Easter 2012

Dying Easter eggs. Maddy inherited Jared's attention to detail. She spent about 20 min coloring one egg while Abby and Maddy colored and dyed all of theirs in about 10 min.
We decided to open Easter baskets and do the egg hunt on Saturday so that the kids could focus more of Christ and His resurrection on Easter morning. So here is Nathan on Saturday morning trying on his new hat from Grandma.
Maddy with her Easter basket.
Abby searching for eggs.
A pink one!
Maddy looking for eggs.
Maddy helped Nathan so he could find some too.
Maddy took Easter egg hunting very seriously. She ended up with twice as many eggs as Abby and Nathan.
All our little artists were excited that the Easter bunny left them a new easel for their artwork.
On Easter morning the kids got their new church clothes from Grandma and the prayer pillows I made to remind them to say their personal prayers. Nathan was very excited.
Our sweet Abby
Our darling Maddy
All the kids together
Nathan was very excited about his new suit for church. He kept saying, "I handsome like Dad!" So here's a picture of our two very handsome guys.
Jared with all the kids.
Here are the kids on Easter night wearing their new pajamas. Abby is holding some Easter lilys she made. One day while I was taking a nap she read directions for the craft in her Friend magazine and she decided to make it all on her own. She had Jared hide it and then she gave them to me as a surprise on Easter morning.

March 2012 Update

Abby was very excited about her Kindergarten assignment to build a leprechaun trap. I put Jared in charge of helping her and they had fun working on it together. Of course Nathan and Maddy had to help too.

In Abby's class a "naughty leprechaun" came in while she was at the computer lab and made a mess. Abby must of thought that was a great idea because while Nathan and I were napping she and Maddy decided to be naughty leprechauns and make a HUGE mess--dumping out all the toys, taking all the blankets off their beds, etc. Needless to say I'm not so happy with some of the lessons she is learning at school.

Here are the kids all out "helping" Jared dig a hole so he can pour some cement for our shed.

Nathan feels it is his job to help dad outside. He let me know that he "worked hard."

Abby before running the 1 mile leprechaun dash with her dad.

Nathan and Maddy had fun cheering her on. Maddy kept saying, "Go Abby! You can do it!"

Abby with her green ribbon for finishing her race. We were really proud of her running the whole way. It took her about 14 min. start to finish.

Abby with her finished leprechaun trap. She filled the box with chocolate gold coins and shiny things to attract the leprechaun. When the leprechaun climbed down the rope (attached to the lid) to get the gold, the lid would shut and he would be trapped.

We had a St. Patrick's day party at our house with some friends in the ward. We had a green food potluck followed by a treasure hunt for the kids where they found a pot of chocolate gold coins at the end. Afterwards we put on CARS 2 for the kids while the adults played some games.

Our green potluck.

The Amundsons

Abby, Brittny, and Serenity

At the end of March we took a last minute trip to Boise to see Jared's brother Eric get ordained as a bishop. We are sure he will do a great job. Here is Jared lending his support.

The Collett family

Amy's parents came up from Utah to be there as well.

Unfortunately I picked up the flu in Boise, so I spent the last week of March in bed. Luckily everyone else in the family got flu shots so at least I was the only one infected. I guess I've learned my lesson.

February 2012 Update

This month we finally saved up enough to buy ourselves a real piano. We decided to celebrate with a pajama piano party.

Here is Maddy trying out the new piano. She really wants me to teach her to play her favorite song, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

Nathan likes to do "birdies" (the high notes) and "monsters" (the low notes). He also sits at the piano and sings and tries to play "Hush Little Baby" and "Big Dog Boogie" (two songs Abby has just learned from her lesson book).

Abby assures us that she will practice EVERYDAY from now on. We'll see how long that lasts.

After the kids all tried the piano out I played songs and the kids had to guess what I was playing. Then Jared honored us with "Blow the Man Down" while the kids danced their hearts out.

Whatever our kids lack, it's not enthusiasm.

Nathan put this red bucket on his head then he took part of the barrel from his Barrel of Monkey's game and put it on his baby doll. He then started walking around the house saying, "Ho, Ho, Ho."

We have been displaying the kids' drawings and coloring pages on our walls in the bonus room. The girls decided to make a sign for the door letting everyone know they are now entering "The Museum of Art."

Jared kept busy this month making some more beautiful spoons. These are from a cherry tree he took out of his brother's yard last summer.

After spending so much money on the piano, Jared and I had a hard time spending money on a date for Valentines so we had a nice dinner at home with the kids. We are trying to stay away from sugar so instead of candy the girls got heart lockets and Nathan got Lightning McQueen.

JARED

Now that we have a piano Jared has been teaching himself to play and he has been doing really well. I often have to force him to get off so he will help me with the kids. Also, after not running for years, Jared has taken up running again. He is training to run a half-marathon as part of a relay race with his brother and a doctor from Kadlec in Boise on June 9th. The kids love going for rides in the stroller while Jared pushes them and I enjoy the nice quiet break.

MARY

I've been working hard this month meal planning and trying new recipes to aid on our quest to eat more healthy. It is a lot of trial and error, but I am slowly building up a repertoire of meals that we enjoy. I will say that despite it being more work we have been feeling a lot healthier, with much more energy throughout the day. Other than cooking and meal planning, I'm busy homeschooling the kids and trying desperately to stay on top of laundry and messes around the house.

MADDY

Maddy just finished the book, Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons and we are really proud of the progress she is making in her reading. She loves dress up, imaginative play, and anything girly. She misses Abby when she goes to school, but she likes having my undivided attention in the mornings. She still loves being our sweet snuggle bear and we love her.

ABBY

Abby is progressing quickly with homeschooling. She just finished up her first grade Spelling book and the first Singapore Math book. She is doing well in Kindergarten as well. She was voted "Dependable" by her teacher and received a prize and had name published in the school newsletter. She loves reading, playing with her siblings, doing craft projects and any sort of party or holiday. I think in just the first half of February she made about 50 Valentines! We love our sweet little red-headed girl.

NATHAN

We just started to do formal pre-school with Nathan. He already knows all his capital letters and most of his sounds (thanks to Letter Factory). Nathan is excited to have his own school. When I'm working with Abby or Maddy, Nathan likes to come to me with a coloring book and a pencil or with his Baby Einstein flashcards and says, "Do homeschool." Nathan remains happy and busy. He still loves being daddy's helper and was very excited when Jared let him come in the garage with him to help sand the spoons he was making. He still loves his baby doll and takes good care of him. He kisses him good-bye when we leave and yells, "bye baby" on his way out the door. Now that he is talking more he has become my sweet little cheerleader. When I bring in the groceries he says, "Mommy strong! Mommy did it!" When I get ready in the morning he says, "Mommy pretty." Nathan has started praying and is super proud of himself. He gets very upset if he isn't called on every time. He loves our weekly playgroup which consists of lots of little boys his age. The pack of boys runs around the gym playing with cars and balls. We love our sweet little man-cub.

Money and Time Saving Tips for Healthy Cooking

So this post is mostly for little sister Rachel who wanted to know how I meal plan and cook. I'm not an expert, but I have come a long way from when I was first married 10 years ago. Here are a few things that have helped me save time and money with cooking while still trying to eat healthy.

1. Meal Plan: I've actually never really made specific meal plans until recently when I read a book on saving money on your grocery bills. The main point of the book is that meal planning is the best way to save money and time with your cooking. I've tried it and love it. We eat much better, have more variety in our meals, and I save time and money.

My Plan:

Breakfast Foods: Granola and baked oatmeal ingredients, Shredded Wheat, Grapenuts, Cheerios

Lunch Foods: Bread making supplies, tortillas, humus, peanut butter, jelly, honey, pita bread, green smoothie fruits and veggies

Snack Foods: Healthy crackers, chips, hummus, salsa, bagels, popcorn, nuts, etc.

Dinner Food: I write down main dishes for the first half of the month. I only cook dinner every other day and we eat the same thing twice so I usually only need 8 main dishes to start with. If you don't like to eat the same thing twice you can cook the same amount and just freeze half of it for later. Half way through the month I take an inventory of what food we still have that needs to be used up and plan the rest of my meals around that. Usually I only have to buy a few items half way through the month to restock. I also buy fruits and veggies for side dishes and ingredients for 1 or 2 easy meals for busy days.

Special Occasion Foods: holiday cake and cookie supplies if needed

Food Storage Items that need to be restocked

Household Items that need to be restocked (I add this to my shopping list because I usually buy most of my food and household items from Costco)

2. Only one major shopping trip a month, with 1 restock trip: You spend less the less frequently you shop. You also save time and money (on gas) by taking fewer trip. It also forces you to use up the food that you already have. I find it easier for me to stay on budget because I buy food for the whole month in one trip using up most of my budget, but saving about $50 for restock items half way through the month.

3. Double Recipes: This has been a major time saver for me, which I especially need when I'm homeschooling. I double a lot of recipes so we can eat it for two days. However I've learned from bad experience that it is best not to double a recipe the first time you try it. You may end up hating it and wasting a lot of food.

4. Saturday cooking sessions: I usually set aside 3 hours every other Saturday where I have a major cooking session. I make bread, granola, baked oatmeal, and muffins so that I'm stocked up for the next few weeks.

5. Discount Bakery: I recently visited the discount bakery and bought 7 loves of high quality whole wheat bread, 4 bags of whole wheat bagels, and 4 bags of whole wheat hamburger buns for just $16. I put it all in my deep freezer so I have them on hand when I don't have time to make bread, etc.

6. Take advantage of produce co-ops or stores: When I lived in Philly we had a Produce Market where we got large quantities of produce for cheap. My mom and my in-laws are part of Bountiful Baskets where they get lots of healthy produce for really cheap. Unfortunately we don't have anything like that around here although we do have great farmers markets during the summer/early fall. We are also able to buy boxes of apples for .64/lb from a farmer in the fall.

7. Look into you-pick options: We have peach orchards where we can pick our own fruit and pay per pound. You may have an elderly neighbor with an apricot tree. Offer to pick it for them if you can keep a box for yourself. One year a local apple orchard offered free apples for the picking--we ended up with 88 quarts of delicious applesauce!

8. Beans, beans, beans: They are healthy, cheap protein and it really does help save a lot of money. They are especially cheap if you buy them dried.

9. Toast large quantities of nuts/seeds and then freeze/save the extra: This makes it easy to add nuts/seeds to salads, veggies, rice, etc.

10. Double sauces/pesto and freeze: Jared and I are not big fans of frozen meals but frozen sauces and pesto usually don't taste too bad. I always double my pizza sauce recipe so I can easily put a homemade pizza together in about 20-30 min.

11. Make large quantities of muffins/bread/rolls and freeze the extra

12. Wash, chop and peel veggies so they are ready to eat: After my big shopping trip I will peel my carrots and slice my celery so they are ready to eat. I also wash/scrub my fruit so it's easy to grab. This makes it easy to grab a healthy snack and it saves time in meal preparation.

13. Store food in the right place/container: nuts and ginger root are best stored in the freezer, onions in a cool dry place, hanging in your nylons, herbs in a green save container, etc. Learning to store food in the right place has helped me waste less because of it going bad too fast.

14. Garden and can, freeze, or dry extra produce: By far the cheapest source for organic produce. We had a bumper crop of tomatoes and didn't have to buy any tomato products for 2 years!

15. Buy Produce in season: Okay so I'm stealing advice from the Word of Wisdom, but it is healthier and saves money too!

16. Eat no/less meat: Less cooking time and healthier

17. Time Saving Tools I Love: Apple peeler/slicer, Bosch mixer, Bosch food processor attachment(cuts the time to make a soup or salad in half), blender, rice cooker, crock pot, wheat grinder

18. Crock pot Meals for busy days and Fast Sundays: If you know you are going to have a busy afternoon/evening, just throw some stuff in at lunch time and your done

19. Have ingredients for 2-3 easy/quick meal on-hand: This saves you from the temptation to eat out on those busy days

20. Buy spices, nuts, and raisins in the bulk food section of WinCo

21. Buy staples (rice, flour, etc.) in large quantities and store in 5 gallon buckets

22. Make Food from Scratch: This doesn't really save time, but it's SO much healthier and it saves you money. It is unrealistic to expect to have enough time to make everything from scratch. Some labor intensive items I buy ready-made but I try to read the ingredients to make sure that what goes into it is healthy. Due to time I buy whole wheat pasta instead of making it. I tried making whole wheat tortillas but it was too labor intensive and used a lot of oil. I found that the whole wheat tortillas that I buy were actually healthier.

Do any of you have money or time saving tips for healthy cooks? Please share them.

More Meal Ideas

I'm posting these mostly for my sister who is trying a vegan diet to improve her cholesterol, but some of the rest of you may want to try some of these recipes too. Here are 3 vegan and 1 vegetarian meal that our family enjoys.
Meal 1: Gazpacho Soup with Whole Wheat Bread Sticks
Gazpacho (from Practical Cookery: Vegetarian)
1/2 small cucumber, grated
1/2 small green bell pepper, finely chopped
1 lb ripe tomatoes, peeled or 14 oz can of chopped tomatoes
1/2 onion
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
3 TB olive oil
2 TB vinegar
1-2 TB lemon juice
2 TB tomato paste
2 cups tomato juice
salt and pepper to taste

Place grated cucumber and chopped green pepper in bowl. Blend the remaining ingredients then add to the bowl and stir together. Chill before serving.


Whole Wheat Bread Sticks (from Ciel Murry)

3-4 C. whole wheat flour

1T. yeast

1T. sugar

1t. salt

Mix these in mixer bowl.

Add 1 1/2 C. warm water and knead 7-8 min.

Add more flour if necessary (start with smaller amount and add from there)

Melt 2T. butter in 9x13" pan. Or double recipe and use a sheet pan.Roll or pat dough to fit. Cut with pizza cutter horizontally into 9 1" strips.Cut dough in half vertically. Sprinkle with garlic powder, Italian herbs and Parmesan cheese. Let rise 20 min. Bake 375. 18-20 minme of the rest of you might like to try them too.

Meal 2: Baked Potatoes with Mushroom sauce and Green beans

Baked Potatoes
Scrub and remove bad parts
Cover in Crisco and poke with fork
Bake in oven at 400 for 30 min to hour (depending on size--small red potatoes usually only take 30-40 min while Russets take longer)

Mushroom Sauce
1 lb of mushrooms washed and sliced (I like to use 1/2 lb white, 1/2 lb portobello)
1 onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 cups of vegetable broth
Season to taste (salt, pepper, parsley, thyme, Italian seasoning, etc.)
2 TB olive oil

In fry pan heat 2 TB olive oil. Add onions, garlic, and mushrooms. Stir and cook 5-10 min. Add vegetable broth and heat thoroughly. Serve over potatoes.

Green Beans (modified from JoyAnn's recipe)
3/4 c pecans or almonds
3 TB butter or oil
2 TB maple syrup
2 shallots or green onions minced
2/3 tsp (or more) orange zest
2 tsp flour
1 1/2 lbs green beans
2/3 c vegetable broth
1/3 orange juice
salt and pepper
Toast nuts in oven. Put 1 TB oil/butter, syrup, and salt in fry pan. Get it hot and add the nuts. Stir until glossy (about 45 sec). Remove from skillet and set nuts aside for later. Heat 2 TB oil/butter and add shallots and orange zest. Stir in flour. Add vegetable broth and OJ. Turn heat to medium high. Add beans and cover for 5-10 min, then uncover and cook about 4 min. until tender. Stir in nuts, add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Meal 3: Easy Crockpot Soup
This is a favorite for busy days when I know I won't have time to cook. It takes me 5-10 min. to throw this together at lunch time and then I'm set.

In crockpot:
5 cups vegetable broth
Add chopped onions, carrots, celery.
Add diced potatoes or whole wheat pasta
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp ground cumin and salt and pepper to taste
1 can of mushrooms or beans for protein
salt and pepper to taste

Put crock pot on high and this will be ready by dinnertime. Add chopped parsley right before serving to garnish. To make this into a more of a minestrone-type soup add tomatoes, spinach, sage, thyme and Italian seasonings. Serve with crackers, corn chips, bread sticks or garlic toast.

Meal 4: Vegetable Enchiladas (from Martha Stewart)

Vegetable Enchiladas
Get a freezable Mexican meal rolling in no time with a no-cook filling and a sauce made from pantry ingredients. Jack cheese and a combination of black beans and corn tortillas give this meatless dish complete protein.

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for baking dishes
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) reduced-sodium vegetable broth
Coarse salt and ground pepper
3 cups grated pepper Jack cheese (12 ounces)
1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 box (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry --I used fresh and it was great!
1 box (10 ounces) frozen corn kernels, thawed
6 scallions, thinly sliced, white and green parts separated
16 corn tortillas (6-inch)
I like to add sliced olives as well

Make sauce: In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium. Add 1 teaspoon cumin, flour, and tomato paste; cook, whisking, 1 minute. Whisk in broth and 3/4 cup water; bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, and cook until slightly thickened, 5 to 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and set aside.

Make filling: In a large bowl, combine 2 cups cheese, beans, spinach, corn, scallion whites, and remaining 1 teaspoon cumin; season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly oil two 8-inch square baking dishes; set aside. Stack tortillas, and wrap in damp paper towels; microwave on high for 1 minute. Or stack and wrap in aluminum foil, and heat in oven for 5 to 10 minutes. Top each tortilla with a heaping 1/3 cup of filling; roll up tightly and arrange, seam side down, in prepared baking dishes.

Dividing evenly, sprinkle enchiladas with remaining 1 cup cheese, and top with sauce. Bake, uncovered, until hot and bubbly, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool 5 minutes; serve garnished with scallion greens.

To Freeze:
Prepare enchiladas through step 3; top with cheese, and cover baking dishes with plastic wrap and then aluminum foil. Place sauce in an airtight container. Freeze enchiladas and sauce for up to 2 months.Bake frozen, thaw sauce overnight.heat oven to 400 degrees.Remove foil and plastic wrap from baking dishes, and pour sauce over enchiladas; cover with foil. Bake 30 minutes; remove foil, a bake till bubbly about 15 minutes more. Rest 5 min before serving.

I hope you enjoy these meal ideas. I have a few more really good looking recipes, but I'll wait until after I try them to share them with you.

January 2011 Update

January has been a busy month for us. Jared and I have been working on some new years goals to simplify, organize, exercise, and eat more healthy; and the kids have been busy keeping us busy. Jared finally finished the tile and it is really nice to not be "under construction" anymore. When he is not busy working or doing Elder's quorum he has been studying for the DAT and working on my never ending honey-do list. I was released as a R.S. teacher this month and was called to work with the young girls in Activity days. I like to read when I get any free time, and I had fun hosting book group this month. I've also been working hard to de-junk and organize, which is really difficult with three kids who are sentimentally attached to everything, including tiny scraps of paper. I finally had to resort to organizing while they sleep since they protest everything I want to throw away or give to Good Will--even then, they manage to salvage things from the garbage cans or Good Will boxes.

The kids are happy and busy. Abby loves kindergarten and homeschool. Maddy and Nathan enjoy Playgroup at the church and Storytime at the library. Maddy has been having a hard adjustment in Primary with her new teachers so we have been trying to help her develop more friendships with the girls in her class by having them come over to play. Nathan has discovered coloring and loves it. If I ever get on the computer while he's awake he wants me to print out coloring pictures of McQueen, Mater, or Bobder (that's how he says Bob the Builder).

Here are some random pictures from this month:

Cute picture of the kids all ready for bed on Saturday night.

Here's a picture of a doll I made for my little sister's birthday when I was just 4 years old. My mom saved it all these years because she was so impressed.

Nathan trying on Abby's roller skates.

The girls were super excited to finally get some snow this winter. Nathan wasn't sure what to think of it at first, but the girls were so excited he decided it must be a good thing. Abby was even more excited when they canceled school for 3 days.
Here's their snowman. For the next few days before it melted Nathan would look out the sliding glass door and wave and say "Hi snowman."
Abby has gotten to be a really good reader. Jared found her reading to Nathan and Maddy one day and couldn't resist taking this picture.
For FHE one night we made apple pie. The kids loved eating "apple snakes" (the peelings) and Jared made a CTR and a I love you hand on the crusts.

Changing the Way We Eat

In our almost 10 years of marriage Jared and I have undergone several changes in our eating habits.

When we were first married I was busy going to school and working and didn't really have much time or know how for cooking. We ended up eating a lot of cheese quesadillas, pasta, beans and rice, and easy cream of mushroom soup casserole-type dishes. After I finished school and was just working I graduated to making more soups and other dishes. We ate relatively healthy but we lacked a lot of variety mostly due to our poor student budget. I think this may be one reason why I was not able to get pregnant until we went to live with Neal and JoyAnn for the summer.

When I was pregnant with Abby, Jared and I read a wonderful book called The Culprit and the Cure by Steven Aldana, PhD. This motivated us to change our eating habits to be more healthy. We eliminated white rice, white flour tortillas, and pasta from our diet in favor of brown rice, whole wheat pasta, bread, tortillas, etc. When we were in PA school we ate relatively the same with the exception of more milk, eggs, cheese and juice due to the food that we got from the WIC program.

Recently our family has undergone a few other diet changes. The first is that we now drink a green smoothie everyday. Jared's parents gave us a powerful Blend-tec blender for Christmas which allows us to blend up whole fruits and veggies into a healthy smoothie. It is delicious and nutritious and even the kids love it. Everyday at lunch time Nathan comes to me and says, "Green smoozie, please." Here is the general recipe I follow, although you can adjust according to what fruits and veggies you have: (You likely won't be able to do this unless you have a Blend-tec, VitaMix, or other industrial strength blender capable of doubling as a wood chipper.)

2 1/2 c water

1/2 tsp honey or other sweetener

Juice from whole lime or 1/2 lemon

1-3 TB flax seed oil ( I just put in flax seeds)

Add to 5 C line: 3/4-1 lb raw washed greens (spinach, Romaine lettuce, kale, Swiss chard)--I also add carrots, celery, cilantro, or cucumber

1-2 bananas

1-2 frozen mixed berries

Any other fruit to taste (pears, apples, cantaloupes, apricots, oranges, pineapples, mangos)--I like the mixed tropical fruit from Costco

A couple of things that Jared and I have noticed since we have started drinking green smoothies everyday is that 1) We feel like we have more sustained energy throughout the day 2) We crave unhealthy food less. So far neither of us have lost any weight (not that Jared needs to), although I have a friend who just lost 20 lbs by drinking a green smoothie and walking 2 miles everyday for 2 months.

Jared and I also recently watched two movies recommended by my sister, Food Inc. and Forks Over Knives. These films helped us see the importance of eating a whole foods, plant-based diet that is less dependent on animal products and processed foods. We highly recommend watching them, especially Forks Over Knives. In summation, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, etc. can often be reversed by switching to a whole food, plant-based only diet. Also, there is a great deal of evidence that several different types of cancer are perpetuated/promoted/exacerbated by meat & milk diets. (Jared says this is well established in medical literature with respect to processed, grilled, & smoked meats especially.) Since watching these movies here are a few changes we have made to our diet: 1) We now eat meat only 1 or 2 times a month (usually chicken or fish) 2) We eat less yogurt and cheese--only a couple times a week 3) We eat fewer eggs (that are free range only) 4) The majority of our meals are vegan 5) We rely on mushrooms, nuts, seeds and beans for more of our protein.

Overall we feel better, and despite the cost of mushrooms, nuts, and fresh veggies we have saved money in our food budget. The hardest part for me was figuring out how to feed my family with this new diet so below are a few recipes that we enjoy. We hope you'll all watch the movies we recommended, and at the least try going meatless or even 100% plant based a few days a week. Salud!

Quinoa and Black Beans (from AllRecipes.com)

1 tsp vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

3/4 uncooked quinoa

1 1/2 c vegetable broth (I use the Better than Bouillon vegetable base found in the spice section of Costco--cheap, organic, low sodium, and no MSG!)

1 tsp cumin

salt and pepper to taste

1 c frozen corn kernels

2 (15 oz)cans black beans rinsed and drained

1/2c chopped fresh cilantro

Serve with: lettuce, tomatoes, sliced avocado, and lime juice

1.Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Stir in onion and garlic, and saute until lightly browned.

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

3. Stir frozen corn into saucepan and simmer 5 more minutes until heated through. Mix in black beans and cilantro.

Mushroom Orzo (From JoyAnn)

1 c uncooked orzo

2 TB butter

1 tsp minced garlic

lemon zest from 1 lemon

1 tsp dried thyme

8 oz sliced mushrooms

1 c grated carrots

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 c chopped parsley

1TB lemon juice

Handful of toasted almonds (optional)

Cook orzo, drain, rinse and set aside. In skillet melt butter over medium heat, add garlic, zest and thyme. Cook until garlic softens. Add mushrooms, carrots, salt and pepper. Cook until mushrooms soften. Stir in orzo and heat through. In serving bowl combine orzo with parsley and juice.

We would love to find whole wheat orzo, so if anyone knows where to find it please let us know.

Thai Peanut Noodle Salad (from Our Best Bites)

8 oz Linguine Fini, cooked

4 C Shredded greens (combo of napa cabbage, romaine lettuce or spinach)

2 C Thinly sliced purple cabbage

1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1/2 yellow pepper, thinly sliced

1 medium carrot, julienned

1/2 medium cucumber, halved and sliced

1/4 of a red onion, thinly sliced

2 C diced grilled chicken (substitute with extra peanuts if doing this vegan)

1/2 c honey roasted peanuts

Dressing:

1/2 c peanut butter

1 limes, juiced and zested

2 1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 TB vinegar

2 TB soy sauce

3 TB honey

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 TB minced ginger

1/2 C roughly chopped cilantro (stems and all)

1/2 c vegetable oil

1/4 tsp salt

2-4 TB water

1tsp siracha chili sauce

Lentil and Rice Casserole (from Practical Cookery: Vegetarian)

1 c dry lentils

1/2 c brown rice

5 c vegetable stock

1 leek, cut into chunks

2 garlic cloves, crushed

14 oz can chopped tomatoes

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 bell pepper, seeded and sliced

3 1/2 oz brocoli florets

8 baby corn on the cobs, halved lengthways

1 3/4oz green beans, halved

1 tsp shredded basil

salt and pepper

1. Put lentils, rice and vegetable stock in pot over low heat for 20 min.

2. Add remaining ingredients (minus basil) to the pot

3. Brink to boil, reduced heat, cover and simmer for 10-15 min. until vegetables are tender

4. Add basil and serve