Quinoa With Toasted Almonds and Dried Cranberries

I always see quinoa in my vegeratian cookbooks but today was the first time I cooked it AND the first time I've eatten it! I tried this recipe found on the Savvy Vegetarian website:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1/2 cup sliced blanched almonds
• 1 veggie cube
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

1. Soak the quinoa 1/2 - 1 hour in cold water
2. Rinse very thoroughly in water several times. For each rinse, pour off most of the water and finish draining through a large fine mesh strainer
3. Shake dry in the strainer
4. On medium heat, stir and toast the sliced almonds until golden
5. Remove from pan
6. Stir and toast the quinoa until dry and turning color
7. Transfer toasted quinoa, toasted almonds, and cranberries to 2 qt saucepan
8. Add boiling water, veggie cube, salt, bay leaf and cinnamon stick
9. Bring back to boil
10. Cover, turn the heat to simmer, cook for 20 minutes
11. Remove from heat and allow to sit five minutes with lid on
12. Fluff gently with a fork and serve.

I followed it to a tee. After doing some research on the stuff, looks like I'll be cooking a lot more of it! It's really high in protein - good for the vegetarian diet.

Everything I read stresses the importance of rinsing it really well. The saponins that it's soaked in is really bitter and not a good thing to eat. One person said they use the water they soak the quinoa in as a spray to prevent bugs from wrecking flowers. Not something you want in your belly.

MY REVIEW: This was really really good. It was nutty and crunchy.. I'd say I like it more than cous cous for that reason. It didn't get mushy at all. It looks to be very versatile so I look forward to trying some other methods of preparing it.

JASON'S REVIEW: It was very good and filling and had great flavor.

Valentines Day Cranberry Apple Pastry

This was a combination of the recipe I initially wanted to make, and the recipe that came on the box of the PUFF PASTRY I purchased. Apparently there is a difference between phyllo pastry and puff pastry... that is probably common knowledge but I've never used either! I improvised however and it turned out decent. Here's what I ended up making:

a chunk (half the box?) of frozen puff pastry
3 apples, peeled and chopped into small pieces
3tbsp whole cranberry sauce
cinnamon
nutmeg
1 beaten egg

First, you defrost the hunk of pastry. Not even 2 hours in the fridge and it was easy to roll out.

Mix the remaining ingredients (minus egg) in a bowl.

Roll out the puff pastry, on a lightly floured surface, into a rectangle about 12" long and 8" wide.

Spoon the apple mixture down middle third of the rectangle.

On the left side of the pastry, make a series of diagonal cuts (like the left side of a "V" about an inch apart.) Do the same on the right side (like the right side of a "V"). Starting with the left side, fold the top section over top the filling. Then the first right section, "gluing" the sections in place as you go by brushing the beaten over it. When you're finished this, brush the entire length with the beaten egg to give it a shiny finish. Transfer it onto a baking sheet with parchment paper. This is what mine looked like at this point:


I put it in the oven for 25 minutes at 30. The filling kind of spilled out a bit but this is how it looked when it came out:


It was kind of hard to remove from the wax paper but i cut 2 chunks off, put some cool whip with it and served it hot.

MY REVIEW: It looks way harder than it actually was! Very tasty. Back to healthy cooking though!!

JASON'S REVIEW: It hit the spot.