Roasted Brussel Sprouts

I love fresh brussel sprouts.  They are like little baby cabbages. 

I like to pan saute them, or even better, I like to roast them in the oven.  This time, I had some really large broccoli crowns, so I added them to the mix.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Brussel sprouts, ends trimmed, yucky outer leaves peeled off.  Cut in half if they are huge.
Minced garlic
Olive Oil
Lemon juice
Salt
Pepper

Preheat your oven - I put my oven to 400 degrees, your oven might be different, so just experiment.  Toss the brussel sprouts with the minced garlic, olive oil to coat, some lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Spread out the brussel sprouts on a foil lined pan and pop in the oven. 

Roast them about 20 minutes, but keep half an eye on them, just so they don't burn to a crisp.  I don't mind if they get a little blackened, though.

Couldn't be simpler!

More Vegetarian Cooking - Lentil Soup

We are still trying to live our veggie lifestyle, but I have to admit it has been hard to follow for the past month.  For a variety of reasons, it's been difficult to find the time to cook.  We have been eating out a lot and our choices haven't always been vegetarian, or even healthy, for that matter. 

I am not stating any little known fact here, but when you have a busy schedule, the only way to make eating in and eating healthy work, is to cook all your meals for the week during the weekends.

So, this past weekend, I cooked up a storm, making big portions so that we can eat some of the stuff during the week and freeze some for later. 

One of my favorite things to make and eat, even before we committed to being vegetarian, is lentil soup.  It is so hearty and full of healthful ingredients.  There is very oil involved, it has protein from the lentils, and vitamins from the vegetables.  I keep a lot of the ingredients in the pantry, but, I hardly make it exactly the same twice because I use what I have on hand.

Lentil Soup (I think this probably serves about 4 to 5 people, if you are eating it as a main course)
1 medium onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, diced
1 cup dried lentils, rinsed and picked through (I am not particular about the variety of lentils, I have used brown, green, and red lentils)
1 can diced tomatoes, with juice
About 4 cups veggie stock
1 bay leaf (2, if the leaves are small)
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Sometimes, I add diced celery (this time I didn't have any), and sometimes I add diced potatoes, or quartered crimini mushrooms.

Heat some olive oil, saute the onions until translucent.  Add the carrots and garlic and saute (make sure the garlic doesn't burn. If you have celery, add it now). 

Add the lentils, the stock, tomatoes and bay leaf.  Let the whole thing simmer for a while, until the lentils are soft and the soup has thickened. 

This time around, I noticed the soup was a little salty from the broth, so I added some potato (do you know that trick?  If soup is overly salty, you can add some potato to soak up the saltiness...).  I put in some mushrooms towards the end, per husband's request.  Salt and pepper to taste.
This soup is so simple, and so very delicious.  We like to eat it with fresh baked bread.  I hope you try the recipe. Make it your own, take out the things you don't like, add what you do like! 

Look at My New Teeth...

Fiery Milkweed and Wedge of Lime

I finished a couple of shawlettes in the past two months.  I guess I could sign up for the 10 Shawls in 2010 challenge on Ravelry, but I don't want to put pressure on myself.  With work being as crazy as it has been and with little baby Emma, I feel like I could very easily be derailed on that challenge!

Here is my Milkweed Shawl.  I bought this yarn a year or so ago, promising my mother that I would make a scarf for her.  Well, a year later, I finally made something out of it, just in time for her arrival this week.

Here is the Citron Shawl (what I have renamed as a Wedge of Lime, because that is what it looks like to me).  I know, I know, it is in the same color and yarn as the pattern pictures.  No originality, but I love it.  I wore it around even before I finished blocking it, because I love the color, the softness of Malabrigo Lace, etc. etc. 

I will have to get some pictures to post with actual people wearing these shawlettes...

Both patterns are very well written and easy to follow.  The Milkweed Shawl pattern is especially nice because it gives both written and charted directions.  Milkweed is an incredibly fast knit (and I don't think I am a particularly speedy knitter) because it is all knit stitch, no purl (yay!).   A Wedge of Lime is my first completed laceweight project.  Very thin yarn = a long time knitting, but beautiful results. 

And just because, Emma wants to say "Oh, hai..."  (for those of us who love icanhascheezburger.com):

I'm a Model, You Know What I Mean...

And I do my little turn on the catwalk!  On the catwalk, on the catwalk, yeah, I shake my little toosh on the catwalk...

Ok, ok, so Emma's 1) a little too young for that song, and 2) she isn't really able to shake her toosh on a catwalk yet.  However, last month at daycare, she posed in her very own baby photoshoot.  I had no idea that the daycare was going to be bringing in a photographer that day (no one told us), and that said photographer would be bringing his own baby modeling wardrobe. 

Check her out in her strange Miss Muffett poof hat with weird shiny thing (is that a spoon, a giant locket, a mirror?  Who knows!):

Then, she sat in a fake bubble bath tub, wearing another little strange bonnet creation:

As the sucker new parents that we are, we just had to shell over some cash to buy these pictures.  So we have a whole bunch, plus the digitial photo rights (no copyright restrictions, yeah!).   In some ways, these photos remind me of those Anne Geddes baby pictures, where she dresses babies up as food or plants, or whatnot.  Not a big fan of those, but I guess it is different when it's your baby!

Kung Hay Fat Choi!

EDITED TO ADD VIDEO!

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!  It's the Year of the Tiger!  And Happy Valentine's Day!  And Happy Half Birthday, Baby Emma!  February 14th is a special day this year.

We visited husband's family in the Central Valley to celebrate the Chinese New Year.  We met other family members at a Chinese restaurant, ate a ton of Chinese food, and then watched as lion dancers pranced through the restaurant.  Emma loved it so much, and smiled and laughed when the lion's head came right up to her and winked.  She bounced on her feet and wriggled around to the drums in her lucky red dress.  But, alas, due to iPhone video camera malfunction, all this was lost on video.  Apple, there is a reason why you and I are not friends.   If only our Flip camera had been with us, but for some reason we left it at home. 

Here is Emma at six months:
 

She just loves sticking out her little tongue now.

She is even graduating to solid foods.  We are starting with simple organic brown rice cereal. 

Her Chewbacca gurgles make me laugh, and I wonder how much of her cereal is actually making it into her tummy.  That huge orange thing in the video is the Boon spoon.  So far, we really like it.   You pour the food into the spoon, give it a sqeeze, and the food squirts out onto the spoon portion.  Easy, fewer spills and less mess to deal with!

Teeth!

Emma has two little teeth already - her two lower incisors have already appeared.  She loves her teethers, but can't seem to get a good shot of her teeth. 

She's Getting Too Big

She is growing so quickly!  We had to put away her 3-6 month clothing last weekend, including my favorite Dr. Seuss outfit with Thing 1 and Thing 2.   This is an older picture, but it is one of the last of her in my favorite outfit. 

Right before we snapped this picture, she was making noise, wiggling around, then suddenly the noise stopped.  We looked over and there she was, half on, half off her playmat, thumb up nose, fast asleep, snoring because thumb-up-nose definitely makes breathing harder.