(Organic) Breakfast Quinoa

Recipe time!

Ingredients:
1 cup Organic Vanilla Soy milk (if you prefer, use regular milk with a dash of vanilla extract)
1 cup water
1 cup Organic quinoa (rinsed)
1 tbsp Organic Agave sweetener (replace with honey, brown sugar, white sugar if you're not an agave fiend like I am)
1 tbsp Cinnnamon
Organic fruit of choice (I'm on a peaches and blackberries kick right now)

Boil rinsed quinoa with 1 cup soy milk, 1 cup water, and agave nectar until liquid absorbs. Layer fruit and cooked quinoa in a bowl, top with brown sugar if desired. You can eat it like this which is quite good, but I like to put about half a cup of soy milk on top and eat it like warm cereal. It's also quite tasty to add nuts to the diced fruit (almonds and walnuts are at the top of my list).


This recipe makes about 4 servings of quinoa. I like to make it at the beginning of the week and refrigerate the left overs until the next morning when I assemble the bowl of yumminess cold and then put it in the microwave for a minute and a half. YUM.

Enjoy!

Best Shot Monday

And by popular demand:

The Hot Buttered Rum Recipe!

--4 cups warm water
--1 cup dark brown sugar
--1/4 cup butter
--1 pinch salt (even if your butter is salted, go ahead and add it)
--2 sticks cinnamon
--3 whole cloves
--1/4 tsp nutmeg

to add later:
--shot or 2 of rum
--splash of egg nog (Pumpkin egg nog could be really good here. )

Directions:
Use a 2-4 quart crock pot. Add water, brown sugar, butter, salt, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and nutmeg to the crock pot. Cover and cook on high for 1-2 hours, or until the butter has melted and the mixture is quite hot. Ladle into a mug with a shot or 2 of rum, and add a splash of egg nog.

Garnish with a sprinkle of nutmeg and cinnamon if you'd like.

Hope you're all having a lovely Monday!

Recipe Re-Mix

What happens when you have a serious banana bread deficiency but no cinnamon, allspice, or nutmeg in sight? You substitute it for something you hoard in abundance. Like tea.


Chai Spice Banana Bread

2 cups of flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 chai tea bags
2 beaten eggs
2 cups mashed bananas
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup soft or melted butter
1/4 apple sauce or cooking oil or margarine or butter
1/2 cup crushed raw almonds
1/2 cranberry raisin mix

Grease pan (two loaf pans or an 8 inch by 8 inch by 3 inch pan), preheat oven to 350 F.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Cut open tea bags and mix into dry mixture. Make a well in the center of the mixture.

In another bowl beat the rest of the ingredients until smooth then add all at once to dry mixture. Mix until just combined (should be a bit lumpy).

Bake until toothpick comes out clean (around 30 minutes in my kitchen), slice, slather in butter and enjoy with a cup of tea (because you've gotta get rid of it somehow).

What I've been up to.

Since my days are not filled with homework and studying right now, it's been full of other things.

Like...

... Spinning spinning spinning! And spending WAY too much money on fiber. I'm getting pretty good at this, though. Planning on adding a few of these lovelies to my shop so that I may buy more fiber! Yay!


... Painting my bedroom. Remember this teal wall didn't go with the new carpet? It's light sage now and it matches the dark olive carpet beautifully.


... Been farmer's market-ing a whole bunch! My favorite vendor at the market is the beautiful and ancient latina women who sells the flowers. She has the most amazing memory and knows exactly who I am every week. When she sees me coming she smiles the most beautiful smile and asks me "What's your favorite color today?" I answer, she points to whatever beautiful bouquet she has in whatever silly color I mentioned and she says "These are okay for your cat to eat!"


... My other favorite part of the farmer's market is perfecting recipes with the freshest ingredients. I'll share this rice and feta stuffed artichoke recipe later on. YUM.


... Took a little camping trip to the lake with my family.

... And reading! It's so lovely! I'm in the middle of about 4 or 5 really good books right now and it's nice to escape from my (oh so difficult and terrible :-P ) life.

Okay, you may return to your regularly scheduled programming... I'm going back to spinning. :)

Things I Love on Sunday.

... 1 Up up and away!


... 2 Speaking of freaking adorable, has everyone checked out cuteoverload.com? I have to admit... It has become an unhealthy obsession. Who knew the world had so much cute in it?

... 3 Yes, it feels good.



... 4 More cute! Doggie smiles blog entry on flickr. Love.

... 5 Fair isle knitting! I've only completed one project so far (below), but I love the technique! I like how it's quick but different and how you need to pay attention. I'm working on my second hat now, and then on to some cute mittens (rav link)!!



... 6 Daily inspiration for a homemade life. One Pretty Thing.

...7 Craving something for dinner but can't figure out what it is? Try this freaking awesome website. It asks what you want and then gives you a list of possible recipes. LOVE this on uninspiring cook nights.

I think that's all for today... I have a little bit of a cold and people are coming over and it's hot outside. Looking forward to autumn. :) Have a super weekend.

Glimpses

It's pouring here, and foggy. There's a fire in the fireplace (I'm so proud!), a lovely pot of tea at my side, three beautiful creatures cuddling on my bed. I wish that I could play you the soundtrack of my life right now. Huge drops of rain pounding on my roof, Stuey snoring, The Holiday playing in the background, and the typing of keys as I work on my novel (or blog in this moment). Great, still, and beautiful pine boughs are heavy with droplets outside my window, bending to the weight of this extraordinary day. The dogs are curled up next to the fire. Today is spectacular, grand, delightful, inspiring.

I wanted to share these moments with you.



My growing (it's doubled since this picture) stack of books to read.


This moment is from Thursday. I love how my bed is full of my favorite boys. I really do love this. I can't explain what it means to have a house (or in this case a bed) full of love and cuddles. Whenever I'm down, there's always a warm and soft place to fall, and kisses to greet me when I do.


My favorite partner and editor and get-in-my-way-er. I like having cat hair all over my desk, because it means something fluffy sits next to me while I work.

My scarves. I have a slight obsession, but at least I make good use of them.

One more glimpse. Roasted veggie soup recipe (just for you!).

Ingedients:

A bunch of vegetables, in this case: Carrots, Potatoes, Peppers (red and green), Zucchini, Snow peas, Onions, Garlic

Olive Oil

Rosemary (fresh from your garden if you've got it)

Sage (again, fresh from your garden if you've got it)

1 c. Vegetable or chicken stock (or salty water if no stock is available)

Salt and pepper

Cube/cut all vegetables and coat with olive oil and place in a glass pan. Cut up rosemary and sage and add to vegetables. Place in the oven for 1 to 2 hours, or until vegetables are soft and cooked through. Transfer to a pot, add stock or water, bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes, then cool for another 10 minutes. Transfer to a blender and puree. Bring back to pot and simmer, add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grated parmesan or chedder cheese as a garnish.

That's all for now. Hope your days are pretty.