Homemade Falafel

It’s recipe time again, finally, I know it’s been a while so I figured I would come back with one of my favorite things in the world Falafel!  I have mastered a really great homemade version, not box but from scratch. So here is a list of ingredients:

1 can chick peas

1/4 cup Garbanzo and Fava bean flour ( bob’s red mill is what I used) if you can’t find it you can use regular flour and it will still mighty good but find the bob’s red mill if you can.

about 1/2 tbsp turmeric

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 a medium onion rough chop

handful fresh parsley

1 tsp lemon zest

1 tbsp of  fresh lemon juice (never use the bottled stuff)

drain, rinse and pat dry chick peas well.

in food processor dump all the ingredients then pulse until smooth.  when there are no longer any big pieces of chick peas and it is smooth form the mixture into small uniform balls. If mixture does not come together it may be too dry add 1 tbsp of water and pulse together this should do the trick to help bind the mixture.

In a non stick frying pan add 1/4 cup olive oil for frying.  heat the oil then fry the falafel balls until golden brown flip and do the same.

serve with pita pockets and fresh veggies like, radish, red onions, tomato, tzatziki, or hummus with olive oil and a little lemon juice, pickles and olives are yummy too. 4 falafel balls is a serving. Eat and enjoy.

I’m outtie I need to sleep this off.

 

Ring out the old and ring in the New!

It has been way too long since my last post. Once Thanksgiving came and went I got bogged down with the everyday  happenings of my life,  I stuck to my 30 day challenge and went 30 days with out junk food rather successfully, I navigated a whole unit on the solar system with the kiddos, and enjoyed Christmas with my family. Now the holidays are almost over and we are welcoming a New Year and I for one am so happy to see 2012 go. And as every one tends to do at this time of year I am reflecting on what the year has brought us, for my family and I it was a year of challenges and transitions, we had a rough beginning but we end a very bright and promising note,  as whole we have had challenges as well the end of the year has brought us disaster, and grief on a large-scale, between, hurricane Sandy and the tragedy in Newtown, CT. My wish for me and all of you is that the New year brings  peace, happiness and prosperity.  I hope you all had a great 2012 and I hope you were able to learn and grow from all the lessons the last year has taught you.  My prayer is that you will be open to the opportunities and lessons awaiting you in the coming year and that you all rise to the challenges before you.  Happy New Year from my family to yours, thank you for reading my rantings. Love to you all.

Shopping, Shopping! There’s No Shopping on Thanksgiving!

I love this time of year!  Thanksgiving is the start of the holiday season, I love the cooking the eating, the reunions, the reflection and the celebration of love. We always take this time to think on what the year has brought us and  to wonder with marvelous anticipation of what the coming year has in store for us! This year Sean and I have so much to reflect on and to be grateful for.  2012 was a year of many changes and shake ups. jobs were lost and found, moves were made, 3 different states over the course of 5 months, homeschooling started and  new endeavors are being embarked upon. So all I want to do, all I ever want to do, is spend thanksgiving with my family   and mentally prepare myself for Christmas and our traditions. The LAST thing I want to do is go shopping right after I eat.  NOOO NOOO Thanksgiving is not for shopping its for giving thanks.  Heck I don’t even take part in black Friday never have never will, because for me this time of year is far from being about shopping and finding the best deals.  There is something so very wrong with that for me. It’s not enough that people are trampling each other for $150.0 64″ flat screen at midnight on the Friday after Thanksgiving so now we have to drag hard working people away from their family and their traditions to cater to the consumer out there and there need to accumulate more stuff  for the best prices.  I bet most of these people , who are for the most part all hard working people themselves, don’t think of this, they DO NOT intend to drag others from there loved ones, but think about it, if we do take advantage of the “early” Christmas savings then that’s exactly what we are doing.  No I am asking everyone that I can think of to NOT shop on Thanksgiving. Retailers only do this as a service to there customers but if we send a resounding message that we don’t need this convenience they won’t do it, and their hard working employees can spend the day with their most loved AND most annoying family members like we all do.  So I challenge you my friends say no to shopping on Thanksgiving and instead take stock of what you have already, love, health, a job, support, family and friends.  Happy Thanksgiving. I’m outtie.

Blessed!

The Man that changed my life. Thankful beyond words!

 

Teaching By The Seat Of My Pants And Boy Is It FUN!

Homeschooling has been a trip so far.  As you all know we use Time4Learning as the main part of our teaching so I didn’t have to come up with a main curriculum on my own for them but we have added things and enhancing the lessons with our own touches and twists.  And we have done a lot of this on the fly. Case in point election day swooped down upon us in a blink of an eye and we, as a family, watched the debates, and tracked the campaigning.  but we did not have any formal lessons around the election, so election day was a few days away and I was thinking about a way to channel the genuine enthusiasm my 3 oldest were showing for the election process. This is what we came up with for the day’s curriculum on election day. We made American flags, campaign posters, and each of my kids wrote (Grace dictated to me) their campaign platforms. We read a book called”Grace for President” by Kelly DiPucchio and illustrated by LeUyen Pham. This is a GREAT book that easily explains the election process in a straight forward, fun, kid friendly way. Upon later research I found that there are lesson plans and activities around this book just Google lesson plans for “Grace For President” and you will find tons of stuff. We baked a bipartisan election day cake and we made dinner that the kids voted on the weekend before. While watching election results  we colored in electoral maps in red and blue according to the how each state voted. The kids had a great time and learned a great deal and this was planned on the fly and with stuff we had on hand, we didn’t spend any extra money for a specialized lesson.  We all had a Great time and it was a party atmosphere, we can’t wait for the next election we are definitely making it a tradition and the twins can take part in it next go around.

I’m outtie gotta plan for tomorrow’s lesson

Our Bi-partisan Cake

Grace and her Flag, Campaign Poster, and Platform. She would ensure that every school had music, art and playtime.

Georgia with her Flag, Campaign Poster, and Platform. She would ensure women got equal pay and had the help they need to start small businesses.

Xavier and his Flag, Campaign Poster and Platform. He want to ensure that all public schools have the same amount of resources and money available to ALL students.

 

So proud of the work they did and the cake they baked.

Getting ready to read “Grace for President”

 

 

Time to ‘Fess Up

So it’s been a while since I have posted something, and even longer since I posted about my “journey” to a healthier me.  I could give  you all a bunch of reasons as to why, like 1.I was consumed with news about hurricane Sandy because my family was in its path (they are all fine). 2. things were super hectic with Halloween and homeschooling. 3. I couldn’t focus on anything until the Presidential election was over.. but alas those were not the cases for me not writing and they are all just what they seem to be, excuses.  The real reason for my “internet” silence  (head hanging low) is…shame.  I am ashamed, not because, I haven’t lost weight or because I haven’t been exercising or because I may or may not have eaten the weight of my 7 year in Halloween candy, nope, I am ashamed that I have not written about it and put it out there like I said I would in my first post. The purpose of this blog is not just catharsis for me but I truly hope that I reach other people like me that will find a little encouragement and empathy, not writing about my short comings does no one any good, especially me.   So here I am writing about it.  I have gained 2 pounds and I can’t seem to find the inner will  to stay on a path to health and I do not have the discipline to do what I need to do to ensure a healthier, better me, and I need to get on this before my family medical history catches up with me.  So it seems the I reached an impasse I know what I have to do but do not have the patience or desire to do so…I needed “something”.  Cue “something” stage left… While on Facebook 3 days ago I came across a status from my friend Matt Velez, he posted a 30-day challenge. He challenged himself and his friends to give up something for 30 days that’s keeping them for living  a healthier, happier life. And it could be ANYTHING.  He started a group and invited everyone to pick something and post the challenge and get some support and to help him in his challenge. So me being the uber enthusiastic person I can be, jumped in with both feet.  I said to myself “Self, this may be the kick in the pants you need, join the challenge!”  And joined I did with a list of things I was committing to do and NOT do, I found that I wasn’t the only one enthusiastic about the challenge in the same way. But Matt being the voice of reason posted something about being singularly focused just choose one thing he wisely counseled and give that your focus and you will see other things will fall into place. And I got the message loud and clear.  So I whittled my list down to one thing I won’t do for 30 days and that is NO Junk food.  Now this is hard, because as you all know I have kids and there is always a plethora of graham crackers, gold fish and the like around the house, but it’s doable. Now my goal is not to give up junk food for ever but what I do want to do is to make it a habit to have healthier snacks around and to take note about when I reach for the junk. So far I learned it’s when I am bored, or want to “pamper/treat” myself or if I am feeling like I have  a lot on my plate are all moments when I reach for the goodies, never when I’m hungry. I am on day 3 and so far so good. I did reallly want the little Hershey’s milk chocolate and opened it, looked at it, sighed and then threw it out,  it’s definitely challenging (understatement of the year). I plan to succeed at this because no matter the outcome, it will definitely help me grow a little.  And even if I don’t drop my 9 pounds by my birthday  I know I will be in a better place.  I will post my before and after weight at the end of the challenge.

If you are interested in challenging your self my friend Matt would love to have you, we all have something holding us back from good health or being happier and we can all use the support.  Here is the link:

30-Day Challenge

I’m outtie ya’ll I have some more writing to do.

Another Use For That Sofrito You Made

So you made the sofrito and you added it on some chicken, or pork chops or whatever but you are still wondering how else you can use it.  How about arroz con gandules (rice and green pigeon peas)?  What are pigeon peas?  Here’s what they look like:

Fresh Pigeon peas.

I used canned ones and no worries if you can’t find canned or fresh pigeon peas. You can make this dish with a can of black bean, red kidney beans, pinto beans or chick peas different flavors but all equally delicious. But I highly encourage you to find gandules at a local international or Caribbean market if you can’t find it in the ethnic food aisle, it will be worth the effort.

So what is arroz con gandules you ask?  It is a traditional Puerto Rican dish a staple at all special event dinners, Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays what have you, but don’t wait for a special occasion it’s great anytime.  It’s my favorite rice dish and here is my recipe.  Mine is vegan friendly, a real traditional recipe has diced cooking ham or a little fat back in it for flavor, it’s delicious but, Hubby is a pescatarian (he eats fish but no chicken or red meat) so I don’t use pork.  I’ll point out when to add it should you want to try it with the pork. With out further adieu ladies and gentlemen I give you arroz con gandules:

Ingredients:

2 cups of long grain white rice (DO NOT use parboiled or even worse, instant that would be blasphemous)

one can of green pigeon peas (gandules)

Diced cooking ham just a few pieces for flavor (omit if you are vegetarian)

canola oil 2 tbsp

cooking spray so the rice doesn’t stick

2 heaping soup spoonfuls tomato sauce, I use Goya’s spanish style, but plain tomato sauce is fine,

pimento stuffed green olives to taste I used 2 soup spoonfuls ( I suppose this ingredient is optional, but I don’t really think so)

Sofrito

adobo to taste

salt and pepper to taste

one packet of sazon

water ( I used the empty gandules can about 1 and1/2 cans)

Tools:

Nice dutch oven ( or the Caldero as we nuyoricans call)

I DO NOT use a nonstick pot because it just doesn’t come out the same for me so I highly recommend a good ole cast iron one or an enamel one is fine as well.

Senor Caldero

Step 1:

Spray the dutch oven with cooking spray then to a heated pot add the oil, tomato sauce, sofrito and the packet of sazon. careful it will sputter a little. combine the ingredients until it becomes very aromatic. be careful not to burn it. You can also add the ham at this point if you have some

oil, tomato sauce, sofrito, and sazon.

Step 2:

Once it is bubbling and gurgling away add the rice and coat the rice with the tomato sauce. sofrito mixture, coat well so the rice evenly gets an orange yellow color. have the first can of water and the peas ready.

Looks good already

Step 3:

To this add the one and a 1/2 can of water and the peas (or beans) and mix. The water should be just covering the rice.

the water will take on that beautiful orange color

Step 4:

Add the rest of the seasonings, adobo, salt and pepper and of course the olives all to taste. I recommend you tasting the water to see if it’s well seasoned, add less at first and adjust accordingly. You will see that I am using lite salt and light adobe with less sodium this is my personal preference (trying to watch my sodium intake.)

Step 5:

You have to watch the rice closely here you don’t want to have too much of the water absorbed to quickly, the rice will burn before it cooks thoroughly or you will have to add more water running the risk of mushy rice.

Bring it to a rolling boil until it looks like this. some of the should liquid be absorbed.

Step 6:

Now this is important for fluffy unsticky thoroughly cooked rice, cover the rice with foil and place the cover on top. reduce the heat to very low and let the rice simmer for 20 minutes.

see the foil peeking out

Step 6:

This what perfectly done Arroz con Gandules looks like in the pot. all the water absorbed and nice and fluffy and not sticky.

SUCCESS

Finally:

 Serve and enjoy. You can serve it with some of those sofrito chicken thighs, or pork chops and an avocado and tomato salad simply dressed with oil and vinegar , salt and pepper. I just had the avocado and tomato salad with mine today. Here is perfect Arroz con Gandules on the plate:

Dinner is served.

So that’s it Arroz con Gandules!  Try it and let me know how you like it! I’m outtie, going back for more.

Related articles

• Traditional Puerto Rican Recipe in Honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month (gigglesgobblesandgulps.com)
• Pigeon Pea Stew with Plantain Dumplings – Asopao de Gandules con Bolitas de Platano (thefloribeancook.wordpress.com)
• Puerto Rican Pastelón (Plantain Lasagna) {Recipe} (modernmami.com)

Beautiful Blogger Award.

Today I am triple H humbled, honored, and happy! When I started blogging in earnest last month I knew i wanted to tough people as many as I could, I did not however think about awards, but today one of my favorite bloggers and all around amazing lady who goes only by Prego nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger Award. She herself is a beautiful blogger nominee and for great reason, she’s an amazing lady embarking on a new chapter in her life after surviving an abusive relationship, her blog is all about her journey.  So thank you truly and sincerely Prego for the recognition. Do yourself a favor and click the links and read about her journey.

So the rules to the Beautiful Blogger Award is to post the Beautiful Blogger award nomination, thank the blogger that nominated you, post 7 random facts about yourself, nominate other bloggers (the magic number is 15 but I am so new I am still growing my list of blogs I love), so my list  will be a little short.

Here are my 7 random facts:

1. I am both a Star Wars Fanatic and I love Star Trek (I’m talking original, Next generation, Deep Space 9 and the movies).

2. I have a sweet tooth and love all things chocolate.

3. I went to law school for a year in New Orleans, I hated law school but love the Big Easy.

4. I hope to be a life coach for moms like me one day in the near future.

5. I’d love to compile my writings when I have enough and write a book.

6. My secret to a stress free life is to recognize it’s never stress free it’s how you choose to handle said stress.

7. I hope to have a full tilt workshop in my garage so I can build all sorts of stuff and DIY my life away.

My nominees:

Keepingitrealmom

Twinfamy

tshirtsntwine

Lifeasmomknowsit

strongfitbeautiful

MotherhoodWTF?

Enjoyingrealfood

So thanks for reading everyone it’s keeping me motivated, and keep supporting your favorite bloggers. I’m outtie!

Keeping it Fresh

So show of hands, who loves avocado as much as I do? I love avocado and I like to snack on it, put it in salad and on sandwiches but once I crack an avocado open I go back and forth about eating the whole thing because I do not like when the flesh gets all brown. I find lemon doesn’t work too well unless its just for a couple of hours.  I would love too eat the whole thing in a sitting, don’t get me wrong, but I really shouldn’t eat the whole thing. So what’s a girl to do if she just wants a little?  Well I figured out a solution. I don’t know if you all are aware ,or if this has come up on some fabulous cooking blog or website but I thought of this on my own.  When you go to cut the avocado in half and take out the flesh from one half and use it however you wish, bu keep the skin in tact and use the empty skin case to cover the other half of the avocado and refrigerate. And when you come back to it the next day or two, your avocado will be pretty and yellow.  I have pictures to prove it. But first click  this link on how to peel and pit an avocado.

 

My 2 day old avocado still yellow and yummy!

This is my halved avocado one half of the skin empty one not see how yellow this avocado 2 days ago!

 

To keep it yellow for that long replace the empty skin casing right over the other half.

So this is how it looks as if you haven’t cut it open. put in the fridge and it stays pretty fresh for a few days (up to 3-4 days)

That’s it, my little tip on avocados. Now you won’t have to eat the whole thing unless you want to of course. I’m outtie now I’m going to look up avocado recipes.

Be A Man!

This is a topic I wrote about in a past blogging life but would like to revisit in my new blogging life.  It is a topic all mother’s can relate too and it is about the unending, unrelenting job of  being a mother and being a wife. My new blogging friend keepingitrealmom has a great post about this very topic.  We as women take our jobs seriously as we should! Be sometimes we take it a little too seriously and inadvertently turn ourselves into mommy martyrs.  And men take advantage of this at times, sometimes inadvertently. We as women get frustrated because hubby doesn’t do the dishes as soon as we ask because he is in the middle of sitting on the sofa watching Michigan V Notre Dame.  So we frustrated get up and do it for him.  Man sees this and thinks hey if she asks and I procrastinate enough she’ll do it for me. Or worse yet we ask hubby to help with the kitchen and he happily obliges and doesn’t mop the floor like we would and it just get under our skin. So what do we do, we in a fit of frustration. tell him no no you’re doing it all wrong. So hubby thinks forget it I am not lifting a finger because everything I do is wrong. Why? Not because men are big babies (at least not all the time) but because we set a precedent, we just taught hubby how to treat us, or at the very least the situation. Now I struggle DAILY with my inner mommy martyr, Sean does not do things the way I do them and if I watch It takes all my inner strength to not yell STOP!!  But I have to think do I really want to do (insert task here) or do I want to take 30 minutes and watch the DIY network (my favorite network by the way). And 30 minutes of DIY always wins out.  Who cares if he doesn’t wring the mop before he slaps it down onto the tile, it’s still clean when it dries. Another thing, Sean has a tendency of throwing dirty diapers into the kitchen in the vicinity of the garbage can, then when he gets up 30 minutes later,usually when he goes and gets a drink he’ll throw it out, sometimes if I go to the kitchen first I’ll throw the diaper away and that’s OK because it always gets thrown out AND I didn’t have to change the diaper. At first this technique drove me crazy and I would get right up and throw the diaper away, then I stopped and I realized, hey he does get up and throw the diaper out, all the time, it just may take him until the halftime to do it (mind you this does not apply to poopy diapers he throws those out immediately).   Over the last few years of fighting my inner mommy martyr I learned to be a man sometimes.  When Sean gets up to do chore X I have no qualms about sitting on my bottom with my feet up.  He and I know that we both work hard and that I spend  ALL DAY Monday -Friday doing all sorts of house chores and cooking and kid related things, it’s OK for me take a break while he wrangles the kids.  Its a win win, down time for  me QT for the kiddos and daddy-o.  Now I hear you already. Man I can’t do that my husband will burn the house down, drown a kid, electrocute himself.  I promise you he won’t, so I want to challenge all of you for your sake, the kids sake and hubbies sake take a week and don’t pick up after hubby, ask him to cook dinner, bathe the kids, do laundry, whatever you think he can do best, without criticism and sit down and relax without guilt like a man, and you’ll see that you will be more relaxed, hubby will be more engaged and empowered and you all will be happier, trust me.  My life is pretty zen because sometimes I’m a man, hand in the waist of my pants and all. Now I’m outtie the twins are napping , the kids are outside playing and my sofa is calling me.

The Re-Education of Mommalucas.

Today I realized that the kids and I are chugging along quite nicely through the homeschooling process. This realization came to me when Georgia, who had to write a short story,and she really hit it out of the park. You see just a month ago when she was asked to write a short story as an exercise her story lacked structure.  I read the story and came away with no idea of what it was she was trying to convey.  It was a frustrating moment for both of us.  She was frustrated because she felt like I set her up to fail and I was frustrated because at that moment the homeschooling process was feeling a little daunting to me ( really a lot daunting).  This was also a learning moment for me, how do I find the inner fortitude to not allow this  moment discourage US.  I put aside my doubt and told Georgia to buck up.  It’s OK that her first attempt at a short story in months was less then her best work, it’s supposed to be that way she’s learning (what I didn’t realize was that I am learning too).  And indeed  I am learning; learning to be more patient, to be amendable and allow the kids to give me the cues on what and how we are going to learn from time to time.  I am learning to not be so hard on the kids or myself and to enjoy the teaching process. I see the pride and the pure enjoyment my kids have for learning and I see the progress they are making.  It’s not just Georgia and her short stories but it’s Xavier and his math and how, when helping him sound out words I taught him what a compound word was.  He took that little bit of knowledge and ran with it.  Searching and finding all the compound words he saw in the story and coming up with his own list of compound words throughout the day.  This lesson was not intentional on my part but that small learning moment sparked something in Xavier and he is looking forward to finishing his story and finding more compound words.  Now don’t get me wrong, I fully understand there are plenty of days ahead where there will be frustration and maybe tears, but I also know that the rewards will far outweigh those days.  I also know that Mom and Kiddos are hitting their stride in this homeschooling adventure and we are all coming out of this as some educated something or others.  But for now I’m outtie got some lessons to plan. Happy homeschooling!