Healthy Eating

So in between all of the websites and photos, we’ve found room to change our eating and started exercising. One of the reasons we got decided to get a dog was to encourage us to get outside more – seems that we are always locked away in our office working on some project!

So far we have made our own bread (our sweet friend gave us a bread maker – thanks Megan!), made our own black beans (they freeze really well – never knew that!), made black bean burgers, picked strawberries and prepped for freezing for our morning smoothies, and made smoothies every morning after a 30 minute speed walk complete with weights.

I feel amazing and I love the fact we know what we are eating! It’s great to have a pride in what you make for your family. I hope to post the recipes I find healthy and successful!

Here’s one to start us off – these are soooo good! I made some adjustments to the recipe I found here.

Homemade Black Bean Burgers

Ingredients:

• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cups of black beans
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup flour (I always use less)
• 2 slices bread, crumbled or 1/4 bread crumbs
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp Adobo or seasoned salt
• salt and pepper to taste
• oil for cookie sheet

Preparation:

Sautee the onions till soft, about 3-5 minutes. Preheat the oven at 400F.

In a large bowl, mash the beans until almost smooth. Add sauteed onions and the rest of the ingredients, except the oil, adding the flour a few tablespoons at a time to combine well. Mixture will be thick.

Form bean mixture into patties, approximately ½ inch thick. Put a small amount of olive oil on a cookie sheet and place in oven – after 15 minutes flip and let cook for another 8-10 minutes. Should be slightly firm. Add avecado, tomato and hearts of romaine and enjoy!

The next batch, I’m going to try to add quinoa to use less flour. I’ll let you know how it goes!

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Ridding Ourselves of a Mortgage

Today we made another big decision to make another large lump sum payment into the mortgage principal. I just moved some funds around to make this possible. By next Friday we will have more than cut our mortgage in half since Jan 1, 2012. That’s insane. We plan to still continue paying down an extra $1000 a month on the principal and making additional lump sums as money comes in. The glorious freedom is now in sight!

I also just realized that this is the best year to rid ourselves of this mortgage. I have tentatively done our taxes for 2011 ( I say tentatively because I also double check them and I have yet to do that). Our itemized deductions were only slightly over the standard deductions and if we are paying less in interest this year, we’ll just be paying out money for no reason with no tax benefit. More on that later.

Quality vs.Quantity

We’ve all heard it before – as companies venture out and grow, they do have to decide if it will be quality verses quantity or vise versa. We had some dear friends over for dinner last night, who just happen to be another husband and wife team of photographers here in Charlotte. We were talking about life and what was new and eventually our conversation steered towards our photography bookings. It’s been something that Nate and I have discussed – if we should set a limit or just shoot, shoot, shoot. So many photographers (and other occupations) view success on the amount of sessions or weddings they book, but is that really success? Is success being so strapped for time that you don’t enjoy the shoot, you get lazy on locations and one shoot looks like another? Yes, you may pull in more money and own the market in your price point, but all you want to do is pull your hair out and every task seems like a mountain to crawl over. Small business is hard in general, but why make it harder on yourself?

It’s better to grow your business slow and steady, approach each potential client with care and thought – don’t just accept them as a client because they have a check ready for you, and figure out how many weddings/sessions you require to make a healthy living and enough to continue improving your skills and equipment. Make a decision for you, your family and your business – Quantity or Quality (of Life)?

ps: that lil beauty is our friend, Sarah’s, little girl, Annie. She calls us “Rachel and Neat”

Knitting – Blanket for Dylan

This past fall, my dear friend Stephanie was pregnant with her first little boy, Dylan, and was due to have him in November. She really wanted to have a hand-knitted blanket for him and I gladly oblidged! You must know, in the past, I have started not one but two blankets for friends pregnant with babies. Those babies are now six and seven and the blankets are 3/4 the way complete sitting in the attic. I was determined to get this blanket done in time of Dylan’s birth or at least before he was one:) AND I DID!! Here’s my beautiful creation:

I have been inspired from my friend Jean – who currently lives in New Zealand – so lucky! She took her yarn out of her loft and organized it so she could easily access it. Stay tuned for my version yarn organization (which will probably closely resemble her’s!).

UPDATE!
There have been requests for this pattern. Since I made it up, here you go:

I used a baby yarn – that is softer and not as thick as traditional yarn or wool. I used a size 5 or 6 circular needles.

Cast on 310 stitches.

BEGIN:
Knit 15 rows
on R16:
K10
K3, P3 – repeat 15 times
K10
K3, P3 – repeat 15 times
K10
K3, P3 – repeat 15 times
K10
Do this for 30 rows.
on R47:
Knit 15 rows

If you want to keep all the “boxes” the same, you can just repeat the above. I changed mine up on this blanket. I did 2 “boxes” all knit and 1 “box” perl:
K110
P90
K110
New Row:
K10
P90
K110
P90
K10
Repeat alternating above for 15 rows.

Once this is complete – return to “BEGIN”.

Cast Off.