Let the Gluttony Begin. Or Not.

Our lives have been super busy lately between the wedding, traveling back and forth to Arizona, visiting with old friends, making new ones (hi Syria!!), returning home and preparing for company and holidays. I love every minute of it, don't get me wrong, but somewhere deep inside me is a desire for a simple uncomplicated life.

A life that does not require caffeine to be enjoyed.

I jest.

Sort of.

The American culture and society is consumed, and I need a stronger word here...maybe obsessed???...need something still stronger, with stuff. Gotta have more, do more, be more, get more, and do it now, immediately, yesterday. I think that somehow we as a culture measure our success and derive our identity from our stuff.

I did that for years. It wasn't something I thought about, but that drive to obtain stuff became a motivating factor for much of what I did and decisions I made.

Recently I have swung in the opposite direction. This is partly based in the fact that I'm tired of shlepping unopened boxes of cr*p around the world every time we move. For example, for how many years is my grandmother's china going to sit unopened, unused, and unloved in my succession of garages? I have memories of her and photographs that I cherish. Her china is not something I particularly like or would use, but I've kept it out of guilt. My change in thinking is mostly based in a desire to focus on what's truly important and not be distracted. I believe that the days until Jesus' return for His church are short and we simply don't have time to faff around with pursuits that take us nowhere as far as eternity is concerned. The important things boil down, as I see it, to two issues:

1. Our personal relationship with Jesus. Is He our Lord and Savior? Are we on our way to Heaven? Is He pleased with our lives? (I am lumping in with this everything that flows out of relationship with Him: maintaining a good marriage, quality parenting, committed friendships, etc...it all starts with Jesus!)

2. Our effectiveness in leading others to Jesus. Are we more concerned with the needs of others than with making sure our own needs are met? Are we telling others about Jesus and showing them how to be saved? Truly, salvation is the greatest need in any of our lives.

The two go hand in hand. Our relationship with Jesus is enhanced as we look outside ourselves to the needs, physical and spiritual, of others, and as we are evangelistic our personal relationship with Jesus grows.

With this in mind, I have been cutting out the unnecessary from my life. This is not a minimalist blog, and the unnecessary looks different for everyone, but my journey begins with getting rid of physical things that are of no use or value to me, including my grandmother's china and also about 50 pounds of excess body weight! --our body is a temple for the Holy Spirit and we are responsible for our stewardship over our bodies...more on that in another post.

With all of that as a backdrop, I turn my attention today to food. Halloween always seems to be the beginning of the "food season." As my dad would say, "Let the gluttony begin!" Food is obviously necessary for our life and health, and of course it's a nice and often needed addition to any get together, but do we really need to junk out? I think not. Today I had coffee (with sugar), oatmeal (with sugar), more coffee (with sugar), lunch followed by a couple of brownies (with sugar) and you know what? I feel terrible. I'm not used to eating so much sugar and I seriously feel like I've been poisoned. At this moment I have acorn squash ready to bake and well seasoned chicken breasts in the oven. I'll steam some broccoli and we'll have a very tasty and healthy dinner. In the morning I'll probably have an egg on whole grain toast and more chicken breast with probably quinoa and black beans and veg for lunch. I know for a fact that this time tomorrow I will feel fantastic. (I also hope to get in a jog, but let's not get TOO ambitious! LOL)

Over the next several months to a year I hope to pare down my life in such a way that I am healthy, my home is a place of refuge and relaxation without clutter everywhere making anyone uptight (about breaking something, spilling something, or feeling overwhelmed by too much stuff), and my outlook and disposition are peaceful.

So! On that note, I am thankful today for healthy food that nourishes my body, not just feeds my sweet tooth.

Image credit

Written on 11/18/11, edited on 11/19/11 to add: I'm also thankful for being able to sleep in today. It's not often that I get to sleep until I wake up, no alarm clock. Yay! Of course the cat decided it was time for me to get up, but whatever. By the way, why do they just sit and stare at you while you are sleeping? Cats are weird.

Please, Sir, I want some more.

Name that classic. A prize to the winner. Umm. Just kidding. No prize yet. But I am thinking about  a giveaway drawing when I reach 25 followers! Stay tuned!

As promised, here is another out of this world quinoa recipe.

Quinoa Salad with Black Beans, Avocado and Cumin-Lime Dressing

Ingredients:
For the salad:
   1 T olive oil
   1 C dry quinoa
   1 3/4 C chicken stock
   1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
   1 whole avocado, sliced
   1 handful cherry tomatoes, quartered
   1/2 red onion, diced
   Several cloves minced garlic
   1/2 red bell pepper, chopped into chunks
   Small handful fresh cilantro, chopped

For the dressing:
   1 whole lime, juiced
   1/2 T olive oil
   1/2 t cumin
    salt to taste

Preparation:
1. Warm the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat and sauté the garlic and oil until garlic is golden. Add quinoa and stock, bring to a boil, turn down and simmer with lid on for 20 minutes.
2. While quinoa is cooking, prepare all the other ingredients. Prepare the dressing by combining ingredients and whisking briskly. Adjust salt as necessary.
3. When quinoa has finished cooking, remove from heat and fluff with a fork. Add all the other ingredients except avocado and dressing and toss. Serve warm or cold, garnished with avocado slices.

Sometimes I'll top this with chicken strips, alternating with the avocado slices so it looks pretty.

Next time I make this I will try to remember to take a picture and edit this post to add it. For now, the above image will have to do. Its very similar.

I found the original recipe on PW's Tasty Kitchen site. Can't seem to find it now, though. Good thing I printed it! 

Image credit

PS I'm working on figuring out how to post recipes in printable form. If anyone knows how to do that, I'm all ears!

Quinoa: a girl's best friend. Way better than diamonds.

Is that even said anymore? That diamonds are a girl's best friend? I hope not ...it's SO not true!  I suppose quinoa isn't really a girl's best friend either...but it makes for a good title.

Anyway.

Have you ever eaten quinoa? It's a grain, grown mostly in South America. It has a very high protein content, for a grain. Here's some information from an oh, so reliable source. (This would be a good place to use that sarcasm font.) I could seriously live on the stuff. That is not written in a sarcasm font!

My soon-to-be son-in-law taught me how to cook it. Basically it's cooked like rice, but mine always turned out mushy until he showed me what to do. In the interest of paying it forward and community spirit, I now give you his method of cooking quinoa:

By the way, we don't measure the ingredients other than the quinoa and liquid, so you'll need to eyeball it all and adjust for your personal taste.

Basic Quinoa Recipe

Ingredients:
Lots of garlic cloves, I use about 8, but then I LOVE garlic, minced
Several T olive oil
1/4 C Braggs Liquid Amino Acids (available in most good grocery stores and health food stores)
1 T, more or less, of dried basil or oregano, or whatever herb you like
1/1/2 C quinoa
2 1/2 C water

What to do:
Sauté a bunch of minced garlic cloves (maybe 8?--enough for a couple of Tablespoons of minced garlic) in several Tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet until golden. Toss the Braggs  and the herbs in there too. Don't let it burn. There are few things in life worse than burned garlic.  (Slivered red onion is good here too. Or maybe some chopped red pepper; any raw veggie would be good added now.)

When the garlic is golden add the dry quinoa and immediately the water.

Boil this mixture for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.


Add any leftover cooked veggies you like. I'm thinking broccoli or chopped spinach, but whatever you like works, and turn the heat to low. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or so, checking once in a while to make sure all the liquid isn't boiled away too soon. You don't want to lift the lid too often though, because you want the steam to stay inside. Add more water if necessary in 1/4 to 1/2 cup increments. The quinoa is done when the outer ring around the grain separates from the grain itself and you can see  the little circular rims clearly, like little tiny white...well...I want to say worms, but the visual for that isn't very appetizing. So try not to visualize that, but you need the outer rings to come away from the grain. You can refer to the image at the top of this post. It shows a bit of what I'm talking about.


That's it! Yummy by itself or with any meat. You can also poach an egg right in the quinoa before all the water boils away and it makes a delicious and super nutritious breakfast. Or lunch. Or dinner. Or snack.


I'll post another quinoa recipe tomorrow that is O.U.T. O.F. T.H.I.S. W.O.R.L.D.

Stay tuned!


Image credit (click on this and it will give you another recipe too!)