Good afternoon!

How is everyone?

I’m feeling pretty good.  I just enjoyed a fantastic lunch, and I’m sitting here between two warm, fuzzy-butts, catching up on my blog reading.

A while back, Lauren did a post about adzuki beans, which piqued my interest.  I mean, anything that you can pronounce as a-dookie is a winner in my book.

Delicious, sweet pink grapefruit noshed on while I waited for my beans to cook.

As I was browsing my local grocery store this past week, I spied some adzuki beans in the bulk bins, and of course, burst into a fit of giggles whilst tugging on my Mum’s shirt sleeve and managing, “ADOOOOOKIE!” between breaths.

Mum remained unfazed.

Heck, not even ten minutes later, she would talk me into buying a hula hoop, so having her daughter in the aisles of Winco wailing, “Adoooooookieeeeee,” did not warrant a bat of her eye.

Nevertheless, at only 1.60$ per pound, I went for it.

Almond butter, adzuki mash, sweet tater.

I woke up craving beans for lunch today, and a quick Google search revealed that I didn’t need to presoak my beans.

I simply poured them into a large stew pot, picked out the debris, and covered them in water and allowed them to boil.

An hour and a half later, my beans were ready.

I had started to get hungry as the beans cooked, hence the consumption of a grapefruit.  Mmm, grapefruit are quickly moving their way up my “favorite fruit” list.

I "mmmm"d all through this meal.

Another Google search informed me that many people do not like adzuki beans because they tend to have a sweet disposition, not unlike myself.

Sweet beans?  Where were you when I was trying to add lentils to my porridge?  Traitors!

Oh, but all was forgiven after I measured out a half a cup of them, mashed them with a banana, vanilla, and cinnamon, and poured it onto a baked sweet potato.

And, for vegetables, a green smoothie.

I drizzled them with almond butter.

Oh my gosh, wonderful!  They didn’t need salt; they were perfect as is.

I have tons of leftovers, so I hope to find many ways to integrate them into my meals throughout the week.

For vegetables, I thew a kiwi, 1/4 of a very ripe cantaloupe, tons of romaine, a couple handfuls of frozen blueberries, 1/4 cup orange juice, a splash of almond milk, and two large scoops of rice protein powder into my blender.

I ran out of lemons, alas, so it wasn’t as good as it could have been, but it was still very yummy.

Do you like beans?  What’s your favorite kind?

Thanks for reading!

❤ Kaz