happy year of the dragon

yesterday was the lunar new year, and this year is the year of the dragon.  we ventured to a traditional korean concert for the afternoon to watch dance-offs, instrument performances and tight rope walking.  all this performed by men dressed in traditional korean folk attire including small hats strapped to their heads and large fans that they waved around during their performances.

this tight rope walker was pretty amazing.  he performed dances across the rope, bounced on one leg for the entire length, walked across with one knee down and sliding his front foot forward, jumped high in the air and with straight legs touched his knees to his nose and landed back on the rope, and finally, (guys, bare with me here because he must have been wearing some sort of special cup down there), but he jumped in the air, straddled the rope and landed on it, then bounced back up turned in the air and did it again on the other side.

meanwhile we are standing in the crowd of koreans and chinese alike freezing our toes off because the high for the day was 28F.  we didn't last very long and ended up getting drinks and playing quiddler for the rest of the afternoon.

below is a picture of how ryan dresses up before he goes outside in the winter time in korea.

we came back home and had a nice meal of spinach and feta stuffed zucchini with a garlic squash drizzle.

what better way to start of the new year with a healthy meal.  since we have been on the specific carbohydrate diet we have been more excited about eating healthy and more cautious about what we feed our bodies.

the goods:
-two hand-fulls of spinach, washed and torn apart into smaller pieces.
-two zucchinis cut lengthwise
-1 kabocha squash
-1 can chicken broth
-3-4 cloves of garlic
-1/2 onion
-2-3 T of cumbled feta
-1 chicken breast, (optional.  we used it cause we had it already cooked from the day before.)
-1 t olive oil



method:
-place squash in a pot of boiling water until slightly tender.  this could take about 30 minutes.  once tender, cut in half and scoop out insides and discard.  in batches, break squash into pieces and place in blender or food processor with portioned chicken broth.  blend with garlic cloves and onion.  place in pot on stove to heat.

-after you cut the zucchini, scoop out the insides and place them in a pan on high heat along with the spinach and olive oil for about 10 minutes.

-after 10 minutes add feta to the spinach mix for 5 minutes.

-scoop mixture into zucchini boats and bake for 10 minutes at 350F.

-pull from oven and drizzle garlic squash on top.

-enjoy

*this recipe make a lot of garlic squash sauce to be used in other recipes.  i am using the rest of ours tonight as a base for a soup.