One thing that I absolutely love about gardens, is that they come in all shapes and sizes. What do you think of this mini thimble garden? Could you keep it alive? If so, get planting and let me know how it goes. If not, that’s alright, you can buy the print here.
My mom often prepared this salad with rice when I still lived in Morocco. I have always loved it. Recently I tried with quinoa instead of rice and liked it even more so I’ve been making it regularly as a satisfying lunch or side dish.
Ingredients
1 cup organic quinoa (rinsed)
2 cups water
10 ounces canned organic tuna (optional)
1 cup organic pitted black olives
1 cup organic corn
Ingredients for the Dressing
3 tablespoons organic mayonnaise
2 tablespoons organic lemon juice
1 tablespoon organic olive oil
organic sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions
Put the quinoa and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat to low, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat.
Place the quinoa in a large bowl. Add the tuna, olives and corn. Make the dressing by whisking together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper in a separate bowl. Add the dressing to the salad and stir. Serve at room temperature or cold.
Dukkah is a Middle-Eastern dip of varied ground seeds and nuts mixed with olive oil. It makes an easy, delightful appetizer that’s ready in minutes.
Ingredients
1/4 cup organic sesame seeds
1/2 cup organic sunflower seeds
1/4 teaspoon organic cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon organic peppercorns
sea salt (to taste)
3/4 cup organic extra virgin olive oil
organic bread of your choice
Directions
Toast the sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, cumin seeds, and peppercorns in a skillet over medium-low heat for 3 to 5 minutes until fragrant. Transfer to a coffee grinder, add the sea salt and grind it until powdery.
Put desired amount in a bowl and stir in enough olive oil. Serve with bread.
This month’s guest greenie is Nisrine Merzouki. Nisrine is a food blogger and author of Marrakesh Express: Recipes and Memories of Morocco. She enjoys cooking easy Moroccan recipes as well as baking gluten and sugar-free desserts. You can find Nisrine’s recipes, thoughts and travels on her blog Dinners and Dreams. She was born in Morocco and currently lives in Orlando, Florida
This week Nisrine is going to share 5 of her favorite recipes. These are fantastic and sure to please your entire family and include desserts, main menu meals and even a special Moroccan Tea. Please join me in welcoming Nisrine and stay tuned for her first special recipe.
Hello, friends! Are you enjoying your President’s Day weekend? We have literally spent our entire long weekend at the beach. Yesterday, we visited our favorite beach in Southern Florida – it is a couple of miles of rocks, caves and tidal pools which is perfect for seeing sea creatures upclose and personal. Here are a few of our favorites.
A lovely brittle starfish and the red crab (first photo) didn’t even try to pinch the mister’s fingers – this is a first.
My favorite creature of the day were these Sea Hares. Above is a picture of the mister holding one, followed by one creeping along in a tidal pool. They are gastropods – and they were crawling everywhere. The mister picked one up and it released purple ink all over his hand. We all had to give that a try!
Here, Eben and a friend are hanging out in tidal pools and looking for creatures.
One thing that I absolutely love about gardens, is that they come in all shapes and sizes. What do you think of this mini thimble garden? Could you keep it alive? If so, get planting and let me know how it goes. If not, that’s alright, you can buy the print here.
. She enjoys cooking easy Moroccan recipes as well as baking gluten and sugar-free desserts. You can find Nisrine’s recipes, thoughts and travels on her blog 
