Black Beans and Rice

Happy Nom Nom Monday! Today's recipe is a simple Black Beans and Rice.  This recipe is extra healthy and vegetarian.  Though adding meat tastes great too.  

Ingredients:

- 2 tablespoons of olive oil

- 1/2 cup onion

- 1/4 cup green pepper

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 1 can of black beans (15 oz.)

- 3/4 cup water

- 1 teaspoon dried oregano

- 1/4 teaspoon sugar

- 1 package of sazon goya

- 1 tablespoon cooking wine

- 2 cups cooked white rice

Directions:

Cook a cup of dry white rice in 2 cups of water, and set aside.  Dice the onion, cube the pepper, and mince the garlic.  Heat the olive oil in a medium sauce pan, and sauté the onion, green pepper, and garlic.  Cook until the onions are translucent, about 8 - 10 minutes.

Add in the beans, cooked rice, water, oregano, sugar, sazon goya, and cooking wine.  

This is sazon goya if you are unfamiliar, and in the above photo the bright orange stuff is what it looks like.  

Mix it all together, and let everything cook together for a couple minutes, and then serve.  

This is a giant batch, so it lasts awhile for my husband and I.  To mix it up I cooked up come cubed chicken with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cumin.  The flavors melded perfectly with the black beans and rice.  I want to try this out with sausage next time.  Obviously I'm a big meat fan, but I love that this is also a great vegetarian meal.  It might even be vegan, but I'm not sure if the sazon goya has any animal by-products in it.  I'm sure if it does you could replace with other seasonings for a vegan meal.  Hope you all enjoy, happy Nom Nom Monday, chris!

Sleeping Braids

I have to wake up at the butt crack of dawn on work days, so I've been showering at night.  Though I don't like going to bed with wet hair, and with my hair being so long it takes forever to dry.  I've also found that with my hair length when it's loose it can strangle me in the night.   I'm constantly having to move it out of the way while I toss and turn.  So the past couple nights I've been trying to braid my hair while it's wet.  Since my hair is two different lengths, I have to start on the shorter side (the left), and work my way around.  When I get to the right side of my head I use the beginning braid as one strand in my new combined braid, and split the hair on the right side of my head in two, and braid those three strands together.  I'm not that great at french braiding, so it's a bit sloppy.

Sleeping is a lot easier with my hair like this, and I like the way my hair looks when I unbraid it in the morning.  I want to continue braiding my hair after I shower, and maybe one day I'll be really good at it.  That is also why I wanted to share a photo of how my braid looks now, cause hopefully with some practice I'll show some improvement.  Have a lovely sunday night, and sleep tight, chris!

February Instagram ... err not!

My February through Instagram (EDIT: or so I thought ...)



I started following along with Fat Mum Slim's Photo a Day Challenge in February.   The first three photos are from this month.  I haven't found a great instagram collage maker yet, and so I can't customize it to just be my photos from February 1st to the 28th.  If you want to know more about the photo, just click.  I try to tag everything, and keep them well labeled.  I can't believe I resisted using instagram for so long.  I love looking at my month through a grid of photos.  It inspires me to take even better photos next month.  I want every photo in my grid to be intriguing.

EDIT: So it's four months later, and I'm checking out my blog (thinking about blogging again), and I notice that this February post is displaying my most recent photos from Instagram.  I must have miss read what SnapWidget does.  I thought it would display the images I saved into this grid, but apparently it live streams my current Instagram feed.  Cool widget, just doesn't do exactly what I intended.

Hope you are enjoyed my photos, and I'd love for you to follow me on instagram too!  Happy DIYing and instagraming, chris!