Well…. kind of.  I am definitely far behind the technological times, but this year, in 2008, I’m catching up.  I not only have a My Space page AND a hi5 page, now I have a blog!  It’s official!

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what to write.  I was inspired by Sally’s blog, Aprovechar, and I have been gleaning so much inspiration and good recipes from so many other blogs that I’ve been lurking around on.  I have the idea that, if I have this blog, then I will be more motivated to try out new recipes and post my results online.  I also have noticed that I haven’t stumbled upon many sites with gluten-free AND sugar-free.  For me, sugar really limits my options.  There is cane sugar in things that it has no business being in.  I actually have to be more careful with cane sugar than with gluten, because a spoonful of sugar sneaks its way in to so many things like tomato sauce, fruit juices, cassava chips (I still pick these up every time I go to Whole Foods under the delusion that perhaps they’ve changed the ingredients list), and other assorted foodstuffs.

I would also like for this blog to be a place where I can reflect on teaching as I enter my first year of teaching high school.  So I’m envisioning a blog full of reflections, insights, food recipes, food pics, lesson ideas, and ideally, mind-blowing revelations.  Hehehe!

Be patient with me as I maneuver my way around this blog world and try to figure out how to snaz up my blog so that it’s cool, full of great info, and easy to use.  

Since I’m a teacher with never enough time, I look for recipes that are simple and nourishing (and, ideally, easy portable and not too messy to eat — teaching with miso soup stains on the front of my shirt?  I don’t think so….).  Here’s lunch from today:

This is a squash sautee with millet and kidney beans, inspired by a recipe from The Natural Gourmet by Annemarie Colbin, my newest cookbook that you will be seeing a lot of recipes from.

Here’s how I threw it together:

Cook the millet:  2 1/2 parts water to 1 part millet.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20-25 minutes.

Um…. open the can of kidney beans, wash, and drain.  (Yes, yes, yes, I know canned is not best, but it’s better than nothing.)

While the millet is cooking, cut up:

1/2 yellow onion

1 red bell pepper

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

Saute the onion first, then add the red bell pepper.  Saute for about 5 minutes over medium heat, then add the zucchini and squash.  Add a few shakes of sea salt.  I added zattar (which is a mix of oregano, sesame seeds and salts — they put in on top of deliciously chewy flat bread sold in the streets of Jerusalem) for flavor.  Cover the pan while it’s cooking so the squashes get soft — maybe about 2-3 minutes.  Then it’s done.

Put some millet in a bowl, add the kidney beans, and spoon some of the squash saute on top.  I drizzled a little bit of olive oil over the millet and beans, and there you have it.  Easy, simple, healthy, versatile.  Oh, and portable.  ;)

Since I’m feeling inspired, I’m going to make up a batch of home-made granola and let it bake while I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to teach _The Alchemist_ by Paulo Coehlo.  Any suggestions are more than welcome!