Mexican Quinoa

Quinoa is a yummy versatile food.  It had a lot of protein and fiber to keep you fuller longer.  It's a great addition to any diet, not just a vegetarian one.  I used to be hesitant to use it because I thought it was hard to cook.  Boy was I wrong!  This recipe would be a great side at a neighborhood picnic or even for lunch all by it's self. 

Ingredients:

2 Cups Uncooked Quinoa

4 Plum Tomatoes

1 Cup Black Beans

1 Jalapeno

8.5oz can Corn (no salt added)

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

Juice from 1/2 of a Lime

1 Tbsp Cilantro, Chopped

Salt and Pepper to taste

I wanted to add an avocado to this but I totally forgot!  Now there's an unused avocado sitting on my window sill mocking me.  I'll just have to use it in a different recipe this week, maybe an Ahi Tuna Salad!

Back to the Quinoa... There are a few different ways to cook it, so try experimenting with toasting it first, using broth instead of water or measuring the water and cooking it more like rice instead of pasta.  I like this method because it doesn't require me to be exact with the water and it does get over cooked.  SO SIMPLE!

Start off by washing the quinoa a few times.  I just put it in my sauce pan, add water and switch it around a little.  I strain it and repeat one or two more times.  Next, put the quinoa in the sauce pan, add water and a pinch of salt. Bring the quinoa to a boil and let it cook for about 10 minutes.  

Then drain the quinoa in a sieve, add about an inch of water back to the pot and put the sieve with the quinoa in it, over the water.  Cover with a clean towel, place the lid over the top and let steam, simmer on low for about 10 minutes.  Make sure to fold the corners of the towel over if they get too close to your heating element or flame!!!

While that's cooking, chop your tomatoes, jalapeno and cilantro.  If you're adding avocado (which I HIGHLY recommend) chop that too!

Add all of the ingredients to a bowl, mix thoroughly and salt/pepper to taste.  Try not to devour the whole bowl while "tasting".  

I love the satisfying crunch of the fresh tomatoes and jalapenos combined with the tangy lime juice and texture of the quinoa.  Everything comes together nicely!  This is good room temperature or cold the next day.  DIG IN!

Butternut Squash and Mushrooms 3 ways

The Husband and I try not to buy lunch very often so I usually cook extra food at dinner to pack up for the next day.  But the other day I had a great idea, instead of eating the same exact thing for lunch and dinner for days, why not mix it up a bit?  Why not cook up one thing we love and small portions of a few different proteins to add to it.  Then we could eat it for days without getting bored!  So that's what I did.  I cooked a large batch of butternut squash and portobello mushrooms and ended up with 12 lunchs for the Husband and myself to share. 

I had 3 bases; pasta, salad and a wrap.  3 cheeses; ricotta cheese, goat cheese and monteray jack cheese. And 3 Proteins; tilapia, shrimp and beans.  The squash and mushrooms can easily be cut in thirds to make 4 servings of one of the dishes.  Here's how it all came together:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Packages of pre-cubed Butternut Squash (about 3 cups)
3 Cloves Garlic
12 Sage Leaves
1/3 Stick Butter
6 Portobello Mushrooms
3 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 Package Pasta
1 Package Salad Greens

1 Package Tortilla Wraps

Ricotta Cheese (I make my own which is why there's milk, cream and vinegar in the picture)

Goat Cheese

Monteray Jack Cheese

1/2lb Shrimp
2 Medium sized Tilapia Filet
2 Cups Beans

I cooked the Butternut Squash in batches to make sure I didn't over crowd the pan and everything cooked properly.  Mince the garlic and chop the sage while melting 1/3 of the butter in a pan. 

Add the garlic to the butter and let it cook slightly, and then add the sage. 
Take a second to enjoy how amazing your kitchen smells!

Add the butternut squash to the pan and cook until it's soft and nicely browned. 

Mmmm look at that color!

Transfer to a dish with a slotted spoon and add 1 Tbsp oil.

Slice the mushrooms and add to the pan, toss lightly to cover in the oil/butter/garlic/sage mixture. YUM!

Let the mushrooms cook down and brown.  

and add them to a bowl with the squash.  Complete the other two batchs the same way.  I alternated cooking the squash and mushrooms this way to make sure everything cooked the same with a good amount of butter/oil mixture, but feel free to cook all of the squash and then all of the mushrooms.  It won't make a difference.  

Once that's complete, you just need to cook your proteins (and your pasta base) and assemble!  The Tilapia and Shrimp were simply pan fried with a little bit of salt and pepper.  Here are all three of my dishes:

With Tilapia and Goat Cheese over Mixed Greens

With Shrimp and Ricotta Cheese over Pasta

With Kidney Beans and Monteray Jack Cheese in a Wrap

Vegetable Stew

Occasionally if the day is cruddy enough the Husband will request a hearty stew and I am more than happy to oblige.  Today was one of those occasions and I'm excited to say that this came out so much better than I had anticipated.  I plan to make it again to dehydrate for our next big hiking trip!

Ingredients:

3 Cloves Garlic

1 tsp Olive Oil

5 Cups Vegetable Broth

2 Cups Kidney Beans

1 lb Carrots

2 Baking Potatoes

1 Cups Butternut Squash

10 oz Mushrooms

8.5 oz canned Corn (no salt added)

8.5 oz canned Green Beans (no salt added)

Salt and Pepper

1/4 Cup Pasta

Mince garlic and add to a sauce pot with olive oil.  Let the garlic cook slightly until fragrant to bring out the flavors.  Add the broth and the kidney beans to the pot.  My beans were dried, not canned.  I used my pressure cooker to quick-soak them so I knew they would need some extra time in the stew.  If you are using canned beans you can add them after the vegetables.

Chop the carrots and potatoes to the same size as the pre-cut butternut squash.  If you did not buy the pre-cut squash, cut the carrots into 1 inch rounds and the potatoes and squash into 1 inch cubes.  You want everything to be somewhat equal in size so it will cook the same. Add salt and pepper to taste, keep in mind that you can always add more later if you need to.  You can also experiment with different spices such as cumin, crushed red pepper or Italian seasoning.

After I let the beans and vegetables cook, I noticed I needed some more liquid in the pot.  I ended up added about 1 more cup of broth at this point.  Then I added the mushrroms and canned vegetables.  

Don't be afraid to let this simmer on the stove.  The longer it cooks the more the flavors blend together.  This is a great dinner for a rainy or snowy evening.  It's also really filling so a little goes a long way! 

What seasonings did you add to your stew?  

Cumin Tilapia over Guacamole Salad

The Husband and I went to my friends house for her birthday this weekend.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHANNON! I quickly whipped together a Tilapia salad to bring with us and it was delicious!  I knew I had the fixins for guacamole at home so I decided to make the salad with a little Mexican flavor to it.  I decided to use Tilapia because my friend has an allergy to iodine in seafood and can only eat fresh water fish but you could easily substitute shrimp for the fish here.  It would be equally amazing. 

Lets start with the Tilapia:

3 large Tilapia filets (about 1.5lbs)

1/2 cup Flour

2 tsp Cumin

Salt and Pepper

2 Tbsp Olive Oil for frying

Sprinkle the Tilapia with salt, pepper and 1 tsp cumin.  Add the other tsp of cumin to the flour and place in a shallow dish.  Meanwhile, heat oil in a pan over medium heat. 

Lightly coat the Tilapia with flour.  Shake off any exess.

Fry Tilapia in oil for a few minutes on each side until it flakes with a fork.  Try not to eat it all before you add it to the salad.  Just look at that yummy crispiness!  Once cooked through, remove fish from pan and place on a paper towel on a clean plate. 

Break the Tilapia into bite size pieces and set aside.  

Now onto the Guacamole topping:
3 Plum Tomatoes

2 Avocados

2 Jalapenos

Juice from 1/4 Lime

Dice the tomatoes, jalapenos and avocado.  You can keep the dice fairly large.   

 

Add everything to a bowl, squeeze lime juice over the top and mix.  You could mash the avocado and make this more of a guacamole, but I wanted to keep it chunky like a pico de gallo.

Cilantro Lime Dressing:

3-5 Cloves Garlic

1/2 tsp Salt

2 Tbsp Cilantro ruffly chopped
Juice from 1/2 a Lime

1/4 cup Vinegar

1/2 cup Oil 

Grind Garlic, Salt and Cilantro with a mortar and pestle into a paste. 

Since I was making more than I normally do, my oil and vinegar didn't exactly fit in my little mortar so I added the vinegar and lime juice to the garlic cilantro mixture and stirred it a bit, then I added everything to my tupperware container and shook it till it was all mixed together. 

I packaged everything up and headed to Shannons.  To assemble the salad, I added a large box of greens to a salad bowl and spooned half of the guacamole topping over it.  Then I sprinkled half of a bag of monteray jack cheese over the topping and half of the Tilapia over the cheese.  Lastly, I poured half of the dressing over everything and served. 

This was so easy to make and healthy too! 

Salmon with Artichokes and Portobello Mushrooms

For my first post, I wanted to make something AMAZING but still easy with a handful of ingredients.  I recently started making my own salad dressing with just oil, vinegar, garlic and salt.  I always have these on hand so as long as I have greens I can make a great tasting salad.  I wanted to share this quick recipe with you so you too could make your own dressing, and you won't need a science degree to name all ingredients!  But my first post can't be about SALAD can it? No, that's just on the side.  Today's entry is all about Salmon, Artichokes and Portobello Mushrooms.  YUM! So let's get started:

Lets start with all of our ingredients.  I like to take everything out at once to make sure I have everything.  I can't tell you how many times I've started a recipe only to realize half way through cooking that I'm missing something.  Part of my charm.

Salad -
1 bag/box Salad Greens
1 Tomato
2 or more Cloves of Garlic (to taste)
Pinch of Salt
1 Tbsp Vinegar
2 Tbsp Oil
Juice from 1/4 Lemon

With a mortar and pestle (or with a fork) mash garlic cloves with salt.  Once it is completely pulverized, add the vinegar and oil.  Stir vigorously until the oil and vinegar blend together.  Add lemon juice to taste.

I like to drip a small amount of dressing on my finger to get a taste.  That way I'm not constantly cleaning a spoon or sticking my finger IN the dressing.

Risotto -
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Butter
1 1/2 cups Risotto Rice
1/2 cup Dry White Wine
5 cups Vegetable Broth
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/3 cup grated Romano Cheese

I don't use onion in my Risotto, I don't think it takes away from the flavor at all.  Plus onion gives the Husband heart burn.

Heat pan on medium high for a few seconds.  Add the oil and butter until the butter melts.  I like the flavor of adding the two together, you can add one or the other if you prefer.

Once the butter is melted add the rice and cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly.  Do not let the rice brown, unless you're not paying attention... then ignore the slightly browned pieces and move on.  I'm usually alone in the kitchen so no one knows when I make a mistake.  If you won't tell I won't!

Add the White wine and and stir until it is absorbed by the rice.

I think the pan was a little too hot... oops.  Once the wine has been absorbed, add a cup of broth.  I use vegetable broth because the Husband and I don't eat meat but if you do, feel free to use whatever broth you prefer.  I always choose the one with the least sodium and no MSG.  Read the label, if you can't pronounce it, don't buy it! 

Let the rice absorb the broth, stirring occasionally.  Once almost all of the broth has been absorbed it's time to add another half cup.  Continue this cycle; adding broth, letting it absorb, adding more broth until all of the broth has been used.  Risotto really isn't that hard, and if you're near your stove cooking something else anyway, it doesn't feel like it takes that long.

I did all of this while I was cooking the mushrooms so before we finish the rice, let's get our other pan started!

Salmon with Artichokes and Mushrooms - 

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 Cloves Garlic minced (more or less to taste)

4oz Portobello Mushrooms

1/2 cup Dry White Wine

8.5oz can Artichokes in water

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 1/2 - 2lb Salmon (about 1/2lb per person)

Heat pan slightly over medium heat and add oil.  Once hot, add the garlic and let it cook slightly, don't let it brown like I did... or do, it still tasted good!

Add the mushrooms and let them brown and release some of their water.  After a few minutes add the white wine and continue to cook the mushrooms.  Sorry I don't have a picture, it looked like the one above but with mushrooms in it.  

Slice up the artichokes any way you'd like.  I did use canned artichokes, but there were only 4 ingredients: Artichoke hearts, water, salt and citric acid.  The salt and citric acid are preservatives that I can pronounce so that's a plus!  If you'd like less sodium, check the frozen section.  It had 2% sodium as opposed to the can which had 22%.  But the frozen artichokes had additives for color.  I add such little sodium to my food, that the 22% didn't scare me.  Just make sure to keep that percentage in mind when you go to add seasonings!  Once the artichokes are cut up, add them to the pan with some salt and pepper and mix everything up.  

Let most of the liquid in the pan evaporate and add the salmon on top of everything.

Salt and pepper the fish and add the lid.

Cook the salmon until flaky.  I finished the rice and started plating everything as I was putting the lid on my second pan and everything was done at the same time.  

So how did we finish the rice?

Add the Romano cheese, salt and pepper and stir.  Taste it and try not to eat it all.  If it needs more salt or cheese add some, but keep your additions small.  It's easier to add more if you need it, it's not as easy to take it away.  

Divide greens among four bowls and top with a wedge of tomato and dressing.  Put a serving spoon size mound of Risotto in the middle of your plate, top with salmon and spoon artichokes and mushrooms on top.  

Enjoy!