Whoa.

Whoa.

I've been totally MIA from this blog. I apologize profusely to all my readers... ehm...mom. Anyways, my excuse is twofold: 1) no camera right now, but hopefully I'll be getting one soon.
2) rotations started, and holy cow, sometimes I'm glad I even ATE, let alone described it!

I've mainly been enjoying the bounty of late summer veggies, grilling and whipping up some quick salads for lunch. Of note, I prepared a hodgepodge meal of ribs ( no pictures, but I'll post recipes!) I originally wanted to just experiment with different BBQ sauces, but the two I picked ending up being so INSANELY different I really had to stretch my creative fibers to create some sort of cohesive meal plan. I ended up "taking an international culinary tour", or something...

RIBS
my favorite Balsamic BBQ sauce:
1 cup balsamic vinegar and red wine vinegar combo
3/4 cup ketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Spice rub: brown sugar, sweet paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, smidge chili powder, ancho chili and chipotle, S&P

option 2 Cranberry Chipotle Sauce:
1 tablespoon canola oil, for cooking
1 medium onion, diced
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup sweetened dried cranberries
2 cups cranberry juice
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped chipotle chili pepper (canned peppers in adobe sauce works best)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Spice Rub: S&P, chinese 5 spice and brown sugar.
Roast these ribs on top of a sliced onion, with a titch of butter

bake ribs, covered, at 350 for about 3 hours-ish

Ari's Israeli Salad
Bite size Cucumber
Bite size tomato
Diced vidalia onion
Chopped Italian parsely
Salt, pepper, olive oil
let sit for a bit, but not too long, just enough so that the veggies mingle and release some liquid

And finally: Orange Curry Quinoa-veggie jumble
Orange-Curry Dressing:
1/2 onion
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons water
1/2 to 1 teaspoon curry powder (to taste)
1/4 teaspoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon flax seeds, ground

Blend dressing till smooth. This makes a goodly amount of dressing, so make a bigger (1.5 Cups maybe) batch of Quinoa. Thoroughly rinse Quinoa, and the cook as package indicates. Add in whatever veggies you have on hand. I had green and red peppers, zuchinni, onion, brocolli and mango. yum!!! Leftovers for lunch to boot!

Do you know about Quinoa-holy healthy!

Coming soon...Ecopolitan Review. So excited about this restaraunt!!!!