Yarn Along

Joining in with Ginny again to share two of my favorite things. Knitting and reading, but I forgot to include a book in the picture, because I was intent on having my son model my current knitting. At the moment I am reading another Debbie Macomber book and also reading Lama Lama Misses Mama to the little guy a lot recently. He loves Lamas. The knitting is a go at my first hat. It is for an adult. I still have a long way to go with it, because it has 30cm on it before decreasing. It will have a rolled brim and I am quite excited to finish my first hat.

Peace, Yasmin

Healing

It has been a month or so since my last post. I have not had the energy, inspiration, or motivation to post anything since. The truth is that I am not sure what to post about. Should I write about the tragedy that we experienced too recently or something else. I don't feel I am ready to write about the death quite yet, because the truth is that we are still too fresh in the grieving/healing process. But we are trying to heal through taking better care of ourselves, through nature, through crafting, and through family time. The first set of pictures where my daughter is wearing a dress and there are many flowers is at the arboretum on that tragic day before we knew. The pancakes are the "White Pig" blueberry pancakes we had for breakfast that morning...they were wonderful. The last few pictures are at the Cradle of Forestry last weekend.

Enjoy,
Yasmin

Dinner

Tonight we had homemade Jamaican Bean Burgers. It was a great hit with the kids and adults, so this one will be a keeper. I am trying to avoid buying processed food as much as possible by making most everything from scratch. We are slowly getting there. I haven't mastered pasta, although the spaetzel last week was great, and snacks for school time have been a challenge to keep up with. I make a lot of muffins and cookies, and snacky breads...but all of those are plain old carbs, so I need some better homemade snack ideas, other than straight up fruit and veggies. Any suggestions??

Jamaican Bean Burgers

Makes 6 Patties

2 Tbsp Oil

2 tsp minced garlic

1 1/2 cups diced yellow onions

1 cup chopped mushrooms (I used crimini)

1 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 cup cooked black-eyed peas

1 cup cooked brown rice

2 Tbsp fresh minced ginger

1 1/2 cups Panko breadcrumbs

Salt & Pepper





Heat 1 Tbsp oil and add onion & garlic. Saute for about 2 minutes and then add chopped mushroom and saute until onion turns a golden brown. Add all dry spices (you can also add some minced jalapeno for extra flavor) and cook for one more minute. Dump mix into bowl and add the rice, beans, breadcrumbs, fresh ginger, and salt & pepper to taste (it takes quite a bit of salt, because the beans absorbs it). Now mash it all together using your hands, and if it still seems a bit too crumbly, you can add more oil or water or rice milk. Get a skillet/cast iron heated with the rest of the oil. Form mix into flattened patties and put in pan. It should take about 3 to 4 minutes per side to get a nice brown. Put on bun or by itself, add toppings, and enjoy. I think this patty would be just as good made with black beans and you could experiment with the spices. I highly recommend that you make a tiny patty and cook it as a tester to check if your seasoning is ok. Also there are no raw eggs in this, so you could simply taste the unfinished patties. If you have any questions about this recipe, leave a comment and I will try to get back to you.
"Let food be thy medicine" -Hippocrates
Peace, Yasmin

Kids, Food, Love

1. German Pancakes via breakfast in bed for mother's day.
2. Kids acting goofy.
3. ApfelKuchen.
4. Vegan Sausage, Spaetzle, Sauteed onions & kale
5. Onion & Cheddar Loaf pre-cooking.
6. Baked Onion & Cheddar Loaf...yumm.
7. Pizza with broccoli, kale, & feta cheese.
8. Strawberry cobbler...extra yumm.
9. My beautiful daughter in her new spring dress, even though she just finished telling me that she doesn't wear dresses anymore, "because mom, that is so last year".

Loving life, kids, and the farmer's bounty.
Peace, Yasmin

3 weeks later...

Hi folks, here we are three weeks later and I have completed my first semester of being back in school. I ended up with 2 A's and 2 B's, which I am very proud of all things considered. It has been an extremely hectic month since the end of Spring Break when I was in serene Ohio. I have been working like crazy while going to school and taking care of la familia. The house needs a deep cleaning, which I have decided to tackle slowly but surely instead of all in one day. Yes I think that is a good plan, because these days the weather is decent enough to go hiking or do some lawn work or exercise. Right now I am trying to refocus my priorities to health via exercising and crafting. Crafting is good for stress, you know. Things are moving right along in life, I am back to crafting again, the kids have less than a month until they are out of school, my hubby is off for the summer, my mom will be starting a new job next Monday, and everything around me is turning green and gorgeous. All the green makes me want to have some green yarn. These past three weeks we have been enjoying very yummy dinners...making a menu for the week really helps with the "what to do for dinner" dilemma and also for the shopping list and budget. The kids have been acting silly a lot, I think the warmth and sun is giving them extra energy these days. We have been enjoying sun tea whenever possible and I also baked, tonight in fact. I made bread for the kid's school lunches, vegan chocolate chip banana bread, and vegan lemony blueberry muffins. Enjoy the pictures and I should hopefully be posting a lot more now that I will be taking one class rather than four.

Peace, Yasmin

Baking & Cooking

On my days off, I like to bake and cook. Life is so busy with school and work that I have to think ahead all the time or my family would never eat nutritious, wholesome, homemade food. Thankfully I think cooking and baking is somewhat of a stress reliever for me, so I do a whole lot of it. Today I made, "Who Bread", one other bread in a cast iron pan which turned out phenomenal, black beans & rice mix for taco night, split pea soup, and delicious chocolate chip cookies. We are also slightly infatuated with sun tea at the moment, maybe it is the 70 degree plus weather we have been having, so I brewed 4 jars of it. Speaking of weather, we have been having incredibly sunny, hot days recently, but at the moment it is pouring rain outside and I am just enjoying the peacefulness of listening to the rain. Oh how I love rain sometimes, especially curled up with a good book or under the covers snuggled up to my hubby. The rain is bringing a whole lot of serenity right now.

Check out those cookies, aren't they awesome. The recipe made almost 4 dozen, so hopefully they will last at least a couple of days. You never know in this family though.

Happy Cooking, Yasmin