Quinoa Stir-Fry & The Ekko Park Show

Though I claimed all my dinners henceforth this week would be boring and predictable, last night’s dinner was actually quite interesting!  It was, indeed, stir-fry, but we had some cooked quinoa on hand to use instead of rice Wild and crazy, I know!

Here’s how to make Cheater’s Quinoa Stir-Fry

1. Chop one carrot and some mushrooms, green beans, and broccoli.
2. Saute the carrots for a few minutes first.
3. Microwave the broccoli for a minute to soften it up.
4. Add the rest of the veggies (broccoli, mushroom, and green beans) to the pan.
5. Add a few dashes of soy sauce.
6. Add the cooked quinoa.
7. Pour in a lightly beaten egg.

Try it, you’ll like it!

Our quiz master from trivia at Father Ted’s is in a band, Ekko Park, and they played a free show last night, so of course we were there!  I enjoyed Alex’s leftover Tui before we left:

In the spirit of trivia, here was my Cap-Fact: What is New Zealand’s largest inland city?

………

Hamilton.

The show was AWESOME!  It was late, but short and sweet We had such a good time.

That’s our quiz master in the center.  Not only did we feel so cool to know the lead singer, but he’s also really friendly and nice, which makes the whole situation that much cooler!!!  And their music is good, to boot.  This is a music video of my favorite song by them, which happened to be filmed in the very same bar!

So the show was basically just like that!  But in color.  Lol. Except that sadly, there wasn’t a big crowd becuase 1) it was raining, and 2) it’s the Queen’s birthday weekend.  Lame, I say.  Nevertheless, they put on a fantastic show.  We were there and had an absolutely fabulous time!  We also stood right behind their biggest fans, and it was so fun to watch them dance like mad and sing along to every word.  I’m so glad that we got to see his band live before we left.  We have seen the videos so many times and we’ve known Joe for months, so it was about time!

I woke this morning, ready to run in the sun, but guess what? That’s right: hip pain!  So I settled with just taking a 45-minute walk around the domain and photographing ducks and trees.

(The answer to your question, David, is yes, the leaves have fallen and the trees are bare.  I guess I just haven’t been very observant. )

When I came home, I realized something that may or may not end up being a crisis-type situation:

That’s a dangerously dwindling supply of instant coffee.

Here’s hoping it lasts the week!!!  I do NOT want to have to buy a whole other package before I go home.  I only use a bit at a time, but I don’t knowwwww….

Fingers crossed!

I am really lucky because I got to talk to my good friend Tara this morning for so long!  She’s back in the states from her semester studying in Ireland.  It was sooo good to see her, but such a tease.  I can’t wait to see her in a few weeks, for REAL!

For lunch, I had a large salad of lettuce, carrots, peppers, and mushrooms, all lightly drizzled in light Italian dressing so that it didn’t taste so….raw.

This is the salad I’ll be eating for the next five days straight.  YUM!

Then, for protein and grains, I made a microwaved egg with S&P, and put it on top a piece of toast with sundried tomato hummus spread on top.

The hummus was new-to-me and it gets my hearty stamp of approval!  YUM!  Lunch left me so satisfied! And it kept me full for ages.

Today, all day, I have been working on my final math project.  And it’s officially whooping my a$$.  My rough draft is done, it’s at over 2500 words, and both my examples and references are weak as.  I’m not sure I can bring myself to do much more today.  So yes, tomorrow will be hellish.

You might already know that I love inspirational videos by children, such as Jessica’s Daily Affirmation, and my brother David sent me another one recently that I just can’t get enough of.

Seriously, I’ve already watched it like 5 times!  It’s helping with the project: I can do it because I believe in myself!  This video might make tomorrow slightly less torturous….

At least I have some pure joy to indulge in!

That’s right, M&M brownies (Rose, you created a monster!)

It’s the perfect pick-me-up.  And necessary for finals.  Well, my final week of school, that is

Have you been to a good concert lately?

Namaste.

One Busy Kitchen!

WordPress was down this morning.  Aaaaah! I was disappointed because I was so excited to share all the exciting things I made yesterday!  I was one busy b—- in the kitch.

I have made some pretty sweet things from her blog before (hello, Microwave Oat Cakes!) so in the afternoon, I took a stab at making Averie’s

Microwave Chocolate Peanut Butter & Oat Snack Bars

Hannah and I both love granola bars as the perfect grab-and-go, hunger-satisfying snack.  But you know what, THEY ARE SO EXPENSIVE!!! So I decided it would be more economical to make them myself.  Here’s what I got to make ‘em:

Oats, crunchy peanut butter, almonds, chocolate chips milk choc buttons lol, dried fruit mix, sesame seeds, and shredded coconut.

I had to chop the dried fruit and almonds myself.  What can I say, I’m devoted!

First, you start by melting peanut butter, chocolate chips, and milk together in the microwave.  Since I’m developing a phobia for my “microwave,” I decided I had the time and patience to melt it all on the stove.

It was probably easier!  It melted very nicely.

Then I added my desired about of oats, chopped dried fruit, chopped almonds, shredded coconut, and sesame seeds.

I poured the mixture into a pan and popped it in the freezer!

It made ten whole bars, and I barely put a dent in all the fixings I bought!  Definitely the cheaper way to go.  They need to be kept frozen, and I think I need to add more chocolate (yay) next time so that they don’t melt so quickly.  But they are very yummy!

I also made something pretty exciting for dinner.  The other day I was early for yoga and my studio is located right next door to a huge-amazing Asian Market.  I browsed the shelves to see if there was anything I was brave enough to buy and attempt to cook with.  Then I found me some rice paper!  Inspiration struck.

Coconut-Sesame Shrimp Springrolls with Watercress

First I started by preparing the filling.  Sautee onions:

Add in carrots:

Enter: sesame seeds!

Toss in shredded coconut and shrimp towards the end.

Then mix in the watercress at the last second so that it just begins to wilt.

Note: I only prepared the filling beforehand because Hannah was talking to her wonderful amazing boyfriend (who says I’m a better writer than Jane Austen! ) and so we weren’t ready to eat right away.  Also, since we wanted shrimp, I didn’t want to risk undercooking it.  Moral of this ramble is that if I’m just filling the rolls with veggies next time, I will just stick the raw, chopped (and lightly oiled) veggies right in there!

Make some brown rice, too.

Slightly blurry is best   Then after giving the rice paper a quick soak, make the rolls!

Since I’m a white girl, I didn’t know what I was doing (it’s not like I’m Snacks and Shit or anything!) so I pretty much just pretended I was making a burrito.  I put a bit of the mixture in the middle and rolled it up!

Pretty soon I’d made 8 rolls!  Drizzle those babies in oil if you know what’s good for ya   I put the remainder of the mixture in the middle, then baked them in the oven for about 10 minutes at around 400*F.

Dinner is served!

As if that wasn’t enough, I decided to make froyo similar to the one I made during my Kiwi Jam Challenge.  We were running low on yoghurt, and we didn’t seem to be eating it, so I decided to fancy it up to attract attention and freeze it up to preserve its freshness.  First, chop up some of them frozen berries!

I always think its too much, but it never is!

Then swirl it up in the yoghurt container.  Freeze that baby overnight.  It’ll make for a nice treat in the morning!

“French Toast a la Mode” for breakfast!  All I did was dip both sides of a whole wheat pita in a slightly scrambled egg and plopped it in the frying pan.

Cook to perfection, and don’t forget to sprinkle with cinnamon!

Then top with the froyo.  Except I was disappointed because it was frozen solid, like ice.  It’s Yoplait Lite Greek Yoghurt, and it’s VERY thin, so if you use ticker yoghurt, it should freeze like normal froyo. But I didn’t let it get me down!

I sprinkled slightly sad shavings on top.  It sort of tasted like a Popsicle!

Last night, we headed to trivia after dinner!

Hannah tried some traditional Irish cider called Magner’s.  It was yummy!  Here are some of the questions I knew form the quiz.  Leave answers in the comments if you know some, too

• In the TV show Friends, what is Phoebe’s twin sister’s name?
• What hit TV series is about the widow Nancy Botwin?
• Who was the American president in office during Martin Luther King’s assassination?
• What ’90′s band played songs like the hit “Chasing Waterfalls”?
• Who starred as Sandy in the musical movie Grease? (easy.)
• What ’90′s band had hits like “Let Her Cry” and “Only Wanna Be With You”
• Which ’90′s music movie’s sequel had the subtitle Back in the Habit?
• Name the artist and title of the song with the lyrics, “I was just guessing at numbers and figures”
• What unit of measurement is about 0.991 of a meter?
• What is a raised flat area of land called?
• If you were born on America’s Independence Day, which star sign would you have?

I knew a lot this past week!   Though we still came second-to-last   We need to get out of that rut!  We also learned our trivia leader is in a band

That’s him in the front left. One of his music videos was playing on the TV during the Music Round!

Today Hannah and I got into a huge fight and we aren’t friends anymore.

She wouldn’t help me combat the cicada that was in my room.  It was terrifying, huge and clicking! Naturally, I was screaming and sweating and chasing it around with a roll of paper like  a normal person–and she just stood there, laughing!

Namaste.