Chicken Sausage with Carrot, Peppers and English Peas

I had a carrot, a yellow bell pepper and more of those shelled English peas. Yesterday I bought some Chicken Sausage with Jalapeno that they occasionally sell at Spencer's Market here on the Central Coast. Not really in the mood to cook as I've been spreading mulch for the past couple of days and I'm feeling a little weary.
Served over whole brown rice and quinoa by "Seeds of Change" I happened to have in the pantry and a green salad these few ingredients became a pretty tasty and healthful meal.

Chicken Sausage with Carrot, Peppers and English Peas
Ingredients
3/4 lb. Chicken Jalapeno Sausage
1 tbsp Olive Oil
½ cup Chicken Broth
1 whole Carrots, diced into 1/2 inch cubes (about 3/4 c.)
1 whole Yellow Bell Pepper, diced
1 cup Shelled Peas
2 cloves Garlic, chopped
1 can Del Monte Diced Tomatoes in Juice
1 tsp Spanish Smoked Paprika
2 cups Brown Rice, cooked and hot or Seeds of Change Foods, Whole Brown Rice and Quinoa.

Method
Heat heavy saute pan over medium heat and add olive oil. When the olive oil is shimmering add the sausage and brown on all sides.
Add chicken broth and braise until cooked through.
Remove from pan and slice into bite-sized chunks.

Add garlic to pan and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the carrots and simmer for a couple of minutes. Add the peppers and saute another minute or so.
Add the sausage, tomatoes and smoked paprika. Stir to combine, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the carrots are just tender.

Remove the lid, add the peas stirring to combine and simmer uncovered for 1-2 minutes.
Serve over the brown rice with a tossed green salad.

Source: Tracey Adams (about 3 servings)
Note: It's important that you use regular Del Monte Diced Tomatoes in tomato juice. If you use low-sodium tomatoes you'll need to add salt to taste.

Whole Wheat Penne with Shrimp, Tomatoes, Spinach, Peas and Feta

Tonight for dinner I had some shrimp I'd bought at Costco as well as some baby spinach I needed to use up. This is what I came up with and it turned out so delicious I just had to share it.


Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat penne

12 large shrimp, peeled, deveined and cut in half

2 large garlic, clove, chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large tomato, diced (1 cup)

8 ounces fresh baby spinach, put into colander in sink

1 cup fresh peas*, shelled (optional)

1 tsp smoked Spanish paprika, rounded or to taste

1/2 tsp salt, or to taste

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled, preferably sheeps milk

1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Method

1. Prep all ingredients  Have all ingredients ready to go before you begin cooking and everything will go much more smoothly. 

Peel and devein shrimp then cut them in half crosswise. Peel and chop garlic, chop tomato, chop parsley. Shell peas and measure out a cup. Dump baby spinach into colander.

2. Fill a 6-quart pot with water Bring to a boil. When boiling add a small handful of salt and the pasta*. Set timer for pasta and begin heating olive oil in a large nonstick wok shaped pan.

3. Season shrimp Dump smoked paprika, salt and pepper into bowl large enough to hold shrimp easily and mix together. Next add the shrimp and mix thoroughly until shrimp is evenly coated with seasoning.

4. Saute garlic in olive oil until fragrant and add shrimp. Saute until shrimp is cooked stirring constantly so that garlic doesn't burn. Add tomato and cook stirring until a sauce begins to form. When it does, turn off the heat and just leave the pan on the burner until you're ready to mix it with the pasta.

5. When there are 2 min. left on the timer for the pasta add the shelled raw peas to the pasta.

When the timer goes off dip a cup of the pasta water out (don't worry if you get some peas) and drain the pasta into the colander with the baby spinach.

6. Tip the colander until most of the water is drained and pour the mixture back into the pasta pot. Stir and break up the spinach (I use a pasta fork). Once it's broken up add the shrimp mixture and toss to distribute evenly. Next add the parsley and crumbled feta. Mix it up and put the lid back on the pot. Let stand for 3 min. and serve.

Servings: 4
Nutritional Values per serving:

Calories: 290kcal
Saturated fatty acids: 3.82g
Monounsaturated fatty acids: 5.86g
Polyunsaturated fatty acids: 1.00g
Total fat: 11.35g
Calories from fat: 102
Cholesterol: 39mg
Carbohydrate, by difference: 35.33g
Total dietary fiber: 2.80g
Protein: 11.22g
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Notes:

I use a gas stove so if you use an electric, do not leave the shrimp mixture on the burner once it is finished cooking.

*I bought shelled English Peas in a bag from Trader Joe's.

*I have found that whole wheat pasta is best if cooked for the lesser amount of time. If the package says 10-12 min. boil it for 10 min. and it will be perfect.

Source: Tracey Adams

Mixed Grains and Lentils Stew with Turkey Kielbasa

It's been raining a lot this winter so I've made a lot of soups and stews. This is one of my favorites. I had a package of "Trader Joe's Brown Rice Medley" and wanted to use it in something healthful and comforting. I decided to make a lentil and turkey kielbasa stew with it since I had all the necessary items on hand.
Here is the recipe I came up with. I think it turned out rather well.
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Mixed Grains and Lentils Stew with Turkey Kielbasa

Photo by Tracey Adams

Trader Joe's Brown Rice Medley is a mixture of parboiled long grain brown rice, black barley and daikon radish seeds. It gives a lovely texture to the stew and tastes great too.

Ingredients
5 cups chicken broth, non-fat, low-sodium
1 can tomato, Del Monte Organic Diced
1 cup green lentils, dried
1/2 cup Trader Joe's Rice Medley, raw
2 cloves garlic, large, chopped
2 medium carrot, chopped
1/2 large red bell pepper, chopped
2 small onions, chopped
1/2 whole turkey kielbasa, sliced in half lengthwise then into 1/2 inch pieces
cooking spray
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
Method
1. Prep: Chop all vegetables.
2. Saute: Spray a large 6 quart stockpot with cooking spray and heat over medium heat until just beginning to smoke.
Add onions and sprinkle with salt. Saute until just beginning to sweat and add carrots and peppers. Stir that around for about 5 minutes and add the garlic sauteing until fragrant, about minute.
3. Add: Broth and tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Add the lentils, kielbasa and rice medley.
4. Simmer: Simmer for 30 minutes or until rice medley and lentils are done.
5. Serve

Cincinnati Chili the easy way

One of my husband Chris's favorite meals is Cincinnati Chili 3-way. As we don't live in Ohio I make it here at home. True Cincinnati Chili can only be gotten at Skyline Chili so I mail order the seasoning packets. Just add tomato paste, water and ground meat. I don't eat red meat so I make ours with ground turkey. Simmer it on the stove uncovered for about 3 hours stirring occasionally, boil some spaghetti, grate some cheddar cheese and yum, enjoy.

Missy's Visit to the Vet

You probably noticed that Missy has a growth on top of her head above her left eye. A few days after we brought her home we took her to the vet to make sure everything was okay and get a biopsy on the growth. The results came back and "yea, it's not cancer"! What it is, is very rare, so rare that I've plugged it into Google in as many different permutations as I could think of and have so far come up with nothing, lots of things that aren't it though. Medically speaking; Inflamed cystic slightly proliferative sweat glands with associated dermal inflammation. She's now taking prednisone. We're hoping it will shrink the growth and alleviate the discomfort.
Other than that she's healthy as a horse and a barrel of laughs. We've learned that if we want to sleep past 3:00 AM, we need to play with her before bedtime and tire her out. Once she's tired out she'll curl up on the bed and sleep most of the night.

Bicycle crash at San Ardo

Last weekend my husband and I went to San Ardo with plans for him to do the road race and me to ride the race course in the opposite direction with my girlfriend who's husband was also racing.
Everything went according to plan and my girlfriend, Sharon and I were having a very nice ride. Every now and then one of the racing groups would pass on the road going the other way, always observing the "centerline" rule. The centerline rule means that just like a car, you stay on your own side of the road. Only in a bike race that also applies while passing.
As I said everything was going great, we were having fun, waving to the occasional person we knew in the race. No problems at all until we got about 3-4 miles from the finish line of the race. This would be about 18 miles from the finish for the racers since we were traveling in opposite directions. We were out on the rolling part of Paris Valley Rd. in a flattish area with good sight-lines. We saw a large group coming toward us very fast so we knew they were either CAT 3 or Pro/1/2 riders. As they got close the riders in front began pointing us out to those behind. We were as far to the right of the road as we could get. At this point racers in the back decided this was a good opportunity to move up in the pack so they moved over the centerline and right in line with us. We had no where to go other then into the star thistle on the shoulder of the road or into the racers going at least 30 mph. At this point Sharon stopped and I having no other choice ran right into the back of her. She flew over her handlebars and landed on her face, I crashed onto my left side bruising my hip and getting road rash and bruises on my leg and elbow.
Fortunately we're both alright but unsatisfied as it looks as if the perpetrators are going to get away with it.

Transcending CSS

I've been reading a new book about CSS, it's call Transcending CSS, the fine art of web design by Andy Clarke. Molly Holzschlag has provided the editing and a forward, and David Shea the preface. It's not your ordinary beginning CSS book, in fact it's not for beginners at all, which is one of the reasons I bought it.
In the first few pages I learned about styling attribute selectors (who knew), as in putting borders around images that have "alt" tags or coloring text with a "title" attribute. Not only that, it's a beautifully designed book with lots of photos and color. It feels good in your hands, like a much loved and well read favorite.
More to come ...

Graduation

Went to my granddaughter's graduation last night. It was great, lots of happy screaming kids looking forward to the future. The Holt Center was almost filled with parents and friends of graduates.
We really enjoyed the talent portion of the ceremonies. They had The Sheldon Elements Jazz band, dancers from the Spanish Immersion school and several singers (who were surprisingly good).

My Granddaughter's Graduation

My oldest granddaughter is graduating from high school on Thursday. My husband and I are flying up to celebrate with her. I'm so proud of her, she's worked very hard.

Morning ride

This morning was beautiful, the sun was shining and the sky was blue, at 6 AM when I got up. By 7:30 AM when I was getting ready to go out on my morning ride, the sky had gone overcast. Not unusual for this time of year. I threw on my arm and knee warmers just to be safe.
I met the group at the end of my driveway which opens onto a road very popular with the local cyclists and headed out toward the hills. By the time we'd gotten 6 miles into the ride it had warmed up to the point where I removed the arm and knee warmers and stowing them in my jersey pockets.
Since I had time constraints, when the group decided to wait for the slower riders, I chose to continue on, I knew they'd catch up to me anyway. The route starts out semi-flat to rolling and then tilts up as it turns south and begins a 5-6 mile climb through trees, wildflowers and old ranches. We were heading toward a beautiful winding one lane road that will take us back to the highway.
By the time I was halfway up the climb the faster riders had begun to catch me. Once they passed me I picked up my pace just enough to keep them in sight.
When we reached the top we waited for the rest of the group and then began the beautiful mostly shaded descent.
I hammered down the hill chasing the leaders passing riders along the way. I was having such a great ride. I felt strong and the speed was exhilarating. Each little roller was a challenge to be mastered, then pick up the speed again on the other side. I heard something next to me and realized I was being passed by one of the men on the ride. One of the downsides of being small, you have to work really hard to go as fast as everyone else on the descents. I kept him in my sights, peddling hard.
We rounded a turn and I saw it, the bridge going over the river and the steep 10% assent on the other side. This could be my chance. I began increasing the speed of my spin just as I hit the hill, keeping my momentum high and down-shifting as I felt the speed decrease. Before I knew it I was passing my passer. As I went by I heard him say "This is when gravity isn't my friend". Yay! I poured on the speed and hit the descent way in front. I was so jazzed, I think it gave me extra strength. I pushed on harder and harder increasing my gap.
By the time I reached the base where everyone was regrouping I was a good 30 seconds in front of him.

Michelin Green Guide travel and tourism tourist guide

Michelin Green Guide travel and tourism tourist guide

Travel Plans to Spain and France

In July my husband and I are going to Santander, Spain. It's on the Atlantic side next to France. I haven't been there but my husband has made several business trips there.
I am doing research to find interesting places I can visit on foot while my husband works.
Once his business is finished we will move on to Lourdes, France and spend the rest of our vacation exploring Lourdes, the Pyrenees and the areas around Lourdes. We'll be staying at the Grand Hotel Gallia & Londres in Lourdes. I can hardly wait!
I just reserved the car. Now we have hotels and car set for the whole trip. Yes! No worries, just anticipation.