One of my girlfriend’s came to visit me last weekend.  She lives in Northern BC and we’ve been friends for over 25 years.

I asked her what she wanted for supper on her first night here and to make a long story short we ended up having grilled steak.  No shortage of steak lovers in this family.  I grew up having steak occasionally, although it would always be the same cut of steak with the same BBQ sauce cooked the same way. I swear this is part of the reason I scream for flavour and diversity in my cooking.

Chimichurri sauce originates from Argentina & South America. It is a lovely & tasty accompaniment to any grilled meat. We’ve enjoyed this recipe before and so it was time to enjoy it again.

We grilled some asparagus & mushrooms as a side.

Adapted from ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen

Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

2 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
2 lbs steak (whatever you enjoy, striploin, sirloin, filet, etc.)
salt & pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a plastic ziplock back and squishy to ensure steak is covered. Let marinate on counter for 30 minutes or longer in the fridge.

Remove steak from bag and grill over medium heat to preferred doneness. Serve with Chimichurri sauce.

Chimichurri Sauce
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves
2 tbsp lemon juice, fresh
2 tbsp fresh oregano
5 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 tsp each salt & pepper

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Serve immediately.

So impressed was I that hubby really enjoyed this salad. So much so he took it for lunch today.  Now if only I could get the kidlets to enjoy quinoa since it is a complete protein and good for you.   Here’s hoping one day!

This is a quick-lunch, side dish or even meal for one. Add some roasted/grilled chicken  if you wish or it as is. Yum.

Quinoa, Cucumber & Mint Salad

1 cup quinoa
1 cup water
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup cucumber, quartered and sliced
3-4 green onions, sliced
1/3 cup packed fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
salt & pepper to taste

Add water, quinoa and salt to pot, bring to a boil. Reduce, cover and simmer until water has been absorbed and quinoa tender (about 12-15 minutes). Scoop into a bowl and set aside to cool.

In a cup, or small bowl whisk together vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. Pour it on quinoa and add cucumber, green onions, parsley & mint.  Mix well.  Adjust seasonings as needed.  Pairs nicely with grilled meat.

I’ve tried many different versions of chicken fajita’s and always found the flavours are rather bland.  This recipe had the flavours blending nicely and everyone loving this dish.  In fact my dd asked for it for lunch the next day at school (now that is unusual).

Fajita’s for our family are a quick & easy supper on an activity night.  These are truly yummy.

Chicken Fajitas

4 chicken breasts, boneless & skinless
1 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp cumin
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp lime juice, fresh
oil (canola or olive oil)
1/2 cup spanish onion, sliced
1 cup pepper (red, green, orange, yellow), sliced
whole wheat flour tortillas 

Fixins
shredded lettuce
diced tomato
salsa
guacamole
sour cream
hot peppers (banana or jalapeno)
shredded cheese
I also used pico de gallo & chopped cilantro

In a ziplock bag combine chili powder, oregano, salt, cumin, garlic, lime juice and a little oil.  Seal bag and smoosh to combine flavours. Add your chicken and smoosh a little more.  Refrigerate for a minimum 15 minutes or longer if you have time.

Put your onions and peppers in a bowl.  Pour on a little oil and season with salt, pepper and a little cumin.

Take chicken out of marinade and drain.  Put on greased BBQ and grill approximately 6-7  minutes per side on med-high until cooked through and juices run clear.  Remove from heat and let rest under cover.

Meanwhile on a pre heated BBQ grill topper or stove top grill pan add some oil and your onion/pepper mix.  Give it a little more s&p and saute for about 4-5 minutes or under veggies tender crisp. Set aside in a bowl.

Get all your fixin’s ready, heat up your flour tortillas (10 seconds in microwave), slice your chicken, grab some peppers/onions and you are ready to assemble your chicken fajita.

My family loves them!

Going back to the basil plants, I thought the taller growth needed some pinching back already. And then with my small handful of herbs, I decided that it was time to make lunch.

What follows isn’t a caprese salad. There’s no mozzarella cheese, no olive oil. This isn’t a pesto salad either. It was heavier on the pine nut flavor, and I skipped the Parmesan cheese and the garlic completely. And, to reiterate, it had no olive oil.

I chopped up some toasted pine nuts with my bits of basil (smelled so lovely), and then I had the gall to mush it with 1/2 of an avocado (and a tiny pinch of kosher salt).

To this, I mixed in some halved cherry tomatoes and some cooked multi-grain pasta. It was good and it was just enough for one person. I wish I had some baked chicken or grilled steak to go along with it. Oh well, maybe next time. It’s ok. I followed my pasta course with strawberries and yogurt.  A happy tummy is of the utmost importance!  (^_^)b

Chickpeas, also known as: ceci bean, garbanzo bean, chana, sanagalu Indian pea and Bengal gram are very good for you.  They contain Vitamins, Iron, Minerals, Fiber, Calcium and Protein to name a few. For a more detailed breakdown on the nutritional value of chickpeas go to the Nutrient Analysis. 

You can use them in stews, chili’s, roasted, toasted, pureed, dips, soups, salads…the possibilities are endless.

I recently made this recipe for a BBQ.  Simple and delicious made this salad a winner.

Chickpea & Artichoke Salad

1 can (19oz) chickpeas, drained
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes (or grape), halved
1/2 cup pepper (any colour), diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
1/3 cup red onion, diced
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 jar marinated (in oil) artichoke hearts
salt & pepper to taste

Drain artichokes in a bowl, keeping liquid. Cut into quarters. Set aside.

Combine all remaining ingredients in a bowl. Add artichokes and reserved liquid to bowl. Add a good amount of pepper and sprinkle of salt, tossing to combine.

You can let salad sit in fridge and marinate or you can serve immediately.

Feta and kalamata olives would be a nice addition to this salad.

to be honest, cooking for myself is turning out to be quite the joy, considering that most meals are actually pretty decent and most of my improvisations have actually worked without the taste becoming too odd, piquant or something of that sort. somehow the ingredients here and this kitchen seem to sing to me. i think i’ll be getting more ambitious soon. =)

anyways, this dish is the typical last-minute i-need-to-clear-all-the-food-stuff-from-my-fridge” dish, which is made kind of a difficult task when my kitchen isn’t exactly well stocked – i lack flour, many sauces, bread crumbs and the likes, so alot of recipes couldn’t work. furthermore, i don’t have an oven where i can just chuck some meats and vegetables in and wait for something magickal to occur (that was my default action plan in my kitchen in US).

so it was time to improvise, and i did a balsami-garlic mushroom chicken from this recipe.

ingredients – chicken: 4 x chicken fillet, marinated briefly (10 minutes) in pepper, soya sauce and olive oil

sauce: 3 cloves of garlic, 1/2 a bowl of chicken stock (to be honest, the recipe mentioned 1/2 a cup.. and i honestly don’t know what half a cup is, so what i did was to use the myojo chicken stock thingy and make my own chicken stock, which amounted to roughly 1/2 a bowl), some balsamic vinegar (to be honest, i just squeezed in an amount i felt was ok..) and some lemon juice, followed by a plate of porcini mushrooms

as you can see, ingredient amounts don’t mean anything to me, cos half the time i don’t understand them, and the other half of the time, my ingredients are not exactly the same/i forget etc.. so to be honest, every single dish that turns out right.. is kind of a “praise God” moment. =)

anyways, this dish is really simple and tastes pretty good!

first pan fry the chicken with some olive oil and butter till the both sides get golden-ish (something like teppanyaki eh?), cut through the thickest piece to see if it is fully cooked then take off heat. the good thing about fillets as that somehow the time taken to get it browned is roughly the time the entire piece gets cooked, since it is sliced quite thinly.

next for the sauce, use the pan with the remnant oil and dump in the rest of the ingredients to make the sauce. hmm, my sauce didn’t exactly thicken and i question whether flour is needed to do so (anyone knows?) but nevertheless when the mushrooms looked cooked (the mushrooms went in last), and the sauce was kinda diminishing due to evaporation, i took it off the heat and drenched the chicken fillets with the sauce.

yummy stuff. yay!

There is something about grilling or griddling vegetables that really concentrates their flavour, and when you have the first baby vegetables ready in the spring it is the best way to maximise their special flavour. I frequently have just a plate of the mixed vegetables, but today I wanted to make a more substantial main course. For a vegetarian option substitute some mozerella, the proper made with buffalo milk, in my opinion mozerella cannot be made with anything else, for the rabbit.

Per person

20 gms 00 pasta flour

1 large egg yolk

pinch of salt

100 gms rabbit meat

olive oil

small sprig each of fresh oregano and thyme

6 cloves sweet garlic

100 ml chicken stock

Mixture of spring vegetables – a selection of the following –

baby courgettes and their flowers if you have them, green asparagus, sweet onion, baby aubergine, Florence fennel.

For the pasta – put the flour, egg yolk and salt in a small food processor and blend to a dough. Remove from the blender and with floured hands form into a ball. Wrap in cling film and put into the fridge to rest until needed later.

Peel the cloves of garlic. If some are much bigger than others, halve them so that they all cook evenly.

Cut the rabbit into small pieces.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a small frying pan, add the garlic and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the rabbit and continue frying for another 8-10 minutes  stirring from time to time.

Add the chicken stock and the herbs. Stir again to mix in all the brownings from the bottom of the pan. Simmer for 10 minutes. Season the rabbit. If the rabbit is done before the rest of the dish, then turn it off and let it continue slowly cooking in its stock until needed.

Put a pan of water on to heat up for the pasta. Add salt and a dash of olive oil to it.

Prepare the vegetables. Cut the courgettes in half lengthways, slice the onion into thick slices, slice the aubergine. The vegetables are left quite large at this point so that they are quicker to turn over during cooking. Put all the vegetables including the asparagus into a container and smear with olive oil.

Put the vegetables under the grill on a medium heat or on a griddle over a lowish heat. Cook turning every few minutes until the vegetables are browned and cooked but still have some bite. Season with salt.

While the vegetables are cooking, roll the pasta with a pasta machine in the usual way until it is pale and pliable. Then start rolling the pasta thinner until you reach no7 on most machines. Then cut into tagliatelle.

Once the water is boiling, add the pasta and cook for 3-4 minutes until cooked al dente. Drain.

Reheat the rabbit if needed and add the pasta. Remove the vegetables from the grill or griddle and cut into bite sized pieces. Add to the pasta and rabbit and mix well.

If you are making the vegetarian version of this dish, once you have grilled the vegetables and cut them up, then cooked the pasta and drained it, mix the two. Then add mozerella ripped into small pieces, mix in and serve.

But back to today. I love fish and being by the sea there is always a good selection of fresh fish. It is impossible to decide before arriving at the market exactly what will be the best fish on the day. Today I have chosen Marrajo. It is a meaty white fish, most likely from the same family as Swordfish and Shark. The skin is certainly siimilar to both of the above. There are several varieties of the above caught in the Mediterranean Sea, each of which have local names which can vary in places not really very far from one another. A fish can have one name here in the local fishing port of Garrucha, and another in Almeria City which is less than 100 km away.

So potatoes, fish, there is some home cured streaky bacon in the larder, fresh onions and some green asparagus. A creamy Fish Chowder will make a light lunch and is easy to cook for one.

FISH CHOWDER

Chowders hail from the Atlantic coast of the United States and are famously made in Maine with clams. There I am sure as many variations as there are cooks, but the elements that have to be included for it to class as a chowder are as follows. Bacon, potatoes, onions, milk or cream, fish or shellfish of some sort. You then add other vegetables depending on what you have and what is in season. Sweet corn being very american, fits extremely well. Peas, asparagus as I have included today, pumpkin or squash cut in small cubes, celeriac cut the same.

I like to use chicken stock as the main cooking liquid and then finish with a bit of cream to enrich the soup, but you can use just milk in place of the stock.

Per person

Olive oil

A quarter of an Onion – cut into dice

75 gms Streaky bacon cut into lardons

100-150 gms meaty white fish – I used a type of shark called Marrajo

100 gms potatoes – peeled and cut into dice about 1.5 cm square

150 ml approx chicken stock

6 stems of asparagus

2-3 tablespoons thick fresh cream

salt and pepper

Fresh flat leaved parsley

Blanch the potatoes. Put the cubes in a saucepan with salted water and bring to the boil. Simmer 1 minute and immediately drain.

Warm the olive oil in a shallow saucepan, add the onions and let cook slowly for a couple of minutes until translucent.

Add the bacon and fry for 7-10 minutes stirring from time to time.

Add the stock and the potatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook slowly for another 7-10 minutes until the potatoes are almost done.

Add the fish cut into cubes and the asparagus cut into bite sized pieces.

Cook slowly a few more minutes until the fish is just cooked.

Add salt and pepper and then the cream. As soon as the cream is amalgamated and warm, sprinkle over the freshly chopped parsley and serve.

Adapted from Atco Blue Flame

Maple Soy Pork Chops

2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oil
1-2 tsp ginger, freshly grated
3 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
3 cloves garlic, crushed
4 boneless pork chops

Add all ingredients except pork chops into a ziplock style bag. Mush it up to combine. Add your pork chops, seal bag and squishy bag to ensure chops are coated evenly.

Marinate for a minimum 30 minutes. Longer is better.

Remove pork chops from bag and grill over low heat on BBQ until done, about 30 minutes for thicker chops.

In the photo I paired my pork chop with balsamic & basil grilled veggies. Will post that recipe soon.

Leftover taco meat can be used many ways.  On a pizza for a quick lunch or supper is a quick meal for a busy family.  I love hot peppers and used pickled jalapeno’s in this recipe.  I also used regular peppers (orange, yellow & green) both sliced and diced. 

Options are endless.  What I enjoy on a taco or taco salad is what I put on this pizza.  I did not use exact quantities below as some people may prefer more of a topping, others less.  You decide.

Taco & Pepper Pita Pizza

1/4-1/2 cup taco meat
1/4 cup peppers (cut into rings, or diced)
1-2 tbsp salsa (or taco sauce)
1 tbsp pickled jalapeno peppers (or banana peppers)
1/4 cup diced tomatoes
1/2-1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese or monterey jack
1/2 cup sliced lettuce (romaine)

Spread salsa on your pita with a spoon, knife or pastry brush.

Next layer on your peppers, tomatoes and taco meat. Finally spread your cheese all over.  I admittedly added a light dusting of shredded parmesan on top.

Broil in oven for about 2-3 minutes or until cheese melted and bubbling. I bake mine on a pizza stone but a cookie sheet or pizza pan works just as well.

Remove from oven, let sit for a few minutes before slicing. I sprinkled fresh lettuce on top.  Outstanding.

I always use pita pockets to make pizzas for lunch for the kids.  They are the perfect size for little hands/people and hold the ingredients well.   Looking around my kitchen for inspiration I discovered some uncooked squash that needed to be used up.  Not enough time to grill it, I steamed it instead.  Being a lover of all things squash but never having had it on pizza I was up for the challenge.  I looked through the fridge and fished out some basil and goat cheese.  A new recipe was born.

Note: If you like goat cheese but do not care for a lot of pepper buy a plain or perhaps herb goat cheese and omit the additional cracked pepper I added at the end.

I can honestly say I had a Clinton Kelly moment when I took my first bite.  (If you ever watch The Chew….love that show…whenever Clinton tastes something he adores he becomes incoherent).  Yes I felt that way, this pizza rocked my socks off.  Trying to figure out what to call this pizza was my biggest challenge. 

If you are up for a new pizza and like the ingredients…try it, you will not be disappointed.  I didn’t calore count this one but I’m pretty sure since there are fewer ingredients it is well under 500 calories.

Squash & Goat Cheese Pita Pizza

1 Byblos Garlic Greek Pita Pocket
1-2 tbsp Soft Unripened Peppercorn Goat Cheese, broken up
Olive Oil
2-3 sprigs Fresh Basil, chiffonade
1/2 cup cooked butternut squash (grill or steam), chopped into smaller pieces
1-2 tbsp Asiago Cheese, shredded
Cracked Black Pepper

Drizzle a little olive oil onto your pita. Spread with a pastry brush.

Next add your cut, cooked butternut squash and your goat cheese. Sprinkle on your basil and some Asiago cheese.

Broil on pizza stone for 2-3 minutes or until Asiago cheese melts a little and edges of pita brown. Remove from oven and let sit a few minutes.  If you do not have a pizza stone a pizza pan or cookie sheet works just as well.

Just before serving (to myself) I added additional Asiago & basil on top and some fresh cracked black pepper.

For me this taste combination was a winner…one the next time the family wants pizza for supper…I will happily oblige.

Everyone in our house loves pizza.  But our pizza likes are as individual as our personalities.  Hubs is meat & mushrooms and doesn’t stray far from it.  Kids vary between ham/pineapple, pepperoni with a few veggies or olives thrown on depending on their mood & the alignment of the sun, moon & the stars.  Me I prefer mostly veggie style pizzas with a variety of ingredients including chicken.  I also love to experiment and try new variations. So we tend to make pizza more often than we order them in as this enables us to make our pizzas to our individual tastes. 

With pizza on the lunch agenda this week I decided to jump the gun after trying some delicious Tandoori Naan Bread last night and have pizza for lunch today.   Inspiration Struck.  The Tandoori Naan bread has Tandoori (curry) spices in the bread and it is seriously delicious.

I calorie counted this more for curiousity sake, not because I am calore counting.  It comes in under 500 calories for the entire pizza….if you can finish it that is.

For those wondering about the Naan bread, here in Calgary I purchased it at the Co-op Grocery Store.  Remember when you make pizzas you do not have to use just pizza sauce…instead try tomato, BBQ, pesto…..experimentation is the name of the game.

Tandoori Chicken Naan Pizza

1 piece Tandoori Naan bread
1 tbsp mango chutney
1/4-1/2 cup leftover roast chicken, shredded or cut up
1/3 cup grated pizza cheese or straight mozzarella
1/4 of a pepper (yellow, red, orange), sliced or diced
Handful of cilantro, torn

Spread your mango chutney all over your naan bread. If you need more use more but your calorie count goes up 40 calories per tbsp of mango chutney used.

Next layer on your chicken and peppers. You can sprinkle on some cilantro and then add your cheese.

Broil in oven for about 2-3 minutes or until cheese melted and bubbling. I bake mine on a pizza stone but a cookie sheet or pizza pan works just as well.

Remove from oven, let sit for a few minutes before slicing.  Since I love cilantro I add fresh on top. If you do not like cilantro, flat leaf parsley will work too.

Hmmm…next time I may sprinkle on some spanish/purple onions.

Simply delicious!

As well as the Samphire and Ice Plant featured in the previous post, I have in the herb garden some lovely salads. Peppery Rocket. Puntarelle, which is a version of endive of which you eat the slightly bitter asparagus like shoots. Buda Chicory which has crisp curly leaves that are paler and crisper in the centre. Fragrant Coriander.

A salad of these leaves only needs the addition of some fresh and fruity olive oil, a good quality red wine vinegar and some shavings of mature firm sheeps cheese.

For the protein, a tender veal steak. To cook this to perfection you need a good pan with a thick base so that you can get it hot and when you put in the steak there is enough heat stored in the metal of the pan to sear well the steak.

The steak is to be seasoned simply with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, fresh rosemary and lemon.

Pick the rosemary from the tender ends of the branches. Wash it and cut it up fairly finely. Pick a lemon, wash it and cut it in half ready to use.

Heat the pan. When it is hot pour in a little olive oil. Sprinkle coarse sea salt, pepper and rosemary on one side of the steak. Put the steak in them pan with the seasoned side down. Let cook about four or five minutes. While it is cooking season the other side. Turn over and cook on the other side, again for four or five minutes.

Remember that veal steaks need a bit more cooking than a mature steak. I like my beefsteak cooked very rare, but veal is more succulent cooked to medium rare.

Deglaze the pan with a splash of lemon, then get your steak on the plate while it is hot.

Along the seashore there are delicacies to harvest as well. Crispy bright green Samphire and the succulent leaves of the Ice Plant which are only tender enough  for a short time in the spring to be harvested. Even at this time of the year the Samphire that is in full sun all day has a tendency to be tough, so it is worth searching out bright green sprouts in shady spots. You need to take a pair of scissors and just trim off the tender ends into your bag. You can see from the photo just how you have to seek out this years tender shoots from last years dried out remains.

The Ice Plant – Mesembryanthemum Cristallinum – is so call because of the crystal-like cells that it has on its surface, particularly the underside of the leaves. To harvest the most tender of the Ice Plant leaves the same applies as the Samphire, look for brighter green leaves in the shade.

For both plants the uses are the same. You can give them a good wash and put them in your salads, steam them and add butter and a touch of lemon and have them to accompany fish, add them to stir frys and Thai curries. The Andalucian way is to make a Revuelto. This would include the wild garlic greens and asparagus, and if you are a bit flush some prawns. Fry the prawns and all your greens in some good olive oil until the prawns are half cooked and the greens a brighter colour. Add some beaten and seasoned eggs and over a very low heat stir until the eggs thicken into a creamy mass. Turn out onto warmed plates and eat immediately with crunchy fresh bread.

Let me start by saying, I experimented with this salad one night while dining solo. Therefore, I’m not quite sure if it will satisfy the male appetite, so feel free to throw a big hunk of meat on top for some gusto.

One evening last week, I found myself holding a bag of spinach in one hand and a head of broccoli in the other, hoping desperately that if I stood there long enough a delicious meal would appear before my eyes.  Never happened, but here we are.

Not wanting to spend time cooking a big meal for myself, I decided baking would be the easy option, I thought 450 degrees sounded nice, so there I began.

I gave the broccoli and a lonely red onion a nice chop. Into the dish they went, accompanied by a drizzle of olive oil and the juice of one lemon. Who doesn’t love the taste of broccoli and lemon?! I added a ½ tablespoon of minced garlic and grind of black pepper, then gave it a quick stir.

Next, I placed my new creation in the oven…10 minutes passed…eh, I’ll give it 5 more, I thought….waiting, waiting, growling stomach…

With a bed of spinach to break the fall, I plated my delicious entrée and topped it with toasted pine nuts and feta.

Looking all perky and bright, it screamed spring and tasted the every bit delicious!

Last night, I was once again left solo for dinner.

Feeling excited about the chance at a second attempt and a little sneaky having not yet shared my secret dish with Brett, I whipped up the salad in record time with some intentional alterations.

I added sweet potato, asparagus and a pinch of brown sugar.  I subtracted the lemon, we were out.

Let me know if you come up with a great version of your own!

The woman behind me in line looked over my grocery pile at the checkout line in the supermarket.  She said, “now I feel bad.  My choices are not as healthy.”  She put two loaves of wheat-white bread on the belt, six or seven boxes of Kleenex (“there’s a sale on”), and a number of containers of chocolate and vanilla pudding.  There was some other stuff, but then the cashier and the bagger started asking me questions, and I couldn’t keep track of what she put on the belt, after that.

I came home, heated a saucepan for the chicken, chopped broccoli up into ‘trees’, sliced sausages, diced cherry tomatoes into the saucepan with some butter, salt, pepper, paprika, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.  As these became a sauce, I added the chicken sausage slices, steamed the broccoli, and composed the salad.  I had leftover dressing that I’d made at Solstice, which had kept pretty well — garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, herbes de Provence.  There was some leftover blue cheese from Solstice, so that went into the salad just after this photo was taken.

There are enough leftovers for lunch today.

The dinner did a lot to improve my mood.  Since the end of the holidays, I’ve been rather down, and today was a weird, wired, muddied day to get through.  Making the Image of the Third Mansion did a lot to improve my mood, even if it wasn’t a very high-quality image.

I heard from a friend this afternoon that I was supposed to be meeting tonight; their grandmother was going through some illness and they were canceling our meeting.  Another friend’s grandmother passed away.  My own grandfather passed away just after the holidays ended a number of years ago; I think a lot of old people find that they can let go after a happy holiday, and go on to the next challenge.

We who stay behind, of course, have our own challenges to look for:  what the poet T.S. Eliot once called “ordinary time, of darning and the 8:15 train.”  My seventh graders are working on learning the US Constitution.   My sixth graders are working on Latin declarative verbs.  I’m planning three different stand-alone events for the school’s Design Lab, and planning my own class in there.  It’s going to be a busy 2012.

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No-cook breakfast oats (serves 1)

1/3 cup gluten-free steel cut oats, soaked overnight in 1 cup water, drained, and rinsed

1 tsp date purée, to taste

pinch sea salt

sliced or diced fresh fruit to serve (optional)

fresh almond milk to serve (optional)

Combine the soaked oats, date purée, and salt in a bowl.  Top with fresh fruit and/or almond milk, if desired.

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Remember to enter the May gluten-free giveaway!  Details here. (The first drawing is on the 15th.)