Cooking (mostly): Coconut Rice Pilaf

Happy Saturday everyone! It's been a long week, nothing new happened but it felt longer than usual. What did I do this week besides school?

Well I did some of this...

And took pictures of theses...

And that's about it.

So here's the recipe for the delicious food pictured above. I don't have enough good things to say about this, the creamy rich coconut milk, the little bit of chew to the Quorn, and the tang of the pineapple blend beautifully. Best of all anyone can enjoy this meal, it is gluten free, dairy free, and vegan. This is suddenly much more important to me as of last week, because I decided not to eat gluten or dairy for the next month to see whether it would help my digestion.

Recipe adapted from Budget Bytes

1.5 cup jasmine rice
1 can (15 oz) coconut milk
2/3 cup water
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
A little bit of olive oil
1 medium onion
1/2 a bag (probably about 4 oz.) Frozen peas
about 10 baby carrots diced
about 1/2 a bag (probably 4 oz. as well) Quorn chik'n tenders
1 can (15 oz.) pineapple, drained

To make the coconut rice put rice, coconut milk, water, and garlic in a pot and stir to combine. Cover and put on high heat until it boils, immediately after it boils turn the heat down to warm (or the lowest setting). Keep the lit on and cook the rice on warm for 30 minutes.

Heat the olive oil on a skillet on high heat. Thinly slice the onions and saute until the onions are nice and caramelized then add the carrots, peas, and Quorn. When the carrots are tender add the pineapple and cook until everything is nice and warm.

Combine the rice and vegetables in a bowl and sprinkle with soy or tamari sauce if you like, it's great with or without.

Cooking: Mostly Tropical Fruit Salad

I made this fruit salad when I was dogsitting. All I can say is I definitely need to make fruit salad more often!

1 Medium Sized Mango

1 Large Banana

8 Large Strawberries

Chop all the ingredients in to bite sized pieces and mix together. If you're not going to eat the salad right away or have leftovers sprinkle with lemon juice to stave off browning.

Cooking: Vegetable Macaroni and Cheese

I've been trying to eat at least one vegetable with every meal while I've been dogsitting, and I've mostly managed it if you count canned artichoke hearts as a vegetable which I kind of do and kind of don't.

Last night was the perfect time to make this as it was pouring rain. I thought I was going to have to remind God that he promised not to flood the world again. It was that wet. And on nights like those it's time to huddle inside with a nice bowl of comfort food.

16 oz Brocoli frozen
16 oz Dry Brown Rice Pasta (or whatever pasta you like, I just happened to have this on hand)
About 1 and 1/2 cups Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 Medium Red Bell Pepper

Bring a small pot of water to a boil and reheat the broccoli for 10 minutes, then drain.

Cook pasta according to directions, then also drain.

While the pasta is cooking dice the bell pepper and grate the cheese.

When all the ingredient as ready layer the vegetables, pasta, and cheese either in a bowl or the pot you used to cook the pasta. Note the cheese only melts if your pasta or mixing container is hot so mix everything right away.

Stir until everything is mixed together and coated in cheese.

Enjoy!

(Adapted from Cate's World Kitchen)

A little vacation for both of us

For the next couple of days Valkyrie and I are taking a little vacation from each other. I'm dog sitting for a friend and V is on a puppysit. I think this break is going to be really good for us, she's been driving me crazy and being somewhat naughty all the time, racing around the house with her doggy siblings (and literally ricocheting off the walls), and eating things in the yard, pulling on lead, exc., and it's mostly my fault. Let me explain, last term was really hard for me I was doing transfer applications, taking over a full load of classes, and afraid I was going to fail two of them (the teachers of those classes were competing to be ranked first on my worst teachers I've ever had list) so I didn't have a lot of energy or patients left for training Valkyrie or the other dogs for that matter. This break has given me time to step back and see how much of the naughtiness is from me not teaching her that what she doing is unacceptable. So Thursday night we'll both come home with fresh ideas and more enthusiasm.

I was hoping this would become a super guide dogs only blog, but that's not working out the way I'd planned, I'm not keeping up with my other blog, so this is going to become a mostly guide dogs blog with cooking and running thrown in. The only way I'm going to keep this blog somewhat up to date is if it's a eclectic as I am. I will however try and make it clear which posts are which so anyone who wants to follow just guide dogs, or gerd, or whatever can do so without a lot of hassle. If you have an opinion on this please leave me a comment and I'll be delighted to read it.

Here are a couple of pictures of my adorable little charges.

L a mini Australian Shepherd

And G a gorgeous red Cocker Spaniel

G again modeling the spaniel eyes

Spring Break!

All the doggies were very helpful in the run up to finals.

Valkyrie helping me write a paper at school

Tazzi being very patient as I write yet another paper

Valkyrie's patient too

And Kelsa has exciting news! Last Saturday Kelsa and I took and passed our Delta Society Evaluation. We to a predicable rating so we are able to work in easy to moderately hard environments. I'm hoping that we can go do read to the dogs at the elementary school just down the road from my house.

I have a bit of exciting news in my own life too. I ran my first race last Sunday. I did the Shamrock Run 5k and had so much fun that I signed up yesterday to do Team in Training for the Eugene women's half marathon in August.

However I'm not feeling quite so invigorated today. I'm undergoing another test for GERD and it's not quite as pleasant as I hoped.

Good luck Kashi!

Kelsa's sister Kashi was recalled last weekend, but before she left I got to do a photo shoot with her and Kelsa got to have one last play date.

Kashi

Kashi (L) and Kelsa (R)

Kashi (L), Kelsa (R)

Now Kelsa is chasing Kashi

Kelsa pause to be photogenic

Love those ears. Kelsa coming down the deck stairs.

"Let's go visit the camera"

"Play with me!" -Kashi (L)

Kashi's good at soccer

and looking like a gargoyle

Kashi thinks Kelsa has no stamina

"Why aren't we inside?" Note that no matter where she goes Kelsa will always find a bone.

Well friends, school marches on. And it's been having me march at double quick time because besides taking over a full load of classes I've also been filling out transfer applications to four-year colleges. Thankfully I only have one left which I can do over spring break.

Valkyrie has been everything from a right little terror to an angel and back again. She had a teenage episode about a month ago where was getting in to everything, careening around the house, and generally making a nuisance of herself. However she has made some wonderful advances too. She was going to school with me two days a week up until two weeks ago when she had an accident walking home. That one was a complete mystery to me as she had done that same walk dozens of times and been just fine. I decided after that to leave her home unless I could concentrate on her fully so she's been staying home for the last couple of weeks. I'm planning on trying to take her again tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. She has made two significant advances in the past week. One, she's going into a Down without having to be hand placed. I don't know why my puppies have the hardest time learning Down, but they do. The other is she's been relieving consistently for me on the street in front of the house. This is a major improvement because she doesn't like relieving in new places. The last time she was on a puppysit she didn't go for something like 24 or more hours. I'm hoping that she'll start doing her business in the parking lot right by the bus stop so I don't have to worry about any more accidents while walking home. We have also been working on doing outings on a flat collar instead of the head collar and walking close to my side (she has a tendency to drift away). Those are still works in progress that I'll keep you updated about.

Kelsa's Delta Society pet partner evaluation is in about 3 weeks on March 17th. We still need to do a little work on having noisy things dropped behind her, the confining hug, and not reaching out to greet every person that walks by, but on the whole I think she's ready. 

Also poor little Kelsa was poor littler Kelsa for a little bit. Kelsa has been underweight for the past few weeks and I couldn't think how it was happening, then I realized that the amount I was feeding her wasn't adjusted to her more active lifestyle as a career change living in a house with two other dogs. Poor thing was down to about 39 pounds. Now that I've upped her food she's looking much better again. I can't see her hip bones nearly as clearly as I could before. I'm sorry Kelsa. She's been letting her lab-ness shine through too; I've found clouds of yellow fur around the house and she has already made a significant dent in a Galileo Nylabone that I got three hours ago. 

Good news on Kelsa's siblings too, her sister Kashi who is in my club is being recalled next weekend and I'm doing a photo shoot and Kelsa's doing a play date before she goes, and their sister Kira is in phase 1 of training. I wonder if her other brother, Kirby, whom I've never met will make it to training. I hope he does.

Now some pictures galore!

Valkyrie relaxing in the sun.

I seem to have a lot of sleeping puppy pictures.

My mom did this to her when I wasn't home. She looks rather fetching doesn't she?

Kelsa look oh so comfy and me looking very tiered after a Delta Society training day.

Valkyrie is frequently covered in mud as you can see over her right eyebrow.