Quinoa Salad: Almond, Blueberry, Lemon, and Arugula

Here's one of my favorite variations of quinoa salad. It's zesty, nutty, and fresh all at the same time. It's also another great recipe that will last you all week- pack it for lunch or eat it as a side dish at dinner!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted (10 minutes at 350 degrees, flip at the 5 minute mark)
Arugula
1/4 cup dried blueberries
2 cups cooked red quinoa (simmer 4 cups of water with 2 cups of quinoa until all the water is absorbed)

Dressing:
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons lemon juice

Enjoy!

Sky

Fresh Quinoa Salad

Happy Friday! Here's one of my favorite go-to quinoa salads. It's a simple and light, but oh so flavorful! It's especially great to make on a Friday with all your leftover quinoa from the week :).

Ingredients:
Cooked (cold) quinoa
Mixed greens
Parmesean
Balsamic
Olive oil
Pepper

Have a great weekend! More fun posts to come next week!

Sky

Garlic Tomatoes

The cherry blossoms are out and DC is in full spring mode! After a long winter, it was so nice to finally have a beautiful warm weekend. To kick off the week, here’s a light and easy recipe that pairs well with quinoa. (these are not my tomatoes from my garden box, apparently tomatoes take up to 60 days to grow!)

Ingredients:
2 cups Cherry tomatoes
4 cloves Garlic
1 cup Basil
*these are rough measurements; the recipe tastes just as good with more or less of each ingredient!

Method:
Chop the garlic and sautee in olive oil
Add cherry tomatoes, salt, and pepper, and sautee for 3 minutes, rotating the tomatoes
Add small amount of water and put top on pan to simmer for 8 minutes
Add basil and simmer for 2 minutes

Done!

Enjoy!

Sky

Quinoa and Kale Mac&Cheese

You know when you have those days when you simply cannot be bothered to make any sort of meal at the end of the day? No mixing, no chopping, and definitely nothing that takes longer than 20 minutes! Maybe you reach for the mac&cheese box that's sitting in your cupboard? Stop right there! Here's a healthy take on the classic mac&cheese that's just as simple to make and much more nutrious!

Method:
Cook your quinoa- (with all these quinoa recipes on hand, it's worth your while to make a huge batch of quinoa on Sunday and just heat up dinner portions in the microwave during the week. That way, this recipe would take about 5 minutes!)

Cook your kale- sautee your kale in a large pan with olive oil (or red pepper flake olive oil) and parmesean cheese

Mix together! It's delicious :)

 

 

^^Happy Spring! Thanks for following along!

Sky

Fresh Quinoa Salad

In the warmer months, I love making huge fresh quinoa salads. This quinoa salad is a great salad to make on Sunday that will last you all week and take of the pressure of weekday cooking. It's also a great entertaining salad- bring it to a picnic, or a bbq and your friends will love you for brining a hearty salad option!

Ingredients:
Cooked quinoa
Red onion, sliced
Cherry tomatos, sliced
Feta cheese
Arugula
Red pepper flakes

Dressing:
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
(Or try drizzling your hot pepper flake olive oil on top! With salt and pepper)

 

Enjoy!

Sky

Chipotle inspired Quinoa

Here's one more awesome quinoa recipe! Then I'll cool off the quinoa. For a little :) This one was inspired by Chipotle. I love Chipotle bowls and wanted to create a healthier, lower calorie version. This I swear tastes just as good as the real thing!

 

What you need:

Qunioa (1 cup qunioa to 2 cups water, simmer in a pot until all the water is absorbed)

Red kidney beans (drain beans from a can and rinse with water. They can also be sauteed with olive oil and red and green peppers)

Guacomole

Parmesean cheese

 

Preparation:

Cook quinoa (20 minutes)

Cook kidney beans (and sauteed vegetables)

Prepare your bowl- add quinoa base, top with beans/vegetables, add parmesean cheese (it will melt on top!)

Dallop of guacomole

 

One of my favorite things about Chipotle is the Chipotle Tabasco sauce. I haven't been able to find it at any grocery stores yet, so I definitely need to buy a bottle (or two) straight from the Tabasco source!

 

 

 

 

 

Have a great weekend!

Sky

Asian Quinoa-Kale

I hope you're not sick of quinoa just yet! I love cooking with quinoa because it tastes just a little nutty so it definitely isn't bland, but it also really takes on whatever flavors you mix in with it. This is another great weekday meal that is very easy and fast to make. It's also great cold as a leftover for lunch!

Quinoa
Quinoa is made 2 cups of water to 1 cup of quinoa
Mix together in a pot and simmer until all the water is absorbed
Quinoa takes about 20 minutes

Kale
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 stalks of chives (green onions), chopped
Sautee the chives and garlic in olive oil for 1 minute
Add in 1/2 a bag of frozen kale (another great thing about this recipe, other vegetables can easily be substituted in here!)

Once the frozen kale has cooked add:
2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar
4 tablespoons of tamari soy sauce
4 tablespoons of red pepper flakes (I like things spicy! If you don't, add less than this)

Add the Kale mixture into the pot with your quinoa and you're done!

Enjoy! Thanks for following along! 

Sky

Baked Tomato Special

Wow what a hiatus! I moved to DC from Boston in September 2013. At the time I was so overwhelmed by my move, my new job, and my new city that I just did not have the time to continue my blog. Finally though, after a year and a half (almost 2 years, wow!) of living in this wonderful city, I'm ready to begin again. I have had so many food and travel adventures since my move and I can't wait to share with all of you!

First up- a recipe I've been loving lately. I call this my baked tomato special. This is the perfect recipe to make after a long day of work- it doesn't require many ingredients, it's fast, it's easy to prepare, and it's an inexpensive meal.

Quinoa
This will be the base of the recipe. I buy quinoa in bulk from the Whole Foods grain bins. It's actually much cheaper than buying quinoa from a pre-packaged bag.
-Quinoa is made 1 cup of quinoa to 2 cups of water
-Pour ingredients into a pot and simmer until all the water is absorbed
-This usually takes 20 minutes
-When finished turn off heat and drizzle in olive oil and parmesan cheese (I use 1/4 cup of cheese)

Tomato
While the quinoa is cooking start working on your tomato, it will also need 20 minutes
-Preheat your oven (or toaster oven) to 400 degrees
-Cut your tomato in half
-With your tomato halves face up, sprinkle whole wheat bread crumbs, olive oil, salt and pepper
-Set your timer for 20 minutes

Seriously it's that easy! It's a grilled cheese with tomato soup rendition that tastes heavenly.

I use a toaster oven...

Look at that golden crust!

Once you break into that tomato it falls apart into a cheese quinoa center... yum! (excuse my computer I was hungry and blogging)

Enjoy! Thanks for following along! 

Sky

Quinoa

Here's on of my favorite quinoa salads!

Red quinoa

Toasted almond slices

Dried blueberries

Red onion

Feta

Baby arugula

Lemon zest/juice

Olive oil