December 15, 2011

9 days until Christmas

9 days left until Christmas.  Can you believe it? We are in the single digits...that's scary, but also super exciting because I LOVE Christmas more than anything!

I can't wait until I am off for the holidays so that I can go home and visit and spend time with family!  On my last two days I had a little preview of what it is going to be like!

The holidays always include a lot of cooking with my mom....

For dinner one night I decided to make a balsamic roasted vegetable quinoa dish.  I had high hopes for this dish.


one large egg plant, one large zucchini, 1 red pepper, 1 red onion, 1 lb mushrooms, all sliced and shopped about 1" by 1".  Grapeseed oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper drizzled on top and veggies all nice and coated.

Please note: the second time I made this (last night) I roasted 2 eggplants and 2 zucchini, which turned out to be the perfect amount.


so many veggies I had to use two large bowls and trays before putting them into the oven.

While the veggies were in the oven I put on a pot of quinoa (2 cups quinoa with about 3-4 cups of water) to cook while the oven was keeping busy.


my adorable mom played my bf's (Michael Buble's) Christmas album while we worked on dinner.



roasted veggies out of the oven.  It's amazing how much they cook down.


quinoa and veggies all mixed up...minus the final dressing.


dressing: balsamic vinegar, olive oil. salt, pepper, freshly chopped basil, zest and juice of one lemon.


how delicious does this look? and it is just as good as it looks...it's great warm and cold too, which is a bonus!


here's the dinner we had the second night.  Leftover quinoa, butternut squash, coleslaw and sesame ginger tofu (one of my all time favs. My mom has been making this for years and it never gets old!).


mmmmmm......k I was to have this for dinner tomorrow! definitely a possibility. 

Well, that was a short post but I am tired and am off to bed now.  Stay tuned for a recipe involving lebkuchen (german gingerbread).  So excited to make them :)


This is the lovely tree I get to stare at night after night.  Ahh...gotta love Christmas :)

Goodnight,
Amy


1 comment:

  1. Cannot wait for your post on lebkuchen! SO excited! My mom just ordered a MASSIVE 8lbs box of lebkuchen from Germany - I know, crazy. And love the Michael Buble Christmas album, makes my heart flutter :) 8 Days still XMAS now!

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