Scraps and Snippets ~ Spanish Quinoa

Super Easy Meal

1 Cup  uncooked quinoa (Rinsed if you don't have a pre rinsed one. )

1 1/2 Cup vegetable broth

2 - 14ish oz cans of  diced tomatoes

1 - 4 ounce can of diced jalapenos

1 Cup of hamburger substitute

Put all in a pan. Stir.  Bring to a boil, cover and reduce to simmer and simmer about 20 minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed. Stir as needed. Serve in tortilla shells, as a nacho topping with chopped lettuce, diced tomatoes, chopped onions, avocado, sour cream etc. 

 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Ooops!

So. You probably know that blogging doesn't pay well. Occasionally, I'll get something free. Yay! And I get about 7 cents a month for clicks on ads. But yesterday it cost me. Wait. No, not really. But I'm going to use a costly lil incident and turn it into an amusing (I hope) anecdote. 

If you've read my blog for any length of time, or know me, you probably know I STINK at parallel parking. some people stink worse (I won't name any one in particular, Michelle Griep, because I've never actually wounded one of my children and a friend while attempting, however, I came close.) 

I went to downtown Omaha on a quick trip to meet & and tiny Bean (the 3 year old) for lunch. Omaha is a big city and has lots of parking meters and parallel parking. 

Sigh. 

I pulled in. The wrong way, front loading. I know this is improper parallel parking technique. I know that what one must do is line up your tire and crank backwards into this incredibly short slot.  When people I'm with are parallel parking in the proper manner I hold my breath and break out in a sweat. It's almost like they are magical, intelligent beings who know the secrets to the universe. 

Well, the secret to confidently wheeling a vehicle backwards into a twisty rectangular slot. 

When I returned to my vehicle a lovely woman, wearing a vest with official looking identity marks looked up and made eye contact. "Oh, Honey, I'm so sorry. I just ticketed your vehicle." 

"Dang it. I knew time was a tickin." I said and snapped my fingers. 

"Well, that's not why you got a ticket. Do you know why I ticketed you?" 

"Because I parked like an IDIOT?!?" I asked

She hooted. "Ha, I didn't say that... but..." She handed me the ticket. It said "violation - parking more than a foot from the curb."

aka parking like an idiot. Okay to be fair. My entire car was NOT a foot away from the curb, more like the butt of my car was a full three feet away from the curb. 

Here's the really sad part. I had a blast bantering with the nice lady as she passed me the ticket. It helped considerably that she thought I was HILARIOUS. And that she thought Bean was adorable. Bean sat in the car seat cracking up watching the two crazy ladies laugh. 

Hey. I've blown $16.00 in far worse ways. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Quirk Alert

Gladys is either a wannabe hunter or nurturer. Not sure which. She routinely disappears into a different room and we'll hear whining. The first few times I took her out to go potty. But then we figured out it was part of her gathering behavior. She attempts to collect all of her toys in one trip. She scoops everything into her mouth, whining until it's full and then trots happily back into the room with us. 

She doesn't rip her toys to shreds, even though she and Gertie do remove the stuffing because that's fun to play with. Oh, and the squeakers, those get excised as well. 

Here is Gladys's proud catch of the day. A record of three items, one of which is the rubber bone. She's got a personal goal of adding the brown owl/monkey toy and the skinned shark to her personal best.  

Serials and Scenarios ~ Looking for a Good Family or Kid's Gift?

Why Christmas Trees Aren't Perfect Hardcover – September 1, 2012
by Richard H. Schneider (Author)
Hardcover: 28 pages
Publisher: Abingdon Press; Stk edition (September 1, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1426754868
We used to read this book when the kids were little. 

It's always been one of my favorites. 

Last night I got to read it to my little ones. Ok. Two of the three of them were mostly distracted. But I remembered why I loved the book so much. A message we all need during the Christmas season. Of note, Toad-Boy and & remember it as a favorite book, too, so maybe, eventually, the little bits will share that sentiment. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ My Dollar Cabinet Makeover

 I've had this broken three drawer cabinet around for about two years now. It was a solid built ugly little thing that cost a whole buck. So I grabbed it and then let it sit in one of our ugly rooms. We have three of those ugly rooms, little works in progress that have become catch alls for crapola. I decided I needed to do something with this cabinet, though, now that we have a few toys and games and kid odds and ends around, drawers and storage are great. And a bamboo television tray is not the most attractive side table. 

So I pulled out the broken drawer to use as a shelf for books and magazines and painted it up. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Vegan Shepherds Pie

I decided to put some vegan leftovers to use and recreate a whole different delivery system. 

Used:  

Mashed Potatoes

Leftover Seitan Roast

Added. Chopped Veggies. 

What and How.

I had a few cups of dirty, garlic mashed potatoes (dirty = skin on) (garlic mash = garlic cloves boiled in the potato water and whipped into the potatoes. I thinned them out a bit with vegetable broth so I could spread them easily. 

I chopped up the seitan roast. There were about 6 meatloaf sized slices and I crumbled them in the bottom of a greased casserole dish. 

I sauteed diced celery (2-3 stalks small dice), carrot (1 small dice) and onion (1 small) until caramelized. 

I placed the veggies over the crumbled seitan and covered that with the potatoes. I added salt and pepper to the top of the casserole along with a few shakes of paprika and dried onion. 

I baked it in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes. Yum. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Lazy Wednesday...

So here's a 7 week vs. 7 month picture series of the hounds. 

Significant changes have occurred. 

I did google how much more to expect regarding growth cycles. And the sources estimate another 2 pounds. But not much more in height. The little stinkers need to chill out.