Wishful Slacker

A request

Our new secret love- stupid television

Between this season's frozen, frozen temperatures and the fact we have a new baby and spend most of our free time at home, Jim and I have fallen in love with something that we're a little embarrassed to admit.  Yes, we now love stupid television.  Jim and I gave up on cable a couple of years ago, when we realized that our Saturdays were being sucked into a vortex of glassy-eyed hours of The Food Network.  We gave it up, cold turkey, and honest-to-goodness we have not missed it one bit.  But now that we've started to love really, really stupid television, I am extra thankful that we don't have cable!  It started a couple months ago during my "I can't get off the couch to grab lunch with a newborn" days, when I realized that The Real Housewives of Orange County aired on NBC every day from 12-1 pm.  It was fascinating, simply, simply fascinating.  The cattiness, the immaturity, the wealth, the waste- I was hooked.  It was my daily guilty pleasure.  Then, somehow, I got into this season's The Bachelor.  I had never watched The Bachelor or The Bachelorette before, but now I am intrigued.  Jim and I sit down on Monday nights with a bowl of popcorn, taking in Brad's stupid professions of love to each girl he makes out with, and we laugh out loud.  If one of the girls starts to cry, we laugh even harder.  It's really, really funny that crap like The Bachelor actually exists.  We love it!

Our newest (and lowest) television obsession is Wipeout, which is a hysterically funny.  Who knew we would get such a kick out of people being knocked over by water cannons?  Right now, Jim and the baby are both watching a tivo'd Wipeout episode and BOTH are laughing. 

Having a baby changes everything.  Falling in love with stupid TV is definitely one aspect we did not anticipate! 

Curried Quinoa Salad- Jillian would be proud

With the two weeks of Olympics coverage, I'd lost track of our usual nightly television routine.  And because of that, we actually ate a HEALTHY dinner tonight while watching The Biggest Loser!  This is very uncharacteristic for us.  The one night of the week when we usually grab pizza or Thai food often occurs when Jillian and Bob are lauding the amazing benefits of Yoplait yogurt smoothies and 8 hour long workouts.  But TONIGHT, we ate a very healthy dinner.  I think Jillian smiled at me through the screen.  I love her.

I am not usually a reality television fan, but I love The Biggest Loser.  I spent equal amounts of time making fun of the forced mid-program advertising (Hey Bob, how about some ORBIT GUM to help your food cravings?!) and the over-the-top sappiness as I do cheering on the contestants and their lifestyle changes.  As I am midway through mocking someone, my eyes begin to sting.  "Are you CRYING?" my husband has asked me. 

Yes, indeed.  They got me.

But anyways, lets get back to our dinner, curried quinoa salad.  This recipe was featured in the Chicago Tribune in the past year, and it is what introduced us to The Flexitarian Diet by Dawn Jackson Blatner.  This recipe is really tasty and filling.  It is really easy to whip up too.  In the variation of the recipe on DJB's website, she also adds some walnuts, which I don't think is really necessary.  I just like gobbling up the chickpeas.  When the Chicago Tribune posted the recipe, they created a yogurt dressing to spoon on top of the salad, which I'll include here.  The hot chili sauce in the dressing gives it a great kick.  Use less if you'd like less heat (duh!).  Tonight we used garam masala, and the first time we made it we used curry powder.  Yum.  And just buy ready-shredded carrots to save time :-)

Leftovers are tasty too!

Curried quinoa salad
2 cups water
1 cup quinoa
2 teaspoons curry powder or garam masala
8 green onions, chopped
2 cans (15 ounces each) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup dried cranberries
Yogurt-cumin dressing (recipe below)

Heat the water to a boil in a large saucepan.  Add the quinoa and curry powder; lower heat to a simmer.  Cover pan; cook 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, combine the green onions, chickpeas, carrots, and cranberries in a large bowl.  Stir together with the quinoa.  Serve drizzled with dressing.

Yogurt-cumin dressing: Combine 1 cup plain non-fat yogurt, 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, 3 teaspoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon each grated lemon zest and hot chili sauce and 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin in a small bowl; refrigerate before serving. 

4 am Musings

Last week I offered an admission which has completed backfired on me.  I should have known better than to consciously think, "Wow, I haven't gotten sick this winter!"

And, before you could say Bob's your uncle, I had a sore throat.  Serves me right. 

For a change, this cold has not caused me outright misery, which has made it quite considerate (as viruses go).  It's been playing a tug of war with my psyche as I try to press forward, like someone constantly tapping me on my shoulder waiting for me to turn around.  Sitting at my desk this morning, my cloudy mind considered finishing a physician letter on the surveillance guidelines for isolated hemihypertrophy, when another being within me stepped forward, hands raised in the time out position.

"Later."

And so now I am home, donned in my fat pants and a sweatshirt.  My eyes are no longer wrestling with fluorescent lighting.  I brought home work to do as well, which I will complete in the peaceful dim of the living room.  I may even nap, we shall see.  All is good.

My husband and I have added PBS's American Experience to our TiVo Season Pass.  I love those types of programs.  Last night we watched the recently recorded episode, which was on the Donner Party.  I had actually not heard of the Donner Party before, and holy Moses it was such a horrible story.  So this morning, I awakened after 4 am (perhaps lured awake by our earthquake?) and could not get back to sleep.  And what did I start thinking about?  The Donner Party.  For about an hour I tossed and turned while replaying bits of the program in my head.  It was ridiculous.  Then I started thinking, I wonder if there is anyone else in the world thinking about the Donner Party at this exact moment?  I come up with some weird stuff in the middle of the night.  Nyquil, you failed me!