SEASONAL BITE

Grilled Veggie, Red Bean & Quinoa Bowls stuffed in jars… the little one in front is for Juliette!

I woke up this morning to Juliette gleefully announcing that “today we will not be eating sugar!” I am as surprised as you are currently, although, I suspect this enthusiasm will wane sooner than I might like.

Xerxes planned to work since he had easy access to the equipment for his experiment, but he was leisurely in his departure and made us coffee and Eggs in a Hole first.

Since he was packing up and the day was clearly warming up, being at home did not sound like fun. I decided to find a new Farmers Market to check out and realized there was one in Old Towne Arvada that was going on. Lulu arrived just in time to join us and we packed up a mini-picnic just in case.

The market was very nice, an approachable size with a couple of places for produce and fruit. Surrounding the market was some sort of fair going on with lots of fried options and sweets to choose from, in between insurance salesmen and home improvement companies with booths. It became our first noticeable challenge of sorts.

In reality, I rarely feel tempted by fair food, but seeing Root Beer Floats for $2, Funnel Cakes and Lemonade with half of lemons floating in it makes one take a pause. But, happily knowing today would not be a day for treats made it even easier to walk on by. Juliette didn’t seem to notice.

We did spend an exceptionally long time debating whether we should buy another 20lb box of peaches, seeing as this is probably our last chance of the season. We are allowing ourselves to have fruit this week, but 20lbs eventually seemed too excessive. Instead we bought a 4lb bag and walked towards the Belgian Frites shop instead. Somehow that seems a bit lacking in balance, but we felt compelled to try these famous fries with a side of mayo touched with a bit of dijon. They also sold hot dogs, but knowing we had them at home we stayed focus on just the fries. 

We eventually made our way back home to the hot dogs that we topped with sauerkraut, sliced tomatoes and mustard, not ketchup. 

Soon after lunch I spoke to Xerxes and we planned to meet at the playground for a very early picnic dinner. I immediately got to work preparing dinner which I decided would be a layered dish stuffed into mason jars. And since I haven’t shared a recipe in awhile, here you go:

Grilled Veggie, Quinoa, & Red Bean Bowl
The red beans were simmered from scratch and surprisingly tasty without any seasoning. But, you may want to give it a boost of flavor with some ground coriander, cumin, smoked paprika, hot chile peppers or more. Instead of spicing up the beans, we dolloped on the Hatch Chile Cream recipe below. 

1 zucchini, sliced into 2-3 long pieces
2 onion, sliced into 3-4 pieces
2 bell peppers, any shade
2 tablespoons olive oil
cheap viagra usa If you feel you are overdose with the medicine contact your physician immediately. Coming to levitra 40 mg injections, they are painful as they would be given at the penile area. There are various plants and herbs that are found with diabetes experience erectile viagra professional for sale dysfunction condition. Choosing Kamagra, a reliable http://deeprootsmag.org/2014/07/29/coeur-dalene-puyallup-tribes-cancel-ted-nugent-concerts-washed-rockers-racist-remarks/ cheapest viagra product helps in providing hard and stiff erection. 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup dried quinoa
2 cups water or broth
1 1/2 cups red beans, cooked and warm

Heat a grill or grill pan over high heat. Dip and rub the thick slices of vegetables and sprinkle with the salt. Clean the grill, if needed and reduce the heat to medium-low. Sear the vegetables on each side until char marks appear. As the vegetables come off the grill, chop them into pieces.

Meanwhile, bring the quinoa and water or broth up to a boil. Reduce to a simmer for about 15 minutes.

Layer the mason jars with a 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa, 1/2 cup of cooked beans, and the chopped grilled vegetables. Dollop on this sauce below as desired:

Hatch Chile Sauce

4 roasted hatch chiles, deseeded, stem removed and gently washed
1/2 cup greek yogurt

Place together in a blender and whip until smooth.

The rest of the evening as somewhat expected, Lulu and I mostly discussed how this was the time of day that we clearly enjoyed a sweet treat and we were a bit sad without it.

Fortunately, we split a peach and a plum between all of us and I had a couple ounces of red wine. We plan to give up the fresh fruit and wine in the coming weeks, but for now we are happy to let them get us by during this dessert elimination week.

Good night friends!

Lilly