Quick Microwave-able Beets

We had so much fun today - Sunday is our "Family Fun Day" - just the three of us hang out and do a bunch of things together that we don't get to do during the week. Early this morning, we dressed up in sweaters and took a walk, then came home, hung out, and then got ready to go for a late lunch. There is this (relatively) new restaurant by our house called Kavikas - it's mostly upscale bar food, but it was soooo good. Afterwards, we went over to the Aquarium of the Pacific. The aquarium is something we usually do only occasionally, but we decided to drop in and see what was new. There is this exhibit there called the Lorikeet Forest and there are all these free-flying Lorikeets. You can feed them, but Miss No-No and I never do (since they may bite if you jerk or jump when they land on you). HOWEVER, Mr. No-No was not at all worried. He ended up having this one bird alllll over him - even on his head!! And then, out of nowhere, this bird started gnawing on his ear (!) and poor Mr. No-No didn't know how to get him off without getting hurt!!! :(  They ended up sending over their sudo-EMT person to take care of him (and he also got a free plush - lol).

Beets are in season right now - and we are loaded down with them!!! :) This recipe is a quick and easy way to make beets (which usually need to be cooked for about 45 minutes on the stove top to get them tender).

Microwave Beets

1 bunch of beets

olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

lemon juice or balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

Peel beets and cut into 1/2" dice. Place in a glass microwave-able dish and cover with water. Microwave beets for approximately 8 - 10 minutes (or use your "fresh vegetable" setting on your microwave). Remove beets from microwave, drain, and let cool for a few minutes. Drizzle the beets with olive oil, a small amount of vinegar or lemon juice, add garlic and salt and pepper (to taste) and mix. Serve and enjoy!!!

I served this with some sauteed rainbow chard (1 clove of garlic, minced, in olive oil, add sliced chard, saute for a minute, add 1-2 Tbs water, cover and steam for 5 minutes, remove lid and cook off most of the water) and a chicken-style gardenburger.

The whole dinner takes about 15 minutes and is delicious and nutritious!

What kind of things do you cook for a quick meal?

What are your go-to ingredients to put something together quickly?

Share your ideas with me and everyone else! While I have a lot of ideas of my own - - I welcome all kinds of comments - and I am sure everyone else who reads this feels the same way. Every new thing I learn helps ME live a richer life (and that's better for my family and myself!).

Have a great week!

More later!! :)

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The Weekend of Firsts

It rained again (!) most of this past weekend!! We spent a lot of time inside, but I also got a lot of cooking done!

I made a potato and leek soup, a raw "tuna" salad for lunches during the week, a big salad, and vegetable broth (with my vegetable scraps from the past month or so). This broth is so easy, fast, and cheap(!) compared to any dried bullion that you would buy at the grocery store. It's flavorful and has no preservatives, no coloring, no animal products, and no extreme amount of salt. To get ready to make the broth, I take all the vegetable peelings and cuttings (except for broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower) and put them in a large Ziploc bag and freeze. Every night, I just add more peelings to the bag - which is nice because I am completely using alllll parts of the veggies that I use, which is just more value for my grocery dollar - and when the bag is full, it's time to make broth!

Vegetable Broth

Scraps from vegetable peelings and cuttings

Enough hot water to fill a 6 quart stockpot (with veggies already in the pot)

3 or 4 whole garlic cloves

1 tsp. kosher salt

3 dried bay leaves

20 peppercorns

1 tsp. each dried parsley, oregano, and thyme

Bring the water and veggie peelings to a rapid boil. Add remaining ingredients. Cover and simmer the broth for about one hour. Turn the heat off, take the lid off and let cool for approximately 1/2 to 1 hour. Strain broth into containers (and ice cube trays) and freeze for later use.

Miss No-No also got to wear her new Rapunzel hair clip that I mentioned a few posts ago.

I also taught Miss No-No how to make "Ants on a Log". Which was funny because she's only had them once before!! But, she never MADE them herself before and she really enjoyed it. She likes to do things in the kitchen, which, of course, makes me happy. Creating brings me a lot of joy, and I hope that she can find joy in some creative endeavors as well!

 

 

Who would have known that almond butter, celery, and raisins could be soooo much fun?? :)

We also went for sushi (vegan!) on Friday night and frozen yogurt on Sunday ~ she had never had either of those either! So it was a weekend of firsts for her.

Thanks for your comments on my last post about the Indian-Inspired soup. I really enjoyed making - and eating - that one!

When it's cold outside, if you stay inside, what kinds of things do you do? What keeps you busy?
Are you letting your little ones cook / make treats for themselves yet? What do you trust them to do?

More later! :)

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Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Carmelized Onions and Sage

This is what Sunday afternoons look like in our house - - trying to get the little Miss No-No to just (pul-eeeze) take a nap! hahahah. Sleeping with Mr. No-No seems to be doing the trick lately. She just falls right out.

To kick off the Halloween season, officially, I decided to do a week of pumpkin / Halloween inspired dinners and lunches. For dinner last night, we had Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Caramelized Onions and Sage from those wonder chefs that wrote Veganomicon. I love that book - everything comes out delish!! I didn't modify the recipe at all (except to cut it in half since it's only the 3 of us) so this is pretty much an exact copy from their book (plus my own little comments).

3/4 # uncooked ziti or penne pasta
2 onions, thinly sliced
3 T olive oil
1 recipe of Cashew Ricotta
1 T brown sugar
1/4 t ground nutmeg
White pepper and cayenne
2 c pureed pumpkin (or 1 15-oz can)
1/4 c veggie broth

Sage bread crumbs:
2-1/2 c fresh breadcrumbs
1/3 c walnut pieces, chopped fine in a food processor
1/4 c vegan margarine
2 t dried, rubbed sage
1 t dried oregano
1/2 t ground paprika
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a 9 x 11" lasagna pan (or two smaller pans) with olive oil. Prepare pasta according to package directions. Drain, rinse, set aside.

While pasta is cooking, make onions: Preheat a cast iron pan over medium. Saute onions in oil until brown and caramelized, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat.
Place cashew ricotta in a large bowl (really, you will need a LARGE bowl) and fold in pumpkin, brown sugar, nutmeg, pepper, cayenne, and veggie broth. Add cooked pasta and onions, stirring to coat. Pour mixture into baking pan and press lightly to level.

Next, make the bread crumbs: Melt margarine in a heavy skillet (I wiped out the cast iron pan and used it again) over medium. Stir in bread crumbs, walnuts, dried herbs, paprika, salt and pepper. Stir until everything is coated (and toasted, and smells faintly like Thanksgiving), about 4 minutes. Remove and sprinkle over pasta.

Bake for 30 minutes. Cool for 10 before slicing and serving.

I served this with chopped raw carrots. It was a filling and complete meal. Miss No-No didn't eat that much (she isn't a big onion fan unless they are well hidden), but Mr. No-No gobbled it down! :)
What surprised me about this whole dish was how creamy it was - really - you can't miss cheese when you have such a wonderful substitute! As I said, these gals are mavens - - - and I know I can never go wrong making something from one of their cookbooks!

More later!  :)

Bike Riding Adventures

Went to the park last Sunday to just run around - and again this past Sunday for some bike riding fun with the new Dora bike!! :) Miss M loved it. We went to El Dorado Park and they have this little roundabout at the end of the "street". We actually drove around that thing for probably 1/2 an hour - - and she just had so much fun. She did fall down once - she was turning around too fast and she just tipped over. At first, I thought that she was going to cry, she was a bit shaken up, but turns out that's all it was - - I brushed her off and asked her if she was done or if she wanted to get back on and keep going...and she wanted to get back on!! Yay! Next time, we will have to try a park that has more actual trails so that we have somewhere to go instead of around in circles...
Afterwards we went to lunch at the Factory - - I was disappointed...I have been waiting to go to this place for MONTHS and it really wasn't all that great....Although, I think I would probably go back again just to give it one more chance - - and the fact that not only did they have kids menus, but had peanut butter and honey (!) sandwiches on their menus scores extra points with me - - lol.

Also tried to continue my weekend crafting adventures, but I got caught up with being at the park all morning - - hahaha. I did start making a TeaRoseHome ruffle tee that I was really excited about. However, I sewed the first row of ruffles and realized that it didn't look right. I took all the stitches out to re-do it and decided that maybe I should spend some time doing other things (that NEEDED to be done) and then re-visit the tee when I have more time....And since that probably won't happen until next Friday, I guess I will just have a new shirt to wear on the weekend!!!
More later! :)

Katie's Baby Shower

Played hide-and-seek with Miss M on Thursday! It's a first for us....I think she really enjoyed it, especially seeing how it went on for about 1/2 an hour! She's really good at the hiding part, but not the staying hidden part yet - :)
Busy weekend! Shirley stayed with us - we picked her up on Friday - we ended up at the AOP (which was great, it was bring a friend in free day or something like that, so she didn't have to pay!). She had a good time with Miss M and encouraged her to pay to help the aquarium feed the otters (something I have NEVER thought of doing!) and then we went to watch them and then she bought her a stuffed otter to take home (from the gift shop). Hahhahaha. It was fun for Miss M, however, being summer and a Friday, it was very crowded. I think we were there for about an hour and a half or so before I had enough. :)  Guess I am so used to the days where it ISN'T busy that I just can't stand all the crowds and the kids along with a baby that is cranky because I have kept her up past nap time! LOL.
Saturday morning, we went over to Mom's for Katie's shower. It was very nice A. Pennie was there, Roxanna, Kyana, Don, Travis, Barbara S., and of course, Katie. We had a lot of fun just visiting and hanging out, but again, another long, long day! I was exhausted, but happy. KT got a lot of nice stuff for her party and Mom did a good job with the decorations and the food....Although, I think I ate tooooo many hummus sandwiches and there were SOOO many desserts. But, good all the same! Sunday, we went down to the Patchwork Festival in Marina Park. I was a little bit didisappointed in the set up (I had imagined it being bigger and having more food), but we did get there early and a lot of people were still getting there booths organized....so maybe that was part of the problem. We ended up over at the Farmers Market and that was much more fun! Had tamales (of course!) for lunch and grabbed some extra produce and Miss M tasted oranges and cherries from every.single.booth. that had them out! :)
Wonderful, busy weekend - - but I loved it. Another one coming up here, too! Miss M has no school tomorrow or Friday - - I am thinking maybe the zoo and the water taxi along with a ride in the Passport, which she told me last night, she REALLY wants to do! Hahhahaha!

More later!    :)

I love this place, I love this market

Had such a fun weekend. Cousin K. "met" Miss M for an afternoon of playing around. The girls just ran and ran and were so busy with absolutely NO down time at all. I spent a little bit of time playing with them and chasing them around the house, but mostly, they were just busy playing with each other. We didn't have any problems with them at all (except for when they decided, for some reason, to draw on each other's faces with marker!!!). They really seemed to enjoy each other's company. Don and Roxana came, too, of course and that was fun to see them and hang out with them without them being busy doing other stuff. :)
Sunday, I had all these ideas for stuff to do - - we could go to MOLAA (for their Family Sundays), go to the mall and ride the carousel, make a paper maiche type bowl (from something I saw in a Woman's Day magazine), do a handprint mold (from one of the many that I got when Miss M was born that I was too tired to even try to do when she was first born), or something fun like that. Miss M wanted to go to the mall and we were on our way there when I remembered the Farmers Market in the Marina on Sundays. So we had a change of plans and headed that way instead. I figured why be inside at the mall on such a beautiful day? It would be more fun to be outside, walking around, looking at all the food, right by the water - - and we could get some awesome tamales(!). When I told Miss M that there had been a change in plans, she was not very happy. But, I think once we had been at the Market for about 10 mins, she told me "I love this place, I love this market". Yeah!!!! We ended up only buying organic kale, celery, and corn on the cob (they have soooo much more organic food there than we used to have at our Signal Hill FM). We also shared a pineapple tamale (which I will probably not get again...I would have gotten back in line for another one, but it was too long). Miss M didn't like the tamale so much, but she did REALLY enjoy all the guys there with guitars. I think her favorite was the guy who was actually singing. He must make a lot of money doing that because it seems like every FM I go to in LB, he's there. We were there for quite awhile...they now have an adjoining craft fair that goes on, too. I didn't see a lot of actual buying and it looked like most people were there for the Farmers Market and then just walked down to the craft fair to look around (like us).
Afterwards we walked over to Whole Foods for lunch (even though our WF is small in comparison, having lunch there always reminds me of how much we enjoyed going to WF in Seattle, trying different things, and just sitting down and relaxing). We ended up sharing the Raw Kale Salad, Couscous, and this (deeelicious) Sesame Tofu. For desert, Miss M had a little baby cupcake that she completely ate (it was the perfect size). We walked down and looked at the boats for awhile and then headed off to Target to pick up some stuff really quick.
It was very nice and relaxing - and something different. For dinner, we were gonna head over to Ninos on Atlantic, but (thank gawd) I got on yelp and looked it over - - we decided to just be safe and go to CPK in the Marina instead since they are so kid friendly. However, I guess we should have tried somewhere new since Miss M fell asleep on the way to the restaurant and didn't wake up again until we got home!!! :)
More later! :)

So Much Fun at the Beach

We had such a fun Sunday - usually, we just laze around, maybe go for a walk or something - - we usually just do a whole lot of nothing.
But, this week, Saturday night, I saw the bike trailer and started thinking that we should use that thing already. SN got me that trailer for my bday and I got him the bike rack for the truck for his and I think we have used the trailer a total of three times, and the bike rack NOT EVEN ONCE!!! grrrr....
So, I guess it festered in my head because I got up Sunday morning and I was ready - I had the whole day planned out!!! :) We ended up going down to the beach and riding around for a couple hours, and then we ended up at the BBC for lunch - - mmmmm! I had wanted to go to Claire's at the LBMA - haven't been there yet and I know the view must be so nice and it must be relaxing with that waterfountain going....but, Claire's is not sentimental to us the way that the BBC is!!
We used to go to the BBC like every other week (sometimes every week!) for lunch so it is so nice to be able to go back once in awhile - they have expanded their bar area - - - not like I am gonna be sitting in it any time soon, but it does look nice and much less crowded... I got a veggie sandwich (which I could have made at home, which was disappointing - it was on whole wheat toast!), but the fries and black bean soup (that I shared with Miss M) rocked. No beers this trip out, but the ice tea was good since we were hot and tired. Miss M just wanted watermelon (she actually told us that she wanted "wattermelon" for lunch) and I don't know if the waitress overheard her, or if that is what their fruit plate usually looks like - but it was loaded with watermelon - - ahhhh! everyone was finally happy.
Then we got back on our bikes and we rode to this little playground near the start of the pennisula and let Miss M just run around and have fun (since she had been cooped up in that trailer most of the day - - I had been thinking that she would fall asleep and we could just ride around for awhile, but that never happened!!). She had a lot of fun. After awhile, we were tired, I was hot (when we left it was cold and I put on jeans and a long sleeve tshirt, but it ended up warming up after lunch and I didn't bring a change of clothes). Anyways - the whole point of this story was that Miss M probably told me about 10 times - I have so much fun at the beach today- :)
More later!
:)