Thai Cashew Quinoa Salad with Ginger Peanut Dressing

So I'm absolutely addicted to quinoa right now... I know, I know, I'm a walking Vancouver cliche. (currently in Australia but started this obsession last year in Vancouver). I have found ways to incorporate it in almost every meal... with yogurt for breaky, with salad for lunch and with whatever I have left for dinner. Is there a harm in too much quinoa? I'm going to Google that right now.

Anyway, I found this recipe on Pinterest this week and had to try it. I love any Thai food, especially peanut sauce so this was a winner. I added a few extra things and I think they worked well. Let me know how it goes!

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• 2 cups shredded red cabbage 
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• ½ cup chopped cilantro
• ¼ cup diced green onions
• ½ cup cashew halves or peanuts (roasted is good)
• 1 cup edamame (or frozen peas)
• 1 cup chickpeas
• Fresh lime, for a bit of tang

For the dressing:

• ¼ cup natural peanut butter
• 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
• 3 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey (or agave)
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Water to thin, if necessary

Instructions

1. To make dressing: Add peanut butter and honey or agave to a medium microwave safe bowl; heat in microwave for 20 seconds. Add in ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, and both sesame and olive oil and stir until mixture is smooth and creamy. If you want a thinner dressing, simply stir in a teaspoon or two of water. I had to add a few teaspoons and then make more dressing also. You need to make sure you have enough dressing to cover all quinoa. 
2. Put quinoa (must be cooled down) in large bowl. Add in dressing so it covers all quinoa and mix well. (have a taste to ensure you have enough dressing!)
3. Next fold in red pepper, onion, cabbage, carrots, chickpeas, edamame, cilantro and any other veggies into the quinoa. 
4. Garnish with cashews and green onions. Serve chilled or at room temperature with lime wedges if desired.

Adapted from: Ambitious Kitchen

Sweet Potato & Curry Hummus

I'm currently "in-between" jobs in Australia and spending a great deal of time in the kitchen. We have been hitting up the farmer's markets and last week got a giant bag of sweet potato's for $2. (I should probably mention it was actually my boyfriend's parents who got them while we were at the beach... haha). So I went onto Pinterest earlier this week and searched for anything with sweet potatoes... I found lots of great stuff but I wanted something healthy so I chose to make the hummus.

There were tons of great recipes so I used a combination of a few of them. Hummus is great because you start with a can of chickpeas and then add pretty much anything you like! Garlic, lemon and tahini seem to be a good base with the chickpeas and then add anything else! I'm hoping to try a few more varieties next week too!

Ingredients

• 1 can chickpeas (15oz)
• 1 roasted sweet potato
• 2-3 cloves of garlic (roasted)
• 1 tablespoon of tahini
• 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1 teaspoon of curry powder (I used Madras Curry Powder)
• dash of cayenne pepper
• salt/pepper to taste
• Crushed cashews for garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Place 1 sweet potato on cooking sheet and bake for 45 minutes or until tender. You can also roast the garlic at this time.
3. Let sweet potato cool and then peel off skin and cut into pieces.
4. Place all ingredients (except water) into food processor and mix on low.
5. Slowly add the water a little bit at a time until it is the consistency you want.
6. Add crushed cashews for garnish.
7. Store in fridge for up to 5 days.

Quinoa Breaky Bites

I absolutely LOVE breakfast and absolutely HATE waking up early to cook it. This recipe is something that you can easily make on Sunday afternoon and keep in the fridge for the week. You can grab one on the way to work, heat it up or leave it as it. They would be great with a little salad for lunch or with some salsa for breakfast.

The best part about them is you can add whatever you have in the fridge! I love goats cheese so I add it in to whatever I can. The original recipe used mini muffin tins for the bites. I didn't have a mini muffin tin so I used a normal muffin tin. The only issue is that the bigger muffins don't stay together as well. I might try again when I purchase a mini tin. This recipe made 12 bites, but only about 8 stayed together well. 

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked quinoa (about 3/4 cup uncooked)
3 eggs
2 egg whites
1 cup zucchini, shredded
1 cup butternut squash, roasted
1/2 cup diced ham
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup goat cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup red peppers, diced
1/4 cup caramalized onions
2 green onions, sliced
salt & pepper

Garnish: cilantro + cheddar cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix to combine. Liberally spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray and spoon mixture to the top of each cup. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the edges of the cups are golden brown. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before removing from the muffin tin.

Enjoy!

Original Recipe from Iowa Girl Eats

Chocolate Easter Nests

How cute are these???

My mom used to make chocolate clusters for the holidays every year. They were a huge hit with friends and family. So when I saw these cute Easter nests on Pinterest last year, I decided that I would make them for this Easter. This recipe is super easy and incredibly fast. I think the whole process took me about 20 minutes.

You can buy most of the ingredients at a bulk food store, which makes it very inexpensive.

Ingredients:

• Dark chocolate chips and/or wafers
• Butterscotch chips
• Chow mein noodles
• Mini Eggs or Eggies

Directions:

1. Melt the dark chocolate chips with the butterscotch chips (either in microwave or double broiler) Use about 2:1 dark chocolate:butterscotch.
2. Remove from heat
3. Mix in chow mein noodles until covered
4. Drop onto metal non stick baking sheet in small clusters
5. Add 3 Mini Eggs to middle of each cluster
6. Put baking sheet in fridge for 10-15 minutes
7. Remove from fridge and they should pop off baking sheet easily
8. Keep in fridge to maintain shape

Enjoy!!!

Butternut Squash, Pecan, Spinach & Quinoa Bowl

So this is going to be my first post in a long seven months. I took a bit of a hiatus as Nathan was kindly 'asked to leave' Canada for a few months. He headed back to Australia and I joined him for an awesome vacation over the Holidays in December. He is now back here in Canada and I thought it was time to try a few fun new recipes.... So things turned out alright in the end (as I've heard they always do) and now it's time to move on and start some more food bloggin!

I found this recipe on Pinterest and decided right then and there that I had to try it ASAP. It is a pretty simple salad using roasted butternut squash, pecans, hummus and any veggies you have around. We added tofu since I had some in the house and thought it would be a nice addition. Not necessary though. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 2 cups peeled, cubed butternut squash
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro
• 1 cup cubed tofu (grilled)
• 1 cup steamed spinach (or swiss chard or kale)
• 1/4 cup roasted pecans
• 1 cup hummus (homemade or store bought)

Directions

1. Cook quinoa according to directions, using vegetable stock for half the water (optional) and adding 2 teaspoons curry and brown sugar to the pot before cooking
2. Coat squash with olive oil, white sugar, cinnamon, 1 teaspoon curry and salt to taste. Roast in 400F oven for 30 min or until tender.
3. Add squash, cilantro, tofu and spinach to the cooked quinoa and toss gently to combine. Top each bowl with pecans and hummus.

Enjoy!!

Adapted from: http://pinchofyum.com/spicy-sweet-squash-bowl 

Pecan & Banana Pancakes with Cinnamon and Vanilla

So when I met Nathan back in 2004 in Australia, he would always make amazing banana pancakes for me. This was a year before the song came out by Jack Johnson called Banana Pancakes. The song talks about making banana pancakes when it raining outside and pretending that it's the weekend. This is very appropriate since we are having the coldest, rainiest June (nicknamed Junuary) in Vancouver in years! Feel free to play in the background while reading this post - click here. We also got to experience amazing Indonesian banana pancakes on our trip to Bali last year. They are much thinner over there, more like what we call crepes. Here is a photo of the ones we had in Bali at the cafe next to our apartment in Legian.

I decided to take the recipe a little further and add some special ingredients to make these pancakes more unique and delicious. I had some pecans laying around and I always have cinnamon and pure vanilla on hand for baking. They turned out amazing! 

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed (I saved one of them to go on top)
• 1 cup of crushed pecans (I also saved some for the top)

1. Combine flour, white sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together egg, milk, vanilla, vegetable oil and bananas.
2. Stir flour mixture into banana mixture; batter will be slightly lumpy.
3. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Cook until pancakes are golden brown on both sides; serve hot.

Click here to original recipe that I adapted

Roasted Butternut Squash & Kale Lasagna

So I'm not usually one to eat vegetarian meals on regular occasions. In fact, I can't remember a lot of meals (lunch/dinner) where I didn't include meat or fish of some kind. Last week, we watched the documentary Forks Over Knives which talks about eating plant-based meals to increase health benefits. There are definitely a bunch of different things to consider but we going to make an effort to eat more veggies and less meat at some of our meals. I came across some fun recipes for veggie lasagna's on Pinterest and decided to give one a try.


I found this recipe for Butternut Squash and Kale lasagna and thought I would try it but with a few changes. We had recently had a great Zucchini Lasagna in Tofino with some friends and wanted to add that into it too. What ended up happening was a bunch of veggies thrown in with the squash, kale and yummy ricotta. This made us enough to eat for a week! (although we are only two people so it doesn't take much). Enjoy!

• Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

• 1 medium red onion, peeled and sliced

• 3 peeled garlic cloves (1 minced, 2 left whole)

• 2 cans (14 oz. each) crushed tomatoes

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano

• About 1 tsp. each salt and freshly ground black pepper, divided

• 6 cups (about 2 lbs.) butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2-in. cubes

• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme

• 1 pound Lacinato kale (often sold as dinosaur or Tuscan kale)

• 9 whole-wheat lasagna noodles (I used about 12)

• 1 container (15 oz.) part-skim-milk ricotta cheese
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

• 
  

Preparation:


1. Preheat oven to 400°. Heat 2 tbsp. olive oil in a 2- to 3-qt. pot over medium heat. Add onion and minced garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft and translucent, 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, oregano, and 1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper. Reduce heat and simmer until thick and flavors are combined, about 30 minutes. Set aside.


2. While sauce is cooking, in a 12- by 15-in. baking pan, sprinkle squash with thyme, remaining olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Add garlic cloves and toss squash mixture to coat with oil. Bake until soft, 10 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, bring 3 qts. salted water to a boil in a large pot.



3. Reduce oven temperature to 350°. Transfer squash and garlic to a food processor and purée until smooth.(I just mashed with a fork and it turned out ok!)


4. Tear kale leaves from center ribs and discard ribs. Boil leaves until soft, 5 to 8 minutes. Drain; let cool. Squeeze out as much water as possible and chop finely. (I steamed kale leaves instead of boiling)


5. In the same pot, bring another 3 qts. salted water to a boil. Add noodles and cook until tender to the bite, about 10 minutes. Drain; rinse with cold water.


6. In a bowl, mix ricotta, nutmeg, 1 cup mozzarella, and remaining 1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper.


7. Coat the bottom of a 9- by 13-in. pan with 1/3 of tomato sauce (about 1 1/2 cups). Lay 3 noodles in a single layer over sauce. Top noodles with squash, spreading evenly. Sprinkle 1/2 of kale evenly over squash. Arrange 3 more noodles on kale and top with ricotta, spreading evenly. Top with remaining kale and noodles. Cover noodles with remaining tomato sauce and sprinkle with remaining 1 cup mozzarella. (I added a layer of zucchini and it was really yummy!)


8. Bake lasagna until juices are bubbling and cheese is melted, about 30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.


Here is the original link from My Recipes