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Monday, January 26, 2009

Quinoa Soup Recipe


Quinoa Soup
Originally uploaded by Judi FitzPatrick Studio
1. What is quinoa? It is a delicious grain that cooks quickly, very high in protein, a good source of fiber, gluten free, and easily digested. The seeds are usually available for sale in health food stores. Once it is cooked, you can recognize it by the small circles that become evident.

2. Why and when did I cook it? I was invited for dinner last week, offered to bring dessert. I’ve been attempting to get back to eating properly (for me) as much as possible. Since lasagna was the main dish (dairy, simple carbs, fat), I decided I wanted to make a dessert that had no refined sweetener; a healthier alternative to say - brownies. Since I had almost everything I needed to make a dish called Quinoa Pudding (Dr. Andrew Weil’s 8 Weeks to Optimum Health, chapter 2), that is what I made and brought.

3. The way you are directed to cook the quinoa always results in much more than is needed to make the finished pudding. In warmer weather I often use the leftovers to make a salad, much like tabouleh. Since it has been below freezing for many days now, this just didn’t fit the bill.

4. I decided to put the leftover quinoa into a soup using only items I had on hand. Below is the resultant recipe; I hope you will run with this and make it your own.

5. This dish is suitable for vegans as no animal products are included.

Quinoa Soup – On The Fly

1 jar whole pearl onions, drained, reserve the juice
1 T olive oil
1 T canola oil
Finely diced garlic (to taste)
1.5 to 2 cups of cooked quinoa
Vegetable stock (or water)
½ C cooked carrots
½ C frozen peas
Spices to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Put the onions, oil, and garlic into a 3 quart saucepan and turn the heat on med. Allow all to sauté until the garlic is softened. At this point I added a little Tuscan Sunset (from Pensey’s Spices) and some red pepper flakes and continued to sauté for another minute or so.

Add the reserved onion juice if you like it. Add the quinoa and enough vegetable stock to cover the contents of the pot and stir. Then add the carrots and peas, salt, and pepper, and other spices if you like. Bring to simmering and keep it going until the peas are cooked.

One could easily use green beans or another vegetable in place of the peas, or add additional vegetables. Depending on how big the appetites are, this would serve 2-4 people.

Have fun and please let me know if you try it yourself.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Bromo Seltzer Tower, Baltimore, MD

The Schmap online guide to Baltimore requested use of this photo, I learned it was included and am so grateful for the exposure.

You can see the guide by clicking on the widget in the right margin. There are several shots including this tower, they are the 6th group. I believe they call it the Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Tower. If you find my photo and click it, it will bring you to the image on Flickr. (This image is for sale in my Etsy shop.)

If you need to find your way around Baltimore, MD, maybe this Schmap map will help you out!

Peace, Judi

Friday, January 16, 2009

Day 130 - 01/12/2009 Spools

If you make it to Explore on Flickr, it is a really big deal. It finally happened for me with this photo.

Found out today it was #381 in Explore on 1/13/2009!

BTW, this was one of many shots I took of my spools of thread sitting on a spool rack. I have them lined up, somewhat by color and mostly the large ones on the ends. Of all the shots I took, this was the only one I even liked.

Thanks to everyone for helping me "get on the map" so to speak.

Peace, Judi

Monday, January 12, 2009

Frozen

Seed head from a rudbeckia, manipulated in Photoshop.

This shot is a reminder to me that my life should not remain frozen, but be fluid - as was my manipulation to the original photograph to get to this image.

Peace, Judi

Monday, January 5, 2009

Holiday Cards-Composite

My 2008-2009 holiday cards arrived on Friday. On 1/4 I wrote them out to prepare for mailing on 1/5. Some should have them by Little Christmas on 1/6. This is the first year I've had them printed by a professional printing company (rather than hand-assembled with photograph). The photo and design is all mine, just the printing done elsewhere. The printer uses green technology for some of their products, not sure about this one.