us growing up.. all 3 finicky kids and she would feed us stews and soups of the veggies we said we dint like..:)
and i'd probably talk to your belly too.. it would be fun if your baby recognized my voice after birth and gave me sweet smiles like yeah i know u :):)
have a fun day!
Richa @ Hobby And More Food Blog

Anonymous said...

That just made me giggle! I'll take that as a yes :) (and by the way, my word verification in order to post this comment is "yescu"). See? Even that is telling me that I can :)

Nada said...

You look great! And good on you for keeping up the cycling.

"Joke's on you kid, the whole thing is made out of chickpeas." This made me laugh out loud! Such a sweetheart.

Amey said...

oh yay! Such a great post!! And you are still blogging! You are looking so beautiful and so preggers! What fun. I need to have a Nikki sighting SOON. :) Also, I love your funny quotes from the Emperor so much... what a goofball!

ps. do we get to have a potluck/baby shower in your honor???

coldandsleepy said...

I'd love an Amey encounter! It seems like it's been months! And also, I need to give you back your American Vegan Kitchen before it gets absorbed into my cookbook collection forever, ha ha.

I want to have some sort of pre-baby party but um, that's as far as I've gotten on it. We don't really need any stuff at this point, since we still have all of the Emperor's things, but I do still feel like celebrating!

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