Lettuce choose...

Awesome. It's almost 8 pm, and I haven't showered or started the monstrous load of grading I have to do. Oh well. I'm trying to keep up on blogging! My mom read my blog and was INSPIRED to buy quinoa!!! I have changed a life through my blog. Even if I happen to be squatting in her place of residence.

Anyway, before I get onto my (brief) thought for the evening, I want to express how awesome my family and friends are. I can't even count how many people have prayed for and asked about my Praxis test on Tuesday. I had students, siblings, parents, friends around the world pray for me. All of my coworkers asked. I got a call from out of state to see how it went. I feel super loved :).

So, quickly, I'm going to offer a short rant. I got into a familiar debate with my mom over iceberg lettuce vs. greener leaves tonight. We've been through it before. Up until about two seconds ago, I was about to say iceberg lettuce has no nutritional value. A quick Google search proved me wrong! Apparently it does have SOME value. Just not alot. And less than Romaine or Spinach leaves. Here's the thing; if I'm going to be eating salad, a food I only consume to be healthy, I want to be as healthy as possible. Thus, I'm going with the greener choice. Also I HATE the texture of iceberg lettuce. If I wanted to eat cabbage, I would eat cabbage.

That, my friends, is all I have to say for now on this matter. I have kids to teach tomorrow and I need to give them their papers back!

Quinoa

What?? I don't even know how to pronounce that word. That is what you're thinking. Or at least that's what I'm betting you're thinking. Let me help: keen-wah. Looks like this:

Except super small. It's a grain grown in South America that my fantastic cousin Kaylie first mentioned to me before she left for Africa. I kinda thought, oh I guess I'll cook it sometime when I have time...and we all know how well that goes.

But I kinda thought I should give it a shot, and I spent a long time googling before I figured out how to spell it. Anyway. You don't care about all this. Let's fast forward: a woman at work gives me a box and I google 'quinoa recipes' and make a nice mexican-style quinoa dish for my lunch two weeks ago. And it's good! I like this stuff. It has a nutty, grainy texture, and goes well with alot of flavors. Here's the important part: quinoa is high in complete protein, which apparently means it contains all 9 amino acids. (Good for me and others who don't eat meat.) It's also gluten free, which doesn't matter as much to me, but definitely matters to people with Coeliac's disease (don't worry; I had to search that spelling too).

So today is week 2 of cooking quinoa, and I went off of a fruit recipe. I love cinnamon! And spending a year without apples has made me appreciate them more. It looks yummy, and with the walnuts I think it will be very filling.

If you're up for a little adventure, or just something different in your diet, I recommend giving this a shot! I found it in the organic section of Martin's near couscous and similar products. It's admittedly a little expensive ($4.29 for this 12 oz box), but I think it's worth it. If you're buying and eating white rice, I won't even begin to tell you how lacking it is in nutrients. The same goes for regular pasta. (Now whole-grain pasta is a different story. Especially if it's Nature's Promise.) So hopefully you're all cooking wild rice and/or spending 4 hours using your pasta machine with local eggs and whole grain flour to whip up your own pasta. But if you're not, you should give this a shot.

Physical Therapy

Well friends, this week marks the third week of another new thing...physical therapy. For those who may not know, on Labor Day a drunken little tiny tot (ok, so she wasn't totally drunk and she wasn't THAT young, but still) smashed her car into mine. There were many results of this, not limited to my anger and then sheer rage when her friend asked me if *I* was drinking and driving, but the main one I want to discuss briefly is my neck.

I have always had tension in my neck/shoulders, but the hearty slam to the back of my Civic didn't help. The orthopedist signed a little note recommending 12 sessions of physical therapy, so I guess after Wednesday I'll be halfway done.

I'm sure physical therapy is quite rough and painful if you have some sort of serious injury like, say, a torn ACL. And there are painful days. But for the most part, it's wonderful. I get to spend an hour working on the muscles in my shoulder and having people velcro warm towels around my neck. Today my therapist did something called ETPS, and I have no idea what it stands for. (When I wikipedia'd it, it went to Empire Test Pilot's School, and that's definitely not right.) The long and short of it is that he took two little things that looked almost like glue guns, and shocked my muscles with little electric zaps. And it was great! I think it helped my neck a little.

It's also a great place to people watch. Mostly old(er) people, but sometimes there are kids with sports injuries. It's pretty fascinating. I feel like I could definitely fake PT knowledge if I needed to, a la Catch Me If You Can. Don't worry; I have no interest in attempting this or testing my hypothesis.

Well, I have a warm shower and a bed waiting for me. Note to self: need to blog more. Otherwise I'll lose my 1.5 readers. (Hi Mom!)

Good night everyone! If you're ever in a car accident, get checked out right away! Make sure you Personal Injury Protection (PIP) is secure.