Mediterranean Dinner

Finally got my first really GOOD nights sleep all this week - - it was the first night Miss M wasn't in bed with us! sheesh! No one kicking me in the back, no one trying to roll over on to me, no one sharing my pillow in the middle of the night. Finally - aaaahhhhh!
Made a great dinner last night - - chickpea salad (from the wholefoods.com website - just tomatoes, olives, garbanzos, sliced yellow squash with vinaigrette over the whole thing, add pepper and toss - I made the beans in my pressure cooker the night before - delicious!), whole wheat couscous, and "honey" (read: agave syrup) glazed carrots with steamed sweet potatoes. Yum! It was fast and easy, and we had enough food that SN had seconds and Miss M and I both have the rest of the left overs in our lunches. I was impressed with myself, I must say - - that's the way I USED to cook! It's so much easier to make lunches when everything is right there in front of me, ready to go. Hopefully, I can remember how much easier it is even when I'm tired!! Hahahaa!
Still looking for something to make for dinner tonight - - I have zucchini and yellow squash from my CSA basket - - so that will be somewhere in there.
We also got black berries (yum!) in our basket this week and radishes (!) - I am going to have to find a good way to use all those up. Slicing one up and putting it into salad every day or night means I end up with a lot that go into the trash because I just don't go through them fast enough!

Glazed Carrots
1 bunch of carrots
1 T Earth Balance
1/2 - 3/4 T agave syrup
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
parsley
salt and pepper

Steam carrots until soft - - I used whole, young carrots so it took about 10 minutes. Drain water. Using the same pot, over medium heat, add in Earth Balance, agave syrup, and vinegar, swirl to mix. Add in steamed carrots and, as much as possible, cover the carrots with the "sauce". Continue to cook for approximately 5 minutes, letting the carrots soak up the sauce. Sprinkle parsley over the top (I used dried for this, so I added it a minute or two after putting in the carrots), add some salt and pepper.

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! :)