Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all! I always feel a bit introspective this time of year. Whenever I'm alone, with four kids this usually means when I'm in the shower, I find myself taking a mental inventory of the last year. No matter what my feelings are on the events of the prior year, reviewing them helps me plan for the upcoming year.

I'm especially pleased with the way holiday gift giving went this year. For the most part, everyone kept it low key. Since there are so many of us, my siblings and I drew names out of a hat for gift giving. Our spending limit for these gifts was $20-$25 and this made for some really thoughtful and creative gift giving. It helps that most of us have the "keep it cheap, ow it hurts to spend that much" gene.

I got my sister, Mary, a 1 year subscription to The HomeEconomiser Newsletter $12 and I pre-ordered her a copy of America’s Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money $10.36. Certainly, its not the right gift for everyone but Mary and I tend to really be on the same page about finances.

In food news, I got a request for my chickpea scramble recipe. I thought I'd already posted it but apparently I hadn't. The chickpea scramble is basically my Potato Scramble recipe with about 4 cups of cooked chickpeas instead of potatoes. Here it is:

Chickpea Scramble
4 cups cooked chickpeas
2 onions, chopped
any or none of the following: chopped carrot, chopped broccoli, chopped kale or any other chooped vegetable
1/2 cup tamari
1 Tbs. nutritional yeast
1 Tbs. maple syrup

In a heavy pot, I'm partial to cast iron, brown the onions in a little olive or canola oil. Add the chickpeas and the optional items. Whisk together last three ingredients and pour over chickpea and onion mixture. Add water to just cover, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook covered about 25 minutes. To make it thicker mash 1/2 of the chickpeas before serving. Serve as is or as a crepe filling.