marmite et ponpon

Fasoulia mtabbalé secret seasoning – vegan Lebanese butter beans

Posted on March 8, 2016 | 3 comments

Lebanese mezze are so versatile. You can serve them as appetizers, side dish or even main dish. All depending on how and with what. During lent, this vegan butter beans mezze (fasoulia mtabbalé) is served with bread or potato to be a main dish.

For 1kg butter beans, boiled until tender (yields 4 servings) you need for seasoning:

2 lemon juice
1 garlic clove minced
3/4 cup olive oil
salt to taste

Apparently it’s a very easy and quick dish to serve. You boil the beans until tender and you mix with the seasoning ingredients. BUT! there is an astuce to tell you about, that gives the deep flavor and richness. It’s not a secret ingredient but the way you prepare the seasoning!

When you mix lemon, garlic, oil and salt, take from the beans (half cup almost) and mash it to become like a puree and add it to the seasoning. It gives it a thick texture and coat the beans perfectly when mixed. This way you will taste the deep flavor of seasoning in each bite.

One more thing to mention, prepare the fasoulia mtabbalé at least two hours before serving to absorb the seasoning. Serve it at room temperature or cold. Enjoy!

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3 Comments

Posted in appetizers & salads, main dish

Tagged appetizer, easy recipe, fasoulia mtabbale, how to do, jaymmy, lebanese dish, marmite et ponpon, mezze, recipe, traditional food, vegan, vegan butter beans

Teachers day – wrapping paper DIY

Posted on March 7, 2016 | Leave a comment

Teachers day is in a couple of days. Have fun DIY a beautiful gift wrap to impress your teachers by offering a present with a flair. Your personal touch will make it more special and unique.

All you need is white paper sheets, paint and alphabet cookies cutter to design the gift wrap.

You can use alphabet cookies cutter, numbers or anything related to school. Prepare enough papers to wrap all your gifts. When done, leave them overnight to dry completely.

After wrapping the gifts, use a nice ribbon and attach letters cutouts to take it to the next level! I am sure this year your gifts will be as memorable as you.

“Those who educate children well are more to be honored than parents, for these only gave life, those the art of living well.” –Aristotle

Happy teachers day!

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Process art – Spinning for spring

Posted on March 4, 2016 | 3 comments

Process art is when you’re enjoying the creative process, trying or inventing new techniques, introducing new elements from daily life, and the least you care about is working for the end result. In few words, process art is when the process of creating matters more than the result product.

Kids love process art, naturally they enjoy the journey more than the delivered product. They unleash their creativity, being all messy and mostly happy. Discovering and experiencing is the key! I was searching for a fun way of painting to start the spring/Easter decoration. I wanted Nady to be excited about the activity and enjoy the preparations. I came across the spin art paint.

Without thinking twice i knew this is the type of activity that Nady will love. I got a

salad spinner
vibrant colors paint
card boards (cut in 18x18cm square)

… and here we go!

Put the paper inside the salad spinner, squirt some paint and spin!

We repeated many times with different colors combination and each time was more beautiful. In spin art paint we didn’t just enjoy the process but we were in love with the end product as well! Nady didn’t want to stop.

We kept them overnight to dry before mounting them on foam boards.

Nady was so happy he couldn’t wait to hang them on the wall. We both enjoyed this process art and the surprise effect with each time we open the salad spinner to discover a new painting. We decided to do all our decorations this way!

The next day we repeated the same process with smaller pieces of paper to create a spring garland!

That’s it for now but it’s not all. Wait for more posts of spin art process, we still have almost 3 weeks to Easter and a lot to do. Stay tuned!

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

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Posted in design, DIY, way to play

Tagged art, colors, creative kids, easter, handmade decoration, jaymmy, kids craft, marmite et ponpon, process art, spin art. spring, way to play

Mdardara – vegan lebanese lentil and rice pilaf

Posted on March 2, 2016 | 8 comments

This superfood goes beyond having health benefits to amaze you with its delicious taste. It’s only rice and lentils but surprisingly it is so tasty. Another vegan Lebanese traditional dish, fast and easy, to enjoy during lent season and all the time.

To prepare this dish you will need:(4 servings)

1 cup brown lentil, rinsed
3/4 cup rice soaked for 10 minutes and drained
2 medium onion coarsely chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
5 cups of water
salt to taste
4-5 onions cut a la julienne and fried for garnish

Boil the lentil in 3 cups of water until tender, but firm. Set aside.

Cook the onion in olive oil, until tender and fragrant, add the rice with 2 cups of water and cook. Add the lentils in the last 5 minutes to cook all together. Add salt to your taste.

Fry 4-5 medium onion cut a la julienne until caramelized to top the mdardara before serving. I believe this caramelized onion takes the dish to the next level and adds the deep flavor that makes the difference!

The best way to eat mdardara is with Lebanese bread, as you may know it’s a staple on every Lebanese table; we eat bread with almost everything. Serve it with a green salad or vegetables such as radish, tomato, cucumber, spring onion… Some people serve it with yogurt.

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

8 Comments

Posted in main dish

Tagged healthy, jaymmy, lebanese traditional food, lentil and rice pilaf, marmite et ponpon, mdardara, recipe, vegan

How to reward instead of punishing your kids

Posted on February 29, 2016 | 2 comments

I know how hard to always act calmly, not to yell and keep a positive and wise attitude around kids, especially when they provoke you with an unacceptable behavior.

All parents see their kids as perfect as they wish them to be. It’s so frustrating when they start acting stubborn or refuse to eat or do their homework…. there are many behaviors that make you disappointed to a point you might loose it on them. Here comes the easiest solution: punishment!

Have you ever tried to reward and praise instead of penalizing? Because our kids learn better with love, punishment was never the ultimate solution. In contrary, punishments push your kids to be more stubborn and aggressive. Instead of telling your kid: “if you don’t finish your plate the ball will be confiscated for 3 days” get closer to give a hug and kiss and tell him”my big boy, if you finish your plate you will stay up one extra hour watching your favorite program”.

Rewards help to keep children motivated. You give them a choice and let them be the decision makers. You develop their logic and reason to know how to choose what’s best for them and push them to be responsible for their choices.

But between reward and blackmail there is a thin line. You should be careful not to let your kids manipulate you and put conditions to do things. For example he could tell you, if you buy me this toy i do my homework! This is the trap that you might fall in. To keep the game on the safe side, It’s the other way round; you suggest and not the kids. You explain that this is a reward and nice gesture from you to appreciate the efforts and not a condition to do their duties.

For that reason i came up with a way to reward Nady showing love and appreciation without opening his eyes to the blackmailing thing. We cut out together colorful hearts and stars (made with a homemade salt dough) and told him that each time i see that he deserves a gesture of kindness i will offer a heart/star, he will collect them and by the end of the week, we count how many he has to replace them with a reward. The more he has the bigger the reward is.

Rewards can be privileges, things or activities;

Going to the park
crafting together
going for a bicycle ride
going out for ice cream
extra tv hour
sleeping an hour late
buying a toy of his choice

You know what your kids fancy and make them look forward to! But don’t forget along with the rewards should offer hugs and kisses to remind them how dear and precious they are, and no matter what they will remain the biggest love.

Actually i am thinking to give my son some hearts and stars and ask him to reward me too when he thinks i deserve it. I like this game 🙂

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