Have You Met Quinoa?

Quinoa could be considered a super food from everything I've been reading! I'm sure you've heard by now about all of the benefits of this seed. Yep, it's a seed that is most often typecast as a grain for it's tender fluffy texture once cooked. It's actually a seed from a plant that is related to spinach, beets, and chard! Everything you've heard seems to be true. It has a ton of health benefits. It's a complete protein, meaning it contains all 9 essential amino acids, it's easy to digest, and is chock full of vitamins and minerals. One of my favorite things about this "whole grain" is that it is a good source of magnesium, a mineral I find that is often overlooked and forgotten. I've been upping my dietary intake of magnesium to combat my migraine headaches.

I'm thrilled that this ancient nutrient is becoming a more mainstream health food. Thus, it is becoming ever easier to find tasty recipes for it. I suppose it is an acquired taste, but well worth the effort. My kiddos weren't thrilled with the recipe, although they did eat it. I have committed to cooking it at least once a week. I was re-inspired to pull this couscous look alike out of the pantry from a new book I bought today. I browsed the pages at Barnes and Noble today and came home and bought it on my Nook. Yay, one less cookbook in my cabinet! It's called Pretty Delicious by Candice Kumai. I made her Quinoa Pilaf that is a mixture of  quinoa, toasted almonds, dried fruit, and basil, dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Although it was served hot at dinner, I suspect it will be just as tasty served cold. I LOVED it, the kids don't really like nuts or dried fruit so their distaste was to be expected.

There are so many options and advantages, I urge you to Google more about it. I Googled "benefits of quinoa." I'm sure "quinoa recipes" would also garner great results. It's not only healthy, but it's quick to make, taking only about 15 minutes. Remember to rinse it thoroughly before cooking and enjoy it hot or cold, in cereal, or even in the form of ground flour, sprouts, or pasta.

I'm eager to try new quinoa recipes, so feel free to leave a link

in the comments section if you have one to share.

Spring Break Recap

Spring break is officially over! The kids are at their first day back to school in over two weeks, hubby left early to get back to work, and there is finally a calm in the house this morning. We had the busiest and most amazing two weeks, hence my blogging absence. I have had entire spring breaks where most of the days were spent in our pajamas, but not this one. I posted a list of hopeful to-do's before the break started and I'm happy to say that I can cross off a nice chunk of the list. Here's the original list. I crossed off all we did:

• Hang out in pj's all day
• Padre Game
• Ice Skating
• Rock Climbing
• Bowling
• Batting Cages
• Space Museum at Balboa Park
• Movie
• Craft Day-I have been saving all my magazines so we can make collages.
• Spring Clean-full post on that later in the week.
• Sea World?? Poor Chloe has never been, will this be her chance?
• Host out of town guests? It's still being discussed...
• Read!
• Study and do homework-That's for me!
• Work Out-also me...
• Bake
• Go to the park
• Hang out with friends
• Take the kids to Vegas? Also still being discussed, but hopefully!

We crashed hubby's business trip to Vegas....so awesome! The kids hadn't been in a couple years. We stayed at the Red Rock Resort. I highly recommend it if you are going with kids. It's about 15-20 minutes off the strip. It's new and clean, it has a bowling alley, movie theatre, arcade, and babysitting. We took advantage of all it's features including it's fantastic pool. Nash got his highest bowling score ever of 118. He was thrilled. We still made it over to the strip to take the kids to see Cirque du Soleil's Mystere. We wanted to take them to see Beatles Love, but they were on vacation. Chloe really loved the show. I was happy to see it for a second time, but I think I still like O better.

After we got back from Vegas, we had to get ready for our out of town guests. They stayed for four days. We did end up doing Sea World with them, and although it was a bit crowded we got fun passes so I can take the kids back later.

After they left we headed up to Los Angeles to surprise the kids by taking them to a taping of AMERICAN IDOL for the performance show! You can imagine their surprise and excitement! An associate of hubby's was nice enough to give us his tickets, and his seats were AWESOME! We were 3 rows behind the judges. Steven Tyler waved at Chloe and she even got to go on stage (right next to the judges) to get a free Scotty shirt! She wore it for the next 3 days!

It sure was a fun break, but I'm ready to get back to business!

Spring Cleaning

I'm pretty much in a state of "spring cleaning" all year long. But spring brings new things to clean like the garage, the outside perimeter of the house, and windows. :-(  Here is my list of things I need to tend to.

Kitchen:

• Clean Pantry
• Clean Fridge
• Clean Oven

Laundry Room:

• Organize gift cabinet
• Organize laundry room gift, regift, and guests forgotton items cabinet
• Clean behind dryer and dryer hose thingy

Closets:

• Purge Chloe's closet and drawers
• Organize suplies in office closet
• Organize office
• Purge my closet, clothes, shoes, handbags-seperate into donate, yard sale, & ebay
• Store clothes that don't fit but I want to keep

Outside:

• Windows-hire someone
• Pull weeds
• Clean back patio
• Clean patio furniture
• Clean front porch

Misc:

• Shop vac garage
• Steam clean office carpet
• Check/change air conditioning filters
• Clean hall closet
• Wash curtains

Thick, Soft, & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love a soft chewy chocolate chip cookie. This is my recipe and it is very well received. I adapted it from the Nestle recipe. I am still going to experiment with it because I want them to rise a bit more. *Since I use so much flour in this recipe, I think I may add some extra baking soda next time.* I did notice that I got two very different pans of cookies from the same dough. This recipe made exactly two dozen cookies. I put them on two separate cookie sheets and one batch came out noticeably thinner than the other. Possible scenarios I've come up with are the two different pans, not enough or not fresh enough baking soda, or it could have had something to do with the oven. Even though I preheated the oven, the second batch of cookies didn't spread as much and become so thin. I wish I could experiment but that would require me to make a ton more cookies and my butt really can't take that. Bathing suit season is just around the corner!

Cookie A. was baked on the shiny silver pan.

Cookie B. was baked on the old, baked on with grease, dark pan.

Notice how much thicker Cookie B. is?

Make sure and use a big ice cream scoop for perfectly

shaped, evenly cooked, cookies that are all about the same size. 

They should look like this: 

Ingredients:

3 cups unsifted flour {gently stir before scooping into your measuring cup}

1 tsp. baking soda*

1 tsp. salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 brown sugar, packed

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1-12oz bag of Nestle Milk Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl, set aside. In a separate mixing bowl, beat butter, both sugars, and vanilla until creamy, at least 2-3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Gently stir in chocolate chips. Drop by scoop onto cookie sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until golden brown.

I'm having WAY too much fun doing these little food photo shoots. You know what's so great about it? There is no struggle with food. You put it down and it stays. You don't have to beg it to look at you, smile, or sit still! I have no idea what I'm doing, don't really know how to use my camera, but I'm still loving how some of my food photos have been turning out.

Since I always give away the things I bake, I packaged these up for the school office. They fit perfectly in this little pail I got from the dollar section at Target. I washed it out and lined it with wax paper. I stacked about 4 cookies, then added another piece of wax paper and stacked about four more.

Do you prefer a thin, crispy cookie

or a soft chewy cookie?

I'm linking these with all the parties in my sidebar and:

Foodie Friday

Sweets For a Saturday

Favorite Things Saturday

Pink Saturday

Bad Thing, Happy Thing

Bad Thing:
Yesterday, I had a tiff with Frank, the new butcher at my grocery store. I simply asked him if they had hanger steak or if it was possibly labeled as something different. The new butcher I had never seen before was aged, well over six feet tall, and could be filed under the "grumpy old men" category. He snapped at me that he had been a butcher for 35 years and he had NEVER heard of hanger steak. I thought to myself how strange that Martha {Stewart} would use it for a recipe if it did not exist. Enter my smart phone and a Google search of Hanger Steak. I walked back to the counter, showed him my phone,  and told him he made me feel like a jerk. He said nothing. I left feeling very frustrated. I really wish he would have at least tried to help me. He didn't even take time to investigate or ask me any further questions so that we could figure out what I needed. Whatever, maybe he was having a bad day. But know this Frank, I will surely be avoiding you next time I step up to the butcher's counter!

Happy Thing:
Today, I headed to the mall to make some returns and pick Chloe up a pair of monkey pajamas I had seen on my last visit. I was in no particular hurry and leisurely browsed the mall stores for quite some time. I knew I wouldn't have any alone time for the next two weeks so I really took advantage. I decided that since I endured the agony of my women's well check appointment, blood tests, and a DPT shot earlier in the morning, that I was going to treat myself to lunch. I headed to my favorite lunch spot in San Diego's most upscale mall. Nordstrom Cafe here I come. I ordered my usual, a Chinese Chicken Salad and a glass of Riesling. A perfect pairing in case your wondering. I sat alone in a corner booth, scrolling through blog posts on my phone and then just people watching. I noticed that at noon on a Thursday, the Nordstrom Cafe only had one man dining in it's bustling room. Unless of course you count the little toddler boy on a date with mama, I so miss those. There was only one other elderly lady who was eating alone. There was a moment when I wished hubby was there with me, but I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I suppose I'll have to date myself more often!

Have you ever dined alone?

Things To Do With The Kids Over Spring Break

Because I am a list person, I have conjured up this list of possible things to do with the kids over spring break. Now, this doesn't mean we HAVE to everything on the list. These are just some ideas to make sure we don't get stuck in a rut of hanging out in our pj's all day. Although, I'm sure at least one day will be set aside for that! In fact that's how we'll start:

• Hang out in pj's all day
• Padre Game
• Ice Skating
• Rock Climbing
• Bowling
• Batting Cages
• Space Museum at Balboa Park
• Movie
• Craft Day-I have been saving all my magazines so we can make collages.
• Spring Clean-full post on that later in the week.
• Sea World?? Poor Chloe has never been, will this be her chance?
• Host out of town guests? It's still being discussed...
• Read!
• Study and do homework-That's for me!
• Work Out-also me...
• Bake
• Go to the park
• Hang out with friends
• Take the kids to Vegas? Also still being discussed, but hopefully!

I think that should do it! Like I said, it is highly unlikely we will get to all these things, but at least we won't be left wondering what we should do everyday when we wake up!

If you haven't already enjoyed your spring break,

what are your plans?

And if you did already have it,

what did you do?

I'm Back!

I'm back, but still just as busy as ever. Only four more days until spring break! I can't wait! Well, this past weekend, Friday, April Fool's Day was my cousin's wedding. You remember, the one Chloe was a flower girl in. We had such a fabulous time. It was the best wedding I have EVER been to. The bride and groom did such an amazing job planning everything. Her colors were beautiful. It was perfect for spring with hot pink, Tiffany blue, and orange. Chloe did perfect! The day after the wedding she said she wanted to be a flower girl again, and we thought about who we know who may get married next. It was so great hanging out with all the family who had flown in. We spent the whole weekend hanging out and when Monday came around I had quite a socializing hangover!

Here is a picture of the bride, flower girls, and ring bearer's in their Converse! Remember how I said Chloe wanted to change her dress at the reception?

She changed into the black and white one on the left.

Here's Chloe on the right holding her petal basket up to her chest.

I was able to get her attention and told her to hold it down in front of her.

I'll be back soon to share some ideas I have on how we are going to spend our two-week vacation. And please know that just because I haven't been commenting on your blogs, I have been reading them on my phone whenever I can! But I do miss chatting with some of my favorite gals! You know who you are :)