Easy Extra Veggies!

We hate to waste food, especially in the dark winter when it can seem like gorgeous vibrant vegetables are previous jewels.  We are also always on the lookout for ways to sneak a few extra veggies into our meals – both kids and adult alike! Often, lunchtime veggies get lost in the sandwich shuffle, and at home our kids are always leaving veggies on their plate or the family just doesn’t quite finish all the peas. Our perfect solution simply folds the two together!

By taking the extra veggies at the end of dinner and tossing them into our sandwiches for the next day’s lunch, we’ve added veggies and reduced waste in one delicious step! Here’s what we did.

Tuna with Peas

Simply mix leftover peas (chopped up green beans or edamame would work too) into your tuna salad (great source of omega-3’s and protein and low in fat and calories!)

Chicken Salad with Avocado

To cut down on the mayo in your chicken salad sandwich, mash in a leftover quarter of an avocado. This is a great way to use up an avocado that might not be quite so green anymore while adding more potassium than bananas!

Egg Salad with Broccoli

Use up the stalks of broccoli by cutting off the rough, fibrous exterior on all sides until you’re left with just the tender interior. Dice it or grate it, raw or cooked, to add crunch and vitamins to a delicious egg salad sandwich. Broccoli stems actually have the same nutrition as their darker green tops, so don’t throw them away. Alternatively, just toss in some chopped leftover broccoli florets – even the ones from Chinese takeout work by adding a hint of sesame or teriyaki flavor to your sandwich!

Curry Chickpea Salad with Carrots

Chickpea salad for vegetarians is a great sandwich filling and packed with kid-friendly nutrition! Curry powder and raisins make it feel exotic but approachable. We love boosting the beta-carotene and vitamin A with some steamed carrots the kids didn’t finish at dinner or some grated raw carrots (baby carrots work for this!) for a crisp bite!

Winter Day Play

Here in California, we’re really hoping for a wet and rainy winter. After last year’s severe drought, many of us have been doing rain dances in hopes of major downpours. As much as a wet winter is needed, this definitely puts a damper on playtime, recess and winter fun, and many of you have the added challenge of SNOW! 

Wet, Wet, Wet! 

For this week’s Peas Perspective we decided to come up with kid friendly activities to do during this cold and grey indoor season.  We all know that reading, craft making and baking can be a fantastic way to pass the time indoors. But some days your kids need activities that involve exercise -physical time that exhausts your little ones and allows you to have a cozy rainy night that ends with sleepy kids and an hour of Netflix. 

Here’s a list of indoor day musts that will burn calories, engage imaginations, and make for an exciting day of fun.

DANCE PARTY: clear some space, turn down the lights, and teach them some of your favorite moves. Then just DANCE!  Make them question if they can they do the Sid shuffle?!

BUILD A FORT: Watch your child’s creativity run amok as you give them sheets, blankets, and decorations and encourage them to make the fort of their dreams. Just make sure to remove any breakables or sharp objects.

INDOOR OBSTACLE COURSE: Similar to the fort, clear some space, provide them with cardboard, crafts, pillows, and blankets, and construct an obstacle course that will leave your little ones feeling like they just climbed the Aggro-Crag.

BRAVE THE RAIN or SNOW: A walk in the rain or snow can be dirty, muddy and cold but SO much fun.  If you have the appropriate clothing, gear up, get some fresh air and encourage puddle jumping and snow angels. We assure you that it will be an afternoon to remember! 

New Year, New Us!

Last week we checked in with ourselves to see how well we had accomplished our New Years resolutions. And overall we did a great job! This week we are sharing some of our goals for 2015; small resolutions just to remind us to keep up the good work!

Be more energy efficient at home, and learn more about how to conserve energy around the house.  (stay tuned for our upcoming blog post on our energy tips and tricks!)

Give experiential gifts for birthdays and holidays instead of “stuff.”

Implement a daily 10minute meditation practice, even if it has to be under my desk at work.

Thanks to Serial, I want to explore more podcasts for my daily commute. Hearing creative people do whatever they do best is and invigorating way to start the day!

Stand up straighter and improve my posture every day.

Quit my multi-vitamin and make sure I get all my vitamins and minerals from real fruits and vegetables.

Spend an hour each week being more introspective and taking the time to check in with myself.

Tackle 3 big recipes I’ve bookmarked that have been intimidating me for ages. (Another stay tuned! Accountability, woo!)

Finish 5 books this year, including The Power Broker by Robert Caro, which I’ve been “in the middle of” for all of 2014!

There, we’ve put that out into the universe, said it aloud, and now it’s up to us to make these easy small changes every day. We are wishing ourselves luck, and we’d love to hear what your “Keep up the Good Work” resolutions are!

Checking Up on our Resolutions!

We are saying goodbye to 2014, so it’s a perfect time to check in on our “Keep up the Good Work” resolutions from 12 months ago. (Where did the year go?!) We made these resolutions as a way to set some goals without putting so much pressure on ourselves that we feel like we’ve failed. Instead, these were small changes we were already trying to implement in our lives and we were simply aiming to continue these improvements.

As we said last year, this is the perfect way to start out the New Year with a pat on the back!

So…how did we do? Well, we certainly did better than our normal resolutions, and we still have plenty to work on in the coming year. Hey, no one is perfect! Our only goal is “Better than last year.”

Cut my caffeine intake in half by brewing 1/2 regular and 1/2 decaf in one pot.

95%! This was easier than expected (after the initial caffeine withdrawal) and felt so good on the body!

Always choose stairs over elevators and escalators.

98%! Another success, this simple daily choice quickly turned into a healthy habit!

Drink two big camelbak's of water per day.

75%! Keeping that waterbottle handy led to a huge improvement from last year and helped kick that 3pm slump.

Listen to NPR on my commute. Stay informed and enjoy the great stories.

60% There’s always more to be done, but  we’re counting this as a success because of all the interesting driveway moments we had and we’ve even updated this one for the coming year!

Cut out technology an hour before bed (that means no Office reruns while I drift off to sleep).

0% With a new baby, this one got neglected and turned out to be harder than we thought but we have a whole new year ahead of us to keep trying

Take one day per month to focus on myself. Have a ME party a la the muppets movie!

0% Maybe we need to adjust the loftiness of this goal and try for a Treat Yo Self day once a year!

Bring a healthy lunch to work at least 3 days per week.

100% This was one goal we met and exceeded and we are so proud to have accomplished!!

Keep monthly and weekly to do lists on my phone so that I can stay on top of my housework, dinners and errands.

90% This one took some simple technology fiddling to sync everything up but it has made a big difference in my mental focus. 

Take 10 minutes every night before bed to tidy up (instead of leaving 5 days of minor mess for the weekend).

75% Sunday cleanups have streamlined when we have been disciplined all week! But we are aiming to get this up to 100% this year!

Overall we are proud of ourselves for setting attainable, realistic goals for ourselves this year and mostly achieving them too! So how did you all do in 2014?

Stay tuned for next week where we’ll reveal our 2015 “Keep up the Good Work” resolutions!