Our theme of fun summer foods continues this week, with this sweet Jamaican style quinoa. Fresh and sundried tomatoes, mango, raisins, and onions make a topping to go over delicately cooked quinoa for a great transition meal. Quinoa contains the highest levels of protein in grains, is easy to digest, and is alkaline in the body. This makes yummy picnic food for celebrations over the 4th of July holiday weekend.

Served with fresh greens and avocado, this is a 65-70% raw food meal. For a 100% raw version, sprout quinoa the day before. Click here for directions.

Ingredients for Quinoa (Serves 2-4):
1 cup dry quinoa
2 cups pure water
3 tablespoons raisins
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan salt

Directions
Rinse quinoa using a strainer under cool running water.
Put quinoa in heavy cooking pot with pure water and salt.
Gently bring to a simmer.
Cover, and cook on lowest temperature possible for about 20 minutes until light and fluffy.

Topping:
1 large mango, peeled
1 medium large tomato, chopped
6 sundried tomatoes, soaked to soften
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons green onions, minced
2 tablespoons sweet Vidalia, or Walla Walla onions
1 clove garlic, pressed
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, or lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon Himalayan salt
several tiny shakes of cayenne pepper

Directions
Put sundried tomatoes into bowl with water.
Cover and soak to soften. (Ours take 6-8 hours, so we start them in the morning, or soak them overnight.)
Remove from bowl, pat dry, and remove skins, if desired. Chop. Put in bowl.
Cut mango from large pit. Add to bowl.
Add green onions, sweet Vidalia onions, garlic, vinegar, salt, and cayenne.
Mix well.
Store in covered glass container in fridge.

As everyone knows, when you see one mouse, there's probably two, or more. That's what we discovered by sitting in the kitchen late one night, waiting, trying to catch a little guy who'd been eluding our humane trap for two weeks. The previous night I dreamed that I caught him with my hands by throwing a towel over him, and that we took him to the forest. So I felt we were getting close to the real live event.

He was so cheeky. Earlier that evening I'd caught him standing on the dining room table and he knew that he was busted! Just like the little mice in the movie, Ratatouille, he was off the table so fast it was both hilarious and astonishing. He was doing aerial acrobatics, flying, leaping, and jumping—and moving so fast I could barely follow his speedy exit. This little guy had been everywhere in the house—we'd found droppings on the sofa in the living room, in the bedroom closet, and even on our bed. He was quite a little mouse and it was definitely time to relocate him!

I was just starting to doze off while trying to maintain my watch when suddenly he nosed his way out from under the stove, and cautiously headed for the middle of the kitchen floor. There he groomed himself, washing his face with his tiny paws. He was so delicate and adorable! A minute or two later, to my utter surprise, a second mouse came out from under the stove. This one seemed female—she was smaller and more hesitant. A slight movement from me sent them scurrying back to their hiding place.

I finally gave up any hope of catching them with a towel, and went to bed. We were trying a new way to bait the trap, by putting peanut butter and apples just past the place where the mouse would need to sit long enough to set the trap off. (Previously, the trap hadn't worked. The smart mouse had found a way to go inside and get the goodies without setting off the spring loaded trap door!)

Sure enough, just as we were going to sleep about 1 am, snap went the door! We found one frantic little mouse trapped inside. Off through the night we went in the car with the little guy. We were taking him to a place where it would be safe, without houses around with people in them who might kill him. Then we went back home, set up the trap a second time, now that we knew there was a mate, and tried to go to sleep. About 3:30 am, snap went the cage door again! We were so tired we waited until about 5:30 before getting up to take the second mouse to the same place in the forest.

This time because it was light, we noticed an old pile of composting branches and thought that would make a wonderful mouse house. A little bird dropped down from a higher branch in a tree to a lower branch that was next to the pile, and watched us. There was something unusual about the bird's behavior that got our attention. The way the bird moved without flapping its wings gave the appearance that it had materialized out of nowhere. It seemed to have floated down magically.

Back home, a couple of hours later, I had an impression that the two mice had joyously found each other. Rex made a connection to the bird, thinking it had helped to guide them to each other! Maybe it happened, maybe it didn't, but we preferred to think about it that way.

The next morning, Rex told me that he'd perceived the mice running around in the woods and in the grassy spot next to the wood pile (shown at right), having a ball during the night. This amazed me because I too had had the exact same impression.