Deliciousness with black beans

My life has gotten rather hectic lately; my Girl is playing baseball and soccer and my Boy is doing track and baseball.  A lot of driving, a lot of waiting around, a lot of "where are your cleats" "is your gear in my car or your father's" "crap, I forgot to wash your purple socks" yelling going on between 4PM and 9PM, Monday through Friday.  Games on weekends.  I generally don't allow more than one sport at a time - I relaxed my rule for this season.  It won't happen again.

Anyway, so last night's Mom's Night Out was a welcome diversion.  We went to the Bead Boutique to make beaded jewelry and socialize, and it was lovely.  I made a ring version of my nest necklace from a previous post, and it's adorbs.  We're kind of bummed, though, the Bead Boutique is closing the end of this month.  They will be missed.

I have to admit, I generally pick up some chips or cheese and crackers on my way to these things, but yesterday I was feeling inspired by a recipe I found on one of my favorite health and fitness websites, Fit Bottomed Girls: Black Bean Hummus.  I had all the ingredients on hand and I love black beans, so I gave it a try.  I even made the chips, from high fiber tortillas I had on hand.  They were not so good - I think I needed to bake them just a little longer, they were kind of chewy.  But the hummus...so creamy and lovely.   

Black Bean Hummus from Fit Bottomed Girls

I highly recommend, if you like hummus.  Which you do, of course.  It tastes particularly good on pretzel chips, but everything tastes good on pretzel chips, as far as I'm concerned. 

This recipe was super healthy, which segues well to my next topic:  I had a little meeting with my kiddles today to discuss our healthy family challenge (I think I mentioned that in a previous post?  If not, it's exactly what it sounds like, and I found it on SparkPeople.)  Our challenges for the first week include reducing screen time, having a meeting to explain the program and ask for input, and prepare by making meal plans and lists, checking activities, etc.  My kids actually are not too crazy with the screen time - neither kid has a tv or computer in their rooms.  But I did suggest that we could all benefit from slowly reducing the tv time, and when summer comes I don't want them zoning in front of one screen or another, so this will be good preparation.  Wish me luck with that.