Quinoa and Black Beans

- 1 tablespoon butter

- 1 onion, diced  

- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and diced  

- 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa  

- 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth  

- 1 teaspoon ground cumin  

- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper  

- salt and pepper to taste  

- 1 cup frozen corn kernels  

- 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained

Heat the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and saute until lightly browned. 

Mix quinoa into the saucepan and cover with vegetable broth. Season with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes.

Stir frozen corn into the saucepan, and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until heated through. Mix in the black beans.  Serve warm.  I topped mine with a little bit of cheese.

Dinner Concoction

The initial inspiration for last night's dinner was my desire to use up the abundance of citrus fruit I had in my fridge.  It's kinda odd for me to have a stockpile of citrus fruit - in this case clementines and key limes - given that while I like the flavor, I despise the pithy crap that comes with them.

So, I started off by juicing the clementines and key limes to make some sauce to go with some chicken.  Here is what I put together in the sauce:

- 1.25 cups citrus juice
- 0.25 cup maple syrup
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 0.50 cup red onion, minced
- 0.25 cup fresh ginger root, minced
- salt
- corn starch
- cold water

I combined the juice, syrup, onion, garlic and ginger in a sauce pan, along with a pinch of fresh ground sea salt.  I brought everything to a boil over medium heat.  Once the garlic, onion and ginger were tender, I thickened the sauce using some corn starch mixed with cold water.

I combined a bundle of soba noodles and udon noodles and cooked both according to the package directions.  After draining them, I added a couple of tablespoons of butter to the still hot noodles, and then added in carrot and celery slivers (from two peeled carrots, and two celery stalks, created using a citrus zester).  When I make this again, I want to substitute some bean sprouts for the celery.  I also added some toasted sesame seeds to the pasta and veggie mix.

I had cooked about a pound diced of chicken breast in a skillet, using some butter in the pan instead of oil and adding some salt and pepper for taste.  Once cooked through, I added the chicken to the sauce, and then served the chicken over the pasta and veggies, with some additional sesame seeds for garnish.

So, this started out as using up some stuff from the fridge, but was good enough that I totally want to make it again sometime!  :)

Super Storm 2011

A little belated, but here are some pics that I took last Friday before heading to work:

Plus, once the clouds cleared in the afternoon, there was a pretty awesome sunset:

Vegetarian Black Bean Soup

Since Texas has been in the grips of a lovely winter storm - I think they called it Super Storm 2011 on the radio this morning - I was looking to make a nice hearty soup for dinner last night.  This is what I made up:

3 + 2 15-oz cans organic black beans drained and rinsed, separated
2 cartons Pacific organic vegetable broth
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
2 red onions, diced
1 celery heart, diced
4 carrots, diced (I left the skin on)
6 garlic cloves, diced
2 12-oz bags frozen corn
lime juice
salt
pepper
chili powder
cumin
cayenne pepper
cheddar cheese
chives

Add the diced pepper, onion, celery, carrots and garlic to a large stock pot, along with 3 of the cans of black beans.  Add in the vegetable broth.  Make sure that all of the veggies are sufficiently covered and free to move in the broth, adding water if necessary.

Season to taste using the salt, pepper, lime juice, chili powder, cumin and cayenne pepper.

Once the veggies are tender, puree everything in the pot using a hand blender.  Add in the frozen corn and remain 2 cans of black beans.  Simmer until warm.

Serve, with some cheddar cheese and chives for garnish.

Still Cold

I thought that one of the advantages of living in Texas was it being warmer here than up in Michigan?

Winter Storm

Above is the sight that greeted me when I opened my garage door this morning.  It was by no means an unexpected sight given the rain during the night and the dropping temperatures.  Not to mention the weather forecasts from the past few days.

While there was a little bit of snow there, it is really just a sheet of ice.  And a sheet of ice is what covered all roads I drove on.  Kinda hoping that I won't have any problems getting back in the garage tonight too since there is a bit of an incline to the driveway...

I'm also kinda enjoying the fact that the weather here is a lot like the weather up in good ol' C-town:

Every local news source was saying to stay home unless you ABSOULUTLY have to go out, but I've never been good at following recommendations like that.  Plus, I was on a mission this morning.

Tomorrow will be four months since I adopted Jas, Ozzie and Ty.  Ozzie was neutered pretty much immediately after I got him, but Jas was a little too small for the vet's liking and Ty was still way to young.  Unfortunately, shortly after Ozzie's surgery, it was determined that Ty had ringworm and had been kind enough to share it with not only Jas and Ozzie, but myself as well.

This meant that for the next two months they were sequestered in my bathroom since there are easy to clean surfaces in there and the bedding, food bowls, all surfaces, etc. had to be cleaned at least once a week to help prevent reinfection. But with growing kitties who will at some point have all of the necessary parts to make more kitties, there has kinda been a race to get them cleared or their ringworm. 

Visually they all look great.  Ty has hair and whiskers again.  But the latest fungal culture was positive.

Unfortunately, Ty has been getting to close to getting frisky with Jas for my comfort in the past few days.  After consulting with the vet yesterday, he felt that while not ideal to put a cat through a stressful situation while trying to get them over ringworm, that getting Ty neutered would be minimally invasive and not very stressful - especially when compared to spaying Jas.

Since everything does to shut down here with significantly less snow and ice that we received today, I made sure to check my phone for any calls from the vet before heading out.

The cops were out in force keeping an eye on things this morning and thankfully most people are much better at following directions than me, so there was very little traffic.

Ty and I finally got to the vet - him protesting the entire way there, even after burying himself in the towel in the crate - only to find the vet in the drive salting everything and saying that they are closed today since most of his staff did not make it in.  He did offer to keep Ty though and try and get to his surgery today and if not today, then tomorrow. 

So I began the next leg of my trek, and it wasn't too long after I got to work, that I got a call saying that Ty's surgery went great and that the vet was heading home, but that he was taking Ty with him and that I could pick him up from his house.  All if this being just a small portion of why I think this vet practice is amazing!

Of course, now I am still in kind of a limbo area.  It's all well and good that both boys are neutered now but all three have been lose in the house and unsupervised during the day, and that while Jas has done a fabulous job of fending off Ty's advances in my presence, that that doesn't necessarily mean much.  As far as I can tell, she hasn't gone into heat since I've had her.  I did look up what the pregnancy signs in cats are just so I know what I'm looking out for, but there is no way to make a good determination prior to three weeks. 

In doing this research, I came across this rather graphic page that discusses the moral and ethical implications of spaying a pregrant female cat.  Really hoping that I don't have to fully process that possibilty.