Bean Rhymes with Mean

Date: Monday, August 9, 2010
Recipe: Red Quinoa with Avocado, Black Beans and Corn
http://www.5dollardinners.com/2010/06/red-quinoa-avocado-black-beans-corn.html
(Modified recipe listed below)
It was not a good night. I've been sleeping in a chair for 3 days - when I actually do nod off to sleep, which is not often - with my little one in my arms (which involves frequently startling awake, panic-ing, "Am I holding her securely enough? Can she breathe?" Jim has been taking night shifts too, but I've found that there are so many hours in the night. The clock in the nursery blinks that it's 2am and I think "sh-- - there are a lot of hours to go until 5." I love my baby, but DAMN it's to her benefit right now that she's so cute. When I do make it into my bed for a few minutes, I wake up and immediately freak, "Where am I? Who is with me? What time is it?" Like I'm in my early 20's in the dating scene at Jr. College. All this lack of sleep leaves me weirdly alert in the morning, when lil c wakes up for the day and then by the afternoon, I. AM. A. B-WORD. This always crescendos around dinnertime because for some reason our culture decided to have it's main family meal - the only time of day where we can all sit together - right when I'm reenacting the evil witch character from Big C's fairy tales ("There's no such thing as witches honey - except when mommy is a Byatch during dinner prep. That's why you need to stay away from the kitchen.")

I didn't realize how tired I sounded all day until Big C was playing with Barbies, reenacting the day: The younger barbie would talk super-sassy (like Big C has been ALL DAY) and the older Barbie would speak in this monotone, deadpan voice. This went on for a while & I realized that she was processing mommy's new 'dead-tired' voice. Great.

Meanwhile, Jim has been attending a training all week and was travelling for work last week so he has been letting me sleep extra late on the weekend. We've both been doing double-shifts and we're both tired. That said, when he got home, it was...well it was pretty quiet because the fit had already hit the shan about an hour before. Yelling, crying, sassing and time-outing.

Somehow, I churned out a fabulous dinner that night though. Not that anyone 4 or under appreciated it. Still, the few bites that Big C ate, she loved, she just didn't want to be compliant by eating any more than she had to. "Mom, this is really good! How many bites do I have to eat?"

Here is the recipe. The picture looks like some kind of hash, but in reality, it's actually quite beautiful. Quinoa is pretty neat looking, especially the red variety...

Red Quinoa with Avocado, Black Beans and Corn...And Chicken
Ingredients:
* 1 Cup Red Quinoa
* 1 Cup diced green peppers (it called for frozen, but I cut up a real one.)
* 1 cup frozen corn
* 2 Cups cooked black beans (I assume that means canned, which is what I did)
* 1/4 Cup lime juice (I used the plastic squeezy lime variety)
* 2 Tbs fresh chopped cilantro (I eyeballed a handful & added what looked normal to me)
* Salt & pepper
* 1 Avocado (I used 2), diced
* One small onion, which was not in original recipe
* About a pound of chicken breasts (2 frozen Costco ones - boneless & skinless) cut into smallish chunks - or whatever size you want. Also not in the original recipe

OK - I wanted to follow this vegetarian recipe, but I couldn't not put some meat in it. Start the quinoa and cook as directed on the package before you start the chicken. I cooked the chicken in a skillet with some olive oil & salt & pepper until they were pretty-much done before I added the green pepper, onion, corn & black beans. It's sort of weird to be stir-frying frozen corn & black beans, but also kind of different. Anyway, I stir-fried them until the onions looked translucent and then added the lime juice and cilantro. Then add the cooked Quinoa to the chicken mixture and serve with Avocado on top. This dish tastes so good - I served it with some foccacia that I got at Top Foods.

Well, Big C's latest thing is rhyming words - she'll look around and say what she sees & then rhyme it with something that is sometimes a nonsense word, sometimes an actual word and sometimes unconsciously brilliant. Like when she rhymed "Sandwich" with "Bam-bitch". Luckily, it's just nonsense to her, but I smothered a laugh. I do know, however, that on Monday, 'Bean' definitely rhymed with 'Mean'. Luckily, last night when Charlotte started crying at 12am, he turned off the baby monitor with a meaningful glance at me and I finally got a little extra sleep. I have high hopes for today. Maybe for dinner I'll make something with rice (rhymes with...)