The Accidental Vegetarian

A week ago Friday I was headed to bed and mentally reliving the day whe I discovered that I hadn't eaten any meat all day. Unintentionally.
I had been to a vegetarian restaurant, The Foundation, a few weeks prior and tried Quinoa (pronounced Keen-wah) for the first time. A friend of mine (Hi Devon!) was telling me all about it. It's a whole protein so it's a great idea for vegetarians as they won't have to worry about pairing a protein with their meal. It's not dissimilar to rice - a little bit grainier and tastes mildly nutty and really yummy! I looked up a few recipes and discovered how easy it is to make (just like rice) and I thought I'd give it a shot at home.
I'm not really anti-meat but I do find I prefer the flavour of a lot of vegetarian meals. I'll blog some other time about my "Bacon Rules" but suffice to say it drives my husband (who is of the bacon-flavoured everything variety) completely insane. Meat as meat is great...meat as an ingredient is not. I love Shepherd's pie as much as the next guy, but other casseroles and things like Mexican food, I prefer no meat.
So back to Friday...I'm tallying up the day's food thinking, "Weird...no meat!" when I think to the day before...no meat! I thought long and hard and was surprised to discover I had eaten no meat for 3 days. So as a challenge to myself (and for fun with a little bit of "maybe I don't need to eat stuff with a face" on the side) I decided to try doing the vegetarian thing for as long as I can. So far no crazy need for meat. Not really feeling like I'm missing out on anything. even went to McDonald's the other day and got a 2 cheeseburger meal "hold the meat".
It has been almost 2 weeks...I think this Wednesday will be the 2 week mark.

Here's the recipe that started it all:

Ingredients
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 (19 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chopped, fresh cilantro (optional)
Sour cream (to taste)
Salsa (to taste)

Directions
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and saute until lightly browned.
Mix quinoa into the saucepan and cover with vegetable broth. Season with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes,
Stir frozen corn into the saucepan, and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until heated through. Mix in the black beans. Ganish with sour cream, salsa and cilantro.

Thanks for checking stuff out!
[Insert cool sign-off here]
~Stacey

Liberation!

Ahhhhhh....(sigh, not scream)

I have ended an almost 5 year old relationship. Actually, in a sense, I just ended about 350 relationships. I have deleted my Facebook account. It's the most liberating thing I've done since an 8lb 11oz human was removed from my body. I seriously feel like I've come out of some kind of fog - it's amazing not being attached to something, expected to check in on it multiple times daily (So here I've started a blog - go figure!) It's like being responsible for a child...only more drama. Maybe like having a teenager. I haven't made it to that point with G yet - she's still only 3.

So this will be my main form of contact with the outside world (or should I say inside, as you're likely at a computer right now) for some time. I'm new to the whole world of Blogging...so far so good. Got 2 followers already (Hi Becky! Hi Michelle!) and once I get going I'm sure more will start following the yellow brick road.

Any tips, hints, feedback, etc. is greatly appreciated!

[Insert cool sign-off here]
~Stacey

These are a few of my favourite things

Ok, well, ONE of my favourite things. Digital scrapbooks. This is the first one I've made. I'm planning to jump off the Facebook bandwagon and I have so many photos there of my daughter from birth to now (she's 3). I'm thinking about putting together one for each year of her life...at $30 a pop I'll wait 'til I get this one in the mail to see if it's decent enough quality to do it again.

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~Stacey

Click here to view this photo book larger

Welcome to Cake Scrapps!

This is the new home of Raven and Lace.  Christina and I worked together for a good year or so on getting things up and running but Christina has been focusing hard on school and working full time (tires me out just thinking about it - we're not spring chickens anymore!) and with me working full time and sneaking as many cakes and things in on the side the website has simply gone by the wayside. But really, aren't websites kind of going the ay of the Betamax anyway?  Blogs are so much more fun and updatable.  Our Facebook Page will remain open as Raven and Lace, but out of updating ease "Cake Scrapps" is born.  All new information and photos will be here on the blog so bookmark this baby and keep the check ins coming!

Not only will this be a blog about our cake-making adventures, it's also a personal glimpse into my daily life and random thought process (see the creative insanity in realtime action!).  I have chosen to work at being an at-home mom doing the things I love - hanging with Little G and making things for people to ooh and ahh over.  I'm a sucker for praise; though I try to be somewhat humble about it there are serious Sally Field style "You like me! You really like me!" vibes bouncing all around my insides.  I'm still working full time in social services but I'm going to do my best to learn the ropes of running a home-based business. Any tips would be highly appreciated!

So I'll update a couple times a week...definitely with each new project (a few on the horizon for the next month).  Recipes maybe, mom stuff, random musings, crafty ideas.  Loads of stuff coming your way if you follow along!

[Insert cool sign-off here]
~Stacey