Pineapple Cashew Quinoa

So this is from my friend, Angela's, blog: Green Fed. They were vegan before she got pregnant and the little pea started calling for cheeseburgers. At least that's what I think. And though we haven't caught up lately, I'm thinking pregnancy is creating a break from her awesome vegan blog. So, I'll carry on for her in spirit. Though we aren't vegan, I love to cook vegetarian meals. And this is one dish that Jared actually loves (and the little P-man too). You could probably add chicken, but I like keeping it vegetarian.

Hint: If you haven't cooked with quinoa, I hear the magic number for washing it is seven times but I don't know if that's true (maybe that's for shuffling a card deck?). Needless to say, the outside of quinoa contains the residue used to make soap, so you want to wash it thoroughly. I use a fine-mesh collander and a large bowl to swish and rinse, swish and rinse, several times. It takes a few minutes, so I'll do several cups at a time and then freeze the rest. It still cooks perfectly.

Every time I cook this, I wonder why I didn't double it.

Adapted from: Green Fed

Ingredients:
Quinoa:
1 cup quinoa, well rinsed and drained
1 cup pineapple juice (I just use the juice from the canned pineapple and add water to make up the full cup)
1 cup cold water
1/4 teaspoon soy sauce (I use Bragg’s Liquid Aminos)
Stir-fry:
4 ounces cashews, raw and unsalted
3 tablespoons peanut oil (or any high-heat oil will do)
2 scallions, sliced thinly (I sometimes use 1/2 of a regular onion)
1 hot red chile, sliced into very thin rounds (I don’t use this and it's still really good)
1/2 inch piece ginger, peeled and minced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 cup frozen green peas
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, rolled and sliced in thin shreds
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint
10 ounces fresh pineapple, cut into bite sized chunks (I’ve used canned pineapple and it tastes just as good)
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons vegetable stock
Lime wedges for garnish

Instructions:
For the quinoa: Combine the quinoa, juice, water and soy sauce in a medium sized pot. Cover, place over high heat, and bring to a boil. Stir a few times, lower the heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 12 – 14 minutes until all the liquid has been absorbed and the quinoa appears plumped and slightly translucent. Uncover, fluff and let cool.

For the stir-fry: Use a large frypan or wok. Have all your ingredients pre-chopped and in reach. Place the cashews in the dry pan and heat over low heat, stirring them, until lightly toasted (4 to 5 minutes).
Remove the cashews from the pan, raise the heat to medium and add the peanut oil, scallions and garlic, when the garlic starts to sizzle, add the sliced chili and ginger.
Stir-fry for about 2 minutes, then add the bell pepper and peas. Stir-fry for another 3 to 4 minutes, until the bell pepper is softened and the peas are bright green.
Add the basil and mint, and stir for another minute before adding the pineapple and quinoa.
Combine the soy sauce, vegetable stock and miri. Pour over the quinoa mixture. Stir until the mixture is coated. Continue to stir-fry for 10 minutes (it helps to use two spoons/spatulas to scoop the quinoa around).

Serve with lime wedges.

Split Pea Soup with Barley and Ham - Slow Cooker

Recently, I've been cooking everything from Mel's Kitchen Cafe blog and have yet to find a recipe we didn't love! This is yet another one and was so easy and healthy. The barley was a great addition.

*Serves 4-6
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup dry split green peas
1/2 cup medium pearl barley (not quick-cooking barley)
2 cups chopped ham
3/4 cup chopped carrots
3/4 cup chopped yellow onion
3/4 cup chopped celery
5 cups water
2 chicken bouillon cubes (or 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf

DIRECTIONS:
In a medium bowl or liquid measure, combine the water, bouillon cubes and spices and whisk to combine (it’s ok if the bouillon cubes don’t completely dissolve).

In a medium round slow cooker (about 4-quart), layer peas, barley, ham, carrots, onion and celery. Do not mix. Pour in the water/spices mixture and add the bay leaf to the slow cooker. Don’t stir! Cover the slow cooker and cook on high for four hours or on low eight hours, until the peas reach the desired creamy, soft texture. Remove the bay leaf, stir well, and add salt and pepper to taste, if needed. Serve immediately. Upon sitting and/or refrigerating, this soup thickens considerably. Simply add water or chicken broth to thin the soup to the desired consistency before reserving.

Massaged Kale and Craisin Salad with Feta Cheese

Finally, kale that I can eat! Of all the timesucks on the Internet, Pinterest is at the forefront for me right now. But it did lead me to a great food blog: Mel's Kitchen Cafe. She has several great recipes using normal spices that you'd have in your pantry, which I like. I've used several of her recipes this week and so far, every one has been a winner.

Especially this salad. Jared didn't scarf it down like he will something with beef in it (I did pair this salad with her Beef Stroganoff - solid recipe), but he did say it was good and ate it all, which he normally doesn't do with salad. Kale is such a sturdy green, that normally to eat it, I throw it in a smoothie or a soup to mask its bitter chewiness. I didn't realize that massaging it with just a little bit of salt could go such a long way. Once I added the rest of the ingredients, this salad was healthy and delicious and good the next day for lunch too.

As a sidenote, I've been working on presentation lately, and this salad looks pretty on the table.

*Serves 6

INGREDIENTS:
1 bunch kale
3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt or sea salt
1/4 cup finely diced red onion
1/2 cup dried cranberries/craisins (I used maple candied cherries that I had)
3/4 cup small-diced apple
1/3 cup toasted sunflower seeds
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup crumbled Feta cheese

DIRECTIONS:
Wash the kale and pat it dry. Slice off the stiff stems below the leaves and continue slicing the stem away from the leaf until you have cut a thin v-shape into the kale leaf and removed the tough stem all the way up. Stack the kale leaves two or three at a time, roll them up, and slice the leaves into thin ribbons.
Place the kale ribbons in a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and massage it into the kale with your hands for two minutes. You’ll notice the kale start to turn a darker green and the texture of the kale will begin to soften a bit.

Toss in the red onions, craisins, apples, and sunflower seeds. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar and sugar. Pour over the salad and toss. Sprinkle feta cheese over the top and serve. The salad can be refrigerated for up to a day before serving (if doing this, I would suggest refrigerating the salted kale separately from the other ingredients and tossing the salad together an hour or two before serving).

Black Bean and Mango Tostadas

It has been a while since I posted a recipe on here. I've taken a brief hiatus from cooking new recipes while we travel all over the place. But we are back for four days and I found a little time to scrounge together a quick recipe with these beautiful mangoes I bought at a discount store here in town.

These tostadas were delicious and I think even snafu'd Jared before he realized they were vegetarian. At that point, he didn't care and scarfed the rest. To Jared (and his mother's) credit, Jared is a healthy eater and doesn't mind the vegetarian dishes I throw at him as long as we get meat in there at some point during the week. This is a shoutout to my mother-in-law (and my father-in-law that would also eat anything): thanks, Anne, for teaching the boy good eating habits, and Doug, for setting the example of eating what's on your plate!

What could be better about a quick, healthy meal that's vegetarian and packs the protein? One dollar fifty cents per serving is what could be better. We loved these and actually ate them for Saturday and Sunday.

(adapted from myrecipes)

COOK TIME: 10 MINUTES
PREP TIME: 5 MINUTES Ingredient

1 15-oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 scallions, white and light green parts, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

4 8-inch flour tortillas

6 ounces grated low-fat Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack, or Cheddar 

1 ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and diced

1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced

1/4 small red onion, finely chopped (2 Tbsp.)

1 tablespoon lime juice

1. Preheat oven to 425ºF. Combine beans, olive oil, scallions, chili powder and 1/2 tsp. salt in a bowl.
2. Mist a baking sheet with cooking spray. Place tortillas on sheet and spoon bean mixture on top. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake until golden and crisp, about 10 minutes.
3. While tostadas are baking, combine mango, onion, lime juice and 1/4 tsp. salt in a bowl. Remove tostadas from oven, spoon mango mixture on top and serve immediately.

Note: Spice it up. If you like more heat, use pepper Jack cheese instead of plain Monterey Jack.Swap salsas. Don't care for mango or can't find one? Sub in tomato salsa instead.Go green. To add another layer of flavor, sprinkle on some chopped avocado and fresh cilantro after assembling.Put in more fruit. Mango gives the dish a touch of sweetness. Substitute or add chopped papaya, pineapple or kiwi for even more of a tropical taste.Try another base. We used small flour tortillas for these tostadas, but you can use corn tortillas if you prefer.

Homemade Power Snack

I'm not quite sure what to call these treats - they sort of taste like a Luna bar or a Power bar, except they're probably cheaper, homemade, and maybe even healthier. It does make me think though to make these for my next mountain bike outing instead of using Goo.

This recipe calls for carob powder, which is a healthy alternative for cocoa. It tastes like chocolate, but unlike chocolate, carob is caffeine-free, oxalate-free, cholesterol-free, and full of vitamins and minerals. Click here to learn more. I'm so glad I've learned about it because I love chocolate, I just don't like the way it makes me feel.

You can find carob in the baking isle. I use Bob's Red Mill Toasted Carob Powder, but any will do I'm sure. These minibars are so easy to make, and I love that they're a healthy alternative that fills that sweet tooth craving.

The fruit/nut mixture I used at the end of this recipe was anything I had in my cupboard - in this case, coconut, raisins, walnuts, almonds, flax seed, sesame seeds, and pumpkin seeds. So that it wasn't super chunky, I combined them all and pulsed them in my handheld cuisanart bowl first. The extra mixture that I didn't use in these treats I just saved to throw in our breakfast oatmeal or a salad. After all, you can't go wrong with a little nut mix.

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup honey (you could probably use Agave too, but I buy honey from town just to keep it local)
1 cup carob powder
Nuts, seeds, almonds, raisins, coconut (amount desirable)

Warm peanut butter on low until smooth. Add carob powder. Mix in the rest of the mixture.

Red Lentil Mulligatawny with Apple-Celery Salsa

This week my goal is to have way more veggies on our plates than meat. Maybe even crowd out the meat. Why? Because I want us eating more anti-cancer foods. Lentils made that list as well as spices instead of salt. So I did a search for lentils on myrecipes.com and found this soup. It was actually really good and filling (this from a husband who believes in meat for a meal). It was embarrassingly quick and easy to whip up - especially to look so gourmet with the fresh salsa on top. The salsa is the perfect completion to this soup.

Make sure you use red lentils as the green and brown lentils will create a different consistency and taste. Also, if you truly want to make this vegetarian, substitute the magic mineral broth stock for the chicken stock. Enjoy!

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 cup soup and 1/4 cup salsa)

Salsa:

• 2/3  cup  finely chopped Granny Smith apple
• 1/4  cup  finely chopped celery
• 1  tablespoon  chopped fresh cilantro
• 1  tablespoon  fresh lime juice

Soup:

• 3 1/2  cups  fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 1  cup  dried small red lentils
• 1  cup  chopped onion
• 1 1/2  cups  light coconut milk
• 3  tablespoons  tomato paste
• 1  teaspoon  grated peeled fresh ginger
• 1/2  teaspoon  ground cumin
• 1/8  teaspoon  ground turmeric
• 1  teaspoon  fresh lime juice
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper

To prepare salsa, combine the first 4 ingredients; cover and chill.

To prepare soup, combine broth, lentils, and onion in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until lentils are tender. Pour half of lentil mixture in a blender; let stand 5 minutes. Process until smooth. Pour pureed lentil mixture into a bowl.

Pour remaining lentil mixture into blender; process until smooth. Add coconut milk, tomato paste, ginger, cumin, and turmeric; process until smooth. Return coconut milk mixture and remaining pureed lentil mixture to pan. Cover and simmer over medium heat 10 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in 1 teaspoon juice, salt, and pepper. Ladle about 1 cup soup into each of 4 bowls; top each serving with 1/4 cup salsa.