tonight we had another tasty new dish! as we try to eat well it seems like we just come across more and more goodness! we get the newsletter from the wedge and they consistently provide new and different recipes, always in season, always very healthy, always very good!
so these scrumptious enchiladas are compliments of the wedge:
Squash Enchiladas with Spicy Peanut Sauce
Filling:
1small butternut squash
cut in half and scoop out seeds. place cut side down in a baking pan with small amount of water, bake in 400* oven until tender (about an hour). when cool, scoop out meat
in large skillet, saute the following
1med carrot, peeled and diced
1/4lb fresh mushrooms, diced
1/2cup diced onion
until tender-crisp, then add:
2TB veg oil
1/2cup diced jicama
1small apple, peeled and diced
1/4cup shelled sunflower seeds, toasted
1TB white vinegar
1/2tsp sea salt
2TB cilantro, minced
mix well and remove from heat
spicy peanut sauce. combine the following in a small sauce pan:
2cups vegetable broth
1/2tsp sea salt
1/2tsp cumin
1 clove garlic, minced
2 canned chipotle chilies, chopped (we used jalapenos)
3TB chili powder
meanwhile, in a small saute pan, saute:
1TB canola oil
1/2tsp dried oregano
1T onion, minced
add
1TB flour (i used ww)
cook, stirring for one minute. strain through sieve then add
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
8-10 corn tortillas (i used ww flour)
4oz cheddar cheese
4oz monterey jack cheese
place a spoonful of the squash mixture down the center of each tortilla. roll up and place seam side down in lightly oiled baking pan. pour the spicy peanut sauce over rolled tortillas and sprinkle with cheeses. bake for 15-20 or until cheese is melted and enchiladas are hot in the center.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
what to do when it's 10 below
the snow is melting fast, but i've spent the past few weeks trying to figure out what to do with a toddler INDOORS for hours, day after day! when it is 10 below you just can't take a little one outside for more than about five minutes. that makes getting fresh air challenging, and boredom inevitable...or so one would think. zoom and i have compiled a list of things to do. maybe we won't use the list again until next year, but we want to have it ready for the next bout of sub zero weather.
- playing with static
- taking stroller rides - in the house
- reading books, even if they are too advanced (zoom's new favorite is the before and after photos in "body for life"
- playing in the tunnel
- sending animals thru the tunnel
- practicing our ABC's
- dancing
- cleaning house
- dancing while cleaning house
- doing laundry
- playing with keys
- taking the bus downtown
- running the skyways downtown
- playing in office buildings downtown
- finding new uses for old things in the house (latest discovery:the draft duster works as a heavy scarf)
- putting beans into different containers
- trying on our summer gear
- dance party with the headlamp on strobe
- stocking up on homemade cards
- taking baths in the middle of the day
- pulling the sled down the sidewalk and take a slow tour of our neighborhood. we met two new neighbors!!
- playing hide-and-seek
- we actually ventured to an indoor playground - wow! how cool to be able to play "outdoors" in the winter!
What do you do all winter long???
Sunday, February 18, 2007
brag book
i have to take a taco time out to brag about my little smarty pants! just one week ago i brought out an ABC puzzle. beneath each letter is a picture of an object that starts with that letter. i started showing zoom a letter and would help him find where the letter fit.
on wednesday i started paying closer attention when he put 6 out of 8 in the right spot.
by saturday he was hitting 23 letters on his first try!! he gets confused by "K", "X", and "V".
what will it be like to have a child smarter than me?
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
confessions of a suburban girl
this morning we rode the bus downtown for the first time. i am kind of embarrassed i have never done it before. i mean, i have taken a bus ride before, just not for regular transportation and never here in minneapolis.
for $1.50 we had hours of fun. zoom sang "the wheels on the bus" the entire bus ride, both ways. no joke. it is one of his favorite songs, and being his first bus ride i think he was pretty fired up. he pointed out every person getting on the bus, made sure i knew which people were listening to music (bouncing on my lap and humming, his sign for music), and anytime the light went he would sign "light". he didn't even try to get off my lap, but was mesmerized by the bus activity.
it was a little cumbersome to bring a stroller, i nearly lost a favorite mitten, and am glad we didn't go shopping because i don't know how we would have managed a bag, but it was worth it!! the stroller was definitely helpful during traffic crossing, to avoid the ever-tempting racks of clothes and saving low displays of jars and trinkets. a nice person pointed out my mitten on the floor just as we were getting off the bus. i didn't see anything i couldn't live without.
we ran in the skyways, went up and down escalators, pushed the handicap button to open doors, and ran around the fountain in the IDS building.
we visited grandma, who works at macys. (now that i know macy's has strollers, we'll try leaving ours at home next time and just use it when zoom is lured into the maze of displays.) we read books in the nice little book section downstairs. we had a snack and zoom sat in a regular chair with no booster or anything! it was a real accomplishment - he ate really well, didn't wriggle around too much and looked soooo cute, like a little bird, barely peeking over the table to open his mouth for more food.
let's do it again sometime! we still have a few months of winter, right?
for $1.50 we had hours of fun. zoom sang "the wheels on the bus" the entire bus ride, both ways. no joke. it is one of his favorite songs, and being his first bus ride i think he was pretty fired up. he pointed out every person getting on the bus, made sure i knew which people were listening to music (bouncing on my lap and humming, his sign for music), and anytime the light went he would sign "light". he didn't even try to get off my lap, but was mesmerized by the bus activity.
it was a little cumbersome to bring a stroller, i nearly lost a favorite mitten, and am glad we didn't go shopping because i don't know how we would have managed a bag, but it was worth it!! the stroller was definitely helpful during traffic crossing, to avoid the ever-tempting racks of clothes and saving low displays of jars and trinkets. a nice person pointed out my mitten on the floor just as we were getting off the bus. i didn't see anything i couldn't live without.
we ran in the skyways, went up and down escalators, pushed the handicap button to open doors, and ran around the fountain in the IDS building.
we visited grandma, who works at macys. (now that i know macy's has strollers, we'll try leaving ours at home next time and just use it when zoom is lured into the maze of displays.) we read books in the nice little book section downstairs. we had a snack and zoom sat in a regular chair with no booster or anything! it was a real accomplishment - he ate really well, didn't wriggle around too much and looked soooo cute, like a little bird, barely peeking over the table to open his mouth for more food.
let's do it again sometime! we still have a few months of winter, right?
Saturday, February 10, 2007
i wanna be green
little by little green is coloring my life.
i think i have always been careful not to waste, perhaps more because i am thrifty. i jumped on the recycling bandwagon. i have never thrown toxic waste down the drain. i am drawn to the outdoors. i love fresh air. perfumes bother my eyes, scented lotions irritate my skin and air fresheners usually make my throat itchy. generally, i like eating healthy, but i can usually talk myself into liking something if it is good for me! (i remember during the fat free 90's, actually convincing myself that the spongy muffin i was eating was really tasty)
my brother has called me a tree hugger. while i don't regularly hug trees, i do like them.
i love gardening, but hate using pesticides or herbicides. working in the horticulture industry made me realize i can't just ignore the chemicals, those plant eating varmints need would destroy our growing things if we let them. a non-chemical approach means more time and energy, or getting rid of the plant altogether. since i like to garden without gloves it made sense that i would cut out the toxins from the garden - that way i can plant edibles everywhere! compost is genius! why would i use miracle grow when i could make a compost tea out of our kitchen waste??!!
learning more about botany also made me realize the importance of eating food without toxins. i started moving towards organic root foods, like carrots, potatoes, onions (we actually eat the part of the plant that has stored the nutrients/chemicals we have sprayed on the plant), and over the past few years we have working our way towards more and more organics. i still have a hard time paying for organic cheese and ice cream, but we have to be aware of our budget. bit by bit, right?
i used to clean houses, and certainly spent a few years thinking a toilet didn't seem clean unless i used soft scrub or bleach. its funny how i would really hesitate to use chemicals in the yard, but would spray them in my house???! my hubby loves the smell of bleach or pine sol, and i certainly want it to smell like i did scrub that tub! but now that i have a kidlet i am really aware of how tragic it would be if he managed to get the cupboard under the sink opened. since i get to be home with the little nugget i am more aware of the quality of air that we both breathe all day long. slowly i have been trying to get rid of the toxic stuff, but things still need to get clean!
when we were in seattle over christmas i was talking to my good friends who have a booming housecleaning business using earth friendly ingredients. they recommended this book and WOW!! i am super fired up to make all new cleaning supplies that are not only non-toxic, but ones my little guy can actually HELP me use! that is, after all, one of my parenting goals, to get zoom to take on some of the house work!
i think our friend, kermit says it well:
It's not that easy being green;
Having to spend each day the color of the leaves.
When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow or gold...
or something much more colorful like that.
It's not easy being green.
It seems you blend in with so many other ord'nary things.
And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
or stars in the sky.
But green's the color of Spring.
And green can be cool and friendly-like.
And green can be big like an ocean, or important like a mountain,
or tall like a tree.
When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why?
Wonder, I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful!
And I think it's what I want to be.
i think i have always been careful not to waste, perhaps more because i am thrifty. i jumped on the recycling bandwagon. i have never thrown toxic waste down the drain. i am drawn to the outdoors. i love fresh air. perfumes bother my eyes, scented lotions irritate my skin and air fresheners usually make my throat itchy. generally, i like eating healthy, but i can usually talk myself into liking something if it is good for me! (i remember during the fat free 90's, actually convincing myself that the spongy muffin i was eating was really tasty)
my brother has called me a tree hugger. while i don't regularly hug trees, i do like them.
i love gardening, but hate using pesticides or herbicides. working in the horticulture industry made me realize i can't just ignore the chemicals, those plant eating varmints need would destroy our growing things if we let them. a non-chemical approach means more time and energy, or getting rid of the plant altogether. since i like to garden without gloves it made sense that i would cut out the toxins from the garden - that way i can plant edibles everywhere! compost is genius! why would i use miracle grow when i could make a compost tea out of our kitchen waste??!!
learning more about botany also made me realize the importance of eating food without toxins. i started moving towards organic root foods, like carrots, potatoes, onions (we actually eat the part of the plant that has stored the nutrients/chemicals we have sprayed on the plant), and over the past few years we have working our way towards more and more organics. i still have a hard time paying for organic cheese and ice cream, but we have to be aware of our budget. bit by bit, right?
i used to clean houses, and certainly spent a few years thinking a toilet didn't seem clean unless i used soft scrub or bleach. its funny how i would really hesitate to use chemicals in the yard, but would spray them in my house???! my hubby loves the smell of bleach or pine sol, and i certainly want it to smell like i did scrub that tub! but now that i have a kidlet i am really aware of how tragic it would be if he managed to get the cupboard under the sink opened. since i get to be home with the little nugget i am more aware of the quality of air that we both breathe all day long. slowly i have been trying to get rid of the toxic stuff, but things still need to get clean!
when we were in seattle over christmas i was talking to my good friends who have a booming housecleaning business using earth friendly ingredients. they recommended this book and WOW!! i am super fired up to make all new cleaning supplies that are not only non-toxic, but ones my little guy can actually HELP me use! that is, after all, one of my parenting goals, to get zoom to take on some of the house work!
i think our friend, kermit says it well:
It's not that easy being green;Having to spend each day the color of the leaves.
When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow or gold...
or something much more colorful like that.
It's not easy being green.
It seems you blend in with so many other ord'nary things.
And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
or stars in the sky.
But green's the color of Spring.
And green can be cool and friendly-like.
And green can be big like an ocean, or important like a mountain,
or tall like a tree.
When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why?
Wonder, I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful!
And I think it's what I want to be.
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