Quick and Easy Lunch Salads – Avocado Yum

Hungry but not quite? In need of a few vitamins? Craving fiber and freshness? Here’s a concoction of a few ingredients I found in my veg drawer one day. Combined and nicely seasoned with olive oil/lemon dressing and a hint of garlic, this really makes a great lunch salad! Goes nicely with toasted leftover white bread or a slice of pizza.

You will need:

2 handfuls of arugula

1 avocado

1 mozzarella cheese

2 mid sized tomatoes

1/4 clove of garlic

Olive oil, juice of 1/2 lemon, salt and pepper, pinch of sugar

Wash arugula thoroughly (you don’t want that ugly grating noise sand makes between teeth while you chew). Peel and chop avocado, mozzarella and tomatoes. Place your ingredients in a bowl. Chop your garlic in very fine slices or use a garlic press – I usually rather chop because my press is a bitch to clean. Dress with good olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Add a wee bit of sugar if your lemon juice has gotten the better of the other flavors. Toss and serve with toasted bread. Enjoy!

Jingle Bells…?

No news is good news, they say – but this is definitely not so in Blogland, I’m well aware. Jotting down a post once a week or so should really not be that difficult, right? I apologize for the long absence – and I’m resolved to try and do better. I’m sorry to have abandoned this site for so many months. There were reasons I won’t bore you with, most of them good. Life in general isn’t so bad right now. Incidentally, ‚tis that part of the year again when things are supposed to slow down but never really do. But Nature’s letting us know She won’t be doing much the next few months. The leaves are all but gone, as is the sunshine on most days, and the weather report has it that we’re actually going to have the first snow on the weekend. The kids are of course ecstatic about the possibility of sledding, whereas I haven’t even gotten around to having the winter tires installed. Actually, I do have a bit to show on the crafts front. My summer months were crazy busy with work projects. But after a July-August-September hiatus, I got back with the knitting and crocheting in October. Most of what I’ve done were quick little projects. A few more little girls‘ bags:

Birthday present for sweet L. (yes, I made that sweater too, last year ;-))

Belated birthday gifts for two cute little ladies in Frankfurt

A cushion for a dear friend’s birthday

Funny Santa egg cozies …

… and Christmas-y crochet snowflakes (inspired by the awesome Lucy from Attic24)

… made for the kindergarten Christmas Bazaar. The snowflakes are really easy to make (thanks to a simple and intuitive tutorial, which you can find on Attic24 – check for Crochet Snowflakes). And then, 2 days before the bazaar, I looked through a stack of old magazines, and saw a very inspirational article about getting creative with clothes hangers, the metal kind they’ll give you at the dry cleaner’s. It made me try out a few things:

The Christmas Bazaar was a great success: A happy gathering of a group of sweet people and cute kids, with quite a number of funny creative arts and crafts, a batch of freshly made, scrumptious waffles and some sweet, Christmas-y punch thrown in. I will say that it was a lot of work, but the united efforts of a few enthusiastic moms, all with plenty of creative potential and willingness to work hard, made us pull it off. In the meantime, we had the first taste of winter – for those who’ve never been to Berlin during the cold season, let me tell you, it’s not for the weak hearted. It can be absolutely freezing, with an icy wind blowing in from the East. For this kind of climate, you need serious outdoor equipment to keep you warm. Of course, it took my 5-year old daughter all of one week to lose not one, but two mittens in a row (not a pair, but two different ones of course). So I made her a new pair, adding a seasonal embellishment, one that I can nearly do in my sleep now:

Once I’d finally gotten the right number of stitches, they were a piece of cake to make, and a lot of fun. (I’m not saying I’ll encourage my daughter to go lose more mittens now – I do feel she should learn to mind her own stuff. But secretly, I’m kind of zen about it now, for it will take me a mere 3 hours to make her a new pair, so that’s not too bad.) Anyway, while I was at it, I made another pair for our 6-year old goddaughter R.:

So, what do you think: Have I managed to make up for the months of absence yet? What kinds of (Xmas-y) projects are you guys working on these days? Please let me know if you’re still reading. It is nice to be back. Have a great week, everyone!