There's Always a Lesson...

Monday: Roasted Eggplant Pasta and Salad
Tuesday: Cajun Spiced Dirty Rice with Roasted Veggies
Wednesday: Pickerel with Stir Fried Peppers and Rice
Thursday: Red Lentil Soup and Bread
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Burritos
Sunday: Chinese Food

Roasted Eggplant Pasta and Salad
Hannah has a pretty good vocabulary and has always been very inquisitive about words and the meaning of them. I'm always a little surprised when she starts using the new word that she's asked about regularly. Why am I surprised at that? That is essentially learning, isn't it? I think it's because she asks for about a dozen definitions in a day (usually in the spanse of about three minutes) and I just wonder at how she remembers them all and keeps them all straight. Today, as we're rushing out the door, and I'm a little tense - because getting out the door when we're trying to get somewhere for a certain time seems to always be a little tense these days - she's asking me definition after definition of words I'm using (and ones I've used over the last five years it seems), this is making me much less tense let me tell you. Finally, I said to her, "You know, I think I'm out of definitions for now, can we talk about this when we're all in the car on our way." She looks up at me, thinks for a moment and says, "What's definition mean?"

Recipe
I love this pasta, here it is again, from Marcus Samuelsson's blog. I've been meaning to make it for company some day because I just think the combination of the mint and balsamic in it is really genius - but I have yet to make it for anyone other than us. You can find it here on this post. We had two eggplants and no zucchini and it was still lovely. We also only had fettuccine, but this is best with a rigatoni like pasta.

1 medium eggplant, cubed

2 zucchini, cubed

4 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup mint, minced

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes or to taste

salt and pepper to taste

4 oz goat cheese

1/2 lb pasta

Preheat oven to 450.  Line two baking sheets with foil and spray with cooking spray.  Place the eggplant and zucchini cubes on these trays in a single layer.  Spray with cooking spray and sprinkle with salt.  Roast for 20 minutes.

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water according to package directions.

Mix the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, mint, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.

Toss together the pasta, eggplant, zucchini and goat cheese.  Add the dressing and serve.

Cajun Spiced Dirty Rice with Roasted Veggies
Hannah is very sensitive to her clothes. She has a pile of clothes that she just simply can't wear because they bug her. It also varies from day to day, some days her jeans are alright, but most days they bug her. This aggravates me beyond belief. I know, really have a little sympathy. I try very hard, it's one of those things that I feel bad that I'm not more sympathetic and I try very hard to be sympathetic on the outside, because honestly I would never spend the day wearing something that bugged me. But, it's always a few minutes before we need to leave and she suddenly doesn't have anything that feels good. I try to recreate the combinations, "I think these jeans worked when you had this shirt tucked in and this one over top..." but, if she's already tried them with something else that didn't work then there's no getting her back in them. Plus, really my head is full of a bunch of other stuff like, "If I wear those jeans with that shirt tucked in and this over top I look like a frumpy old bag!" See, there's  important stuff rattling around up there. So this morning when she was getting ready for dance and complaining for the third week in a row that her body suite bugged her (I forgot to buy her a new one, because apparently remembering was not one of the things rattling around in my brain) I took a deep breath and asked her if she wanted to wear it and then go buy a new one or miss dance and go buy one for next week instead. She opted to miss dance, which clearly says it really bugs her because she loves going to dance. We went out and bought her a new one. I'm going to try and remember that she opted to miss dance, I think that this will remind me that she is really sensitive and I need to be more sensitive.

Recipe
Good, quick (prep time was quick, there's an hour cooking time), easy and the girls collapsed in giggles when I told them we were having dirty rice for dinner. Thank you lisa is cooking for the recipe. We also had roasted beets and brussel sprouts (because we had them for Sunday dinner and I couldn't stop thinking about them). Toss them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in the oven for about 25 minutes, checking and flipping here and there.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, minced
1 celery rib, minced
1 green bell pepper, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
8 ounces mushrooms, finely chopped
2 teaspoons Cajun spice blend
1 cup quick-cooking brown rice
1 ½ cups red beans or 1 (15 ounce) can, rinsed and drained
2 cups vegetable broth
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil a three-quart baking dish and set aside. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and bell pepper. Cover and cook to soften, five minutes. Add the garlic, mushrooms, and Cajun spice blend. Stir to combine and cook until softened, two minutes. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish. Stir in the rice, beans, broth, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover tightly and cook in the oven until the rice is tender, about an hour. Serve hot.

Pickerel with Stir Fried Peppers and Rice
So have you ever wondered what you're going to do with that Rock Band set that got used about twenty times and has since been sitting in the basement collecting dust. Well, the girls decided last night in bed that they were going to play Rock Star today, and Rock Star they did play. There was a lot of the Little Drummer Boy, a little Pink and a few made up songs. The symbols were a huge hit and this occupied about an hour to an hour and a half this morning.

Recipe
I let the girls each pick a meal this week and this was Harper's pick. I just cooked the pickerel in a little olive oil and then squeezed some lemon over it with a little salt and pepper. I stir fried peppers, onions and asparagus together and we had some leftover dirty rice from last night!

Red Lentil Soup and Bread

We had to get out of the house five times today, four times by a certain time. This is the most frustrating part of my day - trying to get out of the house on time. It was one those days where between trying to get out of the house and the girls bickering all day long and complaining about everything little thing, I simply imploded this evening. Poor Dave, he came home and  I have to tell you I completely checked out, went radio silent (it was for the good of the family). I avoided every room with people and at crucial parenting moments was found to be way too busy scrubbing the spot on the counter that has been there since we moved in and is never coming off. It's amazing how one little day, two little girls whom I love more than anything can turn me catatonic. Here's hoping tomorrow is better or I go catatonic mush earlier in the day!

Recipe
We love this soup and have it often, you can find it here, it calls for 4 cups of greens, I used two bunches of Swiss Chard tonight (one green and one red) and it was probably almost double the amount, it was really good this way.

Pizza
Hannah (while she's making the pizza, totally out of the blue): The grade two classroom, is right across from the kindergarten classroom. So, when Harper's in the four year old room and I'm in grade two and you come looking for me, don't just go wondering around where the grade one classes are, you have to go the kindergarten class and then look across and you'll see the grade two class, that'll be my class. So don't go wondering around all randy mandy looking for me!

The chef.

Recipe
Pizza was Hannah's pick this week and she picked all the toppings: cooked onions and mushrooms, artichoke hearts, olives with cheese. Hannah chopped everything, except for the onions, I cooked the onions and mushrooms and then Dave brought some dough home and she stretched it out, put everything on it and he put it in the oven for her. She did a really great job and was really proud!

Burritos
We're in the car today and the song Hip Hop Hooray by Naughty by Nature comes on the radio. I know the title and the group because we still have the free year trial of satellite radio that came with the car or else this post would have started with, you know that song that goes, Hey Ohhh, Hey Ohhh kind of sing song like that came out in the 80s or 90s or maybe it was the 2000s...because that's the kind of knowledge I have when it comes to music. I know what I like when I hear it (and that's largely defined by whether I can sing to it or not) and that's about all. So, the song comes on and Harper just starts belting it out from the backseat in this total enthusiastic, low, scratchy little voice, "HEY!!!! OHHHHH! HEY! OHHHHH!!!!" then the fast rapping part of the song comes on and she declares, "I can't sing to tis, I don't ike tis song now!" She's definitely my kid.

Harper is not sensitive to clothes and put this little number together all on her own!

Recipe
I quickly cooked this up while Dave made a little fresh gaucamole and grated some cheese. We stuffed it all in warm whole wheat tortillas and added a little green salsa - Yum!

Glugg of olive oil
1 onion, chopped
6 baby yellow and orange peppers (or 1 to 2 regular sized)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup tomato salsa (we used mild for the girls)
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice (I still have some quick cooking from the dirty rice and used that but regular would be find too)
19 oz can of black beans, rinsed and drained and half mashed

While rice is cooking saute onions, peppers and garlic in a olive oil until soft. Once rice is ready add in veggies, beans and salsa heating until warm.

Put the filling in a warm tortialla and top with gaucamole, shredded cheese and green salsa and roll.

Chinese Food
Dave and I spent the day continuing to get this house organized. I painted the bathroom and organized, organized, organized. Dave cleaned out his side of the basement and put up new towel racks, pictures, hooks, fans and other various odds and ends. We were on the go all day by the time dinner time came around we were very grateful that we were ordering in. We ordered Chinese Food and the girls were so excited about everything, mostly the plain white rice. We are both tired and ready to collapse in bed, as soon as those girls fall asleep. I feel like there's a lesson to be learned here...hmmm, what could it be? Something about procrastination? No, that couldn't be it. Oh well, I'm sure we'll figure it out one day...maybe.

Have a great week I hope the sun shines down on you!