Baby Artichokes and Parsnips over Quinoa, Limed Green Beans

Last June and May, I had come up with some nice baby artichoke dishes that I used to inspire tonight's dinner. For the first time ever, I had purchased parsnips, which, once peeled, I understand can be used like carrots. They taste very nice with a good sweetness.

I tore away the leaves of each of the artichokes till I got to lighter colored and more tightly packed ones. Then I cut off the top third of each artichoke and the very bottom, and quartered the heart. I put these quarters, along with some chopped red onion, into a covered pan of simmering broth for about 17-19 minutes till the artichokes were soft, then added peeled and sliced parsnips for about 2 minutes (when I cut the artichokes and parsnips, I put the pieces in a bowl with lime juice to keep from discoloration) more of cooking. I prepared quinoa and served the artichokes and parsnips, along with the broth, on top of the quinoa.

I also lightly grilled green beans then mixed in some fresh squeezed lime juice, salt, and pepper. Along with heirloom tomato chunks, I served some whole wheat walnut-raisin bread, great for breakfast, but with an elegant dinner face of tahini spread with a little bit of red onion. We enjoyed dinner!

This week, by the way, I'm teaching several after-school cooking classes for children ages 5-11. Last Monday afternoon, I received an email asking if I could teach back-to-back sessions over one or two weeks, each session lasting around 1 and a quarter hours, for an arts program for children. I have some conflicts for next week, but am teaching this week. It's fun! I have a helper or two who can do chopping, boiling, baking, etc. In today's class, I had each student introduce another student and report on their interest in cooking and interest in vegetarianism (one of the kids said they like to eat ants!). I talked about sprouting, and we set some mung beans to sprout. We made cashew butter and fruit jam sandwiches on whole wheat bread, which everybody seemed to like.