Can't Survive on Yarn Alone

Today was an odd day. Not bad just odd. I came home deciding that some hooping was in order. After whapping myself twice, it didn't seem like such a great idea. It just furthers that it was an odd day. THEN I turned on So You Think You Can Dance (which I am a bit unsure of with the old and new dancers being part of it this season) and eventually a dance was performed to Florence + the Machine's cover of Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love.

I LOVE Addicted to Love. I danced to it as a kid. I danced to it as a "big kid" at my high school prom fashion show (it was some sort of dancing through the decades.) I ended up hooping to it in my living room (full song found via YouTube) and then put more F+tM on afterwards. While I wasn't going to try any tricks since we aren't in the market for a new ceiling fan, TV or curio cabinet right now, it still felt good to let go a bit, hooping and spinning barefoot on the wood floor.

I made my first attemp-eh at tempeh this past weekend with a BBQ wrap.

I started with half a yellow onion and one yellow bell pepper in a little olive oil. When that began to soften I added pieces of crumbled Trader Joe's tempeh (half a package) with a mix Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Barbecue and Honey Chipolte Barbecue sauce (both bottles were almost empty.)


After a few minutes I ended up with this



which ended up REALLY good and ended up in a wrap.

Next time I think I'll work with smaller pieces of tempeh since the sauce didn't reach the center of some OR marinate it rather than stirring in the sauce. If it is smaller pieces I also think I could mix in it w ground beef or chicken and no one would know what it was.


That is what I ended up doing with the leftovers.


Turkey Tempeh Chili!

To my leftovers I added

• 1 can butter beans
• 1 can chili beans
• 1/2 lb ground lean turkey
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 1 small can tomato paste
• 1/2 cup water
• garlic powder - 3 shakes
• chili powder - 3 shakes
• McCormick HotShot - red/black pepper mix
• onion salt - 2 shakes

It all went in the crockpot for a few hours and ended up too sweet!

Rather than dumping it (and wasting food), it went into the fridge until I was "brave" enough to try it again. I'm glad I let it sit because it was much less sweet tonight. There was still a sweetness about it but the spicier aspects seemed stronger. I think next time I'd add red pepper flakes and/or some diced tomatoes.


The weather keeps taunting me. The mornings I want to run it is raining and the times I can't it is either beautiful or I am worn out. I know that I just need to get over the first hurdle - figuratively of course though I do remember them from gym class ages ago. (The grade school ones were foam and hurt less.) I know that too many people to count run in the rain but I am wanting to start running on a decent day. Then if I honestly don't like running after awhile it will be due to the running and not the weather.

I've figured out how to deal w my Bell-umba issue. I get to the point where I don't care if I look silly and just go for it. With numerous years of dance training, even if it was ages ago, I thought that I would have caught on sooner. Nope. Awkward flailing and wonky steps w a good chunk of the belly dancing aspects was getting pretty discouraging. Now I've started to just laugh along with my instructor who is funny and it has begun to get easier.