The Lively Kitchen

Photo Friday

Michelle {The Lively Kitchen} — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:10:18 +0000

Creating with some Christmas gift art supplies:

I had as much fun as she did….

Target Popcorn = Best Shopping Cart Buddy Occupier Ever

When I’m complaining about Texas summer heat, remind me that we ate ice cream outside in January.

Ingredient Spotlight – Quinoa

Michelle {The Lively Kitchen} — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:17:45 +0000

I get asked about some of the ingredients in my recipes from time to time. Mainly from my mom. I’m starting a new series of posts focusing on some of the slightly less common ingredients that tend to show up in my recipes and make a home in my kitchen.

Please send me an email (thelivelykitchen{at}gmail{dot}com) or leave a comment if there are some ingredients you’d like me to write about.

Ingredient Spotlight

Ingredient: Quinoa

source

How do you pronounce it? Keen-wah. Not ‘key-no-nah’ as my mom likes to say. (hi mom!)

What is it? An edible seed from South America.

Where do you find it at the store? It’s usually by the rice. Sometimes it may be in the gluten-free section and sometimes with the ‘speciality’ grains like barley and amaranth. It’s often sold in bulk bins too. I buy most of my quinoa at Costco, as they sell at 3lb bag of Organic Quinoa for $10, which is the best price I’ve seen.

How much does it cost? Usually around $4-5 a pound. Costco often carries it for $10/3lbs. In bulk bins it’s usually around $4/lb.

How do you cook it? You rinse it, add it to water, bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes. Jenn at Peas and Crayons just did a fabulous post on cooking quinoa, so rather than re-invent the wheel, I’ll just link to it here.

http://www.peasandcrayons.com/2012/01/keen-wahhhh-adventures-in-cooking.html

What does it taste like it? Like a slightly nutty rice. It’s texture is like a chewier cous-cous. Like most grains, it’s quite versatile and takes on the flavor of whatever it’s cooked with.

What’s so great about it? Where to start? 1. It’s pretty cheap. 2. It’s got a good amount of protein, iron, fiber and b vitamins. 3. It’s gluten free 4. It cooks quickly and keeps well in the fridge for a few days. 5. It’s good cold and hot.

Will kids and/or husbands eat it? Most likely. My kids like it plain or tossed with a little butter or olive oil. We eat it at least once a week.

Some of my favorite quinoa recipes from this blog:

Fall Quinoa with Roasted Butternut Squash and Onions - if you like roasted butternut squash, you’ll love this recipe.

Curried Quinoa with Chickpeas and Apples - my personal favorite quinoa dish. No one else in my family likes curry, so I get to eat the whole recipe myself. Not a bad fate.

Quinoa with Salsa and Black Beans – This is the first recipe I ever made with quinoa and I’ve been making it often for the last four years. The flavors are very familiar and, if you like Tex-Mex style dishes, this is a great first time quinoa recipe. It’s good as is, or used as a taco or burrito filler. We also eat it over salad greens with crushed tortilla chips.

Caramelized Onion Quinoa with Toasted Nuts and Seeds – this is one of my husband’s favorite dinners (sans the nuts and seed topping).

Other quinoa recipes I enjoy:

Quinoa Cakes from A Nutritionist Eats. These somehow taste almost like hash browns. I made them for my 21 year old brother-in-law and he ate the entire recipe in one sitting. A fantastic way to use up leftover quinoa.

Zucchini Quinoa Lasagne from Peas and Thank You. I made this every couple of weeks in the summer when zucchini was abundant. I use dairy cream cheese, but otherwise follow the recipe exactly. My husband and kids like it too.

Are you a quinoa fan? If so, please share a recipe!

Next ingredient: Kombu

WIAW- Tea and Books

Michelle {The Lively Kitchen} — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:20:52 +0000

Hello Wednesday…. How about another installment of What I Ate Wednesday with Jenn at Peas and Crayons?

I photographed my eats on Tuesday and decided to give you a glimpse into what I’m reading these days in addition to what I’m eating. I also drank a lot of tea today. And cut my sugar intake way down. Yay me.

Breakfast:

I made some toast and jelly for the munchkins.

The boy likes all strawberry jelly, the girl likes half strawberry and half apricot. Thankfully they both like the Sprouted Grain bread from Costco.

I packed a lunch for the boy:

Veggie potato chips (new find at Costco), cheese tortilla, banana, cutie, cucumbers, broccoli. Water in the Toy Story cup (we are green, we are green, our master is the toy machine)

And I got to eat my breakfast while reading a little from Simplicity Parenting, which I am LOVING.

Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids. (yes please) by K. Payne

Breakfast was green jasmine tea, toast + almond butter+ apricot preserves. I felt a bit like Paddington Bear with my tea and toast with marmalade….

I dropped off the kids at their respective schools, as Tuesday is a preschool day for the little guy (and every day is a school day for the kindergartener), and consumed cup of tea #2

black tea + coconut milk creamer + dash of cinnamon

I hung out with the treadmill for a bit:

(like my sweaty shirt?) (and, man,this is the first time my legs have ever looked long, it’s just too bad the angle makes me look pregnant too) (and I’m not remotely pregnant) (nor do I have remotely long legs)

I came home and got out the juicer for Breakfast #2.

Green Juice: kale, cucumber, celery, lemon, green apple, broccoli, carrot

I’ve been eating way too much sugar lately and while I’m not ready to do a big cleanse (yet), I choose today to start the sugar detox. I know there was some sugar in the jelly at breakfast, but I tried to eat no sugar after that until dinner. Which is probably why I drank so much today, as I headed for the tea-pot or water jug every time the sugar cravings hit. And they hit a lot.

I had cup of tea #3 while doing some Bible Study.

Tea – licorice peppermint (herbal)

Books – Bible and Discerning the Voice of God by P. Shirer

Lunch:

There was a mini-lunch of apples + almond butter.

I picked up my chickies and we headed to the book mothership, the library.

it melts my heart to see her on her toes…. she’s getting so big, but she is still so little in other ways… sigh

I picked up a book for me to re-read. I love, love Jennifer Weiner.

We came home with our 24 new books and I ate a very late lunch while reading more of Simplicity Parenting.

Kale Salad with Sunshine Dressing (from Peas and Thank You)

Sugar craving = another cup of tea.

I baked some peanut butter and banana oatmeal cookies – recipe coming soon. They actually only have 1/4 cup of added sugar (in addition to the natural sweetness from the ripe bananas), so they are quite healthy as far as cookies go. I let myself have one and, can I just say, it tastes so good when it touches your lips…

(bonus points for the quote identifier)

Dinner:

Table O Food – Avocados, Salsa, Sour Cream, Chips, Oranges, Veggies, Quinoa with Salsa and Black Beans

My kids don’t do salsa in any form, so I used the black beans and mixed them with some refried beans from the fridge and put them on some tostado shells with cheese and baked them for a few minutes. The girl loves avocado, the boy does not.

Close up of the quinoa:

I’m off to do some reading and probably have another cup of tea. Wish me luck on the sugar detox! Better yet, send tea. And books.

Any good books I should add to my library list?

Black Bean Soup with Caramelized Onions

Michelle {The Lively Kitchen} — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:40:16 +0000

I love black bean soup. It’s pretty easy to prepare, it’s great as leftovers, it’s a blank slate for toppings and, as a bonus, it’s quite healthy. Black beans are a good source of fiber and protein (like most beans), but they are also the antioxidant superstar in the bean family. What’s not to love?

I like to cook a big batch of black beans every couple of weeks. I soak overnight, rinse and drain and then put in the crockpot with filtered water and kombu to cook. The kombu does wonders for making the beans, well, less musical? Who am I kidding? I have a three year old little boy who loves to giggle about toots and f*rts. Thankfully when cooking beans with kombu, there is much less to giggle about.

After the beans are cooked, I usually freeze half in mason jars. The texture of the thawed beans is a little off for dishes that feature beans eaten straight out of the can, but is perfectly fine in soups and casseroles where the beans will be cooked again. Like this one.

Black Bean Soup with Caramelized Onions

Ingredients:

1 carrot, diced
1 large onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
2 Tbsp grapeseed oil
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup plain tomato sauce or puree
2 cups vegetable broth (or water)
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp dried chipotle chili powder

Directions:

Heat grapeseed oil in a pan over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium low. Add onions and cook slowly until browned, stirring occasionally. This should take about 20 minutes. (My pan is really small)
Remove onions from pan and increase heat to medium-high. Add peppers and garlic and saute for 4-5 minutes, or until soft.
Add onions, peppers, garlic and all remaining ingredients to a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. At this point you can serve as is or puree. I like using my hand-held immersion blender and blending the majority of the soup.
Remove from heat and serve. Great topped with chopped cilantro and avocado.

School Lunches – January

Michelle {The Lively Kitchen} — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:27:21 +0000

I haven’t posted a school lunch post in a bit, but I assure you I haven’t taken a break from packing lunches. I just don’t always take a picture ~~since I don’t have time because I am running late yet again~~ . Here is a week worth of lunches from January:

Day 1

sunflower seeds + cheese stick, frozen corn + peas, canned pears + frozen peaches, avocado half + triscuits

Day 2

Broccoli + mushrooms + carrots, frozen peaches, strawberry yogurt, pita + cheese

Day 3

grapes + banana, mushrooms + chickpeas, broccoli + carrots + snap peas, cheese pita + fruit twist

Day 4

clementines, carrots, pumpkin bread, PB+J

Day 5

pancakes + syrup, carrots, canned pears, boiled egg (sans yolk per her request) + bananas (doesn’t everyone eat carrots with their pancakes???)

Previous School Lunch Posts:

School Lunches – Preschool Edition

School Lunches – October

School Lunches – September

WIAW – MLK Day Eats

Michelle {The Lively Kitchen} — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:38:46 +0000

Time for yet another edition of What I Ate Wednesday hosted by Jenn at Peas and Crayon’s . I snapped pictures of all my eats on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr Day.

Monday was a school holiday, so I thoroughly enjoyed a more leisurely morning. Even though we’ve been doing the school thing since August, we somehow end up in a rush each morning to leave the house at 7:20. I’m not a quick learner, clearly. Monday, however, the kids got to eat a calm breakfast:

Oatmeal with almond milk + cinnamon, oranges and clementines

while I enjoyed a cup of tea and planned out my week:

I let the kids watch some SuperWhy on PBS (‘we’ve got the power, the power to Read…..’) and ate breakfast number one.

Oatmeal + bananas + peanut butter

We went to the gym for an hour so I could get my yoga fix for the day. Came back home, changed, had a green smoothie (breakfast 2),

Kale, vanilla rice protein powder, frozen banana, coconut milk, mint extract, chia seeds and cocoa nibs

and headed to New Braunfels, TX for our afternoon adventures.

We stopped for lunch at a new restaurant, Naturally, that I found on yelp. It was quaint and cute.

yes please

I had a salad with field greens, balsamic vinaigrette, dried chilies, tortilla strips, avocados, goat cheese and sesame seeds. It was delicious. I only wish it had been bigger, as I like BIG salads. The kids got a PB&J roll and a Turkey + Cheese roll and shared both. Also wish their portions had been a bit bigger, as my kids like to eat.

They had some fun with the mail slot

‘look, we are inside but our hands are outside.’ Giggles. Repeat about 6 times.

I pondered just staying at the restaurant and letting them play at the door, but decided to spare the nice ladies behind the counter and get my kids out of there. We headed to the Children’s Museum.

My girl practiced for her future career as a scientist:

and my boy, well, he practiced a useful skill too:

Seriously, if I could find a grocery store with a child size check out lane, both of my kids would be happy to work there. Why is checking groceries so fun, but making their beds is a chore?

I had hoped to have some ice cream on the way home, but due to some back seat squabbling and me having to use my best mom voice to say ‘bad choices have consequences,’ we came straight home. Bummer. Mama really wanted some ice cream. Instead I came home and ate a little snack:

We had a gourmet dinner of scrambled eggs and toast. I know, I go all out.

Toast + spinach + eggs + avocado.

All in all, a nice day, even if we had to skip the ice cream break. I’ll leave you with the always wise words: Bad choices have consequences. :)

The Accent Blog – my first vlog!

Michelle {The Lively Kitchen} — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:45:05 +0000

I’ve finally succombed. I’ve made a vlog (video blog = vlog).

I thoroughly enjoyed the accent vlog that cycled through the blogsphere a few months ago and last week was inspired by Sarah at Sarah Learn’s recent vlog, so I thought I’d give it a try.

The idea is to record myself saying a series of words and answering some questions. The words and answers should give you an idea as to my accent and let you all hear my voice. I know you have all been anxiously wanting to hear my voice. Or not. :)

Here is the list of words: aunt, route, wash, oil, theater, iron, salmon, caramel, fire, water, sure, data, ruin, crayon, toilet, new orleans, pecan, both, again, probably, spitting image, alabama, lawyer, coupon, mayonnaise, syrup, pajamas, caught

And the list of questions to answer:

what is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
what is the bug that curls into a ball when you touch it?
what is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
what do you call gym shoes?
what do you say to address a group of people?
what do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
what do you called the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
what do you call it when rain falls when the sun is shining?
what is the thing you change the tv channel with?

Here goes nothing:

Ugh – I do not like hearing my own voice.

So – what do think? Do I sound like you expected? How strong is my accent?

Menu Plan Monday – Jan 16, 2012

Michelle {The Lively Kitchen} — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:19:56 +0000

While my heart is still a bit heavy with the things of yesterday’s post, I find myself grateful to sit down and plan out our week. I feel blessed to both have a healthy family to feed and to have the means to afford healthy foods.

Monday

Lunch: Out and about. Kids are out for MLK day and we’ll be living it up at the Children’s Museum and park. I’m guessing we’ll grab lunch out.

Dinner: Breakfast for Dinner – eggs, toast and fruit.

Tuesday

Lunch: Quinoa Tabbouleh from the book Clean – not doing a cleanse again, just really liked the recipe.

Dinner: Roasted Tomato Soup from Vive Le Vegan by Dreena Burton

Wednesday

Lunch: More Quinoa Tabbouleh

Dinner: Tacos with these Taco Spiced Roasted Chickpeas and all the taco fixings

Thursday

Lunch: Miso Soup

Dinner: Buddha Bowls

Friday

lunch: Miso Soup

dinner: Pizza – I like this dough recipe and toppings will depend on what’s in the fridge, but usually include mushrooms, red pepper, onions and pine nuts. The kids like plain cheese.

Linking up with I’m An Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday

For Phoebe

Michelle {The Lively Kitchen} — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:41:24 +0000

This is Phoebe.

She is the two year old daughter of Amey, a friend of mine from junior high.

She has brain cancer.

She’s two.

I’ve been following the harrowing path that has taken her family from a little girl who kept getting sick to a little girl with a brain tumor to a little girl with a diagnosis of a very rare, very aggressive form of brain cancer that has a 50% survival rate. Every parent’s worst nightmare is to see their child suffer and I physically hurt for their family as I think about what they must be thinking and feeling.

Here is her Caring Bridge site:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/phoebefair

I know her family would appreciate any prayers or positive thoughts you can send their way.

And then I go and read the book Kisses for Katie by Katie Davis over the last couple of days and it severely messed me up. It has both reaffirmed my faith and challenged me in a powerful way.

Click here for a quick synopsis of the book and please consider checking out the actual book.

Reading about the poverty, suffering and unlikely joy in Uganda in between our weekend trips to Costco, restaurants and the gym was jarring. Nothing like a serious kick in the tail in the perspective department.

With all that on my heart and swirling around in my head, today I’m not really feeling like writing about food. I’m feeling like loving on my family, being thankful for our current good health, being thankful for the luxury of living in a country that provides opportunities. I’m remembering that life is short and can change in an instant. I am resting in the arms of a God who both loves me for who I am and wants me to become a better person, a God that wants His people to love one another.

Hug someone you love today.

Photo Friday

Michelle {The Lively Kitchen} — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:03:28 +0000

The little guy and I headed to the park one day for lunch (while the girl was in school), we shared a lunch of chickpeas, grapes, ranch crackers and a spinach, hummus and roasted pepper pita. I read Fed Up With Lunch, a book about the many issues with the school lunch program,

while the little guy jumped. Boing!

What do I love more about Jason’s Deli?

The salad bar?

Or the free soft serve afterwards? Don’t make me choose.

Things I love about this picture:

My thought blossoms jewelry brackelet that was a very thoughtful gift from my mother in law.

Drinking green jasmine tea in my Disney World mug. Can you tell my daughter picked it out – hint – it’s pink.

Reading a page-turner mystery.

All good things.

These Discovery Toys bugs that I bought years ago at a garage sale have proven to be the toy of the week. We sort them, make patterns, create bug party scenes, try to guess which one you’re holding with your eyes closed and, my favorite game, have my daughter guess which one I’m holding while I give clues like “there is a T in the middle of the name.” Go bugs.

Happy Friday Everyone!