Despite 35 degree weather, Tucker found his owl sweater to be quite humiliating.

Mitchie and K.

My favorite little man!

I pinch.

My favorite star doesn't have a name, it has a number.

Saint Augustine on a 40 degree Friday turned out to be a pretty good idea. :) While we didn't go on a ghost tour (this time!), we did go to Castillo de San Marcos, a creepy wax museum, and walked in the historic streets with our cameras. It's easy to forget you're in Florida in that city.

I am in love with this house. Please buy it for me. Thanks.

Old man Hemingway.Dickens.

Sunday

Quinoa with fresh baby spinach and carrots. Simple enough.Monday
Sesame crusted tuna steak with garlic, parmesan and spinach soba noodles.

Tuesday
Tuna Steak Au Poivre, brown rice and quinoa blend with spinach and toasted pinenuts.

(The changes I made for the tuna dipping sauce was substituting the soy sauce with a less sodium soy alternative, splitting the soy in half, and the addition of a good tbsp of wasabi paste. For the pepper mixture, I added Szeged Hungarian Paprika. For salt...wait for it...I used no-salt salt.)

Today!
Lunch: My own homemade hummus and faux tabouli!

I converted last night's leftover quinoa into a tabouli-style dish. I added organic parsley, scallions, and mint from my garden, along with a dash of lemon juice and small diced tomato. The quinoa is so versatile; the dish that was so perfect warm turned into a competely different cold dish for a refreshing lunch the next day.

Dinner: Raspberry-Lime Ginger Chicken with long grain brown rice.

The sauce was simple. I stirred 1/2 cup of organic cane sugar and 1/4 cup of lime juice together in a saucepan over medium until the sugar dissolved. Then I added a 2-inch chunk of peeled ginger and a cup of seedless raspberry preserves in the food processor until it was mixed evenly, slowly adding the sugar mix. I added fresh black pepper and white pepper to taste, then smothered and covered the chicken in a casserole dish. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes. I threw some parsley and unsalted butter into the rice, then topped with leftover sauce. Results are amazing!

All meals were completed in 30 minutes or less. This is a huge accomplishment for me since I usually make meals that take 2+ hours to complete. I'm proud of myself!

Winter break was spent at Brevard Zoo and Palm Beach Zoo, since my parents gave me a zoo membership for Christmas! Here are random photographs from the past two weeks, in no order whatsoever.

We almost wear the same size shoe.

Our gingerbread house was so weak...why would they put red icing in the kit? Creepy.

She was a king vulture!

K stands in a hollowed out "tree of life." It turns out I knew a lot of information about the baobab tree, who knew?

I found two lovely vintage shirt dresses, thanks to the BFF!

K absolutely loves the keyboard I got her for Christmas! There is a feature that lights up the keys to the programmed songs to help you learn until you're ready to play on your own. I really like that it's an instrument that can grow with her as she becomes more proficient.