Cookin with quinoa

People are always asking me how to cook quinoa and once it's cooked, what to do with it.    Quinoa (keen-wa) is actually a seed from a leafy plant and related to spinach.    It is super high in protein and contains all 9 essential amino acids making it a great choice for vegetarians.        Cooking instructions for quinoa are just like rice with 1 cup to 2 cups of liquid.  I do it a bit differently though.....last night I made a simple pilaf with some bbq chicken for dinner.      Steve and I made a quick trip to Costco to pick up fertilizer and tomato plants (which they had run out of  :( ) and on my way out of the store I found this bbq sauce on sale, 3 packs for $9.99.

Organic and local, 2 of my favorite product qualities!

So when I got home, 1 big onion and 5 cloves of garlic were sauteed until tender and then 2 cups of quinoa.   I like toasting all of my grains until lightly brown before adding liquid since it adds a nice nutty flavor.   Once this was done instead of adding 4 cups of water (remember 2 cups of quinoa), I added 2 cups of apple juice and 1 cup of broth.

Then I added about 2 handfuls of chopped kale

Now bring the broth to a boil, turn off the heat, cover and let sit until quinoa is fluffy and seeds are sort of broken and see through (fluffy like couscous).       Now I chopped up veggies left over from last nights curry veggie soup.

Red, yellow and orange peppers. zucchini, carrots (kale added to broth) and 1 serrano pepper.  Now add all veggies to quinoa along with 2 tsp (or more) thyme and salt n pepper to taste, let warm up with the lid on until veggies are tender (about 10 min).    Once this was done I decided to add 1 apple cubed since there was already apple juice in the broth along with the juice of 1 lemon and 1/2 cup of raisins.  This really added a fresh taste and sweetness to it.

Done!  This made a huge batch but that's the way I roll!  :)   This'll be perfect all week for lunch in Steve's wraps and leftovers for tomorrow nights dinner.  

The bbq sauce was very good and I can't wait to taste the lemon rosemary one on fish.

See how easy quinoa is?    Swap it with rice and you'll add more vitamins, fiber and protein into your diet.

Vegetable curry soup

Happy Monday!  I know....mostly Monday's suck but I can't help but be in a good mood when it's sunny and 26 degrees, must be the Vit D.   Yesterday I pulled out all the tanks, flip flops and shorts and tucked the heavy sweaters away - who doesn't love that?  Last night I needed to use up my abundance of veggies that were all mostly on the 'verge' of giving up and through it all in the Vitamix and then finished it off on the stove with tons of curry and spices.  I added a whole bag of frozen Lima beans and then topped the soup with Greek yogurt, shredded coconut, cilantro and some tomatoes.    It was very delish and super filling.

Steam a butternut squash (I just nuke it as is)

After blending the cooked squash, 3 carrots, 1/2 onion, 6 cloves of garlic (yup 6!), 2 stalks of celery, 1 green pepper, 1 Serrano pepper, 2 cups of stock and 1 can diced tomatoes,  I added the Lima beans, 1 tbsp curry powder, 2 tsp ground coriander,  3 tsp cumin, salt n pepper to taste, 2 tbsp yellow curry paste, 1 tbsp brown sugar and the juice of 1 lemon.    Whew!  sounds like a lot but I seriously threw everything into the blender and then poured in a large pot (then added all spices).   Let it simmer covered for a good hour and voila!      nuthin but veggie soup with tons of flavor.    

And I couldn't forget little daisy the other picky eater in the family.  I think she finds it an insult that I feed her dog food and will only eat it when she's completely starving.  

Looks like poop :)   These are homemade dog treats and she actually likes them!

Planet organic

One of the hardest parts of adjusting to a new city or in our case sometimes even a new country is finding out where the best places to shop are.  I tend to be very faithful once I find my favorite markets and rarely will that involve less than 3 or 4 different places.   Yesterday I found a great organic market called http://www.planetorganic.ca/ourstores/edmontonnorth. Although I don't necessarily buy a lot of my groceries in organic (mostly because of the cost) I do love specialty stores for things like chia seeds, tempeh, certain vitamins and so on.   Now with my venture into 'Raw' it's a perfect place to find new products.    Yesterday I found the oat groats that I've been searching for and am in the process of trying out a new recipe from http://heathereatsalmondbutter.com/recipes/oatgurt/ the oats are fermented in water over a few days.  First I soaked them in water all night and then this morning I ground it down until creamy.  Now the mixture will ferment and thicken over the next few days  (hopefully!).

I'm leaving it covered on my window sill where it's warm and this is supposed to speed up the fermentation process.

I was also really surprised by how well the sprouts did in the bag because I really had my doubts that a whole 2 cups would sprout being so packed in.  This is great because using the mason jar method only produces maybe a 1/4 cup.  I love when I find new products that work!!   Now I have something to do with all of this  :)
Had a great workout today and I was pretty hungry when I got home so I had another sandwich with the raw bread but this time I toasted it - so good!  It was much better and held together perfectly.  

Strawberries are fresh and yummy everywhere right now so a little greek yogurt and some unsweetened chocolate nibs I found at the organic store went perfectly.

Time for lunch making.....Supposed to be 26 degrees tomorrow!!!

Raw bread

It was a gorgeous day today in Edmonton at 22 degrees, hot and sunny which is taking some getting used to considering we had a snow storm just over a week ago!   The sun comes up earlier than 5:30 a.m. and we have no blinds but honestly....I love it because it makes you want to get out of bed and get outside.  Even on a Saturday I was up at 7:30 and looking forward to my Venti at Starbucks with Steve. We spent a lot of the day running errands but I managed to finish the bread from the jar of sprouted broccoli seeds.

To the blender I went on a guessing game of 2 carrots, 3 cloves of garlic, 3 tbsp olive oil, my jar of sprouts of course, 1/2 cup of oats, 1/4 cup ground flax, 1/4 cup of psyllium, 1 jalapeno, 2 tsp salt n pepper,  1/2 of an onion, 2 tsp oregano, 1 tsp chili powder and 1 whole lemon peeled.  

After doing a taste test I added 1 more lemon

Might not be be pretty but it smelled really good and I could have happily used this as a dip

I lined my dehydrator with parchment and spread out the mixture onto 2 trays

I'm guessing maybe 2 hrs until I can score it

3 hours!!    you can see the nice darkening color starting to settle in.    I just scored it into triangles and continued dehydrating.  

Costco had these beautiful vine ripened tomatoes for only $4.99 a box, perfect for weekend sandwiches

I ended up dehydrating the bread for a total of 6 hrs.   Today I added the fresh tomatoes, sliced goat cheese, avocado, romaine and Dijon mustard.    Tomorrow I'll try toasting it as it was a bit soft and hard to keep together.          Then I can't wait to bake it in the oven and maybe make a 'tortilla salad'.

Dinner had to be a barbecue since it was so gorgeous out and I had my favorite baby squash in the fridge.   Also present was sliced parsnip, Spanish onion, red, yellow and orange peppers tossed with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and dried thyme.  

This turned out delicious served with fresh cod which I just sprinkled with lemon pepper and bbq'd as well.   Being Saturday I baked a whole wheat lemon loaf for the boy as a special treat....... he ate the whole thing!

What did you do on your Saturday?

Raw fascination

I'm becoming more and more fascinated with raw eating and raw cooking, actually anything that has to do with 'The raw movement' has me intrigued.   It all started a few months ago when I went on a recipe search for anything that contained 'greens' and actually tasted good.   I love all vegetables but as I mentioned before, greens make me feel like a picky annoying little kid - I refuse to eat them.   Or should I say I 'refused'.  Up until I discovered my new favorite shake which I've been having faithfully everyday now for weeks.  Yesterday I even blended my steel cut oats with kale!   I have to confess that many other ingredients go into these concoctions like cinnamon, flax, chocolate protein powder, stevia and almond milk but every day is different and every day I'm loving it more.  Today I added fresh ginseng root and strawberries.

I add about a 4 inch piece to my shake (which you can't taste don't worry).  Ginseng is great for extra energy before a workout.

 That's my tray of 'shake' ingredients in the background.

I found this very cool hard plastic 'soda cup' at Bed bath and beyond which is solely dedicated to the green morning drink.  I'm also making raw bread/crackers today but it'll take a few hours so I'll show you my bag of sprouts tomorrow and test out the bread!

Charging the camera

Remember when I said unpacking went well and all I seem to be missing was my knife block?  well I spoke too soon because as it turns out my camera charger was also left behind and with no charger eventually comes no camera and.....no blog!    I guess I still could have but really talking about what I cooked and not 'proving' it would make me feel like a cheater.    So now I'm days behind and in these last few days I've received my new Vita mix (which I have been wanting for a year now).   Very excited about this new appliance and pretty much obsessed with it right now, so much so that I dreamt of making a smoothy last night which I then added a whole fish to...guts and all!!    mmmm, fish and spinach protein shake.   

I also enjoyed a nice mothers day and received this beautiful painting that the girls did (with a little help from Steve:)).   Tulips are my favorite flower and this way I'll have them forever.  It goes perfectly right over my new mixer.

And just as I started to feel connected to the world again.....I dropped my phone in the toilet (sigh).   Today I've had a hard time organizing my thoughts without it because I'm pretty sure I've forgotten how to function properly on my own, not so much the telephone part but the notes, and calendar and shopping lists and......I actually had to carry a notepad around with me today - how archaic!     This week I also decided to start sprouting again and I'm trying a new way of using a bag instead of my plastic sprouter plates (they always seem to mold this way).    Hopefully the bag will give me better results.    I also have the handy mason jar in action which almost always succeeds but just never harvests enough I don't think.

 These are broccoli sprouts after about 2 days but I'll get more into sprouting later.

This bag has 2 cups of mixed seeds in it and I just hang it from the side of my cupboard, you can see it draining into the bowl.     I hope this works!  I'll let you know in 2 more days I hope.
Since this is National salad week I had a big one today for lunch with left over falafels (I had no camera for these but I make them all the time so report back!).    I had a whole head of romaine here with some left over hummus and pumpkin.

This little cracker is from Lydia's Organics which I ordered online and they're super good, very dense and flavorful , I could eat the whole bag.

Happy Friday and I hope you all have as nice weather this weekend as we're supposed to get here in Edmonton!