Here's a picture of the best tasting and healthiest dinner we've made at home in a long time. All because my son had an assignment for his high school Health class. He had to plan and help prepare a colorful meal with no meat (fish, eggs and cheese were ok) and complete proteins, servings of vegetables and fruit. Well we did it up right here didn't we. And I'm proud to say that we didn't use any recipes, I made most of it all up as we went along. Both boys were there in the kitchen with me, learning how to improvise. Just to be clear, we usually will eat one thing like this, but not a whole complete meal.
The colorful salad on the right was a mixture of chopped jicama, red cabbage, green onions and cooked beets tossed with a Thai salad dressing. It was my favorite because look at that color! The white jicama turned that gorgeous fuschia because of the beet juice.
We tried
mung beans for the first time, that's right in the center front, and they will now be added to our usual dinnertime rotation. Such a different flavor, they cook up quickly like lentils but taste really different.
On the left in the front is the usual Teriyaki tofu that I make with an egg coating, one of our favorites for eating tofu.
The bright yellow circles are
polenta, the kind you can buy prepared in a tube, sliced and topped with pepper jack cheese.
In the back there is a quick rye bread and we topped that with some hummus.
All that plus a glass of orange juice to cover the fruit serving and we were all set.
Everything was gobbled up and there was a lot of great discussion about what we were eating and how it made us feel good after we ate it. Very energizing. We had to write reviews about the meal for Alex to turn in as part of the assignment.
Alex said that his meal was the most colorful in his class and that several of his fellow students prepared HotPockets and steamed broccoli. Most kids had trouble with the no meat part of the assignment too. sigh. I despair that so many kids just don't get exposed to fresh vegetables and fruits. It really is a shame and I wish I could be the Vegie Fairy and drop into all their houses and leave them some yummy food like the plateful above.
Making this excellent meal was a lot of work, but it was worth it. I should do it more often, or my kids should, now that they know how to make all this good stuff.
And for those of you wondering what this has to do with anything, this blog is called High Fiber Content after all. :-)
Seaweed Pringles? Really? Haven't seen these in your grocery store I bet. These are from the WalMart in Shenzhen, China where my husband buys his drinking water when he's staying there for work. He knows I like Pringles, and seaweed, so this last trip I talked him into bringing me back a tube of them.
Aren't they a strange color? They are still the usual perfect Pringles shape that conforms to your tongue, but with a unexpectedly pleasant lightly sweet and seaweed-ish salty flavor.
Don't read the ingredient list,. you don't want to know what food colors are in there to make these babies so green. Allura Blue? Great name, wonder what it is though. Here you can see how fancy these package is, with holographic rainbows scattered all over the green label.
I have no idea how these picture occurred, I must have been under the influence of these strange and exotic treats!
Down by the riverside, in the cool cool shade.
Marveling at what is left behind after a winter's worth of storms.
Taking inadvertent self portraits.
Eating strange concoctions like this trail mix I made up, raw almonds, raisins and raw pumpkin seeds.
Watching my son, Zach play timpani and other percussion instruments in the school band 3 times in 3 weeks. He had quite the crowd of young fans at the all-district band concert, elementary school through high school all together.
Or home painting the two story high living room.
Here's a picture of the best tasting and healthiest dinner we've made at home in a long time. All because my son had an assignment for his high school Health class. He had to plan and help prepare a colorful meal with no meat (fish, eggs and cheese were ok) and complete proteins, servings of vegetables and fruit. Well we did it up right here didn't we. And I'm proud to say that we didn't use any recipes, I made most of it all up as we went along. Both boys were there in the kitchen with me, learning how to improvise. Just to be clear, we usually will eat one thing like this, but not a whole complete meal.
The big present this holiday was a new cappucino/espresso machine. Woohoo! It has been more than a year without one, and we had really missed having one. We broke two stovetop espresso gizmos and were getting tired of the French Press coffee. I guess we are just coffee geeks.
Circling around the top of the monument is a quote from Isiah 42:20 "I Will Give Water In The Wilderness And Rivers In The Deserts to Give Drink To My People"
I went around the whole thing taking pictures, but since it was late afternoon, half of them aren't very legible.
This is inside looking up. I guess there is no roof so that they can catch the rain that falls in the water system that is directly below.
I loved this big old oak tree, there was a large limb that had been taken off, and right in the middle of it was a new green sprout. You can see that on the right.
The cypress lined reflecting pool was really lovely. Usually there are birds, ducks, etc. not that day for some reason.
I liked the long spiky shadows of the cypresses across the lawn.
Some marker set in the concrete, with no identifying numbers, kind of a useless marker really.
There were three types of mushrooms that I found, and Zach photographed. A very moist place of course so lots of mushrooms.
Zach is getting really good with the camera, lots of practice.
An impromptu altar that I made in an old light fixture. Gave thanks for this abundance of clean, fresh water in such a state of dryness half the year.
The second picture shows the true color and taste we were looking for.
