Quinoa Salad, Falafel & Aero Garden

Although I have been cooking lots of great things lately, this week has just been so busy! Classes for work, doctors appointments and a leaky roof are just some of the things that have been occupying my time. Extra effort was put into making sure we had a healthy dinner every night however and I've got some great new recipes to share.

First of all - check out the Aero Garden on day 14:

It's a kitchen jungle! I still have not sampled anything but I've got my eye on that basil...

Now onto the recipes. Last week we had a little family get together and I brought a salad to share. Surprise, surprise - it was from my Quinoa 365 book! It's good for vegetarians, celiacs and those with lactose intolerance (all of whom were at this particular family get together):

Quinoa Chickpea Salad

2cups vegetable stock

1cup quinoa

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1cup diced red bell pepper (about 1 pepper)

1/3cup dried cranberries

1/3cup chopped walnuts

3tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Bring the stock and quinoa to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Turn the heat off and leave the covered saucepan on the burner for 4 more minutes. Fluff with a fork and allow the quinoa to cool.

Transfer the quinoa to a large bowl and mix in the chickpeas, red pepper, cranberries, walnuts and parsley. Chill before serving. Stays fresh in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. 

The next recipe I wanted to share came from a book a co-worker brought to my attention called "The Gluten Free Bible":

While I have enjoyed the odd falafel pita in the past, I had never attempted to make them. This particular recipe also included a recipe for a tomato sauce to be served on top but I chose to just make the falafel:

Falafel Nuggets

2 cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1/2cup rice flour

1/2cup chopped parsley

1 egg

Juice of 1 lemon (or squirt of lemon juice)

1/4cup minced onion

2tbsp minced garlic

2tsp ground cumin

1/2tsp salt

1/2tsp ground red pepper or red pepper flakes

1/2cup canola oil (*I did not use this as I used the "variation" method to reduce fat content. I will write both methods however)

Preheat oven to 400F. Coat baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray (or parchment paper).

Combine chickpeas, rice flour, parsley, egg, lemon juice, minced onion, garlic, cumin, salt and red pepper in food processor or blender; process until well blended. Shape mixture into 1 inch balls.

(This is not the method I used) Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Fry falafel in batches until browned. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheet; bake 8-10 minutes. 

*Variation Cooking Method - Falafel can also be baked completely to reduce the fat content. Spray the falafel lightly with nonstick cooking spray and bake 15-20 minutes, turning once. 

Once I had made these, I wasn't too sure what to do with them. Apparently they're good in salads or even as a sandwich filler. I enjoyed just eating them as is for a quick snack. 

For one meal this week, I threw them in the wok for some protein with my veggies. Expecting them to just crumble, I was happily surprised when they held their shape and acted like a little meatball! There is such great flavor in these little things and they are a wonderful source of protein for those of us who don't get enough of it from meat. 

MY REVIEW: Two good recipes I know I will make again. 

JASON'S REVIEW: Jason is currently removing the iceberg featured in the major motion picture "Titanic" from our roof. Perhaps you've seen it? It's safe to say he liked both meals as they were both happily consumed. 

Bean & Quinoa Chili with Corn Souffle

I have 2 brand new, vegetarian and gluten free recipes to share today! With Jason's help chopping tonight, we were able to whip this healthy meal up in about an hour. Here's me seriously whipping:

From the June/July edition of "Living Without", I made Bean and Quinoa Chili:

Bean & Quinoa Chili
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
2 stalks celery, washed and sliced
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2tsp chili powder
1 can Italian tomatoes, crushed
1tsp salt
freshly ground pepper, to taste
1cup quinoa, thoroughly tinsed
1 can navy beans
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
3tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

1. Put onion, garlic and celery in a saucepan with the olive oil. Cook gently for 10 minutes or until vegetables soften. Stir in the chili powder and cook for 1 minute. Add tomatoes, saly and pepper and bring to a coil. Cook sauce gently for 25 minutes or until pulpy.
2. Cook quinoa
3. Add drained beans to the tomato sauce and cook for a minute or two. Stir in parsley.
4. Divide quinoa into individual serving bowls and spoon chili on top of quinoa.

Our second dish of the night was from the same library book I've been using lately....

 Corn Souffle
1 17ounce can whole kernel corn
3/4cup (approx.) milk or non dairy liquid
1/4cup butter or margerine (I used just a teeny square)
1/3cup cornmeal
3 eggs, seperated
1/2tsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt
dash cayenne pepper
1 to 3 tablespoons bell pepper (I used orange)
3 to 4 sliced green onions

Preheat the oven to 375.
Drain the corn, saving the liqiod. Add the milk to the liquid to measure 1 1/2cups. In a saucepan combine the milk mixture and margerine and bring to a boil. Slowly stir in the cornmeal. Bring back to a boil and cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
To the egg yolks, add the baking powder, salt, cayenne pepper, bell pepper, onions, and corn. Stir the corn mixture into the cooked meal. Fold in the egg whites (As I type this, I realize we reversed the egg whites and yolks in this step and it worked out just fine). Pour into a buttered 1 1/2 quart casserole.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until lightly browned and set.

MY REVIEW: Both dishes were great. The corn souffle tasted more like a breakfast or brunch item than a replacement for corn bread, but still good! You may notice we used red quinoa today inside of the regular stuff.... you prepare it the same and I couldn't taste much of a difference

JASON'S REVIEW: Everything was delicious and I feel 5 years younger.

Namaste Gluten Free Pizza Crust

Tonight was pizza night at our house. It's been a long time since we had pizza night here so we were PRETTY excited. I found this Namaste mix at Planet Organic which seems to be safe for just about anybody with an allergy:

You can read all about it (and lots of other interesting things) on their website. Lots of good looking recipes and some other products I'd love to get my hands on! I did take a picture for those of you interested in the nutritional information and ingredients ...

Not so bad! To make a 14" pizza, you mix half of the contents of the package with 1tsp olive oil and 1 1/4cup water. As soon as I opened the package I could smell the Italian spices! After mixing for 3 minutes in my kitchenaid, I spread it out on a pizza pan. At this point it was kind of grey-ish and really reminded me of ranch dressing but I had faith:

The crust is baked first, for about 20 minutes. It came out of the oven smelling seriously good and looking like this:

Toppings go on at this point, and back in the oven to finish off. Here is what emerged:

I thought maybe if I posted this picture of Honey sitting on the kitchen table *where we eat* she might be embarrassed of her poor behavior and become inspired to change her misbehaving ways:

In reality, I didn't even notice she was there...because she's always there.

MY REVIEW: By no stretch of the imagination did this taste like those big thick and fluffy crusts Jason used to make in the bread machine... but it was good in it's own gluten free way and I would buy it again. The crust was crisp on the outside and soft and airy once you bit in. I was expecting a rock hard crust as that's all I've experienced with gluten free pizza crusts but this was very different. The taste was nice and the extra spices baked right in the crust were flavorful. In case you're wondering, I used Unico pizza sauce, which is indeed gluten free!

JASON'S REVIEW: The pizza was delicious. It tasted like real pizza. 5 stars out of 5.

Roasted Squash Soup with Apple & Brie

For lunch today, I made another luscious squash soup. This recipe was from my luscious-soup-recipe-provider, Rachelle (she was the one who gave me the Champagne Squash Soup recipe I made for Thanksgiving). She's really got me on a soup kick with all these fantastic recipes - the cool fall weather doesn't hurt either. I'm also really digging squash lately.

Roasted Squash Soup with Apple & Brie

1 large butternut squash (I used a butterCUP squash)

1 carrot

1 medium onion

1 leek, white portion only

2 Tbsp butter

6 cups chicken broth

1 apple, peeled and chopped

1 tsp sugar

salt and pepper, to taste

8 oz. brie cheese

diced green onion  (garnish) (didn't have any of this)

1) Cut squash in half length-wise and remove seeds. Microwave on high cut-side down in baking dish in a small amount of water, covered, for 10mins. 

2) Chop carrot, onion, and leek into 1" pieces and place into a large pot. Gentle saute in butter. Do not brown. Add cooked squash to vegetables (just the squash pulp out of it's skin). Add broth and bring to a boil. Add apple and sugar. Simmer, uncovered, for 40mins. Puree soup in batches. 

3) Season with salt and pepper. Slice off rind of brie and cut brie into 1/2" pieces. Place cheese in bottom of soup bowls and fill with hot soup. Garnish with green onion. Serves 4.

MY REVIEW: Great soup. You could do it with or without the brie because it's got a fantastic flavor. It always amazes me how simple vegetables blended together can make such an excellent soup.

JASON'S REVIEW: He's out riding his bike but I think he said "good soup!"

In related news, I absolutley love my wand blender. You put it right in the pot so there's no need to dirty another dish. It's clean and quick and works like a charm.

Happy Thanksgiving

What a busy long weekend! A wedding on Saturday night, last night a wonderful gluten-free Thanksgiving dinner prepared by my mom and this evening Jason and I cooked a huge chicken for his family. Jason sharpened his carving knife in preparation:

 I decorated my red table kitchen:

I lucked out in the beautiful flower department! Jason brought me the orange plant on the left yesterday and the bouquet on the right came from his mom today:

 My mom made these colorful little chocolate autumn leaves to put on my table:

This picture is for everyone who doesn't understand what Jason and I do without cable television. Note the 2 chairs:

Check out the huge bird! Jason made his special rub... you'll have to ask him for the recipe. All I know is there's lots of oregano and garlic and it's delicious:

Now as for new recipes, I tried two and both were a success! First off, I found a great recipe for vegetarian gravy that I could easily adapt into a gluten-free/vegetarian gravy. Sadly, I cannot find the original source so don't give me credit for it! Here it is:

Easy Vegetarian Gravy
3 tablespoons margarine
2 tablespoons of finely chopped onions (I left this out for this batch, but will toss it in next time)
2 minced garlic cloves
3 tablespoons flour (gluten-free blend from planet organic)
2 tablespoons soy sauce (gluten-free)
1 cup water
salt and pepper

1 Put margarine in a pot and saute the onions and garlic over med-high heat.
2 Reduce heat back to medium after onions and garlic have become golden brown.
3 Make a roux by gradually adding the flour, while continuously stirring to avoid lumps.
4 Still stirring, add soy sauce and water to the mixture.
5 Add salt and pepper to taste.
6 Once the gravy has reached desired thickness, turn off the stove and you are done!

MY REVIEW: I loved this gravy! The one change I would absolutely make next time would be omitting the salt. Soy sauce has enough salt on its own. Other than that, this was fantastic. I served it to 2 vegetarians this weekend and both seemed to enjoy it. 

This next recipe was suggested to me by a friend and her raving reviews gave me the confidence to try it on this special occasion. Usually I'll try something on Jason first but I just went for it with this one and it turned out wonderfully. It's from the Best of Bridge cookbook but I found it on this blog. I forgot to take a picture of it when I served it with the sour cream and nutmeg so here's a picture of the leftovers!:

 Champagne Squash Soup
4lbs squash acorn or butternut (I used 2 acorn)
2 medium onions diced (I used 3 small white onions)
2 TBSP butter
1/4 cup of Champagne (I subbed white wine in here)
4-5 cups chicken broth
2 TBSP butter
1/2 tsp nutmeg
salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup sour cream for garnish

Preheat oven to 350, line a cookie sheet with foil.
Quarter squash, cut out seeds, place skin side up & bake 1- 1 1/2 hours until squash is tender.
Cool. Scoop out pulp & puree.
Saute onions in 2 TBSP butter. Add champagne. Cook until liquid is absorbed, and onions are golden brown stirring often.
Puree onions in food processor with a little of the squash puree.
In large pot, combine onions, squash & broth. Cover & simmer stirring occasionally.
Whisk in 2 TBSP butter.
Season with nutmeg, salt & pepper.
Garnish with sour cream, using knife to swirl through soup.

MY REVIEW: Acorn squash has such a great flavor and it really shines in this soup. Since our blender is no longer functioning, we purchased a hand blender and it made this soup so easy. It was silky smooth!

JASON'S REVIEW: The soup was delicious. It tasted like golden acorn squashes bouncing off my taste-buds with just the right amount of spice.

Visit to the Farmers Market & Kale Chips!

We took a trip to the City Center Farmers Market today. Before we even got home we ate an entire container of HUGE raspberries in addition to a bag of blueberries. I always have a hard time purchasing raspberries because I know in a few weeks my Grandmas garden will be absolutely overflowing with sweet red berries that she gives away to anyone willing to pick them (in bucketfuls). These raspberries, however, were freakishly huge, bright red and perhaps perfect. I managed to take a picture with my phone of one of them before the whole container was gone:

 Here's the rest of our market purchases:

A bag of radishes.. these must be in season right now as they were at all the veggie booths we passed. I'm not a fan of the super tangy radishes but these were very mild. Yum

One long sweet red pepper. It was a toss up between this one and a purple pepper, which I've never tried. This one won the competition due to aroma. 

A little container of mixed tomatoes. There was one super funky one in the package:

Flavor-wise, it was not that funky. Pretty much your average tomato but perhaps a little more firm than the others. In case you're curious, here's what the inside looked like:

In addition to what's pictured, and the eaten berries, we also got some mini cucumbers. We had plans of a major salad for dinner.

From our very own garden we picked lettuce, spinach, kale & some tiny beets with the greens:

Chef Jason was set up at the vegetable chopping station:

While he was busy chopping I steamed the beets, made salad dressing and began my experiment for the night. I've read so much about kale chips and how easy & additive they are. For quite some time now I've been wanting to try them. I didn't exactly follow a recipe but here's what you need to make them how I did:

kale leaves, washed and ripped into bite size pieces
olive oil
kosher salt
parmasean cheese

So what I did was toss my kale leaves in a bit of olive oil, kosher salt and some parmesan cheese. I spread them out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and cooked them for ABOUT 12 minutes at 375F... just until they were crispy when I moved them around the pan. Here they are:

And the ever so colorful salad once it was finished:

MY REVIEW: The kale chips were bizzare but good. They kind of turned to dust in your mouth but had an interesting flavor and texture that I would make again. Definitely a good snacking substitute for chips! Very easy to make. I loved the salad and was once again reminded that veggies from your own garden taste so much better than any other veggie.

JASON'S REVIEW: The kale chips were melt in my mouth magic. The salad was an epic win for vegetables everywhere.

Meat & Potatoes with Vegetarian Gravy

I had a hankering for something smothered in gravy this evening. Not really a healthy hankering, but I tried to satisfy it in the most healthy way possible! To start, we had a tomato salad.

When we were in Italy and ordered a "tomato salad" it was always extremely literal... tomatoes and olive oil. For my tomato salad I whisked together a little dressing consisting of olive oil, dijon mustard, white vinegar, kosher salt, lemon juice and fresh ground black pepper.

For the main course, skinless boneless chicken breast cooked in the oven with fresh ground black pepper and a rosemary sprig on top. I made a vegetarian gravy using canned mushrooms, flour, vegetable broth (from powder), skim milk and some herbs and spices. I really can't get any more precisise than that.. I was adding things left, right and center to get the right consistency and flavour! You're going to have to do the same thing. I kept the gravy on the side because I didn't know if Jason was in a "gravy smothering everything" mood as I was. As it turns out, he was.

Note the "X" cut into the potato. This is how I always eat my baked potatoes and at a recent family BBQ, was questioned about my eclectic potato eating ways. Well - this was a little trick I picked up in kindergarten on the day we made baked potato volcano's.  You wait till the potato cools enough to touch, cut an "X" on the top and then push the sides into the middle with your fingers causing the potato (lava) to "erupt" out the center. At this point you would put lava (bacon bits), grass (chives) etc. on top of your volcano. I don't exactly know why my kindergarten class was making baked potatoes but that is one lesson that stuck.

JASON'S REVIEW: Dinner was fantastic and I wouldn't hesitate to eat it again.

MY REVIEW: Not to toot my own horn or anything, but it's meals like this that make me feel like I've actually made some progress in my cooking journey. In the beginning, the simple task of cooking a chicken breast would have required a phone call to my mom and at least half an hour of internet research. The end product would almost always be burnt as I figured that was the only sure way to know it was fully cooked. I am slowly but surely getting a "feel" for it and learning to trust myself in the kitchen. I just made vegetarian gravy from scratch without even looking at a recipe...go me!

The Best Foccacia Bread!

Tonight my entire meal came from the rebar cookbook (which you can read more about here). Although everything did turn out, I think the foccacia bread stole the show! I had eaten this foccacia bread before (made by the lender of the rebar cookbook) and it was fabulous. Never in a million years did I think I could pull something like off since I usually stay away from yeasts and bread. I took a picture of it before going in the oven because it looked so pretty and I was still not confident it wouldn't fail miserably in the oven:

Here's the finished product:

And it was just as delicious as it looks! I was pretty pleased with myself for this accomplishment. I took a picture of the recipe (click to make it bigger):

To go along with the bread I made some pasta from the rebar cookbook as well. The only thing I had to substitue was dried basil for the fresh basil leaves. My basil plant has seen better days (namely the day it was purchased... it was all down hill after that day):

And lastly, a fruit crumble. I used mango, rhubarb from the garden and frozen strawberries.

In the topping I added some slivered almonds. It was delicious and we have lots of leftovers! Bonus. Here's the recipe:

All in all, a very successful meal. Jason was racing in Canmore all weekend so I thought I'd make this meal a little more special than usual and he said it was the best recovery meal he's ever had. We've got a little bit of everything to take in our lunches tomorrow too.