Fajitas – Great for Everyone Aboard!

I love fajitas!

But sometimes, I forget about them.

This happened the other day when I had one red bell pepper and one green bell pepper. I was trying to figure out what we were going to have for dinner, and suddenly FAJITAS!!!! flashed through my head.

How could I forget you, oh lovely fajitas??

You can make fajitas adaptable to just about anyone with any kind of allergy, I do believe. Since I am gluten free, I have the corn tortillas, but I love them more than flour now.

I like following this recipe for my fajita marinade:

• 1/2 cup lime juice
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• salt and pepper, to taste

Add whatever else you please (I added spinach this time, and yeah, I’ll be revisiting it). It’s an easy meal to slap together for everyone. Works well for pickier eaters, who only seem to want cheese, sour cream, and chicken on theirs.

Also, I’d like to pass along my favorite guacamole recipe (though I didn’t make it for that dinner above). Given to me by my friend, Zoe, hence the name!

Zoe’s Guacamole

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 1 tsp coarse salt.
• 2 seeded plum tomatoes
• 2 minced jalapeno peppers (added if you want it spicier – I usually just add some hot sauce)
• 1 minced small red onion
• 1/2 cup cilantro
• 3 to 4 Tbsp fresh lime juice

Mix all together, and smash with a fork. Leave chunky!

Summer!

Everyone keeps asking me, “What have you guys been up to?”

I am terrible at answering this question. Always.

“Uhhh….stuff. We’ve been busy.”

So, the summer so far has been lots of swimming, cooking, lazing about in the sun, playing in the sand, seeing friends, watching sunsets, and watching all the episodes of The X-Files. Sure, that may not be exciting to some, but it’s been enough for us. In my mind, that’s what makes up a good summer (including The X-Files!). We have been having lots of good times, and learning how to happily live aboard.

The kids are also getting very comfortable in the water, which is great considering how fearful they were of swimming when we moved here. Ciara’s practicing very hard in the river almost every nice day we have. Oliver willingly goes out and lays down in the water, crawling around and saying, “I’m swimming! I’m swimming!”

Here are some pictures of our summer so far:

Tofu Curry with Cucumber Salad

Cooking in a little galley has been the hardest transition for me. I am used to spreading out, making a mess, taking my sweet time, and forgetting what I went to look for in the fridge. Being in our boat has forced me to focus, to plan my cooking strategy ahead of time, and GASP, prep my food ahead.

One dish that I love putting together (and often crave) is curry and rice. It changes depending on my mood, but the main ingredients are there: rice, coconut milk, red curry paste. Sometimes there’s peanut butter, and often a veggie and/or protein of some kind.

Today it’s fried tofu and brown rice in doused in delicious curry. Curried stuff is great for cooking aboard, because the ingredients are easy and you just warm it up until it’s yummy. You can add whatever is in need of being eaten, and it’s great for leftovers. Perfect meal, if you ask me!!

Now.

I am going to show you my galley (though I still call it a kitchen ), and how crazy my cooking looks like in it.

Yeah. There’s a lot going on there. AND! there’s a sleeping kid nearby You just gotta make it work.

Here are some old standbys I like to keep around (even when I lived in a ‘regular’ home):

Chili paste, red curry paste from the Indian market (this one even has curry leaves mixed in!!), rice wine vinegar, coconut milk. The bases of many awesome meals.

I have had a hard time with fried tofu in the past (looking up recipes for it is absolutely ridiculous; everyone has ‘their own way’). I think I got it down. I get the extra firm, slice it up about 1/4 inch thick, heat up the oil, and throw a few of those bad boys in there. Let it fry for about 1-2 minutes per side. Definitely don’t get them too brown or else it will be crunchy and hard (one recipe told me to fry it for 6 minutes on one side – yeah. You know how that turned out).

I’ve been cooking my brown rice in my pressure cooker (YAY!), and it’s awesomeness that way. Fast, yummy, efficient with the propane.

Here’s what I did with that:

2 & 3/4 c water

1 & 1/4 c brown rice (I have a jiggle top so I have to use more water)

1 t oil, butter, something to lube it up

2-3t of something salty (I like bouillon!)

Bring water, butter, salty stuff to a boil. Add rice. Stir. Secure the lid and bring to pressure. Lower heat to low, and cook 17 minutes. Take off heat and let sit 10. Open up, stir and be satisfied.

So, that’s done, and now all you gotta do is open up that can of coconut milk and add it to a small saucepan. Add about 2-3 T of red curry paste, and heat on low until it tastes done.

Oh, and the cucumber salad was prepped ahead of all this so that it could marinate in it’s loveliness.

Here’s a basic rundown of what I did:

Peeled one cucumber. Slice very thinly. In bowl add: about 1 tsp chili paste, large pinch of salt, 2 t of rice wine vinegar, 1 tsp sugar. Stir and add in cucumber. Let chill for a bit, and then nosh away!

All this tasted great together. I also like sweet slaw with the curry and rice, but the cucumber totally took it to a different level of amazing. It’s tangy and spicy. My taste buds are happy

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Oh, and if you’re not reading the series of family posts on Women and Cruising, you should get on that! I love this particularly from the latest installment:

When talking about how others thought their family was foolish to choose to live aboard and cruise -

Eight years later, most have come around to realizing this was not a seat-of-our-pants whim, but a way of life which we wholly embraced then and now. They see by now that the choices we’ve made fit into our fundamental philosophy on life, love, commitment, adventure, child-raising, education, partnership, environmentalism, politics — on everything we ever stood for in the first place.

A Day in the (Living Aboard) Life!

With the help of my lovely friend, Meg, I finally found the motivation to do a “Day in the Life“. I have meant to do one for a long time now, but just never made time for it.

So, if you are a little curious about what our every day life looks like here, check out my post over on the community.

Lately (Along With a Recipe)

We have been pretty busy lately.

I read somewhere that when asked what you do while living on a boat, this man always responds, “I don’t know, but it takes all day!”

And really, that’s what it feels like! Sometimes it feels like all we are doing is eating, playing, talking, reading, and then somehow, it is bedtime.

But that’s okay. We’re enjoying ourselves down here on the river, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

We are getting to know our boat neighbors better. Our neighbor one boat over is the marina gossip, so if we need to know anything about anything, she will tell us! Ha!

We also met another family down here with two young girls, and we’re are getting to be fast friends.

Oh, and the sun finally came out and the water went down. There were a few hot days in there, but it’s been in the high 70′s mostly and really enjoyable. The evening brings a good breeze in from the river, so we cool down quickly.

We also had a great time on the fourth. That was the day we met the other family down here, so we spent the whole afternoon, evening and night on their power boat, went out on the river, and came back to see the fireworks on the beach. We had the best view in Portland, I dare say. We were all decked out in glow sticks, and our friends had a vast supply of vodka soaked cherries. It was a good night!

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Just made this yesterday and it is already gone. Wonderful boat recipe that comes together quickly, is gluten, grain and dairy free, and requires no cooking! YAY! I made it with chickpeas and parsley. Way good! Would be good with feta if you can do dairy, or with some greens. I had mine with tortilla chips, because they rock my world.

White Bean and Tuna Salad (from Simply Recipes)

Ingredients

• 1 cup of chopped red onions or shallots
• The zest and juice of 1 lemon or 2 limes (can sub a tablespoon or two of cider vinegar)
• 2 five to six ounce cans of tuna packed in olive oil
• 2 15-ounce cans of cannellini or Great Northern white beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup of chopped mint, parsley, or arugula
• A few splashes of Tabasco sauce, or 1 minced Serrano chile or 1 teaspoon red chile flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Salt and olive oil to taste

Method

1. Drain the oil from the tuna and put the tuna into a large bowl. Add the beans to the tuna and gently stir to combine. Add the onions, herbs, black pepper, lemon zest and lemon juice and mix to combine. Add Tabasco or chile to taste. If the salad needs more acid, add a little more lemon juice. If the salad seems a little dry, add a little bit of olive oil. Add salt to taste.2. Chill before serving (or just eat it like a fiend from the bowl right after you make it). This salad will last several days, tightly covered.

Serves 4.

Cooking on a Boat (Complete with Recipe)

The hardest part about transitioning to living aboard has been learning to cook in a small space, and with a propane oven. Really, I should show you my space. Maybe once I get it all clean, yeah? But the upside is, it’s so small that even when it’s dirty, it cleans up real quick. Just another adventure.

I have been wanting to keep track of the recipes that really work for cooking aboard, and share them here. Another thing that makes it a wee bit harder for us is that I’m avoiding gluten, dairy and meats (except seafood). Stir-fries and Mexican food are popular!

Doubt the kids will enjoy this one, but I’m making it for a camping trip, and I’m sure at least some of the adults will like it. Will be a nice lunch on a hot day for me, too!

Black Bean & Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 can of black beans, rinsed
• 1 1/2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
• 1 cup (or more if you please) of corn – cut from the cob or frozen
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup red onion
• 1/2 tomato, de-seeded and chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

For dressing

• 5 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or to taste
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin, or to taste
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Cook your quinoa however you like. I prefer to toast it slightly, and then cook in a pot with a 1:1.5 ratio. So, 1 cup quinoa, 1 & 1/2 cup water. I like to salt this, too. Bring to boil, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes or so. Keep an eye on it. You want the quinoa to still be kinda crunchy. The coils should be mostly intact.

While that’s happily bubbling, add all the other ingredients together  in a big bowl (or your biggest cooking pot if you’re like us and don’t have big bowls!). Add more or less of each thing, depending on your taste. You can really be flexible with this. Add some jalapenos if you want it spicy. I added some hot sauce. Whatever. Go with your gut on this.

Once the quinoa is done, cool it down some, but not completely, so that the flavors can co-mingle a little easier. I like to do it quickly, and spread it out on a plate and fluff it a few times. Add to your big bowl/pot. Stir and taste. Add more of anything you think is needing some help.

This is a decent amount. Dinner for 3-4, or a side for 6-8.

We Will Be Swept Away!

The rain as of late has been absolutely abnormal. So much rain, and with that, the water levels have gone up and up. It is sort of neat seeing all the trees going underwater, and the river swelling.

Yesterday, one of the only nice days, I took a stroll to take some pictures of the east end of the island, and see how far the water had risen.

As a comparison...

The trail ends abruptly

All this rain has made me pause a few times and think, “What if it didn’t stop? What if the rain kept going, and the we could no longer dock here? What do we do then?” Learn to anchor out on the river for awhile? I’m sure it won’t come to that, but it’s interesting to think about.

Weather, Birthday, and a Pox on Our Boat!

Weather here has been windy, chilly and wet. Raincoats have been worn up and down the docks, and walking up the ramp daily has been fun with a little one who says, “I can’t walk that far!” But it has been a lesson in “just deal with it”, and we all have been, quite well actually. The kids are getting used to being outside in the yucky weather, I have been adapting to taking them out in it and getting things done no matter what. Being aboard makes me have to do things that I would normally put off. I have to get out there, for all of us, and it’s good for me. Even if something makes me uncomfortable, I no longer have that safe bubble house to retreat to and ignore the world. The world is all here, and I have a feeling this summer is going to be full of new things for all of us.

I also added some more liveaboard and cruising family blog links on my blogroll, so if you’re interested in reading about other families aboard, please check them out!

Last Thursday, we were able to meet the Bradfords, another liveaboard family, who came up from California to bring their boat down from Washington. Their kids are just about the same age as ours, so they got along wonderfully, and Brian and I had a great time getting to know another like-minded people, and learn some more about sailing. It was a great day, and I hope once we learn how to sail and head south, we will cross paths again!

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Ciara had her sixth birthday party on Saturday; we invited a small group of friends and all had a blast playing on the beach together. She was so happy to share some of her new home with people that care about her!

And thankfully she was able to postpone coming down with the Chicken Pox until the day after her party. She has a pretty good case of it, so we are taking it easy this week, watching movies, snacking and resting.

Transitioning & the Beach

Things are going so well here. Everyone around is nice as pie, which truly makes us feel welcome. The kids are adapting easily to boat life, though fighting just a bit more due to the close space, I think. I have a feeling once the sun starts coming out more, that will ease up.

The whole transition really didn’t seem to take that much effort, other than moving things aboard. I had thought it would be harder, since everyone told us so, but that hasn’t been the case. I think we’re just boat people who were living in a house

We went to the neighboring beach a couple of days ago with a friend and her son. The kids all had a blast, and didn’t talk to us for a couple of hours. That’s a good time to me!  This beach is just a hop, skip and a jump away, so we will be frequenting it often. Lots of fun days ahead!

Our First Week (in Photos)