Oven roasted green beans

Oven roasted green beans are my favorite green vegetable right now. They are easy to cook, and because you use fresh green beans, they are fresh and crisp. I love chopping the ends off of the green beans. It makes me feel domestic. :-) I got the recipe initially from Cooking Light's Chicken for Dinner magazine.

I make them about once a week, and tried them out on my family for Christmas. They approved. :-) Hope y'all will, too!




Oven Roasted Green Beans

Serves 6 (The magazine says 12, but... we like our green beans. :-))

• 2 pounds green beans, trimmed
• 4 teaspoons extravirgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. Place a baking sheet with a lip or large glass casserole dish in the oven for 10 minutes.

3. Place the green beans in a large bowl.

4. Drizzle the green beans with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss well to coat the beans with the mixture.

5. Arrange the green beans as spread out as possible (a single layer if you can) in the pan.

6. Bake at 425 degrees for about 8 minutes, or until crisp-tender. You don't want to cook them too long!

Nutritional facts per serving:

Calories: 37 Fat: 1.6g Protein: 1.4g Carbohydrates: 5.5g fiber: 2.6g Sodium: 196mg Calcium: 29mg

Pesto Quinoa

So, I'm a little behind on the superfoods trend. A few weeks ago, Zach sent me a link to an article about Quinoa and it was the first time i'd ever paid attention to the food so many people raved about. I tried  this pesto recipe that night and we both became huge fans. It's SO delicious!

Like everyone says, it's a really versatile seed. It takes on the flavor of pretty much whatever you mix it with, it's high in protein and really filling. We're not vegetarians, but we'd like to eat less meat ($$$) so recipes with quinoa tend to fill us up better than say, eating a salad for dinner. :-)

Make sure you rinse the quinoa before you cook it. We haven't experienced any bitterness in the quinoa, but you might as well be sure! It's kind of messy, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of herding the tiny dots eventually. :-) Let me know what you think! I got this recipe from allrecipes.com.



Pesto Quinoa
Serves 4

• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
• 2 cups chicken broth-- you can substitute veggie stock if you'd like
• 2 tablespoons basil pesto
• 1 tomato, diced
• salt and pepper, to taste

1. Bring the chicken broth and quinoa to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. 

2. Cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the broth is absorbed.

3. Remove from heat and mix in the pesto.

4. Stir in the tomatoes.

5. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve it up!

Nutritional info, per serving:

Calories: 207 | Total Fat: 6.4g | Cholesterol: 5mg

Courtney and Cade

Courtney and Cade are some of my favorite repeat clients. Courtney has had me take photos of Cade since  he was a year old, and this is our third shoot together. He's grown from a baby hanging on to Mom to an independent little boy in such a short amount of time.

We played in a park in Fort Worth on a cold November afternoon for this shoot. Cade's become quite the athlete, showing us his golf and football skills. But we did get some nice portraits--when he stopped to catch his breath. Thanks Courtney for letting me capture your little one!

David & Alysha

It's been quite a while since I've posted any photo shoots. I had a string of shoots this fall, and I'm really excited to show y'all what I've been working on. I'm also trying out a new format to how I blog them... and introducing my logo--finally! My friend Faith designed it and I'll be showing it off more later. :-)

My youngest brother David and his girlfriend Alysha had recently celebrated 6 months of dating when we did this shoot in October at Brackenridge Park in San Antonio. Here's to many more month's y'all! Thanks for letting me photograph you!

What would Willy do?

Tuesday I said good-bye to my best friend Willy. The horse I'd owned for 15 years suffered a bout of colic and lost, so we had to put him down. It's been hard and I'm really sad to have lost him. I can't imaging another horse like him-- he was one in a million.


I wrote a long blog entry on that day, but I just wasn't ready to post it. My dear friend Alice, the woman who taught me how to ride, broke Willy to saddle and helped sell him to me wrote a sweet poem to commemorate Willy. I decided her poem is a much better way to memorialize my big red horse. I'd like to share it with y'all.

WILLIE

by Alice Scott

 

Willie Wonka was his name

Workin' cattle was his game

 

Foundation breeding was his line

The cowy, smart, athletic kind

 

Upon his head a tiny star 

A gorgous guy from near and far 

 

 In countless ways he was a winner

 A gutsy, cowy, tough team penner

 

No temperment was ever milder

Except his best friend, Abby Wilder                   

 

Willie Wonka, Abby's dream

The perfect cowgirl-gelding team  

 

Those who knew him won't forget

The love between this great duet  

 

She cared for him through all his years 

He wouldn't want her shedding tears 

 

Willie was that kinda guy

He wouldn't want his friend to cry

 

His life was happy, good and long

He's now in grass thats green and strong 

 

But he'll still gladly do his share 

To sort and pen the cows up there