The Loaded Bowl

I have recently had quite an obsession with Sweet potatoes. After a work out, what do I crave? Sweet potatoes. So when I came across this recipe in a magazine it was a match made in heaven. And if you don't like sweet potatoes this recipe can easily be altered to your liking. The beautiful thing about it is that it is loaded with good stuff for you (hence "loaded bowl"). The base of this meal is Quinoa, which, did you know is a complete protein? Food always tastes better to me when I understand what my body is taking from it. Quinoa shines in the world of grains. Moving on, this recipe also has black beans, cilantro, tomato, avocado, onions, lime juice, olive oil and did I mention the sweet potatoes? I think this recipe stands great on its own but you could also serve it as a salad or paired with a meat of choice. The recipe came with a homemade sauce that I have yet to try, so you might want to add a favorite Cuban-esque sauce of choice. I just drizzle with olive oil and extra lime juice and call it good. Tempeh with a sauce would also be yummy with this. On to the pictures and the recipe.

My Gin and Tonic - in Honor of Ashley's Dad getting a Job! (Congrats and Hi to the Whipples!)

Cheers!

The Bowl!

The Recipe:

The Loaded Bowl

3 cups Quinoa
1 can blackbeans, rinsed and drained
1 cup fresh cilantro
2 avacados
fresh lemonjuice
sea salt and pepper to taste
juice of 2 limes
2 Sweet potatoes peeled and cubed
1/2 yellow onion chopped
some cherry tomatoes cute in half

Dressing (optional, I didn't try it with dressing)

1/4 c white vinegar
1/4 c olive oil
2 cloves garlic
sea salt and pepper to taste

1. Prepare Quinoa according to package directions
2. in a bowl mix beans with cilantro, salt and pepper
3. saute sweet potatoes and onions in a pan with some olive oil until tender. (I added a couple of tbsp of water just to sort of steam the potatoes, drain any water left in pan after they are tender)
4. dice avocados, drizzle with lemon juice to prevent them from browning and put in the fridge.
5. To prepare the dressing: combine dressing ingredients in a food processor until garlic is gone and appears creamy. Set aside in fridge.
6. Add the potatoes, onions, and Quinoa to the bowl of black beans and stir to combine. Stir in a little bit of lime juice (about two limes or to taste) Serve and garnish with the dressing (or lime juice and olive oil) and avocados.

Enjoy!

Sometime after the loaded bowl..........

oops. :)

My Head is Stuck in...

Summer!

Or, in the words of my 3 year old friend, "My mind is stuck on the Pool." Yesterday, as we were trying to decide what our outing for the day should be she kept telling me. "I just can't take my mind off the simming pool." Or, "My mind is with my swim suit." Quite a funny way to say it, which makes it that much cuter. My mind is stuck on summer plans. For some reason I can't stop thinking about how badly I want to see Carmel, and San Francisco, and San Diego. These places are all places with memories and I miss them. I want to see my friends in SD (and the SUN in SD); I want to eat breakfast at First Awakenings and go to the Aquarium in Monterey; I want to see Pier 39, eat clam chowder, and shop in San Francisco. A girl can dream... I have to remember that someday not long from now I will be living in CA once again. Someday I will be living in CA dreaming of our days in Portland, which is why I must live in the moment and appreciate where we are now. I am excited for our last summer in Portland. Wow, our last summer in Portland. Its a strange, but exciting reality to face. We have talked about doing a lot of camping this summer since last summer we didn't get the chance. I'm sure a list of "must-do" things will begin to form quickly.

Anyway, I'm feeling much better today, which is good news. We are on the count down for Spring Break.


Days left until we are on break! We are excited. Our plans thus far consist of: going out to breakfast at Tasty n Sons first day of break, Dinner date with Kristen and Max, Possible date to see a movie, and getting a lot of sleep. :) Hope your weekends are all off to a great start. Don't forget, tonight is Daylight Savings!!! Exciting!!

In the spirit of summer-talk, here are some pictures from 2 summers ago....

sick

Hi-lo friends,

Sick with a cold and don't have much energy but it just kills me to sit here on the couch so much and not be productive in some way. It's quite annoying actually to have so much time sitting on a couch and to not even feel up to typing a couple words together in an email or on a blog. This is the most up-to-it I've felt all day and so I thought I'd take advantage. Just wanted to say "hi" and let you know the movies I've been watching the past couple of days...

I have watched:
- The Social Network. Highly recommend, and already feel like watching it again.
- The Kids Will Be Alright. Ehh, it wasn't bad but wasn't amazing. I'm neutral.
- Survivor. This season is quite entertaining!!
- The first part of The Great Mouse Detective on youtube for old times sake. Then they started singing "Sir Ratigan" (or however you spell it) and I moved on.

And that's about it so far... I suppose its about time for me to go back to bed but it just seems so early. Anyway, I'm so thankful that tomorrow is friday. I hope you guys have had a great week! Hopefully my next post will be much more fun and uplifting. :)

Have a good Friday!
Katie
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All 5 Zines and the Zine Fair

The zines are complete!!!

I am quite excited! In case if you didn't see the first blog where I talk about what a zine is and show you the first zine I made click here. Just as a reminder, this quarter my class worked alongside a local elementary school teaching them how to make their own mini-publications in an after-school art program. There was a group of about 5 of us who couldn't attend the program due to schedule issues and so the 5 of us were to plan a Zine fair (like a book fair) and build a display for their library. The display to go in there library would house all of the zines we made this quarter. So, today was the last day of class and the long awaited Zine fair. The event planning aspect was right up my ally of course, but umm, the group work, not so much. It's always hard to work in a group, needless to say I'm happy it is over with. Also, happy to report that the event was quite successful. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

First, the zines I made:
The themes were assigned:

Excellence Theme:

(accordion style zine)

History Theme:

(looks FUN doesn't it? ha ha I didn't try too hard on this one obviously)

(I didn't take a picture of each page for you but they all looked like this)

Community Theme:

(no that is NOT a tattoo on my finger, its this new trend called "finger bands")

Diversity Theme:

again, didn't spend too much time on this one. My teacher told me I could take my idea to use handprints and make a poster...

Language Theme:

This is the other zine I showed you already.

THE ZINE FAIR that we planned:

Welcome pamphlets I made

"How to Make a Zine" zine I made:


The bags we designed that were passed out:
The display we made out of cardboard:

Front

Back

We had a "Make your own Zine" Table which I worked:

Face Painting:

The event and kids hard at work:

Activity table: fold origami, play cats cradle, etc...

The cutest zine one of the kids made:

Katie was here...

That was it! Very successful and happy it is over with. Only two classes left and then spring break!!! :)

A Reminder

I know I posted this not too long ago... but really, does it ever get old?

How Great Thou Art

Stanza 1:

O Lord my God,

When I in awesome wonder

Consider all

The works Thy Hand hath made,

I see the stars,

I hear the mighty thunder,

Thy pow'r throughout

The universe displayed;

Stanza 2:

When through the woods

And forest glades I wander

I hear the birds

Sing sweetly in the trees;

When I look down

From lofty mountain grandeur

And hear the brook

And feel the gentle breeze;

Refrain:

Then sings my soul,

My Saviour God, to Thee,

How great Thou art!

How great Thou art!

Then sings my soul,

My Saviour God, to Thee,

How great Thou art!

How great Thou art!

Stanza 3:

When Christ shall come,

With shouts of acclamation,

And take me home,

What joy shall fill my heart!

Then I shall bow

In humble adoration

And there proclaim,

"My God, how great Thou art!"

Refrain:

Then sings my soul,

My Saviour God, to Thee,

How great Thou art!

How great Thou art!

Then sings my soul,

My Saviour God, to Thee,

How great Thou art!

How great Thou art!

"I Am" and Pictures You've Never Seen

I am... coming off of my work-out high. Nothing better than exercising really hard for an hour and then eating a yummy lunch.

I want... to stand in front of an 8 x 8 foot canvas and go crazy with some paint, while at the beach. :)

I have... a soy latte in hand. mm mmm

I keep... dreaming of graduation.

I wish... I was going to Europe wish Ashley and Rachelle in 4 days to visit Cory.

I hate... waking up before 8a.m.

I fear... spiders, change, the unknown.

I hear... the many noises of Palios.

I don't think... I will see the sun this week.

I love... my husband.

I cried when... I signed up for classes this quarter. Which has basically become tradition. Picking out classes is quite an emotional event, didn't you know?

I ache for... cookies.
I dance... to Matisyahu
I sing... adele in the car.
I never... drink black coffee.
I rarely... watch TV.
I need... a vacation in the sun.


I thought it would be fun to try and find pictures in my photo library that I haven't shown you before. So here are some random ones for you...

ok, I take that back. It was actually quite difficult to find pictures that you haven't already seen, that are WORTH seeing. Turns out there is a reason I only show you the ones that I do: the rest of them are bad or pictures of food. :) Here are the four that I found. ha ha

Train ride in Sacramento

Bowling shoes in Colorado

Wes taking pictures of me after just getting home from school.

Our packed lunches for school.

Happy Wednesday to you all!