Quinoa

At Whole Foods Market the other day Gwen and I bought some quinoa to try. No, I'm not speaking some Native American language. Quinoa (pronounced Keen-owa) is traditionally known as a grain, although it really is a seed in the herb category. I have only heard of it really. It was nice...but not a real knockout on the taste department. You don't really taste anything. I made this quinoa and black bean salad with it. Interesting...

Something else I made today that WAS good was my split pea soup with turkey bacon. Very satisfying and healthy! Per serving it has 236 calories and only 5 grams of fat and a whopping 17 g of fiber. I did not include a picture here cause let's face it, who really wants a picture of split pea soup? Not mwah!

1 small onion, chopped
1 T vegetable oil
4 C water
1 can chicken broth (I use powder and 1 C of liquid)
1 1/2 C dried green split peas
turkey bacon- cooked and diced (I use maybe 5-8 slices)
3 bay leaves
1 1/2 tsp salt (I eyeball it)
1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed (I eyeball it)
1/4 tsp dried thyme (I eyeball it)
1/4 tsp pepper (I add more cause you know I love the pepper)

in a large saucepan, saute onion in oil until tender. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 1 hour or until peas are tender. Discard bay leaves. Yields 6 servings.

I doubled the recipe today in order to have leftovers for lunches. Nothing better than a hearty soup for lunch in my humble opinion.

*So, I'm wondering.. should I have a separate blog for cooking or just include it with everything else going on in our lives? If I did have a separate blog for cooking what would I name it? Any opinions?

Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Chard)

Gwen and I went on an outing today to the Whole Foods Market here in town. I've never been in there before. I was amazed at all the vegetables there. I knew I wasn't going to buy much because it's a little pricey in there, but I just couldn't resist buying this vegetable. We're going to try it tonight. It's called Rainbow Chard. I've seen chard cooked on tv, but I've never had it, so we'll see how it goes. I thought it was beautiful.

Something I've noticed lately is that even if you buy no salt added canned tomatoes, they have high fructose corn syrup added in. I'm not sure why. I looked at this market and they had no salt added canned tomatoes without the sugar. Just interesting... keep eating healthy people... and be daring! I saw some gorgeous people in that market so they must be doing something right! (plastic surgery mayhap?)

Update On Sleep

Well... as you all know, last week I declared "sleep bootcamp" at our house. Last week Gwen slept through the night twice and almost on a third night. That's progress in my book. Somehow the little weasel made me feel sorry for her and I picked her up for a few nights. I know... I'm shooting myself in the foot. So then for the past two nights Ben has been my bootcamp assistant. He is the perfect assistant because he has a much stronger constitution than I do. Last night I heard her wake up once and she put herself back to sleep without any assistance! (that's progress in my book too) She did wake up one other time and cried for 20 minutes and had pats on the back. (that's not long... you all don't realize how determined this girl can be)

So... here's what we're doing.

1. Always put her down for naps and bedtime awake with a kiss and the same phrase- "go to sleep Gwen, I love you".
2. When she wakes up in the night to give her a few minutes to see if she can get herself back to sleep.
3. If she doesn't Ben or I will go in and put her pacifier in and pat her on the back and say "go to sleep Gwen" and leave immediately.
4. We try to wait as long as we can stand it before going in again. (of course we know she's ok because either we've been in there or we can peek around the corner of the door if we are really agile- but it's tricky, cause she's got the eyes of a hawk)
5. I have resolved to not feed her or pick her up in the night. She's not hungry. I know because she eats a lot during the day and she's made it through before.

Why so much talk about sleep? Because it is a hard thing to learn as a first time mom. I mean, there are a thousand different opinions on the subject and if you dare to share yours with another mom they look at you and you can tell they think differently and they always say "they are all different." So, this is where I will voice what we are doing in case someone wants to read it. It took me a while to resolve myself not to pick her up and feed her. It's like in my blood to respond to her or something. Through it all it amazes me that we can have a crazy night in the bootcamp and the next morning Gwen wakes up like she's the happiest little thing ever. Go figure...

Babyland

Our baby is 8 months now. My, she's getting big! I took these photos today and I thought I'd share them. I think she is such a cute little girl.


I had to act quick because she wanted to tear up the flowers and then eat a petal.

You can get a great education from children's books. This is in one of the ones we picked out from the library this week. It says, "my mommy is a capybara. I am her baby." Now when's the last time you heard of a capybara? Ben says it looks like a beaver crossed with a scottish terrier.

Something else Ben said tonight that I thought was funny. I was chopping vegetables and Ben was looking at me. I told him "don't look at me... I look like a homeless person" to which he replied "you don't look anything like a homeless person...they don't chop their own vegetables." Maybe you had to be there.

President's Day

Happy President's Day. Ben was off today so after a leisurely morning we headed out to the library. We thought we'd try a new one (cause we're just crazy like that), so we went to the largest one in our county. Walking in it is like the starship enterprise or something. I asked a lady about where a section was and she took me on a tour of the library. While we were there Ben saw some dude looking at "inappropriate" stuff and he confronted him. The guy basically just made excuses. The librarian said that unless he is breaking a law or being disruptive that they can't do anything! I was proud that Ben said something anyway. I told him he is now a part of the porn Nazis. I came up with that when I was studying for my masters degree in Miami. I was living in a dorm that had both boys and girls on the same floor. Everyday I would walk down this same hall and this guy had a poster of Pamela Anderson on his door scantily clad. I got so sick of seeing that thing that one day one of my roommates and I decided to go all vigilante. We took the poster down and brought it back to our room and took markers and painted a high collared dress on Pamela and made her hair all orange and put some studious little glasses on her. We wrote a note on there that said "no porn for you. Love- the porn Nazis." Then we put it back on his door. I think I cried I was laughing that hard.


I know you guys (whoever you are!) are probably sick of hearing about what food I'm making...but I find it interesting, so why not share! Tonight I finally made the chickpea burgers. Let's just say it wasn't McDonalds. They tasted like dry hummus really. It wasn't bad per se, just not worthy of the name burger. I ate one of them and I looked over at Ben and said "well... they're filling.. maybe a good breakfast food." He looked at me and said "yeah, in a desert where you have only been eating scorpion legs." I'll spare you the recipe, but here's what I put in them in case you are wondering. chickpeas, red kidney beans, onion, sunflower seeds, garlic, one egg and many spices including green chilis.

Here they are before cooking.


Here they are after cooking. I know they look like no bake cookies gone way bad. :)


Here is what was on the menu tonight: salad, steamed asparagus, steamed broccoli, and the chickpea things.


We finished off our meal with dessert. This is accepted in the first phase of south beach. It's called vanilla ricotta creme. I liked it.

1/2 C part-skim ricotta cheese
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 packet of splenda

Mix and enjoy! We put a little toasted almonds on there too for good measure.

The Beach

Well... I'm down 3 1/2 pounds from last week thanks to the South Beach diet. Now it's week two. I'm missing bread less, but I'd still like toast in the morning. Ben said after these two weeks he's going to eat a whole loaf himself covered in processed white sugar and dipping sauce of high fructose corn syrup. :) You see why living with him is such a joy?

Blooms

Here are a few blooms from our house. I know.. sets your heart to racing doesn't it? Hey... I'm exciting...you just have to get to know me a little better! Anyway... this first flower is an amaryllis and I got it from my sister's yard as a bulb in December. Isn't it pretty?


One of my orchids.

Brussels Sprouts

Tonight was my first experience with brussels sprouts. That's right... brussels with an s. I always thought it was "brussel sprouts", but it's "brussels sprouts." That's about the extent of what I learned today. Anyway, I found them delicious. They sort of have a cabbagey taste to them and they are soft and nice. This whole more vegetable thing has gotten me really in awe of all the different kinds of vegetables God made and their differences. Tomorrow night is chickpea burgers. I know, I know, weird. I'll let you know how it goes!

I bought frozen brussels sprouts and thawed them in some water for a bit. I then cut them in half and put them on a towel and squeezed out the water. Next I put a couple of tablespoons olive oil in a pan and heated it up on medium heat. I put the sprouts in and let them get all brownish on the edges. When they started to get a little cooked I put salt and pepper and minced garlic in. I'd say maybe 3 cloves. (I had two frozen bags worth of sprouts) If I were to do it again, I think I'd put a little cayenne pepper in there for some added heat.


Here they are!

So our menu tonight was salad with cauliflower bits and tomatoes on there and the sprouts and roasted chicken and peppers and hummus. You guys let me know if you try something daring. I'd like to try endive, fennel, or artichokes next.

Valentine's Day

I asked Ben last night what he would like for Valentine's Day. He replied "a live chipmunk." Now what am I going to do? :)

Family Time

My wonderful mother-in-law Pam (notice that I stick that in every chance I get) and Ben's younger brother John (he's wonderful too) came over last night. I was trying to capture Gwen playing the pot.

On The Home Front

Well, Ben and I are doing this diet called "South Beach Diet." What do we eat you might be asking... or not asking...but anyway, here's an example of a dinner. Tonight we had shrimp sauted in garlic, a little olive oil, minced ginger, and spices. We had a salad with cauliflower and cucumbers and cherry tomatoes. We also had zucchini baked with parmesan cheese on there. Life on the beach ain't half bad.

This is Gwen eating her dinner. She had green beans with avocado. She has become quite the eater. Today alone she ate mango and pears + oatmeal cereal for breakfast, butternut squash + rice cereal and a bit of banana for lunch, and banana and green beans and avocado for dinner. I mean, she's got quite an appetite for a little almost 8 month old!!

On other news, I started "sleep bootcamp" with Gwen last night. I decided that she needed an opportunity to learn how to get herself back to sleep. Last night was not spectacular, but it was a start. I'll spare you all the details, but just know I made sure she was fine and she is much loved and with this "bootcamp" there are no pushups she must perform.

Eggceptional

This morning as I was about to get some eggs out to make breakfast something caught my eye. Here it is:

Meal Plan

Update: This meal plan I posted will have to wait. Ben and I have decided to go onto the South Beach diet for a while and see what happens. Ben's brother John had huge success with it. We jokingly call what we've been eating the "North Beach Diet".

chicken cacciatore
beef stew with white wine and mustard
sweet and savory pork stew with fruit
pork stew with cider, carrots, and lima beans
spinach and feta bread pudding, deviled eggs
chicken with rosemary dumplings

Can you tell I got a library book about stews?

*Swedish Rye Bread- this time making it with the orange peel and juice
*Baby food- mangos

Review from last week:
Black Beans- they turned out pretty good. I added a little turkey bacon in there for flavor and I think that was nice. It takes a long time to cook beans from dried.
Indian chicken and rice casserole- was very good. It was a little labor intensive as all Indian dishes are...but worth it. I love the basmati rice.
Veggie enchiladas- I think I could be a vegetarian on these. These were great and I just used some of my black beans I had made earlier in the week.
pizza and quiche- still haven't made, but will
Turkey chili- not on the plan from last week, but I made it.
Baby food- instead of peas I made green beans cause they were on sale at the market. She hasn't tried them yet, but I think they are much better than the jar kind you can buy.
Swedish Rye Bread- turned out very nice I think. I learned to get good slices (thin) you need to let the loaf completely cool.

Blue Eyes

This is the outfit I bought for Gwen yesterday. She's so pretty!

So True

Creepy

Today I went with a friend to a store with baby clothes. Look what I found in there. It's an XL sized flannel footy sleeper. I was greatly amused and disturbed at the same time.

Conversations With Gwen- 7 1/2 months

I've been working on getting her to say "da da". She loves the curious George figurine.

Encouragement For Today

Someone said this to me today: "the future happens one day at a time"

Isn't it crazy how something so obvious and simple can encourage? The little everyday moments add up to a day... and every day is important. Every day significant. The reminder of today... truly appreciate every moment of your day. Every little seemingly insignificant ones, cause they're not insignificant to God.

Once An Arafat Man

I just finished reading Tass Saada's book "Once An Arafat Man." Ben got it for me for Christmas. It is a true story account about a former PLO sniper and how he came to know Christ. Here are some things I'll take away from reading this book:

1. The Lord used both a friend of his and a vision to bring him to repentance. I thought immediately of my Egyptian neighbors just next door. How am I showing love to them? I have heard of other Muslims coming to know the Lord through dreams and visions. I hadn't ever heard this verse: Isaiah 65:1 "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, 'Here am I, here am I.' Isn't it amazing how God is so merciful even when we don't ask?

2. I had heard Tass' testimony once before, but I had no idea just how tough this guy was. I mean, shooting your math teacher... aye carumba! (his teacher lived by the way)

3. I also was impressed at how brave he was when facing his family after his conversion. Honor killing is just so foreign to my mind of course being an American. I can't even imagine how painful all that was.

4. I also was amazed at his trip in the van all over. He just got into a van and started talking to people in masques and temples and churches. It challenged me to think if I'd be willing to go out like that with no plan. Am I really listening to God on a daily basis?

5. I was also blessed to read about his ministry to people in the Gaza strip now. He is working ultimately for people from all sides to know the love of God.

Legacy

What a happy little girl Gwen is! For the most part Gwen has these expressions throughout her day. She especially likes it when I turn on music and dance around. Although I'm ok with whatever she enjoys, I do hope she enjoys music. I got out one of my favorite children's CDs today. It's one that you won't find at Wal-Mart. It's a CD of a teacher that has recorded her favorite songs that she taught the children in my hometown. Her name is Polly Easterwood... what an incredible name huh? Anyway, I love her songs. When I taught school the kids LOVED these songs. I think of girl scout songs and hymns and silly songs that I'd like Gwen to know. I mean, you'd be surprised to know how many kids I've met that don't know "Amazing Grace" or the national anthem... or worse, never have music in their home. I think everyone should know songs like "Mares Eat Oats and Does Eat Oats" and "Eggbert The Easter Egg". One of my new favorite songs is from a CD that my sister had of nursery rhymes set to music. These are the lyrics to the one I'm obsessed with (so if you hear me say "dilly dilly" sometime you'll know):

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly,
Lavender's green
When you are King, dilly dilly,
I shall be Queen

Who told you so, dilly dilly,
Who told you so?

'Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,
That told me so

Call up your friends, dilly, dilly
Set them to work
Some to the plough, dilly dilly,
Some to the fork

Some to the hay, dilly dilly,
Some to thresh corn
Whilst you and I, dilly dilly,
Keep ourselves warm

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly,
Lavender's green
When you are King, dilly dilly,
I shall be Queen

Who told you so, dilly dilly,
Who told you so?
'Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,
That told me so

I think this smile looks like Ben. Look at those chompers!