My journey of cooking, gardening, preserving and more
This is a born-from-necessity soup that I made a few weeks back. Necessary because I needed to use up a couple of packs of frozen clams that I had purchased over the holidays, for an entirely different recipe that never got made. Our spring, so far, …
Need an easy chocolate dessert recipe? Chocolate bark is a delicious yet still decadent treat that you can make with any number of nuts, seeds or other inclusions. Don’t believe that it’s easy? Here’s the general idea: You melt some chocolate jussssst to where it’s almost …
Quinoa is one of those foods that became super trendy, for a while. Super trendy until a lot of people actually tried it and decided they didn’t like it. The first way I ever made it was as a savory side dish, with mushrooms, veggie stock, and fresh thyme and it was love at first bite.
Luckily, most of the quinoa you can buy nowadays is pre-rinsed but there wasn’t such a thing at the time I first started making it so I’ll admit I still rinse it briefly, mostly out of habit, I guess. If quinoa isn’t rinsed thoroughly enough, it tends to have a soapy taste to it. This is what I’ve heard, at least. I’ve always been a big rinser so I’ve never experienced this.
Secondly, for the love of all that’s holy, do not overcook quinoa. This one I have done and, trust me, it’s better to under-cook it just a tad, then to overcook it. This point is especially important when you’re going to make a salad out of it, because the quinoa is going to continue to soak up any liquid as it sits. If this happens with overcooked quinoa, you’re just going to end up with mush within a day or so.
Now that I’ve got all that out of the way, this really is just a basic Mediterranean salad with a quinoa base. You can make this with pasta as the base, lentils as the base, rice as the base, beans as the base, barley as the base…you get the idea.
In a small saucepan, bring water and salt to a boil. Add quinoa. Stir well and return to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove lid and remove the pan from heat. Fluff with a fork and let sit for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, cut up the veggies and parsley and place in a large bowl. Add olive oil and lemon juice and toss well. Add cooled quinoa and toss well, again.
Easy, right? Oh, and it’s truly delicious. So delicious that I’m loathed to tell you, in case you weren’t aware of it, that quinoa is super good for you. Just a one cup serving has almost 50% of your RDA of protein and fiber. Quinoa is actually a complete protein, meaning it contains all of your essential amino acids. That’s a pretty rare trait in the plant world. It’s also loaded with iron, magnesium, and potassium. Not bad for a little seed, right?
Here’s the part where I encourage you to play with your food: I love to mix up the veggies and beans in this. Add steamed asparagus or broccoli, garbanzo beans, snow peas, roasted red peppers, black olives….it’s so easy and versatile.
Have fun with this and enjoy!
If you’ve been with me on this journey for a while, then you’ve seen my no-mayo coleslaw recipe, made with cider vinegar and Dijon mustard. In that post, I mention another no-mayo coleslaw recipe that I make and this, finally, is that recipe. If you’ve …
There is a beautiful simplicity about homemade pasta. It’s silky, smooth, and delicious. Sometimes I like it with a light sauce and sometimes I crave a heavier bolognese, but no matter what, I love it. And, since I love it so much, I thought it …
I am on a serious mission to create the perfect homemade chewy granola bar. This mission was brought on mostly by the fact that my local grocery store stopped carrying my favorite organic Cascadian Farms Harvest Berry ones. They were seriously one of the very few packaged foods I buy, and now I can’t find them without driving to another store, 30 minutes away.
See, I don’t want a lot of junk in my breakfast bars, I just want simple and delicious ingredients. I just want some whole food, real food breakfast bars that are chewy and dreamy. I just one some chewy breakfast bars that are full of stuff that’s pretty good for me.
So, after many recipes (my own and others) and much trial-and-error, I’m finally getting this chewy breakfast bar thing down. I admit I have a passion for wanting to overdo it on the nut and berry “add-in’s”, but every time I do this, I end up with crumblier bars, which makes delicious granola but not such great granola bars. When I actually follow this recipe exactly, they come out pretty darned good, so this is one of the few recipes I’ve created and make that I actually MEASURE every single time. Consider yourself warned. Maybe once I’ve made this a hundred times, I’ll have a better feel for it, but for now, I measure.
Preheat oven to 350° (if toasting your oats)
Loosely line a cookie sheet with a generous piece of aluminum foil and spread the rolled oats and chopped almonds on top. (I lift the foil edges up somewhat, creating more of a “bowl” than a flat layer) Place in preheated oven and toast for 5 minutes. Stir and toast for another 4 minutes, stirring 1/2 way through. Remove from oven. (I like to toast these before I melt the butter mixture, so I can put it all together while the butter mixture is nice and runny). Can you make these without the toasting process? Sure! I make them both ways but the toasting adds a great flavor, trust me.
In a large microwaveable glass dish, add butter, coconut oil, honey, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and salt. Microwave on high for 45-60 seconds, until oil has mostly melted. Stir well, until sugar and salt have dissolved.
Add toasted oats and almonds to butter mixture and stir well, coating all of the oats. Add sunflower seeds, coconut and berries and mix well again.
Using the foil that you baked the oats and nuts on, use it to line an 8 x 8 baking dish or pan. Grease the foil lightly with a touch of coconut oil.
Drop the oat mixture into the prepared baking dish and press the mixture in very, very firmly. When you think you’ve pressed it firmly enough, all the way around, including at the edges, press it again, all the way around, for another minute or two. This is part of the key to making these things hold together. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Don’t skimp on this time unless you really want granola.
Lift foil out of baking dish and slide granola mixture onto a large cutting board. Cut the mixture into bars. Store in covered container.
These keep at least a week for me which, so far, is as long as they’ve lasted. 🙂
A lot of recipes for breakfast bars call for a lot of butter and sugar, so I’ve created this recipe with not nearly so much. I have tried to make this without the butter, using just coconut oil and, sadly, they were just too crumbly. The butter firms up better than the coconut oil, once it’s chilled and set. If these soften too much at room temperature for you, then try storing them in the fridge.
Feel free to change up the type of nuts and add-in’s – think cashew nuts, chia seeds, pepitas -you can definitely personalize these to your own taste. (please play with your food!) Dark chocolate chips would be a good antioxidant add-in and would act as an additional “glue”, to hold these together. I’ve not done this yet, but I will.
I enjoy one of these each morning, alongside a banana and boiled egg. Sometimes, when I’m really hungry, I also have some Greek Yogurt with flax seed and whole berries. I hope you try these and love them – my husband and I sure do, because these rarely last a week for us.
Lentils have made a serious comeback in the last year or so. Okay, maybe not a kale-style comeback, but a comeback, nonetheless. I don’t want to turn you off from lentils by telling you this, but lentils are pretty darned good for you. Lentils health …