Lavender from the Garden

Smells delicious!

Beach Volleyball

What's for dinner?

I'm lucky to have a husband who a) does a lot of the cooking in our home, and b) is not a picky eater. At all. I can prepare, or only stock ingredients for, vegetarian meals without any complaints. The man is fine with just a salad or soup for dinner and I love him for it.

I've gone through phases since I really learned how to cook (let's say graduate school) where I cook very healthy meals. Currently, I stock our refrigerator and pantry with tons of fresh vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, spinach, kale, collards, and mushrooms), hearty grains (quinoa, brown rice), and protein packed beans (white, black, chickpeas, and lentils). I was inspired to revamp my stocked pantry from Heidi's blog (101 Cookbooks) and her two excellent cookbooks Super Natural Everyday and Super Natural Cooking. I love Heidi's recipes and her philosophy of finding and using seasonal food that's in its most basic (least processed) form.

What I've come to discover, though, is that there are two camps of "healthy" eating. There are the "least processed, most natural" folks like Heidi (and my trainer friend, Jenna, who has a group on Facebook called "Real People Eat Food" - Check her out!). Their main focus is eating foods that have the least ingredients and processing possible (including advocating for organic produce). When you buy and eat an apple, the only ingredient is, well, apple. However, if you buy applesauce from the store, there could be any number of additional ingredients and preservatives. My basic rule of thumb when applying their philosophy is looking at the ingredient list and finding the products with the shortest list and most understandable ingredients. My bag of almonds say "Ingredients: Almonds."

Here's the interesting thing about this camp, they're not necessarily low fat, low cholesterol or low calorie. They do not like the processing involved to make I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, skim milk or egg substitutions. So, they advocate for cooking with butter, whole milk, and farm fresh eggs. Which leaves me wondering, is it healthier? I am fortunate that I am not overweight and I do not suffer from high cholesterol, but for people who do what ideas should they embrace?

In the end, I do my best to balance healthy, fresh foods, convenience, and I try not to do anything too extreme. I'm always leery of a diet that involves only eating one thing or completely cutting out something from your diet.

So, you've stayed with me through my musings. Would you like to know what I made for dinner?

This recipe was inspired by this "Cooking with Curry" article I found using my Whole Foods app. I thought the Tempeh Curry with Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans recipe looked tasty although I lacked all of the ingredients in the title! Ha. Here's my adaptation:

Chicken Red Curry with Broccoli, Cauliflower, Mushrooms, Red Pepper, and Spinach
(I like to think that you could substitute the chicken with any protein, or exclude it and just throw whatever veggies you have wilting in the fridge that need to be used!)

Serves 4 to 6

Cook the rice and chicken while prepping your other ingredients and it will come together quickly. 

Ingredients

1 cup long-grain brown rice
2 cups water
1 (8-ounce) package tempeh
1 1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger (I used 1/2 tsp ground ginger)
1 tablespoon ground curry powder (Mine was red curry powder)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 (13.5-ounce) can light coconut milk
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 broccoli head, cut into florets

1 cauliflower head, cut into florets

1/2 red bell pepper, sliced

1 cup baby bella mushrooms, sliced

2 big handfuls of fresh spinach leaves (It wilts down a lot so don't be concerned!)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro, divided (I didn't have any cilantro)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt (regular salt would also be fine, but use less than 1/4 teaspoon)

Method

Bring rice and water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce heat to low, cover pot and simmer until liquid is completely absorbed and rice is just tender, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare chicken breasts. I cooked three with the plan to use the rest to top salads and other meals in the next few days. Use a mallet to hammer the chicken breasts to be more even if you have one available. Warm 1 tablespoon of vegetable or olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add chicken breasts and cook for approximately 5 minutes. Flip and repeat until cooked through and juices run clear. 

Bring 1/2 cup broth to a simmer in a large deep skillet (I used my dutch oven) over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic and ginger and cook 5 minutes or until onion is translucent and tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in curry and cumin and cook for 1 minute. Add coconut milk and remaining 1 cup broth. Add broccoli, cauliflower, and bell peppers. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and cook 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Stir in mushrooms and spinach, cover for 5 minutes until spinach has wilted. Salt and pepper to taste. To serve, spoon curry over rice.

Redecorating Tips From Maeby, Day 2

Maeby is still not satisfied with the current floor covering options in our living room. She's clearly sending a message that she despises area rugs and that the brown rug with a swirl, which is too large for her to destroy reconfigure on her own, requires covering. We are now out of area rugs for her to "redecorate" with and I am growing concerned that her attention will turn in a more literary direction. I am going to go ahead and relocate L's prized collection of Calvin and Hobbes books from the bottom shelf now to avoid the Maeby sized area rug that could result from her touching those.

So, is it pure boredom or a clever scheme to have daily battles with her arch-nemesis, the vacuum? Who will bite the dust tomorrow? Thackery, Toqueville, or Walden? Stay tuned.

Redecorating with Maeby

 Maeby has moved into a new phase of her puppyhood where she likes to destroy things. Big things. Full of fluff, fiber, and wood chips. As an extra bonus, they're all things that make her throw-up later. So far the casualties include both of our kitchen floor mats, the molding on the front windowsill, and Max's favorite dog bed. Twice today we came home to disaster and the need to vacuum. I give you "redecorating" Maeby style:

Sewing Mittens and a Hat from a Thrifted Sweater

My first crafting hobby, at least of my adult life, was knitting. I taught myself how to knit in 2005. I have continued to knit and have become quite good. Knitting is relaxing, portable, and thoroughly rewarding to figure out. But ....

I have a new crafting love. Sewing. I bought a sewing machine last September (2011) and quickly fell in love with the speed with which you can create a project. A baby blanket, which was a month long endeavor on knitting needles can be a three hour project with a sewing machine! I've been hooked ever since.

So, when I came across this post from A Beautiful Mess about sewing with knit fabric I was intrigued but equally scared. As a knitter, the idea of cutting a knit sweater was terrifying! I filed the idea into the back of my mind in case the perfect sweater happened across my path.

$7 sweater from the thrift store

Well, today it did! I found this beautiful red intarsia sweater for $7 at the Salvation Army. It is a men's large so there is quite a lot of fabric to work with. I decided that I would try to make a mitten using the two sleeve cuffs as the mitten cuffs and a hat from the waistband area.

Mittens pinned.

No going back after this!

I followed A Beautiful Mess's advice and increased my stitch length to 3.5. The mittens went fairly smoothly, but the hat caused a bit of trouble. I decided to fold the waistband/hat cuff over and on my first attempt I sewed around the entire hat while it was inside out. When I flipped the hat to the right side and folded the brim up, the seams were on the outside. I ripped the seams and re-sewed the top of the hat (it really didn't fit correctly the first time) and the brim seams on the right side. It all turned out great the second time!

Success! Mittens!

And a hat!

Now, if the weather would get cold enough to warrant wearing hats and mittens!

No or Wrong?

We've been attending "Basic Respect" classes with both dogs for the last three weeks. They encourage us to distinguish between wrong choices the dogs make, which get corrected with a conversational "wrong," and behaviors that threaten the safety of themselves or others, which get corrected with an authoritative "no."

For the most part, our corrections are "wrong," except when Maeby decides to charge into the street to attack a bus, truck or bicycle. But after the muddy day we had yesterday, when I saw Maeby playing in the planter AGAIN this morning, I definitely used a "No!" And then I heard her playing with something that did not sound like a toy and I found her with my chocolate brown heel. Sigh. Wrong or no? I suppose there are those women in the world whose dog's safety would have been at risk for doing that to the toe of their shoe. Shoes aren't REALLY my thing, but I did like this pair, and I don't have very many fancy heel shoes. But I guess it was my fault for not paying attention.