a peek inside the fishbowl

… can be summarized thusly: small homes are being torn down in favour of huge homes that tower over neighbouring homes.

A new twin set is being built in my neighbourhood right now and I wanted to take a photo of it and post it here because it perfectly encapsulates the growing problem. Allow me to illustrate.
(I’ve uploaded full-size images to Flickr… so you can freely click to enlarge.)

Here’s the front view. Behind that lovely porta potty (omg, why is it ON THE STREET?) note how the garage will be perfectly at pedestrian view/street level.
 

It’s hard to get an idea of how big they are, isn’t it? Well, here is the neighbouring house on the one side. (God. I wonder what THAT guy thinks about his new neighbours):

The smaller white home is on a large corner lot. Here’s another view, just to get a better idea of what I’m talking about:

These monsters are popping up like weeds. It’s disheartening, really. Why is this allowed? Where will it end?

(And before someone accuses me of NIMBY-like hatred of growth, don’t. I don’t mind infill, but we all know it can be designed so that it fits the size/space/character of the streetscape.)

FYI, these are a few of the homes on the same block as the one pictured above. I just kept walking and snapping:

You can see a few more pics online here.

Westborians might also be interested to know that there was a Planning 101 workshop for Ottawa City Councillors and staff yesterday. A helpful thing, right? Because urban planning is IMPORTANT. Well, a little bird told me that there was no one from Ward 15 (a.k.a. Kitchissippi Ward) in attendance. Maybe someone can confirm, but apparently the convent was mentioned more than once and there was some surprise among the participants that neither Katherine Hobbes nor members of her new staff were there.

What do you think Westies? What are we going to do about this?

If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time you already know that I love to eat healthy food, and that I’m constantly trying to find recipes for healthy new foods and dishes my family will love too. When Mark emailed me this recipe for black bean hummus I knew I had to try it.

The girls eat regular hummus (receipe here) quite happily, which is a joy to behold because hummus is full of fibre and other great stuff. But back to the black beans. Here is how I served it up:

I thought it was ok. Maybe 5/10.

Next time I might add a bit more garlic and cilantro. I only used 1tb of olive oil because I didn’t want it emulsifying too much. It was very mild, but then again, I left the red pepper flakes out because I made it primarily for the girls.

One kid ate it quite happily, the other wasn’t too thrilled. Despite my 50% failure rate I do urge you to try it. I think it would make a great sandwich spread.

If you make this let me know how it works out for you!

I’m waiting for my split-pea soup to boil, and when it does I’m going to boil it and boil it and boil it.

I made it last night, or should I say, I started making it 36 hours ago. I bought a bag of dried yellow split peas and when I went to make the soup I realized they needed to be soaked. For a long time. Doh. According to the directions they need to soak in water anywhere between 12 to 24 hours. I soaked them for 20 hours, then made the recipe (which was a slow-cooker soup recipe that required 6 hours on low.) I cooked it for 8 hours, served it for dinner, and those blasted peas were STILL hard and crunchy. WTH?

So I’m boiling a small pot of it again, hoping they’ll fall apart and take on the consistency of a proper French-Canadian Split Pea Soup, you know, like a kind of like a mush, but a yummy kind of mush? (Here’s the recipe BTW).

You know what’s the best part of this soup, BACON. It calls for a ham bone, but I didn’t have one, so I subbed bacon. Oh, I love bacon.

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In a previous post I mentioned crustless veggie mini quiches that were providing me with a hot and healthy breakfast that’s faster than fast food.

This morning I scrambled an egg in a bowl, microwaved it for just over a minute (remember this post?) and then sprinkled some grated cheddar cheese on top. It was so good. Sarah had one too.

I had a lovely little afternoon snack yesterday. Here it is:

It’s plain yogurt (regular fat*) with a handful of blueberries and some almonds for crunch.

* Low fat products often substitute something for the missing fats, like sugar. Or in the case of yogurt, corn starch and gelatin. So read the labels!

I think I’ve discovered the trick to eating well; eat whole foods you love to eat.

It’s so important I’ll say it again: eat whole foods you love to eat.

The thing about ditching sugar and flour from my diet means that I’m not eating any processed foods. (Yay!) The funny thing is that the foods that I am eating now seem to taste better. Isn’t that strange? I’m not sure how to explain it. Maybe it’s because I’m savouring them more, or because they’re unadulterated. Like bread, for example (not that I’m eating it right now) but you know it’s a good slice of bread when you can eat it without anything on it… because then and only then can you *really* taste the bread. That’s what I’m feeling like today. Everything tastes amazing.

Other things I’ve been noshing on lately include nuts, and celery with cream cheese. Mark and I shared a giant bowl of popcorn last night. And I’m going to make a batch of black bean hummus today to eat this afternoon.

Off to check my soup! Wish me luck. If this doesn’t work I have a lot of peas to chew.

UPDATE: I simmered them for an extra TWO HOURS and they’re still crunchy! Turns out, you can buy bad peas. Either they’re old or were improperly stored. Bah.