Sweet Potato + Quinoa Salad

Daniel's a good sport.  He's a willing guinea pig despite the fact that "cooking" = experimenting in our house...and I love cooking!  Even if I have a recipe to go by, it's really just loose guidelines as far as I'm concerned.  And that's how this sweet potato + quinoa "salad" was born.

Sweet Potato and Quinoa Salad
1 medium sweet potato
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp italian seasoning
1 tsp coriander
approx. 1 cup cooked quinoa
(we used the organic red quinoa from trader joe's, but I'm sure any quinoa would work)
a handful of raisins 
agave nectar, to taste

- cube your sweet potato into 1/2" - 1" pieces (I microwaved mine for a minute or two to make it easier to cut...I'm sure that helped with the cooking time later too)

- heat the olive oil in a large pan or skillet, then add the sweet potato.  stir until the edges of the sweet potato begin to firm up, but not totally brown yet.


- add the coriander and continue stirring for a minute or two


- once your sweet potato begins to brown nicely, add the italian seasoning and raisins then stir, stir, stir... after a couple of minutes, the raisins should be nicely softened and you should have a nice, golden crust on the potato bits

- remove potato mixture from heat source and assemble salad by combining them with the quinoa in a bowl.  serve in bowls with a swirl of agave nectar (to taste) in each.

We had enough for each of us to have supper, plus a tad that I ate cold for breakfast the next morning - Daniel wasn't sure if he liked it better with or without the agave, but I definitely preferred the agave - give it a try both ways and see which way you prefer.  

happy cooking!  

as promised...

we've been busy!

so the sun finally came out for a gorgeous and warm weekend, but we spent it indoors.  why, you ask?  well there was lots to do, like:

- wiping down walls

- magic erasing mystery marks (thank God for Mr. Clean!)

- filling in dents

- sanding down the spots we filled in 

- taping baseboards / windows / heaters / etc

- emptying closets / moving furniture 

- choosing paint colors

- painting said colors

...all in preparation for new carpets at my parents house.  (for mothers / fathers day we gave them "service hours" plus a certain amount of money towards upcoming renos)  i wasn't allowed to paint with the little one tagging along, but there was plenty of other stuff to get done.

speaking of the little one, I cannot believe how much we've grown in just a week (weird, to think of myself as "we")!  i'll try and keep you posted with photos - tomorrow we'll be 17 weeks along, so hopefully i'll get a chance to post a 17 week photo.  i've also been wanting to share a couple other little posts that i've been picking away at, so there should be lots coming your way soon, but this will have to do in the midst of the renovations (which, hopefully, will be done by the end of the week).  

etc

ok, so I know "etc" is a really random title for a post, but I just couldn't decide what I wanted to call it.  here are the options I was trying to decide between before I just gave up and went with "etc" - feel free to vote on them, if you like! (haha)

- by far, my favorite birthday gift

- an exciting buy

- +1

what do these bizarre titles have in common? you might ask... well, the answer is the kid.

that's right - our kid...in the making, that is.  we actually found out on my birthday so that puts us at 4 months along already.  sorry to keep you in the dark all this time - we wanted to wait till we could tell the in-laws in person on our trip down south before making it public.  

it didn't really hit me till yesterday when I was finally allowed to buy my stroller (Daniel wouldn't let me buy it till we started telling people, which makes sense, but four months is a long time to keep a secret!  more on the stroller later.).  it's actually really weird telling people after spending so long making sure you don't let it slip.  

so there you go - the main reason we've been super busy / MIA!  

sorry for the crappy picture - its the best I could do home alone with a dusty mirror and I figured its better than nothing, right?  :)

home

well, our trip down to NC has come and gone and now we are back home again.  

and we loved every minute of it.

the family

the friends

the sunshine

the movie watching

the boating

the great food

the even better conversations

the reading

the relaxing

etc, etc, etc.

i always schedule a "buffer day" for myself after coming home from a trip - a day off after we've come home to unpack or re-adjust to the time zone or take care of errands or whatever.

today was my buffer day.  we were up at 6 am like it was already midday (well, it was 9 in our heads, after all)  daniel went off to work and i set out to cross things off of my to-do list.  a couple of hours in, i felt kind of ...blah.  a combination of the weather here (considerably cooler than on our trip), the lack of sunshine (it finally came out in the afternoon) and some frustrating news that i found out were probably to blame.  

i sat there for a bit, not sure if i was sad or irritated with the situation, and then decided to head off to the farm market for some retail therapy (for some girls its malls and clothes, but for me? shopping for produce!)

before long, i was back home enjoying some of the fruit i had picked up.  i gained enough steam to unpack and even tackle the ginormous pile of laundry that resulted.  and after i wrap this up, i've got a late afternoon run and dinner to look forward to.  yay for a productive buffer day.  and tomorrow, it's back to work/real life!  :)

a thunderstormy day around the house

just a few snapshots from a lazy, rainy day...

...reading on the porch...

...pretty new shoes...

...chillin with Zoe....

in the garden...

 

early vacation mornings = the best

sunshine

the breeze

birds

coffee

Bible

trees

the lake

stillness

the porch

heaven