Spread My Culinary Wings

I just got brought back from the dead.  Culinarily that is.  I love cooking, especially with fresh ingredients (chopping is my favorite), but some events over the last couple months have kind of thrown me through a loop and I haven't done a lot of REAL food cooking lately.  It's been mostly stuff thrown together, store-bought food, even fast-food (yuck!).  So this morning I made myself go to the farmer's market.  It had been too long.  I used to go every weekend!
So I packed up the girls and we were off.  It was a beautiful morning.  The fog came in last night and kept things cooler for a June morning in Southern California.  Downtown was bustling with people eating breakfast outside little restaurants, reading and, of course, going to the farmer's market.  This is the best time of year for this kind of thing.  There are so many kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables in season right now.  It was hard not to buy it all.  Everything looked so ripe and delicious.  We passed the berry stand first and saw these gorgeous golden raspberries that my daughter just had to have (and is currently trying to make herself sick on them by attempting to talk me into allowing her to eat them all in one sitting).  There were tiny zucchinis, bell peppers, onions, potatoes of all different colors and sizes, herbs (I snatched some basil (my favorite!) up right away), oranges, cherries, so much stuff!  So we made the rounds, grabbed up a bunch of yummy goods and made our way home.
It was lunchtime when we got back so I fixed the girls some berries and chicken really quick, then, with the kitchen to myself, I went to work.
First I cooked some quinoa in chicken stock (I like the stock because it helps give it a heartier flavor).  While that was doing it's thing, I chopped half an onion and began sauteing it in some butter in a large pan.  Then I chopped the baby zucchinis and threw those in after the onions had cooked for a few minutes.  A few minutes later, when the onions were looking translucent, I threw in chopped red and yellow bell peppers.  When everything was the at the tenderness I liked, I threw in a can of drained black beans.  While the beans were warming up I threw in a bunch of cumin, probably 2-3 tablespoons, salt to taste, around 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (since I was out of the real stuff) and some chili powder.  Meanwhile, the quinoa had cooked and was cooling off.  After I was done seasoning the bean and vegetable mixture, I added the quinoa and half a large bunch of chopped cilantro.  I stirred that up, scooped some into a bowl and devoured it.  Quite happily by the way :)